M5 : Lesson 5.2 Somatic Squeeze-Relax Vasuclar Pumping Exercise
Again, as with the last exercise, it is more important to NOTICE each part of the body while you squeeze/relax than to just do the practice. Go slowly at the pace that works for you. This is also a brain-body coordination exercise so it can be a little tricky at first.
Transcript
Less than 5.2. Squeeze, relax, somatic, vascular pumping exercise. In this exercise, we are going to work to improve our vascular pumping mechanisms throughout our body, including our blood, our limbs, and even our energy flow. This exercise helps to improve brain, body connection, and releases trauma holding patterns. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to get our pumping mechanisms up and going, especially if you’ve been inactive for a long time.
I love this particular exercise I’m about to show you because you can do it even if you’re still bed bound. I actually still do this one often just to get my body fluids moving after I’ve been at the computer for a long time or sitting in an airplane or car prolonged. This is another example of a type of peniculation practice that helps our body move from contraction to relaxation and move and find that neutral and keep our fluids moving in a cohesive and coherent way throughout the day. This is the somatic squeeze and relax exercise where we’ll be contracting and relaxing various body parts from our feet up to our head. We’ll begin by contracting our left foot, then our right foot, our left calf, our right calf.
Left thigh, right thigh. Then we’ll move to our left glute. Followed by our right glute, our lower belly, then the upper belly. Then we’ll move to our left arm and then our right arm, our left bicep, right bicep, left chest, right chest, left neck, right neck, whole head, and then we’ll be doing the whole body. So let’s begin and do this together.
Here we go. Contract your left foot on the inhale and relax. The right foot on an inhale, squeeze, and relax. Squeeze your left calf on an inhale, and relax. Your right calf squeeze and relax.
Left thigh squeeze. Relax, right thigh, squeeze, relax. Left glute, squeeze, Relax right glute. Squeeze. Relax.
The lower belly squeeze. Relax. Upper belly, squeeze, relax. Left forearm, squeeze, relax, right forearm, squeeze. Relax.
Left bicep, squeeze, relax. Right bicep, squeeze, relax. Left chest, squeeze, relax. Right chest, squeeze, relax. Left side of your neck, squeeze, relax, right side of your neck, squeeze, and relax.
Whole head squeeze. Relax. And now we’re gonna squeeze our whole body in inhale squeeze. Exhale, relax, and soften. Inhale, squeeze, and extend.
Exhale, relax, and flex and soften. One more time and relax. Now we’re gonna go through the whole body again. Here we go. Left foot squeeze.
Right foot squeeze. Left calf, right calf. Left thigh. Right thigh. Left glute.
Right. Glute. Lower belly. Upper belly. Left forearm.
Right forearm. Left bicep. Right bicep. Left chest, right chest, left neck, right neck, whole head. Now the whole body squeeze, and relax.
Whole body squeeze and relax. Squeeze and relax. And that concludes our somatic squeeze and relax practice.