As a teen and young woman, Freia Ramsey struggled with anxiety and depression. She discovered yoga at 20 and found that it gave her the means to release the tension in her body and mind and to feel some moments (though fleeting at first) of peace. She came to realize the therapeutic value of the age-old Indian practice and it has been a huge part of her life for the past 24 years. The practices of Yoga have given Freia the tools to take care of herself physically and emotionally, to recover from a severe physical injury and to feel empowered to deal with whatever challenges arise in her life. As a fully licensed Yoga Therapist and Yoga Studio owner, she is sharing the practices and philosophy of Yoga with others, empowering them with the tools to make positive changes in their own lives.
In India, traditional yoga began with a guru, or teacher, working one-on-one with the student. When yoga was introduced to western culture, it became more of a group exercise. Freia enjoys working with individual clients, but also works with small groups. She uses her Yoga Therapy to demonstrate how everyone can regulate their nervous system to allow their body to properly heal and improve overall health and wellness.
A Yoga Therapist is slightly different than a Yoga Teacher. The therapist works with a client where they are, to address their goals for themselves. Every person is unique and so their yoga practice should address this and work to bring their particular imbalances into harmony. Yoga sees all of the systems of the body as interconnected. If there is an issue in the physical body, then there is a corresponding issue in the mind. By addressing the whole being through the different practices we can create a sense of ease in the body and mind simultaneously.
She told us,
“When I’m with a client I assess structural imbalances, different range of motion issues, and dysfunctional movement patterns and create a daily practice that addresses these issues and works to bring the body and mind back into balance and harmony.”
Freia and her husband opened their first facility, Integral Life Centre to meet with clients on an individual basis, but it quickly became much more. As more people have come to realize the benefits of Yoga Therapy, they expanded their practice to a much larger facility in Chardon, Ohio, called Taproot Yoga. The facility has a large group of teachers holding over 35 classes each week. They also offer massage, as well as, energy medicine.
Freia told us, “I believe everyone needs some type of yoga in their life. The mindfulness, meditation and exercise feeds both the body and the soul, making us healthier, more resilient and happier”
The new space has developed a community atmosphere, which allows more people to come together. It has also developed a synergy among various disciplines to improve health and wellness.
Freia encourages anyone wanting to try Yoga for the first time, to “…make sure you attend a beginning class, don’t try to start at an accelerated level.”
With the physical practice of yoga, it’s truly not about getting a pose perfect or the practice getting harder and harder as you progress. The goal is to find the right style and level that suits the needs of each person’s individual constitution, their lifestyle and their goals.
“Yoga is really about the mind. How can we do things to positively affect our mind to clear the clutter to eradicate stress and tension within the body.”
A regular Yoga practice will strengthen and stretch the body releasing chronic tension in the muscles and fascia. It will also regulate the nervous system and turn off the stress response. Once this is done then the nervous system has the ability to regulate all of the other systems of the body so that the body can heal and recover and come into a state of health.
Freia Recommends a Daily Routine Anyone Can Do
It’s so important to find a 10-minute routine that you can do both in the morning and at night. According to Freia, it doesn’t have to be an hour, which would be great, but 10 minutes is all that some people can commit to doing consistently. She recommends three stretches so that you move your spine in the six directions that it can go and then right before bed, do three other movements, so you move again in the six directions. With these exercises you’re at least keeping your spine supple.
During the day try some back bends to counter all the forward folding we do. It could be a big backbend, but it doesn’t have to be. Freia suggests that you lay on your back on the floor and then put a little towel roll under the back of your hips and pelvis and rest on that to give you a gentle back bend.
Another integral piece of a daily routine is to breathe. Simply set your alarm on your phone for three times during the day and take five deep breaths. Focus on the exhalation more than the inhalation because you must get the stale air out before you can get fresh air in, otherwise there’s no place for it to go. Exhaling slowly and deeply slows down your brain waves and calms your nervous system.
Then the piece that Freia does even when she doesn’t do anything else, is a daily yoga Nidra practice; this is a type of meditation that translates as yoga sleep. Basically, it’s a guided meditation, where you go through different points of the body and as you pay attention to the different areas, you systematically release and relax your muscles and the corresponding parts in your brain.
It is important to remind the mind how to turn off the stress response. We need to re-establish a non-stress baseline. When the stress response is constantly triggered, the body forgets how to turn it off and it becomes the new normal. That is what creates health issues.
As everyone knows the right medicine or treatment for an illness or health issue is different for every individual. There is no magic formula, medication, or guide book to perfect health. A huge part of Freia’s practice is paying attention to each client and finding the right yoga routine that will be beneficial to build balance and harmony to create the overall health and balance each client is seeking.
To talk with Freia to discuss your particular issues and/or explore Yoga Therapy, reach out to her at her new location, Taproot Yoga Studio, 131 Wilson Mills Road, Chardon, Ohio. An online schedule for her weekly classes can be found at https://www.taprootyogachardon.com/. She can also be reached via email: info@taprootyogachardon.com.
We enjoyed our conversation with Freia Ramsey. To hear more from her, listen to our Soar to Success Podcast that was the basis for this article.
