Somatic Reset and Flow

Hi. I am Tamika Caston-Miller, and today is all about a somatic reset. We're going to flow with joy and move in a way that is a true opportunity for nourishment for the body. When we're looking at some implementing somatic practices, we want them to be curious and exploratory. Sometimes we need to slow way down in order to make that happen. So I have some helpers today.

For that, I have two blocks, a strap, and trusty bolster, which is kinda hard to ever find me without. So if you like to bring your your sits bones up a little bit higher, I recommend that you do that and really explore how you fill in the seated position where we're going to begin. So we're beginning into Casana, and the very first thing we're going to do to explore this exploratory movement is to actually just come into just a bit of rocking to fully settle into the seat. And to notice how this fills in your body. I can rock from side to side.

Some people really enjoy this little butterfly action. I'm a rocker. I wanna rock my nervous system. And in this rocking, I have my right leg ahead of the left, and now I can begin coming into some rolls and check into what is happening in the low back. You might be surprised at what you find, and it might feel really amazing, but also notice any tightness and note that so that you're operating with care and concern for your body today, and always. We'll take one more role here.

And the next time you're over to the right, bring your right hand to the mat, inhale, and reach up left, press into the mat and extend on the left side. Feel free to really enjoy this lengthening and the grounding that's happening through the hand placement, the arm placements, inhale extend a little bit more in the left side, exhale bend your left elbow, bringing it back, and drawing your left shoulder back towards the sky. Inhale reach up again. And exhale release that and come into the other side, cross your legs the other direction. And again, we'll take this opportunity to rock and settle in to seated on the side.

We also spent a little more time on the side. So this is also a really good time to connect with what your breath is doing. Now on this side, I'd like to give a little more fluidity to the torso while coming in a little more movement along the side body. I'm letting my head be the last thing to follow. Maybe you try that out.

So this none of this is prescriptive. All of this is about curiosity. And then the next time that you're on your left side will begin our circles. Your circles can be big. They can be small.

You may find that It's not your low back that's being explored, but it might be your hips this time. Maybe you want your head to really have its own exploration. And the next time that you're on the left, bring your left hand to the floor, reach and extend along the right side, really open, and and press. So we're pressing on the left and reaching on the right. I love making this as big as possible. Maybe you do too. Take an inhale lengthen one more time.

And exhale bend the right elbow, drawing your right shoulder towards the sky, and exhale lengthen and extend again. Release that and just check-in again. How are we feeling? So there are all of these moments to check-in. We're not looking for a dancer Lee flow.

But if you find that, that's okay too. Alright. Let's remove anything that's underneath the hips and take a moment to breathe, sense and notice. And welcome in any type of intention beyond mind that you'd like to draw into your movement practice today. Keep this connection with the breath as we continue to move. Alright. So we'll move into a I call this a half child's pose, but some people call this a half frog.

So we've got these child's pose legs extend the right leg out long. So this their leg is in this half boop of isha konasana, and we want to walk arms over towards the right leg. So you're finding an equal distance between both knees. Take an inhale, find a bit of length, and then exhale fold, really exploring what's going on in the inner thighs. You may find that you experience this all the way down to your inner ankles.

It's a really interesting sensation. Feel free to welcome in some movement here. And then place the right foot down, bring your bum up, and come into standing on the left knee, take an inhale reach up to the sky. And then exhale left hand down, right arm extends again. If you feel like the floor is far away, this is where we can begin using our blocks. No need to stress out the body trying to reach the floor.

We just bring the floor up. Find that length all the way from the right side of the foot along the right side body. And then as you exhale come into your gate to pose, right hand slides down the right leg, extend the left arm, really enjoy the side bend. Let's do that one more time. Left arm down, right arm extends.

And switch. Enjoy this flow. Yummy. Alright. Bring both hands down to the left side.

You can bring in blocks if you like here. Send your left hand your left foot forward. Both hands can come to blocks or they can come to the floor. Some people feel really, like, crunched up right here. We want to always create some length and spaciousness. So blocks might help you do that.

It might help find a little more length here. Actually notice what is your helper today. As you exhale send your hips back, lift your toes into half hanuman, and come back into your anjaneyasana exploration, slow lunge, send your hips back, lift your toes. Now your knee can stay bent on the left side. It's all about finding a little bit of release along the right hip flexor, and noticing when you come back into this low lunge, how far you're going, how far you choose to go today.

Maybe bring the blocks more underneath your shoulders to find all of the length. Let's move those out of the way for you using them and they'll reach your arms up. Exhale, open twist to the left. So you'll stretch your right arm out and extend the left arm back. I like to draw it back like I'm drawing back a bow, even though I've never done archery. But I imagine I would be great at it and help reach your arms to the sky.

And exhale side bend here, bring your left hand to the left sacrum and reach over on the right side. And he'll come back to center, bring your right arm behind your head and backbend, maybe wrap the left arm around two. And hell release. Both hands come to the mat or to blocks. I'm gonna use blocks because we love them.

Stand into your pyramid pose. Now your back heel might be on the floor. It might not. Feel free to bend one or both knees to find that sweet spot standing in your pyramid. Or you can also step in a bit to find this here. Inhale lift halfway, exhale fold, inhale step up fold again into, oh, tenasana forward fold, inhale lift halfway, and fold, rise up.

Exhale forward fold. Notice how this forward fold feels. Feel free to welcome in some movement. Inhale lift halfway. Exhale fold again.

Walk your arms up your body or reach up, feel that upward movement and exhale hands to your heart center. We'll turn out to the right again and fold. And just take a moment here exploring how you're feeling on the side. You know, we've worked one side. How is that feeling? Now we're gonna come back into that half child's pose, half Upa Vista or half Manducas, and whatever you wanna call it.

And again, explore towards the left leg. I like to play with lifting and lowering the left foot because it causes different sensations in the inner thighs, so maybe check that out. As we're in these ever changing bodies, aging bodies, we're so grateful for bodies that are getting older, right? Noticing New sensations is awesome. Alright.

Now we'll place the left foot down and stand on the right knee. Niche and foot are really pressing down into the floor, and bring the right hand down, left hand up. So again, you're welcome to explore with a block here. Or you can go without it. Really find the length along the left side body.

Press into the right side and lift up into your gate post opening along the right side and switch. And another reason why we really are using this somatic exploration, this curious exploration, switch again is to notice where we are today and to be okay with that. Release. Both hands come down to the mat. Step into your low lunge.

And again, you're welcome to use blocks here, or you can use your hands on your knee. Whatever is helping you find that exploration is what you're going for. Don't be afraid to walk back and grab your blocks. A little bit of deeper exploration moving back into half Hahneman, So the left to the right toes come up, and send your whole body forward again, Anjaniasana, and back. Notice the connection between the movement and breath, and back again.

And the next time you're forward, inhale reach up, find length, And take the open twist, left arm goes forward, draw the bow back on the right side to open towards the right. And how reach to the sky? Excel side bend, right hand comes to the right sacrum, link them from the left side over towards the right. And how come to center, bring the right forearm behind your head, the left forearm behind your head and lean back into your forearm, maybe wrap your right arm behind the back. Release both hands to the mat or blocks and step into pyramid.

Again, maybe you find a little bit of space without blocks, or you bring them back in or step the back foot in a bit. Also, be okay with little pops and cracks as you move through. It's all very natural as the body is also releasing some things, and he'll step into uttanasana forward fold. And exhale fold again. And he'll reach all the way up and exhale forward fold.

Find a little bit of movement here. Beach your arms all the way up to the sky and hands to heart center. Surdia Namaskar A. So if you'd like to bring blocks under your hands as an exploration through Serbia Namaskar, you can. I just find that it gives a lot of interest that you may not have or you may not have experienced before, especially if you're very familiar with sun salutations.

So it's completely up to you. I'll use the blocks for my exploration. Pick an inhale reach up to the sky. XL forward fold. Slow this down. Find what you're feeling into. Is it the floor? Is it blocks? How are your hands? Notice that?

And how lift halfway? Do you want to use blocks or your shins? Really find that length in this Arna uttanasana? And exhale hands can come to blocks or the mat step back. These up or down come into a chukaranga all the way to the floor. Extend your feet, really pressing through the tops of the feet, inhale reach up, lifting into a backbend, bhujangasana.

And exhale, maybe you come down again. We're gonna add one exploration again, and that's lifting up one more time. And, x, I'll come down. Autumnuka Shwinas and a downward facing dog. Again, work with whatever you find today.

So no need to do the most. Feel free to bend your knees, noticing some feel. One of the things that can be really interesting as we're getting older and going through perimenopause and menopause's joints can start to feel really kind of achy. So notice that, and also any freedom. Alright. Take as many or as few steps as you'd like to come into your forward fold.

So we'll go ahead and use the block sound, turn out to the wide edge of the mat, bring the blocks right behind your heels. What I love about the shapes that we're about to go into is we've probably been in these shapes before. So what can be new to finding them in your today body? Come into your vera badrasana two or your warrior two, turning out from the the right hip right knee bends a lot open across the chest. I'm really finding this opening along all the way from one set of fingers to the other set of fingers. How big can you get?

Let's explore leaning in and leaning out of this, finding the movement within the movement, and also finding where this warrior two actually lives in your body today. Now maybe you bend your knee a little bit more or maybe you realize that's a little too much on your knees today. Take an inhale, find length and stillness And then exhale right hand down, left hand up, right hand can come to that block and left arm to the sky. Now looking through a lens of nurturance, Does it make sense to keep lengthening the arm towards the sky, or would you like to come into a half bind, or even just settle your left hand here at the hip? Does that take away from the pose? Probably not.

Half moon, step in just a bit. Place the right hand and block down and lift into the half moon. Maybe we will explore by lifting and lowering the left leg. Another way to play with this is to bend the your knee of the left leg and left and lower so that you can really find where your half moon exists today. Release War two. And come back to center, take an inhale fine line, exhale other side.

Warrior two on the left side. Remember we're out turning from deep within the left hip, been the left knee a lot or a little, and they can explore sending the torso forward and back and really finding the length, the longest expression of length between both sets of fingertips. You might notice something different in your obliques or your side body. Alright. So find where you're going, find that stillness.

And then trikonasana triangle left side, left hand down, right hand up. Do you wanna keep the right arm lifted or bring it down, wrap it around, what feels great. Find a little more length along the front of the body enabling you to take more breath in and half moon. Lara it's in Drosenas up in a bit. And again, explore first finding out how high this leg actually wants to go today, sometimes it's easier within the bent to figure that out. And then open into your half moon today. Maybe you look down, maybe you look up.

Release back into warrior two. I'll come back to center. Prazorita Pataitanasana exploration now and how open and lengthen and XL fold. Now we have plenty of opportunities to do something quite interesting here. You could bend your left knee, your right knee, explore through some lunging or come into twists.

So if you're coming into twists, bring the left hand to the center right underneath your face. Right hand goes to the hip or up to the sky. So we're just first noticing the beginning of the twist. We're not at the biggest twist we could do today. Maybe you do want to go into that big twist, so maybe you bring your left hand to your right foot and twist more.

Whatever you've chosen, come back to center. Left hand right hand comes underneath the face. Twist to the other side. Bring your left hand to your sacrum. Or the right hand to the left foot or ankle and finding a bigger twist here.

Release both hands to center. And how look, halfway lift halfway? Exhale fold. Inhale come all the way up, back into warrior two legs, and right arm and your left eagle warrior two. Now a lot of people will kind of bring the body in this kind of weird way. And there's not a lot of space that's happening with eagle arms.

So let's create space. Try shoulders down and bring your eagle arms more towards the center of the body. Take an inhale fine length and exhale fold. Oh, between both legs. Rease your arms and bring your right hand inside of the right knee, left hand by your left foot, and find a side bend again.

Release both hands, turn both feet to parallel and come all the way up. Eagle warrior two, other side. Turn out from the left hip, left arm under the right, find that spaciousness, then bring your arms towards the center of the body, inhale lift, exhale fold. Rease the left hand to the inner left thigh and the right hand next to your right foot. Side bend again.

Come back to center, inhale lift halfway. XL fold. Really enjoy breath. And the heart being lower than your hips, giving a little rust and respite to this shape. Step in and bring your knees down to the mat.

Take a moment to readjust to being seated. Take in a big, nourishing breath and exhale. Ostrasana exploration. So with Ostrasana or camel pose, we can really do so many things, maybe with blocks, maybe without. Tuck toes, if you'd like, and see how that fills for your body today.

Maybe it gives you a little something new. Lift your hips away from your heels. And he'll reach up on the left side, and the right hand comes to your left, your right heel. Release, left hand comes to the left heel, reach up right. Release.

Both hands can come to your sacrum as you open into camel or strawsana or to your heels. Feel free to untuck your toes. And release. Take a moment to sit on your heels and breathe again. And do a quick check-in and just notice how you're feeling in this moment after all of the standing that we've been doing.

Come into seated on your left hip. You can bring your legs to a ninety ninety or even a little bit less than that. Taking inhale find length along the front of the body and exhale twist over the left side. And I'll go over to the other side. And how LinkedIn excelled to us.

Come back to center. Straighten out both legs and fold to any degree for paschimottanasana. Maybe bring your fingers to big toes. Maybe you don't. You can also use a strap here.

Soft in your knees, unfold. Let your head get heavy. We'll begin to welcome in a little more stillness, a little more rest. Shavasana, feel free to bring yourself all the way down and spread out. Or to keep your feet on the floor.

Find the expansion that's now available. And feel free to stay here for as long as you'd like. Don't forget to take time to nourish yourself. Neuro yourself always. And especially in this moment, after there's some movement, Give yourself an opportunity to really lean into the integration of the practice. Thank you so much for moving through this flow with me, Tamika Caston-Miller, and it is my goal to leave you better than I found you.

I hope that happened for you today. Shanti shanty shanty. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace.