How yoga helps to get us in touch with and transform the manomayakosha, or the layer of our emotions and thoughts. As taught in the module, moving the physical body and breathing in a yogic way allows us to change our physiology and therefore change our emotions and thoughts.

The goal is to improve emotional awareness and regulation through yogic practices. We will measure progress using client journaling and self-report. Our aim is to have positive self-reports of increased emotional awareness within 30 days of yogic intervention.

I will be working with clients at local addiction treatment center. I will be working with clients that are dual-diagnosis – dealing with diagnoses of depression, anxiety, ADHD, PTSD, and other disorders as well as substance use disorders on a spectrum from mild to severe. Both genders, across all ages, likely some with other preexisting health conditions.

We started the session by discussing emotions, thoughts, breathing, and movement to provide a rationale for the practice. Then, we moved into a simple asana sequence in our chairs: seated cat/cow, seated half moon, seated neck rolls, seated twists, seated forward fold, and seated pigeon. We ended the session with extended exhale and alternate nostril pranayama and Yoga Nidra.

We began with Jnana Yoga through a logical explanation supporting the practices and how they allow us to improve emotional regulation skills. Understanding the Manomaya Kosha will help us get in touch with it. Then, we moved to a gentle hatha yoga practice, which could also be thought of as ‘asana’ through a raja yoga lens. Yogic postures and movements can directly impact our thoughts and emotions. During asana practice, I was careful to cue witness consciousness (Sakshi Bhavana) and inner awareness in order to support the goal of getting us in touch with our Manomaya Kosha. Next came pranayama, a branch of raja yoga that is linked directly to our emotional states. We ended with Yoga Nidra, which could be thought of as pratyahara. Withdrawing from the outer sense objects is a great way to increase our awareness of emotional states and thought.

I will have to learn to cater to clients of all levels and abilities and differing levels of interest. In the group of 7 that I taught to, three were very into the movements and breathing, two seemed to be just going through the motions, and two were not moving very much at all. I gave extra permissions and made sure clients knew it was ok not to move, but the clients that weren’t moving much did throw me off a little bit. I would like to set up different level group sessions to accommodate varying levels of ability and interest to make sure the energy is consistent in the room. I felt like some clients could be held back by the seeming lack of interest that other clients might be inadvertently showing. I would also like to be able to offer 1 on 1 sessions with those clients who were particularly interested.

There was one young woman who was constantly moving and fidgeting in her chair but became very focused on the asana practice once it began. For her, I would set up an adaptive integral yoga sequence that includes chanting, sun salutations, cobra and locust pose, dynamic wide legged forward folds, tree (building up to eagle), a dynamic warrior sequence that includes moving through all 3 warrior poses, and shoulderstand or supported viparita karani before doing half spinal twists. She would cool down in pigeon pose if that works for her. I would suggest an extra-long yoga nidra for her, cuing her to really focus on her ability to tense and release her muscles at will. For pranayama, we would do extended exhale breathing and alternate nostril breathing. We would work together to find a sequence that works as a starting point for her and adjust, add, and subtract as necessary.

I feel that I did apply my intended plan once I met with the clients. I would say the goal was achieved as much as it could be at this point. There were breaks here and there when people would talk or ask questions, including during the asana and pranayama, which took away from the flow a little bit. At the same time, I was glad they were engaging. I did follow the sequence I had laid out, besides adding a gentle seated pigeon pose at the end of the asana since one of the clients was saying they deal with back pain. Doing the pranayama with masks on was difficult, but I do feel that the impromptu, deeper discussion of how breathing in certain ways can change specific emotional states and therefore mental states was beneficial for all of us. The goal was for them to learn practices to take into their daily lives, and I do feel I got those practices and their rationale across.

I did have to adapt time-wise since there was more discussion than I had allotted for during planning – the yoga asana, yoga nidra, and pranayama was shorter than I intended. I also adapted by adding the seated pigeon pose for back pain after a client in the group mentioned their back pain. I learned that doing yoga therapy in a group can be a useful way to gauge interest and introduce simple practices, but it would not necessarily be ideal for doing deeper work unless the yoga therapist was familiar with the clients and the groups were set up sensibly with various clients’ personal goals and adaptations already in mind. I learned that when doing yoga therapy with this population as a “required” group, it would be best to optimize discussion time and make things as engaging as possible when discussing the various movements since not everyone will be excited about the movement, itself.

I was in essentially running an “introduction to yoga therapy” class at a local addiction treatment center. I hope to find myself in this situation again, and I would definitely tweak some things. I do think the initial discussion about the underlying science and how yoga helps to get us in touch with the layer of our thoughts and emotions went well. I think that everybody came away with a basic understanding of how yoga therapy can help with addictive disorders. I also think the movements and breathing exercises went well for those who were very into it, but I would plan for more discussion and engagement throughout the whole class for those who weren’t as into it. I would also have a separate offering set up for those who really want to be guided through asana and pranayama in silence. I could also direct clients to online resources like IYTV for those who might want to try it alone.