animal guides yoga series: our healing connection with land mammals

Happy New Year, beautiful souls!!

Phew! 2025 may have been a fantastic year for you, or the absolute pits, and that is ok, just how life goes sometimes! We may have done a lot of work on ourselves in 2025, it was the Year of the Snake, where we shed many layers we were carrying, things we were holding onto. We were brave and removed something heavy that was burdensome, maybe let people go in our lives, removed masks we were wearing, finally safe to be ourselves, show the world a little bit more of who we are. That's a lot of inner work, and it may have left us feeling exhausted, bare, naked, but in the end, hopefully free, a bit lighter, back home to our true selves! 

And, here we are! Another year has come and gone, we begin anew, a fresh start into 2026, we let go of what was, and welcome in the new, the unknown, the yet to come, with courage and hopefulness! 2026 is the Year of the Horse! This is SO EXCITING for me, personally, horses being one of my "animal guides" or an animal I feel incredibly connected to, mind, body, and spirit. Maybe they are yours too! Last year, two friends of mine created a local, draft horse sanctuary, rescuing horses from auctions, slaughter, repeated overworking and abuse. They have brought them home, to live freely, surrounded by love, and will be hosting many healing events for both the horses and women, including monthly yoga, and day retreats to bring us all together in community with herbal workshops, yoga, sound baths, equine somatic therapy, DIYs, and nourishing meals! I CAN NOT WAIT!! 

In our Year of the Horse, we call in our purpose, passion, and strength. The horses guide us forward, propelling us with intention, mindfulness and momentum. We move forward, only at our own pace, only that is healing for us. We trust our giant friends, connecting with their instinct, loyalty, friendship, and love, as they encourage us toward our breakthrough! This is the year where we make things happen! Horses are pure magic, and have an incredible gift!  Horses possess a large, coherent electromagnetic field (EM), notably from their heart, which influences human physiology, creating feelings of calm and well-being by synchronizing heart rhythms. Their expansive EM field is 5 times larger than a human's, so extending several feet outside the horses' body, essentially, you walk near them, and are drawn into their energetic  "bubble," so it is very powerful. They can sense human emotions, your heart rate, blood pressure, noticing if you are calm or stressed, or clinging to survival. They know when you are nervous, or depressed, stressed, or grieving. Once you begin stroking a horse, they pick up on your physiology, and immediately send their healing energy directly to you, your heart rate begins to calm, and the horse is instantly regulating your own nervous system! They are wonderfully observant, sentient, emotional beings that can change your life!

Now, let's begin our very special yoga series, our first of the year! Y'all know I love a good series, I believe I created 5 series last year! Ancient Goddess Wisdom, National Parks, 4 Elements of Life, Healing in Nature, Chakras + Vagus Nerve Healing! You will always find a connection to nature and animals in every single class of mine! After all, so many yoga poses are named after animals because ancient yoga practitioners spent their time outside, surrounded by their natural world. It was believed that by mimicking the posture, poses, and movements of animals they witnessed, that they would not only build strength and ease of movement in their body the same way the animals do, they would also inhabit the same qualities of the mind and soul that animals possess such as mindfulness, body awareness, courage, strength, leadership, adaptability to change, loyalty, serenity, and gentleness. As we begin our Animal Guides Yoga Series, we begin week 1 with land mammals! So, our large  friends, such as horses, lions, tigers, wolves, bears, elephants, maybe deer, rabbits, and our family furry friends at home, cats and dogs! When doing my research for class, I found that most of these animals share the same qualities we are going to connect with as we breathe and move in class! All of the animals I mentioned have great strength, courage, loyalty, leadership, family bonds, trust, guidance, instinct, resilient, fearless, wild and free, protective, and much wisdom. Some are social, some are solitary, but they share the same qualities, with deer standing out a bit with their innocent, gentle, graceful nature. We will see these qualities in ourselves in our hour together!

“Nature is the purest portal to inner peace. the earth longs to feel our bare feet, the wind delights in moving through our hair. we are always connected. and it is here, that the earth gives us our basic foundation of belonging, safety, and home.”

“the more we rid the world of the wild, the more we rid the world of ourselves.”

We began in a fetal pose on our left side, a symbol of rebirth, transformation, and new beginnings as we welcome in the new year. Here we found our breath, long deep inhales through the nose, long slow exhales through the mouth, signaling to the brain we are safe in our bodies in this moment. As we inhale we paint the sky with our right arm, like we're flipping the page of a book, opening the next chapter, new year, settling into our Supine Twist. The head and shoulders become heavy, shoulderblades smooth out along the earth beneath us, arms and legs soften. Inhale as the gaze and knees travel through center, long stretch overhead toes reach, exhale knees hug into the chest. Inhale feet reach to the sky, T-pose, hands reach up, small criss cross scissor-like movements back and forth of the wrists and ankles, and right leg falls out to the right side of the room, cradling with the right hand, left hand gently pulls the left shin in, as we open the hips, roll the ankles, in our 1/2 Arrow pose. Inhale as the right leg folds back in over the left, reclined Cowface, lengthening the right IT band, relieving any sciatic nerve pain. Unravel the legs, plant the feet, find a Floating Bridge, and knees hug in, fall to the right, Fetal pose. Here we shifted from our busy minds back into the body, scanning through our senses. We notice what we see, eyes open or closed, noticing items in the room, or finding peace in the darkness. We traveled to our smell, noticing what we smell around us, I sprayed "Sacred Space" in studio, so we noticed notes of Palo Santo, Sweet Grass, and Rosemary hovering overhead. We scanned to our hearing, noticing the hum of the furnace keeping us warm, pinpointing an instrument playing in the music. On to our taste, noticing the last thing we may have eaten, or a sip of cup of tea, coffee, bite of food lingering in the mouth. Lastly, we noticed our sense of touch, what we feel against the skin, warm air swirling around, softness of our clothing, the stickiness of our mat underneath us, supporting us, holding us, bringing us back home to ourselves. We paint the sky with our left arm, finding our Supine Twist, and continuing into T-pose, criss crosses of the ankles and wrists, 1/2 Arrow pose, Cowface, and Floating Bridge on the left side.

 We rock n rolled along the spine to arrive in a comfortable seat. We inhaled hands overhead, palms connect and to the heart, and formed our Abhaya Hrdaya mudra, backs of the hands together, weave the pinkies around each other, ring fingers, middle fingers, and index fingers meet our thumbs. This mudra symbolizes a fearless heart, strength, and protection, perfect for our land mammal animal guides! We brought the palms together, rubbed them to create some heat, some healing energy, remembering that our hands are tools for healing, and cupped the hands to the eyes, sending healing energy to the soul. Hands floated to the crown, sending healing energy to the mind, calming the chatter. The mind can become stuck in the past, ruminating over things that have been, or travel too far forward into the future with worry, but the body is always present, so here we connect and stay present. One hand floated to the forehead, and the other to the base of the skull, sending healing energy to the mind + body, finally bringing the hands to the heart sending gratitude to the heart and lungs. We set an intention for our class, and released it, reaching the hands to the sky and to the right for a twist, peeling the right shoulder back to open the chest 5% more. We arched the right hand to the sky and toward the opposite knee to open the side body, and then brought it to the left knee, crossing the arms, arching the back and dripping the chin. We twisted to the other side, and then came through center, planted the fingers behind us, opened the chest, arching the spine into a backbend, and melted into a forward fold. We unraveled the legs and melted the hips back into a child’s pose, bending the elbows, prayer hands overhead, thumbs melting to the nape of the neck. Hands melt down, travel to the right, hips melt back and to the left, hands through center, and to the left, hips back and to the right. Right hand forward, left arm threads under, grounding left temple and shoulder. Right hand in toward the face, left arm unravels up to the sky, float off the right hand, left hand reaches for left heel, right hand to the sky, 1/2 Camel, opening the heart, exhale through center, left hand forward, right arm threads under, and we find 1/2 camel on this side. We roll up into our Table Top.

 Our cat cow flow followed as we warmed up the spine, adding in organic movement, hips swaying side to side, or rolling forward and back into Childs pose creating a wave forward and back into our table top. We moved to our breath, our own pace, making our cat cow our own. We came into our neutral table top, lifted the gaze with the right toes extend back, like a tail of a feline we are connected to, a Tiger, Lion, Jaguar, Leopard, or our pet kitty at home, exhaled knee to nose arching the spine, inhale right leg back, and plants, we open up Supported Side Plank, right hand high, exhale through center, right knee tucks in, inhale right leg out to the right side, left hand up to the sky, and thread to the right, grounding left temple and shoulder, Rolling Panda, unravel left hand up, and plant top of the mat, hips melt back, 1-leg child's pose. Inhale we roll up, right knee in, cat cow, and honor the left side!

 We flowed through downward dog- plank waves, pranam knees chest chin, into a low cobra, and up into our downward dog, a total of 3 times. We floated to the top of our mats into a forward fold, hanging heavy, and began to root to rise, we slowly lifted up, one vertebrae at a time, the head the last to come through, into our Tadasana, our mountain pose. We felt the grounding energy from the earth pull at the soles of our feet from the toes to the arches to the heels, like roots of a tree pulling us into he soil, anchoring us. This energy circled around the legs, to the pelvis, the hips, around each vertebrae of the spine to the shoulders as they melt down from the ears. The crown reaching for the heavens, we are stable, rooted, and anchored. 

 Our main flow began in Tadasana, inhale we cactus the arms, opening this new chapter of our lives in this new year, exhale we curl in cradle the head, inhale we lengthen up cactus the arms, exhale curl in, twisted chair to the right, elbow hooks the knee, inhale lengthen up cactus the arms, exhale twisted chair to the left, elbow hooks the knee, inhale flat back, exhale forward fold maybe with a lion's roar! We move through a flow, pranam or chaturanga, or skip it, to meet in downward dog. Inhale right leg floats, exhale knee to chest, and tuck the right foot in toward the left thigh, and reach the right knee toward the left side of our mat, getting a nice stretch to the left side of the lower spine. Inhale right leg floats, bend the knee open the hip, exhale knee to chest, pull right knee to the left, inhale float, bend the knee open the hip, exhale knee to chest, step it forward, left hand down right hand high, Twisted Lunge, and thread under the left arm 3 times, melt to the left foot, Skandasana, your choice of hands, maybe float at heart, walk forward, sidebends opening the heart. Walk to the back of our mat, Twisted Lunge, right hand down, left hand high, left hand down, left foot back, Sideplank, left hand high. Left hand down, left foot forward, Warrior I we rise up, inhale cactus the arms, find a bind behind the back, opening the heart, exhale we humble in, bending forward, inhale we float forward Warrior 3, right leg floats back, hands of choice, grounded, floating, and we all ground, Standing Splits, right toes high, exhale right knee curls in, 3 times, and on the third, with control, we ground into the left foot, left hand, open the hip, Half Moon, right hand high. Right hand down, square the hips toward the earth, soft landing right foot back, hands under blocks, into our Pyramid, melting the heart. Horse pose is a little crazy, so we did not attempt it, but a room full of Pyramids, we actually look like a field of grazing horses! So fun, we're strong in the Year of the Horse! Back foot steps back, bend into the left knee we rise up Sky Archer, straighten the left leg, right hand down, left hand up, exhale left knee bends, left elbow to left knee, heart opens, chest rotates, right hand overhead. 

Inhale we roll up into our 5-pt Star, long extensions of the arms, exhale Goddess, inhale up, arms out to a T, right over left, elephant trunk we lift, exhale we melt from the hips, finding a sway left to right, removing negativity, obstacles out of our way, clearing the path forward into our new year. Elephants might be the animal guide for some of us, connecting deeply to their matriarch, strong feminine nature, family bonds, wisdom, gentle strength, leadership, longevity, resilience, and nurturing qualities. Hands unravel right toes turn top of the mat, we're building our Triangle from the ground up, left hand high. Left hand down, we float forward, left leg floats, right arm floats, Twisted Half Moon, maybe binding back foot, maybe rising up into our Twisted Dancer! Soft landing wherever we are of the right foot, into our Horse grazing pose melt the heart. Plant the palms, right foot sweeps thru center and up, 3-limb dog, and move through a flow or skip it, hop forward to our forward fold to honor the left side!

☃️Our Somatic practice gives us tools to regulate our nervous system, to stimulate the vagus nerve that begins at the base of the brain and runs throughout the body touching every organ system! We agitated emotions stuck in the body, to help them move around, release, and to serve as a reset button. We rubbed the palms together to create some healing energy and heat, and we brought the fingertips to the crown, massaging the fingertips all over the crown and behind the ears, even the base of the skull. We moved into the temples, massaging circles here, and then rolled the fingertips all around the eyes, circling the orbit of the eyes. We dripped the fingers to the jaw, the hinge where we open and close the jaw, the perfect release for jaw clenchers like myself, and maybe you too. The more we massage this area, hopefully the less we keep going back to this area holding tension, causing pain. We pulled down on the ear lobes, pulled the middle of the ears out to the sides, up to the top of the ears pulling toward the sky. We brought our fingertips to the base of the skull, pressing into our vagus nerve, and melted the fingertips toward the ears, along the jawline, and down the front of the neck to the collarbone. We repeated this 2 more times, releasing tightness in the throat, freeing any lumps from holding stress here, allowing us to speak our truth. We brought our right hand to the back of our head, into the vagus nerve, and with the left index and middle fingers began to slowly roll down the forehead, down the bridge of the nose to the tip, 3 times, and then switching the hands. I've done this while my son is waking up in the morning, for my pup, and for horses, we all seem to benefit, calming us all down. We tapped into the collarbone, with slow rythmic taps, all fingers in unison, into one of our acupressure points in the body. We brought this tapping to the sternum, center of the chest, so good for those of us who hold stress in our chest, causing tightness, shallow breathing, even hyperventilating. The tapping tells the brain that we are safe, to expand the chest walls, slow down the heartbeat, lengthen and slow down the inhales and exhales, signals of safety, not survival. We slowly tapped here, continuing as we inhaled, paused to bring the hands to the heart, stacked on top of one another, and as we exhaled we audibly hummed into our bee breath🐝! Our bee breath, not only a somatic tension release, humming reduces anxiety even more than sleep, and also important in the winter to keep things loose in the lungs, preventing illness. We crossed the arms at the chest, and squeezed into opposite shoulders, down to the biceps and triceps, and into the forearms. We brought the hands to the shoulders again for a squeeze, and swiped the hands down the arms, chest, abdomen, low back, and legs, making sure anything still tethered to the body is fully released. We released everything from last year we need to let go of, sweep it away, let yourself be freed of it. Send it all out into the breeze, no longer needed in this moment!

 We came into stillness, then swayed right and left, and found stillness again, noticing the effects: we can feel cool, heat, or tingling sensations, even a spontaneous yawn! All signs that one or more of these tools has worked for us, we keep practicing, moving closer toward a more regulated nervous system. We inhaled high onto the toes, and slowly bounced in the balls of the feet until we grounded the heels, 2 times, bounces into the heels.  We removed anything stuck, anything harmful & toxic still attached to the body! We stimulated the vagus nerve, the super highway of information from the brain to the body! We sent messages to the brain that the body is not under threat, it does not have to exist in a continuous active state (fight /flight/freeze/fawn mode). We helped our body to experience a larger capacity to sit in discomfort, and not immediately reach for unhealthy soothers, or run from it. We welcome space for triggers to be felt and moved through. We have the ability to help our nervous system shift fluidly between states when each are needed, the sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous systems! Both are useful and 100% needed, but we do not want to become stuck in one state for too long. These practices are so useful off the mat as we encounter stress or triggers in our daily lives! We find balance! We find freedom!

Our cool down began in Tadasana, we inhaled hands overhead, and planted the hands as we stepped back into our downward dog. We inhaled as the right leg extending to the sky, exhaled knee to the chest, repeating 2 more times, and thread  the right leg to the left side of our mat, and reached the left fingers to the sky, into our Fallen Star. Right knee into the chest, knee down, melt into the forearms into our Puppy pose, today our Wolf, left leg extends back, exhale knee to chest, inhale lengthen, exhale curl in, inhale lengthen, and cross over to the right side, left knee tucks in behind the right, walk hands over to the left, melt the hips back, cross leg Childs pose. Hands plant top of the mat, left leg extends back, right shin forward, left shin left long side, hands reach up, exhale we melt over right knee, into our Deer, connecting to our Animal Guide if deer is it, to their gentle, graceful, innocent, swift nature. Inhale we unravel right leg high, downward dog, knees melt, we find our dancing camel, backbend, and melt forward into our Puppy, our Wolf. Inhale we lift the hips downward dog, left leg lifts, knee to chest, Fallen Star, and Wolf kicks on the left side!

 After the Deer on the left side, we brought both feet top of the mat and windshield wipe the knees slowly left to right, and formed our Butterfly pose, made peace fingers and hooked the big toes, lengthened the legs out into a V, our Straddle pose, Balancing Bear pose, connecting to a Grizzly or Black bear, Polar or Panda, if that's our Animal Guide, connecting to their strength, power, courage, wisdom, family bonds, and protective nature, noticing those same qualities in ourselves, and bending the knees to roll back along the spine into our Happy Baby rocking side to side.

We lengthened long, hugged the knees into the chest, extended our feet to the sky into our T-pose, crossed the right leg over the left, bent the knees, hugged the thighs together and reached for shins, gently pulling the knees toward the chest. This lengthens the IT band, and helps to soften where the sciatic nerve travels, releasing any pain we may have there. We released our shins, planted the bottom foot, hips scooch to the right, knees fall to the left for a supine twist! We came through center, lifted the hips into our Bridge, hugged the knees in, and extended the feet to the sky, T-pose, crossed the left over the right, bent the knees, hugged the thighs together, and reached for shins. We twisted to the opposite side! We made time to come into any final poses we needed before our final rest, such as legs up the wall, bridge, plow or wheel, or coming into Savasana early! 

We made it to our PEAK POSE: Savasana! Together, we completed a full body cleanse! We found meditative peace, a calming of the mind, removed masks, heavy burdens, found insight into ourselves, we experienced expansion, fearlessness, release, and freedom. Yoga helps us shed what we no longer need, so we may see our most purest selves! We connect to divinity! To slow down means to heal! That is why savasana is the peak pose, the most important pose, the goal, the pinnacle. To find peace. In the stillness! We surrender. We discover ourselves again without the layers, the armor, the walls. They all come down, revealing our divine self.

This class was really so incredibly fun, and I loved it so much! So much fun energy in the room, and we found connection with our animal guides, or maybe discovered for the first time, what mammal we felt a connection to! Whether our furry family at home, or loving wild animals from afar, we are deeply connected to every single one! When we rid the world of wild animals, we rid a piece of ourselves. We do all we can to protect our animal friends, and our beautiful planet! I'm filled with SO much gratitude for you all choosing to practice with me, I'm humbled and so thankful!  And of course, our Animal Guides: Mammals playlist was all about horses, wolves, running, and nature! Listen here! Next week, we connect to our Bird friends!!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1HO8cqjfeTy3O5xZ4kSINM?si=jLKg-DIUS9awmcwiagcxGA&pi=WNQOaVj8QiC8Z

🍃Come practice with me on  Fridays at 11:30am for a non-heated Gentle Somatic Flow, and on warm Somatic Sundays at 10:00am!🫶🏻 ✨🌿