SomaYoga: Free The Torso Audio Series 2 Of 3

Start to move the body in any way that feels good.

So this is just kind of a release from your day.

So it doesn't need to look like anything specific.

It might be a nice twirl of the torso.

You might even lift a leg and shake the leg out.

So take a moment to just explore some just freeing in the body.

Notice how you're connected to your torso when you do these movements.

And just take another minute here,

Maybe even shaking the hands,

Shaking out the feet.

Yes,

Unwinding from your day,

Shaking off any tension you no longer need.

Then start to wind this movement down into a little smaller movement and come back to your center.

And as you come into stillness,

We'll just have you notice the energy that you just moved around in your body and feel some of that heat or tingling in the body.

See if you can ground down into the feet a little bit,

Soften the shoulders down,

Soften the face just for a moment here.

So we're building the skill of interoception,

The ability to sense and feel inside.

This is the same skill we used to know when we're hungry or when we have to go to the bathroom or when we might have a pain in our side.

So this is a skill worth developing.

So take your calm energy down to the earth,

Find a resting position where your feet are planted and the knees are up to the ceiling.

This might be a good place for you,

Especially if your low back gets kind of tender with legs long.

Otherwise,

Legs long can be a really good check-in point too.

So you get to decide what shape you make on your mat and start to situate in a place that you're gonna be able to rest for opening check-in here.

All right,

Resting down on the floor,

Notice your center point.

Notice how vibrant the center point is.

Maybe that movement practice we just did at the beginning is still settling in the body.

So take a moment with that.

And then you might open your eyes again.

Just notice the room around you.

Notice the place and space that you're in.

Maybe even move your head and neck side to side,

Noticing the room and the textures and colors here.

So we're checking in with our sense of sight and we're doing this intentionally so that we can draw it closer in.

So as you start to fuzzy your gaze,

Maybe your eyelids get heavy and you close your eyes,

Releasing from the sense of sight and turning the sense inward.

So seeing the colors behind your eyelids perhaps or the darkness that is there.

And as you move from this sense of sight,

We'll tune into the sense of touch,

Your fingertips,

Your palms,

The texture of that,

The warmth,

Or maybe it's the coldness of the floor.

So take a few moments just to explore the sense of touch underneath your hands.

Notice how the back body is resting on the mat.

This is a sense of touch as well.

The back of the head,

The shoulders,

The torso and the hips.

And we'll move this sense of touch gently towards the base of the nose.

So there's a change in temperature of the breath.

Inhale,

A little cooler at the base of the nose.

Exhale,

A little warmer.

It's a subtlety here.

So see if you can tune into that breath underneath the nose.

And as you breathe here,

Notice how the diaphragm moves right at your center point.

So the diaphragm is a big muscle,

Lives underneath the low ribs.

As you breathe in,

Let it expand outward.

And as you exhale,

It contracts inward.

It's like a little hug inward.

We'll start to move this breath up our spine.

So notice where your tailbone is and take a gentle breath up the spine,

Inhaling to the back of the head and then exhale down the front of the spine.

So creating a nice circle here,

Inhaling up the spine,

Exhaling down the spine.

And we're just opening for practice here.

So just sensing and feeling what our body feels like resting as we breathe.

Start to inhale up the backside of our body,

Relaxing glutes,

Hips,

Low back,

Mid back,

Upper back.

And as you exhale down the front line,

Relax your face,

Neck,

Shoulders,

Belly,

Front of hips.

Let your legs get longer here.

As you inhale,

Maybe sweep a breath from your feet to your head,

Inhaling the whole length of the body.

Exhale the whole length of the body.

So two more like that,

Inhaling,

Filling yourself up,

Feeling the aliveness inside.

Exhale,

Let it go.

Let yourself soften.

Once more,

Inhaling,

Exhale.

We're gonna find our way down the right side of your body first.

So that spine is your dividing point.

We'll gently come to the right side of the face,

Soften the right side of the face,

The right neck,

The right shoulder,

The right side body,

The right hip,

And the right leg.

And then back to your center line,

Moving to the left side of your face,

Left side of neck,

Left side body,

Left hip,

And left leg.

So there's two sides of you here.

Notice them resting on the floor and bring them together back at your center.

So light up your center line with your breath.

So planting your feet,

Bending your knees if they aren't already.

And the first movement is a contraction of the low back.

And as you contract the muscles of the low back,

Pelvis rolls forward,

The base of our torso,

And then ease out of that relaxed,

Relax into the earth.

So a slow somatic movement,

Contracting the backside of your body so you can arch the back away from the mat,

And then roll your pelvis towards your heels,

And then relax,

Ease out of it.

A couple more,

Just arching through the low back,

Feel the right and left side contract.

There might be a symmetrical contraction going on as you release.

Notice how right side versus left side releases.

So the key here is actually slowing this movement down.

So after we've done it a few times,

You know the movement.

It's becoming curious about how small,

How slow can this movement come so that I can feel the sensation of the backside contracting and the backside releasing.

So take one more arch of the low back,

Rolling the pelvis forward,

And then let gravity soften yourself out of that contraction.

We're learning to let go of contractions.

So if you're gonna slow down anything,

Slow down the release.

All right,

Let's find a steady,

Stable place,

Resting back on the earth.

We're gonna go the opposite direction now.

You can take your hands to the front side if that's helpful in feeling your low belly contract as you roll the pelvis up towards the ceiling.

This is a curl of the low body,

And then release out of that.

This is all about connecting to these muscles that are making this movement.

So the low abs are curling up and in,

Your tailbone's rolling towards the ceiling,

And then ease out of that.

Again,

Roll the tailbone towards the ceiling,

Hug the belly button towards the floor.

The low abs contract,

And then easy release.

See if you can do it in a controlled manner.

And maybe one more,

If you're curious about this withdrawal response,

It's a pattern that the body may hold as you release out of that.

Let your body settle back in neutral.

Now,

At any point,

You can press your feet down into the earth and bring that stable energy back into the hips and the legs,

Or you could shimmy through the hips or sway the knees side to side.

Any of those movements will be clearing or stabilizing.

So please take them at any point throughout practice.

This practice also should be pain-free.

If there's any point you get into pain,

Please ease yourself out of it and follow up with me after class.

All right,

We're gonna sway through the arch and the flatten.

First movement,

Contracting the low back,

Rolling the pelvis forward,

Finding that arch.

Second movement,

Release out of the arch.

Allow this to be a softening experience,

A new experience each time.

From neutral,

Curl the torso up.

The low torso comes in,

The tailbone goes up towards the sky.

Fourth movement is to ease out of that.

So you might surprise yourself here as you're moving slower than you wanna move.

50% less effort is one of the rules of the game here in somatic work.

So do take this movement through at your slow pace.

A couple more times,

Arching and flattening.

You can do a sinking the inhale and exhale as feels good,

But you also may hold a contraction for a breath or two or hold in the release for a breath or two just to experience how the body is recalibrating after that movement.

So just inviting that as an exploration.

Let's settle the movement into stillness now.

Take a breath.

We've just done some arch and flattens through the low body.

We're gonna turn this into a full arch and curl in the whole body.

You could clasp the hands and move them behind the head.

Arms out wide is a perfect place to be as well.

As you arch your back,

Bring it up to your shoulders and arch the shoulders a little bit away from the floor.

If arms are behind your head,

The elbows press down and then ease out of that,

Find neutral,

And then a curling in and up.

Now,

If the arms are behind your head,

You can fold the elbows and curl up and in using your ab muscles and the torso muscles to build on this shape.

Arms can come back down and out as you arch the back and then take this release through neutral.

You can then change into the curling shape.

The shoulders move up and in if the elbows might lift up and then release out of that.

Again,

Same movement if your arms are out wide.

We're just moving this up into the shoulders.

Take a few movements,

Exploring this bigger arch and curl.

And your focal point can continue to be at your center,

Noticing how we're releasing the torso from inside out,

From the center to the periphery.

And ease out of your last arch or flatten and find a neutral place to rest.

If you need some stable energy,

Press the feet,

Or if you need to rock through the hips,

Maybe sway the knees,

Take that now.

All right,

We'll move to another movement now.

Let's take our hands to our hips.

There's the iliac crest,

The crest of the hip.

You can wrap your thumb crease around that.

And we're gonna hike our hips.

We're gonna pick which side we're gonna start with,

Your choice,

Right or left.

And you're gonna hike that hip towards your armpit.

And as you hike that hip up,

The other hip goes straight down and then release out of that hike.

The muscles you're using are on the top side of the hip to hike that hip up and then release.

You're choosing one side to start with,

Hiking that hip up and then releasing.

Take a moment back in neutral where both hips kind of rest back evenly.

Notice if there's any difference right to left.

And then choose the other side.

Your hand is there to kind of feel those muscles engage as you hike that hip up.

A little bit of the low transverse abdominus.

Couple hikes on this side.

As you hike one hip,

The other hip just moves the other direction.

Try to keep the legs out of this.

Make this more about the hips hiking.

We're going into a contraction and then a slow release out of it.

One more on that other side or make it feel even for you.

And then let your arms come back down to the earth.

Notice what those hip hikes might've brought into your world.

I feel a little bit of heat around my hips.

Noticing those contractions still releasing here.

I'm gonna start with the shoulders here.

So let's find some movement in the shoulders.

Both arms are resting down on the earth.

Bring the shoulders up to the ears.

So that's this hiking of the shoulders straight up to the ears and then ease out of it.

Soften to the earth.

All right,

This is where we have a lot of tension.

So this is where some of those signs of sensory motor amnesia can come into play.

As you hike your shoulders towards your ears,

It might feel really jerky or hard to do that movement.

See what you can do.

It doesn't have to be forced.

Maybe they just move an inch towards your ears,

Shortening those muscles on the side of the neck,

At the top of the shoulder,

And then lengthen those muscles.

All right,

Find neutral with the arms.

If you need to move them about a little bit just to find the shoulders neutral.

We're gonna go to a side curl now on one side.

So you pick a side,

Take your other hand and place it underneath the armpit of the side you're starting on.

You're gonna send that muscle underneath the armpit straight down and then kind of lift it up back to neutral.

So we're just doing the upper half of the side curl.

It's kind of a shoulder depression downward towards the center point.

And then the shoulder comes back up.

Your hand is there to just kind of feel those muscles.

It's kind of a weird place to move.

All right,

So now that we found the upper half of the side curl,

We're gonna add on the hip.

So you just experienced that hip hike.

You're gonna hike the hip towards your center side body and then lower the shoulder towards that same side.

Now you have a little side curl.

Your head and neck might naturally move towards that side.

Let that happen.

And then ease and release out of this.

So I really want you to think about 50% less effort here because I don't want you to strain into a curling action.

So easy does it as you hike that hip towards the armpit and the armpit moves down towards the hip.

Ease and release back out of it,

Back to center.

So one or two more times on this side.

We're feeling one side tighten and the other side open.

Release and then one more.

All right,

We'll do the other side now.

So take a moment where you meet yourself in the middle.

You get to feel one side warm and active,

The other side waiting to work here.

And take your opposite hand and put it underneath that armpit.

Those are the muscles that are gonna move down towards your hip.

Let's explore the upper half first.

A gentle move of the shoulder downward towards the hip.

And it shouldn't be painful.

It's just should be a soft move.

Maybe it's just half an inch.

It doesn't have to be far either.

And then add that hip,

Hike the hip as you move the muscles of the arm,

Underarm towards the hip and then release.

So we have a side curl going on.

The head and neck might curl towards that direction and then release out of it.

Two or three more.

Noticing when one side is curled,

What the other side is doing.

You wanna engage one side body,

Open the other side.

And once you're complete,

Find yourself back resting on the floor.

Since we did a symmetrical movement here,

You might wanna press into the feet.

Find stable,

Even energy into the hips.

Find a breath at your center.

Okay,

We're gonna add a little bit of a mind game here as we cross the body.

We're gonna do opposite hip,

Opposite shoulder.

So our left hip is gonna curl up and in towards your center.

And your right shoulder is gonna curl up and in towards center.

It's not gonna be far.

Also,

It might feel very challenging to even connect with those opposite points.

Relax the right shoulder,

Relax the left hip.

So just imagining you could pull the two points together,

Left hip,

Right shoulder,

But you're doing this in a soft way that so you can feel the contraction between the left hip and the right shoulder.

Arms are resting down towards the earth and it's just a soft hug into your center point at a diagonal line.

Ease out of that.

We'll move to the other diagonal.

So take a moment where you can soften out of that contraction.

And if that was challenging for you,

That's okay.

This is a challenging thing to do when we use both sides of our brain to move opposite sides of our body.

Stick with it here.

We'll do the other side,

Right hip,

Left shoulder.

It's just a gentle curl,

Right hip in towards your belly button,

Left shoulder towards your belly button.

And then ease out of that,

Relax that diagonal you've just crossed.

And then again,

Right hip goes towards left shoulder.

They meet in your middle,

Ease out of it.

So we're really using all the muscles of the torso here as we cross this line,

Diagonal in the body,

And then release out of it.

So maybe you find one more if it's curious for you.

And when you're complete,

Do take a foot press,

Pressing in stable energy into the body and find a few breaths right at your center.

Know that that was a little bit of a mental challenge.

So it might've stirred up emotions,

Attitudes,

Or beliefs in your mind,

And you can let those go here.

All of these layers of our being,

Our physical layer,

Our mental mind layer,

Our emotional layer,

Our breath layer are all connected.

So when you disrupt one or bring in a new stimulus,

Expect that the other layers will also feel that change.

So I want you to think about which side you're gonna move to,

And then let your knees roll off to that side and move your torso over to that side,

And then press your hands into the earth.

So you find a hand and knee position that's gonna feel best for you.

This is a tabletop,

Wrists below shoulders,

Knees below your hips,

And we're just gonna find some cow cat here.

So a cow pose,

The belly drops,

The gaze lifts.

Cat pose,

You round the spine and tuck your chin towards your chest.

Inhale,

Drop the belly,

Lift the gaze.

Exhale,

Round the spine.

If you wanna add a little bit to this movement,

As you come into cow pose,

Dropping the belly,

You can tuck the toes under on the mat and really lift your heart and gaze towards the sky.

We're creating shortness in the back body here.

And then as you release out of that,

Come into this curl and then maybe send your hips towards your heels,

Untucking the toes.

And then keep it moving here.

Inhale,

Come back through tabletop,

Tuck the toes,

Lift the gaze,

Cow pose.

Exhale,

Round through the back,

Untuck the toes,

Maybe down towards a brief child's pose.

So a couple more movements here.

Anything that's freeing your torso.

So it doesn't have to be a cow cat.

Maybe it's some organic movement through the hips,

Maybe a child's pose.

Relax any tension in your jaw that might be showing up and maybe your neck.

So I'm gonna trust you to find these movements in your body.

We're gonna do one side first,

The opposite leg and arm.

And you might do the full expression or you might just lift a leg or lift an arm.

So do one or two more on that side,

Just exploring how the torso is connected to these limbs that we have,

Right?

So I'd like you to keep your focus in your center.

And then we will do the other side.

So even up on that side.

And then notice what it's like to kind of change or shift your weight on your limbs.

This might be a stronger or weaker side as you find your exploration.

Maybe it's just a leg lifting.

Maybe it's just an arm or maybe you bring the two together,

Maybe even bringing knee to elbow.

So your choice,

Again,

I trust you to find a movement that works for you.

Maybe it's sticking with the cow cats.

Remember to breathe,

Maybe even take a few exhales out of the mouth while you're exploring this and think about the freedom that you have in your torso.

So one or two more evening out on your second side.

And when you're complete,

Do find a brief child's pose,

Stabilizing here.

Your hips can come down towards your heels,

Hands come out,

Rest your forehead down towards the earth.

It doesn't need to touch.

And then breathe into your back body here.

Three breaths into the backside of your body.

Ease yourself up and out of this when you're ready.

So I have a chair.

You might have an ottoman or a couch even,

And this is optional.

Rest your lower legs on the chair and then come back down into this resting shape.

So I'll give you a minute to get situated here.

And again,

It's optional.

We'll be going back to the arch and flatten movement.

So if you don't have a chair,

That's gonna work for you.

Meet an effortless rest pose with your knees bent and feet planted.

But if you're coming up on this chair,

Your lower legs are gonna be supported on the seat of the chair.

And with that 90 degree angle,

What we're doing here is supporting the legs,

De-weighting the legs and letting the torso rest.

The legs kind of float out of the hip sockets.

Imagine that feeling here.

Let's bring our arms down by our sides or resting on our torso wherever's comfortable.

Take a moment to actively de-weight the legs.

So if you could,

Let the chair take the weight of the legs.

And then we're gonna find this arch and flatten movement again.

So take it easy here.

The legs are supported.

So that means they don't need to do anything.

You're gonna use your back muscles to contract the low back,

Roll the pelvis forward,

Make it sweet,

Slow and gentle,

And then release out of that.

Use gravity to soften towards the earth.

Yes,

So here the pelvis rolls independent of the leg bones as you arch the back and then release.

You can take a couple more of these arches,

Noticing how the legs respond when they don't have to do any work.

If you have any of those glitches or little hangups in the muscle or the legs,

They might be talking to you here a bit.

But most of all,

We wanna make this effortless.

Let's turn into the curling motion of the tailbone rolling towards the ceiling and then ease out of that.

We're freeing our lower torso from our legs as if they could be separate,

At least for this moment,

Using just the low abs to curl the tailbone up towards the ceiling.

All right,

Let's pause,

Take a breath.

If you'd like,

You can find that four-part movement,

Arch,

Release,

And then curl,

Release.

When you're complete,

Just find a moment to relax and rest any movement.

You may notice some heat building in the joints of the hips.

And ease out of that tightness.

Take a breath where you circle around both hip joints.

So this might be a really comfortable position and a place that you want to end practice,

Or you might want to explore getting off the prop.

So you can decide,

We have five minutes left for our restoring guided rest.

Again,

You might stay right here,

But if you feel like you want to move off the prop,

Do so slowly,

Coming off to one side,

And maybe just adjusting so you can find a rest next to your prop.

So again,

You can be resting on your prop,

Or you can come off to the earth,

Legs long or feet planted and knees bent.

And we're moving into our final rest here.

So this time is for you to really feel into the restorative energies of practice.

So really sink into the work that we did today,

A lot of loosening and sensing into the torso.

Notice any contractions that still might be in the body.

So we consciously contracted a lot of our muscles,

And they might still be remembering that contraction.

We'll take a breath right at your center.

Find the diaphragm underneath your low ribs.

Breathe in and expand.

Exhale,

Contract.

A few more breaths at center,

Lighting that light of center.

You might take the breath up the spine once again,

Breathing in from the tailbone to the base of the head,

And then exhaling down the front of the body,

Base of head to tailbone,

Bringing your breath into the center line so that you can light it up with each inhale,

Sensing yourself from the inside out.

It's a skill.

It's called interoception.

And as you rest your hips on the earth,

Notice your glutes relaxing.

Notice the fronts of the hips relaxing.

Find the breath moving up the spine.

Your low back relaxes,

Mid back,

Upper back.

Both shoulder blades,

As they rest downward towards the earth,

Releasing any contraction from the day.

Any tightness can just melt away as you soften the back of your head.

The sides of your neck relax as well,

Softening the crown of the head to the forehead,

Lengthening the forehead,

Softening the eyes and the eye sockets,

The cheeks and the nose can soften to the upper palate.

As you relax the tongue in the mouth,

The jaw might even unhinge just a bit.

Let the breath move easily into your torso.

As you feel this light in your center,

Get brighter with each inhale.

It lengthens down each arm,

Right arm,

Left arm,

And the same bright light lengthens down right leg and left leg.

Everything starts at center.

Keep your focus here,

Breathing at your center,

Feeling the vibrant place that is your center,

Taking a couple more conscious breaths at your center to seal in your practice.