Hand-Holding Human

09/05/2024

Hello everyone 👋🏽

As part of Dying Matters Week I am hosting Dying to Share on Saturday 11th May between 2pm and 4:15pm.

It is a cosy and community focused event. Tea and cake provided, in a peaceful setting.

🧡Dying to Share is about connection - we have grief and loss in common. Hannah hosts a safe place for everyone to share what is present for them.

Members of our community attend Dying to Share because they may be experiencing the following:

❤️‍🩹In grief about a loved one(s) dying.
❤️‍🩹Anticipating loss and living in grief following a loved one receiving a diagnosis.
❤️‍🩹Feeling isolated in their grief and/or noticing their is an expectation they move on and recover from their grief
❤️‍🩹Receiving a diagnosis and looking for impartial connection as they process the emotions rising.
❤️‍🩹Desiring to support a loved one with a terminal diagnosis and unsure of how to do so.
❤️‍🩹Not yet having the experience of someone close to them dying and wondering how they will cope.

💛 Dying Matters Week Event - The Way We Talk About Dying Matters 💛

Our talking points may include:

Society: Why don't we talk about dying and death? How can we support one another more as a community.

Words and phrases: 'We have lost Grandma', 'Mark has passed away', 'Tina has lost her battle' - what might be the implications of not using the words dead, dying, died?

Life: How can connecting to death help us to live a fulfilling and happy life? What prevents us from talking about death or our mortality?

Choice: How can we equip ourselves to support someone's choice to die at home?

Shock: When someone dies suddenly, how might we support those connected? How do we support ourselves? How might this feel different to a death that we are anticipating?

Illness: How can we support others with an incurable illness?

Grief: How do we move through grief as we process loss? How can we support ourselves and ask for support from others.

🧁Refreshments
Herbal tea, home-made cake and biscuits are provided. There will be gluten-free and vegan options available.

💒Venue
Dying to Share is held on the top floor of the Cornerstone. It is beautiful, calm space and very private. It is fully accessible and has a lift for wheelchair access.

More information here: https://padlet.com/DyingToShare/welcome-to-dying-to-share-9cliw747jl8z4ug5

27/03/2024

Learning to regulate our nervous system means when we encounter a stressor we are able to regulate and respond, rather than react.

Starting our day with deep breaths and gentle movement can send a signal of safety to our nervous system.

Watch an animal when it wakes up - it stretches, yawns, moves slowly - it’s a process of embodiment before checking out the environment. Engaging in a little gentle movement and stretch helps a human to embody their body and regulate their nervous system too.

Tips for a regulating practice:

- give yourself permission to breathe and be here - this is worth your time
- focus on your breath, lengthening the exhale
- with each variation of child’s pose take 5-10 breaths
- if you’re enjoying it and your body feels at ease, stay for longer
- make it comfortable
- signal further safety inside by yawning and stretching
- adapt how you position your body to support deeper comfort and relaxation.
- have your knees supported by a blanket underneath if this feels safer and reassuring for your body.

What is your favourite variation of child’s pose? 😴

26/03/2024

👋🏽 🙋🏼‍♀️ Hey friends, it feels good to be back here.

Looking forward to reconnecting with you 🤍

Featured in the video: Dr Stephen Porges, psychologist and neuroscientist, creator of the Polyvagal Theory speaking at the Trauma Conference at the University of Oxford in September 2023

Dr Gabor Mate with Dr Rangan Chatterjee in London last weekend at the Prescribing Lifestyle Medicine event for healthcare and well-being professionals.

05/01/2023

Hello Friends,

Dates for the beginning of 2023 are:

26 January
23rd February
23rd March
27th April

Please share with anyone who might benefit from being in this special circle and growing community.

With love,
Hannah 🕯️

12/12/2022

Hello friends,

I am hosting Dying for a Cuppa at Christmas this coming Saturday from 3:15pm at the the Cornerstone Community Centre in Hove - everyone is welcome ☕️🎄

Lots of love, Hannah ❤️

04/12/2020

Day 4 ~ Hints from our nervous system

🧠Understanding our system is so helpful, not only do we begin to understand which state we’re in but we then notice what state a loved-one of colleague might be in.

👥As humans we tend to personalise, if someone seems withdrawn in our presence we might think “what did I do?”. Or “why don’t they seem fussed about that suggestion”? “Do they still like me?”. We start to create a story to try and explain their behaviour.

💕Appreciating that they might have slipped into dorsal allows us to come into a place of compassion rather than frustration. It’s not personal, they’re simply experience a lull in energy or been activated by a situation previously ~ this is super important. It means we can maintain being in ventral rather than moving into sympathetic. This is way less taxing on our energy and means our whole physical and emotional self stays regulated.

🔥When we move into sympathetic we are in stress, we start to lose access to all our resources because our thinking brain presses pause in favour of survival. We are way less resourceful and have to work harder to access the skills and the knowledge we have.

🪜Over the weekend notice which state you might be spending most time in. What activities feel good, calming, soothing. What tasks or things create more energy entering your system, a little bit of sympathetic activation.
If you’re really tired you might notice a desire to go slow. Honour your dorsal dip, nurture and nourish yourself. Be gentle.

Suggestions coming tomorrow 💘

03/12/2020

Day Three ~ We experience our world through three nervous system states.

Today, I’m sharing the three nervous system states. We move through each of these states every day ~ our nervous system is supporting us to be flexible and adaptable to meet a variety of demands internally and from out internal environment.

🪜Our Autonomic Ladder🪜

🌞Ventral (safe and social) - centred and grounded, consistent flow of energy. Emotionally we feel connected to ourselves and others. Happy, friendly, open and calm.
All systems in our body are able to function optimally as we enjoy life.

⛔️ Sympathetic (fight or flight / mobilised) ~ we can feel fear, anger, distress, irritation as our body feels flooded with what feels like too much energy.
🔥Here we can feel flooded by emotion ~ anger can go from 0-100 very quickly. Or we might hear a bang and suddenly feel very anxious.
When we use the everyday term “it was a bit of a shock to the system” ~ we mean our nervous system.
Here some of biological functions are paused as we move into fight or flight mode.

🥀 Dorsal (Immobilised withdrawn) ~ In this state we feel as though all our energy is drained. We disconnect, check-out and can even disassociate. Our system has been so overwhelmed that we want to hide, curl up in bed, press pause on the world.

💡As we learn more about our nervous system, we can observe what brings us into each state. This means we can notice now it might feel to be in sympathetic but not be hijacked by it. Ultimately, with this knowledge and understanding we are able to develop strategies that help us to regulate and intentionally transition back to a ventral way of being.

💥Given this year has been pretty activating it’s likely we’ve all hung out fairly often in sympathetic, dropped into dorsal and then had moments of joy and relief in ventral.
We all having this human experience as we navigate uncertainty.

♥️ Which state do you notice being in most right now?

02/12/2020

EMBODYING YOUR INNATE INTELLIGENCE ✨

🎄 Day 2 Your mind tells the story of what your nervous system thinks it knows.

Throughout your life your nervous system has been learning about the world, toned towards habits of connection or protection. Imagine it as your own internal risk surveillance system, software that is personalised based on your experience of life so far which is constantly scanning for external threats. It’s primary focus is to manage risk and seek safety and connection.

Previously we have been guided to believe that it was our thoughts and moods that are creating our physiological state. Now science is sharing with us that it is our nervous system state that defines our internal narrative. The way we think about ourselves and others, the way we talk to ourselves, how we perceive our abilities and the beliefs we have about ourselves and our external environment is all influenced by our nervous system state.

We keep talking about mental health and ‘upgrading our mindset’, when actually we really need to be focusing on our nervous system health.
This is because it’s not possible to feel emotionally balanced or resilient without nurturing our nervous system. If our system doesn’t feel safe, our brain will create a story along the lines of “you’re not safe, you’re in trouble, don’t trust them, get out of there”.

The wonderful news is that it is possible to evolve our cues of protection and connection by reshaping the innate intelligence of our nervous system. This supports our brain to flip the script. We can do this through awareness, social connection, movement and activities that support our well-being.

By having the knowledge to support ourselves to cultivate a balanced and regulated nervous system we can invest in our emotional and physical health which supports not only our energy flow and resilience but guides us to think in a more empowered way about who we are and how we live in a way that feels safe and aligned with our desires.

01/12/2020

Day 1 | Embody your innate intelligence ✨

🎄Nothing says Christmas more than an advent of the autonomic nervous system. But as we navigate the festive period of 2020 together I know having this knowledge in your toolbox will be so helpful.
You see, understanding your nervous system and embodying this innate intelligence can change your life.
This is the science of feeling safe enough to fall in love with life and take the risks of living
It’s learning that our nervous system manages risk and creates patterns of connection or protection by changing our physiological state, which then changes the story and the narrative in our minds.
When most of us consider what is to be resilient and resourceful we tend to think from head up. That’s the conditioning we’ve received, that to embrace it all we must shift our mindset. Yet science now shares with us that it’s the nervous system, with messages coming up from our gut that create the lens that we see ourselves and the world through.
Over the next 24 days I am going to take you on a magical, mystery tour of the nervous system, how it affects us, how we can be guided by it, how we soothe ourselves and come back to regulation and how we can evolve our innate patterns to honour our desires, dreams and intentions.

It’s good to be back here, full of purpose. I’ve missed you. Love, Hannah ♥️

29/05/2020

Wake up, warm up, create the fire, create the space in your body.
Set you’re intention for the day, the weekend, feel alive, feel energised, feel ready.

In exchange you can say 'thank you' and share your appreciation by making a gift here https://ko-fi.com/handholdinghuman

All you need is a mat, some water, any support you might like for your knees (i.e. a blanket) and light and lose clothing.

Enjoy your practice yogis - here's to more yoga in the sunshine.

Lots of love,
Hannah x

26/05/2020

Twists are a helpful way to support and nourish our spine health.

Tonight's practice includes mindful stretches which nurture natural spinal rotations and alignment and increases fresh blood flow.

We’ll also loosen up our upper body (shoulders) and our lower body (hips and legs).

Thank you for all your class exchanges so far. You can support me and say 'thank you' for your class with a gift of a 'coffee'. You can find out more and pay here https://ko-fi.com/handholdinghuman
https://ko-fi.com/handholdinghuman

This class is for everyone, bring your props (pillows, cushions, yoga strap or robe belt, and a blanket).

Thank you for joining me and have a wonderful practice.

Love,
Hannah

PS - I am back on Friday at 8am-8:40am for the Friday Feeling Flow. Happy, joyful, warming, energising and naturally a little bit sweaty!

9am-10.30 via Zoom 'Yoga for women - yoga and the yellow rose" £10 - you can invest in a beautiful Saturday morning here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/yoga-for-women-tickets-104327444194

22/05/2020

A happy, heart-opening yoga flow.

Finish feeling alive, energised, connected and begin your day full of intention.

You don’t need any props, just your mat and a glass of water.

You can support me here through the gift of a 'coffee' https://ko-fi.com/handholdinghuman

Modifications: if you feel tired modify downward dog to table top or take a rest in child's pose.

To protect your knees, use a blanket or a knee support yoga prop.

Have a fun and freeing practice friends.

Lots of love,
Hannah x

19/05/2020

For anyone who has been walking more regularly and especially yummy for runners.

You'll close your practice feeling relaxed, at ease, longer and lighter.

Thank you for all your class donations so far, if you are able to support me at this time with a gift of a 'coffee'. I would be super grateful. You can find out more here https://ko-fi.com/handholdinghuman

Props - usual cushions, pillows and a blanket. A yoga strap or tie of some sort might also be helpful.

Thank you for joining me and enjoy your practice.

Love,
Hannah x

18/05/2020

Hi friends,
Here is my yoga schedule for this week.
Sending lots of love to you xx

Hello friends,

Here are my yoga offerings for this week.

🕊7.30pm-8.30pm - Tuesday Tune in, Tune Out Yoga here on Facebook Live
This is a wonderful way of connecting with yourself, releasing tension from your body and soothing your nervous system. A blend of mindful movement, breathwork and guided visualisation.

🌞8am-8.40am Friday Feeling Yoga Flow here on Facebook Live.
Burn, baby, burn, create heat and strength in the body through dynamic movement and sun salutations. This is a fantastic way to see in the weekend - light-hearted, joyful and full of intention.

If would like to show your appreciation and thanks for my weekly Facebook classes, you can treat me to a 'coffee' here https://ko-fi.com/handholdinghuman 💖🙏🏼

🌻8:50am-10.30am Yoga and Circle for Women (Yoga and the Yellow Rose) every Saturday via Zoom. A calm and serene way to welcome in your weekend. We pay loving attention to our hips and our hearts, creating space with our body and gently moving with our breath. We close our practice with a beautiful meditation and then have a cuppa together. A supportive, welcoming and wonderful place to be.

Everyone is invited to turn their camera off so that they can practice in private.

You can buy your weekly ticket here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/yoga-for-women-tickets-104327444194 or transfer to me directly £10.

See you on the mat yogis.

Lots of love,
Hannah ❤️

Ps - Thank you for sharing this post and encouraging more people to try yoga or jump back on their mat 🙏🏼