20-Minute Trauma-Informed Somatic Yoga Practice

This 20-minute trauma-informed somatic yoga class invites you into a gentle, slow-paced practice centered on safety, choice, and inner awareness. Through mindful, accessible movements and extended pauses, you’ll be guided to notice sensations in the body without judgment or pressure to perform. The emphasis is on cultivating a sense of agency—honoring your limits, adjusting as needed, and moving in ways that feel supportive and nourishing. Breath and subtle shifts in attention are woven throughout to help regulate the nervous system and encourage a deeper connection to the present moment. This practice offers a quiet space to reconnect with your body at your own pace, fostering ease, resilience, and grounded awareness.

Transcript

Hi, Thank you for joining me and welcome to the Somatic Yoga Sequence. My name is Brooklyn. I'm a licensed therapist and yoga teacher and I am going to walk you through some gentle movements today just really connecting with your body maybe in a different way. So let's get started. We'll start in a seated position so come into an easy seat and just start to get comfortable. Maybe take some gentle movements just to settle in here. And you can either soften your gaze by looking down and forward or close your eyes all together. Whatever helps you feel more grounded and safe in this space. And hands can come to the knees either palms facing down to feel rooted or palms facing up to receive. And imagine a long line of energy starting at the base of your spine going all the way up through the crown of your head. So really trying to lengthen the spine here as you sit up tall and rooted and grounded yet rising. And then bring your attention to your breath. Maybe starting to lengthen the inhales and the exhales. Breathing in through your nose to fill up. Maybe opening your mouth and letting it go. Again breathe in to fill. Open your mouth side out. One more time just like that. Breathe in and let it go. And then bring your palms to your knees and we're just going to slightly hold on to our knees and then pull your heart towards the front of the room for a gentle cow here and then push your heart to the back of the room. As we breathe in we'll expand our chest opening up and as we breathe out we'll round and contract tucking our chin to your chest. Breathing in for cow breathing out for cat. And maybe go ahead and start to match your own breath to your movement here. Now as you breathe in heart reaches shoulders drop away from your ears and as you breathe out you're rounding your spine pushing your heart towards the back of the room. And maybe even start to invite your hands in this movement. So as we're reaching for cow our hands come to our hip joints and as we're pushing away our hands glide up our thighs to our knees. Again keeping the rhythm of your breath with your movement. We'll take two more here. Beautiful job coming to a neutral spine sitting up nice and tall. We'll bring our feet out in front of us and we're going to move into 90 90s. So we're just going to windshield wiper our knees here just gently rocking back and forth. You can keep your hands behind you just for a little bit of extra support. Not doing anything intense here not moving quickly really just noticing the body. Really just slowing down so we can tune in a little bit. And maybe you notice differences in your hip joints as you rock side to side. Maybe one feels tighter or stickier than the other. Continuing to breathe here. We'll go one more side to side and then we'll land together with our knees facing the right. Perfect. So again we're in that 90 90 position and we're just going to take a slight twist here. So right hand can graze outside of the left thigh. Left hand can plant just outside of your glute here to help you keep a long spine. And then we'll just gaze over our left shoulder. And then we'll unwind facing the front of our mat and then come back to your twist. As we unwind we'll breathe in and as we twist we'll exhale. Let's take one more here and then we'll pause in our twist. Probably really feeling this in your left hip flexor. I know I am. My left hip is my my bad hip so it's generally like much tighter than my right. And then we'll unwind here switching sides dropping our knees towards the left. Then we'll twist towards the left taking a breath in and as we exhale we'll look over our right shoulder. Again breathe in and let it go. Exhale. Inhale. Breathe out. Taking a few more rounds here. Letting your breath guide you. Choosing presence over pace here. So we're not in a hurry. Take one more round and the next time you're twisting we'll pause in our twist. Gaze over the right shoulder. We're not trying to overly twist here. I don't want you to try to wrench anything out. I just want it to be soft. You might just feel a little pull and that can be enough. We don't need to go any further than that. And now we'll gently unwind. Then bringing the soles of your feet to touch we'll come into a diamond shape. So your your heels are a little bit away from your pelvis just creating a nice little diamond shape here. And we're going to revisit the cow-cat movements. So as we inhale we can lift our chest towards the front of the room and as we exhale we round. And maybe invite that hand movement if you'd like as you reach your heart forward. Your hands come to your knees and as you reach your heart backwards your hands go down your shins to your ankles. And moving slowly with our breath. Taking three more rounds here. Last one. Beautiful. And then we'll come on to our backs. Getting there whatever way feels comfortable. And just stretch your feet out long in front of you. Just let yourself be supported by the mat by the earth beneath you. I think I really needed that. Okay let's walk the right heel to your glutes and then drop your right knee to the mat or as far as it goes. It might not go all the way down to the mat. My my knee doesn't. And then bring it back up. And we're just gonna do this half windshield wiper with our right leg. Just opening and closing that knee. And we're just moving slowly here intentionally. And just notice what the sensation is like. We're just getting curious here about our bodies. Our hips tend to hold a lot of our emotions. It could be said to be the seat of emotions. And so gently just working with our hips opening them up can be a great way to have an emotional release. Let's take two more rounds here. Perfect. And then we'll straighten that right leg and then bring the left heel into the glutes. Just pause here for a moment. And then we'll drop the left knee towards the mat. And then bring it right back up. Same thing here. Moving with intention. Just slowly opening and closing that hip. Just letting yourself drop in. Letting my voice guide you. You don't have to look at the screen. You can just close your eyes, Ground and tune in. And I will guide you where we're going next. Let's take two more rounds here. Opening and closing. One more. Beautiful. And then straighten both legs. Maybe reach through your toes. A little hip shake. Maybe just feeling a little bit more open already. We'll walk that right heel into your glute and then the left heel into your glutes. Kick the sole of your right foot up towards your ceiling and cross your right shin over your left thigh for a figure four. And let that right knee just drape open. And then we're going to bring it towards the left side of our body and open it up again. Bring it in. Let's do it again. For two. Bring your right hand to your right thigh. Let me just press that right thigh or right knee away from you and hold there for a moment. And then you can release. Bringing your left hand across your right thigh. We'll just take a small little twist here. You should feel this stretch wrap around your right glute. And then just let your knees fall all the way over towards the left. Arms can come out to a T. Gaze can look over the right side. And just in between. And then bring your knees back up to your center. And plant your right heel on the ground. Maybe straighten both legs and just give them a nice little shake. Then bring your left heel to your left glute and then your right heel into your glute. Left foot kicks into the ceiling. Figure four. Cross your left shin over your right thigh. And just let that left leg drape open. And then close it. And open. Taking a few rounds here. Opening and closing that knee. And coming back to your breath if you've lost it. It's perfectly okay. Just reconnecting to it. Let it be your anchor. Something to come back to again and again. Especially if your mind starts to wander or you're starting to drift someplace off of your mat. Just let yourself land back in your body. Back in this space. Then we'll find some stillness in our left leg. Bring our left palm to press into that left thigh. Just to open up that hip a little bit. And we'll hold there for a moment. And then relax. Right hand crosses over towards the outside of your left thigh. And just give yourself a little twist here. Just pulling that left leg towards you. And then finally just let your left leg drape over towards the right. Arms come out to a T. Gaze is over the left shoulder. There's nothing to do. Nothing to fix. We're just practicing being. Practicing intention and moving mindfully. Coming back through center. Legs go out long. Give it a nice shake. Then bring your knees into your chest and your forehead. Into your knees. Give yourself a little hug. Maybe sway side to side. And then release. Letting your eyes soften. Taking a big breath in. Open your mouth. Let it go. And just like that breathe in to fill. Let something go. Shavasana. Staying here for just a few moments and I will let you know when it's time to come out. Start to invite some gentle movement in your fingers and your toes. And rock your head side to side. Bring your arms up ahead for a nice good morning stretch. And then roll over to your favorite side for just one more moment. And then gently push yourself up. Come back into a seated position. Bring your hands to heart center. And together we bow. Namaste. Thank you so much for practicing with me today. Be gentle with yourself as you move throughout your day. And you can practice this exercise as often as needed. Hope to see you again soon.