• 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.

I did not create a homework sheet, which I should have done, but homework was to continue exploring Nadi Shodhana and mala meditation.

Session #4: Meditation focus. In continuing her goal of learning more about yoga, today will share the practice of meditating with mala beads.

Comments
During check-in she shared the previously mentioned discomfort in her hip had improved. The day before this session she had again taken the Centergy class (60 min offering inspired by yoga, pilates and bodyweight movement set to music) and felt energized and appropriately challenged by it. Earlier in the day prior to our scheduled session she had gone to the fitness center of her condo complex and spent 20 minutes on the treadmill, followed by 10 minutes on the exercise bike.

In reflecting on her week, she shared that last Thursday she had given a talk at the Healing Place where she shared with the women in the program about affirmations. She gave them a worksheet with 10 statements (ex: "I am __________, I dream of ____________, I forgive __________.") and they took time to fill each one in. She then led them through a scripted meditation focused on affirmations. I shared that I couldn't help but see this as a practice of karma yoga, and defined that to her a selfless service, giving of her time and energy with no expectation of, or attachment to, any particular outcome. This reminded her of a quote from one of her AA mentors: "You're only responsible for the effort, not the outcome." She shared how liberating that understanding was - that it was both a spiritually and physically freeing experience to realize that "I'm not in control."

Next I guided her through an Awareness Practice, after which she reported noticing tension in her neck and shoulders. I encouraged slow moving, slow breathing, slow thinking as we explored gentle joint activation for first the neck (flexion & extension, rotation, then lateral flexion), then the scapulae (elevation & depression, retraction & protraction) then the shoulder (lateral abduction, internal & external rotation, then circumduction).

For our pranayama practice today we explored Nadi Shodhana, and I offered options of practicing using the right hand to alternate gently closing each nostril, as well as the "hands free" practice of opening and closing each palm. She explored and enjoyed both variations, and mentioned sharing these as well with the ladies at the Healing Place, possibly doing a talk on breath awareness and breathing.

Sharing the focus of this week's session was Meditation, which I defined from Stress Management TT as "a practice by which an individual cultivation a calm, focused, and steady mind." While there are many techniques one can use - which I oversimplified into techniques having an external focus and those having an internal focus - for the purpose of our session, we would explore using mala beads. I gave her a simple rosewood mala, and showed her how to hold it (without using the index finger, in order to "keep the ego out of the way".) I encouraged her to find a mantra, or maybe an affirmation, like those she shared with the women at the Healing Place, to use for homework this week. I did not ask her to choose one at the moment or share it with me, but during check-in next session I'm hoping she will share one that she used during her practice.

We closed out the session with a Shavasana practice.

She felt that during and after the practices she was "breathing deeper," feeling the breath "filling me up."

In mentioning that there were 108 beads plus the guru bead on the mala, she asked the significance of 108 - and I told her that I should know that, but at the moment it escaped me. I have since found a fun short blog on the significance of 108 that I will share with her next session:

https://www.samyakyoga.org/fascinating-facets-of-number-108#:~:text=The%20chakras%20are%20the%20intersections,is%20significant%20of%20spiritual%20completion.

After session I realized that the eye movements could also be beneficial for reducing tension through the neck and shoulders - would like to introduce these next week.