Effortless Effort and Elastic Recoil - 60 min practice video

The blog below supports the Therapeutic Movement class above.

In this yoga practice, we explore a subtle but powerful theme: the balance between effort and ease, learning to move with elasticity, energy, and intelligent use of force. This chapter in movement invites us into our bodies as sources of feedback, rhythm, and natural wisdom - reminding us that not all energy needs to be pushed. Sometimes, we can let it bounce.

Finding the Beginning: Foetal Position & Elastic Recoil

We begin sitting in an upright foetal position, a shape of both rest and potential, to centre ourselves and arrive. From here, we open into the idea of elastic recoil - the way energy can return to us if we allow for recoil, bounce, and recovery rather than constant output. Not to deny that effort is sometimes required, but to question where we might be leaking energy unnecessarily.

This is a space to recognise where eustress, or healthy stress, becomes challenge - but also where it becomes excess. With awareness, we learn how to foster elasticity in the body, creating lift and rebound rather than simply dropping down or collapsing.

Listening Through Breath: The Energy Cost of Over-Effort

As we settle, we tune into breath - a gateway to see where we might be using more energy than needed. The sound of breath, especially when effortful or noisy, can be a signpost for imbalance.

We turn to the exhalation as a cue for natural rhythm, letting the body drop into that flow. When the breath is smooth and grounded, the rest of the body can begin to sync with its cadence, releasing excess tension and inviting fluidity.

Moving with Response, Not Resistance

From this quiet space, movement begins to emerge - small movements of the feet, gentle redirection that naturally take us into motion. Rather than pushing or pulling, we follow these organic impulses, allowing the body to move in relationship with the ground.

A tiny press of the foot could send us to the side, rising through the spine. Nothing forced, just the gentle bounce that gravity and rebound afford us when we allow.

Holding Without Gripping

As we widen our stance and hold onto the knees, we explore the quality of containment without over-control. There’s a fine line between grounding and gripping, and this space asks us to listen closely.

How do we hold ourselves? With enough support to feel safe, but not so much that movement is restricted? Here, we notice what it feels like to bring just enough - not too little, not too much. Letting the body's natural ease unfold without interference.

From Centre to Whole: Letting Movement Emerge

Gradually, movement ripples outward from this centre. Working with the weight of the body, we move into spaces of freedom and flow, noticing how energy travels when we don’t block it or force it.

In this space, we aren’t aiming to ‘do’ something, but to feel - and in feeling, to let movement arise. No part of the body is excluded; everything is invited. The result is a sense of lightness, of connection, of coming home.

We let ourselves settle here.

If you'd like to study more on mindful, somatic and therapeutic practices I invite you to look at my Therapeutic Somatics for Yoga Teachers certification. The 170 CPD hours are made up of my Somatics for Yoga Teachers course and Yoga & Somatics for Healing & Recovery.