It was said that grief changes our world by adding a hue of grey to our lens in which we perceive reality.

Though I would argue that grief has wiped the various layers of hues off of the life I thought I should be living. It has made the impossible possible. Turned chaos into clarity. Rage into forgiveness. Wonton living into conscious grit to move beyond my own limited narrative.

Grief has allowed me to see through old storylines about my relationships with my family, my work, money, my sexuality and my self worth.

2 years ago I came back to Singapore so I could mourn.

And in this time I’ve come to understand the man that he was, is more than I’ve ever known before.

In ways that words cannot express, he’s never left. He’s very much alive, embodied in my cellular imprint – in his strife, his pain, his broken dreams… but also in his optimism, his earnestness towards life, his resilience, his porousness to emotions, his unbridled joyfulness and unconditional presence to people around him.

So Happy 75th Birthday Papa! In so many ways we are still creating memories with you and sharing our love. Your legacy lives on in the work we do for each other in the family, and in how we want to show up each day to the world. May you rest in this knowing ❤️

The post May 3rd, 2022 appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

Join me in this upcoming somatic workshop series for a nervous system reset, as well as to reconnect with self and others through creative embodiment practices.

Somatic movement therapy is an accessible practice for anyone looking for a meaningful reset to the body-mind. Tap into the wisdom of the body through gentle guided movements, visualisations and breath work to hone your sensory awareness. Journey into a parasympathetic state of intuition, deep rest and connection.

Each session in this series of 2 will begin with a movement practice to tune into our deeper awareness and subconscious. As we learn to listen to our being at a cellular level, our nervous system moves into homeostasis to restore health, as well as create space for openness and curiosity. We can harness the power of deep listening to take stock of who and where we are, what we want to let go and nurture – through the simple practice of journaling and dialoguing.

This series of 2 can be taken in tandem or individually.

~ Details ~
Saturday March 5 & 12
2.30 – 4.30pm
Yoga In Common Singapore
$45 per class or $80 for both
Studio pass holders may pay 2 classes per session

Click link in bio to register.

The post Nurture & Nourish Embodiment Workshop appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

Many people come to me to “fix” their pain.

But I often lay my cards bare that I’m not a “fixer”.

Nor am I a “healer” who’s going to make everything bad go away.

Our body / brain holds a treasure trove of information for us to access.

Our nervous system has been conditioned to always scan for danger.

Pain can make us feel our world feel contracted, stuck.

Pain can often consume us, and make us feel alone.

Quick fixes are tempting but they are often not sustainable.

In the somatic work I do, and in my own pain journey, I learn that there is a way to move out of pain into healing.

When we are able to perceive change, we know that pain, like everything else in life, is always morphing and changing.

When we can hone our sensory awareness to allow room for nuances, our brain can reorganise and relearn and build new pathways.

We are dynamic organisms constantly interacting and relating to both our inner and outer environment, and integral part in the web of life.

Our cellular intelligence recognises this.

When we make room for change to be perceived, healing can happen.

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on January 18th 2021.

The post A Short Piece On Pain appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

Lucie is taking a little hiatus…

When Lucie told me early this year that she is venturing into the decluttering profession, unlike most who know her, I wasn’t at all surprised at this career choice she has chosen.
In working with her the last 3 years from teacher-student to movement collaborators, Lucie is always able to demonstrate her presence in understanding the nuanced concepts in movement, and also in the creative ways she’s able to apply them in real life.

We share a common deep love affair in the work of somatics and embodiment which goes above and beyond just being healthy and fit.
It calls upon us to do our inner shadow work so we ca clean out the cobwebs of our somatic imprints through relational inquiries.

There is no demarcation between body and mind. The body is the mind. The mind is the body.
The body is the canvas upon which our experiences are wonderfully written with movement as its language. Within the microcosm of the body we inhabit in – a universe of fluids, cells, organs, breath – belies a magic we can lean into, a harmonious balance of space, gravity, support and surrender.

As a movement teacher and body therapist, our work parallels each other’s. What I do is to guide and hold sacred space for these storylines to be organised, to be told, to be released or reframed. Through this co-creation, I help my clients uncover their authenticity for expression and agency to live more fully.

Keep in touch with Lucie at Your Space as she embarks on her adventure too in the alignment of inner and outer spaces.

How does your home reflect your inner state of being?
It goes beyond just inquiring #doesthissparkjoy.

Till soon Lucie! ​

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on July 29th 2020

The post Space Within. Space Without appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

In our quest to move up the evolutionary ladder, we expose our vulnerability to the world through the front body, which contains our soft and vital organs. The front body also forms a big part of our #selfimage (refer to our previous post on this topic) of how we see ourselves and how we want others to see us. Therefore, our nervous system is wired to “think” and “predict” danger to preserve our survival. This sense of vigilance can literally move us away from our anchor and grounding.

When the world we live becomes too much for our nervous system to handle – too much stress, too much uncertainty, too much stimulus, too much grief, can we take this as a signal to retreat, to withdraw, to exhale?

The flexion state takes us back into our embryological being – a time in which we are nestled and suspended in the warm fluids of our mother’s womb, a state where cells divides and organise, a state of balance and homeostasis, in which the order of nature grants us nourishment and protection.
If you’re experiencing physical symptoms like migraine, neck and shoulder tension, back ache, shortness of breath, excessive gas, acid reflux, or even sleep disorder, your body is sending an invitation to marinate yourself in this restorative state.

Check out this video as Lucie explains her experience and a little demo to retract the front line and open up the back line of the body.

Allow your organs to soften and drape over the support of your cushions, bringing breath into the back body and releasing the adrenals from its state of vigilance to one of yielding. 

​Welcome home.

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on June 7th 2020

The post Flexion state & the nervous system appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

Heart opening poses are a consistent “obsession” for yoga practitioners. Deep contortionistic backbends are pursued like trophies – a trademark of the accomplished yogi.

Backbends or spinal extensions are often mythicised as “Heart-Opening”, since it creates an expansion in the front of the body, particularly in the chest / thorax where the vital organs of the heart and lungs are situated. Spinal extension poses are thought to create lung capacity and invigorate the body-mind. Since these poses also stretch into the front of the belly, it can serve as a reprieve from those who live a sedentary lifestyle of hunching over devices, sinking into couches, with the spine constantly being in flexion.

The energetic benefits of heart openers also include stimulating our life force, instigating our capacity to love unconditionally, and helping us find courage to face challenges.

All these are well and good. The spanner in the works almost always lies in the HOW and not the WHAT. Generally, yoga backbends are done with the alignment cue to draw the shoulder blades back and down (retraction, adduction, internal rotation of the scapulas) in order to create maximum spinal extension. However, the structure of the thoracic spine (with a rib bone extending out of each vertebra forming a “cage”), is the “stiffest” part of the entire spine, and naturally shaped into a flexion or a kyphosis.

Culturally, we are told since young to pull our shoulders back, stick our chest out, and not to hunch our back! We have been so conditioned to contract our back body in order to push our sternum forward, that we might have forgotten that Mother Nature equipped us with a concave “cage” so we can house and protect our vital organs!

The study of the organs system in Body Mind Centering led us to reconsider this whole paradigm. According to its founder, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, our heart is cradled by each half of our lungs. The trio creates an ecosystem of oxygen and CO2 exchange that feeds life force into our cellular matrix, much like the dynamic macrocosm of our external environment.

The pulmonary system responsible for this exchange is actually located in the back of the anatomical heart, snuggled in the space in between to touch the front of the lungs. It is interesting to note that the lower lobes of each side of the lungs form most of the back of the ribs, where as the top lobes are under the upper trapezius.

When we overextend the thoracic spine by squeezing into the traps and leveraging onto our scapulas to push the “heart” forward, we are actually squashing the lungs and the heart, not exactly “opening” them at all! This can over stimulate our nervous system, as well as create strain in our spine and destabilise the balanced curvature of our spine.

The next time you attempt a backbend, can you reach into the spaciousness of the back body, and let the heart rest in the space embraced by the lungs, supported by the circulation of the blood exchange in the pulmonary vessels.

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on May 14th 2020

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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.
​
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.

An alchemy of life and sentience
A secret volition
lays beneath perception

Organic but inexplicable
Of divisions and multiplications
Of cellular intelligence and divine technology

Elemental compositions
Quietly nestling
in the womb of my Ma

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on October 26th 2019

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Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk Psoas with an orthopedic surgeon in Europe who reached out to me about this mysterious tissue. When I told him I thought psoas was a messenger he said “of course psoas is a messenger from guts… ovaries.. kidney… brain circulation.. because of connections with the parasympathetic.. it also receives messages..when its degenerative or atrophied it consequently distends nerves that pass through the psoas… n. iliohipogastricus.. ilioinguinalis… genitofemoralic.. cutaneus fem lat.. n.femoralis..n.obduratorius
.. it has an influence on the circulation of gut and enlargement of its wall – what directly involves neuroendocrine cells for the production serotonin in the gut…”
This surgeon confirms what I have spoken about for 43 years…that psoas can become “dry” (exhausted) and shrink (atrophy) when it has substituted or been used to over-stabilize the core. Stretching does not create healthy psoas whereas hydrating through micro-movements and increasing the bio-intelligence of the proprioceptive system, especially found within the bones…does allow psoas to flourish. He sent me…a little gift in appreciation…not what I find exciting but thought you might…

Some of my additional notes for anatomy nerds on hydrating the psoas
Gentle rocking and rolling through spiralling movements across the 3 planes of the body embodying the psoas as a core initiator, organised around the midline or notochord from an embryological perspective, in which the psoas is a bio-morphical development from the midline, out of the mesochyme material from the mesodermal (middle) layer of the embryonic tri-laminar disc.
Movements include those that involve –

• the saggital plane integrating the axial to appendicular, i.e L & R sides of body in which each psoas is an extension out of the midline rather than just attachments to the spine and femur;
• the coronal plane integrating the front and back (spine on the back body to front of groin – lesser trochanter); and 
• the transverse plane – trunk and lower limbs) in which full body locomotion is driven through the spinal engine

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

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