To be Somatically Savvy is to recognize the intelligence that IS your body. With this practiced skill of turning towards your own body with patience, we create space to slow down, learn, listen and allow the body to express in the various ways it needs to in order to reappraise, reorganize and release stored charges and stories.
At Yoga MCC, starting May 24, I will be facilitating an 8 week series to develop and practice self-regulating techniques that will deepen your connection to yourself.
One of the most important truths I learned on my journey of learning how to navigate my mind and body was the insight that while the mind and body are inextricably connected as one, they also do not share the same first language. Or, in other words, you can’t think your way through a feeling problem.
Somatic savvy is a series to teach you how stabilize, regulate and integrate what has become separated by slowing down and get to know the various ways your bodily systems store charges energy, express and communicate. To optimize this connection we must learn the language of the body and retrain the thinking mind to turn towards sensation with an entirely different mental model than what we have been using. Ultimately, this is integration of left and right brain hemispheres so that we can step out of the contracted and limiting space of a thinking mind that is constantly sensing danger and alarm, and open back up to our expansive essence that is far more than any one system in our body.
According to Steven A. Levine (founder of Somatic Experiencing), trauma is an occurrence "when a person encounters a real of perceived threat, and is unable to initiate or complete and discharge the threat arousal sequence in the brain and Autonomic Nervous System."
Put another way, Dr. Stephen Porges (founder of Polyvagal Theory) states trauma as “a chronic disruption of connectedness.”
These ruptures without repair are akin to flower petals that unfold from one end and become loose threads or stems waving in the wind rather than remaining whole and connected in their petal form. These loose threads leave the body in an activated state, and leads to a sense of constant noise, distraction, distancing or dissociation and an embodied experience of helplessness, congestion, confusion, and general dysregulation.
With the various somatic practices we will be engaging in you will learn and experience the process of repairing these stored ruptures in your bodymind as well as real-time protocols to self and co-regulate during future ruptures so that you can complete the cycle of charge to release and reconnect.
This class series will include topics such as:
Difference between bottom-up and top-down processing, and how to mindfully include and toggle between the two
Self-Regulation with senses, breath and vagus nerve stimulation
How to befriend your Nervous System
Moving from the inside-out
Guided Somatic Movement
Yoga Nidra
Mindfulness and Meditation
This is a hybrid offering so you can attend live or zoom in from the comfort of your own home space. I would love to share this experience with you. More details and link to register here
xox