SOOTHING YOGA

Last night I had the honour of sharing the evening with twelve incredibly inspiring women and Dene Josham of Streetwise Defence, for an evening focused on emotional self defence. Dene's partner, Julie had prepared a presentation that was both impactful and informative, and Dene delivered the presentation in such a way that created space for the women to ask questions, share experiences and support one another. It really was an important and much needed evening, and I am incredibly grateful to all who attended and to the Streetwise Defence team for all their efforts.

For those who couldn't make the evening, and for those of you who did and would like further resources, I would like to signpost you to a blog post by Julie Waite on the Streetwise Defence website that you can read here. Also, the Self Defence For Women Podcast which you can access here.

After Dene's presentation we enjoyed a cuppa and a chat before closing the evening with a very simple yoga practise. I would like to share some of my thoughts on soothing yoga here. Firstly, I explained to the women that yoga does not fix anything, but it may help. Traditionally, we practise yoga to to work towards inner peace. In times of turmoil a yoga class may be the very last thing on your mind and may also be completely inaccessible, however I shared a few practises with the ladies that can be done with no yoga mat or props, some practises were so small and subtle you could do them in busy room and no one would know.

Firstly I wanted to read the ladies a poem, I wanted to read something that I thought would resonate, however, I wouldn't dream of assuming I had any idea of what people may be going though, so I chose a poem called Baggage by Becky Hemsley, one of my favourite poets. Do look her up, you can view her website here.

I then invited the ladies to set an intention.  Intention setting is a simple yet powerful practise.  An intention is a simple statement or affirmation such as ‘I am calm’, ‘I am strong’, ‘I am loved’, ‘I am supported’.  Even if it doesn’t quite feel true when you first think of it, by repeating an intention again and again you are giving this thought energy, and where energy flows intention grows.

We then talked about the Solar Plexus reflex point on the hand, located in the middle of the palm.  Gently pressing on this point connects us back to our Solar Plexus, helping to restore balance to our energy centre that is all about willpower and courage.  I also explained that gently massaging the skin between the thumb and forefinger can help to reduce tension headaches; this is an acupressure point known as Union Valley, please note it should be avoided if pregnant.

The yoga was very brief, purposefully so, as I hoped to show the ladies that they didn’t need to make hours of time for these practises.  We did some neck and throat stretches, tension around the neck is common and painful, particularly in times of stress.  We paid particular attention to the throat.  The throat chakra, is our energy centre concerned with communication, our true voice.  However, it can become blocked when we don’t say what we really want to say. We stretched out the throat very simply by raising the head and lengthening the throat.  Do you ever find when you cry that your throat aches? To me, it makes perfect sense that this ache is all the things we wish we had or could say.

We did some side stretching to open up the lungs before our breathwork.  Side stretching targets the intercostal muscles, these are the muscles between the ribs and they play a crucial role in breathing, helping the ribcage to expand and contact with the breath.  Our breath work was very simple, to begin we sat or laid down with one hand on the heart and one hand on the belly.  When we are stressed the ‘fight or flight’ response is triggered, this leads to rapid shallow breathing.  We can use the breath to calm our nervous system and activate ‘rest and digest’ response.  I asked the ladies to breathe in deeply so the hand on the belly rose, so as to fully inflate the lungs.  Then I asked the ladies to lengthen their exhale to be slightly longer than the inhale.  This is known as ‘belly breathing’ or ‘diaphragmatic breathing’ and it is an effective way to engage the parasympathetic nervous system.

Every class I teach starts with three deep breaths, and I honestly believe this to be the most important part of the class.  I encouraged the ladies last night to remember that you can take a deep breath anywhere, even on the toilet.  This may sound like an odd suggestion, but for some, this is the only moment of peace they get.  Or, perhaps you can relate to a scenario such as someone being unkind to you at school or work, so you shut yourself in the bathroom because you need a minute, intuitively you perhaps take a deep breath.

With regard to physical yoga postures, I kept this very simple, gently stretching out the hips as emotional stress is often stored in this area of the body.  Also, we thought about opening up the heart space.  Often when we are upset, we hunch our shoulders.  Often people who are upset look cold, because they are holding their arms across their chest, this is actually us protecting our emotional centre, our heart.  This area can become physically tender, so gentle stretches to mindfully open the heart space can be helpful.

Ultimately, this short 25-minute yoga practise was offered in the hope of providing the ladies a peaceful end to the evening and some simple practises that they may return to in the future. 

I really hope even if in a very small way, it helped.

Further resources:

Womens Aid

NHS, Domestic Abuse

National Bullying Helpline