I first learned about the koru when I lived in New Zealand. Shaped like an unfurling fern frond, it’s used in Maori art to convey the idea of creation, new life, peace, harmony, and going back to the beginning. The sudden appearance of spring a couple of weeks ago, along with news of schools opening and (hopefully!), the easing of lockdown over the next few months, remind me of the koru energy of new beginnings. After the curling up, hiding away and stagnation of winter, I love this feeling of opening, expanding, reaching out and moving once more.
A somatic yoga practice can be just the thing to help with this transition. It’s an invitation to begin to gradually unfurl, just like the fern frond, in our own time, and it reminds us over and over to come back to our centre, our place of safety within. Somatic movements help to free fascia, the soft connective tissues of our body that literally hold us together, and that also hold trauma, memory and emotions. As we begin to unravel the layers of tension held in the physical body, we invite release on all layers of our being.
Standing up on two legs means our soft, vulnerable front body is constantly exposed to the world, and potentially, to danger. When we feel anxious, scared, sad, weak, vulnerable, our body naturally wants to curl up to protect us. Our brain doesn’t know the difference between a genuine life-threatening danger, such as a tiger, and the typical “dangers” of modern life: endless emails, rush hour traffic, not enough time in the day, home-schooling… Our brain responds to any kind of stress as though our life is in danger, and switches on the “protection” branch of our nervous system.
The same is true for babies and children, including those who have a disability. They can’t yet make sense of their environment, so they respond to the energy of their caregiver and those around them. Ever noticed how your kids seem to be the most unsettled, uncooperative, or need more attention than usual when you’re having, “one of those days”?! They don’t understand what’s going on and so their brain registers your behaviour, words, movements as some kind of danger, switching their nervous system into high alert mode. This is why I encourage the parents of the children I work with to practice yoga for themselves as well – not only can you feel for yourself how your child maybe experiencing the practice, but they need you to help them feel calm and safe.
This month’s yoga pause invites you to begin the process of kind, and gentle, unraveling. Starting with my favourite, constructive rest pose – lying on your back with legs bent, feet flat about hip width apart, hands resting on belly. This is a very grounding and restful position, as it brings us back into our body and helps to reconnect us with our centre; the place inside of us that registers safety. It moves us out of habitual slumping, gently opens the front body, and you’ll likely find that your breath naturally begins to lengthen as lungs and diaphragm now have space to move freely. Breathing properly is calming for the nervous system, which means immune system, sleep, digestion, growth and repair can all work properly.
We’ll have some gentle movement to free tension from hands and arms that ripples up into jaw and base of skull, and keeps the nervous system in a state of alert. Next we’ll start to move tissues around the shoulder blades and upper back, releasing physical and emotional tension that causes us to hunch our shoulders, and collapse in our chest and heart space. Notice how we open the front body and then curl back in again? How does this feel, physically and emotionally?
Forcing your body to open before it’s ready is stressful for your nervous system, and can cause physical or emotional rebound. Please move gently and kindly, noticing where you may come up against any kind of block. Your yoga practice is a time for exploration, letting go of expectation, judgement or agenda. Simply notice what may arise as you move and begin to unravel – and remember to breathe! Whenever you need to, come back to the safety of constructive rest pose, hands on your belly and tuning in to your Self.
For my Special Yoga kids, constructive rest pose is super-helpful in so many ways (I’ll explain more in another blog), so absolutely help your child to spend time here. Make sure their feet are further away from their bottom than for lifting into a bridge – in front of knees rather than underneath – so their pelvis and lower back are able to rest on the floor. This is a great position for kids who don’t feel safe or happy lying on their back with their arms and legs lengthened out. Again it comes back to taking time to unravel, and feeling safe to do so.
Bearing in mind what I explained earlier, think about moving them from sitting in their wheelchair with the sensation of support all around and across their body, to lying on the floor with the front of their body suddenly open, limbs stretched out, all of the sensory input from that support gone. Just as for adults, constructive rest allows your child to adjust to where they are now, to feel safe and grounded before they begin to move and lengthen out through their body. I usually start all my kids here, even when we’re doing Conductive Education rather than yoga, as I really do see and feel the difference in how they’re able to then use their body.
I’ve outlined the practice below, and you can also click here to watch the video. I’m always interested to hear how the practices work for you or your child, so please do let me know! You can learn more about unravelling and opening with awareness in my classes this month, as well as a “Spring Awakening” workshop that I’ll be teaching with Sophie MacDonald.
A short somatic practice to begin unravelling
Please get in touch with me before practicing if you have any injuries or concerns, or check with your own / child’s therapist or yoga teacher.
1. Constructive rest pose – legs bent, feet flat on the floor at least hip width or maybe a little more, apart. Move your feet away from your body to the place you feel pelvis drops to the floor, and you feel space around belly. Place a thin cushion or blanket under your head and make sure you have space along your throat and at the base of your skull. Rest hands on your belly and take a few moments to begin tuning in here.
Special Yoga: support your child’s legs as needed with one arm, place your other hand on their belly or chest and breathe here together.
2. Gently move around your jaw and face to release any tension you may be holding here. Breathing through your nose (unless very blocked), allow lips and teeth to gently rest apart, relaxing tongue and cheeks. Let your body sigh, yawn or reset your breath in any way that it needs.
3. Allow yourself to be still, just feeling your breath moving your body, noticing anything that might be arising.
4. Begin to slowly and gently move your / child’s fingers, hands, wrists, then arms around in any way that feels right.
5. When you’re ready, lengthen arms up in front of your chest, so hands are hanging over shoulders. Fingers, wrists, elbows soft, palms facing softly towards each other. Begin to rotate both arms from the shoulder as though screwing a lightbulb into the ceiling. Feel shoulder blades moving across your back, gently moving tension held here.
Special Yoga: holding your child’s arm above and below the elbow, gently and slowly begin to turn from shoulder. One arm at a time.
6. Return to constructive rest, hands on belly / child’s belly.
7. Come to lie on left side, legs bent about 90 degrees from hips, right hip stacked on left. Right arm rests on top of left arm, lengthened out on floor. As you inhale, begin to sweep right arm up along the floor towards head, exhale sweep it back down. Repeat a few times, gradually sweeping right arm up a little more, perhaps all the way up alongside ear if your body invites. Feel how the movement of your arm gradually begins to open the front of your body, then draws you back to curl in again. Rest on your side for a few breaths before coming to other side.
Special Yoga: this is quite a strong and complex movement so support your child to move their arm up and down only as their body allows. Don’t worry about lifting all the way level with ear, or rolling to open front body – lifting the arm stretches the muscles of side body as well, and for many children this will be more than enough stretch for them.
8. Come back to constructive rest pose for a few moments to tune in again, relax jaw, feel shoulders dropping to floor.
9. With an exhale, roll onto one side and curl into a foetal position. As you inhale, step back to constructive rest, then exhale over to foetal on the other side. Move a few more times with you breath, slowly, steadily, allowing body to organise itself, then return to constructive rest.
Special Yoga: there’s a lot to support here and it can end up not feeling quite as calming as it should! I prefer to help the child draw their knees in towards them, if they’re comfortable then place their hands on their knees, and then roll gently side to side like a little egg 🙂 Move slowly for a calming effect on nervous system. If you notice your child getting overstimulated, then make it a much smaller, slower movement, or stop and rest in the middle before coming back to constructive rest.
10. Rest in constructive rest pose. If you have time for only one thing, make it this!