Many people are frightened when they have this experience for the first time.
The class had just ended, and I felt great, but suddenly my eyes welled up with tears. Or, while practicing a certain movement, a sudden pang of sadness would hit my chest, and I wouldn't know where it came from. Sometimes, tears would just stream down my face on the way home after class.
You didn't think about anything sad. You even thought today's class was good.
But the tears still came.
This isn't because you're too fragile, or because you're emotionally unstable. It's your body doing something very important.
Emotions don't just reside in the brain.
We tend to think of emotions as "psychological matters"—that they happen in the mind and have nothing to do with the body.
But neuroscience tells us that emotions are a systemic phenomenon. Every emotion has a corresponding physical state—specific muscle tension, specific breathing patterns, specific hormone secretion, and specific nervous system settings.
Sadness weighs heavily on the chest. Fear makes the shoulders hunch. Anger makes the jaw clench. Shame makes the body want to shrink inward.
These are not metaphors, but real physiological changes happening in the body. The body is an extremely honest recorder—when you face stress, anxiety, or resentment, the brain subconsciously commands muscles to tense up in order to protect you.
If these changes are not addressed, they will be stored in the body.
The body is a storehouse of emotions.
When an emotion occurs, but you are unable to fully feel and express it in the moment, your body will store it.
The pressure is immense, but you can't break down because there are still things to deal with. You cry, but quickly hide it because you don't want others to see. You're angry, but you grit your teeth and swallow it. You're scared, but you tell yourself to be strong.
These "stored" emotions reside in your body in the form of muscle tension, fascial adhesions, and restricted breathing. Over time, this tension can transform into chronic microtrauma of the fascia and muscles.
The heaviness in your shoulders and neck may be the result of years of accumulated responsibility and pressure. The tightness in your chest may be unspeakable sorrow. The tension in your lower back may be the exhaustion from holding everything up for so long. The tightness in your abdomen may be chronic anxiety.
Trauma researcher Bessel van der Kolk says, "The body remembers." No matter how hard your brain tries to "look forward," the body remembers the emotions that weren't fully processed.
Why after Chanrou's class?
If emotions are always in the body, why don't you feel them normally, but only suddenly after Chanrou's class?
Because tension is a form of defense.
When your body remains tense, you're actually using muscle tension to suppress stored emotions. You're preventing them from surfacing, from being felt. This is a very clever survival mechanism—locking in your emotions when you need to keep going.
But when Chanrou allowed the spine to begin to flow, opened the chest cavity, and gave the deep tissues space again—the lock loosened as well.
The suppressed emotions now have room to surface.
Tears are simply a way for that emotion to find an outlet.
Why is Chanrou particularly prone to triggering this release?
Spinal decompression opens up the deepest storage space.
The most common place where emotions are stored is in the deep tissues around the spine—the diaphragm, psoas major muscle, and fascia around the thoracic vertebrae. Chanrou emphasizes "finding space (decompression) in resistance." When you use equipment to extend in both directions towards the ceiling and floor, decompressing the constricted spine and internal organs, those emotional memories locked in the dead corners of muscle fibers and fascia will flow out as space is released.
The crying at this time is the body detoxifying at the cellular level.
The switching of the parasympathetic nervous system lowers the defenses.
The gentle rhythm creates an energy bridge between the sacrum and the cranium. Combined with rhythmic breathing, it deeply stimulates and activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
When the autonomic nervous system suddenly switches from "overactive" to "deeply relaxed," the brain's defense mechanisms lower, the subconscious gates open, and accumulated stress is released through tears. This is why Juliu once mentioned that this stage of practice is often accompanied by emotional fluctuations or outbursts.
Solar plexus and visceral release
Modern people often have a habit of "locking their core," causing their abdomen and internal organs to be in a state of spasm or shortening for a long time.
Through the spiral and wave-like movements in the three-dimensional space, we provide deep stimulation and massage to the liver, kidneys, stomach, and other internal organs. When the circulation in this area is reopened and the nerve conduction pathways between the brain and internal organs are unblocked, the emotional waste that is usually "indigested" will also be stirred up and brought to the surface.
Many people feel a kind of inexplicable release during this process—sometimes they want to cry, sometimes they feel inexplicably light, and sometimes they feel a deep sense of relief.
Crying is a release, not a breakdown.
If you feel like crying during or after Chanrou's class, let it happen.
Crying is not a sign of breakdown, not proof that you are too fragile, and not a reminder that you need to "control your emotions".
Crying is the body releasing tension. It's the release of things that have been suppressed for a long time. It's the nervous system saying: "It's safe now, we can let go."
Many people feel a profound sense of lightness after crying—not just superficial relaxation, but the release of a weight that has been accumulating for a long time.
You might carry that weight for a very long time, so long that you no longer remember where it was.
The body needs more than just strengthening.
Modern physical training mostly focuses on strengthening—making muscles stronger, improving physical fitness, and enhancing appearance.
But the body has another need that is often overlooked: release.
Release the accumulated tension, release the stored emotions, release the defense patterns that the nervous system has maintained for a long time.
When release occurs, the body doesn't just become more flexible; it becomes lighter. It's not just the muscles that relax; the whole person experiences an indescribable sense of freedom.
If you feel like crying after Chanrou's class, there's nothing wrong with your body.
It's just saying to you, "Thank you, we're safe now, you can let it go."
This is the vitality, the sound of reawakening.
