Hips: spiritual meaning and emotional causes

The hip is a deep ball-and-socket joint where the top of the thigh bone, the femur, sits in a cup of the pelvis. Strong ligaments and some of the largest muscles in the body hold it in place. It carries the weight of the upper body and lets the leg swing, turn and push you forwards. Pain around the hip is common, and it can come from the joint, from the tendons and bursae on the outside of the hip, or from the lower back. A fall onto the hip in an older person is a medical emergency until a broken hip has been ruled out.

In the emotional and symbolic approach to health, the hips are where movement begins. They keep the body balanced and let the legs carry you ahead. So they are linked to a simple question with large consequences: do I go forward, or not?

What your hips represent

Spiritually, the hips are a point of balance and of support. You rest your weight on them, and from them the legs set off. They are the hinge that decides whether the body moves forward.

They also hold your basic beliefs about what your relationships with the world are, or ought to be. In this approach, the hips keep the position you have taken between two ways of living: from yourself, following what you feel and want, or in step with others and the way they see you.

Together with the pelvis, the hips are the launching point of the body. They stand for the leap into life, and so for your level of determination to move ahead.

Common emotional themes

Going forward or holding back

Because every step starts at the hip, hip trouble is often linked to hesitation: a decision that waits, a turning point you have not taken, a path you are not sure about. The hip pain page looks at this hesitation in detail.

Living for yourself or for others

The hips ask where your weight rests. Do you stand on your own wishes, or on what others expect and think of you? When the balance tips too far towards others, moving forward can feel like a betrayal of them, and staying still like a betrayal of yourself.

Beliefs about relationships

The hips hold old ideas about how relationships should work: who gives way, who decides, what is safe. When those beliefs are hurt, for example after a betrayal, the hips can stiffen around them.

Determination and trust

A hip that moves freely is read as a will to go ahead with confidence. A stiff or painful one can point to a drop in that drive, or to fear about where the road leads.

Reading the signs: side and movement

In this approach, the side and the kind of trouble add nuance. Take these as questions:

• Right hip: the active side, linked to decisions, direction, work and authority.
• Left hip: the receptive side, linked to feelings, intuition, and to receiving rather than always giving.
• Stiffness: linked to rigidity towards a person or a situation.
• Worn or weakened hips: linked to a shaken sense of security and to feeling used up by all you have given.

For the wider picture of the two sides, see left and right sides of the body. Pain that runs from the buttock down the leg may also be sciatica, and the hips are often affected by osteoarthritis.

Caring for your hips from the inside

The idea is not to blame yourself. Age, wear, sport, weight, injury, the lower back and bone health all play a real role, and exercise and physiotherapy help most hips. The emotional perspective adds a question: am I moving forward in my own life, at my own pace?

• Name one next step. A small decision taken is often lighter than a big one postponed.
• Notice whose gaze you walk for. Ask what you would choose if no one were watching.
• Look at your beliefs about relationships. Some were learned a long time ago and may no longer fit.
• Find your balance. Lean on yourself as well as on others.
• Treat each experience as a lesson. Going forward with joy and trust is easier when every step can teach you something about your own riches.
• Keep moving. Walking, swimming and gentle strengthening are among the best things for a hip.