The most important thing that you can do for yourself during the day is to take a block of time to focus on yourself. Find a practice which allows you to be undisturbed while moving the body and/or having a mindful element where you focus entirely on the task in the present moment.

When doing a healing class, I focus on four elements that progress the participants through different mental and physical states.

Postures and movements from Yoga, Pilates ELDOA’s and Somatics,

Allow the body’s Meridian Channels to open and the Chi or life force energy to flow. This helps to dislodge stagnated energy within the body that can be connected to childhood traumas, unresolved emotional experiences or suppressed feelings. You can become aware of these when you get triggered by an external stimulus, such as songs, phrases, and names, that bring you back into the state that you were in when you experienced those emotions and feelings. Every experience is split into the memory and the emotion/feeling which is stored in the body. To clear it, you have to bring both together and let it go. There are several practices that can achieve this.

Breathwork: There are many types of breathwork practices which can be used individually or in combination.

These can change the biological and chemical composition of the body. The movement helps open the energy channels and releases stagnation from the fascia tissue which allows the breath to work a bit deeper by stimulating the bodies nervous system and inducing Kundalini activation. Depending on the practice, you can create a meditative state moving into the parasympathetic nervous system for healing while moving into the Theta and delta wave states. 

The Brainwave states

For fifteen to twenty minutes at the end of a class, the focus is on relaxation, allowing the body to move into the parasympathetic nervous system and move from the Aplha to the Theta/Delta wave state, depending on the technique used. When doing Yoga Nidra, the body goes into a deep relaxing state while the brain activity remains in the Alpha wave state, provided the person can remain focused. When doing meditation or after alkaline breathwork, the person can move from the Alpha to Theta, and sometime the Delta wave state, which can lead to a vivid visualisation and emotional experience allowing the person to clear some blockages they may have. We connect the inner circuitry of the micro cosmic orbit which allows the energy to flow quickly around the body.

Music vibration/ frequency

There are certain music characteristics that have a huge benefit when doing different practices. When the energy channels are open and the nervous system is stimulated, the vibration and frequency of the music can enable the mind to relax and the base tones to oscillate the cells to further dislodge any remaining stagnated blockages. It can create a subconscious visualisation based off the sounds and the persons historical experiences. In Daoism, Chi Gong, we can generate our own sounds and vibrations that help heal our internal organs by practicing the Six Healing sounds. Sound baths are another practice which uses multiple different instruments that resonate with our different bodies. 

A breathwork practice

Take a few moments to bring yourself into a relaxed state.

One of the most powerful tools we have is our breath, which can be used in multiple ways to stimulate our central nervous system and create different observable experiences. 

Sit comfortably and imagine a string at the top of your head, pulling you up towards the ceiling, elongating the spine. Close your eyes and free your facial muscles and shoulders of any tension by becoming aware of them and allowing yourself to let go on the exhale. Listen to the amalgamated hum of all the sounds around you, not just a particular sound. Observe how the body feels as you scan down starting from the head to toe.

Then, focus on the belly button, imagine your stomach is like a balloon which fills and expands as you breath in and pulls towards the spine as you exhale. Breath in and out through the nose to the count of 4 seconds in and 4 seconds out with a slight pause as you transition from inhale to exhale and exhale to inhale. Counting back from 30, saying (in your head) 30 in (as you inhale), 30 out (as you exhale), 29 in (as you breath in) and 29 out (as you exhale). Continue all the way back to 0 and if you lose count start again.

Notice what you notice and to what number you can count back to without being distracted or interrupted by unwanted thoughts. Observe the thoughts that come in but don’t react to them and if you get distracted, come back to the breath of 4 in…. 4 out. Sit for a few moments when you have finished and observe what is different, what has changed?