Uniting your body and mind with yoga and meditation | Sunil Lad | TEDxNHS
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Lfnv77zC8 Video ID: _4Lfnv77zC8 ============================================================ I see my body as a blessing but that's not always been the case bers of my body I've been treated differently unfairly sometimes cruy but I grew up in a time and environment where strong men didn't discuss their emotions and this prevented me from properly processing certain challenges I experienced earlier in my life it made me uncomfortable connecting with my body unable to deal with the feelings of Shame and self-consciousness I was experiencing as I learned more about psychology in the mind I learned to switch off from my body focusing on the Mind instead but this wasn't healthy I needed a way to break this cycle my name is Dr sonil Lad and I work in the NHS as a consultant counseling psychologist and I'm also the national Clinical Director for Health and Justice in NHS England and six years ago I completed a yoga teacher training course when I started I recognized that the relationship ship between my mind and my body was not good I was often introspective stuck inside my head yoga means Union and it helped my mind and my body to become more united during training I quickly became interested in the meditative philosophical and scientific aspects of yoga Beyond being good exercise it also helped me to understand why a felt such a strong connection to working in the criminal justice system offering good care to people who have been socially excluded and treated differently it also changed how I lived my life on a day-to-day basis off the mat I started to find that I became fitter physically and emotionally I also found I became less tired and was able to emotionally process the harrowing stories of immense suffering people had experienced throughout their lives it also changed how I worked as a psychologist helping people to pay more attention to how their bodies felt when going through challenging situations I've come from a place of Shame and disconnectedness towards my body to embracing and owning it and seeing it for the blessing that it is and it's helped me to engender these feelings in other people too it's also changed how I worked with others supporting helping people but also thinking about how I live a more fulfilling life enriching some of the lives of some of the most vulnerable in society in the modern world full of distraction and screens it's really important we become more embodied our bodies are designed to move and explore our emotions help our bodies to move through challenges and difficulties so I'm going to provide you with a yoga experience this morning to help to land and tune into your bodies and hopefully you can maintain that connection for the duration of the day so firstly I'd like you to take a deep breath in and a deep breath out so notice where do you feel your breath this morning in your chest in your belly there's no right or wrong just feel curious of how your body feels this morning so now I'd like to invite you to take a deep breath in going in through your nose all the way down your spine and into your pelvis and notice how that feels and then back out from your pelvis up through your spine and either out through your nose or your mouth so just noticing how your body feels now I'm going to give you the choice you've got the opportunity also now to stand up if you're able to so if you feel just notice how you're standing or sitting and can you bring equal attention to either your feet or your sit bones and now can you roll your shoulders back and notice how you stand often we bring our shoulders in to try to protect ourselves so notice how you feel so as you're taking a deep breath in and a deep breath out so again now bringing your arms up to the sky as you breathe in and then as you breathe out taking a deep breath out and start to move your breath in line with your movement so bringing your arms up as you breathe in and then as you breathe out bringing them down so we're going to just notice and build some muscle memory of moving in line with your breath and then making this your last [Music] one and then coming back down and then I invite you to sit back down again so as we started to move notice so I'd like to get you to put your left hand on your back and twist over looking over your left left shoulder taking a deep breath in and a deep breath out just really opening up your left lung and noticing how your body feels if there's any tension just notice and C be curious of how your body feels as you're twisting and then coming back to Center and just notice with that twist how does your body feel you might feel different we might notice some tension and now twisting over to the other side so notice how it feels on this side it might feel different there's no right or wrong it's your body so just notice how does you feel you might feel tension you might find that you push yourself quite a lot is that a pattern in your life so just have a sense of curiosity of how your body is feeling and then coming back to Center so we've got lots of different nerve endings on our face so I'd like you just to tap your face round your forehead your eyes your nose your mouth your neck and then bringing your hands down and after tapping I'd like you to bring a nice smile to your face so notice how does your body feel when you smile and then bringing both hands to your chest so connecting your body and your mind with that smile on your face offering yourself a loving gratitude for bringing you here this morning so I invite you to develop the intention to take in all the talks this morning not through your mind but also through your body so that brings us to the end of our yoga experience this morning so I hope you can take a way to have a mind and body that is at one United [Applause] undivided