ENGINEER STILLNESs
A 40 day program
Daily practice of bodywork, breathwork and meditation.
This program of daily practice teaches a combination of bodywork, breathwork and meditation tools to equip you to guide yourself towards wholeness. The combination of ‘somatic’ (body-based) tools I use are now widely verified by modern clinical trials to help balance our nervous system, release tension and trauma stored in our bodies and improve our mental and emotional wellbeing, when used carefully and strategically.
tailored for you
As well as teaching you how to self-regulate your nervous system and the key elements of body-breath-mind practice, your practice will be completely bespoke to you, designed to address your unique needs at the time of starting the program. We are all on our own journey, and what I need from my practice at any one time will differ from what you need from yours.
The practice acts like a prescription; you work with the same practice until a) the ‘habit’ of self-balancing practice becomes self-sustaining; and b) you feel its benefits not just in all layers of your being, but in all areas of your life.
Why 40 days?
Daily repetition harnesses our brain’s neuroplasticity - its ability to change in response to new experiences - to develop a new habit. Neuroscience suggests 30-60 days to build a new neural pathway that sustains the habit; the Yoga tradition recommends at least 40. Because you learn it off by heart, you will ultimately be able guide your own practice without me, and my hope is that you will continue with body-breath-mind practice well beyond that, though, as this is a toolkit we can keep beside us for life.
TOOLS FOR LIFE
Body-mind stability changes the way we respond to the world - in relationships, to stress, our openness to change - and in turn, the world responds differently to us. You’ll know how to hold yourself through challenging situations simply by, for example, focusing on your breathing. The tools also support you in developing the capacity to listen internally to the signals of your body, something scientists call interoception, which is vital for clearly discerning your needs and boundaries and for feeling ‘yourself’. They can help you foster self-awareness and greater perspective. As a whole, the practice offers a safe container for subconscious material to surface, be seen and be integrated into a different way of being.
“why I gave my book the title ‘The Body Keeps the Score,' is that if it's in the body, the treatment should be in the body. Body treatment is somewhere, like, way on the periphery of the world. Instead, we sit in a chair and we talk to people, somehow trying to magically make people safe in their body.
I did the first National Institutes of Health-funded study on Yoga. It is more effective for chronic PTSD than any drug with people I've ever studied. I didn't see a single drug-selling firm turn into a Yoga studio after we published this data. But this data was serious. If you learn how to really inhabit your body and learn to feel comfortable moving your body and being in your body, something starts shifting.”
Dr Bessel van der Kolk, who has dedicated his life to studying the impacts of traumatic experiences on the brains and bodies of children and adults, and developing therapeutic treatments based on emerging attachment and neuroscience research.
the program step-by-step
-
You can take your time to reflect and feel free to email me with follow up questions. Please note - no previous experience of Yoga is required, nor any special clothing or equipment, nor is it necessary to be flexible. Anybody may do this program and it can be done entirely remotely.
-
It is also outlines my responsibilities towards you in terms of client confidentiality and privacy, and outlines the information I need - including any relevant medical information - to properly support you and fulfil my duty of care towards you. Please note, our sessions are not therapy and you will not be asked to share your trauma history or to process any memories. You are free to share as much or as little information as you want in this regard.
-
We make sure that we are in agreement about your goals and I outline my proposed plan for your practice. I will also talk you through the next steps and we will agree some dates for our next meetings. I then refine the practice I have created, which is tailored uniquely for your needs. No two practices are the same.
-
We adapt them for your body and experience as needed. I will record this session and send it to you for reference.
-
These will also be recorded, so that I can edit a recording of your practice for you to follow at home.
-
I may also send other recordings of supporting practices, or re-edit your practice recording as necessary, for example, when you know it by heart and would like me to take some of the instructions out that you no longer need.
-
This explains explaining the latest research into the efficacy of body-breath-mind practice for health and wellbeing, the historical and philosophical contexts of the practice, and offering practical guidance. You can read the ‘welcome letter’ for my manual here.
-
You will also receive daily encouragement emails and support via messaging as needed. I will also follow up with you a month after your day 40 to see how you are doing. When you feel more stable and balanced, and if you want to go deeper with your practice and with the Yoga tradition, we can work together on subsequent practices. But until then, you’ll have your toolkit whenever you need it.
-
