The Power of the Phoenix.

Yesterday I drove down to Cincinnati to have my first professional Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy session with a current practitioner.  As part of our training we are required to go through the work ourselves which is really the best way to understand what the PRYT modality is.

My session was with Renee Groenemann, one of the owners of Grace Tree Yoga & Growth Studio. The session took place at the studio, a beautiful house that has been remodeled into a yoga studio with two separate rooms for classes as well as a room for private lessons.  With the temperatures hitting the 60′s and the sun beaming through the windows it couldn’t have been a more perfect day.  In addition to receiving a session I also “gave” a session to Renee as part of my training in order to get feedback from another who deeply understands this process.

As my session began I felt the flood gates open, not necessarily in terms of tears, but in terms of letting go.  As we sat in our centering I started to deeply feel emotions and sensations that I had been running from in my body.  Feelings of loss, loneliness, knotted anxiety.  As I spoke of them a lump the size of a tennis ball developed in my throat.  I became aware of things I had been stuffing since I returned home from Vermont, things that had been filling up my bleachers for far too long manifesting as a dense heaviness feeding into darkness and depression.

While I won’t go into the details of my session I will say that Renee offered me some very edgy postures that facilitated deep-rooted release.  These weren’t postures that I learned in training, but instead were a more creative bent on what I needed while still maintaining the integrity of the work.  This is something that we are encouraged to do as we become more skilled practitioners.  She also offered a few mini-integrations throughout the process.  Drawing things together and encouraging me to sit (or stand!) at edges that seemed scary and uncomfortable.  At one point I actually got the image of crows flying out from my shoulders, darkness leaving my body and creating room for light and growth.

I left our session feeling stronger, more able, and calmer than I have in quite a long time.  Things didn’t seem so daunting as I drove back to Columbus.  I wasn’t in a hurry to get anywhere, I was able to stop and get food for lunch, taking care of myself, and most notably the depression that has been setting in each day around noon didn’t happen.  I thought maybe it would come later, but it never did.

My mom posed a question to me yesterday relating a PRYT to a massage.  How does it compare?  I answered that the release from this type of work is much deeper than any massage I’ve ever gotten.  For me a massage has usually been just a physical relaxation.  My mind is still stuck and full even though my body is at ease.  This is still very valuable, but again not as deep.  PRYT integrates so much more.  A true mind, body, emotional, and spirit connection.  It works.  I don’t know why, I just know it does.

If you are in Columbus and are  interested in receiving yoga therapy sessions please contact me at hannah.siegle[at]gmail.com.

Much love and light to all.