There is so much jargon on ‘correctness’ of our postures and alignment in the modern yoga world, where we should place our hands and feet and rotate shoulders and turn pelvis and engage our core to somehow conform to a set of universal rules to make our yoga body Instagram-worthy, or to fulfil some teacher’s perception of what is ‘right’.

But as I delved deeper into understanding my own body, making sense of habits and patterns intrinsic to my genetic make-up, lifestyle and conditioning, I’ve discovered a whole new terrain in uncovering movement patterns that are simply unique blueprints of our being, honouring who we are as individuals, and melding into the universal sentience that is already within our innate consciousness.

As a movement teacher and therapist, I wish to facilitate, encourage, allow, and most importantly, not obstruct the flow of deep, self-manifested movement patterns to rise up from within, creating the space for inquiry, for practitioners to re-discover their own strength, balance and healing – Our moment-to-moment perfect existence, a.k.a. alignment.

“To unleash our life force, maybe even change our course, we can choose to consciously turn towards the brilliance of intelligent life. Unguided, self-movement (which is not directed by anyone) bubbling up from deep within is elemental for becoming integral. Valuing how intrinsic this self-movement is for supporting our quality of life, we can look no further than the river. Like the river, we too are part of a larger earth and cosmic life force. We are not inanimate (body objects) lacking perception and volition. We cannot achieve good posture by simply correcting, stabilizing, or objectifying. Rather being human, we must become flowing expressions, animated by the movement of the inner sea, the underground springs, and the outer planets…fluid, dynamic, ever changing, a life force… if you will.”

~ Liz Koch on Core Awareness

The post We are all unique appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

4 years have passed since you stepped into the light.

The waves of grief no longer carry the weight of a Tsunami,
Sometimes it’s still stormy and sobering
Sometimes it’s a gentle reminder of ebb and flow, of change, of being alive.

4 years can feel like 40 years, or 4 months, or 4 days, or 4 seconds
Somedays I still feel the warmth of your embrace, the tickle of your laughter, the purity of your love
Somedays I still feel your pain, your longings, your strife and your despair, of not being heard, witnessed, understood.

4 years since you closed your eyes and we closed the door
4 years of trying to make sense of who was the one bidding farewell
4 years of walking amidst the shadows of my monsters, of not being able to say I love you once more.

4 years but the time has never been gone
Your hand is always holding mine
As you gently whisper…

Let there be no darkness in your heart.

#griefandexpansion

The post Dear Papa appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

Join me in this upcoming somatic movement & creative embodiment event for a nervous system reset. The half day retreat is a chance for you to rest your nervous system, and to reconnect with self and others through deep inquiry 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.

This day retreat will allow us 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.

Come alongside me in this day retreat for intelligent movement, mindful rest and a nervous system tune-up. This is a day retreat that is for anyone and everyone who has felt tired, fatigued and in need of a mood boost and nervous system reset.

This deeply nurturing retreat also includes yummy delights and sunset refreshments shared over joyful mingle 🥰🍹

~ Details ~

Sunday, September 18th 2022
2pm – 7pm
$250 (Early bird, usual price $280)

Registration & Inquiries ~ hello@trapezerec.club or text us at 9296 4927

Looking forward to meet all of you ❤️

*Note that minimum number of participants is required for this event.

#nervousystem #polyvagaltheory #homeostasis #mindbody #yogawithdaphne #somatictherapy #somatictherapyasia #somaticswithdaphne #somaticyoga #somaticssg #somaticssingapore #yogaretreat #yogasingapore #nurtureyourself #somatictherapy #somaticmovement #yogatherapy #yogatherapyretreat #heal #nervoussystemhealth #wellbeing #yogaandsomatics #wellnessretreatsingapore #wellnessjourney #wellnessthatworks #retreat

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

The post How far can you reach into yourself? appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on March 5th 2021.

The post Brain Hack appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

The post Sweets with Mum appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

Therapists are often perceived as the “fixers” of problems. We are often expected to be strong, resilient, exude unbridled health and vitality.

Any decent therapist will tell you that we need to do our inner clearing and resourcing, so that we can hold space and support our client through their pain and trauma.

In times like this where we are drawn into our own drama of fear and insecurities, and the collective trauma of the world’s chaos and sufferings, I would like to offer a little reflection for therapists that has nothing to do with how to set up online streaming and Zoom videos, but to take a pause on acknowledging our own state of affairs.

As therapists, healers, lightworkers, we are now under immense pressure to clean up our own act, keep up an image of positivity, bliss, strength… even as uncertainties and trepidations show up ever more starkly in our consciousness, even as cities go into lockdowns, even as our anchors, routines and security blankets get disrupted and ripped apart to reveal our flawed human-ness and vulnerability…

So –
Can we still show up and be good if we are NOT good?
Can we comfort and support others if our own grounds are shaky?
Can we heal others when we realised how broken we are?
Can we choose love instead of fear when our hearts are now shattered – from losing our jobs or our income, from loss of social support systems, from being separated with loved ones, from grieving the loss of human lives….?

How do we show up and be present to love – without pushing away our pain, without pretending that we are okay, without faking till we make it?

Can we see sorrow as the other side of pain, love as the other side of fear, chaos as the other side of order?
~~~~
The next time you walk into the therapy room, I invite you to lean into the other side of your suffering, and meet the other person nervous system to nervous system, from one flawed human being to another.
​
Meet in the heart space of truth and belonging.

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on March 24th 2020

The post Are you a therapist? appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

The post The case of Yoga & Therapy appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.

It was played up dramatically across the media, and triggered a lot of fear mongering as to whether Yoga (as a physical practice) is indeed as beneficial as it purports to be.

Yoga is an ancient practice on a mind-body connection. However, what seemed to hold true in contemporary postural yoga is the emphasis on the end game. 

1. In a group class format, students are instructed based on pre-conceived notions of shapes or aesthetics, i.e what a pose should look like in mimicry of the form. In social media, we scroll through contortions performed by hypermobile yogis hailed as an advanced practice.

2. There is so much speak in terms of alignment principles and how to get into poses successfully. These supposed universal principles sees the body as standard human architecture of parts that fit together.

3. In an attainment-focused, you-snooze-you-loose society, we are consumed by the notion of Mind over Matter, of what we’ve got to show to the world. It’s about pushing harder in everything we do, from our career to the exercise regimes we choose. It’s about 5-steps programs and quick-fixes and how to lose weight in a month. We want everything packaged and delivered.

In the trainings I facilitate, I often go on ad nauseam on this line – It’s not about WHAT we do, it’s about HOW we do it. It is not about placing your feet here and turning your head there, and voila, you’re in a yoga pose programmed for bliss. It’s not about getting deeper into a backbend so your heart can be wide open. And it’s definitely not about the teacher coming in to push you into what is considered as the correct expression of an asana to add compensatory patterns upon compensatory patterns.

It’s about what happens as we’re moving from point A to point B, it’s the moment-to-moment attention our mind affords the body during the transition. It’s about noticing what we are holding on to, or what we have disassociated with. It’s observing what is happening to the breath, what runs through the mind? And once we arrive in the pose, it’s the continuity of how each moment is unfolding, what is the body informing us? What do we sacrifice in order to persist? How many other possible ways can we explore?

Rene Descartes’ famous theology of I think, therefore I am,  led us into believing that our body and mind are separate experiences that are relational only in the ways that the latter reigns supreme. This body and mind duality leads to a conundrum of us thinking that we need to outdo our body in order to attain what our mind tells us to. And our body does abide, it finds creative ways to work around limitations such as fatigue, stress, anxiety, until it can no longer….

Moshe Feldenkrais said, “You can’t do what you want until you know what you’re doing. Once you know what you’re doing, then you can do what you want.” It is often easier to do what someone tells us to do than to actually notice what we’re doing.

To self-inquire is arduous and dangerous, as it often defies dogmas. It requires us to let go of old beliefs, step outside the comforting realm of familiarity. But what it will unleash is the courage to be true to our authenticity, a reimagination of perspectives, unearthing a wisdom through learning how to listen to a deeper and more subtle consciousness . 

It’s not about What you do, but How you do it. Someone once told me this is a heavily-loaded statement. And indeed it is. It puts us in a volatile position of not knowing, of beginner’s mind, of not trusting our fabricated storylines that are rooted in fear. It requires us to actually have to slow down enough to glimpse into the spaces in between. But it brings us to a whole new level of a grounded, embodied intelligence that gives us back the power to make choices, the right to BE who we really are. 

Embodiment is a somatic experience, an exploration into the deconstructing the phenomenons that have been recorded in our nervous system, conditioned by expectations and ego.
It is the ability to move into an empathic path of coming into relationships with self and others, a relearning of choices, a bridging of the body and the mind. 

If you’re interested in exploring this work, join me on the next Embodiment & Bodywork Immersion this July. 

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on March 29th 2019

The post It’s not about WHAT you do… appeared first on Somatic Therapy Asia.