Vagus Nerve Yoga Root to Rise:Expansion and Contraction

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***Waiver: I understand that I am participating in a therapeutic yoga class which includes instruction in physical movements, breath work, and natural vagus nerve stimulation. I recognize that this practice has inherent risks that include bodily injury. I understand that this class is not a substitute for medical or psychotherapeutic treatment. I hereby accept and take full responsibility for any and all risks associated with participation in this class.

Vagus Nerve Yoga: Root to Rise/Expansion and Contraction
• Trauma can disconnect us from our bodies and leave us feeling uprooted from the ground we walk upon.
• Likewise, collective traumas can lead us to feel uprooted from our land and cultural traditions…leaving us feeling ungrounded and disconnected from the body of the earth.
• From a yogic perspective, the root cause of suffering is not knowing the truth of who you are.
• Yoga is a path back to that truth of Self.
• Physically, I often find that my time on the mat gives me opportunities to work with areas of disconnection or in some cases, “dis-ease” as it shows up in my body.

Card from the Post-Traumatic Growth Deck: Expansion and Contraction
Rhythms of expansion and contraction exist within and all around you, from flowers that open and close to the phases of the moon. While part of you might feel ready to spread your wings and fly, you might also be tentative or frightened to step off the edge into the unknown. You might begin to open and then contract out of fear. With support, you can learn to trust that the roots that support your expansion are buried deep inside the tight, constricted places. Honor your rhythms of expansion and contraction. You will learn to dance joyfully in the expanse and rest peacefully in the quiet spaces.

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In Praise of Hands
by Stuart Kestenbaum

It’s not just the people
who live in the city
who’ve lost the thread
that ties them to the woven
world of stones and earth,
fields alive with pollen and wings.
Who among us understands
how oceans rise and fall,
currents swirling around the planet
with messages in bottles
floating on the water.
When the tide is out
we can go to the shore
dig clay with our bare hands
and make something beautiful from it,
a vessel with thin walls
that holds a canyon.
In both hands, like an offering,
we can hold the memory
of eroded stones and earth,
eons contained in this empty bowl.
We can fill it with water
that reflects the sky that has
witnessed everything since
time began, we can drink and be blessed,
clouds gathering over us.

Please join me in helping to reduce the harm done from the Western cultural appropriation of yogic wisdom traditions.
In aims to participate in decolonization efforts, I acknowledge the recency of yoga within the United States as compared to the rich and extensive history of these traditions in Bharat/India which date back thousands of years.

While I am not from India, yogic traditions have enriched my life since I was 7-years old when my parents brought the joy of yoga into my life. I/we owe a great deal of gratitude to the teachers and historical wisdom holders that have come before me, specifically those of Indian descent.

“If yoga is a tree, it emerged in the subcontinental land of Bharat/India enriched in the history of Vedic and other native traditions. When this tree of yoga branches out to reach new lands, and its roots are severed from the Mother Tree we risk losing the depth of spirituality that is the sap within these practices leaving us with deadened or hollow wood. However, if we cultivate and tend to the roots of yoga by honoring that connection to the Mother Tree in India, our yogic tree retains it's powerful energetic, herbal, aromatic, medicinal qualities from root, to bark, to leaf, to sap, to flower to fruit to its seeds.” ~Nandani Narayanan LCSW, CMT, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT