Healing from the Ground Up

The Mountain Method ™ - Part 2

Image produced by The Edge Brands

There comes a moment in many healing journeys when the cognitive tools stop working. When the talking has been done, the insight gathered, and still the body trembles, the breath shortens, the world feels overwhelming. It’s not that something is wrong with you. It’s that healing hasn’t reached the root yet.

This is where we begin in The Mountain Method™.
At the base. The body. The energy. The foundation.

In the first article, I shared how the Mountain serves as both metaphor and map—a sacred terrain where psychology and spirituality meet. But a map is only useful when we know where we’re starting from. And we always start with safety. With breath. With presence. With the body.

The Bottom-Up Brain

Dr Bruce Perry, Child Psychiatrist and Trauma Researcher, teaches that the brain develops from the bottom up:

1. Brainstem – survival, regulation, rhythm

2. Limbic system – emotion, memory, connection

3. Cortex – thinking, reasoning, reflection

This means that in healing work, we can’t start with insight. We have to start with the body. With rhythm. With nervous system safety. In terms of parenting it is often said ‘connection before correction’ (Siegal & Bryson, 2014) and that follows the order of brain development and the healing journey.

Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) reminds us: healing must be developmentally attuned. It’s not about where someone “should” be—but where their system is. If a person’s survival brain is stuck in a loop from early life, their higher thinking can't lead. We must create safety at the level the trauma occurred.

In The Mountain Method™, I translate this into energetic language. If a client’s Root chakra is still holding trauma from infancy, no amount of higher insight or spiritual bypass will help them integrate. The foundation needs tending.

The Chakra Mirror: A Spiral of Development

Just as the brain unfolds in layers, so too does the chakra system—from root to crown, ground to Source. It’s not linear—it’s spiral. Each chakra corresponds to a developmental stage, a vibrational frequency, and an area of the body and psyche in the following way:

• Root chakra – safety, stability, survival

• Sacral and Solar Plexus – emotion, identity, boundaries

• Heart – connection, compassion, trust

• Throat, Third Eye, Crown – truth, vision, transcendence

When trauma or neglect interrupts this spiral, energy either collapses or spins out. We see clients seeking purpose or gifts—but they’re still not safe being in their body. There are energy leaks.

Inner Pathways of Healing

As we begin to work with the chakras not just as metaphors but as living energy centres, we must understand how prana—life force energy—animates the whole system. In yogic wisdom, chakras are powered by prana moving through nadis, which are our subtle energy channels in the body.

The three primary nadis are:

• Ida (lunar, left side, cooling, emotional)

• Pingala (solar, right side, energising, rational)

• Sushumna (central channel of spiritual ascent)

Balancing Inner Polarity

In the yogic energy body system, balance is not a concept—it’s a current constantly shaped by the movement of prana, presence, and polarity. The rise of Kundalini energy depends not only on spiritual readiness but on the integration of opposing energies within the self. Kundalini energy is often described as a latent spiritual force coiled at the base of the spine, traditionally represented as a serpent. In yogic philosophy, it's believed to be the source of divine creative life force that, when awakened, travels upward through the chakras, leading to expanded consciousness, emotional release, spiritual insight, and deep transformation.

Kundalini is not just energetic—it’s also biopsychological. As it rises, it can activate stored trauma, unconscious beliefs, suppressed emotion, and unprocessed memories. That’s why Kundalini awakening can be both profound and intense—it doesn’t just elevate you spiritually, it brings to the surface anything in the way of that elevation.

This energy is powerful, sacred, and best approached with grounded nervous system regulation, not just spiritual seeking—especially if you’re already navigating trauma or heightened sensitivity. This is why it can be dangerous to undertake courses or practices aimed at 'awakening' Kundalini prematurely. Without foundational safety, containment, and energetic coherence, what should be a sacred rising can become a destabilising spiral. In The Mountain Method™, we honour this force with reverence, not urgency—knowing that true awakening cannot be forced, only prepared for.

In tantra and yoga, Kundalini is often described as the sacred dance of masculine and feminine—not genders, but energetic principles that exist in every being.

The three central energy channels discussed above —the nadis—govern this internal flow:

• Ida Nadi – Feminine energy, lunar, cooling, intuitive

  • Associated with the left side of the body

  • Connects to the right brain (emotions, creativity, receptivity)

  • Governs inner knowing, surrender, emotional fluidity
    

• Pingala Nadi – Masculine energy, solar, activating, logical

  • Associated with the right side of the body

  • Connects to the left brain (logic, drive, willpower)

  • Governs action, structure, outward focus
    

• Sushumna Nadi – The central channel along the spine

  • Activated only when Ida and Pingala are in balance

  • The pathway through which Kundalini rises

  • Represents unity, non-duality, alignment

When the two sides of our energy—the part of us that takes action and the part that receives—are in balance, something shifts. Our energy stops pulling us in different directions. Instead of feeling like we’re swinging between doing too much or feeling too much, there’s a sense of calm alignment. This is when our inner power—our life force—can rise naturally and clearly, without chaos or confusion.

It’s not about trying to be more “feminine” or more “masculine.” It’s about healing the internal split that keeps us chasing people, achievements, or relationships to feel whole. Because when that balance happens inside, you stop needing the outside world to complete you—you realise you already are.

Destruction or Rebirth?

In spiritual communities, the concept of a Twin Flame is often used to describe someone who feels like a divine counterpart—a mirror of your soul, someone who activates your deepest longing, triggers your awakening, and feels cosmically familiar.

But here’s where it gets tricky.

When we are internally imbalanced—with unresolved wounds in our masculine (e.g. boundary issues, hyper-drive) or feminine (e.g. over-merging, emotional instability)—meeting someone who mirrors those gaps can feel like destiny… when in fact, it may be trauma re-enactment in disguise.

The “twin” may not be your flame that sparks your own development.
They may be your mirror—reflecting what’s not yet integrated in you.

This projection often leads to:

• Hyper-intensity mistaken for depth

• Emotional chaos mistaken for passion

• Abandonment and return cycles mistaken for spiritual testing

And worst of all, spiritual bypassing used to justify emotional harm:

“They’re triggering my healing.”
“This is karma.”
“This connection is meant to be hard.”

I see this so much in women on a spiritual path who come to me for therapy and use this as a way to justify toxic connections and long periods of unmet needs. At its height, these can be violent relationships that require extraction. They can be dynamics between empaths and narcissistic abusers that, as a part of their adaptations in the world and ways of functioning, will mirror back what a person needs initially, only to allow that to fall later down the line with dire emotional and sometimes physical consequences.

These are the very reasons why, in The Mountain Method™, I hold that the spiritual energy body must be consciously worked with—not idealised or bypassed. This is not just as a part of expanding consciousness but also for those caught in toxic relational dynamics that are reinforced, not challenged, by spiritual belief systems. Ideas like "this pain is part of my soul contract," or "they’re triggering my ascension" can entangle deep trauma with distorted spirituality.

When the spiritual body isn’t grounded in nervous system safety and discernment, it becomes a place where abuse is rationalised and intuition is overridden.

This is why energetic healing must include clearing inherited or collective spiritual narratives—especially those that teach women to romanticise suffering, over-sacrifice, or confuse intensity with destiny. Healing the spiritual energy body means reclaiming sovereignty as a spiritual being and a human being. It means recognising when love feels expansive—and when it feels like self-abandonment disguised as divine union.

True Kundalini Awakening Requires Internal Union

Kundalini rises when the inner masculine and feminine are ready to receive her. When you’ve done the work to:

• Hold yourself with discipline and softness

• Take action and allow surrender

• Honour logic and emotion

• Lead and receive

Only then does the energy rise smoothly through Sushumna. Only then are you able to meet another from wholeness, not from craving, co-dependence, or projection.

In The Mountain Method™, this is what alignment means: not becoming “balanced” as a performance, but reintegrating the polarities we once exiled. The parts of us that pushed too hard. The parts that gave too much. When we no longer outsource those roles to others, we stop calling trauma destiny. And we start calling back our power—not from longing, but from presence.

Releasing blockages

When these are blocked—through trauma, disconnection, or energetic congestion—prana can't rise smoothly. This is where breathwork (pranayama) becomes not just a calming tool but a clearing ritual.

Techniques like:

• Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) harmonise the hemispheres of the brain and balance energy. This breath harmonises the left and right hemispheres of the brain, supports Ida and Pingala nadis, and creates an internal sense of clarity, balance, and calm. Beautiful for those feeling emotionally fragmented, overstimulated, or stuck in looping thoughts.

  How to do it:

  1. Sit comfortably with a long spine. Rest your left hand on your lap.

  2. Bring your right hand to your face:

     • Gently place your index and middle fingers between your eyebrows (or rest them lightly).

     • Your thumb will close your right nostril.

     • Your ring finger will close your left nostril.

  3. Begin:

     • Close the right nostril with your thumb. Inhale slowly through the left nostril.

     • Close the left nostril with your ring finger. Exhale through the right nostril.

     • Inhale through the right nostril, then switch again.

     • Exhale through the left.

  4. Repeat this cycle for 1–3 minutes, always inhaling through the nostril you just exhaled from.

  5. Keep the breath soft, smooth, and unforced. Let your awareness follow the breath.

  To close:
  After your final exhale on the left side, release your hand and take a few natural breaths through both nostrils. Observe the effect. This breath helps balance inner polarity (Ida/Pingala), opens the central channel (Sushumna), and creates the energetic symmetry needed for safe emotional access and upward energetic movement.

• Ujjayi breath calms and regulates, inviting the body back into presence.
  Ujjayi breath creates a soothing, oceanic sound in the throat that helps calm the nervous system, anchor awareness, and regulate prana. It’s warming, gently focusing, and ideal for moments of dissociation, distraction, or overwhelm.

How to do it:

1. Inhale through the nose slowly.

2. As you exhale through the nose, gently constrict the back of your throat—as if fogging up a mirror, but with your mouth closed.

3. You should hear a soft hissing or ocean-like sound in the throat.

4. Inhale and exhale this way, keeping the breath steady, audible, and easeful.

5. Continue for 1–3 minutes, letting the sound guide your focus.

Tips:

• Don’t strain or over-constrict.

• Let the sound soothe and anchor you in the body.

• Place one hand on the chest or heart to support embodiment.

Ujjayi builds the presence and inner heat necessary for sustaining focus , returning from dysregulation, and gently preparing the system for meditation or energetic activation.

As safety builds, we may explore bandhas—subtle muscular locks used to contain and direct energy:

• Mula Bandha (Root lock) engages the pelvic floor to ground and stabilise.

• Uddiyana Bandha (Abdominal lock) draws energy upward from the core.

• Jalandhara Bandha (Throat lock) seals the upper energy and encourages focus.

These aren’t yoga poses. They are subtle energetic technologies—offered only when the system is ready to hold the rising current of transformation.

How to Practice the Three Bandhas

Energetic Containment for Grounded Ascent

Bandhas should only be introduced when the nervous system is regulated, and the body feels safe enough to hold sensation without overwhelm. These are not just muscular contractions—they’re energetic commitments to presence and containment.

1. Mula Bandha – Root Lock

Location: Pelvic floor muscles (the base of the torso)
Purpose: Grounds energy, closes leaks at the Root chakra, enhances safety, sexual energy containment, and embodiment.

How to Activate:

1. Sit or stand with a long spine.

2. Bring awareness to the perineum (between the anus and genitals).

3. Gently contract the pelvic floor muscles, as if stopping the flow of urine or lifting the genitals inward and upward.

4. Hold for 3–5 seconds, then release. Repeat gently.

Avoid tensing the thighs or abdomen—this is subtle, not forceful.

This supports grounding in trauma recovery, prevents energetic dissociation, and helps anchor rising energy.

2. Uddiyana Bandha – Abdominal Lock

Location: Lower abdomen just below the navel
Purpose: Draws energy upward through the Sushumna, builds core awareness, and tones the Solar Plexus.

How to Activate:

Traditionally done on an empty stomach and after an exhale.

1. Sit or stand, inhale deeply, then fully exhale through the mouth.

2. Hold the breath out (apnea), and draw the belly in and upward, as if trying to lift your navel toward your spine and chest.

3. Feel a subtle suction or lift. Hold for 3–5 seconds (or less), then inhale gently and release.

This is an advanced practice—go slowly. Begin by simply drawing in the belly without apnea.

This helps redirect emotional energy (especially anger, fear) into intentional focus and stability. Reclaims inner strength and containment in the Solar Plexus region.

3. Jalandhara Bandha – Throat Lock

Location: Throat and chin
Purpose: Directs energy upward, contains heart and throat energy, supports focus, protection, and spiritual clarity.

How to Activate:

1. Sit tall with chin parallel to the floor.

2. Inhale gently, then tuck the chin slightly toward the chest, lengthening the back of the neck.

3. Keep chest lifted and shoulders soft. Hold for a few breaths.

4. Release gently.

Avoid collapsing the chest or gripping the jaw. This is a soft seal, not a forced contraction.

This protects the upper chakras, helps with boundary issues around expression and spiritual overstimulation.

After practising one or more bandhas, always take time to:

• Rest and breathe naturally

• Observe the effects: energy, emotion, clarity

• Ground through touch, movement, or water

These locks are tools of containment —they help hold what is rising, so it doesn't spill before the system is ready. Just as we wouldn’t pour boiling water into a fragile vessel, we mustn’t flood an unprepared system with rising Kundalini or emotional activation. The bandhas support the integrity of the container while the chakras unfold through their natural spiral of development.

This is why in The Mountain Method™, we don’t work with chakras as a hierarchy to “get through”—we approach them as a sequence of readiness. Each one represents not just an energetic centre, but a developmental milestone—a place where unmet needs, stuck energy, or soul imprints might still be echoing.

A soul imprint refers to an energetic, emotional, or spiritual pattern that has been etched into your deeper consciousness—often from early life experiences, ancestral lineage, or even past lives. These imprints act like soul-level memories or blueprints, influencing how you relate to yourself, others, and the world, often without conscious awareness.

In the context of The Mountain Method™, a soul imprint might be:

• A repeating emotional theme or wound (e.g. abandonment, invisibility, unworthiness) that re-emerges across life stages or relationships.

• A subconscious energetic pattern passed down through family or ancestral lines.

• A karmic echo—something unresolved in the soul’s longer journey that continues to seek integration in this lifetime.

Soul imprints can live in the emotional body as recurring emotional flashbacks, in the mental body as limiting beliefs, or in the spiritual body as felt disconnection from purpose, meaning, or Source. Healing them isn’t just about cognitive reframing—it’s about energetically and emotionally re-patterning what was once deeply encoded.

Chronology of Chakras

Each chakra corresponds not only to energetic and psychological themes but also to specific developmental stages. While these timelines can vary slightly across traditions and individuals, here is a commonly used mapping (Judith, 2004):

• Root (Muladhara) – Conception to 12 months
  Safety, nourishment, physical trust. The foundation of nervous system development.

• Sacral (Svadhisthana) – 6 months to ~2 years
  Emotional regulation, pleasure, sensory exploration, early relational bonding.

• Solar Plexus (Manipura) – 18 months to ~4 years
  Autonomy, self-will, identity, boundary testing, early self-esteem.

• Heart (Anahata) – 4 to 7 years
  Relational empathy, connection, receiving and giving love, secure attachment.

• Throat (Vishuddha) – 7 to 12 years
  Communication, truth-telling, creativity, expressing inner thoughts outwardly.

• Third Eye (Ajna) – 12 to 18 years
  Intuition, perception, critical thinking, self-reflection, individuation.

• Crown (Sahasrara) – 18+ years and through spiritual emergence
  Identity beyond self, spiritual connection, meaning-making, soul awareness.

Understanding where developmental needs were interrupted can help us map current struggles to earlier stages—energetically and emotionally. It’s about revisiting with new capacity and coherence, to meet what was once missed.

Healing Through Constitution

Alongside yogic tools, Ayurveda, an ancient holistic healing system from India that balances the body, mind, and spirit (through personalised lifestyle, nutrition, and energy practices) based on our unique constitution or Dosha. This helps us attune to the body’s natural state and its energetic needs. Based Dosha types of —Vata (air), Pitta (fire), or Kapha (earth)—the body’s reaction to trauma, stress, and healing will differ.

• Vata clients may be scattered, anxious, and physically cold—needing grounding, warmth, oil, slowness.

• Pitta types may burn with urgency or irritability—needing cooling, softness, permission to rest.

• Kapha may feel heavy or stuck—needing stimulation, movement, and inner fire.

Ayurvedic wisdom teaches us that one size does not fit all. Your constitution influences how you regulate, how you process, and how you rise. In The Mountain Method™, we integrate this awareness from the start—meeting the individual as they are and thinking about their Dosha in terms of planning treatment protocols in terms of physical health that impacts mental, emotional and spiritual health. In Ayurveda, we learn to listen to the language of the body—its rhythms, its imbalances, its quiet wisdom—and yoga becomes the practice through which we honour that language, moving from knowledge into lived experience.

Ayurveda creates the conditions for healing by grounding, balancing, and aligning the body with its natural rhythms. It recognises the uniqueness of each person’s constitution and addresses the physical and energetic imbalances that could block transformation. Yoga then builds upon that stability—not by replacing it, but by expanding it. Through practices that cultivate presence, inner awareness, and spiritual connection, Yoga fills that well-prepared space with light, clarity, and meaning. Together, they offer a full-spectrum path—root to crown, body to soul.

The Yogic Path Up the Mountain

Yoga, in its truest form, was never about touching your toes—it was about touching your truth. In The Yoga Sutras, the Sage Patanjali outlines a path of spiritual development that includes the body, the mind, and the subtle layers in between. This system is known as the Eight Limbs of Yoga.

They are not steps to master, but tools to remember who you are. In The Mountain Method™, these limbs mirror the energetic ascent—from physical regulation to inner clarity to soul alignment.

The Eight Limbs of Yoga and Chakras, are distinct systems but they can interweave. Think of them like two maps of the same terrain: one shows energy flow and personal evolution (chakras), the other outlines a path of practice and behaviour for spiritual liberation (the Eight Limbs). When paired, they offer a deeply embodied, step-by-step roadmap for healing and awakening.

Let’s explore each one:

1. Yama – Ethical Principles

These are moral restraints—guidelines for how we relate to others with integrity.

• Ahimsa – non-violence

• Satya – truthfulness

• Asteya – non-stealing

• Brahmacharya – moderation

• Aparigraha – non-possessiveness

These anchor the Root chakra, establishing external safety and relational trust. In trauma work, this is where boundaries are restored and energetic clarity begins. Energetic clarity is the subtle, sovereign knowing that arises when your field is no longer tangled in the survival strategies of the past.
These help create the safety and moral structure the Root needs to feel anchored in the world. It’s the moment you stop absorbing everything and start discerning what belongs to you and what does not. It is deconditioning or decontamination.

2. Niyama – Personal Disciplines

These are inward-facing observances that support our emotional and spiritual hygiene.

• Shaucha – cleanliness

• Santosha – contentment

• Tapas – self-discipline

• Svadhyaya – self-study

• Ishvarapranidhana – surrender to something greater

These align with the Sacral Chakra, cultivating emotional regulation, healthy desire, and internal rhythm. This is where shame softens and self-trust grows. The Niyamas teach us how to live with ourselves when no one is watching. They aren’t rules—they’re invitations. When practised gently, they become the architecture of inner safety. Shame begins to dissolve in the warmth of self-compassion, and trust starts to grow—not because we’ve achieved something, but because we’ve shown up for ourselves in quiet, consistent ways. This is about cultivating an emotional life with fulfilling relationships and harmony.

3. Asana – Posture

This is the physical practice of yoga—not for performance, but to prepare the body to sit in stillness with ease. Originally, only one posture mattered: a steady, comfortable seat.

This corresponds with nervous system regulation and grounding practices. Asana brings awareness to the physical body—the first energy body—restoring presence and proprioception. Proprioception is your body’s ability to sense its position, movement, and orientation in space—even with your eyes closed.

It’s what allows you to walk without looking at your feet, reach for a glass without watching your hand, or balance in tree pose without toppling over. Proprioception relies on signals from your muscles, joints, tendons, and inner ear to communicate with your brain about where you are and how you’re moving.

From a healing perspective, proprioception is deeply grounding—it brings us back into the body, helping to regulate the nervous system and restore a felt sense of safety. This is especially powerful in trauma recovery, yoga, and somatic practices, where reconnecting with the body is part of returning to wholeness.

The Solar Plexus Chakra, or Manipura, is the centre of personal power, will, and transformation. It’s where we digest not only food but experiences — converting the raw materials of life into usable energy. This chakra governs our sense of self, confidence, boundaries, and the ability to take action in alignment with our desires. It’s fiery by nature, associated with the element of fire and the inner flame of Agni, our digestive and transformative energy. When in balance, this chakra allows us to move forward with purpose and clarity, standing in our own authority. When out of balance, we might collapse into self-doubt, overcompensate with control, or feel stuck in inertia.

Asana — the physical postures of yoga — connects most directly to this center because it is the embodied act of willpower. Unlike breathwork or meditation, which may happen with stillness, asana demands physical effort, presence, and conscious engagement with the body. When we commit to a yoga practice, we’re training our inner fire: cultivating discipline, resilience, and the ability to follow through. These are all qualities governed by the Solar Plexus. Poses that activate the core, challenge balance, or require strength — like Boat Pose (Navasana), Warrior series, or Plank — literally ignite this centre, building the heat and containment that Manipura thrives on.

From a somatic and trauma-informed lens, the Solar Plexus is also where many people carry tension, fear, and shame. It’s the area that tightens when we brace ourselves, hold back anger, or swallow our truth. The diaphragm, nestled here, is closely tied to the vagus nerve — which means trauma stored in the nervous system often lives in this zone. Practising asana mindfully — especially with attention to breath and core engagement — helps unwind this tension. It offers a route to reclaim internal space and to feel safe being “seen” in our strength. This is particularly powerful for women and trauma survivors, who may have learned to dim their light or disconnect from their own agency.

4. Pranayama – Breath Regulation

This is the conscious expansion and control of breath (prana = life force; ayama = extension). It shifts energy, balances the brain, and anchors the mind to the present.

Breath is the gateway between the body and energy field. This limb supports coherence (is the state where the body, mind, and energy system are in rhythmic harmony—aligned enough to hold healing without resistance or fragmentation.), chakra awakening, and the safe rise of Kundalini energy. It stabilises the emotional field and harmonises the nadis.

Breath is the only bodily function that is both automatic and voluntary. That means it sits at the intersection of the autonomic nervous system (which governs survival) and conscious awareness (which governs intention). When we work with the breath, we are directly influencing both the physical body and the energy field—at the same time.

Breath affects:

• The vagus nerve → which regulates safety, rest, and emotional balance

• The flow of prana → which powers and nourishes the chakras

• The cleansing of nadis → which allows energy to move freely through the system

• The coherence of the heart → which brings rhythm to the emotional body

• The ability to contain and direct Kundalini energy safely, rather than triggering overwhelm

Without breath awareness, healing often stays in the head or gets stuck in the body. But when breath is used with presence, it becomes a carrier of safety, a tool of transformation, and a gateway to consciousness.

I return to the breath not just as a technique, but as a sacred translator. It tells me what the body can hold, where the field is fragmented, and how gently we need to move. Without breath, we can’t rise—we leak. But with breath, we don’t just climb—we align.

The Heart Chakra sits in the centre of the chakra system — it is the meeting point between the lower chakras (earthy, physical, personal) and the upper chakras (spiritual, etheric, transpersonal). It governs love, compassion, empathy, and connection, not just to others, but to ourselves and the divine. It’s here that we begin to transcend ego and experience unconditional acceptance. And it is the place where the air element lives — which is also prana, the life force carried by the breath.

Pranayama — the yogic practice of regulating the breath — is a direct act of nourishing the heart centre. In Sanskrit, "prana" means life force, and "ayama" means to extend or expand. Through conscious breathing, we’re not just moving air; we’re expanding life force within the energetic body. When we breathe fully, slowly, and intentionally, we soothe the nervous system and move out of states of fear or defence (root/sacral/solar plexus energy) into a state of open-hearted presence. The heart begins to soften and expand.

States of fear and defensiveness are primarily held in the Root, Sacral, and Solar Plexus chakras, each representing different layers of survival and emotional protection:

• Root Chakra: Holds fear related to safety, survival, housing, belonging, and physical security. When blocked or overactive, it can lead to chronic anxiety, hypervigilance, or shutdown responses.

• Sacral Chakra: Carries emotional fear—especially around intimacy, vulnerability, and trust. Defensive adaptations here may show up as emotional numbness, over-pleasing, or volatile relational dynamics.

• Solar Plexus Chakra: Governs personal power, boundaries, and self-worth. Fear and defensiveness here often manifest as control, anger, avoidance, or feelings of powerlessness and shame.

States of fear and defensiveness can also be held in the upper chakras, though they often originate or are anchored in the lower ones. When fear or trauma rises into the upper chakras, it tends to manifest as mental, expressive, or spiritual dysregulation rather than purely somatic or emotional symptoms.

Here’s how fear may show up in the upper chakras:

• Throat Chakra (Vishuddha): Fear of speaking up, expressing truth, or being heard. This can lead to self-silencing, over-talking, or feeling chronically misunderstood.

• Third Eye Chakra (Ajna): Fear of trusting intuition or inner vision, often linked to gaslighting, invalidation, or cognitive overload. Can cause doubt, mental fog, or hypervigilant thinking.

• Crown Chakra (Sahasrara): Fear of surrender, disconnection from Source, or existential confusion. When trauma impacts the crown, spiritual beliefs can become rigid, dissociative, or idealised as escape routes from the pain below.

These patterns usually emerge when the lower chakras are unstable, and energy moves upward without containment. It’s like trying to build a tower without securing the foundation—what rises may topple or fragment without grounding.

Physiologically, the breath and the heart are deeply connected. The vagus nerve, which plays a central role in emotional regulation, runs through the chest and diaphragm — areas directly engaged by breathwork. Practices like nadi shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) or ujjayi (victorious breath) help regulate this nerve and, in doing so, foster emotional balance, coherence, and a deep sense of inner safety. These are the foundational conditions for the heart chakra to open and flow.

Emotionally, the breath is often the first thing we lose touch with when we're heartbroken, anxious, or overwhelmed. It becomes shallow, tight, or held. When we consciously return to it through pranayama, we reclaim the ability to feel without being overwhelmed — to hold space for joy and grief, love and boundaries. The breath gives rhythm to emotion, allowing the heart chakra to find coherence between feeling and being.

Spiritually, the breath is a direct link to presence. It brings us into the now — which is the only place the heart can truly live. When we align pranayama with the heart chakra, we’re tuning into that sacred middle ground where humanity and divinity meet. It’s not about bypassing pain, but breathing through it, gently, until we find the spaciousness that lives beyond it.

5. Pratyahara – Sense Withdrawal

This is the art of turning inward—disconnecting from external noise to attune to inner reality. It’s not dissociation—it’s deliberate redirection. This reflects the first steps into the emotional and mental energy bodies. It helps clients begin to access their internal landscape without overwhelm—especially important after dysregulation.

Pratyahara aligns with practices like:

• Mindfulness-informed therapies (e.g. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and, Compassion Focussed Therapy and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy)

• Somatic tracking in trauma healing. Somatic tracking is the practice of noticing and following bodily sensations—without trying to change them, fix them, or escape from them. It’s a core component of somatic therapies like Somatic Experiencing® and parts-based work (like Internal Family Systems). For example: a client notices a tightness in their chest. Rather than bracing against it, they are guided to become gently curious:
  “What does it feel like? What shape does it have? What happens if I stay with it?” Over time, this builds nervous system capacity—so the client can hold sensation and emotion without dissociating or shutting down. In The Mountain Method™, this supports the transition from physical safety to emotional awareness—particularly around the Root and Sacral chakras.

It is about ‘Safe Interoception’ in nervous system work. Interoception is the ability to sense your internal physiological states—like heartbeat, hunger, temperature, breath, or the urge to cry. It's the body’s inner compass, and it's a core element of self-awareness and emotional regulation.

For trauma survivors, interoception can feel threatening. The body may have been a place of pain, betrayal, or confusion. So turning inward can trigger anxiety or collapse. Safe interoception is about helping clients re-learn to feel their body from the inside out—gently, and with support. It’s not “just feel it.” It’s “let’s find the edge of what feels safe to feel, and slowly expand from there.” This work is foundational in Polyvagal-informed therapy, somatic practice, and trauma healing. It helps clients distinguish between real-time sensations and historical imprints—and eventually, it allows for greater presence, emotional resilience, and intuition. In The Mountain Method™, safe interoception is a key part of Pratyahara—the turn inward. It supports reconnection to the emotional and mental energy bodies without overwhelm.

In a therapeutic and energetic framework, this is the conscious redirection of attention away from the outer world—toward the inner experience.

Not to escape.
Not to dissociate.
But to begin noticing what’s happening inside—without immediately reacting.

It’s a pivotal shift: from external orientation (survival, adaptation, social gaze) to internal orientation (felt sense, part awareness, energetic patterns).

In Internal Family Systems therapy, healing begins when the client can:

• Recognise a part that holds emotion, protection, or memory

• Unblend from that part

• Observe it with compassion, curiosity, and calm—all hallmarks of the Self energy

It’s the space where someone might say:

“I notice my inner critic is active… but I’m not as fused with it.”
“There’s a sad part inside… but I can hold it gently.”

This requires sensory withdrawal from external triggers and a redirection of awareness to the inner emotional landscape—but from a regulated vantage point.

In Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy (TA), we work with Ego States—Parent, Adult, and Child.

• The Parent Ego State is made up of internalised rules, beliefs, and voices from caregivers or society—often critical, nurturing, or controlling.

• The Child Ego State holds our spontaneous feelings, needs, playfulness, and early emotional imprints. It can show up as rebellious, fearful, or joyful.

• The Adult Ego state is our present-moment self—rational, grounded, and able to assess reality and make choices with clarity.

In healing, we’re not trying to erase these states—we’re learning to recognise when we're operating from them unconsciously and how to bring the Adult online to respond with awareness and self-leadership. As clients grow in awareness, they begin to observe their default ego state patterns. They might notice:

• “I go into a Critical Parent voice in conflict.”

• “My Adapted Child shows up around authority figures.”

The moment they witness these states—rather than acting them out unconsciously—they are engaging in Pratyahara: withdrawing identification from the external role or reaction and turning inward to observe it.

Both in IFS and TA, this shift:

• Requires nervous system safety (you can’t observe a part if you’re fused with it)

• Requires enough coherence to pause and reflect

• Marks the point where therapy becomes internal integration rather than external narrative

That’s why, in The Mountain Method™, Pratyahara is not a spiritual bypass or silence for its own sake. It’s the moment we begin to see ourselves clearly—without performance, panic, or projection.

Pratyahara is the turning point in the climb. It’s where we stop scanning the world for cues of who to be, and begin listening inward for who we are. In IFS, this is when the Self starts to lead. In TA, it’s when the script pauses long enough for choice to emerge. And in The Mountain Method™, this is when the emotional and mental bodies come online—not in chaos, but in coherence. A client learns to feel safely with their experience rather than getting lost in it. Coherence is the state in which the heart, mind, body, and nervous system are in harmonious rhythm—creating internal alignment, emotional clarity, and energetic flow.

The throat chakra, or Vishuddha, is the energetic centre of expression, communication, and truth. Located at the base of the throat, it governs our capacity to speak, listen, and create in alignment with our authentic self. When balanced, the throat chakra allows for clear, honest expression that flows from a place of inner truth. When imbalanced, we may find ourselves silenced, people-pleasing, over-talking, or feeling misunderstood. At its core, Vishuddha is not simply about vocal expression, but about clarity and alignment between the inner world and the outer voice.

Such an internal turn is Pratyahara, the practice of withdrawing the senses from external stimuli. It is often described as the bridge between the outer and inner limbs of yoga—between action in the world and deep internal stillness. This withdrawal is not an escape but a refinement. It invites us to listen, not with the ears, but with awareness; not to the world outside, but to the subtle intelligence within.

This act of withdrawal is profoundly connected to the throat chakra. Vishuddha is often overwhelmed by noise—not just auditory noise, but the mental and emotional noise that clouds perception and distorts truth. We live in a world of constant stimulation: conversations, expectations, media, comparisons. In such an environment, it becomes difficult to know what is ours and what is projected onto us. Pratyahara offers the throat chakra a sacred pause. By intentionally retreating from the external world, we give Vishuddha the spaciousness it needs to attune to the deeper truth beneath all the surface noise.

When we practice pratyahara, we enter the terrain of silence. But this silence is not empty. It is full of listening. It is here, in this inward turning, that the authentic voice begins to stir. We often think of expression as outward, but true expression is born in stillness. Pratyahara creates the fertile ground for this to happen. In silence, the voice we hear is no longer the conditioned voice of society or self-doubt, but the soul’s voice. From this place, when we do choose to speak, our words carry weight and resonance. They are not reactive but rooted. Not performative, but profound.

In this way, pratyahara becomes an act of purification for the throat chakra. It filters out what is untrue, unnecessary, or externally imposed. It allows us to reclaim the power of discernment—of knowing when to speak, when to listen, and when to rest in silence. Through the withdrawal of the senses, we cultivate an inner resonance that makes our outer voice more aligned and impactful. Pratyahara is thus not a retreat from the world, but a return to the truth that lives within us, waiting to be spoken with clarity, compassion, and courage.

6. Dharana – Concentration

Dharana is the sixth limb of yoga, meaning concentration or single-pointed focus. It’s the practice of holding the mind steady on a single point—whether it’s the breath, a mantra, a visualisation, or a chakra.

But this is not about force. It’s about gathering scattered energy and slowly training the mind to return—to presence, to the moment, to the breath. In yogic terms, Dharana prepares the ground for meditation. In therapeutic terms, it rebuilds a client’s capacity for containment, regulation, and reflection.

Trauma scatters the mind. It fragments attention and memories, fractures time, and creates mental chaos—where thoughts loop, vigilance spikes, or fog descends. Dharana offers a remedy: not silence, but steadiness.

Therapeutically, this limb mirrors:

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy’s (ACT) defusion (learning to hold thoughts lightly rather than be consumed by them - we are not our thoughts )

• IFS’s Self-energy (holding space for parts without fusing - we are not our thoughts)

• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy’s (DBT) distress tolerance (staying with discomfort without escape - we can be distressed but survive)

When a client learns to rest their attention—even for a few seconds—they begin to reclaim their inner space. This is often a major shift.

Dharana is where focus becomes medicine. For clients who’ve lived in mental hyperdrive or emotional fragmentation, this limb teaches how to hold—without chasing, fixing, or fleeing. In The Mountain Method™, Dharana marks the place where the mind becomes a sanctuary, not a storm. It’s the moment you stop spiralling outward and learn to spiral inward—on purpose.

In The Mountain Method™, Dharana is the shift from feeling mentally scattered to finding an inner calm that you can return to. It’s the first step in making your mind a place of clarity, not chaos. Instead of spiralling outward into distraction or survival mode, you begin to spiral inward—gently, deliberately, and with trust.

This practice aligns deeply with the Ajna chakra, also known as the third eye chakra, which is located between the eyebrows. Ajna governs intuition, insight, inner vision, and mental clarity. It is the seat of perception beyond the physical senses—what we might call the "mind’s eye." When the third eye is balanced, we experience clarity of thought, discernment, and the ability to access inner guidance. Dharana, as a practice of focused mental awareness, strengthens the third eye by clearing the mental fog that often clouds intuitive seeing.

When we are overstimulated, our third eye often becomes dull—not because it lacks wisdom, but because it is drowned in distraction. Dharana disciplines the mind, encouraging stillness and the capacity to hold attention steady. When we fix the mind on one object, we quiet the mental chatter that obstructs deeper perception. As the fluctuations of the mind begin to settle, the light of Ajna can shine through with greater brightness. We become more able to access our inner knowing, to see beyond appearances, and to intuit meaning rather than merely analyse.

There is also a symbolic alignment between Dharana and the third eye in the way both bridge the gap between mental effort and meditative awareness. Dharana is the threshold; it requires intention and concentration, but it leads into Dhyana (meditation) and ultimately into Samadhi (absorption). The third eye, likewise, is a gateway—it connects the rational mind with the subtle realms of spiritual vision. It is through Dharana that the third eye is not only awakened but trained, so that what we see internally becomes coherent, trustworthy, and illuminating.

Furthermore, the third eye is connected to the pineal gland in many yogic and esoteric traditions—a gland believed to regulate circadian rhythms (the body’s natural 24-hour internal clock that regulates sleep, hormone release, metabolism, and energy levels—aligned with light and darkness to keep us in sync with the rhythms of nature) and respond to light. Dharana is like a light switch for this inner mechanism. When practised consistently, it supports the awakening of insight that isn’t based on logic, but on direct perception. It refines the intuitive muscle by teaching the mind to stop grasping and instead to attune. With focus comes vision. With stillness comes clarity. And with clarity, the third eye opens—not just as a metaphor, but as a lived experience of deeper awareness and inner truth.

7. Dhyana – Meditation

When concentration deepens, it becomes meditation. This is not effortful focus, but effortless awareness—a resting in what is. Without all that comes before it is hard to truly be in mediation.

Dhyana is often translated simply as meditation—but it’s more than a technique. It is a state.

Whereas Dharana is the practice of focusing the mind, Dhyana is what happens when that focus deepens into a continuous, embodied awareness. There is no longer effortful returning to the breath, the mantra, or the body—because you’re resting in the stream of presence itself.

In trauma recovery and energetic healing, Dhyana isn’t just about “clearing the mind”—it’s about settling into a spaciousness that was previously unsafe or unavailable. It is a return to inner stillness, not as silence or shutdown, but as a deeply alive, peaceful state of being.

Meditation is often misunderstood as a starting point in healing. But for many clients—especially trauma survivors—sitting still can feel threatening. Without regulation, containment, and grounding, meditation becomes a bypass or re-traumatising loop.

That’s why, in The Mountain Method™, we don’t start with Dhyana—we arrive there. After:

• Nervous system safety (Asana, Pranayama)

• Emotional containment (Pratyahara, Dharana)

• Inner attunement (IFS, Breath, somatic tracking)

Only then can the system begin to experience meditative awareness as medicine rather than withdrawal.

In this state:

• Clients may feel their energy soften and expand

• Old patterns may surface gently, without triggering collapse

• The energy body stabilises, preparing the field for deeper soul integration

• The spiritual body begins to harmonise with the lower layers

Dhyana is not about emptying the mind. It’s about coming home to what’s underneath the noise. It’s what happens when the body no longer fears stillness, and the heart no longer braces against the silence. In The Mountain Method™, Dhyana is where presence becomes a resting place—not a practice. It’s not where we start. It’s where we land.

In Dharana, the practitioner is still "doing" something — focusing, concentrating, returning attention again and again to a chosen object. But in Dhyana, something shifts: the effort dissolves, the concentration becomes continuous, and the meditator begins to merge with the object of meditation. This merging is what brings Dhyana into alignment with the Crown Chakra — because Sahasrara is the energy centre of non-duality, unity, and pure consciousness.

The Crown Chakra is not associated with any element, sense organ, or mental function. Unlike the other chakras, which relate to aspects of human experience — survival, desire, will, love, communication, intuition — Sahasrara is about transcendence. It represents the dissolution of the ego into a greater whole. In this sense, it is the chakra of being, not doing. And Dhyana is the doorway to that state. Through the practice of meditation, we begin to experience ourselves not as separate beings moving through the world, but as expressions of a single, universal consciousness.

There is also a humility in both Dhyana and the Crown. The ego cannot reach the crown chakra through effort or striving — it must be surrendered. Similarly, meditation is not something we achieve, but something we fall into when the inner landscape is quiet and open enough. Dhyana allows us to sit beneath the crown, so to speak, with reverence and receptivity. It opens us to grace — to insight that is not mentally constructed but gently received.

Ultimately, Dhyana and the Crown Chakra reflect the same truth: that the deepest wisdom and peace arise not from control or knowledge, but from stillness, spaciousness, and surrender. Meditation becomes the vessel, and the crown becomes the opening — together, they invite the sacred to flow in, not as something separate from us, but as the truth of who we have always been beneath the layers of external conditioning.

8. Samadhi – Spiritual Absorption or Union

In yogic language, Samadhi is the moment where the illusion of separation dissolves. In energetic terms, it is when the Crown chakra fully opens, and the soul’s frequency aligns with something larger than the self.

But what is that “larger”?

For some, it is God, Source, Spirit.
For others, it is the collective consciousness—a field of shared knowing that pulses through nature, humanity, ancestry, and cosmos.

Samadhi isn’t always a lightning strike of awakening. It may arrive as:

• A feeling of deep stillness and presence

• A sudden knowing: I belong to everything

• A moment of awe, when time drops away and only now remains

When clients experience this kind of soul-aligned presence—even momentarily—they begin to repattern their relationship to existence.
They stop searching for the Divine outside themselves.
They begin to remember that they are the Divine, embodied and evolving. They have purpose and meaning.

This is particularly profound for those who:

• Grew up spiritually disoriented, shamed, or cut off from sacredness

• Have carried trauma that made them feel fragmented, invisible, or “too much”

• Are longing not just for healing—but for reconnection to meaning.

Samadhi is not something we chase. It’s something we remember. It happens not when we transcend the body, but when we’ve listened to it so fully that our energy no longer resists life. In The Mountain Method™, Samadhi is the spaciousness that arrives when you are finally in alignment—not just with your Self, but with the collective rhythm of consciousness itself. The breath of the Earth. The song of your soul’s home frequency. It is the state beyond thought, beyond ego, beyond time — where there is no longer a distinction between observer, observed, and observation. It is not about balancing emotion or strengthening will — it is about transcendence. The Crown opens when we no longer seek to control or fix or even understand — but instead, allow ourselves to dissolve into the vast, infinite consciousness that holds everything.

Whereas the lower chakras relate to specific elements (earth, water, fire, air, ether), the Crown Chakra is beyond element. It belongs to the formless. It governs no bodily function, but rather the graceful silence that comes when all functions have paused. Similarly, Samadhi is not a doing — it is a state of being, a merging with the universal current that flows beneath all form. In this way, the experience of Sahasrara is the state of Samadhi made manifest in the body.

There is also a sacred humility in this union. Samadhi cannot be forced, and the Crown cannot be opened by will alone. Both require surrender. They arise only when the practitioner has released attachment — not just to material things, but to identity, beliefs, and even spiritual striving. In this surrender, the yogi becomes the instrument of divine awareness. The “I” dissolves, and all that remains is light, presence, and the experience of being one with all that is.

So while Dharana and Dhyana prepare the inner terrain, it is in Samadhi that we fully enter the field of the Crown Chakra — no longer observing or cultivating, but becoming the essence of unity. It is not escape, but arrival — the return to our original, unfragmented self.

Why This Matters on the Mountain

The Eight Limbs give us a holistic blueprint for healing. In The Mountain Method™, they are not added on—they are woven through. They guide us to heal not only through psychology or energy work, but through integrity of living, embodiment of values, and alignment across all levels of self.

They are not linear.
They are not rigid.
They rise as you do.

And each one calls you back to the truth:

Your body is sacred. Your breath is medicine. Your soul already knows the way.

From Foundation to Feeling

There comes a moment in many healing journeys when insight alone no longer brings relief. The talking has been done, the patterns understood, but the body still holds its tension, the breath remains shallow, and life continues to feel overwhelming. This is not failure—it’s a signpost: healing hasn’t yet reached the root.

In The Mountain Method™, we begin where all true healing begins—with the body. The physical layer is the foundation. It’s where trauma is stored and safety must be reclaimed before anything else can truly shift. Drawing from Bruce Perry’s neurosequential model, Polyvagal Theory, Maslow’s hierarchy, chakra psychology, Ayurvedic wisdom, and the Eight Limbs of Yoga, we’ve explored the terrain of the physical body as sacred ground. We’ve anchored in presence, nervous system regulation, breath, posture, and energetic containment. We’ve worked bottom-up, restoring the root system of the self so energy, awareness, and soul can eventually rise with stability.

This phase has been about building coherence—re-establishing connection to the body’s rhythms, signals, and needs. Whether through breathwork, asana, or the language of prana and dosha, we’ve returned to the truth that healing must be lived in the body before it can be integrated in the mind or awakened in spirit.

Now, we arrive at a turning point. With the physical body grounded, we prepare to step into the next layer of the Mountain: the emotional energy body. This is where we meet the waters within—the grief, joy, fear, shame, longing, and love that live beneath the surface. The terrain shifts from bones and breath to feeling and flow. It’s not about control, but about safe contact. It’s about learning to feel without flooding, to express without losing self, and to soften without collapse.

The journey continues—not upward, but inward. Into the heart. Into the fluidity of the emotional self. Into the next phase of the spiral.

In the next article, we begin this deepening—where feeling becomes a gateway, not a threat, and emotional coherence becomes the next step in the climb.

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