Tag Archives: wellness

Stress Management, Yoga

Yoga Sequence for the 3rd Chakra (Manipura)

Here’s the sequence we practiced at our last yoga therapy group:

Opening Grounding (5 minutes)

Seated or reclined with one hand on belly, one on heart

Invite slow diaphragmatic breathing

Bring awareness to the space between navel and ribcage

Visualization: a warm golden light igniting like a small flame

Emotional check-in: “What feels heavy here? What feels strong?”

Optional affirmation:

I am enough.

I have the right to take up space.

Therapeutic purpose: establishes safety while orienting attention to inner authority.

2. Breathwork (8 minutes)

Option A: Kapalabhati (gentle)

30–60 seconds on / rest / repeat 3 rounds
(Modify for anxiety or trauma with softer belly pulses)

Option B: Seated Cat–Cow with breath

Inhale = expand chest

Exhale = draw navel inward

Option C: Belly breathing with resistance

Light pressure from hands on abdomen during exhale

Purpose: stimulates digestive fire and improves interoceptive awareness.

3. Warming & Core Activation (15 minutes)

Flow Sequence (slow and steady)

Seated torso circles

Tabletop core work (bird dog or knee-to-nose)

Half Sun Salutation (knees down option)

Chair Pose → Fold → Rise (repeat 3–5 rounds)

Strength-Building Postures

Warrior II

Crescent Lunge

Twisted Lunge

Boat Pose (or one-leg version)

Plank → Child’s Pose

Offer choice-based language and frequent rest cues.

Purpose: empowers one to feel agency and capability through safe exertion.

4. Empowerment Postures (15 minutes)

Hold poses longer with affirmation choices:

Warrior I: I stand strong.

Chair Pose: I can hold discomfort and grow.

Side plank (or modified): I take up space.

Dolphin / Forearm Plank: I build from within.

Invite optional arm-positioning as power symbols (fists, arms overhead, hands on hips).

Therapeutic framing: Strength as choice, not force.

5. Cooling + Emotional Digestion (10 minutes)

Gentle abdominal release poses:

Seated forward fold

Supine twist

Reclined knee-to-chest

Supported bridge (block or bolster)

Optional self-touch cue:

Hands over solar plexus to stimulate safety + embodied awareness.

Purpose: supports integration and “emotional digestion.”

6. Guided Visualization + Savasana (7 minutes)

Visualization prompt:
“Imagine a steady flame in your belly—warm, bright, unwavering. Not burning… glowing.”

Invite reflection:

What are you ready to release?

What feels newly possible?

End with silence or soft music.

7. Closing Reflection (5 minutes)

Group or journaling prompts:

“One way I will assert myself this week is…”

“What drains my energy? What fuels it?”

“What does healthy power feel like in my body?”

final mantra:
🟡 “I act with courage and clarity.”

Wellness topic, Yoga

Chakra Yoga Therapy Sequence for Emotional Balance & Flow

Session from Last Night’s Group

The second chakra, or Sacral Chakra (Svadhisthana), is the energetic center connected to emotional flow, creativity, pleasure, and the ability to experience life with a sense of fluidity rather than tension. Located in the low belly and pelvis, this chakra helps us connect to movement, sensation, and healthy boundaries. When balanced, it supports flexibility — both physically and emotionally — allowing us to feel our feelings without becoming overwhelmed by them. This practice is designed to gently open and regulate the Sacral Chakra through mindful movement, breath, and grounding awareness.

✨ Warm-Up: Awakening the Body

1. Standing Joint Circles
Begin standing tall. Gently circle the ankles, knees, hips, wrists, and shoulders. Move slowly and intentionally, inviting awareness into each joint.

2. Swaying Side to Side
Shift your weight from one foot to the other in a slow, rhythmic sway. Allow the arms to hang heavy or gently float with the movement.
This helps regulate the nervous system and encourages fluidity — perfect for sacral chakra work.

🌞 Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskar)

Move through 3–5 rounds, or whatever feels right.

Step-by-step version:

  1. Mountain Pose (Tadasana): Stand tall, grounding through all four corners of the feet.
  2. Inhale – Arms Up (Urdhva Hastasana): Sweep the arms overhead, lifting through the spine.
  3. Exhale – Forward Fold (Uttanasana): Hinge at the hips, softening into the legs.
  4. Inhale – Halfway Lift (Ardha Uttanasana): Lengthen the spine, hands on shins or thighs.
  5. Exhale – Step Back to Plank: Engage the core, steady the breath.
  6. Lower Down: Knees-chest-chin or Chaturanga, depending on comfort.
  7. Inhale – Cobra or Upward Dog: Lift the chest, opening the heart.
  8. Exhale – Downward-Facing Dog: Hips lift back, grounding through hands and feet.
  9. Inhale – Step Forward, Half Lift: Long spine.
  10. Exhale – Forward Fold
  11. Inhale – Rise to Stand
  12. Exhale – Return to Mountain Pose

🔥 Standing Strength & Flow

3. Goddess Pose (Utkata Konasana)
Open the hips and connect with your internal power. Add gentle pulses or stillness.

🐾 Floor Work & Core Awakening

4. Cat–Cow (Marjaryasana/Bitilasana)
Move slowly, synchronizing breath with spinal movement to regulate and soothe.

5. Side Plank (Vasisthasana)
Choose knee-down or full expression.
This activates inner stability and confidence.

6. Reverse Plank (Purvottanasana)
Lift the chest and hips. Option: bend the knees for a table-top version.

🌀 Hip Opening

7. Locust Pose (Salabhasana)
Strengthens the back body and energizes the solar plexus chakra.

8. Bow Pose (Dhanurasana)
A deeper heart opener—move gently and avoid strain.

🕊️ Hip Release Sequence

9. Pigeon Pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana)
Hold each side, using props as needed.
Great for emotional release stored in the hips.

🌙 Cooling Down

10. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)
Lift and open the front body, supporting heart and throat energy.

11. Reclined Twist (Supta Matsyendrasana)
Release tension in the spine and support digestion.

12. Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclined Bound Angle)
Place hands on belly or heart.
End here for a few minutes of soft, supported rest.

🧡 Closing

Take a moment to notice how the body feels — the warmth, openness, and grounding.
This sequence is designed to bring balance to the emotional body, support nervous system regulation, and restore mindful presence.

**Bonus

If you’d like a guided audio version of this click here for bonus content. (Content related to this post may take up to a week to be uploaded.)

Also if you’d like to receive our new “Grounded”newsletter, it’ll be available to subscribe to in the next week or so. It will contain atleast one additional practice or information to supplement what is already on the website. We are hoping to create a space and a community to support overall wellness so stay tuned!

Mindfulness, Wellness topic, Yoga

Integrating Chakra Work Into Clinical Yoga Therapy

Exploring a Mind–Body Lens for Mental and Physical Wellness

Since completing my yoga therapist training, I’ve been slowly weaving more yogic therapeutic elements into my clinical counseling practice. One of the most helpful bridges between traditional mental-health models and yoga therapy has been using the chakra system as a lens for understanding health, behavior, and emotional patterns.

Whether a client approaches chakras and “energy medicine” literally or metaphorically, the framework gives them another way of exploring what’s happening in their body and mind—and often opens new pathways for healing.

How Chakra Inquiry Supports Clinical Work

A simple example: a client arrives feeling anxious and overwhelmed. Instead of diving straight into cognitive or behavioral interventions, we might do a brief check-in with each chakra to identify what feels “off” or unbalanced.

If we notice root-chakra themes—such as feeling unsafe, untethered, or unstable—we would work with grounding practices.
The Root Chakra (Muladhara) relates to:

  • Safety and survival
  • A sense of belonging and the right to exist
  • Grounding, centering, and stability
  • The earth element

Because the client is experiencing the opposite of these qualities, our work might include:

  • Breathwork with slow, steady rhythms
  • Grounding postures and simple yoga sequences
  • Connection with nature (walking, sitting on the earth, sensory awareness)
  • Steady, rhythmic music—like a heartbeat
  • Mantras or self-talk such as “I am safe. I have a right to be here.”

These interventions mimic many of the skills we use in counseling—particularly mindfulness practices from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). First, we help the client step back and regulate. Then, with clearer awareness, they can move toward the chakra’s core value—like security, grounding, or stability—and take committed action.

Chakras as a Lens for Physical Concerns

The chakra model is just as useful for physical symptoms.

For example, someone experiencing lower-back pain may benefit from practices associated with the root chakra. By focusing on grounding and opening through yoga postures, we help release tension and bring awareness to both the physical and emotional layers of discomfort.

Root-supporting postures might include:

  • Mountain Pose
  • Bridge Pose
  • Child’s Pose

These movements lengthen, strengthen, and create spaciousness in the low back while reinforcing feelings of stability.

To help with pain, other root chakra focused practices like 3 part breathing or grounding in nature can be used to help a person take a step back and not “fuse” or panic with the pain but hold space for the pain so it can provide them feedback on what their body needs.

This Week’s Root Chakra Group Sequence

We launched our chakra group this week at the office—starting, of course, with Chakra One: Root (Muladhara). Below is the grounding sequence we practiced together.

🌿 Gentle Rooting Flow

  1. Mountain Pose (Tadasana) — Feel the soles of your feet; establish your root.
  2. Chair Pose (Utkatasana) — Build strength and stability.
  3. Tree Pose (Vrksasana), Right — Explore balance and grounding.
  4. Chair Pose
  5. Tree Pose, Left
  6. Goddess Squat (Utkata Konasana) — Inner strength, willpower, courage.
  7. Wide-Leg Forward Fold
  8. Return to Mountain, then Forward Fold, step back to Tabletop.
  9. Child’s Pose (Balasana) — Safety, surrender, breath into the back body.
  10. Cat/Cow
  11. Thread the Needle, Right
  12. Thread the Needle, Left
  13. Pigeon Pose (Kapotasana), Right
  14. Transition to Fire Logs Pose (Agnistambhasana)
  15. Move into Cow Face Pose (Gomukhasana)
  16. Shift into a gentle backbend, lifting the pelvis and looking behind.
  17. Butterfly Pose, then repeat steps 13–16 on the left side.
  18. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandhasana) or Supported Bridge
  19. Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani) — Grounded rest; nervous-system reset.

For an audio guide with the above practice and playlist used for the group today, subscribe here to our bonus content.

Uncategorized

Let There Be Light: Easing the Winter Blues with Light Therapy

It’s that time of year when many people start to feel a subtle shift in mood. Energy dips, irritability creeps in, and motivation seems to disappear. For some, these changes are mild; for others, they mark the start of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Some of my clients who are particularly sensitive to the darker months start “winter therapy” as soon as the days shorten. Others wait until after the holidays—when stress, exhaustion, and post-holiday recovery collide—to reach out for help. Either way, this is the perfect season to talk about light therapy boxes.

What a Light Therapy Box Can Do

Whether or not you’ve been formally diagnosed with SAD, a light therapy box can help offset those winter “blahs.” If someone can get out side for atleast 20 minutes a day consistently, even on cloudy or rainy days, then they probably don’t need a light therapy box. But for those who cannot be as consistent due to their schedule or motivation then a light therapy box is an excellent wellness tool.

I typically suggest sitting about 14 inches away from the light box for 20 minutes in the morning while you have breakfast or start your day. You don’t need to stare directly into it—just let the light reach your eyes as you go about your routine. Think of it as giving your body a gentle sunrise indoors.

Interestingly, many people find benefit from using their light box even outside of winter. I’ve had clients use them during hot summer months when they spend most of their time indoors avoiding the heat. The goal is the same: supporting your body’s rhythm and mood when you’re not getting natural sunlight.

Why Light Matters So Much

Daily exposure to full-spectrum light helps synchronize your body’s internal clock to a natural 24-hour day. Without it, your biological rhythm can drift to longer cycles—sometimes 36 or even 72 hours—which throws off your sleep, mood, and energy.

When your body is aligned with daylight, neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and melatonin regulate properly. You get clearer signals to fall asleep, wake up, feel motivated, and manage stress hormones like cortisol.

Simply put:

Regular exposure to light doesn’t just lift your mood—it helps your entire body function more efficiently.

Sunshine for Mind, Body, and Spirit

Our bodies are wired for sunlight. When we receive enough bright, full-spectrum light, we thrive mentally, physically, and emotionally. Light therapy can be a powerful way to bring a bit of that sunshine indoors during darker seasons—or any time you feel your spark fading.

Want to learn more?
Click here to access our subscription page

which includes our weekly bonus content and our growing library of wellness information, tools, and practices. Resources added this week include:

  • A PDF guide on choosing the right light therapy box
  • A brief history of light therapy and how it became a trusted wellness tool
Treatment, Yoga

Yoga Therapy vs Psychotherapy

Over the past pretty much 10 years I’ve been slowly but surely working toward getting my Yoga Therapy Certificate with the International Association of Yoga Therapists. I finally completed that task last month. I had finished up my training with an absolutely wonderful studio out of San Francisco, Purusha Yoga School. I met some amazing people and learned so so much. I am actually sad that it is over more than excited about the certificate. Anyway it has always been a dream of mine to incorporate more yoga into my mental health practice. This has been difficult because my profession is Clinical Social Work and there is a very strong business model for a therapy practice that utilizes insurance and out of pocket. The clients I see need to be able to use their insurance and I don’t want to be so boutique that I can’t cater to the average working person whom is most likely not going to pay my hourly rate weekly. Some can and will because of the benefit, but most of us want to use our insurance if we have it.

So the challenge has been how do I work in yoga therapy since insurance doesn’t cover that. Well through this last training I have received so much insight how this all could work and finally decided to take the jump and transition my practice to something much more holistic. It is very exciting for me.

I think understanding how yoga therapy and traditional psychotherapy are similiar and different is really good to keep as a fore front as I chart this next course. Here’s a brief comparison of the two:

Both Yoga Therapy and Traditional Psychotherapy are the same in the following ways:

Both

  • Work on rewriting negative thoughts/experiences into something more positive that helps get a person unstuck and to move toward  optimal wellness.
  • Work on understanding where a person is  on their journey toward wellness and meet the client where they are at.
  • Are confidential
  • Use skills of motivational enhancement therapy and cognitive behavior therapy
  • Set up SMART (specific measurable, attainable, relative, time sensitive) goals for treatment.
  • Teach mindfulness and relaxation skills
How Yoga Therapy and Traditional Psychotherapy are different:
  • Traditional Psychotherapy uses predominantly talk and utilizes one or more of the many models of psychotherapy available to Licensed Counselors.
  • Yoga therapy uses the framework of the 8 limbs of yoga to build a treatment plan.
  • Yoga therapy uses Sanskrit terminology to identify and explain concepts while traditional psychotherapy uses western medical terminology.
  • Yoga therapy uses the chakra system to assess health and to inform treatment planning.
  • Yoga Therapy  follows ayurvedic principles to guide treatment.
  • Most traditional psychotherapy is covered under insurance; yoga therapy is not.

As you can probably see they do have a good bit that overlaps. So the plan is for the business to focus primarily where the two overlap. The majority of Yoga Therapy can be billable with insurance as long as it follows psychotherapy models. I still plan to offer classes that are geared more on teaching versus therapy and those would be out of pocket.

So it’s a new chapter for Grounded for Peace. We start off the transition this summer with offering more specific yoga therapy individual sessions and some small therapeutic groups that incorporate specific strategies in Meditation, Breath work, and Relaxation. As times goes and when I am able to add more staff, we will begin offering more targeting therapeutic groups for anxiety, addiction, and trauma.

If you are interested in knowing more about upcoming groups, click on “Contact Us” at the top and leave us a message.