👻🕷️Halloween Somatic Yoga Class!🎃

🎃🕷️Happy Halloween friends!!🕷️👻

I always love when Hallow's Eve creeps up in October, such a fun time of year! The fall leaves near me have been SO VIBRANT with electric hues of crimson, gold, amber, and orange! My drives have been so amazing! I had so much fun preparing our Halloween Somatic class this year! Just days before, I fell into a deep dive of origin stories and history of our modern traditions, and wrote up a huge blog post about where Halloween began, and the origins of pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating, haunted houses, candy corn, and more! Read up here if you want to nerd out like I did! 

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HALLOWEEN ORIGIN STORIES!

 

 

 🎃And, onto the fun! We began on our backs, and opened the legs and arms, outstretched to take up space like a huge spiderweb! Our playlist began with wolves howling, as we melted into the earth. "When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers, Tis near Halloween!" Over 2000 years ago, the Celts in Ireland, Scotland, UK and northern France lit bonfires and gathered together to welcome in the darker half of the year, and celebrate the harvest with singing, dancing, and storytelling! This was Samhain (Sow-win), All Hallow's Eve, and eventually Halloween! It was believed that the veil or barrier between our earthly world and spiritual world was thinner on this day, October 31, and celebrations brought communities together to share ancestors' stories, and connect the past and present during these bonfire nights! 

 

 

 

🕷️I thought finding a Halloween quote to tie into a yoga class would be nearly impossible, but I found one!

🎃”Halloween reminds us that some of us may choose to wear a mask, while others finally feel safe to take theirs off." Yoga is the shedding of layers, the removal of armor, and the letting go everything heavy and burdensome that we no longer need! The removal of masks, so that we may come home to our truest selves!

 

 

 

 👻We allowed the head and the shoulders to become heavy, and melt into the earth. Each vertebrae began to ground down, one at a time, to the hips and they became heavy. The arms and legs soften. During this airy, light, breezy season, it's important to ground, so we don't get swept away! We brought one hand to the belly, one to the heart, connecting to our heartbeat, and to our breath. Our pranayama was a Candle breath, deeply inhaling through the nose, from the toes all the way up into the belly, filling it up, expanding, taking up space, pausing at the top of that breath, curl the lips into a circle, and slowly exhaling through the mouth, as if we are slowly blowing out a candle. We repeated this two more times, the inhale lengthening to the chest, filling the lungs, expanding the ribs, and thirdly to the crown! Each time, the exhale becoming slower and longer each time, calming the nervous system. We became present in the body and the space we're in, and allowed all of our past stresses to be cast into the fire to be taken away from us,  and transformed into something new, something for our greater good. Our future schedules and to-do lists floated away, into the breeze, no longer needed. Nothing to do, nowhere else to be but right here in this moment for ourselves.

 

 

🎃We moved through a scan of the 5 senses: We noticed what we see around us, or beyond the lids if the eyes are closed, finding peace in the darkness. We traveled to smell, noticing what we smell around us, maybe food cooking nearby, fresh laundry drying, coffee brewing, maybe a scent in the room. I sprayed Frankincense and Orange above everyone in the studio. We scanned to our hearing, noticing birds song outside, maybe traffic, the hum of the furnace providing heat, pinpointing an instrument playing in the music in studio, and on to our taste, noticing the last thing we may have eaten, or a sip of cup of tea or coffee. Lastly, we noticed our sense of touch, what we feel against the skin, the warmth of the air or sun, maybe a cool breeze, the cotton of our clothes, the stickiness of our mat underneath us, supporting us, holding us, bringing us back home to ourselves.

 

 

 

🕸️🕷️We lengthened long with an inhale, hands reaching overhead, toes reaching forward, exhaled knees to chest for a hug, rocking side to side massaging the lumbar spine. We moved into a Crescent Moon, hands and feet extending to the upper and lower corners of our mat, shoulders and hips melting to the earth. The moon, our yin, slow, feminine energy, honoring the light in the dark nights sky. We honored the left side, came through center, and found supine twists on the right and left. We came into our bridge pose, lifting the hips, chest toward the chin, this pathway between the earthly and spirit world. We rock and rolled along the spine to the top of our mat, moving toward a comfortable seat. We anchored the sit bones, spine lengthened to the crown, crown to the sky, and crossed the legs or found a half or full lotus, and closed the eyes, with our hands resting on the knees. We brought the hands into prayer at the chest, and with the inhale opened the arms out into cactus arms, today it's our Bat Wings, exhaled as we curled in, arching the back, dripping the chin toward the chest, cradling the head as the forearms meet. We repeated this 2 more times filling the lungs with prana energy!

 

👻We brought the palms together, rubbed them together to create some heat, some healing energy, and cupped the hands to the eyes, sending healing energy to the soul. Hands floated to the crown, sending healing energy to the mind, calming the chatter. The mind can become stuck in the past, ruminating over things that have been, or travel too far forward into the future with worry, but the body is always present, so here we connect and stay present. One hand floated to the forehead, and the other to the base of the skull, sending healing energy to the mind + body, finally bringing the hands to the heart sending gratitude to the heart and lungs. We set an intention for our class, and released it, reaching the hands to the sky and to the right for a twist, peeling the right shoulder back to open the chest 5% more. We arched the right hand to the sky and toward the opposite knee to open the side body, and then brought it to the left knee, crossing the arms, arching the back and dripping the chin. We twisted to the other side, and then came through center, planted the fingers behind us, opened the chest, arching the spine into a backbend, and then into a forward fold. We unraveled the legs and melted the hips back into a child’s pose, walking the hands to the right, center, and left. We created a small bowl, a Cauldron, with our hands, filling it with our personal intentions for our practice.

 

 

 

🎃We slowly rolled the spine, arching the back, brushing the fingertips along the mat toward the knees, the chin dripping toward the chest, until our glutes met the heels, and then the spine waving long, crown reaching to the sky, the shoulders melting back, and the spine concaves, the arms extend out to the sides, and up, palms together, to the heart, and melting forward, walking the fingertips into a forward fold. We repeated this Zombie Roll in Childs pose 2 more times, delighting in this spinal awakening of the body. Our cat cow flow followed as we warmed up the spine, adding in organic movement, hips swaying side to side, or rolling forward and back into Childs pose waving back and forward into our table top. We moved to our breath, our own pace, making our cat cow our own. We melted into our forearms, tail to the sky, into our puppy pose, today our Wolf pose. We inhaled gaze and right toes to the sky, lengthening to the sky, as if we're wolves howling into the moon, exhaled nose to knee, repeating 2 more times, and then peeled the right toes to the back of our mat, floated up into the hands, to open up into our supported side plank on the left knee, peeling the right fingers to the sky, circling the wrist, opening the chest! We floated off of the left hand, crown to the sky, into our gate pose, right hand to the right leg, left hand arching overhead, and then cartwheeling the left hand then the right to the top of our mat, right knee in to the meet the left into our table, cat cow flow, and then honored the left side!

 

 

 

 🕸️🕷️We flowed through downward dog- plank waves, pranam knees chest chin, into a low cobra, and up into our downward dog. We floated to the top of our mats into a forward fold, root to rise, we slowly lifted up, one vertebrae at a time, the head the last to come through, into our Tadasana, our mountain pose. We felt the grounding energy from the earth pull at the soles of our feet from the toes to the arches to the heels, like roots of a tree pulling us into he soil, anchoring us. This energy circled around the legs, to the pelvis, the hips, around each vertebrae of the spine to the shoulders as they melt down from the ears. The crown reaching for the heavens, we are stable, rooted, and anchored. 

 

 

 

👻Our Tadasana flowed into our Crescent Moon sidebands to the right and to the left, through center, and began bending into the knees into our chair, today our Witch Riding a Broom! We hovered here, twisted our witch on a broom to the right, to the left, and through center. We grounded into the left foot, and stepped the right foot back, planted the right hand, into our Twisted Lunge, left hand peeling to the sky. The left hand came down, the right foot stepped in, and we melted into our Pyramid, hands to our blocks, softening through the hamstrings, as we melted the heart. We peeled the right hip back an inch, left hip forward, squaring the hips forward. We walked our hands around to the long right side of our mat into a Wide Leg Fold, allowing the head and shoulders to hang heavy. We Zombie Rolled up one vertebrae at a time into our 5-pointed Star, lengthening long, prana energy through the fingertips, and exhaled sinking into our Goddess, deep bend in the knees, a little dance side to side. Our palms came together, and with the inhale, opened the arms out into our Bat Wings, exhaled folding in curling the back, cradling the head, repeating 2 more times! 

 

 

🎃We then lengthened long into our 5-pt. Star, and turned the right toes toward the back of our mat, reached the arms out like wings, melting into Warrior 2. We softened the shoulders down, exhaled our Warrior, left hand down, right hand overhead, back into our Warrior 2. We straightened our right leg, hinging from the hips, reached the right hand forward, and melted the right hand down to a block, the shin, or the earth into our Triangle, our symbol of transformation and change in this Fall season, peeling the left fingers to the sky, shifting the hips an inch to the left, opening the chest, and heart. The left hand melted down, as we turned all 10 toes to the back of our mat, melting into our Pyramid, hands to our blocks, softening the hamstrings. We rocked forward and back before floated forward into our Half Moon, left leg floating and left fingers to the sky. We bent into our right knee, and softly landed the left foot to the back of our mat to extend up into our Sky Archer, right hand high. We swung our right hand down and around as we pivoted to the top of our mat into our Crescent Warrior, deep bend into our left knee. We inhaled our arms out into our Bat Wings, and exhaled bringing our hands down, right hand plants, left hand peels up into our Twisted Lunge. We stepped the left foot back into a Side Plank, today our Scarecrow Plank! We stepped the left foot forward, left hand down, into our Pyramid once more, stepped the left foot forward, sank deep into our chair, Witch Riding Her Broom, and then moved through a chaturanga flow, into downward dog, and hopped to the top into our Tadasana, and honored the left side!

 

  

 

🕸️🕷️Our somatic practice included something brand new! Somatic experiencing gave us tools to regulate our nervous system, to stimulate the vagus nerve that begins at the base of the brain and runs throughout the body touching every organ system! We agitated emotions stuck in the body, to help them release, and to serve as a reset button. We began in our Tadasana, brought the right hand to the left upper side of the chest, and extended the left arm forward, palm facing the sky. With a deep inhale, we kept the hips forward, as the left arm slowly traveled out to the left side, gaze following, to the back, paused at the back with the gaze over our left shoulder, and on the exhale slowly brought the arm back toward the top of our mat. We repeated this two more times, inhaled as the arms reached overhead, palms gathered at the heart. We brought the left arm to the right upper side of the chest, extended the right arm forward, palm facing up, and with the inhale slowly traveled the right arm out to the side as the gaze followed, to the back, and paused opening the chest. With the exhale we brought the right arm slowly back to the top of our mat, and repeated 2 more times!

 

 

👻Our somatic practice in Tadasana as we rubbed the palms together to create some healing heat, and we brought the fingertips to the crown, massaging the fingertips all over the crown and behind the ears, even the base of the Skull. We moved into the temples, massaging circles here, and then slowly around the eye sockets! We dripped the fingers to the jaw, the hinge where we open and close the jawthe perfect release for jaw clenchers like myself. We pulled down on the ear lobes, pulled the middle of the ears out to the sides, up to the top of the ears pulling toward the sky. We brought our fingertips to the base of the skull, pressing into our vagus nerve, and melted the fingertips toward the ears, along the jawline, and down the front of the neck to the collarbone. We repeated this 2 more times, releasing tightness in the throat. We tapped into the collarbone, with slow rythmic taps, all fingers in unison, into one of our acupressure points in the body. We brought this tapping to the sternum, center of the chest. We slowly tapped here, continuing as we inhaled, paused to bring the hands to the heart, stacked on top of one another, and as we exhaled we audibly hummed into our bee breath🐝! If you hold tension here in the chest, this is a nice release! We crossed the arms at the chest, and squeezed into opposite shoulders, down to the biceps and triceps, and into the forearms. We massaged circles into the palm, and firmly rolled our thumb and fingers down each finger from the base to the tip, one finger at a time to the thumbs. We brought the hands to the shoulders again for a squeeze, and swiped the hands down the arms, chest, abdomen, low back, and legs, making sure anything still tethered to the body is fully released.

🎃We came into stillness, then swayed right and left, and found stillness again, noticing the effects: we can feel cool, heat, or tingling sensations, even a spontaneous yawn! All signs of a regulated nervous system. We removed anything stuck, anything harmful & toxic still attached to the body! We stimulated the vagus nerve, the super highway of information from the brain to the body! We sent messages to the brain that the body is not under threat, it does not have to exist in a continuous active state (fight /flight/freeze mode). We helped our body to experience a larger capacity for triggers to be felt and moved through. We have the ability to help our nervous system shift fluidly between states when each are needed, the sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous systems! Both are useful and 100% needed, but we do not want to become stuck in one state for too long. These practices are so useful off the mat as we encounter stress or triggers in our daily lives! We find balance! We find freedom!