Yoga Therapy and Self-Compassion: A Somatic Immersion
In case you missed last week's email, my new 6-week series, Somatic Immersion: A Yoga Therapy Journey, starts Tuesday, October 7!!! If you've considered exploring individual yoga therapy sessions or you've done them in the past and would like a "tune-up", this course may be the perfect option.
I'll be working with some of the frameworks I use in my individual and group yoga therapy sessions. Last week I shared a bit about how to refine your approach to your fight, flight, and freeze responses and this week I'll share a bit about the role self-compassion (or lack of) plays in our well-being. If these concepts resonate with you, I hope you'll join me for the upcoming Somatic Immersion!
Here's where we're going in today's newsletter - feel free to scroll down accordingly:
1. Somatic Immersion: A Yoga Therapy Journey
2. Self-compassion makes all the difference
3. Yoga therapy and self-compassion
#1 Somatic Immersion:
A Yoga Therapy Journey
Six Weeks
Tuesdays, October 7 - November 11
Choose from 3 options or mix and match:
In-person in Salt Lake City
Zoom
Self-paced
#2 Self-Compassion Makes All The Difference
In any moment of the day, there are usually a number of things happening:
- There is the present moment physical action - the thing that you are actually doing with your body (typing at your computer or making yourself lunch).
- There are the things you are thinking about to make that action happen (what funny anecdote to add to the email, remembering where you put the mayo).
- And there is the experience and feeling tone - the sensations, thoughts and emotions that arise from the doing and the thinking (the emotion you are feeling as you write the email or the smell of the food you are making).
But there is also a sneakier, generally less-conscious thing happening.
Whether you're trying to focus on sending an email or making a sandwich there is almost always something else happening, and that's the background track. It says things like, "wow, this task is challenging" or "you're clearly not creative or smart enough to manage this".
And despite our best intentions to be more present or more focused, for most of us, that background track is going almost non-stop. And that’s normal!!!
I’m not actually concerned with the track as much as the “tone” of the track. Is it kind and curious or judgey and mean-spirited?
Whatever it is, it’s likely the same tone that’s going most of the day. And whether the tone is warm and fuzzy or mean and short-tempered makes all the difference! Because that tone may be the source of much of your pain and suffering.
So an extremely helpful - and eye opening practice, is to notice the tone of the background track - to notice how often the running commentary takes on the tone we would use with a friend or a loved one and how often .... not.
Think of how helpful it is when a friend or partner says something like, “I totally feel you and I’m here” or, “Honey, you are doing your best and everything is going to be okay”.
Now imagine if there weren’t voices inside your own head that said, “you’re not ..... enough”, and instead you felt an invisible hand on your shoulder or the back of your heart and heard, “I love you and I’m with you”.
Insert, big sigh of relief. Wouldn’t all things be more easeful and enjoyable that way?
And just like the nervous system responses that I wrote about last week, we all have tendencies - largely based on our family systems and how our self-concept developed in our younger years.
In a yoga therapy session, we can reflect on those tendencies, or explore a recent scenario to determine whether that background tone tends towards friendly and supportive or judgmental and hurtful.
And because our brain patterns are flexible and ever-changing (enter neuroplasticity), we can work with somatic practices that reorient us towards a more compassionate inner tone of voice.
But again, this requires an awareness of the tone itself. Which is where yoga therapy comes in.
In my upcoming Somatic Immersion Series, we'll explore the framework of self-compassion and work with mindfulness practices, including movement, breathwork and imagery, to cultivate a deeper experience of being on your own side.
#3 Yoga Therapy Self-Compassion
Aside from the obvious wonderment of really being on your own side, self-compassion is one of the most effective ways to:
Turn off your fight/flight/freeze response
Stop ruminating and lower anxiety
Build self-esteem and self-care
Feel loved and supported
Come into deeper conversation with the more vulnerable parts of yourself and grow understanding and empathy (more on this one next week)
As a yoga therapist and instructor, I have been developing and teaching mind/body and trauma sensitive practices for over 20 years. And over these many years, I have found that there are particular frameworks that are most helpful in both the healing process and the simply figuring how to live in this world process. Let's explore then together!
If you are curious about yoga therapy, please join me in October or schedule an individual session with me.
If you have questions or want to learn more about yoga therapy in general feel free to email me or check out my yoga therapy page.
As always, if I can answer any questions, don't hesitate to reach out.
Sending so much love your way,
Rachel