How to support your students develop Somatic Awareness?
What is somatic awareness?
Somatic awareness is about connecting the brain to the sensations of the body.
Somatic awareness combines with trust and agency to train and empower us and our students to be able to use the full power of our bodies without adding strain that causes injury.
Why do we want to develop somatic awareness?
Having somatic awareness supports our students to prevent injuries because they can sense in their body when a movement is putting pressure where it shouldn’t.
How often after an event do you say ‘I knew there was something off’, or ‘I just knew …’. In embodied yoga we take our time to sense and feel what is present now. Over time we develop a deeper and broader awareness. This means we have so much more information to choose from. Imagine if you noticed BEFORE you lifted that heavy load that you were not set up correctly for it.
Developing somatic awareness supports your students to understand your cues in their body.
How to support your yoga students develop somatic awareness?
There are so many ways from how you cue to how you adjust to using props. You can read more about cueing for somatic awareness here. In this mini training we want to dive into using props to support building somatic awareness.
Having the sensation of where something is in our body, using props gives us feedback which helps us develop alignment and strength.
Using blocks
Bridge pose
Activating the inside of the legs
Taking a belt around the legs gives them feedback and something to press out on
Activating the outside of the legs
Having the block activates the outside of the legs because they have to press in.
I suggest if you are teaching say bridge that you do it over several weeks introducing different props each week and at the end all of the props are available to them and the student can pick and choose what works best for them. You are giving them agency and empowering them to make not just a decision but an informed decision. They have had a chance to experience each prop and then based on their own body and experience can pick the one for them.
Using a tera band
Shoulders in cat cow
We often have movement in the lower back and neck but not much in the shoulders - a terra band provides feedback for the student so they can begin to develop somatic awareness.
Through all of this you are inviting your students to enquire as to what feels best, and they become the inquirer as to which one gives them the most strength, and alignment.
The prop is simply there to support them identify the sensation so they can recreate it next time. The prop supports them activate the desired muscles and build somatic awareness.