An interview with Lisa Petersen, on Yoga Journal, Spain
Lisa Petersen has been a friend and colleague of Karla Brodie and Neal Ghoshal for many years. We all share Donna Farhi as a major inspiration for our Yoga teaching and practice, among other influences of course.
In this article, published by Yoga Journal, Spain, Lisa beautifully explains the role of somatics within a yoga practice:
Yoga Journal: What is Somatics and how can this special work be useful to an asana practice on any level?
Lisa: Somatics is a body of work that gives us tools to know ourselves from the inside out. Any practice where we seek to foster internal awareness including mapping, tracking, registering, sensing and feeling ourselves is by definition a somatic practice. This includes Yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, Body-Mind Centering, Somatic Experiencing, Continuum, and many other traditions.
I think of a soma as an aware, awake, alive, breathing, moving, thinking, conscious body. As I started to weave yoga and somatics together, I thought ‘wouldn’t it be wonderful to experience my yoga body in a more somatic way?’ I recruited my students in an experiment. Together we explored how they moved, felt and aligned themselves when I posed new somatic questions to old yoga problems. I continue this living laboratory, tapping into our embodied and intuitive wisdom every time I teach. It is both humbling and inspiring.
