A simple approach to finding a neutral pelvis is to experiment with the anterior and posterior tilting of the pelvis in relationship to the bony landmarks to find the place in the centre.

These landmarks are incredibly useful in bringing awareness to a vital and yet vulnerable part of the body that we often ignore. Even though we spend so much time sitting on our bum, what we do with our pelvis and pelvic floor are often only brought to our attention when we are experiencing pain or discomfort.

From the bony landmarks, we can begin to explore the intrinsic movement of breath within the inner body, in particular the relationship between the ribcage and the pelvis.

Our respiratory diaphragm sits just beneath the ribs. The heart and lungs rest above the respiratory diaphragm, and our internal organs are below this diaphragm. On the other hand (end), the pelvic floor (also a diaphragm) supports the weight of our internal organs, in addition to sexual and elimination functions.

The respiratory diaphragm and the pelvic diaphragm is actually one continuous integrated “being” that modulates our life force! Their ability to move in resonance with each other is important in the healthy and intricate functioning of all our biological processes, such as oxygenation, circulation, motility of organs, digestive and reproductive processes etc.

Creating an embodied awareness on the symbiotic relationship of the intrinsic rhythm of our breath pulsating through the different diaphragms will not only create optimal alignment and ease in the way we move, sit, stand, walk, but also help regulate our nervous system, return us back to health, and cultivate a sense of grounding and safety.

The post The neutral pelvis as an embodiment PROCESS, rather than just a shape or a form appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

Exploring the tensegrity structure of our body’s myofascial system;

Exploring moving from the midline and the fluid spine;

Working with partners in exploring symbiotic relationship between motoring and sensing through our nervous system

This course delves deep into experential learning and embodiment through exploring the body-mind connection in physiology, processes, and self-inquiry.

Stay tuned for more updates on the upcoming training dates!

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We concluded the Somatic Applications in Polyvagal Theory training course 2 weeks ago @yicsingapore. An amazing 6 days of self-inquiry, somatic explorations, connecting with play and heartfelt exchanges. We learn how to track our nervous system through honing our sensory awareness, and also our ability to observe state shifts. Through experiential anatomy and the understanding of our physiology, we come into embodiment with our embody our relationships to self, to other, to our community, to our inner being and outer environment.

I’ve been facilitating this particular course for several runs now since my return to Singapore. And every intake brings its own unique tinge. Each time my mind is blown by the curiosity, presence, and openness of the participants.

I feel deeply privileged to be able to guide this work, and immensely grateful to have crossed paths with 11 brilliant minds and beautiful souls in this run!

May the seeds planted during the course sprout, and blossom in divine time 🌱

#nervousystem #polyvagaltheory #homeostasis #mindbody #yogawithdaphne #somatictherapy #somatictherapyasia #somaticswithdaphne #somaticyoga #somaticssg #somaticssingapore #yogasg #sgyogis #resilience #yogatherapist #yogatherapy #neuroplasticity #nervoussystemreset #sgbodywork #somaticbodywork #somatictherapytraining #yogatherapy #yogattc #therapeuticyoga

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I’ve been facilitating this particular course for several runs now since my return to Singapore. And every intake brings its own unique tinge. Each time my mind is blown by the curiosity, presence, and openness of the participants.

I feel deeply privileged to be able to guide this work, and immensely grateful to have crossed paths with 11 brilliant minds and beautiful souls in this run!

May the seeds planted during the course sprout, and blossom in divine time 🌱

#nervousystem #polyvagaltheory #homeostasis #mindbody #yogawithdaphne #somatictherapy #somatictherapyasia #somaticswithdaphne #somaticyoga #somaticssg #somaticssingapore #yogasg #sgyogis #resilience #yogatherapist #yogatherapy #neuroplasticity #nervoussystemreset #sgbodywork #somaticbodywork #somatictherapytraining #yogatherapy #yogattc #therapeuticyoga

The post Post TTC Thoughts appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

I’m more than delighted to be facilitating an embodied anatomy workshop: Somatic Experiences & Embodiment in Dance & Movement at the upcoming 12.ance Festival in collaboration with @sigmacontemporarydance

This workshop will be happening on 4 December, Sunday @sigmacontemporarydance , 1.30pm – 4pm ☺️

All are welcome to join this workshop, regardless of whether you have a dance background or not.

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Somatic Experiences & Embodiment in Dance & Movement:

Movement is more than just mindless motion.

When we are awake and attentive, movement is our way of connecting to the world within and around us. When we move with awareness, we are open to the most naunced of sensations that can guide us with more alignment and grace. Intelligent movement leads to the integration of body, mind and spirit, so that dancing can become a sustainable and functional art form.

Inspired by the work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, founder of Body Mind Centering, @yogadaphne will facilitate an embodied anatomy workshop, exploring the innate patterns of movement to uncover the body as an integrated system.

Somatic principles And Embodiment in Dance and Movement
By Daphne Chua (All levels)
4 Dec, Sun / 1.30 – 4pm
@sigmacospace

Whether you have prior dance background or none at all, you are welcome to join this workshop.

More details:
http://sigmadance.co/12ance

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Daphne helps people of all ages rehabilitate injuries, regain neuromotor functions, manage chronic pain, and work through trauma. She also creates holistic therapeutic trainings and mentorship programs for individuals, movement teachers, fitness instructors, healthcare and coporate professionals.

She applies principles of kinesiology, embodied anatomy & physiology through somatics, evidence-based research on the nervous system, trauma physiology, as well as traditional yoga philosophy into her work.

#12ancefestivalsg #12ance2022 #sgdanceartists #dancers #dancesg #dance #contemporarydance #dancefestival #danceclasses #somaticpractice #embodiment #movementpractice #inthespiritofdance #nervousystem #homeostasis #mindbody #yogawithdaphne #somatictherapy #somaticssg #contactimprov

The post @12.ance : A Collaboration appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

Props required:

• 1 yoga mat
• 1 blanket (optional)
• 1 soft squishy ball / roller (optional)

The post Nervous System Workshop 2/2 appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

In the first out of two workshops on the nervous system, we bring our focus back to the pelvis. The pelvic diaphragm works with the respiratory diaphragm to contain and support healthy functioning of all of our organs in the body, particularly in the areas of digestion, elimination, and sexual function. The vagus nerve – which is instrumental to restoring balance to our body and nervous system – passes through all these organs. Through the afferent nerve network of the Vagus nerve, information from the body travels back to the brain. By bringing awareness to the pelvis through interoceptive movement and proprioception, we allow the nervous system to respond with a baseline of the parasympathetic tone of safety and spaciousness. This in turn resets our gut motility and opens up the breath to regulate our nervous system.

The workshop begins with pelvic clock exercises, followed by movement explorations that create activation from a sense of grounding, specifically movement sequences that radiate bi-directionally from the pelvis through the transverse plane – lower half to upper half of our body to the lungs, heart and head. We also engage in movement explorations from the feet too, as well as play with balance and sound.

Props required:

• 1 yoga mat
• 1 blanket
• 1 strap (or scarf/belt)
• 1 soft squishy ball (or 1 pair of socks)

The post Nervous System Workshop 1/2 appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

Life is Non-Linear. To be relational to our environment and sustainable in mind-body, we train our reflexes to respond rather than react. Non-linear, multi-planar, 3-D spiralling movement emulate the complexity of life and trains our nervous system to regulate – safety in the body.

Movement begins at the moment of conception. The moment in which individual existence becomes relational. Space, fluids, and the inexplicable order of nature that propel cells to differentiate, multiply, organise…

Our vestibular system begins in utero, orientating us to within the three-dimensional womb space, connecting us from our intrinsic being into the mystical otherness. Form arises through movement. Birth’s ignition thrusts us from the safe cradle of fluids into air and gravity, into self-sufficiency and cognitive volition.

From then on, the pathways in civilised life conditioned us in a reality stipulated by polarities – right or wrong, good or bad, success and failure.

Our cognitive frontal lobe drives the speed engine of societies. We are taught to always think before we act. Sensing and feeling belong to the frivolous. Our linear mind drives our body to function in two-dimensions, i.e means to an end. Our goal-driven ego is always looking for results and achievements. We move through life chasing ever greater highs. From substances to social media to Netflix, we have forgotten the nuances in the spaces of stillness and being.

The study of somatics calls upon us to take a break from constantly swimming upstream, to let go of the belief that no pain = no gain, to surrender into the frivolity of sensing and feeling into our three dimensional body that’s still 66 percent fluids.

Can we become curious again during this time of introspection? To come back into our relational being that is kept atop Planet Earth, to remember our multi-dimensional existence that has traversed space and time to come into form.

The connective tissue within our body – an embryological matrix that becomes our blood, lymph, cellular membranes, nerve wrappings, muscles, tendons, ligaments, synovial fluids… FASCIA! They love being moved in novel ways, through different planes, into different shapes. Our nervous system needs this multi-planar movement to stay flexible so it can differentiate and self regulate. Our immune system needs consistent fluid flow to flush out toxins, our musculo-skeletal system needs to be nourished and hydrated to ensure we get through old age without too many fractures.
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We spend so much time in front of a screen, especially in these strange times of self-isolation. I invite you to step away from your 2 dimensional blue light reality and step inside your 3 dimensional body – wiggle, roll, shake, jump, dance, play! Forget alignment, forget what you’re supposed to look like, and just MOVE!

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on June 5th 2020

The post Variability of movement appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

Being hyper-mobile, yoga asanas came easily to me as a practitioner. When I was a new teacher, I’d be teaching 18 classes a week and demonstrating everyone of them on my dominant right side, and doing physical assists on the other.

Then I got very involved in “universal principles of alignment” that’d prescribed systematic methodology of getting into poses, working into end range, and accomplishing peak poses for a recognition of my practice, not forgetting the photo ops.

When I got into my 40’s my right hip started clicking, my thoracic spine lost its kyphosis, my head feels to heavy for my neck and shoulders, my SI joint felt wonky and sore at times, and I’m always in a state of feeling like I’d jump out of my skin UNLESS I’m bending myself into deeper stretches.
Something wasn’t right. If Yoga is the path to freedom and bliss, my body felt shackled to the ball and chain of a yoga mat.

I got into somatics first through the wonderful Feldenkrais classes with Tara Eden in Chiang Mai. Subsequently I dived into Body Mind Centering’s embodiment work of non linear movement and understanding of the nervous system in psychosomatic relationships, learning to listen to the body through sensory awareness into different biological systems, to re-learn and repattern very conditioned ways of inhabiting our body, through self inquiry, using the body as a baseline.

Now I can walk, run, sit, hike… do the functional stuff normal humans do for extended periods – pain free and with presence. My movement repertoire consist of a mix of different activities in addition to mat yoga – swimming, rock climbing, dance, resistance work – so my body’s neural mapping gets wired in a variety of possibilities. I’ve also been working with yoga practitioners and teachers on preventing / rehabilitating repetitive injuries through therapeutic bodywork, yoga therapy which addresses the person through the different layers, and somatic movement education – learning so much about the body-mind as an integrated whole.
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I really hope more yoga people are waking up to the message in this article, so we can create a much more sustainable, enriching and mindful dialogue to this ancient tradition. As Richard Freeman says in the first line of Yoga Matrix, “Yoga begins with listening.”

#ahimsa #satya #aparigraha 

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on November 10th 2019

The post Yoga Teaching & Injuries appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on July 1st 2019

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I enjoy exploring non-linear movement using a prop to change things up for sensory feedback. This is a short clip where I’m using a weighted ball (about 1kg) to add load and resistance. It helps me to track movement into the scapular, rib cage and spine. The spirals of my bones help to recruit the elasticity of the myofascial chains. Allowing for information from the distal to inform the proximal body in initiating movement.

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on February 20th 2019

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