Friday, Saturday & Sunday
11-1:30pm and 2:30-5:30pm
$400 for the full course
$150 for an individual full day
$75 for an individual session (morning 11-1:30pm or afternoon 2:30-5:30pm)
The Big Picture of the Practices, and How to Make Them Work for You
The original inspiration of hatha yoga was to combine asana, mudra, and bandha with breath in a practical system that stimulates all of the vital systems which maintain our health throughout the lifelong process of aging.
We are entering an age of understanding these vital systems all the more deeply, providing new foundations for sharpening our yoga practice and making it all the more effective, and renewing our focus and dedication.
In this workshop, we will explore the ‘maps’ of our myofascial matrix in a way that makes our asana practice more purposeful, focused, and effective, with special attention to the anti-inflammatory/anti-aging properties of our work with our muscles and joints.
Beyond asana, we will experience breath, mudra, and drishthi as connecting with our built-in circuitry of the ‘nadis’ that govern our physical, cognitive, and emotional health, and renew our ability to restore ourselves in the face of stress and age.
The learning component of every session will include illustrated notes presented as slides, which can be downloaded by participants as pdfs — to help you remember and review what was covered in the workshop.
Friday — Entering the Matrix: Foundations, Joint Health, and Healthy Aging
The first day is dedicated to setting foundations in our understanding of the practices.
In asana, the focus will be on the lower body, providing the myofascial map for joint health in the feet, knees, and hips, as well as a deep dive into how to work better with our muscles to achieve not only strength and flexibility, but derive the anti-inflammatory benefits that are key to healthy and successful aging (with a look into what that means).
The day also includes a practical introduction into the realm of mudra and its connection to the breath, which will greatly support, refine, and focus our practice of pranayama. The first step is experiential — feeling the connection between mudra and the subtle yet very tangible experiences of the breath stimulated by mudra.
The initial theme will be the qualities of empowerment described by the Vayus and supported by mudra: Vyana - inhabiting our place through feeling and sensation; Prana - being open to experience, enthusiasm, and hope; Apana - being grounded and centered, not giving into fear or becoming unkind; Samana - pausing in the inner space in which we are restored and renewed; and Udana - being strong and clear in our wisdom and intention.
Saturday: Self and Vitality — The Circuitry of the Torso
The second day is devoted to the torso — not only the practicalities of the low back and sacrum, pain problems such as sciatica as well as the shape and flexibility of the rib cage in relation to the breath — but also the deeper ‘circuitry’ of the ‘gut,’ including the role of the psoas, diaphragm, and pelvic floor. This is the realm of interoception, of communication, connection, and self-regulation vital to our health.
This will be an exploration of healthy forward bending, backbending, and twists that will go deeper with our exploration of breath and mudra.
Mudra is a combination of action, intention, and interoception (our ability to perceive our inner states, both organic and emotional). While exploring mudras for organic health, we will link the lines of the myofascial matrix (based on Tom Myers’ ‘Anatomy Trains’) with the meridians of Traditional Chinese Medicine in combination with the breath and breath practices.
This will take us deeper into an understanding of the power of intention, making these practices a form of dharana, or practice of focus, that takes us deeper into realms of meditation.
Sunday: Ajna, the ‘Command Center’ — the Shoulders, Neck, and the Power of Drishthi
The third day is devoted in very practical ways to the health of the shoulders and neck. There are secrets to knowing how to use our shoulders well for the sake of greater freedom of movement — and for freedom from pain! For this, we need to understand how the joints of the shoulder girdle work, and how it is lack of proper ‘joint play’ causes tightness as well as weakness and pain syndromes that are often attributed to rotator cuff injuries.
This session will start out with an explanation and easy-to-remember principles and fundamental movements to restore joint play, leading into an exploration of the myofascial ‘map’ of the shoulders, which provides insights into the health of the hands, wrists, and elbows as well.
And, as we have been seeing throughout the weekend, mudra and the hands can be the key to deeper realms of awareness; and to this, we add drishthi — the gaze and focus of the eyes — and its subtle influence on our experience of the breath, which will become all the more concrete from our understanding of the myofascial matrix of the shoulders and neck.
The theme for the meditations connected with breath, mudra, and drishthi, will be the chakras — their role as tools for meditation and transformation. This will include an appreciation of the role of the Vagus nerve, its role as motherboard for all of the health systems of the body, and how to stimulate it effectively through practices of pranayama as well as chakra meditations.
