About
About
Rise Collective Wellness Retreat Somatic Guide
A Support Resource for Participants Before and After the Retreat
How to use this Guide
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This page includes a collection of YouTube videos to help support your preparation and integration process through your somatic experience and body awareness.
The effects of the psychedelic state on the brain vastly increases communication between brain networks. It's through this opportunity to rewire our neural connections that the potential for healing, changing habitual patterns are ripe.
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The following image depicts the increase in communication between networks in the brain in psilocybin (right) and without it (left):
It's not uncommon to come to deep realizations during our experiences, especially when we do the work to prepare our intentions and mindset. The months following a deep experience is critical in whether the realizations you have come to are integrated or not. It is during this time that we have the opportunity to create new habits, replace old habits, cultivate the perspective and lifestyle that we want, and make the most of the lessons our subconscious shares with us.
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The way we move, our posture, and how we treat ourselves is inseparably connected to our emotions, and vice versa. The neuroplastic window of opportunity following a retreat is a great time to integrate a regular movement practice. So if there are some mobility goals that you might have, please use this guide to support your regular practice.
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A regular practice ideally involves something every day, and a few days a week of taking some extra time to get a little deeper. Don't overload yourself with things to do, choose a video that you find helpful and do it every day until you memorize the routine. If it takes more than 7 minutes, you'll probably not keep up the daily practice for long, so keep what you demand of yourself to a minimum.
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If you're someone who's used to yoga classes or anything like that, you can work through the recommended general routine videos a few times a week.
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If you have any imbalances, or pain issues that you would like to address, check the lower sections for more specific exercises that will help with different areas of the body. You can try these videos and take note of which techniques feel the most beneficial.
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I will continue to update this page with more relevant videos as I add them, so be sure to check in every once in a while. This is the first iteration of this guide, and I have plans to polish it up and make it into a more formal course, but I want to get something up and running to support you in the mean time.
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Before we get into the exercises, I would like to share a few more informative videos that you can watch once or twice to get the message. These first two videos are about the benefits of nose breathing; and hanging for shoulder health. This is all information I probably mentioned at the retreat:
Daily Mobility Routine​
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The first videos involve two follow-along mobility routines that are great as a daily practice. I recommend that you choose the one that feels the best for you, or put them together if you want a longer training session. This section also includes the Meridian Stretching Basic Sequence. If you have tight hips or lower back, this video will make a big difference with a little consistency.
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The next video is a tutorial for a basic breathing exercise. You could call this a meditation. There are so many little details to keep track of, it's hard to let your mind wander. If you want to get into meditation, but you have a hard time keeping up a practice, this is a great, low demand way to reap the benefits without doing nothing for 30 minutes!
And finally for the last of our daily routine staples, I recommend some wrist and ankle stretches. This video is follow-along-able, but it's more of a lesson, so it's quite long. Watch this one once or twice, take notes to remember the sequence, and you should be able to do it all on your own after a few watches. I recommend the ankle portion of this routine before and after any activity that involves a lot of running, walking, or jumping. I recommend the wrist stretches before any activities where you're putting pressure on your wrists, such as Yoga, and other exercises.
Deeper Guides for Focused Mobilization
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If you don't have anything specific that you want to spend more time focusing on, stick with what's in the above section. There a lot to go deep into in just that. However, if you went through those videos and you're hungry for more, or you really have some mobility issues that you want to out some time and dedication into, this following sections are going to give you a lot more to work with.
Lower Body Self-Care Routines​
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This section includes a bunch of follow along videos for supporting mobilization and healing of the lower body. The first few videos here are great for general mobilization. If you don't have any major issues, these are great, and if you do have some lower body issues to work on, try them out and take note if any of the movements feel beneficial.
I recommend perusing these videos and cherry picking the exercises or routines that feel most relevant to areas of abnormal pain or tension in the body. If you don't have any issues, you may not need to explore these movements, but the Sotai exercises are all excellent for whole-body balancing and correcting distortions and postural imbalances, so you might want to keep one of those in your pocket.
Upper Body Self-Care Routines​
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This section includes a bunch of follow along videos for supporting mobilization and healing of the upper body. The first few videos here are great for general mobilization. If you don't have any major issues, these are great, and if you do have some upper body issues to work on, try them out and take note if any of the movements feel beneficial. Note: the Sotai exercises in the above section are also relevant for upper body issues.
I recommend perusing these videos and cherry picking the exercises or routines that feel most relevant to areas of abnormal pain or tension in the body. If you don't have any issues, you may not need to explore these movements, but a bit of self-Shiatsu every once in a while is great as preventative medicine.
Building your Program
By now you should have a list of the videos on this page that you feel may be more relevant to you, work through them, and take what is useful, discard what is not relevant to you. Ideally a daily routine should be under 7 minutes, and a longer training session 1-3 times per week should be under 40 minutes.
I know that was a lot, but if you need some guidance, you can always reach out and contact me with any little questions. If you need more direct instruction, I also offer short online coaching session to better explain and demonstrate specific exercises and guide you to know that you're doing it right.
I'd love to hear about your progress, or any interesting insight if you're doing these exercises regularly, so please don't hesitate to reach out if you feel called to. Remember, this isn't just moving your body, this is rewiring your neuromuscular pathways and rearranging your postural habits and patterns of tension.