2/27/25 Live Session Recording (Module 4)

Sorry I missed you all on Thursday, and I will likely miss you again this coming week. As always, I so appreciate your vulnerability when sharing.  Especially sharing your truths and how sharing can be so difficult, but how not sharing what we carry or think with us can also cause harm.  It can be difficult finding the time, space, and environment to share our truths in a space where being honest can hopefully create healing not harm.  I have had a complicated relationship with my eldest son the past few years. In the past week (likely because of our discussions) I shared that I would like to work on our relationship if the time was right for us both and we were both willing to open the "space" to the other's point of view.  It is hard, but I do believe listening to others' opinions that differ from our own will help reduce ahimsa and we will see people living in their freeing truth.  Thank you all for sharing based on your past experience with your faith or family relationships.  

I enjoyed our practice. I loved thinking about the range of motion of the breath and the body, returning to the breath RoM during the practice.  

After the breathwork, I feel energetically peaceful. I look forward to making Jen's soup—hopefully, for fun, not because someone is sick!

Happy Day! Hello. What a lighthearted fun session. I appreciated the realness Jen when you were up for an screenshots if the screen froze your face in a particular way LOL As this happens when I video visit with a few incarcerated guys the video always glitches so I make sure to make these ridiculous faces to help make them laugh and the us who surround them at the kiosk.I am grateful you said that and I could reflect on some fun times. I definitely feel that I have shared in some relatable situations this week to everyone who shared. Especially Katie. My boss was on vacation for a week in a half (they passed his responsibilities on to me and even though I knew it was coming I was not prepared) and  saying we were short handed was and understatement. Two other locations on the east coast just felt so incompetent and needy with problems they could figure out themselves (or maybe this was my assumptions). I kept coming back to centering and asking why is this effecting me? Reminding myself I have a voice and to speak up for myself. I used the limbs we have discussed to say “Hey, I’ve got prior commitments and I won’t be able to assist you on these.”  Accountability is a huge thing for me, and I do not like being asked to do more than others are willing to do for themselves. The ‘Pull your weight”. Being labeled as “gifted’ at an early age and knowing it has always been easy for me to learn and pick things up quickly I have had to “play dumb” sorry for the wording, because people rely too much on me. When Zack said he was rushing around for no reason it all and I felt this about my thoughts rushing around for no reason and I could just let it go but, I didn’t it became cleared that I have a problem setting boundaries maybe?I realize I have to find a way to shine my light in a safe atmosphere where others won’t try to use it for themselves. Truths I have brought up to evaluate is times when I have made other people ‘feel stupid”. Never intentionally, its just someone comparing themselves to me. Basically holding myself back so other people won’t feel like they are less. This was probably a learned trait to not draw attention to myself. That is part of myself talk dialogue to just keep it above the bare minimum. 

I observed the movement because I gave noticed that incorporating the movement after the session really helps me release the heaviness of the realizations I find on the path and help have a more clear perspective of how these barriers can propel me and it helps to reset the mood. The fun quirky arm swings and postures to just shake out and be reminded how strong and resilient I am.  I think of this video and it helps me get back on track, (Attached link)

Lion’s breath LOL, that just makes me laugh at myself in a loving way and participants using the lion’s breath communicate with each other. Box breathing or 4 part breathing was the first breath I ever really knew or used. After learning Navy Seals used that technique I had to try it on myself because sometimes I get myself all worked up for nothing, Thank you Kari, for bringing up the Ujjayi breath  from virtual instructors because I too was wondering about this, The ocean sounding breath and if was just a counter breath to poses like a flexion or abduction. I am so excited to try these new breaths out at different times of emotions. 

Well hey all! I have yet to find myself in a live class 😔 but I a hopeful this upcoming session will be the one! I am about halfway through watching the recording from last week and I first have to acknowledge the wisdom in this room! Holy smokes, I am like a sponge, picking something up from everyone who has spoken up and shared. Thank you, what a gift to be in this community. 

I decided that I would not wait to finish the lesson before posting my share, it is my journal reflection of my experience and thoughts as I did the movement in last week's session. Apologies, they are a bit scattered but hoping there is enough clarity to understand my flow in thoughts. 

"Honor your range of motion" is top of mind and loud in my head. Today as I moved, I notice my body sore in my quads, my lower glutes, my side back and abs. As I reflect on our movement session, I realize that I too often default to holding “never enough”, “do more”, “do as much as possible” mentalities when I am at the gym lifting weights and moving my body. It has been some time since I was in a yoga class, so I am curious if this is isolated to the gym or if it translates to other movement spaces such as yoga. Today I did a shorter than usual workout and I noticed an internal battle with myself - even though I did not have the time to do more, there was a part of me that felt I needed to because "of how little I did." I am sore from that workout! I am guilty for disregarding my range of motion when I am at the gym. I am caught up in comparison to others. I realize that by doing more, I may be doing my body harm. OK correction, holding those mentalities about myself IS doing harm. My lesson today - I can do more with less and bonus, bring less harm to myself. This is a foreign and somewhat uncomfortable insight. I hope to work on embodying this and allow it to guide my movement practices. 

This is just one example, but I think it is indicative of my default to disregard my needs and my "range of motion" in all domains of life, not just the gym. This movement practice planted a seed of hope and healing, I look forward to practicing ahimsa in my thoughts and seeing how this translates to my choices and experiences not only in the gym but outside of this setting in all areas of my life.

Last but not least, these two topics really stood out to me when the group was sharing reflections from last week's session: 

Notion that harm not only occurs to self but also to to others from holding onto and not allowing our truth within to live outside of us. I remember someone once said "What truth lives within you that needs to live outside of you?" and I always loved that question. Thanks for the reminder to come back to this. 

"Harm can also be an absence of compassion/empathy when someone needs it." OOF, that just got me in the heart center. Thank you for bringing this forward. 

Best, 

Lizzy

Oh and one last thing, I also REALLY appreciate the reframe that we are students of this practice, even when we are facilitating. Love the freedom and ease that comes from alleviating the pressure to be "perfect" when we are facilitators. Such great stuff. Thank you!

Hi all, 

I appreciated this session and the focus on truth and living one's own truth, and also how complex and layered a concept like truth can be. Thank you to everyone who shared, it's really inspiring to hear others share deeply about how these teachings are landing and what is being brought up. I was reminded of a book I read in high school, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, focused on the Vietnam War, part fiction and part non-fiction, and how the theme of truth and reality was woven into the novel, how different sides can have different truths that look very different. I think over time through the practice of Buddhism and mindfulness as well as yoga, I have gotten to explore some of my own truths, what has helped me is the slowing down and offering myself space and time for these truths to be uncovered and also to be in a more stable place to actually explore some of the painful truths.

I wonder about some of the clients I work with who are currently incarcerated, and I imagine that because they are in a place of continued vicarious trauma, it may be too much to explore some of the painful truths. It's also a wrestling game with my own thoughts of I don't want to push people too hard in my clinical work because I know they are subjected to a lot of instability and chaos being incarcerated and to uncovering truth can sometimes be more de-stabilizing. I am lucky that I have a good supervisor and some other colleagues to consult with because it's a tricky balance to manage.

I also appreciated the breathing exercises and exploring all of the different practices. I remember learning the bees breath in the group with James and it was a really nice experience to do this type of breathing with others because it felt connective and like we were harmonizing together. I was in a yoga class this morning and the teacher had us do lion's breath and it is a more vulnerable practice so I might want to do this once there is some rapport built in the group because I would assume many people would need to feel comfortable being a little more silly. I really love the cyclic sighing practice as well, I find myself utilizing this type of breathing whenever I need to get a little more grounded and reduce tension. 

Thanks so much all! 

Oh my goodness, Satya is powerful. It is a practice that is always ongoing as I learn more about myself, my communities, and the world we all live in. Sometimes I feel shame for the ignorance I discover in myself but I remind myself that "this is the practice" - loving myself enough to allow exploration, compassion for myself to feel safe to sit with what might arise, and actively "breath" through my transitions from one version of myself to another.

The conversation about generational truths, specifically in families, resonated with me. My family spent many years during my childhood upholding a truth about my mother who struggles with addiction but that truth caused a lot of harm to myself and others, knowingly and unknowingly. It wasn't until I started my own healing journey that I understood that they upheld those truths about her to protect an image of themselves. However, these truths upheld by them created negative narratives about good and bad, drugs, womanhood, motherhood, agency, and the list goes on and on. It's taken me many years to unlearn those things and I feel sad for those in my family who haven't explored the other side of these distortions.

Satya is the best!! But a tricky one to understand because truth can be harmful as we learned. I think awareness of truth is important but I also find myself asking...what really is truth? Are they just facts? Or perceptions? I got a little confused there and very philosophical haha. I think about it from an incarcerated lens and it must be tough because in jail you are forced to look truth in the face and sit with the most raw version of youself. So that has been on my mind.

Also loved the 4 part breath ive always wanted to learn that!! 🙂 

This was such a wonderful, engaging lesson! It was a great perspective change to consider "range of motion" as an invitation to tune into your breath as opposed to just physicality/asana. I intentionally took this into some of my studio classes this week. Our movement practices during class always teach me something new about teaching in an accessible way. I really appreciated the suggestion to first cue the anatomical positioning instead of the name of the pose. Someone noted that when you cue the anatomical version of warrior II, there is less pressure to overexert/stretch into the asana. 

The discussion portions of our meetings are also always so beneficial. A few of my favorites from this week: Mo mentioning how comforting and compassionate cueing hands on the heart as a centering practice can be; Zach talking about functional freeze (something that happens to me often); Alex opening a discussion about holding space for others when you're not feeling that great yourself, and Jen responding about how some folks can be really receptive to that; Juliana asking, is the breath the beat? I love that!

I thought a lot about my truth after this lesson, and also took that into my studio/personal practice on and off the mat. I resonated with Katie's contribution about recognizing that other people's truths can look different, but are still all valid. 

The anatomical lesson and breathing practices were fun and centering. Thanks for a great lesson!

I really appreciated the discussion on generational truths and the realization that not everyone who came before us should be celebrated. It’s a tough but important concept to sit with, and I’m grateful for the space to explore it. Jen’s example of conditioning (Samskara)—how we instinctively respond to stubbing our toe with negative self-talk—really resonated with me. I struggle with self-criticism daily, and this was a reminder to be more mindful of my inner dialogue. It’s something I want to work on integrating into my life. I’ve also been surprised by how much conversation in this course has touched on propaganda and politics. I love that we are considering systemic factors as sources of trauma in society because it’s such a crucial part of understanding suffering. One quote that stood out to me was: “Look at the things we are buying, don’t look at the guns! Look at what the celebrities are wearing!” It was a powerful reminder of how distractions are used to shift focus away from deeper societal issues. Another impactful quote was: “Stay away from books and music, instead of the healthcare system to improve mental health.” It really made me reflect on how society often discourages true healing.

This course has made me feel more grounded, helping me question what we’re being shown and told. One key takeaway for me has been the importance of breathwork in yoga. When I was younger, I never truly aligned my breath with my movement, but lately, I’ve been focusing on it more than ever. I really enjoyed learning about different breathing techniques, and I’ve noticed that my studio classes have been incorporating Lion’s Breath, Bee Breath, and Alternate Nostril Breathing more frequently. I also appreciated Jen’s vulnerability in sharing her past experiences with alternate nostril breathing and why it might not be suitable in a rehabilitation setting. It’s such an important consideration when working with trauma-affected populations, and I’m grateful for these insights.

I really struggled with this session and had to come back to it several times! I felt very activated and rebellious! I am not sure why honestly. I think in my own being i've always struggled with truth. My first addiction was absolutely lying and when I got clean by then sponsor would make me do these activities to make sure I was telling the truth. In the path that I took for recovery, 12 steps, there's a fourth step where you it's explained that you are to make a searching and  moral inventory of yourself. This was so terrifying to me with a few years clean and being so young. I thought the monster that I was would be unleashed and never be able to be squished again! What I didn't know, was the liberation that would come with perceiving my world right sized. LEarning I was not the biggest monster in the room. LEarning I was just human with human tendencies. In this podcast I list to, (highly recommend- if you're into politics and astrology) It's called Ghost of a Podcast, and the host simply said, " there's no room for perfectionism in the revolution." ANd I thought wow like how often do we all lie to yourselves that that can even be a goal! and simply what harm does that cause all of us? and what harsh do I cause because that is what I am striving for? 

Honesltly, I didn't even think about any of this until just now and I am deeply amazed because I was so stubburon during this session! When we got to the breathing section in my head I was like "I am not taking any notes!" Ha! I took notes. 

the breathing calmed me down. and now I am ok. 

I can't wait to do Bee Breathing with my daughter as she is a toddler and really gets dysregulated when she hears no. 

Good morning PYP January 2025 Cohort - WOW!  What a powerful class for me.  Speaking our individual Truths and balancing all those in our collective Truth (even if unspoken as I realize that may be different for each of us) created a bit of anxiety for me......these classes and modules have activated and energized me on my own Life Path and it has really enhanced my everyday.....so my anxiety came in as I started to future trip on what I was going to do to continue this awesome process after this call ends in June.  This is one of my Truths....Future Tripping all the time....Namaste Satya!  From this session, the 30-min (approx.) Range of Motion Practice was quite powerful for me.....like Carrie (apologies if I misspelled here) said, POTENT!  for some reason the idea of the collective space resonated with me:  this healing centered approach is all about the the participant and allowing each person to find their unique path, HOWEVER, it is within the collective space that creates the opportunity for a safe-place to explore that sene of individuality....something profound there that I will be letting in to explore.  I also had never thought of the Range of Motion portion of actually following the general sequencing of a "typical" yoga class.  I felt like Jen's sequencing today took me through a whole yoga class....wile you did not name certain poses specifically and we did not fully embody the pose (whatever that means for each of us), I felt the arrival, the warm-up, the sides bends then lunges....then we went to Warrior 2, Warrior 3, Triangle!...it really made me realize how Range of motion is a way of introducing the traditional yoga poses without overcomplicating it in the beginning....I LOVED the pauses, connecting to the breathe, cueing to pay attention to the inner dialogue.  Then we finished with a standing shavasanah!  for some reason this allowed me to relax a bit about facilitating....not overcomplicating it and just easy does it, which embodies the healing-centered approach for myself.  I felt such a release from this RoM practice today, thank you Jen....just what I needed! - Jeff