• 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.

Explore sutra 2.46, the "effort and ease" throughout the week in every context/situation he can - practicing his tuba, working in the spare bedroom for his granddaughters, during strength training sessions, and of course in the homework practices from our session.

Continue the homework practices.

Continue dirga swasam throughout the week in a variety of contexts - ex when he goes to bed, when he goes to water his daughter's plants.

Began with check in and awareness practice, followed by dirga swasam.

Shared with him sutra 2.46 - sthiram sukham asanam, and very loosely paraphrased it as "finding effort and ease, steadiness and sweetness... good space" within each practice. Not only the time spend holding a posture, but the transition into and out of, the time spent in every movement of the body.

Revisited the practices given to the client for homework. During each one had to pause him during the practice to encourage breath awareness, slower pace of execution, and to check in and notice what sensations were present in his body as well as thoughts in his mind.

With his experience of pain in his low back, client reported it being a "1 or 2 out of 10," and feels the practices have been beneficial to reducing his overall experience of LBP. He also had a MFR (myofascial release) massage therapy session with the therapist I recommended.

While I would not consider him to be rajasic in his overall energy, as we began practice he would maintain a consistent conversation as he was practicing asana - and not a conversation connected to his experience in the pose (talking about replacing the carpet in the spare bedroom for his granddaughters, sharing that he hasn't completely retired - and is continuing his medical credentialing for the next three years in order to fill in for faculty a day or two a month, sharing military stories, etc.) I did not want to interrupt him or make him feel in any way that I was not listening to him or not present with him, but I did gently pause him during each practice to guide his focus back to his body and his breath.

His focus during our sessions has been, as he describes, finding "tools for his toolbox" of self care to address the LBP , and while I encourage his focus on self-care and exploring healing modalities he finds beneficial, he is still focused on anamaya kosha - and hesitant/resistant to considering a connection between his experience of pain and the deeper koshas. He does however want to do one more session with me.

If it's ok, I would like to hold off on completing my final client report with him until after that session next week - just to see if allowing him to explore sutra 2.46 during this week off the mat has an influence?

I felt I navigated a balance well with him this session of gently, and somewhat anecdotally (if I may describe it that way) introducing the wisdom teaching of sutra 2.46 without forcing the teaching on him.

In the mentor note from last session you shared the cornstarch in water example. I want to actually do that experiment with him as part of the session, to see if the sensory experience of mixing the cornstarch and touching it at different speeds and intensities gives him a new insight into the sutra. Then we will revisit his homework practices again.