WELCOME!
I am happy you are here.
For the next month, each Monday 3 new practices will be added to this collection.
The essence of this series is to get you excited about somatics - each week will introduce
a somatic sequence and then weaves it into Yin yoga, Flow and Restorative Yoga sessions.
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WEEK 1
arch & flatten (pelvic rock) There are many various somatic techniques, but they all share one similar goal - to help increase bodily awareness through movement and relaxation.
My invitation to you this week is simple - move slow! |
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YIN
PROPS: blanket over the yoga mat, block (optional)
Arch and flatten (pelvic rock) is a fundamental somatic movement. This is a great practice for lower back care - it introduces simple yet effective somatic movements and combines them with Yin shapes. The whole practice is done on your back and offers plenty of variations, so you can tend to your body's specific needs. |
FLOW
The arch and flatten (pelvic rock) theme continues into this short SOMATIC FLOW session. This practice moves and mobilises the lower back and hips, but also brings in little bursts of core engagement. |
REST
PROPS: bolster/cushion/folded blanket under hips, optional blanket rolls under ankles
The restorative shape we take is a version of "belly shavasana" - an excellent pose to keep releasing the lower back, to connect and ground in a felt sense of safety and being held. |
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WEEK 2
"unwinding" Interoception - sometimes called the 6th sense - is your ability to receive, appraise and respond to signals that come from your body.
The invitation this week is to pay attention to the sensations from the movements - this will give your brain clearer feedback to learn to move more efficiently. |
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YIN
PROPS: blanket to practice on, block (optional).
This session introduces two versions of an "unwinding" movement, sending spirals throughout the body. This movement also happens on multiple planes - there's the rotation of the spine, back arch (spine extension), lateral stretch and the different arm variations stimulate the shoulder and upper back in various ways. Plus the inner and outer rotation we offered for the hips in the beginning of the session. After nourishing and hydrating one side of the body via movement, we pause in a yin shape (called Half-Moon) that provides a different stimulation to our tissues but also invites the yin qualities of allowing, surrender and stillness to be in the foreground. |
FLOW
PROP: optional to cover your yoga mat with a blanket - both for having a softer surface but also a wider practice space as we'll be rolling a bit from side to side.
The base of this somatic flow is a version of the "unwinding" movement initiated from the upper body and experiment with the nuance of feeling the movement originating from different part of the body. There’s an engineering concept that can be used to describe movement - kinetic chain - which refers to how joints (and segments) affect one another during movement. When one part of the body sets into motion, it creates a chain of movements that affects the neighboring joints. |
REST
PROPS: bolster/pillows/sofa cushion, blanket/pillow (under head)
Incorporating a sweet unwinding somatic twist sequence with restorative twist on a bolster. The twisting sequence is simple but it incorporates some pretty profound ways to untangle tension and holding patterns in the body while improving the mind-body connection. I find "work" like this such a great preparation for longer-held restorative poses. The eye-exercises in this session are "borrowed" from Feldenkrais practices. Moshe Feldenkrais discovered that the movement of the eyes plays a big part in organising the movement of the whole body. Head habitually wants to move with the eyes but when we consciously and intensionally disrupt that and move the eyes in different configurations in relation to the head we are affecting other areas of the body. Releasing tension from the eyes is also directly related to the nervous system. |
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WEEK 3
hip-love Somatic practices use internal awareness (proprioception, interoception, kinesthetic awareness) to bring the unknown parts of yourself and your sensory experience into the known. As somatic learning makes you more conscious, it also gives you more options - how to respond, move, act and be both on and off the mat.
My invitation to you this week is for you to experiment and notice what would it look like if in your life you would initiate the next step from an inner sensation/guidance, a sense of curiosity and pleasure? |
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YIN
PROPS: cushion/bolster
A gentle somatic session on the back that explores rotation in the hips with special focus on internal rotation. You will notice that the internal rotation movement in the hip is not a big movement, but maintaining that range of motion is important for the overall hip health and without full internal rotation, the body can employ various compensatory techniques to get by. The somatic sequence will then lead us to a yin shape called Half Saddle - this is the pose for which you might need a support under your back (bolster/cushions/blocks). |
FLOW
PROPS: folded blanket/block/cushion handy for tighter hips. Set up your mat like mine, so you can sit in the middle of it facing the screen.
You might have noticed that this session is longer than 30 minutes, but I will give you an option at the 25-minute mark to finish your practice OR to come along for another 10-minute standing hip-flow sequence that will make use of the space the mobility flow created in the hips. This session focuses primarily on the rotational capacity of the hips (internal and external rotation). The sequence blends somatics with a modality called Functional Range Conditioning (FRC) which is a system of joint health optimization based on scientific principles and research. Working with internal and external rotation, we are accessing the capsule structure deep in the hip aiming for better and more fluid rotational capacity in the hip, which is foundational for hip health and mobility. We also combine passive holds with active hip mobility routine. Active range of motions refers to the range of movement in a joint that we can control, which also one important aspect of joint health. |
REST
PROPS: as I explain at the beginning of the session, if you don't have all the props, use what you can. The deluxe version uses a bolster (optional to prop it on 2 blocks), blanket rolls/pillows under thighs, blanket/pillow under head, optional blanket around ankles, a blanket to cover for warmth or for weight over belly and an eye-cover.
We will use a 10-minute somatic sequence to invite prana flow into the hips, lower back, spine and shoulders. The restorative pose we are coming into towards the end of the practice is called Supta Baddha Konasana aka Reclined Goddess pose aka Reclined Bound Angle pose. Whatever you call it, it is one of the classic restorative poses. It gently opens the front of the body and hips, while offering full support and comfort. I will let the beautiful words from Hafiz hold space for you in the pose: Just
sit there right now Don’t do a thing. Just rest. For your separation from God is the hardest work in this world. Let me bring you trays of food and something that you like to drink. You can use my soft words as a cushion for your head. ~ Hafiz |
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WEEK 4
"juicy psoas" Somatics is the study of the self from the perspective of one’s lived experience, encompassing the dimensions of body, psyche, and spirit.
—Thomas Hanna (founder of Hanna Somatics) Essentially, the somatic exercises and sequences aim to support natural patterns of the body and mind. Sensory motor amnesia (a term coined by Thomas Hanna) refers to inefficient patterns of muscular activation that are so habitual you can’t sense or control them (think of it as chronic myofascial tension). Somatic practices like pandiculation help to restore the brain-body-nervous system connection and the feedback loop regarding the level of contraction in our muscles, thereby also helping to release (or prevent) the buildup of chronic muscular tension. As you are completing Week 4, have you found your favorites? How has moving with slow attention affected your practice routine? Any differences in how you sense your body, your posture, your movement? |
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SLOW RELEASE
PROP: practice on a sliding surface ( a blanket or have your legs able to slide on the floor)
This is a practice from Clinical Somatics based on the work of Thomas Hanna. In short this branch of somatics uses a technique called pandiculation to retrain muscle memory and relieve tension and pain. It uses slow, detailed, focused and conscious movements to teach nervous system how to release chronic muscle tension. In this particular session, I'm using this method to work with a muscle called psoas (or iliopsoas). It's a muscle that gets quite a bit of attention - often there's disagreement whether one is supposed to stretch it or not, strengthen it or not. I'm really drawn to the way my teachers have framed it - think more about hydrating the muscle. A healthy myofascia (muscle and fascia are so inter-twined that let's think about them as one :) is well-hydrated and "juicy" and the best way to move fluid content in the tissues is via movement. Psoas muscle is involved whenever we walk, run, cycle, sit - in short most movements. It is also a major stabiliser of the trunk and lower back, it connects the upper body to the lower body and has a fascial connection to the respiratory diaphragm. It also has a strong connection to the nervous system and as a protective mechanism can involuntarily hold tension when we feel stressed, fearful, or activated. This short sequence combines a few somatic exercises to gently move psoas and it's co-acting muscles (as nothing in the body acts in isolation) through varying ranges of lengthening and shortening, contracting and then slowly releasing that contraction. |
FLOW
PROPS: blocks (optional), padded surface
I haven't pointed it out earlier, but most of the practices in these series have targeted the diaphragm and psoas connection, but in this session, we start with a short breath meditation to intentionally feel into the movement of the side-ribs and the respiratory diaphragm. (I could do a whole series just on that, as freeing up our breath-pattern will have an effect on everything else). This short flow will include some aspects from previous weeks and add a few new therapeutic somatic flows to bring awareness, movement (and hydration!!) to the diaphragm and psoas, therefore connecting us to our center, and exploring what it feels like to move from our inner core. |
REST
PROPS: blanketroll under upper back, block/pillow/folded blanket under head, optional bolster under knees
Both the movement and the restorative shape of this session targets the upper back and aims to counteract the hunched over position we often get "frozen" in when working behind a computer. There is not much more to say about this practice other than use it often :) |