This experiential workshop explores utilizing yoga to address common issues that arise in everyday living. These are side effects of our fast-paced, modern-day lifestyle: too much stress and anxiety, too much standing, too much sitting, muscle tension, and subsequent insomnia. Kripalu Yoga offers ways to address these situations through breath awareness and gentle body movement. This workshop introduces practical strategies to help restore a sense of peace and steadiness to life.
“When body, breath, and awareness are aligned, a certain kind of magic happens. Distraction falls away and all of you comes together into a greater whole. The posture not only stretches you in just the right places, it teaches you something about yourself.”
- YOGANAND MICHAEL CARROLL
Yoga is such a wonderful practice for restoring balance to the mind, body and spirit. I always feel great after doing yoga. We can benefit so much more though by taking what we learn in a yoga class -- centering, breathing techniques, gentle movement and stabilizing poses -- to affect our everyday living in good ways. In Kripalu Yoga, we refer to this as. "practicing yoga off the mat." It's putting what we learn into practice so that we can grow and thrive.
This experiential workshop takes foundational elements of yoga and applies them to different life situations so that you can go beyond practicing yoga in a class to practicing it in everyday life.
During this workshop, useful strategies using yoga are first introduced and then put into practice in order to help you:
Return to a sense of groundedness and become in touch with the rhythms of life again when stressed or anxious
Counter the effects of standing all day
Counter the effects of sitting all day
Restore balance to opposing muscle groups through slackening over-stretched and over-shortened muscle pairs
Calm the mind and prepare for sleep
This workshop introduces concepts and strategies that are explored in depth through the “Yoga for Everyday Living Kripalu Yoga Program,” which runs May 6-22, 2019. Monday and Wednesday evenings, 7-8:30 PM.
Kripalu Yoga emphasizes personal growth and transformation through the practice of yoga. Safety, personal responsibility and witness of the self without judgment are hallmarks.
It is accessible for all levels (beginners through advanced), where modifications and the use of props help each person find their ideal expression of the poses when they are doing them. While other forms of yoga certainly result in personal growth and transformation, Kripalu Yoga hones this focus in a gentle and accessible way.
This is not “work out” yoga, but rather “work in” yoga.
From the outset, a Kripalu Yoga class has the same elements as other yoga classes: breathing techniques, warm ups, yoga postures and final relaxation, and it results in strength, flexibility and peaceful feelings. However, Kripalu Yoga is done at a slower pace. This slower pace invites practitioners to fully explore the poses and be just at the edge of physical sensation in a safe and secure way. Each person determines how deeply they want to go into the practice. Kripalu Yoga also supports pausing periodically to integrate the positive effects that yoga brings, progressing at a manageable pace. The practice can be made more challenging by sustaining the poses for longer periods of time or with expanded expressions, but this is invited as skill and experience gradually develop.
One feature that characterizes Centered Presence, Ltd.’s yoga classes is the opportunity to explore “meditation in motion” near the end of the class. This allows the mind to make sense of and integrate the new awareness that yoga has brought during the session. This is a key element in harnessing the power of transformation that yoga can foster.
Kripalu Yoga encourages practicing yoga both on and off the yoga mat. Adapting to the yoga practice becomes a metaphor for adapting to life; indeed, concepts transfer in broader ways. For example, safely being at the edge of physical sensations that may arise while in the postures, observing them, feeling them, breathing with them, watching what happens and allowing it to happen has parallels to being with emotions that arise in everyday life and applying the same approach.
Kripalu Yoga is great for those who have not found the right fit in other yoga classes, because classes may be too vigorous, too fast paced or overwhelming.
In this workshop, the principles of Kripalu Yoga are introduced and practiced. No experience with yoga or exercise is necessary. The workshop is accessible for all levels of fitness, especially beginners. Props, such as yoga blocks and cushions, are used to ensure safety and surety. Instruction will be done at a pace to allow absorption of the material and give time to practice. Attendees will be able to share what they experience with the group.
Those should attend who:
Are interested in becoming more peaceful, grounded and embodied.
Want to explore yoga and are not satisfied with the offerings of mainstream yoga classes.
Want to become more aware of their bodies and their beings.
This workshop is 90 minutes. Attendance is limited to 10 people, so please be sure to register promptly.
This is an indoor event.
About the instructor:
As a Licensed Massage Therapist, Kripalu Yoga Teacher, Certified Professional Coach and former Scientist, I bring all the gifts of who I am to my work. Driven by the desire to elevate others, my career initially spanned the biotech industry, interdisciplinary research and laboratory safety. Over the past decade, it evolved to wellness and now I work in my own company, Centered Presence, Ltd. As a presenter, my workshops are characterized by elements of touch, intimacy, authenticity, embodiment, grounding, presence, spiritual practice and cultivation of inner awareness, which result in personal growth and empowered movement forward.
Learn more at www.centeredpresence.com