Tools to find the edges of your expression and remain neutral. Tools to hold space for connection and self-healing. Tools to remember why we are here and to live heart centered.
Uppermost, I am not here to fix anyone, not even myself. Noone is broken; we are all already perfect and free. Dis-ease comes in when we forget that we live in cycles of resonance and dissonance. The fundamentals of SomaYoga lead from this sense of wholeness, and create the container from which supportive embodiment and self-sensing practices can be offered. While the body plays a central role in much of the SomaYoga practices, we must not forget the study of the mind. From this place we master our sense perceptions and gain awareness of patterns just like the infinity symbol.
The infinity symbol represents the cyclical nature of this life with a twist. There is a center point we pass through, again and again. We hone and sustain a center point to a finer degree after we expand and explore the edges. An example of this in guided practice (start from just about any pose) – moving from a centered, grounded place, allow for organic and freedom of movement in the torso, exploring the edges of your comfortable range with curiosity. As you’re ready, refine this movement to smaller, slower and find a more systematic and even contraction and release of a specific muscle group. Invite again a centered and grounded sense, and notice what has shifted. The act of exploring one’s edges reorients the sense of center. As we learn that our perspective is always shifting from wider to narrower, passing through the center, we can start to take skillful action to explore wider edges, placing more and more faith in that return to a steady, reliable center – TRANSFORMED – remembering again that we are an integral part of the infinite, the changeless.
While this example of exploring along the infinite symbol isn’t as prolific as a medical research paper, I think it goes to say that engaging in simpler, slower and more conscious movement – and doing this with the whole being in mind (not just focusing on one issue or putting a bandaid on a symptom) can have a profound healing effect! The unique blend of SomaYoga gives us the opportunity to travel along this spectrum and find the ‘just right’ therapeutic point again and again at the center. Thomas Hanna Somatics allows for slow release with focus on moving into conscious contraction and conscious release (pandiculation). The other side of the symbol, Classic Asana, gives us an opportunity to expansively express actively into our body’s boundaries while maintaining the steadiness found at center.
This symbol represents a special equation that yields more than just healing, extending the metaphor beyond the body, yet it is through the body layer we may be guided down a path of total self-realization! One of the most special things about this style of therapy is that it offers space for real connection across many layers. Western medicine doesn’t connect us to a map beyond body and mind, nor focus on the study of parts as a fully integrated part of an undeniable whole, as does Ayurveda and Sankhya philosophy. While I am still a novice at articulating the intricate and complex linkage of ancient medicine and evolution of western medical studies and practices, I am confident that my growing experience and willingness to continue to take action in learning will spread the goodwill of these teachings. This study is important and I am committed to sharing this sacred self-healing modality.
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