Unlock a Hidden Sense

A personal practice I love is 3-Part Breath, or Dirga Pranayama, while tuning into my sacred Root.  

I am here.
Root Chakra in Yogic traditions connects to our being-ness.  It's the base of who we are.

When we are in a heightened state of arousal - and not in the ways that we desire - we sometimes interpret this state as stress or alarm.

Alarm bells can zip us up into our head, into the future, into planning and scheming and doing anything we possibly can to tamp down the threat, or avoid it completely.

The reminder of of the Root Chakra is that we ARE, we exist, we have flesh and matter and consciousness in this moment.

In everyday life we can come into our genuine, ordinary selves and take a very practical approach.

3 Part Breath.

• Lie down.
• Place left hands on belly and heart.
• Tune into 10 natural breaths.
• Then, begin 3 part breath.
• Breath in filling low belly, then ribcage, then chest.
• Breath out releasing in reverse, chest, ribcage, belly.
• Repeat 10-20 cycles. Pay attention to how breath moves the body, what you can feel with your hands, and how it feels to have air enter and leave your abdomen, ribs, and chest.

Combine Breath & Mantra
Powerful experiences can come in when we focus our breath - which influences our nervous system and changes our energetic state - and combine it with Mantra. Mantra is a mind-tool. It is used to focus our attention which can be ultra helpful if the mind likes to take a road trip into future disasters. 

Follow along to this practice on my podcast Personal Practice
This personal practice is all about acknowledging that you are, in fact, alive and here right now! And guess what?

You're totally allowed to be here and to take up space.

This Personal Practice may feel best if you are laying down on the floor. But if you don't have that option right now seated in a chair or up against a wall so that you have support on your back is great.

I find this Personal Practice powerful because it combines aspects of Yoga that sometimes get ignored. Specifically, this Personal Practice includes an asana (a pose, in this case seated or lying down) along with Pranayama (breathwork), Mudra (an intentional hand gesture), and Mantra (a mind tool, a phrase for focus). 

Practices like this incorporate something else we know to be highly valuable for health, and that is somatic experiencing through the skill of interoception. This is one of my favorite concepts in Personal Practices.

Interoception is the skill of sensing what is going on inside the body. Things like hunger, or a sense of heaviness in the legs, or the rhythm of your heart.  It is a hallmark skill honed in supportive trauma therapies, and somatic recovery programs.

We spend so much of our life stuck in our head. When we drop into the body, and become aware of all of the sensations, it is easier to feel fully connected to the present moment.

It is 100% possible to do this through a walk, a vigorous Power Yoga practice, or even a weight lifting session. But when we are highly aroused by movement it takes skill to not immediately assess the sensations (am I running fast enough, do I need water, should I stop, Im uncomfortable etc.). That's why simple practices like this can increase our skill in simply becoming aware of sensation, and that's it.  

We don't have to assign a value to every itch. And in turn we can learn to approach our thoughts similarly - just as they are without labeling them too fast as true, false, good, or bad. I could obviously write about this all day. But this is a podcast and you're not here to read... you're here to listen :) So follow along and let me know how I can support your Personal Practice.

Be well!
​XO, Julia