Program Objectives
We believe that yoga is a holistic system that facilitates physical, energetic, emotional, and spiritual transformation. As such, an asana, pranayama and/or meditation practice is the progressive expansion of inner space by integrating both challenge and recovery. Yoga has as its foundation, the ethical principles of Yama and Niyama and includes physical postures, breathing practices and meditation. We see yoga as a doorway to something bigger than ourselves and its most valuable currency is relationship. The processes of yoga and relationship are the same: show up; open; accept what is; orient towards balance; and make mindful choices in real-time. Yoga is an essential practice of self-care and Yoga in community heals, transforms, and inspires.
Skill Set for the 200-Hour
Ability to place physical practice in context of a bigger picture; that is, how to take yoga off the mat.
The confidence and clarity to cultivate a personalized, effective and sustainable meditation, pranayama, and asana practice.
A therapeutic approach with innovative, easy to integrate instruction.
Detailed alignment, intention, and purpose behind the postures.
Anatomical and physiological framework, language and insight.
Comprehension of the key components of asana, meditation, pranayama.
Philosophical context of this ancient tradition, including historical background and study of key sutras from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
Ability to confidently understand and use Sanskrit names of poses.
Ethical considerations in the framework of the Yama and Niyama; a model to live and work in and harmonious way with others and yourself.
Evidence-based model from contemporary neuroscience that shows efficacy of practice.
Additional specific skills include:
How to improve your ability to see imbalances in the body more clearly and to use yoga poses, meditation, and pranayama techniques as assessment tools in order to understand how imbalance occurs.
How to set up, align and deepen 39 postures with available props.
How to balance a practice for particular therapeutic effects.
How to improve your ability to heal yourself.
Fluency in subtle body anatomy including the chakra model.
The main objective of this program is to learn to know ourselves better through self-inquiry, practice, and community (sangha). Practice is meeting ourselves, without pretense, expectation, or judgment, on the mat and cultivating curiosity, commitment, and compassion. In this paradigm, practice is an opportunity to realize potential for wholeness and continued practice will increase capacity for feeling (sensitivity for all the senses) and for intimacy. We will learn that asana, pranayama, restorative poses, and meditation can be used as diagnostic tools to effect positive change for chronic conditions, skeletal and muscular imbalances, and/or emotional traumas. Effective teaching is a function of personal practice and study over time and occurs when we teach from the experience of our bodies and our lives. Foundational elements of the program include:
Understanding of the different elements that constitute yoga.
Integration for self-healing and transformation.
Service.