Why Do I Get a Knot in My Stomach When I Put Myself Out There?
There’s a knot in my stomach. My breath is short and high, and it won’t drop past my ribs. My belly feels tight and braced, like something is about to happen. If you were standing next to me, you might ask if I just got bad news.
I didn’t. I’m about to post a new cover photo on my Facebook page. It’s a graphic for my book, The Yoga Compass.
The book is already written. People have bought it and told me they loved it. And still, this one small step of making it visible, right there at the top of my page, has my stomach in knots.
Here’s what fascinates me. That isn’t a bad thing. It’s information.
Why does my breath get short when I’m nervous?
Breath and anxiety are closely tied. Research links anxiety with changes in how we breathe and how we sense our own breathing, and it can make breathing itself feel like more work [1].
So the short breath isn’t the body breaking. It’s the body talking.
Is it the past or the present?
This isn’t about today. Today I have 38 years of practice, a book, and readers who loved it.
Since I can remember, I have been uncomfortable putting myself out there. It comes from my childhood, where staying under the radar and not being seen meant I was safe from abuse.
That’s the relationship I’m noticing: how I saw my worth back then, and how I see it now.
What yoga says about the belly
Yoga has a word for this kind of noticing. Svadhyaya (svahd-YAH-yuh) means self-study, and the Yoga Sutras name it as part of the practice itself [2]. Not self-improvement. Self-study.
Yoga also has a word for old stories like mine. Samskaras (sum-SKAH-ruhz) are impressions left by past experience that shape how we respond now [2]. A samskara doesn’t care that the book already sold.
The belly has its own place in the Sutras, too. One verse says focused attention on the navel wheel, the nabhi chakra (NAH-bee CHUK-ruh), brings knowledge of how the body is arranged [2, 3]. It’s the only mention of the navel in the Sutras, and the fuller chakra systems many of us learned came later [3]. But the instruction is simple. Pay attention to the center of the body. It has something to tell us.
Help and Solutions
If a tight stomach or short breath shows up often, or gets in the way of daily life, talk with your doctor or healthcare provider first. If old experiences are part of the story, a mental health professional can help, too.
Call 911 if tightness or shortness of breath comes with chest pain or pressure, pain spreading to your shoulder, arm, back, neck, jaw, or upper belly, or nausea. A heart attack can also feel like a panic attack or a sudden sense of doom [4].
Once you’re cleared, try this the next time your body reacts to something small.
Pause. Find the sensation. Name it plainly: tight, short, fast. Rest a hand on your belly and let the breath be there. Then ask yourself, is this about now, or about then?
You don’t have to wait for the feeling to leave before you take the step.
The knot isn’t a stop sign
I posted the cover. My stomach was still tight when I did. My eyes were filled with tears for the little girl and now the woman that has a voice. The feeling didn’t need to disappear. It needed to be seen.
Our body isn’t wrong to speak up. Sometimes it’s reading from an older script, and we get to notice that today’s version of us is holding the pen.
About Vikky Santana
Vikky Santana is a yoga teacher with 38 years of practice, 16 years of teaching, and over 13,000 teaching hours. She specializes in yoga for women over 50 with chronic pain, physical limitations, and injury histories. She is the founder of Vikky Santana Yoga at vikkysantana.com.
Download the free No More Hip Pain guide. Buy the book The Yoga Compass
References
Paulus MP. The breathing conundrum – interoceptive sensitivity and anxiety. Depress Anxiety. 2013;30(4):315-320. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22076
Bryant EF. The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary. New York: North Point Press; 2009.
Hatley S. The Wheel of the Navel and Lotus of the Heart: Metaphor, Medical Knowledge, and the Body of Early Yoga. Journal of Yoga Studies. 2025;6:221-257. https://doi.org/10.34000/JoYS.2025.V6.005
Mayo Clinic Staff. Heart attack symptoms: Know what’s a medical emergency. Mayo Clinic. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://www.mayoclinic.org/art-20047744
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