• Check in, centering, balanced hatha yoga set considering contraindications, relaxation (with imagery as appropriate),
• Balanced pranayama considering contraindications, meditation/centering.
• Include at least one suggestion from Karma, Bhakti, Raja, or Jnana Yoga tailored for this client.

ORDER OF PRACTICE TO FOLLOW:
Self-Discipline
• Self-control
• Control your thoughts
• Control your speech
• Control of your emotions, feelings and moods
o Accept and let go……….
o ‘Let go’ of attachment to being right
o ‘Let go’ of attachment to your opinions
o “Let go’ of attachment to your anger
o ‘Let go’ of attachment to your expectations
• Use your frontal cortex and think before you act
• By practice of acceptance and letting go of attachments you can more easily practice Contentment
• Practice Titiksha - bearing things with patience, endurance and mental evenness

o In this session you said the following about the MVD incident: you thought that you were having lots of progress in responding vs. reacting, but as you put it “my base is not content – my state of being, my usual mood. The feeling of complaining and showing dissatisfaction comes up.” This is actually progress even though it may not feel like it. It is actually good progress because you are recognizing these things in yourself – you are seeing that you are moody and you are recognizing that you feel like complaining and showing dissatisfaction. Recognizing is the first step to reversing a pattern. It has to begin with recognizing how we are. This is progress because now you can work to change yourself to make your life better.

o Additionally, in this session you said the following about rumination “I have good days and bad days. In the good days I am productive and I can study. The bad days are when something has happened and I can’t get it out of my head and it take effort.” This is the chitta vritti that we discussed about in the 3rd session. It is Sutra I.2 The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is Yoga, in the Yoga Sutras book. Please re-read that Sutra as it is helpful to read to deepen your understanding about the mind. Recall our past discussion on feeling painless rather than painful or pleasurable. To do this we must control our thoughts and emotions even in situations where we think we are right. One of the simplest things to do is to stay calm and practice even-mindedness/steadiness of mind so that you can think clearly and not react. It is easier to do the practice of mindfulness when you are not in a stressful situation, for example you can practice while washing dishes. When you do it during non-stressful times, like washing dishes, it is not wasted, it will help to train your mind to recognize being mindful when things happen. Mindfulness applies to when your mind is in rumination about something. In rumination you may be ruminating about a stressful situation or it may be non-stressful, either way it does take effort and that is how we train ourselves.

o Use the tools in your Tool Box

Asana
Breathing - double inhale with prolonged exhalation
Diaphragmatic Breathing with HUGS!
Meditation – Daily

CENTERING
CHECK IN
o Review what client has been able to integrate what worked.
o Client Sharing
ASANA
o Tadasana with affirmation
o Half-moon
o Uttanaasana
o Star - 5 pointed star with hands free
o King Dancer
o Pelvic circles
o Waist circles
o Standing strut
o Standing twist

PROGRESSIVE DEEP RELAXATION - Yoga Nidra
o Full body tensing and releasing
o Body Scan – from the head down to the feet and then up again.
o Observe the body
o Observe the breath
o Witness the thoughts
o 5 minutes of peace within

PRANAYAMA
o Dirga Swasam with Hugs

WISDOM TEACHING
o Accepting pain as help for purification.

MEDITATION – 1 min
CLOSING

Client was informed that this is our last session for the purposes of my Capstone project.

Client reported no issues with heart rate increase.

Client reports that the last two weeks have been difficult because she has had to go and try to get her license and twice she was not able to do it and she is going to try again this week, and also her son was home from daycare for two days. These activities and obligations take time away from her studies and also from having a practice that she can settle into. Thus, she was not able to meditate for longer that a few minutes at a time some of the mornings, and she has been doing a few minutes before she goes to study. During the previous session, client reported that she “believes that meditation is good and worth the effort” – hence she has tried to do it for a few minutes before studying. She has not done asana expect that she does some stretching while she studies, while repeating in her mind what she just learned. Her preferred breathing practice is double inhale with prolonged exhalation.

I check with the client about how she was doing with responding vs. reacting, the following is what she said:

Client had an episode during one of her visits to Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) last week where she felt ‘she was right’ about requesting more time to get the information that she needed to present to them. Apparently the MVD employee did not want to wait and would not give my client more time, so she insisted with the employee, and she felt she was right to insist. This caused some unpleasantness between her and her husband and ruined her day because she thought he too should insist also.

o --- After she told me this story, we discussed about acceptance and letting go. ‘Letting go’ of attachment to being right even if she was right.

o At first client didn’t see why she should let go, but she finally understood because she saw that in this situation, she was not going to get her message across even if she was right.

o She said that she wishes she could remember the wisdom teachings while these things are happening because it would save her a lot of trouble. I said that she has to make the effort to really understand and use the teachings and that this comes with experience and time.

o As a result of the MVD incident, client said that she thought she was having lots of progress in responding vs. reacting, but she is noticing that as she put it “my base is not content – my state of being, my usual mood. The feeling of complaining and showing dissatisfaction comes up.” This is actually progress even though it may not feel like it. It is actually good progress because she is recognizing these things in herself – she is seeing that she is moody and she is recognizing that she feels like complaining and showing dissatisfaction. Recognizing is the first step to reversing a pattern. It has to begin with recognizing how we are.

As discussed in the ‘homework section’ above, I checked in with client about rumination and there is my reply to her above. It seems that this is an improvement from when the client first started to receive Yoga Therapy – at that time, rumination was constant and she ruminated about even small things like about buying groceries. She also had a habit of escaping what she had to do – like studying, by thinking of her child and shopping on her cell phone. She no long does this.

The client is on her journey and she is fortunate to have Yoga tools to help her.

This was the final session for capstone. I may continue to work with the client and log in more hours.