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Seeking Comfort & Freedom?

Today I am writing to ask how I can support you in this time of restriction if you are seeking comfort and freedom?

I have felt so much restriction myself through this difficult time and wanted to share with you a few practices and resources I have found to be comforting and freeing for me with you.  I hope they resonate with you as much as they have with me.

I am diving in to ways that support my wellbeing – the above photo is me, yes, in my bathtub!!  Our home doesn’t have a lot natural light coming in during the day.  This corner of our home gets lovely sun in the morning and into the early afternoon so I have been taking advantage of that.  I put some yoga props in the tub to support me, brought in books to read, colouring books to colour, my phone to listen to podcasts, a candle to help make it a sacred space, and my daughter even brought some twinkling lights for the evening when I’m having some quiet time to myself.

[Read more…] about Seeking Comfort & Freedom?

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Sensory Motor Amnesia

“I very much enjoy the classes. Alana has a very gentle and calming spirit. She is very thorough in teaching and takes time to explain if needed.”  Rosalie

“I love your class, not only are you completely suited to this but, you draw a class of people that are also suited to this.  I not only go to your class because my back feels better, but, the atmosphere is so freeing.
I feel that everyone who attends have an amazing spirit.  I have Never, Ever felt this anywhere else.”  Donna

I am curious.  Have you ever driven somewhere and wondered how you got there?  You’ve travelled the route so frequently that it has made a groove in your brain.  You sit behind the wheel of your car and it’s like being on autopilot.  You arrive at your destination and try to think back to specific parts of the drive and it doesn’t come back easily.

Then, one day there is a detour in the route.  Something has caused the original route to change and you need to learn and adapt to the detour for a period of time.  This detour isn’t as efficient but it gets you where you need to go.

When the detour is finished you may still take the same route that you have adapted to.  You now need to relearn the original, more efficient route.

This is what Sensory Motor Amnesia is like. The brain has lost it’s ability to sense and move the muscles to voluntarily control  them.

We start out with freedom in our movements, however, we may experience an injury, a trauma, a surgery or do a specific movement over and over again.  This is our soma’s detour.  Our brain and muscles learn a maladaptive movement pattern just like the detour in the route.  This allows us to do our daily tasks accommodating this stressor to our soma.  

[Read more…] about Sensory Motor Amnesia

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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!!