Part 2 - yoga for trauma/anxiety- teens

Anxiety buster activities Where do you notice stress in your physical body? Are you in the present moment? Do you practice mindfulness to disengage from the story-line you are telling yourself? If stress is there we look at problems with greater influence and narrow mildly. We fix our thoughts and usually hold onto a limited perspective of what is happening. Ideas: reduce stress with regular physical exercise: walking, jogging and yoga postures. Daily mindfulness/ meditation practice. For example; a 10 minute breathing exercise. There are many good apps. available to guide you. If distracted - simply label the emotion/thought, then return to the focus of your breath. Notice any process of 'reactivity' to what is going on around you. Write a list: What's happening? My reaction. (include bodily sensations). When reactions happen: what are your choices? Re-connect to your breath. If your feeling stressed your front thinking part of your brain is affected. You are unable to think clearly. Don't let old memories cloud your responses to experience in the present. Remember we are hard-wired to remember the bad, the fears as this was necessary for humans to survive. Guiding principle of trauma sensitive yoga is giving back a sense of power and control to the survivor. Mountain Pose Meditation: Mountain pose feel feet on the floor. Neck rolls and choices Taking effective action- moving for comfort. Neck rolls for choices. Notice you have total control over what you are doing with your body. Shoulder rolls. Small or bigger movements. Creating interpersonal rhythms. Raising hands with breaths and then lowering. 54321 then release. Practice this instead. Ratio breathing or belly breathing. Rock forward and back and side to side then centre. Tree pose Sweeping arms out and over from mountain. Seated forward fold.