Opening Meditation

Lesson 1

Textbook Title: SURRENDERING OUR STICKY SEATED SAMSKARAS: (YOU MIGHT WANNA STAND UP FOR THIS)

Overview: Sitting may seem harmless, but like any deeply ingrained pattern—or samskara—it can quietly shape our physical and mental well-being, and it’s only through conscious awareness and movement that we begin to reclaim our freedom.

Exercises Covered: Quadricep Glide, Nordic Rock Backs, Diagonal Stretch Variations

Length of Video: 38 min.

Lesson 2, Part 1

Textbook Title: WORKING WITH SAMSKARAS: THE OBSTACLE BECOMES THE TEACHER

Overview: Samskaras aren’t obstacles to be eliminated—they’re fuel for transformation, and through conscious practice and surrender, we can use even our most ingrained patterns as stepping stones toward freedom.

Exercises Covered: Hula Hoops, Atlas Twist & Lizards

Length of Video: 31 min.

Lesson 2, Part 2

Textbook Title: ECCENTRICALLY UNLOCKING OUR HIPS: FINDING FREEDOM IN A SEATED SOCIETY

Overview: In a world that revolves around sitting, yoga offers us the tools to retrain our hips, restore balance to the body, and reclaim the act of sitting as a conscious, strengthening practice—beginning with the deep release and engagement of the psoas.

Exercises Covered: Psoas Release Seqence

Length of Video: 45 min.

Another Teaching Experience of the Psoas Release Sequence

Exercises Covered in Class & Homework Assignment:

Exercises Covered in Class:

Quadricep Glide: Alleviate tension in the vastus muscles, enhance hip mobility and foster pelvic stability.
Nordic Rock Backs: Explore pelvic positioning with Nordic Rock Backs, engage the psoas, and promote stability in neutral spine and pelvis alignment.
Movement: Quadricep Glide
Banking variation of Diagonal Stretch: Engage the back psoas, enhance lateral body lengthening and contraction, and promote stability and alignment from the Anjaneyasana position.
Atlas Twist: Challenge the body's spiral line, provide insights into personal mobility and stability, alleviate joint stress in high lunge using buoyant hips, and enhance dynamic stability through progressive twisting techniques.
Lizards: Safely enhance hip flexibility and core engagement without overstressing the hips, utilizing modifications to traditional Lizard poses to maintain buoyancy and support throughout the practice.
Psoas Release: engage and gently massage the psoas muscle, promoting deeper core activation, enhancing pelvic mobility, and providing overall spinal mobilization to foster flexibility and relieve tension.
Homework:

For your homework assignment, start weaving the exercises and postures you've learned in class into your daily personal yoga routine. When relevant, extend your practice beyond the confines of the mat into everyday life. Pay attention to what is motivating your practice, what is speaking to you, and channel that inspiratoin into developing a yoga sequence aimed at the students you regularly teach, rather than just the attendees of this training. From this personalized sequence, choose an 8-minute segment to present to our training class for valuable feedback. Additionally, prepare a concise 1-2 minute introduction that summarizes what has inspired you this week, which you can share as a preamble to your sequence. While it's an added bonus, not a requirement, consider infusing that underlying theme into your teaching cues to enrich the overall class experience.

Module 4 • Unlocking Hips to Release Samskaras: Yoga in a Sedentary World