Trauma INformed Yoga videos
With Lydia Zamorano
Why do this Yoga?
These yoga practices, made by Lydia Zamorano for Consilience Counselling, are both mindfulness explorations and curated movement experiences. All three videos are trauma informed sessions, the slight difference between trauma informed work and a regular yoga practice is that there is a little less emphasis on the technique in the physical postures and more emphasis on your experience of moving into and being in the forms.
The practices invite you to work on developing a relationship with yourself, increase embodied self-awareness, and refine your ability to have agency in your life by offering many choice points throughout. You will be invited to make choices that support you moment to moment so you feel you are in charge of your body. The act of decision-making, while in relationship with your body (embodiment) expands your capacity to respond to life's stressors rather than acting out unconsciously.
Each video focuses on bringing you into a preferred nervous system state and all are informed by the polyvagal theory of the autonomic nervous system. Use the Sunrise practice to up-regulate when you want to energize, find clarity and engage in cognitive work. Use the Moonrise practice to down-regulate, calm, and find deep rest to recharge. The Self Soothe practice is ideal for times when you feel out of sorts, frazzled and stressed.
Some notes:
Feel free to skip parts of the practices. For instance, you might not want to engage in the breath work if it is dysregulating for you. Make each practice your own. One of the beautiful things about home practice is that you can stop the practices when you need a break and start the practices up again when you feel more resourced.
If you are feeling overwhelmed while in practice, you may want to come out of the body and bring your attention to external anchors, such as opening your eyes, looking around the room and finding an object to focus on until you settle or listen for and focus on a sound in the room or outside, or bring your attention fully into contact with the earth, feel your feet, your sit bones, or your back body’s contact with ground.
Each person's nervous system has a unique pathway to healing. Therefore, within each practice, different outcomes are possible. The agenda is not necessarily to feel good but to notice what supports you within the experience and orient towards that. It might be helpful to debrief your experience with a safe friend or your therapist.
