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A Simple 10–15 Minute Yoga Flow You Can Practice at Home

This week we held our first Community Yoga Class, which we plan to offer monthly.

The class has two clear goals:

  1. Create a comfortable space where beginners can learn the foundations of yoga and regular practitioners can move in a low-pressure environment.
  2. Highlight five key poses participants can take home and use in their own personal practice.

Each month I’ll share the featured poses here on the blog. Newsletter subscribers receive the complete class flow.

Below is this month’s 10–15 minute personal practice sequence.

1️⃣ Arrive & Ground

Mountain Pose (Tadasana)

Builds stability, alignment, and balance.

Stand tall with feet hip-width apart. Arms rest at your sides or hands at heart center.

Try:

  • Inhale: sweep arms overhead
  • Exhale: bring hands to heart
  • Repeat for 3–5 slow breaths

Focus on:

  • Even weight through both feet
  • Soft knees
  • Steady, relaxed breathing

Pause and ask: What do I notice in my body right now?

2️⃣ Warm Up

Cat–Cow (Chakravakasana)

Improves spinal mobility and connects movement with breath.

Come to hands and knees.

  • Inhale (Cow): lift chest and tailbone
  • Exhale (Cat): round spine, chin toward chest
  • Repeat slowly for 5 breaths

Optional: Rest briefly in Child’s Pose between rounds.

Focus on gentle movement — no forcing or pushing.

3️⃣ Build Strength & Stability

Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II)

Strengthens legs, opens hips and chest, improves focus.

From standing:

  • Step one foot back
  • Bend front knee
  • Extend arms wide

Hold 3–5 breaths.
Straighten the front leg → re-bend → hold again.
Repeat on the other side.

Focus on:

  • Strong legs
  • Steady gaze
  • Relaxed shoulders and jaw

Strong body. Steady breath.

4️⃣ Integrate & Release

Supine Twist (Supta Matsyendrasana)

Encourages spinal mobility and gentle release.

Lie on your back.

  • Hug knees in
  • Drop both knees to one side
  • Stay for 5 slow breaths
  • Switch sides

Focus on:

  • Letting gravity assist
  • Longer, slower exhales
  • Softening through ribs and belly

5️⃣ Rest & Reset

Corpse Pose (Savasana)

Integrates the benefits of your practice and calms the nervous system.

Lie comfortably on your back.
Support under knees if needed.

Stay 3–5 minutes.

Optional breath:

  • Inhale for 3
  • Exhale for 4

Allow your body to fully rest.

Optional Breath Practice: 3-Part Breath (Dirga Pranayama)

This breath practice can calm the mind, reduce stress, and support nervous system regulation.

Step 1: Get Comfortable

Sit upright or lie down.
Relax shoulders and jaw.
Place one hand on your belly and one on your chest.

Step 2: Belly

Inhale slowly through your nose.
Let the belly gently expand.
Exhale and soften.
Repeat 3–4 breaths.

Step 3: Ribs

Inhale into belly, then expand ribs.
Exhale ribs, then belly.
Repeat 3–4 breaths.

Step 4: Chest

Inhale belly → ribs → upper chest.
Exhale chest → ribs → belly.
Practice 5–10 slow breaths.

Move slowly. Never strain.

If you’d like the full class flow, including transitions and timing cues, be sure to subscribe to the newsletter.

And if you’re ready to deepen your practice, the Members Library includes:

  • Extended guided flows
  • Nervous system reset practices
  • Pain-informed yoga sequences
  • Breathwork audio recordings

brain, Chronic pain, Mindfulness, Stress Management, Wellness topic

Pain vs. Suffering: How to Reduce Chronic Pain by Working With Your Nervous System

If you’ve been following along, we’ve been exploring three core questions about chronic pain:

  • What is pain, really?
  • Why does my body perceive pain the way it does?
  • How can I experience less pain, move better, and function more fully in daily life?

In the last two posts, we explored what pain is and how the nervous system processes it. Today, we begin answering the third question:

How do we experience less pain?

The first step is understanding the difference between pain and suffering.

Pain vs. Suffering: What’s the Difference?

Pain and suffering are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same.

Psychology Today offers this helpful distinction:

  • Pain: A physical sensation that occurs in response to injury or illness. It serves as a biological signal that something may need attention. Pain can be acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term).
  • Suffering: The emotional and psychological distress that arises from pain. It is influenced by how we interpret, react to, and relate to the pain — including anxiety, frustration, fear, or hopelessness.

Pain is a biological message.

Suffering is the story we build around that message.

When we reduce tension, fear, and resistance — as discussed in previous posts — we reduce the nervous system’s perception of threat. This alone can dial pain down.

But we can go further.

We can begin to separate sensation from interpretation.

Why This Matters for Chronic Pain

Pain is not optional.

Suffering often is.

We may not control the initial sensation, but we do have influence over:

  • Resistance
  • Catastrophic thinking
  • Identity-based beliefs (“I am broken”)
  • Fear-based projections about the future

Suffering is often the additional layer we heap on top of the biological pain.

It’s similar to the difference between guilt and shame:

  • Guilt says: “I did something wrong.”
  • Shame says: “I am wrong.”

Pain says: “There is sensation in my back.”
Suffering says: “My body is broken and my life is over.”

One is data.
The other is interpretation.

How to Distinguish Between Pain and Suffering

Use the following self-inquiry to separate sensation from story.

Step 1: Is This Sensation or Story?

Pain-focused questions (sensation):

  • What am I physically noticing right now (location, temperature, pressure, movement)?
  • Can I describe this using only sensory words?
  • Is the sensation shifting, even slightly?

Suffering-focused questions (story):

  • What am I telling myself about this sensation?
  • Am I predicting the future?
  • Am I making this mean something about who I am?
  • What am I afraid this pain will lead to?

Pain: “Sharp, pulsing in lower back.”
Suffering: “This will never get better.”

Step 2: Is There Resistance?

Suffering often equals:

Pain × Resistance

Ask yourself:

  • Am I fighting this sensation?
  • Am I bracing or tensing against it?
  • What happens if I soften by just 5%?
  • If this sensation were allowed to exist for 30 seconds, what would change?

The nervous system amplifies pain when it senses threat.
Resistance sends a threat signal.

Softening reduces it.

Step 3: Is Identity Involved?

Pain is an experience.
Suffering becomes identity.

  • Am I saying “I have pain” or “I am broken”?
  • Has this sensation become part of who I think I am?
  • Who would I be without this story?
  •  

Step 4: Am I Time Traveling?

Pain happens in the present moment.
Suffering lives in the past and future.

  • Am I replaying how this started?
  • Am I imagining worst-case outcomes?
  • If I focus only on right now, what is actually happening?

Often, this moment is tolerable.
It’s the imagined trajectory that overwhelms us.

Step 5: What Is This Pain Trying to Protect?

This is where we shift into compassion.

  • If this pain had a protective job, what would it be?
  • What might my nervous system believe is dangerous?
  • Is there an unmet need underneath this sensation?

Pain is not your enemy.
It is often your body trying to protect you.

Step 6: Separate Sensation from Meaning

Try this:

  • What is the raw data?
  • What is the interpretation?
  • Which part is optional?

Example:

  • Raw data: throbbing knee
  • Interpretation: “I’ll never hike again.”
  • Optional layer: catastrophic projection

A Simple Formula for Reducing Suffering

Pain = Sensation
Suffering = Sensation + Resistance + Story + Fear

To reduce suffering:

  1. Ease resistance.
  2. Rewrite the narrative.
  3. Challenge fear-based thinking.
  4. Respond with self-compassion instead of self-judgment.

For example:

Instead of:
“I won’t be able to provide for my family because I can’t work.”

Try:
“I care deeply about providing for my family. I will explore options and get professional guidance.”

One is fear.
The other is values-based action.

Want to Go Deeper?

If this resonates with you, I’ve created:

✔ A guided journaling worksheet to help you separate pain from suffering
✔ A nervous system reset practice
✔ Additional members-only resources for managing chronic pain through ACT, mindfulness, and yoga therapy

You can:

👉 Join my newsletter for free resources, guided practices, and early access to upcoming groups.


👉 Or explore the Members Content Library, where I share deeper teachings, downloadable worksheets, audio practices, and structured pain-management tools.

Reducing suffering doesn’t require eliminating pain.

It requires changing your relationship to it.

And that is absolutely possible.

Anatomy, Chronic pain, Mindfulness, Wellness topic, Yoga

Why Does My Body Perceive Pain the Way It Does?

Last week, we explored the question “What is pain?”
This week, we’re addressing an equally important question:

Why does my body perceive pain the way it does?

Understanding how pain works can be incredibly empowering — especially for people living with chronic pain. Pain is not just a message from injured tissue. It is a protective signal created and regulated by the nervous system.

Pain Is a Nervous System Response

Pain can be understood as a decision made by the nervous system to alert us that something may need attention or protection. When the nervous system senses danger, it turns up the volume on sensation.

This is helpful when you’re injured and need to rest or protect your body.
It becomes problematic when the alarm system stays on long after healing should have occurred.

When that happens, pain:

feels more intense

lasts longer

spreads more easily

This can occur even when tissue damage has not increased.

Why Tension, Fear, and Resistance Amplify Pain

Three key factors are known to amplify pain signaling:

  • Tension
  • Fear
  • Resistance or avoidance

All three increase nervous system threat detection and reduce the brain’s ability to dampen pain signals (often called pain inhibition).

How Muscle Tension Maintains Pain

When the body perceives threat, muscles tighten reflexively to protect vulnerable areas. While this is adaptive in the short term, chronic muscle tension can increase pain.

Sustained tension:

  • reduces blood flow
  • limits oxygen delivery
  • increases metabolic waste

These changes activate nociceptors (pain receptors), sending more pain signals back to the brain.

This creates a self-reinforcing loop:

More pain → more guarding → more tension → more pain

Importantly, tension does not just result from pain — it also maintains pain.

When muscles soften, even slightly, the nervous system receives a message of safety, which can help reduce pain intensity.

How Fear Increases Pain Sensitivity

Fear activates the body’s threat system, including the sympathetic nervous system and limbic brain. When the brain perceives danger:

  • pain sensitivity increases
  • the pain threshold decreases
  • survival becomes the priority over comfort

When this state persists, it can lead to central sensitization, where the nervous system becomes overly reactive to pain signals.

A helpful way to think about this is:

If the brain thinks you’re in danger, it wants you to feel it.

Research shows that pain intensity often correlates more strongly with fear and catastrophic thinking than with findings on imaging studies.

Catastrophizing Thoughts and Chronic Pain

In cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), we often address catastrophizing thoughts such as:

  • “This pain means I’m permanently damaged.”
  • “It’s only going to get worse.”
  • “I’ll never live a normal life.”
  • “This flare means I’ve lost all my progress.”
  • “If I move, I’ll injure myself further.”
  • “My body is failing me.”

These thoughts are understandable — but they increase fear and nervous system activation, which can worsen pain.

CBT helps by identifying and challenging these thoughts, replacing them with more balanced and accurate ones.

In acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), the focus shifts slightly. Instead of debating whether a thought is true, we ask whether it is helpful. If a thought pulls us away from what matters, we practice letting it be and choosing actions aligned with our values.

How Resistance Keeps the Pain Alarm On

Resistance to pain often looks like:

  • bracing or guarding
  • holding the breath
  • tightening against sensation
  • mentally trying to push pain away

Neurologically, resistance:

  • increases sympathetic arousal
  • keeps cortisol and adrenaline elevated
  • reduces parasympathetic (vagal) tone

This suppresses the brain’s natural pain-inhibiting pathways and keeps the nervous system in an alert, defensive state.

In short, resistance tells the nervous system:

This is not safe.

This helps explain why pain can persist after healing, flare during stress, or spread to new areas.

Turning the Pain Volume Down

Pain is not a personal failure. It is adaptive biology — a protective system designed to keep us safe.

With chronic pain, however, the alarm is often louder than necessary. The goal of therapy is not to eliminate pain entirely, but to help the nervous system feel safe enough to turn the volume down.

Through mindfulness, gentle movement, cognitive strategies, and values-based action, we reduce tension, fear, and resistance — creating the conditions for pain to soften.

Key Takeaway

Pain is not just about damage.
It is also about protection, perception, and nervous system safety.

Please sign up for our newsletter to receive or freebie of the week, “3 Ways to Turn Down Pain Volume” (a pdf with specific practices you can do in the moment.)

Bonus Content

Subscribe to our members only page to access our content library including this week’s 10 minute audio of a guided meditation – Turning the Volume Down: A Nervous System Reset for Pain.