I feel a new flow in my life today, it's lighter and more hopeful and it came as a surprise from a practice I did this morning that I'd like to share with you...

I’d like to offer you an embodied practice to connect with your own flow, and tap into flowing in the direction you desire.

I didn’t realise there was so much I was holding onto, so much stuckness...until my lighter mood spotlighted this for me. It reminds me of when I relax in savasana, I notice letting go that happens much after the first settling. I teach a fast track technique of tensing the whole body first so that when you let go, you know what it feels like to be relaxed as opposed to habitually holding tension. 

There is tension in your body that you may not even have been aware you were holding.

Life is in constant flow and flux and as we come to another round of high alert nervous system response, we can pause and hope for birthing into a new way of being in 2022, finding its way like ink traveling through water. 

I notice how the word hope land in my body, how it soothes by airways and seeps into my nervous system, a flow of feel good hormones surge in, overriding the stress hormones that have been flooding my body with another year of fear, uncertainty, false news, false starts and costant contingency plans...I feel I've been blown all over the place so a flow of hope restores strength in my heart, flowing to and from a deep well within. 

I take a long breath out that feels like I've been holding for a very long time...and out again into the world.

So I ask you, what is flowing in you as you read this?

Where are you stuck and what kind of flow do you desire for your body, mind, life?

I’d like to offer you a practice to connect with your own flow.

I’ve written it down while it’s flowing in me and through me, through my practice, through my life, through my fingers as I type onto this page and as it gains momentum with creative juices flowing.

Here's the practice

• Sit back and notice your body, anywhere where you feel tight, tense, stuck, blocked, necessary and unnecessary holding. Tense and relax a few times to help you feel into what’s here - flow of thoughts, flow of blood, flow of breath. Close your eyes now you’ve read this so you can feel into the sensations in the body and get sensitive to what is present. Stay for a minute

• When you open your eyes to read this next part, bring your attention to your breath, the flow of breath at your nostrils and inside as your breath breathes you. Close your eyes now you’ve read this so you can feel into the sensations of the breath and get sensitive to what is true right now. Stay for a minute

• When you open your eyes, take your hands together at your breastbone. Take a long breath in and as you breathe out, make a humming sound and take your hands over your face and cup them to your ears so you can hear the sound inside to shift any stuckness in your cells. Continue for 12 rounds. When you’ve finished, let your hands rest. Close your eyes now you’ve read this so you can feel into the sensations in the body and get sensitive to sensations of vibration

• Stand up and feel your feet on your soft yoga mat. Move your feet and your toes as if you’re standing on soft mud, squelching muddy juicy OJAS. Start to move as if you are walking on the spot, picking up the pace, faster and faster, flowing to a good pace to get your heart rate up and your blood flowing. Do this for 3 minutes and change it up as the flow starts to lead your body. Slow it down and come to a standstill. Close your eyes now you’ve read this so you can feel into the sensations moving through your body and get sensitive to what you notice now

• Can you notice a pulsing, a temperature, a rhythm, a juicy rhythm – start to move, dance – you could dance a jazzy spontaneous moves or a waltz like the venous flow of your blood, or any way that expresses flow for you – be yourself, put on some music and dance to the tune of the flow you wish to foster in your life – flow of love coming in, flow of healing rippling through you, flow of abundance, money, connection, emotional release, flow of tears, pain flowing away – continue to embody your flow at the perfect pace for your own expression of whatever is arising to the surface.

NOTE You can stop the flow any time you need to and it feels right. It’s not always about letting go if it doesn’t feel appropriate in this moment. The body holds on, creates dams, locked doors, no go areas to protect you in many ways so honour the holding on, take a moment to thank your body for protecting you from overflow, overwhelm, a deluge of too much.

• Bring yourself to slow and stillness. Lie down on your front or your back.

What else is flowing deep inside here and now

How do you wish to flow from your yoga mat and into the next part of your day?

Close your eyes now you’ve read this so you can feel into the sensations in the body and let yourself go with the flow until you’re ready to flow into the next part of your day.

Float, reflect, be here...

Yoga therapy focuses on every aspect of your being. What did this practice reveal to you? Were you able to tune into listening to sensation, to a deeper level of knowing that you can take off your yoga mat and into life?

Join our free yoga therapy taster, module in yoga therapy and other courses at Yoga United Education

To talk more about 1-2-1 yoga therapy, Email judy@yogaunited.com

I hope that the what is flowing creates on a momentum that takes you in a direction you want to go in your life,

Love flowing from me to you,

Judy Hirsh Sampath