3 Ways to Set Clear Boundaries to Enjoy This Holiday Season

December 30, 2019

One of the things that get us so stressed out during the holiday season is the Must Do list, the unending expectations, the anxiety that comes when we feel we’ve let people down. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The holidays can literally be Holy Days, when you feel the love and light of family, friends, community and the shared gratitude of celebration.

Here are a few ways that Energy Medicine Yoga can help you this season.

Knowing the right way to say “No”

You know you want to say No, but you don’t know how. Before you say Yes, and add one more thing to an already full plate, take a moment in silence. Tune in and see what you really want to do. Then take one hand and draw big figure 8’s all along your throat. This is the home of the 5th chakra, where you speak your truth. The figure 8’s will help you find more clarity and ease with what can be a difficult answer.

Keep your own energies intact with the Zip Up

When you’re around a lot of people, you can take on the energies of everyone around you and start to feel like you’re losing your own self. Bring your hands in front of your pubic bone, set an intention to stay calm and true to yourself, and sweep your hands up your body and over your head. Do this two more times.

Calm down your stress response with this ‘hug’

Holidays can be stressful, and your body will respond to that. You can balance the stress response with the ‘inner mom’ by doing the Spleen hug. Hug one hand around your waist, hug the other hand around the opposite elbow. You can stand like this around the punch bowl, and feel calm and grounded so you can enjoy the holiday chaos!

Lauren Walker is the author of The Energy Medicine Yoga Prescription (Sounds True, Sept 2017) and Energy Medicine Yoga: Amplify the Healing Power of Your Yoga Practice (Sounds True, 2014). She’s been teaching yoga and meditation since 1997 and created Energy Medicine Yoga while teaching at Norwich University. She teaches EMYoga across the US and internationally and has been featured in Yoga Journal, Mantra Yoga + Healing, Yoga Digest, and The New York Times. She was recently named one of the top 100 most influential yoga teachers in America by Sonima. For more information, visit EMYoga.net.

The community here at Sounds True wishes you a lovely holiday season! We are happy to collaborate with some of our Sounds True authors to offer you wisdom and practices as we move into this time together; please enjoy this blog series for your holiday season.

To help encourage you and your loved ones to explore new possibilities this holiday season, we’re offering 40% off nearly all of our programs, books, and courses sitewide. May you find the wisdom to light your way.

EXPLORE NOW

Posted December 30, 2019

Lauren Walker

$Photo of ()\$

Lauren Walker is the author of The Energy Medicine Yoga Prescription (Sounds True, Sept 2017) and Energy Medicine Yoga: Amplify the Healing Power of Your Yoga Practice (Sounds True, 2014). She's been teaching yoga and meditation since 1997 and created Energy Medicine Yoga while teaching at Norwich University. She teaches EMYoga across the US and internationally and has been featured in Yoga Journal, Mantra Yoga + Healing, Yoga Digest, and The New York Times. She was recently named one of the top 100 most influential yoga teachers in America by Sonima. For more information, visit EMYoga.net.

Author photo © Zachary Zorn 2014

Listen to Tami Simon's in-depth audio podcast interview with Lauren Walker:
Intimacy with the Body: Energy Medicine Yoga »
The Energy Medicine Yoga Prescription »

Products By Author

The Energy Medicine Yoga Prescription

Paperback Book

Starting at: $11.97

Energy Medicine Yoga

Paperback Book

Starting at: $11.37

Also By Author

See All

blog

Post Views: 264

3 Ways to Set Clear Boundaries to Enjoy This Holiday S...

Lauren Walker — December 30, 2019

Here are a few ways that Energy Medicine Yoga can help you this season.

Knowing the right way to say “No”

Keep your own energies intact with the Zip Up

Calm down your stress response with this ‘hug’

EXPLORE NOW

podcast

Post Views: 1,125

Lauren Walker: The Energy Medicine Yoga Prescription

Lauren Walker — September 12, 2017

Lauren Walker is a certified energy medicine practitioner, teaching assistant to Donna Eden, and one of the originators of Energy Medicine Yoga, which she teaches internationally. With Sounds True, Lauren has released The Energy Medicine Yoga Prescription. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon and Lauren discuss the ideal ways that energy moves through the body and how that flow can be manipulated to help heal a number of conditions. Lauren highlights specific practices for the treatment of insomnia and gut issues, as well as a method for listening to “meridian pulses” to diagnose unknown pains. Tami and Lauren also speak on how the development of self-acceptance in conjunction with Energy Medicine Yoga can help us reclaim pleasure and joy in our daily lives. Finally, Lauren leads listeners in “The Wake-Up,” a short practice designed to readjust the natural flow of our subtle energy. (63 minutes)

podcast

Post Views: 837

Lauren Walker: Intimacy with the Body: Energy Medicine...

Lauren Walker — October 21, 2014

Lauren Walker is a teacher of both yoga and energy medicine, who has served as Donna Eden’s teaching assistant and founded the yoga program at Norwich University. Lauren’s work has been featured in the New York Times, the Jerusalem Post, and Yoga Journal. With Sounds True, she has released the book Energy Medicine Yoga: Amplify the Healing Power of Your Yoga Practice. In this episode, Lauren speaks with Tami about the effectiveness of combining energy medicine techniques with yoga, how these practices can release trauma, and on-the-spot techniques to calm the fight-or-flight response. Lauren also shares a profound transformational practice called the Pure Breath technique. (76 minutes)

You Might Also Enjoy

podcast

Post Views: 5,211

Thomas Hübl: Alchemizing Individual, Ancestral, and C...

Thomas Hübl — October 3, 2023

Visionary teacher Thomas Hübl is leading the way toward a new era of trauma healing on the individual, ancestral, and collective levels. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Hübl about his new book, Attuned: Practicing Interdependence to Heal Our Trauma—and Our World, and his unique synthesis of mysticism, science, and the world’s wisdom traditions.

Give a listen to this deeply inspiring, deep-end conversation exploring: Presence and the alchemy of the past in the now; the concept of relational coherence; post-traumatic learning; avoiding presence as a way to protect oneself; attunement versus numbness; our interconnected nervous systems; ethical development; privilege and responsibility; increasing our ability to remain grounded; the power of feeling met; global witnessing groups; bringing love to the edge of a conscious universe; the three-sync process for becoming more aware of your body, emotions, and mind; and more.

Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.

podcast

Post Views: 7,216

Matt Gutman: Conquering a Lifetime of Panic Attacks

Matt Gutman — September 12, 2023

28% of Americans will experience a panic attack in their lifetime. Some researchers say that number is closer to 50%. Renowned ABC News correspondent, Matt Gutman, never felt afraid when assigned to active and dangerous war zones. Yet when he had to speak on live television in front of a viewership of 9 million people, the seemingly unflappable reporter suffered intense panic attacks that nearly cost him his job. To help anyone whose life has been impacted by this often misunderstood mental health challenge, Gutman shares his personal journey in No Time to Panic.

In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Gutman about the book and the hard-won insights he brings his readers, exploring: The importance of destigmatizing panic attack disorder; conventional and alternative healing modalities; “retiring the drill sergeant” (aka managing the inner critic); excavating unresolved grief; how panic disorder can metastasize into other psychological issues; physical threats vs. social threats (and how we tolerate them); the evolutionary purpose of anxiety; how vulnerability is often the first step toward healing; the paradox of welcoming your panic; psychedelics and ego transcendence; the power of mindfulness and meditation; and more.

blog

Post Views: 412

Learn to walk the profound journey of healing individu...

Thomas Hübl — September 5, 2023

We are facing what is perhaps the greatest civilizational crisis of our time, the global ecological emergency. If the underlying challenge to climate change (and other systemic social problems) can be traced to human disrelation—a state of being out of accordance with nature, ourselves, and other humans—then I propose it to be a fundamentally spiritual problem, as much as an environmental, scientific, technological, cultural, psychological, economic, or historical one. At the root of this spiritual problem is collective trauma.

My work as a teacher over the past 20 years has focused on the integration of science and mysticism. Over time, as my training programs and retreats developed what emerged was a clear need to address collective trauma.

Attuned: Practicing Interdependence to Heal Our Trauma—and Our World is a guide for anyone committed to the healing of our struggling world. With practical instruction on reducing stress and building resilience, along with practices such as transparent communication, my book is intended to support each of us and our communities in embracing our interdependence. As you learn to attune to others, you begin to refine your capacity to relate — and to walk the profound journey of healing individual, ancestral, and collective trauma.

The complexity of challenges we face in the 21st century demands a new level of human collaboration. To respond with creativity and innovation to these challenges, we must think holistically. In this way, we awaken our most intrinsic biological gifts: the powers of our soul’s intelligence – that which inside us knows how to heal and restore.

Perhaps, rather than finding ourselves alive in a time of exponential, unstoppable decline, we will discover the power to access the evolutionary gifts that appear dormant in us. To accomplish this, I believe we must do it together—not separately, but in relation, as communities dedicated to healing our collectives.

It may take only a small number of us to establish a new level of collective coherence—to share our light, heal our wounds, and realize the unawakened potential of our world. Will you join me on this journey of attunement?

With gratitude,

Thomas Hübl

Thomas Hübl, PhD, is a renowned teacher, author, and international facilitator who works within the complexity of systems and cultural change by integrating modern science with the insights of humanity’s wisdom traditions. Since the early 2000s, he has led large-scale events on the healing of collective trauma, with a special focus on the shared history of Israelis and Germans, and facilitated healing and dialogue around racism, oppression, colonialism, and genocide, among other topics. He is the author of Healing Collective Trauma and Attuned (both with Julie Jordan Avritt). He has served as an advisor and guest faculty for universities and organizations, and he is currently a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute. For more, visit www.attunedbook.com.

3 Ways to Set Clear Boundaries to Enjoy This Holiday Season

Knowing the right way to say “No”

Keep your own energies intact with the Zip Up

Calm down your stress response with this ‘hug’

Lauren Walker

Products By Author

The Energy Medicine Yoga Prescription

Energy Medicine Yoga

Also By Author

3 Ways to Set Clear Boundaries to Enjoy This Holiday S...

Knowing the right way to say “No”

Keep your own energies intact with the Zip Up

Calm down your stress response with this ‘hug’

Lauren Walker: The Energy Medicine Yoga Prescription

Lauren Walker: Intimacy with the Body: Energy Medicine...

You Might Also Enjoy

Thomas Hübl: Alchemizing Individual, Ancestral, and C...

Matt Gutman: Conquering a Lifetime of Panic Attacks

Learn to walk the profound journey of healing individu...

Menu

Listen to Sounds True playlists on

Connect With Us