Yoga Evolution

Creating lasting freedom in your body simply and naturally

SomaYoga

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Sharing the Love…

“Alana provides a great Somatics practice in her classes with the added bonus of breathing exercises each class. She is attentive to the individual needs of each of us. I leave feeling more relaxed in my mind, less tension in my body and more energy overall.”… Linda

I love reading how SomaYogis like Linda feel when they leave a Somatic Movement group class. This is why I LOVE sharing the classes!

It is always my intention to provide a class that creates a safe space for each and every participant to have this personal experience.

But how does that happen? Through engaging our sense of Interoception we explore movement that leaves us feeling relaxed and yet more energized.

We can place our attention on:

  • Exteroception which is “what is going on around me?”
  • Proprioception which is “where is my body in this space?” or
  • Interoception which is “What do I sense and feel inside my body?”

Interoception is the focus of the Somatics Practice.

When I am doing my own personal practice, I feel like it is a meditation in itself. I am truly being present and trusting the sensations that are arising in my soma (we each have our first person experience of what we sense and feel as a “soma”) to guide me through my breath and movement practice.

What are the words that may be associated with Interoception in a Somatic Movement practice?

[Read more…] about Sharing the Love…

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Seeking Help in the Midst of a Perfect Storm

It has been challenging for me to decide when it is appropriate to share this personal experience with you.  When is it a good time to share one’s experience of grief?

Before “Merry Christmas” just didn’t seem right and now with “Happy New Year”, it still doesn’t seem right…  However, when I was out walking with a dear friend late last week she reminded me that people experience grief at any time of the year.  We are never alone in this.

Through this experience there were two things that became very apparent to me:

  1. The body does keep the score – emotional and/or physical trauma can bring about discomfort in my body.
  2. When this happens, I need to follow my intuition and expand my team of healers when needed.

[Read more…] about Seeking Help in the Midst of a Perfect Storm

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Red Lights, Green Lights and Happy Holidays!

Well, with the holidays and a very busy time just around the corner, I want to give you the gift of understanding how tension can develop in one’s body to help you prepare for and release the tension that this beautiful time of year can sometimes bring to one’s soma.

Green Lights and Red Lights of the holidays make me also think of three innate reflexes the body responds to stress with – Red Light Reflex, Green Light Reflex and the Trauma Reflex.  These reflexes can cause involuntary muscle tension (Sensory Motor Amnesia) when the brain can no longer access the voluntary control of the muscle to release the tension.

Red Light Reflex

So, you’ve been in the process of writing your to do list for the upcoming holidays.  So much to do…   [Read more…] about Red Lights, Green Lights and Happy Holidays!

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Reawaken Your Body’s Brilliance!!

I was recently thinking about how our bodies are similar to trees.  Say what?

Yes, I was thinking of how the tree loses all of it’s leaves in the fall and lives through the winters that are sometimes long and hard.  Then in spring, with nourishment from rain and the warmth of the sun, it begins to produce new growth and reawaken into the brilliance that it becomes in summer.  There will be changes throughout the life of the tree and adaptions will occur only to return to it’s brilliance.

At times the body adapts to what is presented to it just as the tree does.  That may be as a result of misuse, injury, trauma, physical or emotional stress, surgery or repetitive movement.  The body adapts to this new movement pattern, which serves us well in the interim, [Read more…] about Reawaken Your Body’s Brilliance!!

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What the Heck is SomaYoga?

We are all Somas, which is a Greek word meaning the living body.

As a Soma we perform repetitive movements, have injuries or surgeries, and/or experience emotional stressors that have an effect on our bodies of creating habituated tension and also pain.

Through the practice of SomaYoga we learn that there are three different ways that we can hold habituated tension – red light (flight) reflex, green light (fight) reflex or trauma reflex.

Red Light Reflex

Examples of the red light reflex are when we roll our shoulders forward and lower our chin toward our chest as we look down at our phone to type a text, [Read more…] about What the Heck is SomaYoga?

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Practicing Self-Compassion

Wow!! Life sure has it’s peaks and valleys, doesn’t it?

That’s how my life has felt over the last while. I can’t change what is going on around me, but I can change how I am taking care of myself so that I am better prepared as life reveals the peaks and valleys. [Read more…] about Practicing Self-Compassion