Intro 0:09 This recording is an offering of Networks for Training and Development's Online University. Tracy Lapreziosa 0:20 Welcome to tonight's Healing Circle brought to you by Networks for Training and Development. My name is Tracy Lapreziosa and I'm coming to you from rural Pennsylvania. Our Healing Circle Calls have typically been once a month. However, during these stressful times, we've been offering them twice a month. During this time, a lot of us have been struggling with all of the energy that surrounds us. And maybe, maybe even before all this started we had some trouble. Sometimes, some of us can be like a sponge. I like to think of it that way - that whatever is going on around us, we just kind of absorb it, absorb it into our core, absorb it into our muscles, our cells of our body. We may try to put up that force field. But sometimes it doesn't always work. And while we put on a happy face, and we go through our day, we are taking in everything, everything that's going on around us and it just lands in our body. And when we have a lot of stress and negative emotion in our body, it changes the vibration of ourselves in our core and doesn't promote a very healthy life. Tracy Lapreziosa 2:14 So, what we're going to do today is just kind of go over a simple exercise that I have found that helps with releasing tension and releasing emotions that are trapped within our bodies. Some of you may have heard of Myofascial Release and Myofascial Unwinding. It kind of operates on those principles. Our muscles are surrounded by fascia, and when we have physical trauma or emotional trauma, that fascia just tightens and then it tightens elsewhere to accommodate for the tightening at another place and before you know it, we've got our bodies like rubber bands pulling in all different directions. And we start to feel all that stress and that tension in our shoulders and the headaches and the fatigue, and everything that comes with it. So tonight, we're going to work through an exercise to help relieve some of that tension. Tracy Lapreziosa 3:24 So let's start by coming into the space and take a deep breath, in and ou,t and think about the stress and the tension that you've experienced today. Where is it? Where is it in your body? Were you able to let it go? Or do you feel it somewhere? Tracy Lapreziosa 3:52 I'd like you to come to a comfortable position on the floor if you can. Lying on your back with your feet flat on the floor and your arms stretched out to the side at shoulder height with your palms up. Tracy Lapreziosa 4:17 Let's just scan our bodies. Check in. See what's happening? Tracy Lapreziosa 4:26 Start with your feet and feel them. They're flat on floor. Is the weight evenly distributed? Is it just at one part of your foot? Tracy Lapreziosa 4:42 Travel on up to your knees. Check in there. Do you feel any tightness around your knees any radiating pains? Move on up to your hips and your low back. Again, what do you find there? Is your weight evenly distributed on both hips? Is there any muscle tension, any spasms that you feel? One side feel different than the other? Tracy Lapreziosa 5:36 Move on up your spine. Is there any discomfort anywhere along your spine? Are you able to relax it so that it just kind of presses into the floor? Tracy Lapreziosa 6:01 What about your shoulders? Are they both touching the floor? Any tightness? Feel any energy shooting from your shoulder to another part of your body? Tracy Lapreziosa 6:26 We're gonna start with our palms up facing the ceiling. Both palms are up. Now slowly rotate your hands towards your pinky so that the palms are flat on the floor. Tracy Lapreziosa 6:47 Feel that twisting motion of both arms. Does that make your spine feel any different? Do you feel any differences in tightness or energy moving? Slow, steady breath. Turn your palms back up to the ceiling. Tracy Lapreziosa 7:26 Notice what you feel. Does it feel different after having done that movement? Now rotate both of your, rotate your arms so that your hands are turning towards your thumb. You're trying to put your palms flat on the floor the other direction but it's a little bit difficult. Go as far as you can go. Your shoulders will probably pick up from the floor in this position. Tracy Lapreziosa 8:03 Notice what you notice. Do you feel that twisting? Feel any changes the way the energy is moving in your body? Tracy Lapreziosa 8:23 Then come back to palms up. Tracy Lapreziosa 8:30 Rotate both arms again towards the pinkie so that your palms are flat on the floor. Thumbs are kind of down towards your feet. Tracy Lapreziosa 8:45 Does this movement feel different from the first time you did it? What's different about it? Tracy Lapreziosa 8:56 Are there changes in where you feel tightness? Were there spasms and now there aren't any? Or are there new ones? Tracy Lapreziosa 9:12 Come back to the palm up and again, rotate towards your thumb. Both hands rotate towards the thumb. Try and get the palm down as best you can. Tracy Lapreziosa 9:27 And again what's the difference this time? Is there a difference? Is there a difference in tightness or energy or muscle spasming or energy shooting in your body? Tracy Lapreziosa 9:52 And roll back to palms up. Now we're going to rotate towards your pinky finger on the right, but towards your thumb on the left. So they're rotate, your arms are rotating opposite direction. Just visualize you have like a beach towel lying across your chest and out your arms and you're wringing out all the water. Tracy Lapreziosa 10:25 Winging motion presses into our tissues, helps to release fluids, helps to release emotions, tensions. If you find that you feel the need for emotional release during these motions, let it come out. You might feel teary. You might feel the need to make noise. Do what you need to do. Let it out. Tracy Lapreziosa 11:08 Rotate your palms back up. Now switch the direction. Rotate your left hand towards the pinky and your right hand towards the thumb. Twisting that towel across your chest in the opposite direction. Squeezing out even more of the stress and tension and emotion that's trapped in your body. See up in your upper back where we tend to carry so much. Tracy Lapreziosa 11:44 And back to palms up. Tracy Lapreziosa 11:49 One more time, right hand towards the pinky, left hand towards the thumb, twisting, wringing out all that's left. Wringing out everything that's stuck in our shoulders, across your back. Tracy Lapreziosa 12:15 Palms up, left hand rotate down towards your pinky and the right hand rotate towards your thumb one more time. Again, does this feel different from the last time we did this position, this twisting motion or does it feel the same? Are you feeling any emotional release? Tracy Lapreziosa 12:50 Turn back to your palms up, keeping your palms both facing the ceiling. Take your knees and drop them to the right, keep your knees together, if you can, drop them to the right. Keep your shoulders flat on the floor. Now we're twisting that top towel as though we're going from our head to our toes, wringing it out in a different plane. Tracy Lapreziosa 13:23 Releasing out all of that tension Tracy Lapreziosa 13:29 Bring your knees back up, pointed to the ceiling. Now we're going to drop them to the left. Tracy Lapreziosa 13:46 Feel the tension draining, visualize that twisting of a towel. Visualize the muscles twisting, visualize energy, emotions being released. Tracy Lapreziosa 14:08 Come back up, knees to the ceiling. Tracy Lapreziosa 14:12 Now we're going to do the ultimate twist. We're going to rotate a right arm towards the pinky and the left arm towards the thumb. And while we're doing that, we're dropping our knees to the right. Where does your head go? Where does it want to go? Let it follow the twist and the releases that enable it to move. Tracy Lapreziosa 14:52 Continue to breathe slowly and evenly. Bring your knees up to the ceiling. Now rotate your left hand towards the pinky and your right hand towards the thumb and drop your knees to the left side. Let your head go where it wants to go. Yoga stretch across your chest and from your nose to your toes Tracy Lapreziosa 15:43 Come back up. We're gonna do another direction again. Rotate your right arm towards the pinky, your left arm towards the thumb, your knees dropping to the right and notice if they feel the same since the last time you did this motion. Or does it feel different? As you're releasing different muscle fibers, does this feel different the second time? Tracy Lapreziosa 16:19 Come back up, knees to the ceiling, palms up, your left hand towards the pinky, your right arm towards the thumb rotating, knees dropping to the left. Let your head go where it wants to go. How does this feel compared to the last time you did this movement? Tracy Lapreziosa 16:48 So while you're in this position, pay attention to the rest of your body. Do parts of it want to move somewhere else? Let them move the way they want to move. If your leg feels they wants to stretch out, stretch it out or if your arm needs to bend, bend it and just move your body in whatever direction it's telling you that it wants to go. Tracy Lapreziosa 17:17 As we, as we release an area with a stretch, other areas are looking for that stretch as well. Just let your body move however it wants to move. And whatever emotions are coming out, come out. Tracy Lapreziosa 17:58 Take another minute to just move wherever your body wants to go. Tracy Lapreziosa 18:23 Now we'll move over onto your side. Come up into a sitting position. Tracy Lapreziosa 18:38 Bring your hands together at your heart in prayer position. Continue to visualize the stress in your body melting away, being released through your skin, through your fingertips, through your toes, anywhere it can get out. Tracy Lapreziosa 19:13 Deep breath in and hold, and the deep breath out. Tracy Lapreziosa 19:26 Come back into the space and know that we can't always put up that forcefield and keep all the energy out of our bodies, especially during times when there's a lot of excess things to process. Tracy Lapreziosa 19:55 But we can do self-care activities to help us release that tension. Whether it be a simple exercise like we just did, or whether it be your yoga practice or running, anything that provides you with that physical release. Tracy Lapreziosa 20:28 And now as we let go of the stress and tension in our bodies, come back to our heart to feel gratitude. Gratitude for being able to be in this space together tonight. Gratitude for being able to move our bodies in ways that we can release the tension. Think of your situation. Are there people in your in your immediate circle that are lifting you up and helping you through these troubling times? Tracy Lapreziosa 21:20 Are there people in your community that you're grateful for? Tracy Lapreziosa 21:29 What are you grateful for in your immediate space in this moment, in this place? Tracy Lapreziosa 21:45 And as we begin to fill our hearts with gratitude, feel the feel the warm light of joy and love and peace bubbling up from our core, bubbling up through our body, into our heart space. Tracy Lapreziosa 22:19 Feel the peace come over your body. Tracy Lapreziosa 22:27 Take a deep breath in and raise your arms up to the heavens. Tracy Lapreziosa 22:42 Feel the energy of peace of love come to you. From the stars with the heavens of your ancestors that have gone before you, from your spirit guides. Tracy Lapreziosa 23:08 Send out peace and joy and love in your heart. Tracy Lapreziosa 23:15 Take a deep breath in, exhale out and bring your hands back down to prayer position. Tracy Lapreziosa 23:31 May your heart be filled with peace and joy and love. As you go forth in your day today, your evening, your tomorrow, your next week. May love and hope guide you. May you find time in your daily routines for safe self care to release that tension, to get rid of all that negative energy that you sucked into the sponge of your body, let it go. And be at peace. Thank you all for joining us for today's Healing Circle. We look forward to sharing our space with you again. Outro 24:31 Thank you for listening. We hope the information provided was helpful. Don't forget to stop by our website and take advantage of all we have to offer. Transcribed by https://otter.ai