Course Overview
Topic 1• The Foundation of Inner Sensation: Discovering Spacious Awareness on the mat, and in your life.
Overview: The Dance of Shakti is the yogic practice of using the physical aspects of manifestation, Shakti, to connect with the invisible field behind the Cosmic Curtain, Shiva. We begin this dance by first finding sensation in our foundations— playing with stability and instability, and feeling how our awareness is always there to guide us towards growth.
Topics Covered:
The Dance of Shiva and Shakti: The Vijnana Bhairava’s teaching of navigating inner and outer reality on and off the mat as a path for spiritual growth
Physics, Physiology & The Self: Reconnecting with the Profound spaciousness that occupies a majority of both our physical body and universe
Prakasha and Vimarsha: Kashmir Shaivsim’s teaching on the reflection of awareness that encompass both an outer object and our Inner Self.
Biological Composition of Fascia as well as its role in coordinating holistic movement
Swami Muktananda’s teaching on the spontaneous practice of Hatha Yoga
Interoception and Intero-surfing: The neurology of inner sensation, and a key practice for harnessing our Inner Awareness at the onset of every practice
Topic 2• The Path Truly is the Destination: Rolling and Rippling our way to Blissful Holistic Movement.
Class Description: The path of yoga is transformational, and anything but a straight line— we often roll two steps forward and one step back— but it’s good to know that this is not only OK, but the way we’re meant to grow both on our mats and on our cushions. Rolling itself is literally how we learn to move as infants, and is the primary developmental factor in creating holistic body wide movement teams. Through an informed approach to rolling we can re-pattern our bodies to move again as one. This concept also bridges up to help us move more holistically in our asanas, as we ‘roll’ or ‘ripple’ through the primary movements of our postures, taking extra time to focus on the path to a pose in order to truly arrive at its destination— being, clarity and bliss.
Topics Covered:
Physics, Physiology & The Self: How the Higgs Field and our Connective tissue can help us understand Holistic movement
Re-Uniting our Movement Teams: Rolling Sequences that generate more holistic movement and re-unite movement pathways
Rippling through the fascial lines: Moving with Effortless Effort through the primary movements of our Asana practice as a method of re-kindling inner awareness
‘Churning’ inner awareness in continuity: Kashmir Shaivism’s teaching on ‘Nāda’, and how our movement can generate more inner awareness.
The dynamic flowing essence of awareness: The Pratybhijnahirdayam’s teaching of ‘Cid-Rasa’, how we can learn to move like the Yogic Universe.
Topic 3• Creative Receptivity: How to Catch the Shooting Star of Inspiration through the Spacious Awareness of Surrender.
Class Description: Creativity is about receptivity; The purpose of our practice isn’t to contract into this or that thought, but to expand beyond thoughts in order to allow a higher experience to flow through us while we both teach, and plan, our classes. This is the path of using Shakti, the dynamic fluctuating conditions of our lives, to re-discover Shiva, our True Nature. This class utilizes chanting, practice teaching scenarios, and structured approaches to the creative process in order to cultivate both patience and spacious awareness to help you catch the spark of grace and inspiration while teaching and preparing your classes.
Topics Covered:
Teaching From Inside 3.0: The Vijnana Bhairava’s approach to generating inner awareness through the outer circumstances of our life
Matrika Shakti & The Three Levels of Speech: Kashmir Shaivism’s teaching on how to teach from the heart, transforming words into energy.
Philosophy in practice: Merging inner and outer worlds through a variety of Om-based Mantra practices such as ‘Rolling OMs’ and ’ Middle Path OMs’
Catching the shooting star of Inspiration: The Shiva Sutra’s teaching on how to prepare to receive inspiration when writing a yoga class, or teaching one.
The Shakti Flow: The structure and approach to the most important building block of a Vinyasa Flow Class.
Topic 4 •Springing Into Creation: The Upward Spiral of Movement Potential known as Unmesha.
Class Description: Reality doesn’t just appear— it ‘blooms’, ‘springs’ and ‘spirals’ into existence, according to the Yogic Tradition. This upward spiral of creation is known in Sanskrit as an “Unmesha”, and teaches us how to move smoother, safer and stronger through the transitional spaces on our mats in order to untap our movement potential. The principle of Unmesha also re-emphasizes the importance of cultivating more spring in our movement patterns in order to keep our connective tissue supple, healthy, and bouncy.
Topics Covered:
The Yogic Story of Creation: How we can not only understand but skillfully participate in Kashmir Shavism’s explanation of the ‘5 Acts of Shiva’, an explanation of the Universe’s ongoing means of creation.
The Spring of “Unmesha”: Kashmir Shaivism’s description of how reality blooms, and how we can bloom with it on our mats and in our lives
Our Inner Spring: Tracing the path of the Spiral line and its role in holistic fully body movement
“Gram for Gram, stronger than steel”: The strength and spring of our connective tissue
Use it or Lose it: Re-patterning the bounce in our connective tissue through spring and momentum
Everyday Unmesha: Rediscovering the spring and spiral of everyday movement in walking and getting up and down from the floor.
Topic 5 •Being Still Without the Will: The Invisible, spiraling, path to strength and tranquility through the practice of Nimesha.
Class Description: According to the yogic tradition, stillness is a key that can unlock not only health, strength and focus, but our true nature. We access stillness throughout our yoga classes every time we hold a posture, as well as between the postures of our sequences. We arrive at stillness through a subtle inward spiral called the Nimesha, which is just as important as the Unmesha, the outward spiral that takes us out into creation. As we learn to utilize this sacred space of dissolution in our practice, we truly begin to ‘arrive’ in our moments both on and off the mat.
Topics Covered:
Dissolving into Stillness: Kashmir Shaivism’s teaching of “Nimesha”, the natural path to profound stillness
“Stilling the Thought Waves”: Patanjali’s approach to stillness of body, breath and mind.
“Invisible Circles of Stillness”: Using the Vijnana Bhairava to find stillness both in our yoga asanas and in our meditation seat
The Strength of Stillness: Anatomy of the Deep Core, and it’s role in generating inner support for stillness in postures
The Space Between Activities: Bringing the teachings of Nimesha into the in-between spaces of your everyday life
Topic 6•Move like Water: The biology of our Extra Cellular Matrix and how to flow into our Vinyasa Flow Class Structure
Class Description: The body’s connective tissue is mostly water, about 4 gallons of which flow past our cells each day transporting nutrients and maintaining healthy tissue. As Lineage Teacher Swami Rudrananda once taught, “movement and change are the most difficult qualities for a person to accept as essential for life”, and qualitative peer reviewed studies now show that lack of regular movement does indeed ‘dam up’ our interstitial fluids, preventing not only the critical flow of nourishment to and from the cells, but the mechanical instructions needed for the reproduction of new cells. This means that movement is essential for health in not only a physical but meta-physical level. Ultimately this is the goal of our work with Vinyasa Flow, to inspire movement in ourselves and our students as a means of rediscovering inner health and vitality, as well as setting the stage for real spiritual growth.
Topics Covered:
The ECM & You: The Biology of our Extra Cellular Matrix and its role in Cellular health
Gotta Let if Flow if You Want it to Grow: The supply and demand approach to cellular health, and how Fibroblasts, the most abundant cell in our fascia, get the job done
Cells Need to be Stretched Too: Why movement is key, not only our cellular health, but for informing creation of new cells
Keeping a State of Flow: Swami Rudrananda’s teachings on how to stay open when experiencing tension and resistance
Smooth Motion Cures Commotion: Zen master, Paul Reps’, teachings on how to move like water on your mat as a means of dissolving both physical and subtle tension.
Shakti Vinyasa: The culminating presentation of a Vinyasa Flow Class Structure, incorporating every aspect to the training in one cohesive image and worksheet.
You actually made it to the bottom of the page— amazing. You really deserve a prize… Hope to see you at the training.
