Full Body Somatic Yoga To Reduce Cortisol & Freeze Response

This full-body somatic yoga flow is designed to help you reduce cortisol, melt stress, and gently exit the freeze response. Through mindful movement, longer exhales, and rhythmic shaking, you’ll help your body release stored tension and restore a sense of safety from the inside out.

Somatic exercises are a powerful way to regulate your nervous system, calm anxiety, and support natural hormone balance. This class is perfect if you’ve been feeling stuck, numb, or overwhelmed—and want to reconnect with yourself through ease, not effort.

These movements are trauma-informed, beginner-friendly, and deeply grounding. Remember: healing isn’t about forcing the body to relax—it’s about helping it remember how.

Please note: This practice is designed to support your wellbeing but does not replace professional medical or psychological care.

Transcript

This is a full body somatic yoga flow to reduce cortisol and get you out of that freeze response you may be stuck in. We're going to do this through spiral movements, Figure eights, Rocking. To begin, Come to a comfortable position. Allow your awareness to drift inside your body. If it feels safe, You can close your eyes. And see if you can notice where you feel freeze and tension in your physical body. Is it in your neck? Your seat. Perhaps your jaw. Scan your body. Bottom to top. Top to bottom. Simply noticing what areas feel more easeful, What areas of the body Do you sense? Tension. Is the gut relaxed or tense? The shoulders. Transitioning when you're ready to an all fours position shoulders over wrists hips over knees, Spreading the fingers as far apart as you can. And for today's focus, Taking the knees a little bit wider apart than you normally would for your cat cow. Inhale, Broaden across the chest, Slide the shoulder blades back. Keep the gaze down, So no pain or strain cranking the neck. And exhale, Gaze at your navel, Allow your tailbone to come back. Towards your heels. And notice that you have more space as you round in your cat back here. So your inhale. The heart slides forward exhale you make that halloween cat shape but with the knees a little wider Perhaps there's more spaciousness, More room to stretch the low back. And over the course of the next few breaths, Instead of making the traditional cat-cow shapes, Think of how you can make this motion more of a circle. So you're doming your back body up towards the sky to make one half of the circle, And then maybe sliding your heart, Slithering your heart a little closer to your yoga mat to make the bottom half of the circle. Invite your breath to become deeper, More audible. Continue playing with this or option the next time you rock or lean back to send your weight more into your right hip. Then your left hip. Then your right palm as you come forward, And then your left palm. You can look at the screen if you need. So making a figure eight motion, The bottom of the eight, And then crossing your mat to make the top of the eight as you rock the weight over each wrist. Allow the music to inspire your movement. If you choose to play with the big toes now coming to touch, Noticing if that offers any more additional stability for you as you play with this figure eight. And spiral. Let go of the need to really make a precise cat cow motion now. And just see if you can follow your internal compass. Inviting this motion of a figure eight, Which will play with all class. Bring the knees a little closer together now and just allow the forearms to drop to the ground. Maybe playing with some of those loops, Circles or figure eights here. You can focus on moving left to right on your mat. Tracing the infinity symbol. Or if it feels good. Finding a little bit of a cat cow here, Opening the chest. Rounding the low back, High C curve with the low back, Looking in at your navel. One of the biggest components of a somatic practice is what feels good. To you so throughout this class. I'll give you options of movements to help you unwind but My goal is that you choose what feels nourishing, That you actually go off script and trust yourself with these movements. Come back to all fours, Inhale the right arm high to the sky, Roll the wrists. To thread the needle, Take the right side arm underneath the left shoulder as you come into a twist. I like to take the left. Hand to the outside. On my mat, The left edges of my mat, To really press down. Hmm. Deep in your breath. Saturating in stillness after the movements we've explored so far. Inhale, Your low back widens with breath. Exhale, Sink, Let the floor hold you. Coming back to center, Opposite way, Left arm reaches up, Roll the left wrist. Left hand comes underneath the right shoulder. Right hand moves to the outer right edge of the mat to help you better leverage twist. On each in-breath, Fill your low back. With breaths if it could expand your low back left to right. Exhale, See if you can release some gripping or tension in your glutes or seat or calf. Trust the floor to hold you. Rest yourself up. Option one, Come to sit and cross legs with the right leg in front. If you've been doing yoga a long time, Option to come into Gomukhasana leg. Either way, We'll start by making contact with the feet. Holding the feet. There's more nerve endings in the palms. Than most places in the body, 72, 000 nadis, The yogi said. Gently caress the top of the foot the sole of the foot grounding, Anchoring yourself. And allow the torso now to spiral, Make some circles. Some of you might recognize this as Sufi grind from Kundalini Yoga, Or if you've never done this movement before. Do this how? You're stirring the pelvic bowl, So it's like your torso is a ladle, Stirring the inside of your pelvis. This is also a nice hip stretch. Massaging the abdominals. Finding what feels pleasurable. Is the best. Antidote to being in freeze so if there's a spot that feels good Stay there. Breathe there. Coming into eagle arms, So right elbow underneath the left. If this doesn't work for your shoulders alternatively you can give yourself a hug finding that cat cow motion now here inhaling lifting the elbows lifting the chin a little bit and exhale rounding back in towards yourself shoulder blades splay apart as you round the back body. Inhaling. Exhaling. Bro. Instead of moving forward and back. I invite you now to make the alphabet, Trace the alphabet with your elbows. So first you make an A. And then a capital B. I'm gonna see. And then let the alphabet analogy go when you're ready. You can keep doing it. The only intention is to get you moving more intuitively, Finding what feels good with the elbows here. Maybe you want to make a figure eight motion. Keep tracing the alphabet. Or if you can trust yourself. To let the movement initiate and your brain follow. Be open to that. Letting the eagle wrap go, This time playing those same shapes, Tracing the alphabet or just moving in a way that feels pleasurable with the chin. Allowing the chin to gently guide you. These might be very micro movements. Trust it. Let the body sway. Rocking undulating figure eight motion spirals. This is how we come out of freeze. Walk your hands back in space. And lean back. Continue to play maybe with the head and neck The shoulders get involved. It's like you're sunning yourself on a beach. Imagine the sun beaming down. As you allow one shoulder to sway forward and then the other, The head and neck to move in ways that feel pleasurable. Exploring the opposite of this now walking the hands forward coming into a little bow so our undulation movement exhale take your chest and head towards the ground on the inhale open up maybe lean back exhale fold the hands supporting Match the cadence of your movement to your breath pattern. No such thing as too slow. Coming into a downward facing dog now we'll explore all of that again with the opposite leg in front but first pressing back into your version of a downward facing dog, Spreading the fingers, Pressing through the index finger, Knuckle and thumb. As you prance the feet, Really feeling through the bones of the feet, Bending one knee and then the other. Inhale here exhale gently place your knees on the ground micro bend the elbows slide the heart forward into your cow pose and this time just make that figure eight left to right on the mat so tracing a figure eight if you want to move your hands back a little you can Exploring side to side. It's okay if the shoulders shrug up by the ears. If you can, Let a sound escape through the mouth. Unwinding tension happens a lot faster when we vocalize, Whether that's a yawn or a sigh. Press back, Downward facing dog. Pedal through the feet. Enjoying the stretch in the backs of the legs. One at a time, Exhale, Place the knees on the mat, Glide the heart forward, And again, Figure eights, But left to right, Rather than the forward and back we explored before. If the figure eights is too complicated and you just wanna sway side to side here, With the shoulders. Kind of lifted. Do what feels soothing. Stay here. Press back to down dog, If that feels good. Good. Last variation is for those who've been doing yoga for a while. If you want, You can play with actually rocking forward, Not putting the knees on the ground, But rocking forward to an upward facing dog and exploring the side to side figure eights here. Rocking left to right. Close the eyes. It's like you're shrugging off a tight outfit or a tight piece of clothing. Ugh. Coming back to sit, Interlacing the fingers, Rolling out the wrists. Some tension on the wrist. Left leg in front this time, Either in cross-legs. Or Gomukhasana, If that's what you explored before. Anchoring yourself. Pressing down into the feet. Starting with that Sufi grind, That circular motion. On this side, See if you can invite in a hum now that you're familiar with the movement. Mmm. The vestibular system and the inner ear. Scientifically, We know that humming and activating the system. . . Helps regulate the nervous system, Helps soothe ourselves, Helps calm us down. Take the left elbow under the right this time for your eagle wrap or giving yourself a hug if that feels better inhaling rocking forward on the sits bones opening the heart exhale chin into chest elbows into navel round Finding that cat-cow motion seated here in a way that feels good to you. Keep the shoulder blades sliding down the back. Anchored. As the elbows slither around in play. Invitation to trace the alphabet again just to get you started and then trust How do your elbows want to move? How does your body want to move in this position? To dissolve tension. Deepening the breath. Hands behind you now, Leaning back. Rocking side to side as you lean back. One shoulder come up and then the other. Letting the head and neck play here. Circles with the neck and chin. Maybe you're up on your back fingertips, Propping yourself up. When we're stressed out, We tend to live in the front of our body, Leading with the front. So this invitation to reside, Pull your energy to the back of the body and actually lean back and trust and receive. Coming back. Hands in front of you. For some bowing. Inhaling to lift exhaling undulating down head is the last thing to come down Revolving this into your all fours position cat-cow if you choose. Pressing back into a downward facing dog. Walking the hands and feet towards one another, Feet are hip width apart. You can keep your hands just hanging, Clasp opposite elbows and just begin to bounce. Bouncing the booty. I know it seems really weird, But think of what a mother does when she's rocking her newborn or lifting her newborn kind of up and down, Patting it on the back. To help soothe its cries. Make sure your head and neck are relaxed. Crown of head directly to the floor. And just kind of bounce here. Bounce, Bounce, Bounce, Releasing a lot of tension from the hips, The low back. And then let that go. Traditional hamstring stretch. You can reach for the floor. Hold the ankles. Walk your hands up the legs. Widening your stance, Facing the long edge of your mat, Coming into some undulations. Roll the shoulders up, Down, And back. And exhale it's that same kind of cat cow circle we played with but now we're standing so press into your thighs to round your low back, Upper back, Head is lasting to come up towards the ceiling. Exhale, Roll the shoulders back, Stick your booty back. As you send your heart forward first towards the floor. Two or three more like this. Undulation. And on your next one. Gift your body. A sound. Give yourself a sound. The gift of the sound as you exhale. Maybe you want to moan. Mmmmm. Hmm, Let's all hum. Last one, Hands to hips. Mmm. Finding that inner ear activation, Soothing the nervous system. And turn your right toes or mirror me forward bending into the front knee for warrior two just setting up making sure your alignment is where you want it Straighten the leg, Hands to the hips, And do that figure eight motion. Here in your warrior two legs. It's noticing what it feels like. And then rubbing down the thighs as you bend into the front knee before extending the arms, Reaching, Inhale, Clasp opposite elbows above the head, Exhale, Re-bend. Palms face down. Inhale, Reach up. Maybe palms touch and interlace. It's kind of like two lover's hands. Exhale, This time palms face up. Play with that again. Inhale. Clasp opposite elbows palms face down Inhale. Blast the palms gently. Rubbing the wrist palms face up. Different this time inhale reach up clasp opposite elbows, But keep the front leg straight and reach behind you. If you can clasp your hands behind your low back, Do it, Otherwise just reaching behind you. And pretend you're leaning back again as you bend into the front knee. Just look around your space. So see over your knee, Exposing the heart, Maybe leaning back a little, But really gaze and take in your space, Anchoring with your eyes. Back of the room, The front of the room, Scanning all the objects in your space. The eyes are extremely grounding. Straighten the front leg, Triangle pose. The eyes are extremely grounding and orienting. So taking in the whole room. We'll do warrior two so you'll have a chance again on the second side. Bring both hands to the heart. Rolling the chest towards the ceiling. If that's too much, Keeping the bottom leg, The hand on the bottom leg. Reach the top arm back up, Roll the wrist and come on up. Both toes point forward, Heels wider than the toes. Exhale this time, Just fold forward for a hamstring stretch. Rock the weight forward and back in the feet, Forward and back in the hands. Engage the core, Inhale flat back, Exhale here, Inhale all the way up to stand opposite side. So first just finding your warrior two stance and alignment on the second side so you'll be comfortable to bend in. And then straighten the leg, Hands to hip. Slowly. Exploring this figure eight. Pressing down, Feeling both thighs as you come into warrior two. Inhale, Opposite elbows. Exhale, Palms press and reach. Inhale, Caressing your hands like you would a lover or wish a lover would play with your hands. Exhale, Palms face up. Again. In your own rhythm, Your own way, Whatever feels good. If the elbows feel good, Do that. If touching the hands feels good, Follow that. Letting yourself flow and play here. Touch one of the most powerful ways to soothe the nervous system. Up to your next one where you're lifted straight leg take the hands behind you either clasped or reaching bend into your warrior two. This time fierce but like really seeing your space. Seeing that you're safe. Scanning the objects in your space, Starting by looking over your knee, Now over your pelvis, Over the back leg. Hmm. Triangle pose. What would feel good? Rolling the top wrist. One hand to the heart, Both hands. Wag the Jaw trusting yourself. Slowly come back up heel toe the feet towards one another Finishing with black. A little bit of a bounce. So the heels are just gently lifted off the ground. And just allow yourself to bounce and vibrate a little bit up and down here, Wagging the jaw side to side as you do it. Thinking of yourself as like a bobbly head doll. Wagging the jaw, Head and neck loose, Shaking the hands a little bit, Keeping that bounce going in the knees. And then taking one hand to your forehead and one hand at the nape of your neck at your hairline. Wrestling. Feeling yourself receiving your soothing touch. Noticing the part of you that's pressing gently into your skull, Feeling the palms of your hands. At the same time, Noticing your skin, The part of you that's receiving your own touch. Deepening the breath here. Coming back to that hum. Hmm. Inhale deep, Exhale hum. Try one with me aloud if you haven't yet. You And then taking both hands. Palms face down on your heart. And if you choose to. Saying to yourself. I survived. I survived. And thanking yourself for this time. Thank you so much for being an uplifted member and making content like this possible. No matter what you're going through, Be proud that you took time for yourself today and know that I'm sending you healing, Love and energy. Thank you for being here. Namaste.