SomaYoga: Free The Torso Audio Series 3 Of 3

We're going to start just in a stand and I'm going to invite you to shake your hands,

Shake your legs,

Just kind of start to move in any like free movement that frees the body.

That might be a little bit of a twist,

Allowing some of this energy that built up through the day to kind of just shake off of our body.

So take a few moments with that.

In any way you need,

You can almost picture this energy running off the hands,

Down the legs,

To the floor.

And now let's ground down into our feet as our calm energy comes to stillness.

We're going to check out a chair pose right away tonight.

So this is a little bend at the knees and a hinge at the hips.

You can keep your hands on your thighs if that's helpful to start.

Just kind of check out this chair pose.

Notice where you're holding tense,

Tight muscles or where there's a little softness in the body.

Just a couple moments here,

Warming up the legs and then press into the feet,

Lift up,

Maybe the arms lift up and then the hands come back down.

Can shake the hands once more,

Let that energy that built up in the chair pose even move down the hands.

And now we're going to start to build our mountain pose.

Let's find our feet underneath our hips.

You can even spread the toes as you ground down through the feet,

Soften the knees a bit,

Feel the big muscles of your legs as you come up to your hips and then soften your hips.

Let your heart stack right above your hips and let your head stack above your heart.

Take a moment here with eyes closed or a soft gaze and you can breathe any old way.

Notice how the breath fills the lungs when you breathe.

No right or wrong with the breath in this opening,

Centering.

You might start to continue this grounding energy.

So think about energy moving down to the feet,

Becoming real stable in your standing mountain pose.

Take one more breath here and we're going to bring our calm energy down to our seat.

So find your seat and come to the edge of the seat.

So I don't want you sitting back or slouching in the chair.

I want you right on the edge of the seat so that you can feel the seat below your sit bones and take your hands to the tops of your thighs.

What could be considered a seated mountain pose.

So feel the weight evenly underneath the feet,

Feel the muscles of the legs grounding downward.

Notice the sit bones,

The two pointy bones at the base of the pelvis and then breathe a length up your spine.

Exhale down the spine.

You might close your eyes as you do this.

We'll be here for five more breaths.

Inhaling up the spine,

Exhale down the spine.

Another inhale lengthening,

Exhale ground down into the sit bones.

The body feels a little heavier with each exhale.

These last couple breaths,

Notice the diaphragm underneath the low ribs.

It expands outward when you breathe in and it contracts up and in as you exhale.

One more diaphragmatic breath,

Inhale,

Expand outward,

Exhale,

Contract inward.

So we've built the seated mountain pose.

You might notice your energy calmed even just from those few opening breaths.

We're going to start our arch and flatten movement in a chair here.

So the first movement is contracting the back,

Arch the back as we do on the floor.

The shoulders kind of move back and I have this curve now in the back.

As I exhale,

Come back,

Lengthen up to neutral and then round the back.

So now we're curling into ourselves,

Tucking our chin a little bit and then inhale,

Come forward,

Tall spine,

Moving through the arch,

Arching the back,

Lift the heart a little bit as the shoulders pinch back and then easy does it,

Come back to neutral,

Curl in,

Tuck the chin,

Roll the tailbone underneath you.

So we're just freeing the torso here at the beginning of class with our arch and flatten movement,

But we're now we're in a chair.

So as we come into this arch,

Maybe the hands move up the legs so you can really pinch the shoulder blades together and then soften into neutral and then round the spine.

Maybe the hands come down towards the knees,

Tuck your chin in,

Inhale,

Come on up.

So move through that a couple more times,

Noticing which muscles like to contract when you come into this arch and how smooth can you get out of that contraction and then curling in,

Sensing and feeling the muscles around the spine flexing in towards your center and then that lengthening upward.

So one more,

This bigger arch,

The shoulders pinch back,

The tailbone pokes out,

Back through neutral and this full curl in and then come back to a tall seat.

So we've just moved through the torso a little bit.

Let's press both feet down.

You might even press your hands down.

Notice if there's warmth in the torso after loosening up like that.

We're going to go to the side bodies now.

I'm going to take one hand down and this side body is going to crunch while the other side opens.

So as you lengthen,

Come out of that contraction.

So the point here is to pay attention to how the muscles contract,

Clenching in one side,

Open the other,

And then ease yourself out of that.

Easy does it,

Lengthening through that side.

Okay.

One more,

Just feeling out this side,

Come back up to neutral.

Take a moment,

Place that hand back on the thigh.

Notice if there's any opening on that side.

You might even rock the pelvis back and forth and then we'll do the other side.

So this little side curl to start just warming up these muscles of the side body as we go down and then come back up.

It's a conscious contraction,

Consciously tightening the muscles on one side,

And then a conscious lengthening,

Releasing,

Breathing in length to those muscles.

Good.

A couple more this side,

Evening out.

Okay.

This release here now was the side of our body.

You might roll through arch and flatten just to sense that in the body.

We're going to make this a little bigger now.

So your choice with the arms,

We're going to go back to your first side.

You're going to come down on one side and you might lift the other arm up.

So now there's this opposing contraction and an even more lengthening here.

And then we're going to come through neutral and then take it off to the other side.

So one side gets small,

Contracted,

Other side long.

All right.

So we don't need to make this so rigid.

We can kind of make this a little flow side to side,

Feeling those muscles contract and then lengthen.

Get a little playful just to both sides once more again.

And then when you're complete,

Bring both hands back down to the thighs.

Take a few breaths here,

Catch up with yourself.

Now we haven't done much big movement,

But the small movement is retraining some of the connections of the mind body system.

So if there's any heat in the body,

Any noticings like that,

Take that in for just a moment.

Okay.

We're going to turn this seat into a twist now.

So we're going to do a slow somatic twist and then we'll ramp it up and make it a little bigger.

So let's take our right hand to our left chest and the hips are going to stay stable here.

So you might even press down both feet,

Notice the stableness in the hips and then release with those hips in the same line.

You're going to turn towards your palm and that shoulder and find this little twist.

Good.

Come back through center.

So this is pretty small,

Moving off through one side,

Noticing that the back muscles on that side get shorter on the right side,

They get longer.

Come back here.

Take a one more twist off towards the side.

And we're going to hold here for a couple breaths.

Now you might find a gazing point on the wall and just mark that with your sight line.

We'll check in with that point later to see if we've gotten any more length in our twist.

Take one more inhale in this twist,

Exhale,

Untwist.

Let's place our hand down.

We're going to do the other side.

So we're going to warm up both sides and then we'll come back adding on.

So let's bring our left hand now.

Let's twist off towards the right.

The muscles on the right get shorter.

The muscles on the left get longer on the back.

Come back to center.

Good.

Exploring the somatic movement in the torso,

Twisting towards the right and then back to center.

Take one more twist and then choose a focal point right at your nose.

Notice that point.

Take a few breaths here.

If there's any forcing,

Let go with this last breath.

Exhale back to center.

Hands come down and we ground down through our feet,

Our hips.

Take a breath in seated mountain.

Okay.

Adding to our twist,

Right palm at the shoulder,

Twist off to the right.

Now we've done this side already.

So it might feel a little warmer next time when you get here.

And as our torsos twisted off here to the left,

We're going to change our gaze.

So just move your head and neck towards the right.

Yeah.

So the torso stays to the left,

Head and neck to the right.

This is a pretty complicated movement.

Head comes back to the left and then gaze off to the right.

Just change the head and neck torso stays to the left and then back with the head and neck.

So we're differentiating the head and neck from the torso.

One more time,

Head and neck off to the side and then back through center to the left.

And then everything from the left comes back to center.

You've reoriented in center.

Place your hands down on your knees.

Take a moment of noticing in the body,

We were just twisting one direction.

So there's that asymmetrical feel that might be there.

And we're going to work to differentiate the other side.

Now,

If this is a challenging exercise,

That's okay.

We don't often think about our torso and our head moving separately.

We're usually in line.

So this is a little bit of a mind challenge as well.

Left hand to the front of the chest.

Use that as a gentle press open and find a neutral place in this twist.

So the back isn't arched or flexed.

You have a long spine and then just the head and neck move to the left.

Notice the neck muscles as they're attached to the torso.

Maybe there's some tension there as you move the head back to the right.

Move slowly and only into your range,

Comfortable range as the head moves off to the left and then back to the right.

Yeah.

Change your gaze once more.

Moving the head and neck separate from the torso.

Everything moves back to the right and then everything comes back to center.

Hands come down.

Take a moment to breathe here.

Maybe a roll of the pelvis,

Arch and flatten.

All right.

We're building a little bit of a bigger twist now.

We're going to take our arms out by our sides,

Kind of like running arms,

And we're going to turn this into our twist.

So as you send one elbow back,

Your whole body twists off to that side.

And then you send your other elbow back and that your body twists to the other side.

And then make this a little bit more jovial,

Right?

A little bit of a galloping.

So we have to move our torso here in this very fluid,

Rhythmic way.

Let your head and neck travel with the torso.

We're just freeing the spine and the head and neck,

And then settle this movement down to neutral.

If we're getting dizzy,

We can gaze downward or close our eyes,

Place our hands on our thighs.

Press into the feet once more if you want that stableness coming through the legs.

And then we're going to check on our twist.

We're going to see if we got any more distance in our twist.

So let's take our right hand over our left shoulder and take your full twist off to the left and then check your gazing point.

Notice maybe you've gotten a couple more inches in this twist.

And that's the benefit of kind of slowing down and releasing these muscles here.

Let's come back to center.

Hands meet the legs.

So just a simple activity here,

Just checking our gazing point to see what's shifted.

Other hand off to the torso.

And maybe you didn't get much.

Maybe there's not much difference in your gazing point,

But notice how the torso feels a little warmed up here from our twists.

One more breath,

And then bring yourself back to center.

Place the hands on the knees.

Take a few breaths,

Noticing the aliveness that's been woken up in the torso.

We're going to start some bigger movements.

So enjoy your seat here for a moment.

So we're going to focus on this hip hinge here in our seat.

So this hip hinge is the same hinge that we use when we do a forward fold.

So I have my hands at my pelvis here and the pelvis is actually,

You know,

It's the bowl shape at the base of our torso and our leg bones meet in those two sockets of the pelvis.

We're going to roll the pelvis over the leg bones here.

So even as we fold in our chair,

The pelvis is moving separate from the leg bones.

Let's kind of fold halfway here.

We might even rest our torso on our legs for a moment and then inhale,

Lengthen,

Come back up.

Use some core strength to do that.

Good.

So a couple more times,

Just feeling this fold.

Maybe it feels good to let the arms hang down by your sides.

Let the head hang down.

A seated forward fold can be really nice.

Inhale,

Come back up.

Okay.

Once more,

Just feeling this hinge here.

This is an important hinge in the body.

The hips move over the leg bones.

Take a nice exhale at the bottom here and then inhale,

Come back up.

Okay.

We haven't used our legs much yet today.

We are going to start to use them.

So I want you to press down into the feet.

Notice the leg muscles turn on and then release.

So it's all the way up to the glutes.

You can feel that.

One more press and then release.

Okay.

So we're going to build into a forward fold here from our seated position.

So I'm going to turn sideways.

We're going to fold over our hips and come into a full forward fold.

So we're going to have to use some leg strength and then sit back down in our chair.

So make this a slow movement,

Rolling over the leg bones,

Pressing and engaging the legs and a full fold.

Maybe the hands are resting at the knees or the shins and then bend the legs again.

Sit the sit bones down on the chair.

Smooth,

Smooth,

Smooth.

All right.

Let's do one more.

Folding up the hips.

Arms might come downward and then press into the legs.

Find a fold and then bend into the legs.

Find your chair behind you.

Sit back up.

Nice.

Let's place our hands at our thighs.

Take a moment to breathe here.

So you might've guessed it.

We're going to build this into a chair pose,

But first let's get us up to standing.

So we're going to do the same action and I'm going to use my arms as a little bit of a lever.

But as I start to fold forward,

Both my leg muscles engage,

Both glutes engage.

And then I press up into standing.

Maybe both arms lift up.

And then we're going to reverse this.

So the arms come down.

We start this fold at our hips,

Little softness in the knees,

And then sit your bottom back down in the chair.

Who knew standing and sitting could be so challenging when we slow it down.

Let's do one more.

Get into this standing pose.

So this fold,

A little press through both feet and a lift up of the upper torso.

Maybe the arms come up.

Hands through heart center.

All right.

We're going to pause in standing mountain pose now.

So we are revisiting this pose.

We were here at the beginning of class.

So notice what's opened up for you.

Take a few breaths where the energy goes down into the feet.

And then we're going to build our chair pose.

I'm going to keep my hands at heart center.

The hinge at the hip starts when we send our bottom behind us.

We start to bend the knees and we can feel the fullness of our leg muscles pressing into the floor.

And if we can find an easy breath in the diaphragm here.

You have three breaths,

Noticing all the muscles in the torso that are help keeping you lifted upright.

One more breath here and then push the floor away.

And you might lift up,

You might lift up the arms.

It's up to you.

And then hands come back through heart center.

Okay.

So we did a chair at the beginning of practice just so we could kind of sense and feel what's different after we did some of that somatic release.

So I'll invite you to think about that once more as we come back into our chair,

A little bend at the knees,

Turn on both glute muscles,

Engage the abs.

I'm going to take my thumbs right to my sternum,

The bone right here at where the ribs meet.

We're going to take this into a little twist.

So you have strong legs,

Stable pelvis,

Take your twist off to your right,

And then come back to center.

Take a twist off to the left,

Checking out these twisting muscles.

We worked in the chair back to center,

Maybe two more.

If you'd like this twist,

The hips stay stable.

Good.

Off to your final side,

Back to center.

Take one more breath where you feel the warmth of the legs and then press the floor away.

Maybe lift up with your arms and then hands meet back at heart center.

So you have your chair near you.

You can be off to the side of it.

We're going to just work a little bit in the hamstrings here before getting to the floor.

So I have my hands resting on my chair and I'm de-weighting the top half of my body.

As my feet weight downward,

I'm going to bend into my knees and fold my head forward towards the chair.

So now I have a bend in my knees.

I could even rest my forehead on the chair.

I've come down to my elbows on the chair,

If that's something that's supportive.

My knees are bent a little bit,

And now I'm going to extend the legs.

So this is a little hamstring opener,

Freeing the legs here.

Bend the knees and then extend the legs.

Good.

Bending the knees once more,

Shortening the muscles of the hamstring and then lengthening the muscles of the hamstring.

You can take a moment here with longer legs.

Let your head relax.

One more exhale.

We'll make our way up slowly,

A little bend in the knees.

Use your hands back on the chair.

So that's a really nice hamstring release,

Especially if you sit a lot all day or any time really.

I'm going to gently move my chair off the mat and we'll come down to the earth.

You can find a way to get there that's most supportive.

I'll invite maybe not using your hands.

Let's come off to one side.

We're going to find our effortless rest position.

Feet are planted,

Knees point into the ceiling,

Rest your back down.

Bring your arms out into this generous T shape.

Good.

Take a breath here where you can reorient to the earth.

As you'd like to explore and arch and flatten,

You can do that here,

Rolling the pelvis,

Freeing it from the legs.

We just lengthen the hamstrings.

So maybe there's a little extra range for the pelvis to move back and forth and your arch and flatten,

Paying attention to the muscles of the front and the backside of the low torso.

And then steady in the torso,

Find stillness.

Let's lift both our arms up.

So easy does it here.

Both arms are lifting towards the ceiling.

And as you lift these arms towards the ceiling,

Then you can nuzzle the shoulders back towards the earth.

Reach both hands up evenly.

See if you can feel the shoulder blades move evenly off the back and then nuzzle them back downward.

As we reach our fingertips up towards the sky and then nuzzle the shoulders back towards the earth.

You might keep it interesting and do one at a time,

Noticing how the shoulder blades move on the back.

Protract and retract away and back together.

You might even sense your jaw loosening up as you do this movement.

Your shoulders are quite connected to your jaw muscles.

All right,

Let's settle both arms back down towards the earth.

Let's give a little press into our feet and feel the energy move all the way up the body.

One more press into the feet,

Feel the legs engaged,

The muscles of the torso,

And then release.

Let's take a moment to find the tailbone and press downward with the tailbone.

So it's not an active forward or back movement.

It's just a heaviness of the tailbone.

And then release that.

Press the back of the head down very gently and then release that.

One more time,

Back of the head,

Just noticing the bounds of our torso here.

Good.

We're going to start our twist.

Let's start in the upper half tonight.

So as you take your right shoulder open,

Gaze towards your right palm,

Close your left palm down,

And then come back through neutral.

Let your head and neck come through neutral,

Just the upper body first.

Gaze towards your left palm,

Close your right palm down.

Notice your shoulders,

How they move just a little bit here,

Back to center.

Good.

One more time to the right,

Gaze right to the open palm,

Left palm down.

Easy does it through center.

And then this smooth transition off to the left,

Left palm open,

Right palm down.

All right.

Let's still the upper body.

Let's start to move the lower body.

So differentiating here,

The legs,

Your right hip gets heavier and your knees just move one inch to the right.

Come back through center.

Let your left hip get heavier and the knees just knock towards the left,

Back to center.

One more time,

Both ways,

Knees to the right,

Back through center,

Knees to the left,

Back through center.

So we'll do a combination here,

Putting both together.

I want to take a pause for us to connect to our center.

So let's take three breaths at our center where the diaphragm expands up and out and contracts down and in.

Inhale,

Expand from your center.

Exhale,

Soften.

One more breath from your center light.

All right,

Let's take the twist together.

Gaze over towards your right palm,

Open,

Left palm closed,

Knees to the left towards the closed palm.

You might inhale,

Lengthen the right side body.

Exhale,

Come back to center.

Gaze towards the left open palm,

Right palm down,

Right knees to the right.

Gaze left and find more breath in your left side body,

Back through center,

And then to the left.

So find a flow here,

Back and forth,

Nose towards your open palm,

Knees in the opposite direction,

And allow it to be a cleansing right to left.

You can almost think about this as wringing around your spine.

So like wringing a wet washcloth,

Keep the spine neutral and in the center of your body and you just rotate around it.

Good.

You can start to settle this movement down into very small twists,

Eventually finding a static place to land.

Take one moment where you press into the feet,

Feel the energy move up the body and then release.

So these foot presses are very stabilizing.

You could actually lift the hips,

Maybe an inch.

So as you press into the floor,

The hips lift up maybe an inch,

You feel the glutes engaged and then soften back down.

So we're not trying to cause any extra forcing here.

So this is a pretty easy,

Just lift the hips one to two inches and then ease back down.

All right.

So we've come near the end of practice here.

You could take any final movements that might feel comfy to you.

That could be knees hugging into center.

Just take a movement that's gonna calm your body.

So as you find a comfortable resting point,

It's a moment to check in with the body.

So you could be resting down on your back or in a comfortable seat.

So allow your energy to settle back into your center.

Take a few of those breaths right at your center and we'll guide into a little relaxation.

So wherever you're at,

Softly close the eyes or fuzzy your gaze and just notice first the aliveness that is inside of you,

The little tingling sensations,

The warmth,

And then we'll systematically move through the body,

Starting with the top of the head.

So softening the top of the head and the forehead,

Soften the temples,

The cheeks,

The bridge of the nose.

As the eyes move deeper in the eye sockets,

You can soften the palate at the roof of the mouth,

Allowing the jaw to unhinge a little bit,

Softening the tongue and the throat.

Soften both sides of your neck.

Let the shoulders be free,

Free to rest wherever they've landed.

Notice the breath come into the torso,

The expansion that happens on the inhale,

A little contraction on the exhale,

Both hips resting at the base of your torso.

See what you can do to soften around the hip crease and soften the glutes,

The powerhouse muscle,

The torso.

Soften the muscles of the legs and circle your awareness around your knees.

Soften your shin and your calf,

Circle your ankles,

And soften the toes and allow your body to rest in this bubble of awareness that you've just created for yourself,

Taking a moment to let the mind take a seat in the body.

It's not an easy task because the mind likes to be busy.

You can give the mind a job by focusing on your breath,

Noticing each inhale and each exhale.