Musical Scale: A Doorway to the Embodied Self

Musical Scale: A Doorway to the Embodied Self

Integrating the Nervous System, Chakra System & Somatic Healing

Developed and written by Michelle Doublet, LCSW, E-RYT, YACEP, CCTP-II Certified Somatic Parts Work and Trauma Resolution Energy Therapy Practitioner

Introduction: Messages From the Body

Musical Scale: A Doorway to the Embodied Self expands on Dr. Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory and introduces additional trauma responses—fawn and functional freeze—to deepen how we understand survival states. The nervous system is just one part of the story. Our survival responses also echo through the body’s energy system—our chakras—revealing deeper patterns of disconnection from the embodied Self.

This isn’t about one system before the other. It’s about integration. Trauma, survival adaptations, and misalignment from our truth show up across multiple layers: nervous system, energetic body, emotions, and intuition.

What Is the Embodied Self?

The embodied self is a lived experience—when your body, emotions, and intuition are in relationship with one another. It’s the space where you feel alive, centered, and whole.

Disconnection from this self happens when we’ve been taught to survive instead of belong—to overfunction, people-please, numb, dissociate, or shut down. These survival strategies imprint not only on the nervous system but also energetically. The result? A felt sense that something is “off,” even if you can’t name it.

Nervous System & Chakra System: The Body Speaks in Layers

Your body speaks through sensation, but it also speaks through energy. You might feel:

• An anxious buzzing in the body (sympathetic activation)

• A block in the throat or heart (energetic constriction)

• Difficulty speaking your needs (disconnection from truth)

These are not separate experiences—they are layered expressions of one deeper truth: something within you wants to come home.

Understanding the Fawn Response

Fawn is a lesser-acknowledged survival state where you prioritize others’ needs to stay safe—through appeasement or placating behaviors.

There’s often tightness in the throat, chest, and jaw, and energetically, this may show up in the heart, throat, or solar plexus—the very centers of love, voice, and will.

A full exploration of fawn patterns and energetic imprints is included in the workbook.

Functional Freeze: When You’re Doing, But Not Feeling

Functional freeze is a state where you’re externally “fine”—working, showing up, functioning—but internally numb, foggy, or disconnected.

You may feel like you’re pressing the gas and the brakes at the same time.

Energetically, this often shows up in the solar plexus, diaphragm, and third eye.

Want to explore this more? It’s all inside the workbook.

The Window of Tolerance & Your Energy Field

Dr. Dan Siegel’s Window of Tolerance describes the range within which your nervous system can safely experience emotion and connection. When you’re outside the window, you enter:

• Hyperarousal: Anxiety, anger, restlessness

• Hypoarousal: Numbness, freeze, collapse

From an energetic lens, this window is also when your chakras and aura can recalibrate. Inside the window, your energy field feels cohesive, flowing, alive. Outside the window, it can collapse inward, scatter outward, or shut down completely.

Chakra Awareness Within the Musical Scale

Reflections from the Body.

Here’s a glimpse of how nervous system states may reflect through your energy body:

• Ventral (Safe & Social): Heart, Throat, Crown

• Fight: Solar Plexus

• Fawn – Appeasement: Solar Plexus, Heart

• Functional Freeze: Diaphragm, Third Eye

For the full Chakra + Nervous System reflection map, download the workbook below.

This is not a diagnosis tool, but a reflective guide—an invitation to explore what your body and energy might be revealing.

Reclaiming the Embodied Self

Healing is not about managing symptoms—it’s about reconnecting with your inner world. It’s about meeting the Self that trauma asked you to forget. While the nervous system and chakra system are different in form—biological and energetic—they are intimately linked.

They move in relationship, like breath and body—each influencing and reflecting the other. A shift in your biology can ripple through your energy field, and a block in your energy can shape how your nervous system responds to life.

Our nervous system holds the imprints of lived experience—the stories, beliefs, and narratives that shape how we relate to ourselves, others, and the world. The chakra system reflects and expresses those imprints energetically—through emotional flow, constriction, or overactivation.

When one shifts, the other responds.

Just as a single offbeat note can affect an entire musical piece—or one misaligned posture can shift the flow of a yoga practice—a dysregulated nervous system can cause a chakra to dim, overcompensate, or shut down. Likewise, blocked energy in a chakra can impact the body’s ability to regulate, rest, or relate.

When we tend to both—the science of the nervous system and the wisdom of the energy field—we create harmony, integration, and deep movement back into the Self.

When we regulate, we gain greater access to the inner resources that may have been blocked in survival states—power, voice, clarity, compassion, and connection.

Within the Window of Tolerance: A Doorway to the Embodied Self

When we return to regulation, it’s not just about feeling calm. It’s about reconnecting with the capacity to feel—to move through the full range of emotion without getting stuck in survival.

We begin to sense what’s present in the body, relate to it with more awareness, and respond rather than react.

Within this regulated space—what we call the window of tolerance—there exists a doorway. According to Michelle Doublet’s framework, The Musical Scale: A Doorway to the Embodied Self, this is the threshold where healing begins to deepen. It’s here that we access the embodied self—not as a concept, but as a felt, living truth.

It’s the place where truth becomes accessible. Where clarity, intuition, and emotional expression come back online. We begin to access the parts of us that survival once disconnected—our groundedness, emotions, voice, clarity, and trust.

And within this doorway, we don’t just reconnect with emotion—we access our deeper knowing. This is where intuition awakens, clarity sharpens, and truth becomes embodied. The parts of us that once felt distant or silenced begin to speak with wisdom.

Inside the workbook, you’ll find a full breakdown of this concept and how it connects and relates to your healing journey

We’re not trying to fix but simply create the space for the Self to rediscover how to anchor and flow—by releasing the beliefs and narratives that no longer serve us and making space for what is more in alignment with our now.

Ready to Go Deeper?

Download the Musical Scale: A Doorway to the Embodied Self workbook—your guide to somatic, energetic, and intuitive restoration (button below)

© 2024 Michelle Doublet | Thriving Light Wellness

All rights reserved. You are welcome to share this post with proper credit and a link back to the original source. Please do not copy or reproduce content without written permission. This work is intended for educational and inspirational use only and is not a substitute for professional therapy or medical treatment.

About the Author

Michelle Doublet, LCSW, E-RYT, YACEP, CCTP-II

Certified Somatic Parts Work and Trauma Resolution Energy Therapy Practitioner

Michelle is a licensed psychotherapist, somatic practitioner, energy healer, and intuitive guide. Her work weaves nervous system science, subtle energy, movement, and ancient wisdom to help others reclaim their embodied self and live with power, clarity, and compassion. She is the founder of Thriving Light Wellness and owner of SomaSoul Embodiment, creator of The Sacred Path.

Download the Full Workbook

Want to explore the full chakra-integrated Nervous System Musical Scale?

Download Musical Scale: A Doorway to the Embodied Self—a trauma-informed, somatic guide to reclaim clarity, truth, and power.

Click Below to Get the Workbook

A Reminder For You

Something that isn't talked about enough:

When you begin to heal from trauma, your body slowly exits survival mode. And what often comes next isn't a burst of energy or motivation - it's deep rest. Craving solitude. Quiet. Time alone with yourself.

This can feel incredibly uncomfortable if you've spent most of your life in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. You might label it as "lazy" because of internalized beliefs and societal conditioning around productivity and worth.

But this rest?

This sacred pause?

It's not regression - it's recalibration.

It's your nervous system finally laying down its armor. It's the beginning of wiring new neural pathways that say: I am safe. I can be with myself. I can just be.

Let yourself honor the stillness.

This is where true healing takes root - where new patterns, beliefs, and ways of being begin to form.

-Michelle Doublet, LCSW, E-RYT, YACEP, CCTP-II

Certified Somatic Parts Work and Trauma Resolution Energy Therapy Practitioner

Worksheets that offer more than just "more information"

Body Awareness and Mindfulness Worksheets both offering Reflection pages with prompts. Includes a Feel Wheel to offer additional guidance and support.

Purpose:

This packet was developed intentionally for the purpose of connecting to the body + mind. Providing you o tap into your curiosity and more understanding of its language that we sometimes do not have words for.

The Body Awareness Worksheet is designed to help individuals develop a deeper connection with their physical sensations and bodily experiences. By enhancing body awareness, one can gain insight into how emotions and stress manifest physically, leading to improved emotional regulation and overall well-being.

The Mindfulness Worksheet is aimed at cultivating a present-moment awareness and fostering a non-judgmental attitude towards one's thoughts and feelings. This worksheet supports the integration of mindfulness into daily life, enhancing mental clarity and emotional resilience.

A ‘Feel Wheel’ is also provided to help navigate, identify and name the feelings and emotions that arise during the practice which will deepen connection and understanding of your experience.

*These worksheets are tools to enhance your personal journey, providing structured yet flexible frameworks for self-exploration, personal growth and self-discovery. Offering you holistic approach to healing that honors the mind-body connection.

Get Yours Now!

Self- Compassion

The Comeback

When we finally get out of Fight and Flight- feeling tired or even exhausted is normal and even a good sign.

Listen to what your body is needing—rest. This is part of the recovery and comeback.

-Michelle Doublet

Reclaiming Connection and Clarity: Returning to the Embodied Self

Reclaiming Connection and Clarity: Returning to the Embodied Self | THE EMBODY LAB

By Michelle Doublet, LCSW, E-RYT, CCTP-II, Certified TRET Practitioner

The Impact of Complex Trauma on Connection and Intuition

Complex trauma shapes our entire being—body, mind, and spirit—disrupting our ability to connect authentically with ourselves and others. It leaves lasting imprints on our nervous system, influencing how we perceive the world and interact in relationships. Trauma survival mechanisms such as fight, flight, and shutdown are automatic responses designed to keep us safe in the face of danger, but when trauma is unresolved, these responses can remain activated, interfering with clarity, connection, and intuition.

Additionally, trauma often leads to relational survival strategies such as appeasement and placating, which are distinct forms of the fawn response:

• Appeasement involves proactively trying to prevent conflict or danger by pleasing others, often at the expense of your own needs or boundaries.

• Placating is reactive, occurring when fear of harm or rejection causes you to comply or agree, even when it doesn’t align with your truth.

These responses may have been essential for survival in unsafe environments but can lead to chronic disconnection from your inner wisdom and authenticity. Healing requires compassionately addressing these patterns, creating space to distinguish between survival-based reactions and intuitive, embodied responses.

The Role of Boundaries in Healing and Connection

Trauma frequently disrupts our ability to establish healthy boundaries. For some, this manifests as porous boundaries, where it feels impossible to say no. For others, trauma creates rigid boundaries that block connection and intimacy. Both extremes reflect a survival-based approach to safety.

Somatic boundary work helps restore balance, empowering you to set boundaries that protect your energy while fostering authentic connection. This involves:

• Listening to the body: Recognizing the sensations and signals that arise when boundaries are needed or crossed.

• Practicing agency: Learning to say yes or no based on your internal needs rather than external pressures.

• Building trust: Developing boundaries that allow safety and connection to coexist.

Boundaries are a vital step in reconnecting with yourself and others, enabling you to move from survival-based patterns to embodied clarity and trust.

Trauma and the Nervous System: The Automatic Responses

The nervous system governs how we respond to stress and trauma. Its primary automatic responses—fight, flight, and shutdown—are designed to protect us in the face of perceived danger. While these responses are adaptive in the short term, unresolved trauma can leave the nervous system stuck in these survival states, disrupting our sense of safety and connection.

• Fight: Activates aggression or resistance to confront perceived threats.

• Flight: Drives avoidance or escape behaviors to seek safety.

• Shutdown: Results in emotional or physical numbness, dissociation, or a sense of helplessness.

These responses are not a choice—they are automatic, rooted in the body’s innate desire to protect you. Healing involves teaching the nervous system to recognize when it is safe to move out of survival and into regulation and connection.

Reclaiming the Embodied Self: A Holistic Approach

Healing trauma requires addressing its imprints on the body, nervous system, and energy field. Through somatic practices, boundary work, Trauma Resolution Energy Therapy (TRET), and a Somatic Internal Family Systems (IFS) approach, you can restore balance, clarity, and connection.

Somatic Practices: Listening to the Body’s Wisdom

Somatic practices help you tune into the sensations, emotions, and signals stored in your body, fostering a deeper connection to your embodied Self. These practices include:

• Body scans: Cultivate awareness of physical sensations and areas of tension or numbness.

• Grounding exercises: Use breathwork and gentle movement to anchor yourself in the present moment.

• Somatic boundary work: Practice physical gestures to embody boundaries, such as pushing movements or expanding personal space.

By reconnecting with your body, you can process stored trauma, regulate your nervous system, and reclaim your inner wisdom.

Somatic Internal Family Systems: Embracing All Parts

Trauma fragments our sense of Self, creating internal conflicts between protective and vulnerable parts. Somatic Internal Family Systems (IFS) helps you connect with and integrate these parts, fostering internal harmony and clarity.

Each part of you—whether it’s the appeaser, the protector, or the wounded inner child—has a purpose rooted in survival. By engaging with these parts somatically, you can:

• Locate parts in the body: Notice where each part “lives” and its associated sensations.

• Engage in dialogue: Use breath, movement, and curiosity to understand each part’s intentions and needs.

• Release and integrate: Reconnect these parts into the larger whole, fostering safety and coherence.

This process strengthens the nervous system, enabling you to move out of survival states and into authentic connection.

Trauma Resolution Energy Therapy: Healing at the Cellular and Energetic Level

Trauma leaves not only physical and emotional imprints but also energetic ones. Trauma Resolution Energy Therapy (TRET) addresses these imprints at a cellular and energetic level, helping you release blockages and restore balance.

TRET supports healing by:

• Clearing the energetic charge of trauma.

• Reconnecting you with your natural vitality and flow.

• Realigning your energy systems to support regulation and integration.

When combined with somatic and IFS practices, TRET facilitates deep, multidimensional healing, helping you reclaim connection and clarity.

Connection as the Key to Healing

Trauma often isolates us, not just from others but also from ourselves. Rebuilding connection is essential for healing. This connection can take many forms:

• Connection to the body: Practices like trauma-sensitive yoga and somatic movement foster self-awareness and trust.

• Connection to others: Safe, attuned relationships help rewire the nervous system and rebuild trust in others.

• Connection to intuition: Reclaiming the body’s wisdom allows you to discern between survival-based reactions and authentic guidance.

Moving Toward Clarity and Wholeness

Healing is not about erasing trauma; it is about transforming your relationship with it. Through somatic embodiment, boundary work, IFS, and TRET, you can reconnect with your body, trust your intuition, and reclaim your authentic Self.

This journey requires patience and compassion, but each step brings you closer to a life rooted in safety, connection, and clarity. By leaning into all parts of yourself with kindness, you can rediscover the wholeness that has always been within you.

Sources

1. 
David E. & Elizabeth H. PhD, 2011 - Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga - Reclaiming Your Body

2. Yoga-Enhanced Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Y-CBT) for Anxiety Management: A Pilot Study

3. Lisa C, 2018 - The Art of Psychic Reiki

4. Susan McConnell - Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy: Awareness Breath, Resonance, Movement and Touch in Practice

Safety✨Connection

Life-Changing

Hold Space For Yourself Too

This is a time of transition. As we transition there is an opportunity to make significant change and manifest what you desire. We can either find ourselves gripping so firmly on to the old where we develop feelings of resentment, anger and frustration - where there is no room for growth.

Or, we can be curious and courageous enough to dance in the light of the allowing where there is a feeling of light, love, trust within our heart where anything magnificent is possible.

The difference between gripping and allowing is the relationship we have with our good friend, fear.

What kind of relationship do you have with fear?

Have you ever been able to step forward into the allowing?

Can you imagine what you can have if you had a loving relationship with fear?

How different would you handle situations of transition and change?

What would be different?

-Michelle Doublet LCSW, ERYT

#movebeyondyourstories

Find the beauty in everything

why ego work?

EGO-Move Beyond It

The message from our EGO, no matter how the story is written is that you are separate from other people, not connected and you are alone in your feelings and experiences. 

Have you ever felt that way? Wow, that doesn’t feel good, does it?

The thing is, throughout our lives, the ego has collected volumes and volumes of narratives—stories about you, others, and the world around it. 

Many adults have not evolved past the ego-centric state. The ego feels most out of control when it’s challenged.  Oh how this shows up for many, if not all of us! Just with meditation, yoga, etc the ego tends to show up, challenging using so many levels and in so many ways. Some people have difficulty working through those challenges and give up. Sometimes bringing people to places of anger. The ego creates an illusion that our opinions and beliefs make us who we are. This leads to a lot of insecurity and low self worth.

We never want to ignore the ego, or to get rid of, as it is our protector, but to learn how to accept your ego as separate from ourselves, being the observer, come into pure awareness giving yourself opportunity.

Ego-work, learning how to work through these challenges, is important because it allows you to return back to your true nature.

When we decide to #movebeyondyourstories, we delve into shifting our consciousness to inner awareness, leading towards our authentic Self where there is nothing but purity, peace, love and connection.

Rediscovering who you are and who you are meant to be. Where anything is possible.

Are you ready to Move Beyond Your Stories?

What has your stories been telling you?

What has your stories been keeping you from doing or achieving? 

-Michelle Doublet LCSW, E-RYT

You are enough

As we peel away the several layers of meaning and depth, I’d like to touch upon the fourth Yama (self-regulating behaviors involving our interactions with other people and the world at large) of Patanjali’s five yamas of the yoga sutras, Asteya | non-stealing. 

As we practice Asteya on the mat & off, we are not just talking about physically non-stealing from mankind, but the act of falling into greed & cravings of artificial needs. What is the root cause of this? How do we end the suffering that arises from these desires, wants and needs that stem from feeling a 'lack' in life? 

What goes on for you on your mat? Do you find yourself pushing & forcing asanas (poses) because you feel that you are not 'good enough'? ....That you can only be good if you get into 'that' pose?

Developing a sense of faith in ourselves, instead of trying to fill that 'emptyness', we practice self containment, we build a sense of abundance vs scarcity .

when we learn this, we realize that all we ever needed is already there. All that we have in ourselves is enough..... 

Kindness

Walk this earth

and

be

a light

shine a light

Tune in

“When we learn to tune into our body, we find we have all the answers. When we simply decide to acknowledge any lower energy such as tension, strain, pain and ease up on the fighting, griping and holding on, we then have the fierce opportunity to make space for peace, strength, vitality, letting go of risk of illness and even disease.”

- Michelle Doublet

Rediscover the self

Published on www.wellistic.com https://wellistic.com/healing-trauma-through-yoga-meditation/

Written by: Michelle Doublet, LCSW, E-RYT, Reiki Level ll Certified, Reiki Master Trainee

THE MIND BODY CONNECTION

When we hold on to any type of lower energetic emotions, such as fear, anger, anxiety, and depression, it affects us on a cellular level. Scientists have long known we could detect imbalances in the subtle energy field before they became apparent in the physical body. Imbalances in our energy system can cause disruption in our mental, physical and spiritual Self.

Chronic stress or trauma can cause us to feel these lower energetic emotions and if we stay in this space for too long we are at risk for illness and even disease. It can manifest into mental, physical illness, pain in the body and even tension in our relationships with others.

It’s not your fault, trauma keeps us in that state of being - in survival - changing the way our brain functions and leaving us with an imbalanced nervous system. It’s necessary to learn new ways of living to align with your now in order to heal.

At the root of these issues is an imbalanced nervous system. Trauma or chronic stress is responsible for pushing your nervous system beyond its limits and derailing your health.  

The stress can contribute to mental, emotional, physical and spiritual deficiencies, specifically in that order. Your body has been attempting to adapt and has always been on your side. It is not failing you, as many people feel.  It is simply stuck in a state that only allows it to focus on your immediate survival.

REBALANCING

Our body has a way of telling us what our mind talks us out of. Learning to tune in to our body can be very powerful and life changing. CAUTION - side effects of listening and tuning into the body can cause healthier decision making, and improve relationships and overall quality of life!

We all have a ‘knowing’ that tells us within sensations of our body! However, if we’ve experienced trauma it is very often that we can second guess our intuition our gut, our knowing. So what now?

With the power of Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness-Yoga and Energy Healing, our bodies can be reclaimed through connection, compassion, kindness and unconditional love. This is the teaching that yoga can bring, realigning and reclaiming our nervous system on an energetic cellular level.

TRAUMA

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a common type of talk therapy, can be a very effective way to assist in healing trauma, as it helps us to find balance in our thinking patterns and re-conceptualize understanding of traumatic experiences, as well as understanding of ourselves and our ability to cope.  When we use CBT it is typically structured and focuses on increasing awareness into our negative or irrational thoughts and our thinking patterns in challenging or stressful situations. It’s based on the idea that our thoughts influence our feelings and emotions. It is to assist in helping us use logic and reason to view these situations more clearly in order to help us respond and react in positive, more effective ways.

However, CBT on its own sometimes is just not enough to heal trauma. We can talk all day but if we don’t address your body, not much will happen. It’s not your fault! When something traumatic happens, the brain functions differently!

Logic and reason are good things, as utilized with a CBT approach, yet they’re not super helpful when we’re activated by trauma. Not being able to be logical when activated by trauma is no ones fault, it’s neurobiology. The part of our brain called the frontal lobe helps us with logic and reason, yet it can be shutdown when our bodies perceive we are in danger. This is called the trauma response, but trauma is not stored in the frontal lobe.

Trauma is stored in our limbic system, which is concerned with sensory input and sends out emotional responses, concerned with alerting us if we’re in danger. Trauma doesn’t know time and can get stuck in this alert mode, keeping our nervous system ON. It’s also a part of the brain that is created, shaped and reshaped in relationships!

So if the frontal lobe is shut down, and the limbic system is activated, what can help? CONNECTION.

It can be connection to our environment, to our surroundings, to our bodies, to compassionate parts of ourselves or to another living thing, such as another person in which we trust.

ENERGY HEALING

Healing trauma through tuning into and addressing the body in part of other modalities of treatment needs to happen! A lot of times there is a struggle with healing from trauma, and it's a good reminder that your body is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. It is protecting you. Just needing a little work on re-calibrating the alarm system can be very helpful and helping your body understand that you are no longer in danger, that you are safe.

Through utilizing Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness-Yoga we can find healing in our energy system and reclaiming what is yours. Yoga itself means union, to yoke, to connect, bringing together the mind, body, spirit. Yoga scientifically increases a sense of gratitude, oneness, compassion, empathy, emotion regulation and stress tolerance. It’s an Art of your own in which you learn, understand, develop, practice and embody.

The teachings and skills developed can help move you towards a very high energetic loving level internally which your body is craving and needing to calm that activated part of the brain which is keeping your nervous system in high alert. Empowering, grounding, centering and securing you. These are all things our limbic system can understand and once we help the limbic system to calm and acknowledge there is no present danger, the frontal lobe can turn back on and then we can logic and reason again.

With the use of these ancient forms of healing, integrating sensitive understanding, connection and aspects of the Self, we can rediscover new ways of being to realign with your needs in the present moment in order to heal.

For more information on Trauma Sensitive Yoga, Mindfulness, Meditation and Energy Balancing please connect with Michelle at thrivinglightwellness@gmail.com

References:

David E. & Elizabeth H. PhD, 2011-Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga- Reclaiming Your Body

Yoga-Enhanced Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Y-CBT) for Anxiety Management: A Pilot Study

Lisa C, 2018- The Art of Psychic Reiki

Heart-Centered

Within the realms of your heart is where presence is. With heartfulness, true mindfulness, the heart of life is present, decreasing our fears, healing everything that gives us seperation, giving you back connection.

-Michelle Doublet, LCSW, ERYT

Light

Your light may disturb, upset & even anger the darkness. The darkness can’t handle its own reflection. Don’t dim your light, shine it even brighter & see what happens.

Does the sun fear the shadows?

Listen to your heart today

Listen to your heart today.

Feel your feelings fully without judging them.

Emotions are your guidance system.

If you allow yourself to feel all your feelings fully, regardless of whether they’re sad, angry, or joyous, your heart’s wisdom will heal your pain.

- Christiane Northrup, M.D

Yoga- Health Benefits Beyond The Mat

“Let’s shift from autopilot to conscious thinking, mindful eating.”

Yoga- brought to Mather Hospital Weight Management Program- Health Benefits Beyond The Mat

-Michelle Doublet

What is Mindfulness? In its most basic, simplest form, it can be defined as the ability to live in the present moment. So, what does that mean? It can mean, meditating twice a day, practicing Yoga, tai chi, journaling, sharing what you are grateful for, observing your surroundings, etc. Mindfulness is the act of being present while paying attention to passing thoughts and emotions without judgement. It’s really about not trying to change who you are, but becoming more fully present with your experiences. It does not have to be seated, it can be done at any moment, by being in the moment, such as focusing on the rhythm of the breath, the cooling as you inhale and the heat as you exhale from your nostrils. Cultivating mindfulness is an art, a skill developed through practice & repetition.

Basic benefits of how Yoga can help shift you from autopilot to conscious thinking, mindful eating…..

Better Body Image

-        Focusing inward during Yoga helps you be more satisfied with your body and less critical of it

Heart Benefits

-        Yoga can help lower blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar, all of which are good for your heart and blood vessels.

Overall Fitness

-        Practicing Yoga a couple of times a week increases muscle strength and flexibility (Mind & Body), boosts endurance, relaxes your nervous system (balances hormones) and tunes up your heart, lungs and blood vessels.

Mindful Eating

-        Being more aware of how your body feels carries over to mealtimes as you savor, enjoy each bite, sip and notice how food smells, tastes and feels in your mouth

Weight Control

-        Mindfulness developed through Yoga can make you more sensitive to cues of hunger and fullness, which help you develop a more positive relationship with food

Meditation, Breath control, Movement (asana-poses)

-        Increases focus, concentration

-        Increases self-awareness, insight, and conscious thinking  

-        Decreases Impulsivity-helps us learn to slow down

-        Decreases cortisol levels- stress hormone- which often make you crave sugary, fatty and salty foods

-        Developing skills to ease cravings, urges, temptations to things that are unhealthy for us

-        Decreases anxiety, depression etc

-        Teachings of self-love, compassion, kindness towards oneself, others without judgment increases our wanting to care for ourselves and helps us make  healthy choices/decisions

-        Letting go of ‘restriction thinking’ to ‘abundance’

Michelle Doublet, LCSW, E-RYT, Reiki Certified, Reiki Master Trainee

“what you need, you already have, & its found at the core of your being.”- Michelle Doublet