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In this Yoga Snack, we discuss practical tools on how yoga can help navigate challenging times, particularly in the context of a divisive political climate, discussing nervous system regulation, self-care strategies, and yoga philosophy that promote inner resilience and grounding. This episode provides a guided visualization to aid in finding a sense of safety and calm.

“ It is times like these that our yoga practice becomes more than just movement of breath. It can be a lifeline, a sanctuary, a way we can return to our center.” -Chris McDonald

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You'll walk away with some simple, powerful practices to reconnect with your center and a guided visualization to help you find refuge within. Tune in and take a breath. You deserve it on today's episode of Yoga in the Therapy Room Podcast.

Safely and ethically. So whether you're here to expand your skills, enhance your self-care, or both, you are in the right place. Join me on this journey to help you be one step closer to bringing yoga into your therapy room.

Welcome back. To the Yoga in the Therapy Room podcast, the non-traditional therapist guide to Integrating Yoga into your therapy practice. I'm Chris McDonald, licensed therapist and yoga teacher. Today's episode is what I've been wanting to do for a while now and I wanna be fully transparent before I dive in.

There's so much. Divisiveness going on and it's been going on a long time. Now, if that's not you and that's not where you are right now, that's okay, or this topic doesn't resonate with you, it's okay to skip this episode and join me in another one. Totally get it. But for those who are staying, be really hard to navigate during this time in the US can be very unsettling, socially, emotionally, physically draining.

It can give us a sense of that heaviness. Anxiety, helplessness, hopelessness, even rage. I don't know about you, but I see this impact on the communities that I work with. The LGBTQ plus communities, other marginalized folks, it's devastating the impact on so many people losing jobs. The impact on the economy, human rights are at risk.

As a person in the US or if, if you're upset in the world as, wow, this impacts a whole world's happening right now. But it is times like these that our yoga practice becomes more than just movement of breath. It can be a lifeline, a sanctuary, a way we can return to our center. So that we can respond rather than react ground ourselves before taking action, as well as be able to hold space for the grief from our clients and the suffering that they have to hold space for them and to help ourselves as well as our clients to build that inner resilience.

Also, hopefully help you to connect with your inner light and be able to find yourself in a more grounded space. Now, let's begin looking at this from a polyvagal lens in our nervous system regulation, many of us. Have felt the impacts on our nervous system. We may not be feeling at the top of the ventral vagal ladder where we feel safe, we feel like we can connect.

This is rot. So many people's worlds right now. Many of us are much more reactive to what's happening Every day. There's something new coming at us. Every day there's something else to process and understand. Every day there's more emotion coming up for us, we may drop down to that fight or flight response.

Personally for our own wellbeing so that we can also be there for our family and friends as well as our clients. And then of course, our nervous system. When fight or flight doesn't work, we may drop down to shutdown. We may become depressed. It may be hard to be motivated to get moving in the world to make decisions.

Maybe a freeze response where it's just hard to think and process. At times. I find myself just staring at my email, looking at my schedule when I don't have a client and I can't think that can be a freeze response. It's hard for me to make decisions in that moment, but there are things we can do, so we have to look at what is available.

And then to see such lack of empathy, lack of compassion for other human beings. To take away programs that help people, it's gonna hurt so many, and those with compassionate hearts, it's so hard to bear witness when our values as therapists is the optimism. We are trying our best to be that space for people.

It can be a challenge to get through the day. Many times we have to notice. What is something I can do today to help myself stay more regulated? Do I need to disconnect? But then if we go back to the polyvagal ladder, our neuroception, that primitive part of our brain is always scanning, looking for danger cues.

What might we we see in the news right now, danger cues. And when that's coming at us and coming at us and we tune into social media, if we hear other people's fears that can accumulate in our nervous system and make it really hard to come back to that safe part of the nervous system, it's gonna be much more difficult to find the safety cues.

I think that really coincides well with who we are as therapists. How can we go about our days, our lives through this? And not harm ourselves first. How can we give ourselves more self-compassion, more empathy? For us and then outward showing that for others, even though that's part of what we do in our roles as therapists, I think we still have to have the compassion for others, for all beings.

How can we, we create even more random acts of kindness. Now, this is so needed in in divisive nation. You gotta get creative to keep the light in the world, even when there's darkness. So non harming for others as well as ourselves. How can we speak more kindly to ourselves, careful of your internal dialogue through all of this?

And if you haven't read Self-Compassion Practices by Kristin that I highly recommend. Now, another yoga philosophy is Santosha. A Miama about contentment, taking refuge from constant strive. Having gratitude practice daily, really looking at what you do have, appreciating the small things is so essential to your mental health.

And I had this realization and I told my husband that really loved our house 'cause we have this access place where we can be in the backyard and not see neighbors. Just have the loads. And it brings that safety, it brings the calm. We need more safety now more than ever, so really be on the lookout. What are my safety cues?

If you don't know them, maybe a good time now to write those down. It's gonna be different for everyone. One of mine is I'm an introvert, so I do need time to decompress. If I'm around a lot of people for a while, I need alone time to function. If I don't, we'll know it. I do get cranky, so I do need that as a safety cue.

Do you know your neighbors? Would that help you feel more safe? Could you start connecting with neighbors more just to feel that safety, security at your home base? How can you bring more gratitude? I know everyone talks about gratitude lists. It's not always accessible and easy to, to keep up with that.

What can you do to keep yourself disciplined in yoga practices going in some way? How can you let go of the negative behaviors? Habits that are giving in the way self-sabotage, how can you move through some of those, work on that so that you can stay in a regular yoga practice and really promote embodying yoga practices, especially if you wanna bring them in your therapy room.

Now is the time if you haven't been, and figure out a way to bring them in more, or be creative to figure out what works for you in your life. Now it's about finding the right balance. We wanna push ourselves, but not to the point that the inner critic takes over and we're causing ourselves harm. We wanna respect our limits.

This could be. One way to do this is through journaling. I find journaling to be one of the most effective self-care practices, and for me, it can be released too to get some of these emotions that are swirling around inside. I always feel better after, and it's something to encourage clients to do too.

If they are really struggling to get everything out, use every single minute of your session, and that could be a wonderful way to carry on the session at home for them. Just to start journaling, whose research base? That it does work, but we have to use it. And the more consistent we can be, the more helpful it can be.

You have obligations, responsibilities, maybe other jobs. But I think in times of crisis we need more time alone. We need this. There has to be a way, get support to find a way to yourself. And just remember, yoga is a radical act of resistance of self preserve. And a way to find clarity within yourself and where you wanna go with.

Are you a mental health therapist who feels like traditional talk therapy isn't enough? Are you wanting a more somatic approach? You're not alone. Many therapists feel the pull to offer something more. Something that helps clients. Connect with their body, regulate their nervous system, and find healing beyond words.

That's HC podcast.org/yoga basics today. Let's get to the tools, yoga based tools we can use. We've talked a lot about yoga practices. I've had many guests on who share their favorite yoga practice. Will you and always come back to those other episodes to get more ideas If you want something, creative breath practice is always there for you.

To bring more balance in the nervous system, bring a little more calm. You're welcome to join in or just listen to this. When you're ready, take an inhale through the nose. Pause. And on the exhale we're gonna sign it out through the mouth with a sound, so it can be a hot sound or maybe something else that wants to come out.

Really cal up what you wanna release on the exhale, you know, exhale.

Once that's complete, just take a moment, notice how you feel, check in with emotion, any sense of relief. And if you need more release, maybe pause this and do a few more. Maybe have, do some more movement as well. Some awesome. I. That's the the next yoga practice I was gonna talk about. How can you bring more movement in?

And then I ended with some pranayama, some practice. So it doesn't always have to be of Asana. It could be another movement practice before yoga practice could be running in place. Doing some pushups, something just to get the body moving a more active way, and then move to the gentle grounding postures like a forward fold downward dog that's in your practice.

Experiment with some of these practices with a longer hold and in session as well. Just know that clients may not always be able to jump right into stillness. If their system is more activated, it can be more triggering with people with trauma or complex trauma. So that's just something to remember from a safety perspective.

You wanna make sure these practices are accessible and safe for all as much as we can. Cat Cow is another great practice. We could do seeded or there's outstanding cat cow you can do as well. But if you prefer the map, maybe do some more cat cows and see how that feels to move the spine. Up and down and then bring a twist in there.

But try to think about these as gentle practices just to try and get the spine moving in all different ways. And connecting with breath with these movements is what's gonna help bring more the parasympathetic energy and calmness. And then once you do some of those movements to coming into Shavasana, final resting pose, maybe doing a meditation while you're there.

If you need a guide one, putting one on YouTube or listening on an app like Inside Timer and Loving Kindness is another great meditation to doing these difficult times. I find when things feel out of control, when people are making decisions that impact meaning, and it, I feel that hopelessness helplessness.

Many times people start by sending the well wishes to themselves. May I be well, may I be safe? And then thinking about someone you aren't irritated, knowing, which can be challenge, and then just sending it out to the world, to all living being. And then you can also, you can send it to a loved one as well.

I forgot that. And that's, well, lots of different ways to use that. We can send out these loving lives, the kindness to the world. Just remember that is within. All of these yoga practices can help you with your self care. And remember when you bring them in your therapy room with your clients, you're doing these with them, and that helps you to stay more regulated as well.

The more you can take care of yourself and show up regulated, not that we have to be perfect, the more it's gonna help clients as well, especially during these tumultuous times. And here's my little spiel about self-care. During times of crisis or difficult times, what you used to do before is not enough.

For some people that could be making an intention to eat lunch, to eat enough during the day, could be part of self-care, to make sure you're removing more, drinking enough water, going back to those basics that, of course you tell clients what's running. It's harder as therapist that we have to remind ourselves, oh yeah, I gotta do that too.

We all need that more than ever. Maybe it's not in your community and right, right where you live. Maybe it is online and you can connect with people anywhere. It's okay. But do the best that you can with that. And maybe you can't show up all the time and show up some. 'cause then you're showing up for yourself and help other people by being part of this community too.

Now, the other piece of this is reminding yourself that taking action is one of the ways that we can battle despair, mindful action. Knowing that yoga is not passive, that if we wanna follow yoga philosophy in a, in a, a za, we don't wanna cause more harm. We wanna lead with compassion. How can we help the world right now?

These actions matter, protests, whatever it is you need to do, but do what's right for you and don't doubt yourself that this doesn't matter or how only not spending money at certain places that aren't ethical. To me, it matters. Think about the collective energy of these actions. It's not just you. It's many more like you.

Greater good of society. Well, that leads us to our visualization. So if you are driving right now, you're welcome to listen along, but if you wanna pause it and come back and listen at home, if you're at home and in a safe space, go ahead and get comfortable. This will be just a short visualization to help bring some calm to your nervous system.

Sometimes it can help to bring earbuds or headphones on so you can really tune in. Welcome to close your eyes, or keep your eyes open. Looking softly at the floor, finding a seated posture, whether that's on the floor or in a chair, sitting. An easy pose on the floor, if that works for you, or sitting on a block or ster, maybe check checking with breath, feeling the breath rise in the chest on the inhale, falling on the exhale.

Feel the warmth of this light as it begins to wash over your face, your neck, your shoulders. Feels like you'd be wrapped in glowing blanket of calm. This light your inner sanctuary feeling, you come down the middle of your body in the front, the chest, the belly down, the back, the spine. Down hips and glutes.

Notice if there's a cozy place to go, like a soft chair in your mind or. Place outside you a waterfall fireplace. What is a symbol of cozy for you? Gather up here. Breathe. Stay in this space for a few more breaths. Allow your nervous system take in that felt sense of safety, warm comfort, and belonging.

Feel the body supported by the so beneath you. Notice your breath. Take a button, excelling out, check in. Notice how you're feeling, your energy. What emotions coming up for you? How are your thoughts? Do you feel more present, connected? That wraps up today's episode. Thanks for joining me today. I hope you feel seen and heard from today's episode, and I hope these practices can help support you.

Do you struggle with self-care? I have a tool for your wellbeing written by. What therapists needs in mind. The Self-Care for the Counselor Companion Workbook is designed specifically for counselors like you. With therapists. This workbook is your first step towards rejuvenating your practice and your life.

Start prioritizing your wellbeing today. Go to HC podcast.org/workbook. That's HC podcast.org/workbook today. And just some final words. I send you some loving kindness. May you be safe, may you be at peace. You be filled with loving kindness. May your yoga practice. And once again, this is Chris McDonald sending each one of you much light.

We are not responsible for any losses, damages, liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. Yoga is not recommended for everyone and is not safe under certain medical conditions. Always check with your doctor to see if it's safe for you. If you need a professional, please find the right one for you.