This session explores the theme of Riding the Waves of Life as a means to encourage personal growth.
It is part of Centered Presence, Ltd.’s Kripalu Yoga Personal Growth Program and is offered as an individual session.
These sessions are not your typical yoga classes. They go much deeper, drawing on other rich resources to lay the foundation for personal growth. As your guide, I readily share from my own experiences along my personal growth journey." — Michael Patrick
Designed to be taken in sequence, each session in the program builds upon the foundation of the proceeding, although each stands on its own.
“Riding the Waves of Life” Session Description
This yoga session explores the theme of Riding the Waves of Life — being with sensation as it arises in the body — as a means to encourage personal growth.
Beginning from a place of self-compassion, exploring the space we inhabit, grounding ourselves, being free to experiment and be with the stillness of possibility, we are ready for life practice. This is the most important stage of personal growth because this is where it goes from theory to practice. When life challenges us, we have the option of jumping off through avoidance, distraction and addiction, or we face it head on, riding it to breakthrough and transformation. That is growth!
“In everyone’s body passions and strong emotions arise. Passions are expressions of intensely flowing life energy. Yogis know how to derive benefit from passions through the techniques of yoga.”
Through the practice of yoga, we learn to observe and be present with sensations as they arise in the body. Through the breath and the attention, these sensations can shift to deeper awareness; one that ultimately leads to personal transformation.
Learn how to “ride the waves of life” by putting this powerful technique into practice.
This session will explore sustained holding of yoga poses, in a safe and accessible way, to practice being with the process of allowing sensation to arise in the body and to transform through breath and awareness.
Many of us have attended yoga classes that seemed more like aerobics classes with Sanskrit flavorings -- merely exercises void of the inward journey of awareness and the power of transformation that yoga offers. Kripalu yoga emphasizes personal growth and transformation through the practice of yoga. As a result, it is slower paced and more introspective.
Based on the principles of Kripalu Yoga – safety, personal responsibility, observation of the self without judgment - the practice of yoga in this program serves as a physical model for personal growth that can be applied to the yoga practice of life.
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.
About the instructor:
Michael Patrick, LMT, KYT, CPC
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.