In this 10‑minute YouTube video, instructor Theresa Byrne leads a low‑impact movement routine designed to release stress and improve body‑brain integration. She begins with gentle arm and shoulder motions that warm the joints and stimulate synovial fluid, then introduces neck and shoulder release exercises while explaining how stress chemicals affect the body. Byrne highlights the neurological basis of stress, describing how movement can calm the emotional regulation system and mentioning polyvagal theory, cortisol, adrenaline, dopamine, serotonin, and melatonin. She shares personal context about her own brain injury and the resulting hyper‑electrical activity, linking it to chronic tension. The routine incorporates contralateral (cross‑body) moves that engage the corpus callosum, as well as light boxing‑style cardio (hooks, uppercuts) to shift energy. Throughout, she encourages the use of declarative statements or affirmations (“I’m getting things done”) to reframe mindset. The session concludes with gratitude and a reminder that a brief, mindful movement practice can alter energy and mood for the rest of the day.
Chapters
Hi, Master Teacher Theresa Byrne here. If you are in a place and you want to get your body moving, join in. We're going to do some low impact moves, work on some muscles, work on some range of motion, help you feel into your body and release whatever doesn't work for you anymore. So starting with some very easy arms forward, bent elbows. If your arms feel good and your shoulders feel good, you can extend those up. Arms outward. Awesome. Now take them back. This is usually what I would do for a boxing warm-up, getting the neck and the shoulders feeling aligned and getting some range of motion and synovial fluid going in the joints before we start anything else. Good. Now cross in front, reach back behind you. When I do this, I'll switch which arm goes on top. It's also a brain teaser. You have to think about which arm just went on top. I don't know. And that way, your mind is thinking and you're getting out of the stressed parts of your mind, the parts of our brain that produce less than fun chemicals. Up and down with your arms. Neurochemically, our bodies and our brains are so super connected that when we're stressed, our body will send chemicals to get us out of dodge or freeze Freeze us or make us, I don't know, fight, for example. So what we are doing is calming not just your brain but your emotional regulation system by moving energy, by moving whatever you don't need, moving tension out of your body using movement. Oh, that just feels good. All right, we don't often work on the neck, but we're going to do a little neck work today. So, I want you to pick your shoulders up. I am seeing a lot more tension in necks. Go forward and neck issues, and I will go out on a limb and say it is connected to brain reactivity. One shoulder up, one shoulder down. And what do I mean by that? For many years, I taught gifted children in schools. I literally taught at a gifted kids school. and other programs that involved gifted kids, both shoulders. And what I noticed were many of them were toe walkers. And if you don't know what that looks like, it means that they're, they're hyper-aware and they're on their toes. And that is less of a biomechanic and more of a brain functionality. They're always on the go, their brains are always on, and they're always on the, like, their tippy toes, and they would run. All right, so relaxing your shoulders. Good. Arms up overhead. Let's go side to side. So gifted kids oftentimes would have really, really tight calf muscles or tippy-toe walkers. Well, now what I'm noticing, the more and more stressed out we are, or the more our mental facilities are overly engaged, I'm noticing people with shoulders up here or shoulders scrunched or doing this posture. more often, and it's not our biomechanics, it's our brain sending a signal, I've got to protect myself, or I'm stressed. So I want you to realize that just like when you're upset or you're stressed, you don't have to tell your stomach to get in knots, it just does the knots. Make sense? So we're going to start working on releasing some of that stress, um, trapezius, which are these muscles here, shoulders, upper back, And your neck. And if that's you, maybe that makes sense. Maybe your body will start to notice that you're stressed before you do. Maybe you'll start to notice your shoulders are creeping up. Oh wait, I am stressed. I'm distressed. I've got too much stress. My brain is sending too many chemicals. I need to learn how to calm my body and calm my brain. Here's one of the ways we're gonna do Contralateral, where we cross the midline. You didn't know you're going to get brain class today, did you? So we're crossing the midline of the body, which helps to engage more of the brain. Corpus callosum goes in the center. You are crossing it and you're making contact. And again, you're just lifting up your knee, making contact with that opposite hand, or you can do your opposite forearm. They both work. It's one of the reasons I like martial arts and boxing. So much is because we do a lot of contralateral moves, meaning cross-body. And little front kicks. So just know, sometimes we believe that our bodies are doing something, but truly it's a signal neurologically that we need to stress— we're in stress, we've got too much electrical activity. After my brain injury, they put me on anti-seizure medication Because my brain activity electricity was so high and it wasn't good high. I wasn't— I was confused. I was anxious. I had PTSD and anxiety. So my brain was doing this all the time and my body was just one big muscle clench. It was very awkward and uncomfortable. All right, now we're going to turn these into little sidekicks. Pick up your heel, kick to the side. And switch. So I hope that that helps if you've been kind of like, ah, why are my shoulders so tight? Why is my neck so tight? Because you might be experiencing— your brain might be experiencing an overabundance of what I would call distress. There is a certain amount of adrenaline that we need. Cortisol actually wakes us up, and there's a certain amount of adrenaline that works for us, right? Gets things done. But you have to combine that with dopamine and serotonin and melatonin and your polyvagal and your— it's a lot of stuff. You want to combine it with your calming systems too. We're going to do a knee to the front and a kick to the back. And this knee goes as high as you're comfortable going. If you want to get your arms involved, that's fantastic. Just a little bit more warm-up for you. Ah. Breathing in and breathing out. Good. Now our minds listen to 2 things: the pictures that we create— switch legs— and the words that we say to ourselves about ourselves and about our world. So if you can, if you've ever heard of mantras or affirmations, those are one way. I like to use what's called declarative statements or declarations, which is, I'm getting things done, instead of, I've got so much to do. It's like, I'm getting things done. And I tell myself that I'm getting things done. It doesn't mean I have to monitor how many things I'm getting done or make myself feel bad for what I'm not getting done. I'm getting things done. Good. Knee circle. What are you doing right now? I'm moving my body to feel good. I'm moving energy through my body. I'm getting into the best parts of my brain. I don't know, what might you say to yourself? Any number of those. Good. So you're circling your knee. If you feel that tendon go in front of your hip, you can make it go lower. Awesome. Hands on your hip. Hip rotations, best exercise when you stand up. Well, this and some shoulder stuff. Hip circles to your point of stretching, so you'll feel a point of tension as you push forward, and then go to the other side. Oh, I love brains, and I love learning how brains work for us. Push side to side. I wrote a book, and it is all based— one of the biggest chapters, it's based on 3 principles of activating your inner warrior, and the first whole section is on no. Knowing how your brain works, knowing how your body works, then you can actually create what you want. All right, go ahead and take your neck side to side. And you don't have to go the speed that I'm going. You can always pick your own speed. Good. Up and down. And I like to release some of the tension in my shoulders before I do Any kind of neck stretches. One of my other favorite neck stretches is extend an arm and bend your ear toward the opposite. Good. And if you can tolerate it, this is a very light, light, light, light move. Arm. And same thing, other side. Extend that arm. If it feels okay, you can gently— Always gently. Good. And just extend that and you just stretch these muscles too. All right. Now we're gonna do a little bit of cardio. And a lot of this was more about getting your body in the range of motion that you can work on stuff. So go ahead and put your left leg forward. And we're going to do hook, hook, uppercut, uppercut, hook, hook, uppercut, uppercut, hook, hook, uppercut, uppercut, hook, hook, uppercut, uppercut. 1, 2, 3, and 4. 2, 3, and 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. Now, once you get the rhythm of it, maybe you want to go faster. I don't know. Maybe you do. Maybe you don't. I do. 3, 2, and 1. I like that move. All right, we're gonna go to the other side. Hook, hook, uppercut, uppercut. Hook, hook, uppercut, uppercut. And if you make it through this video, At about 10 minutes, that will change your energy, change how you feel, not just for the next 2 hours, but it could be all day. And then maybe you'll get a little bit more movement in, make yourself feel good. Hook, hook, up, up. Hook, hook, up, up. And you can go whatever speed feels comfortable to you. I like to go fast. Nice. All right, that was a lot of talking, a lot of moving. I hope that you took something away from it. Can you believe 10 minutes just passed? And get grateful. Thank you, body. Thank you for another day. I hope you have a fabulous, fabulous day, night, whatever.
