Releasing a holding pattern

1. Stand easily with your feet shoulder-width apart. Pause for a moment. Breathe into your belly, diaphragm and chest as if you were opening an umbrella. Bring your awareness to the bottoms of your feet.

2. Close your eyes. Slowly shift your weight from side to side. Scan your body with your mind, and find a part where you would like to feel a change. Maybe the area feels stiff or painful or restricted in some way.

3. Continue slowly to shift your weight from side to side. Notice as you move what happens to that area. How does it feel?

4. Now, as you shift, ask the area, “What could feel softer?” and wait silently for the answer to come to you. Pause, breathe into the area and notice how it feels.

5. Shift your weight again. Notice how it feels now. Ask, “What could be softer than that?” and wait for the answer to come. Pause and breathe into the area.

6. Continue to shift your weight, still focusing on the same area. Ask, “How can this softness go deeper inside?” Wait for the answer to come.

7. Continue this questioning process until you experience some release, then pause, breathe and notice the new feeling. Breathe into this feeling to own it.

— adapted from Trager for Self-Healing: A Practical Guide for Living in the Present Moment, by Audrey Mairi (New World Library, 2006)