🌱 Rooting in Safety: How Session One of MSYT Begins the Healing Journey (MSYT 1)

When we begin the Mindful Somatic Yoga Therapy (MSYT) journey, we start at the root—literally and metaphorically.

Session One invites participants into a grounded and gentle return to the body using somatic practices, polyvagal-informed education, chakra psychology, and trauma-sensitive yoga. It’s a carefully curated experience designed to build internal resourcing, create safety, and lay the foundation for deeper healing.

Let’s take a look at the powerful elements we bring together in this first session.

✨ Resourcing: A Somatic Anchor in Uncertain Waters

In the work of Dr. Peter Levine, “resourcing” refers to identifying and connecting to internal or external experiences that bring a sense of safety, strength, or comfort. It’s a foundational tool in Somatic Experiencing because it helps regulate the nervous system and expands the capacity to tolerate distressing sensations—without becoming overwhelmed.

In MSYT, we begin by helping participants identify their unique resources: a memory of being held, the warmth of a morning sun, the solidity of standing on the earth, or the breath itself. These are then woven into body-based practices like:

• Orienting – gently scanning the environment with the eyes and allowing the nervous system to settle by taking in cues of safety.
• Body Scan – bringing attention to the body in a slow, attuned way, noticing sensation without judgment.

These simple, yet profound practices begin to restore agency over attention and offer a reliable path back to the present moment.

✨ Tracking, Titration & Pendulation: Befriending Sensation

Alongside resourcing, we introduce more of Levine’s somatic principles:

• Tracking – the act of noticing subtle changes in the body (heat, tightness, softness, pulsing) with curiosity and care.
• Titration – the practice of approaching sensations in small doses, never flooding the system.
• Pendulation – the gentle swinging between resource and discomfort, between ease and activation.

These tools teach participants how to stay present with sensation and emotion without bypassing or becoming overwhelmed. They allow for a self-paced journey—one that honours the body’s natural rhythm of expansion and contraction.

✨ Root Chakra: Coming Home to the Body

In chakra psychology, the Muladhara (Root Chakra) is our energetic foundation—connected to survival, trust, and belonging. When experiences shake our sense of safety, the root can become imbalanced, leaving us feeling ungrounded or unsettled.

We use specific yoga postures and somatic movements to help participants feel the ground beneath them and build a sense of stability, and support. Combined with mindful breath and somatic awareness, these shapes anchor the body and soothe the nervous system—they become experiences of embodiment. These practices invite participants to feel the ground beneath them, to soften into presence, and to begin reclaiming a sense of safety.

✨ The Window of Tolerance: A Map for Regulation

Dr. Dan Siegel’s Window of Tolerance offers a valuable framework for understanding nervous system states. We introduce this model in simple terms to help participants notice when they feel:

• In their window – calm, curious, and connected.
• Hyperaroused – anxious, restless, or overwhelmed.
• Hypoaroused – numb, flat, or disconnected.

By gently naming and normalising these states, participants learn that their responses make sense—and, more importantly, they can shift. The somatic practices introduced in Session One are all tools for widening this window over time.

✨ RAIN: A Path to Compassionate Presence

When activation arises, we integrate Tara Brach’s RAIN practice—a powerful tool for meeting inner experience with presence and kindness:

• Recognise what’s happening
• Allow it to be there, just for now
• Investigate gently, with curiosity
• Nurture with care

RAIN offers a mindful and compassionate approach to inner experience, especially when discomfort arises. Combined with somatic resourcing and gentle movement, it allows participants to meet themselves with empathy, not judgment.

✨ Bringing It All Together

Session One of MSYT is not just about learning techniques—it’s about experiencing them. Each practice is introduced in an embodied, experiential way, with time to reflect and integrate. The sequence is intentional:

1. We orient and ground, resourcing through the body and environment.
2. We track, titrate, and pendulate, inviting mindful presence with sensation.
3. We explore the root chakra through yoga and breath—reclaiming a sense of rootedness and safety.
4. We map the nervous system with Siegel’s window of tolerance and respond with compassion through RAIN.

Together, these approaches create a soft landing—a beginning point where healing becomes not only possible, but gently welcomed.

✨ Why It Matters

For many who live with anxiety, trauma, or chronic stress, it can feel like the body is the last place they want to be. But when we resource first, we begin to make the body a safer place to return to.

Session One of MSYT is about planting roots: in the breath, in the ground beneath us, and in our capacity to hold ourselves with care.

This is the beginning of coming home.