Join me at Restful Waters Wellness and Consciousness Centre and learn how to cultivate a Yin body state, a Yoga movement template. Modelling a safe practice over a 6 week course.

This course is inclusive, accessible and sustainable, and focused on generating long term health benefits. This course will teach you a strategy for setting up the body for training slow yoga vinyasa. We will develop stability and strength in our asana and vinyasa and investigate the intersection between proprioception and interoception.

This training is both mental and physical, they go together. The practice is inherently safe and will generate long term benefits over the course of your life practice. 

We can build nervous system and body resilience by connecting to your centre. We can enhance the process by cultivating proprioception and interoception using slow intentional mindful yoga movements and further enhance our experience by intentionally linking our breath to movement.

This training is based on the premise that a langhana or a yin body state is good for your health and that a yin or langhana body state can be cultivated during yoga vinyasa practice. Between the yin/langhana and yang/brahmana is the balance point, the neutral point.

Neutral is a concept that implies balance and being centred. In these classes we will practice to find neutral points and then use them as reference points. For example we move away from our centre rather than move toward a limit. It’s a subtle but significant difference in perspective. And taken in the context of safe practice it makes excellent sense because you learn to become self regulating based on how you feel.

One object of training is to unify our mental and physical bodies and practice safely. We want to manage that change without generating trauma injury or repetitive strain injury.

The learning process involves organizing and activating the physical structure and alignment, first developing stability, then strength and then safe movement habits. You will get stronger and improve your balance while practicing relaxation and cultivating a sense of calm. 

Nervous system training is an integral part of Somatic Yoga training, establishing a habit of calm homeostasis helps to make the neuroplastic changes that accompany the physical improvements from training. First the nervous system changes, then your muscles, then the connective tissue. These changes can take time.

My focus is safe and inclusive practice, please take time to read my Safety Blog.

COURSE SYNOPSIS

Week 1

What is your objective? Health and a balanced mind.

Safe long term practice over the course of your life.

Nervous system self-regulation and physical vitality = Balance

Vinyasa is a series of poses and breath in a logical sequence

What is your reference point for moving? What is your reference point for stillness?

There are 6 directions. Focus on vertical and gravity, earth energy, feet and ankles, feel the support of the earth

Find your centre, abdominal breathing

Small amounts of practice are cumulative and can have a potent effect on our health

ORGANISE AND ACTIVATE DRILLS

Finding neutral, up the back line and rocking

Superficial back line

Short set, axial extension, squat and circle arms, shift to Warrior 2 and vashistasana and then yin and yang balls rounded extension, then squat to padottanasana to squat, to open tadasana.

Then axial extension with lateral bends and forward fold

SOMATIC YOGA RW 12/3/23

Open, vertical alignment and the superficial back line

Organize and activate the myo fascial body lines

Tadasana,

rock, lean, quad dominant squats

Uttanasana and uktatasana

Forward fold, and easy chair, half way lift

Tadasana,

hands behind head and sagittal and lateral bends

½ sun salutations

Down dog

Arm lines

Standing half moon and eka padkasana

Triangle

Plank Phalakasana and bhujanasana

Supine roll and savasana

WEEK 2

ABSORB AND PROJECT

FIND THE BREATH, C/E, sama vrtti even breath

Finding neutral

CORE ACTIVATION

Hip shifting, finding the lateral plane

Fascial lines – legs, lateral lines

Short set, step into Warrior 1, plus circular arms

Somatic yoga review, Focus, attention and interest and breath = motivation and understanding, contemplate the internal sensations

Open tadasana – activation,

Utthita hastasana - axial extension

Utkatasana – chair

Uttanasana – forward fold

Ardha chandrasana – half moon

Toe stands, use pole, progress through to single leg balance

Vinyasa defn, stillness and movement, moving meditation

Virabhadrasana 1 – warrior 1, offering hands hasta mudra

Ashta chandrasana – high lunge

Anjaneyasana – crescent moon, hands and knees?

Week 2 Variation

Make a commitment to practice and try for an easy routine. Keep it short but full.

Start with a full body axial extension followed by back and side extensions and forward folds.

Step out to squat and W2 L&R.

Repeat, go slow and connect to your breath.

1. Start in open Tadasana and connect to your alignment, your center of gravity and the feeling on the sole of your foot. Push up the back line and lift the head, drop down the front and settle on an easy breath. Relax and alert, drop the red meat and let your fascial system fill.
2. Activate your legs and establish a foot to core connection and then practice quad dominate squats. Sink and lift your arms over your head, interlace your fingers and point at the cardinal vertical point, relax the neck and shoulders, release the fingers, press and pull, drop the elbows.
3. Forward fold and activate your legs, halfway lift, forward fold, grab a ball and straighten up using your legs to lift and then press down to push your torso vertical. Repeat and add arm activations.
4. Step into squat, three points of alignment, knees over toes! Arms horizontal and breath easy. Skin and gather and lift.
5. Rotate to long side stance, organise your foot to core concretion for W2, extend and project your arms in the horizontal.
6. Sink back to neutral, go to squat, and repeat other side.
7. Step back to tadasana and repeat vinyasa.

WEEK 3

ABSORB AND PROJECT

FIND THE BREATH, C/E, samavrtti/kumbaka (hold the breath)

Fascial lines – foot to core,

STILLNESS AND MOVEMENT

Moving meditation, this practice is a bridge between classic formal sitting and our daily life

What is your reference point for movement? What is your reference point for stillness? They are the same default point within the body, your centre.

Slow movement, the pause is as important as the pose

Yoga/Qi Gong is about feeling and imagination

Proprioception and interoception, sensing and feeling, nervous system resilience

Organising and activation the fascial lines, internal vs external.

Defn of vinyasa---“to place with precision”, tai chi no stillness, Iyengar no vinyasa,

Movement (from stillness) = [initiation of movement] + [maintenance of movement] + [completion/cessation of movement], go to definition

If you are still, how do you initiate movement? Soften.

Absorb to initiate movement.

Review activations, review asana

Toe stands to single leg

Superficial Front Line Attunement

Chair, front line

Tadasana, rock, vertical extension, back extension

FF, chair to DD on chair

Phalakasana hollow body drills

Toe stands to single leg

TT and activate arm lines and rev

Cat/Cow Chakravakasana (inhale and expand, exhale and condense)

WEEK 4

ADD A CHAIR

Balance, toe stands, the superficial back line

Fascial lines – legs, deep front line

Short set. Warrior 3, tree,

WEEK 5

On the back, table, front line activation,

Deep front line

Short set. Supine,

WEEK 6

Twists, spiral lines, lateral, lines rebound functional lines

Short set.