“Turning Ackkk! Into Ommmm...” - Yoga When You’re Stressed Out or Anxious
Yoga For Everyday Living - Kripalu Yoga Session
When feeling stressed out or anxious, you can restore balance to your system by drawing the attention away from frenetic thoughts in the head toward the stabilizing ground below.
By drawing downward, we magnify awareness of the solid place within; we realize that there is more to life than the scenario in mind.
By engaging in slow, repetitive movements that are synchronized with the breath, we calm the alarm center of the brain.
As part of Centered Presence, Ltd.’s Yoga for Everyday Living Program, this session explores reducing stress and anxiety through grounding yoga poses and calming, repetitive movement.
Join us for this slow-paced, gentle Kripalu Yoga session live, online.
This event has already occurred. If you are interested in future offerings — either public or private — please send a message to Michael Patrick using this link:
“Through the Centered Presence, Ltd. Yoga Programs I attended, I learned more about Kripalu yoga. The best part was gaining the understanding of how to combine the breathing techniques, the poses/movements and the spirituality. These three parts made yoga come alive for me in a way that no other yoga class has ever done.”
“Yoga For Everyday Living” Program Description
This is where yoga meets your life!
Match your yoga to your circumstance and watch yourself soar!
If you are someone who attends yoga class regularly, you know how great you feel afterward.
There are so many ways to apply the elements of yoga -- breathing techniques (pranayama), warm-ups (kriya) and poses (asana) -- to everyday life situations and receive tremendous benefit. By strategically selecting and emphasizing certain elements over others, you can get much more out of yoga.
When you modify your yoga practice, you can ease these symptoms of modern-day living: too much stress and anxiety, too much standing, too much sitting, muscle tension, and subsequent insomnia.
Join us for six Kripalu Yoga themed-sessions in this program and explore practical strategies to restore a sense of peace and steadiness to life.
“Yoga does not remove us from the reality or responsibilities of everyday life but rather places our feet firmly or resolutely in the practical ground of experience. We don’t transcend our lives; we return to the life we left behind in the hopes of something better. ”
About Kripalu Yoga
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.
How to prepare
Wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothes.
Turn off your phone, buzzers, alarms, dings, notifications, announcements, etc.
The session is recommended for individuals who have some experience in practicing yoga, want to deepen their practice, and apply it to everyday life in new ways.
Items to consider having available:
Yoga Mat, Blocks, Cushion and/or Blanket
These props can help support the body in while in the different positions, especially in seated positions.
Don’t have these things? Just make use of something similar that you already have laying around.
Use a firm pillow, a comforter, or a tightly-folded bath towel for a cushion or blanket.
A block can be made from a short stack of sturdy books that are all about the same size. Secure them with several large rubber bands or string. Be sure to secure them from all sides.
Standard Folding Chair
If getting up and down from the floor is difficult for you, use a sturdy folding-chair. Everything we’ll do can be adapted to sitting in a chair!
Those should attend who:
Are interested in becoming more peaceful, grounded and embodied.
Desire to have more compassion for themselves and others.
Want to harness more benefits from yoga practice.
Are ready to apply yoga to their lives.
About the Facilitator
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.