The most significant thing to me is the importance of settling my own body and having a calm, settled presence when I am teaching. How can we all settle our own bodies? These chapters really reminded me that we experience events in our bodies — events don’t just happen outside of us or in our minds.

Active listening stood out for me: not interrupting, not making judgments, not giving advice, and not giving your own story. There was also an emphasis on completing an action that was once thwarted, which is what got the trauma stuck in the body in the first place.

The author distinguishes between settling energy and protective energy, and also speaks about the importance of harmonizing with other bodies, which requires us to respect other bodies.

The media also stood out as something that unsettles. To me, it doesn’t even feel real — it feels like a low-vibration energy that is taking over and removing individual thought. It feels like a collective energetic washing of generalizations.

When it comes to activities that involve touch in groups, especially in populations such as incarcerated individuals, these would not be activities I would choose. I honestly don’t feel comfortable touching people in a group setting, even with people I know well. That awareness felt important to honor as well.

Activities to Harmonize Bodies (Daily, Brief Practices)

These are the brief, in-the-moment, “10-second reset” type activities that stood out to me: walking silently side by side in sync for a minute, humming for 10 seconds, not over-organizing the activity, noticing sensations, emotions, and impulses, “OM” together (as a harmonizing practice, not a religious one), lullaby-type sounds, and rocking back and forth, with or without music, without touch.

Silent walking in sync is the one I resonated with the most, and I really feel the most comfortable and in my body with this one. These chapters allowed me to reflect on what I connect with most in terms of activities and harmonizing vs. over connecting which is sometimes my go-to. 

I love doing tapping that it is a very instant relief technique for me and it is also like a soothing mechanism so is the belly rubbing so this is something I would like to try and integrate to my practice, the breathing sounds and chanting or repetition of mantras like the Om sound are my favorite this technique gives me harmony and I feel that it integrates us as a group I feel like sharing movement together connects our souls also if you are meditating together, singing together and even being in complete silence together and you can add to it like when we chant and integrate instruments, there is always something new to add even if it is making noises when we breath together, what this does to my body is take it to a higher vibration, my energy becomes clean, I feel complete and happy, so if I feel this others practicing together should feel the same or even more and sharing about it opens my mind to it and expands my experience.

At the end of some yoga classes we Om together. The first few times this felt uncomfortable, but the power of the vibration between multiple people is so powerful and healing. I also practiced rocking back and forth with another. Again, feeling uncomfortable at first but then quickly feeling a sense of syncricity and unity.  I also practiced giving a hand massage. This felt very service oriented and giving without the need to receive back allowed this to feel fulfilling for me.

I have only had the opportunity to try a couple of these techniques in groups.

I love oming as a group. It is one of my favorite moments in my yoga practice. I feel so much more connected to the others in the class after we om at the beginning of practice. It creates an energy that unifies us through the whole practice. In the rare classes where oming is not an element, the class feels very different. I feel much more isolated on my own mat. Oming as a group makes me feel settled, present, and relaxed. I am confident that the others oming with me feel the same.

When I did my 200 hour YTT, the 12 of us on the course were very close and we were taken through many hours of talking and exercises designed to open us up and face our traumas. We sat with each other, settled and present, as each of us had emotional moments. It was such a powerful feeling to collectively hold space for that person without offering platitudes or physical comfort. I felt so close to the others in the group from holding space for them, and from when they held space for me. We talked a lot about these experiences and I know we all felt this way.

These practices are many that I've practiced for a few years. I have a few very close friends who I was able to work through my trauma with together. I am also able to practice these with my husband. For me, it was quite a feat to be able to be vulnerable and empathetic, and compassionate toward another human being for a long time. I was unable to accept love because it felt like an attack. I can promise you, ten years ago if someone attempted to do any of these with me, I would see it as a romantic gesture or an attack - I always confused those two. Now, since I've cleared those up, I can understand the power of healing behind it. I also understand the extreme need for safety in such a vulnerable situation.