Freeing the breathing body

Fabulous series of classes, thank you Lisa!

Very releasing class.. feels good in the brain of my cells. Thank you, dear Lisa :-)

Thanks Lisa - your classes always leave me feeling freed-up!

Incredible class--and series--the diagonal breathing exploration was a first for me. Thank you for your teaching, Lisa!

Dear Lisa, I love all of your classes on this site and have taken most of them quite a couple of times always discovering new layers. This class was an exception as I did not have a ball. I hadn´t taken it but it has always been on my list. It might also be that I had been avoiding it because I feared that it would bring up discomfort. Today I was surprised by the amount of physical discomfort the breathing into the ball brought for me as I had thought that my breathing issues were merely emotional or mental (of course knowing that it is always connected to each other). During the relaxation at the end I felt the thing that I was most longing for was (self)love and I got a real embodied feeling of how important (and possible) self love is in the moments of falling apart. It is one thing to accept yourself after a healthy breakfast and a beautiful yoga practice but the real thing is loving yourself on a day where chocolate has been the only food intake and nothing of all the chores and practices has been accomplished. This practice helped me to feel the latter. Thank you very much. I am lightheartedly looking forward to explore more on a day that I had already wished to wipe out of my calender. Thank you so much for your wonderful classes. Such a sweet remedy available 24/7. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Absolutely amazing class... as it is to take with me that message/the experience through the day: free up breathing with each tissue, cell with the whole body. Thanks so much for all your sharing, E. xx

As a Yoga Teacher and a steady practitioner for 10 years, your Somatics Series is one of the most liberating forms of communication I’ve had in my own body in years. I tend to be very loose in my joints (especially my ribs) and it’s been quite painful for a year or so and my twists are so tiny because of a tight diaphragm.....this was such a freeing class and I love already what your Series is doing for my personal practice! Thank you!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE you and your classes Lisa. So grateful that you are here on EKhart :-)

Thank you Lisa! Wonderful class! Namaste

Hi Lisa, is this a 26 cm or 26 inch ball & what is manufacturer name please? Thank you. Jenny

Wonderful thank you Lisa

Loved this class.

Hi Lisa, thank you for this series! This was perfect practice for me after giving birth: make contact with my body in a sensitive way, with slow pace and without force. I sure did free my body!

Thanks again for this wonderful class Lisa, this is really helping me at the moment to start the day with less anxiety. xxxxx

Hi Lisa. At the beginning of this class when you talked through hands on the ribs, feeling the breath in the back ribs as well, a kind of 3-D breath, I found myself going into a 'DNS' style breath, so more of a slight posterior tilt on my inhale. Which then turned upside down the normal way I have learnt to match the inhale to the arch and exhale to the flatten. Is this right or wrong, or something else? And does DNS breathing have a place in Hanna Somatics? I've only learnt a little bit about it from a developmental movement class online, but really enjoyed it, and wondered how they might relate to each other, if at all. thanks, Sarah

Wow! Sarah x

Thank you so much for your advice. I think you are right, the cause of tension might be psychological. However, this is a truly brilliant class, which helps on so many levels.

I have done this practice twice now, and i love the way it brings so much space into my ribcage and more space for the breath. Very sweet Savanasana, as well. A lovely surprise first time. Thanks you. Ps i suffer tension in my throat. At worst i sometimes feel like a strangled cat. Any advice / classes on that would be wonderful!

Hi Lisa, I've worked with this series over many months, and it's been quite a journey for me. For the first time in my life, I feel like I'm actually getting to know my body; learning to listen to it and try giving it what it needs, rather than being frustrated that it doesn't work the way I want it to. I've realized that my body isn't separate from who I am, but that it's part of me - that we're a team and that we need to work together. These classes have been (and are still) a wonderful way for me to practice body/mind team work, at the same time as caring for both body and mind. So, from the bottom of my heart: Thank You <3

Hi Lisa / the EkhartYoga team. These classes are being uploaded in a pretty confusing order. In the second class Lisa says it's the first class of a series, and now this fourth class is said to be number seven. If there is a special order in which these classes were thougt to go through, it would be great if they were named "part 1", "part 2" etc. (or were part of a programme) :)

Thank you Lisa, fully charged for the day...

I appreciate focusing on listening to the body and tuning in through gentle, seemingly "easy" moves. I find that no matter what kind of movement I am doing - whether it is super "intense", or very relaxed, it's those serene moments of connection between me and my body that feels the best. Doing videos like this helps me find that connection more easily and more often. It's where the magic happens. Thank you Lisa for your wonderful somatics videos.

Thank you Lisa. I am becoming a bigger fan of somatics classes and your teachings, everytime I take a class. It is so friendly and with respect to my body. It really helps to be kinder to myself and my body. Instead of pushing it all the time. Whatever my energy level is like, I can do this and take good care of my body/ me. Thx Lisa

Hi Lisa, have really loved this whole series, what a wonderful introduction to somatics!.. I'm hooked! A question ....would you recommend the 'belly/chest balloon pump' on the breath retention for a woman with mild/medium vaginal prolapse?

Hi Lisa, had the pleasure of meeting you on a D.F intensive and so glad I found you online to continue the practices as there are hardly any somatic classes here in Liverpool! I am writing as I have a client that would benefit from this practice immensely as she has had an anxiety disorder for about 40 years and at one point it left her house bound for 4 years. She feels very tight around the belly and I want to do this practice with her however she can't get down to the floor, is there anyway I can modify these practices to a chair? I am a yoga teaching and can do chair yoga but this is very different. I really felt the breathing technique in this video amazing for releasing my diaphragm, could this be done sitting? I tried it and felt ok but wanted to ask you if it is ok to teach it sitting?