James Knight teaches Gentle Somatic Yoga.

Gentle Somatic Yoga® Level 1 Training with James Knight, E-RYT 200, CHSE will be held November 3 – 8, 2023 at Satchidananda Ashram–Yogaville. Dive deeply into Gentle Somatic Yoga® (GSY), a method of movement reeducation that strengthens the brain-to-muscle neural pathways. In this 6-day Level 1 course, you will learn practical and easy to implement skills that will address the root cause of most chronic muscular pain and reverse persistent stress holding patterns in the body. Experience more than 25 Somatic Movement Flows® that can be incorporated into therapeutic modalities such as Hatha Yoga, Yoga therapy, physical therapy, massage therapy, and dance.

Begin your journey to:

• Relieve or dissolve persistent pain conditions
• Significantly improve flexibility and posture
• Reduce or eliminate muscle stiffness and cramping
• Boost health, vitality, and wellbeing
• Develop a loving, compassionate and trusting relationship with your body

Learn somatic movements that are science and heart-based. This is a whole-body approach for self-healing and most people experience immediate and long-lasting results. Enjoy your body and feel good now.

The science behind this method comes from Hanna Somatic Education. Learn about the green light, red light, and trauma reflex; sensory-motor amnesia; the stretch reflex; and the important technique of pandiculation. In Gentle Somatic Yoga, we do not focus on stretching muscles. Instead, we reprogram muscles to their most optimal length in a resting position.

Learn how to modify the Gentle Somatic Yoga practice to meet the needs of special populations including seniors, beginner Yoga students, athletes, and individuals with special conditions such as rehabilitation from injuries, desk workers, and pregnancy.

Integrate GSY into immediate application in your everyday life. Enjoy the benefits for yourself and share this knowledge with people that you care about that are living with physical discomfort. If you are an experienced Yoga teacher, therapist, bodyworker, or movement educator, you will be able to develop one-on-one sessions and classes that address common conditions such as neck and shoulder tension, chronic back pain, tight hips, and/or hamstrings. If you are already working with special populations, then Gentle Somatic Yoga can augment your practice and continue to distinguish yourself as an expert in the field. This new skill set can dramatically accelerate all therapeutic and healing processes.

The weekend workshop, Gentle Somatic Yoga® Weekend: Find Your Inner Yes on Nov. 3–5, 2023, is a part of this training. Participants in this 6-day Level 1 course will have additional times to meet throughout the week and dive deeper into neuroscience, philosophy, and GSY method. If you are unable to stay for the full 6-day program, consider signing up for the Gentle Somatic Yoga® Weekend: Find Your Inner Yes, Fri.–Sun., to experience a weekend of complete restoration and a natural state of peace and well-being.

Learn more about James and Gentle Somatic Yoga on the Integral Yoga Podcast, Episode 80 | James Knight | Gentle Somatic Yoga.

Training Information

Prerequisites

Upon Level 1 registration, you will receive a complementary GSY Level 1 Online Training which you are highly encouraged to take before the in-person training at Yogaville. It is a fantastic way to supplement your education and, most importantly, it gives you a chance to study and prepare for the in-person experience.

This intensive is designed for anyone wanting to learn a home practice for easy and reliable self-care and healing. This program is also designed for Yoga teachers, Yoga Therapists, and health care professionals that want to learn new skills to teach group classes and/or individualized sessions.

Continuing Education (CE) Opportunities

At the completion of this 6-day program, you qualify to become a GSY Practitioner Level 1 with a Certification add-on option.

• Yoga Alliance (YA): Approximately 32 contact hours.You can input your contact hours using your YA login information.
• Yoga Therapy: This is one of the elective modules to become certified as an Integral Yoga Therapist
• Integral Yoga Teachers Association (IYTA) can provide you a CE certificate with your program’s total contact hours for a $10 fee (free for IYTA members.) For more information, email ce@iyta.org.

More info and registration here.

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Fire Flex Yoga Training

FireFlex Yoga, a data-driven Yoga and wellness program for first responders, announces a 3-day training November 3-5, 2023 in a state-of-the-art fitness facility near Sacramento, CA. This one-of-a-kind training is for first responders and for Yoga teachers. First responders will learn how yoga postures correlate to daily on-the-job physical tasks and they’ll learn how to lead customized Yoga sequences for their crew at their agency. Yoga teachers can earn continuing education and equip themselves to connect with and deliver Yoga to first responders in their communities.

Without proactive interventions, like Yoga, first responders and their families are vulnerable to traumatic stress disorders, compassion fatigue, and maladaptive coping strategies. Through FireFlex Yoga, first responders learn how to strengthen their bodies, breath, and attention. Interoceptive mind-body awareness creates stronger resilience and decision-making under pressure.This training will provide a behind-the-scenes look at first responder “warrior” culture. Yoga teachers will learn how to apply their Yoga background in sequencing, anatomy, and meditation to personalized first responder classes that increase functional fitness and reduce the impact of stress with trauma-informed teaching principles.

FireFlex Founder Shannon McQuaide grew up in a “fire family” and has delivered Yoga and wellness classes to thousands of firefighters, first responders, and public safety personnel. She’s led mindfulness trainings for teachers and government agencies and she’s presented at prestigious fire-industry conferences. Her mission continues to be delivering wellness tools to help people increase resiliency and mitigate injury using mind-body practices, functional fitness, and Yoga.

“After many years delivering weekly Yoga classes inside fire stations, and now implementing 3-day trainings across the country to public safety agencies, I hope to empower first responders with impactful wellness tools they can take with them back to their colleagues,” said FireFlex Founder Shannon McQuaide. “My mission is to provide practical resources to help them recoup from stress, reboot, and truly rest with tactical wellness practices for mental and physical health.”

In 2022, a peer-reviewed paper was published in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies showcasing the measurable, positive results that FireFlex Yoga provides to first responders. FireFlex Yoga is unique in that it utilizes the FMS (Functional Movement Screen) and MAIA (Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness) to measure its department decision makers to make the case for why yoga needs to be integrated into ongoing first responder wellness programs.

More information and registration here.

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Integral Yoga Restorative Yoga Teacher Training Part 1

These gentle asanas literally hold and maintain the position of the body as one releases mental and physical tension. In this supported state, the asana can be held for a significantly longer period of time, which facilitates a state of deeper relaxation. This extended duration allows the innate intelligence of the body to reintegrate the system to its natural state of balance and peace as the tension dissolves and melts away.

The post Restorative Yoga Teacher Training: April 2023 appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

An in-depth review of the anatomy and physiology of pregnancy, labor, and birth lays the foundation for teachers’ understanding of the myriad benefits of Hatha Yoga for pregnancy. They will gain extensive experience with asanas well suited to pregnant individuals and a thorough acquaintance with contraindications during pregnancy. The training will sensitize teachers to the profound physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual transitions of pregnancy and birth and demonstrate how such techniques as chanting, pranayama, deep relaxation, and meditation can be effective ways of coping with these changes. More info and registration here.

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You will also be able to explore neuroscience, trauma theory, intergenerational trauma, the similarities between Yoga & Ayurvedic philosophy and certain recovery modalities, chakra healing, meditation, movements and breathwork, finding your voice, class structure, and so much more; all this informed by our SHE RECOVERS Intentions & Guiding Principles (covering the many different pathways and patchworks of recovery).

SHE RECOVERS is so excited to share this training with all of you – trauma informed practices are needed more than ever. And we need you to join us as we share this beautiful modality with the recovery world. More info here.

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Photo: Gita teaching Yoga to Molly, another special needs student.

I looked over the damaged carrot patch. Bunnies had shorn the tops off; turning the frilly fronds into scant spikes. I sighed and wondered, Why do I bother? I was headed for trouble when I focused on  “getting something” out of the garden. But this time the bunny damage felt personal, as I had promised the carrots to my youngest Yoga student, Jack.

Summer was waning and a breeze set the sunflowers dancing. It was cool and dry, a welcome relief from the humidity. Jack would be coming over soon for his Yoga class so I headed inside. I raised the windows to the library and the cool air billowed through the lace curtains. I lit sandalwood incense and watched the smoke coil and dance.

Jack is only seven years-old but one of my most dedicated Yoga students. He loves playing with his Labrador Retrievers and making blanket forts with his cousins. When he was born prematurely, he had a stroke which resulted in Cerebral Palsy. He uses a wheelchair, eats some food by mouth but also uses a feeding tube, and needs assistance for all of his daily activities. But his mind is bright and active.

It can often take time and patience for Jack to work through a series of yes/no questions or alternative devices to communicate ideas, ask questions, and have his inner world understood and validated—this is the challenge for people who have a label of being “nonverbal.” This is where the practices of Yoga for the Special Child, as taught to me by Sonia Sivakami Sumar come forth to align our spirit and physical selves into the present moment.

The first time Jack had visited my garden his mom had helped him over to the strawberry patch. She guided his hand to pluck a ripe berry and as he took a bite, he grimaced and spit it out. We laughed and she said, “Yeah, he’s way more of a veggie kid!” So we helped him over to the carrots and he smiled as his fingers tickled the fronds. I promised him that when they were ready for digging I’d give him some to take home.

As Jack and I moved through class that day we did all of the components of a Yoga for the Special Child class, which is closely aligned with Integral Yoga as its founder, Sonia, is a longtime student of Sri Swami Satchidananda. Jack sat on my lap and I assisted his head stability as we chanted Hari Om, his long Oms dissolving into peaceful silence. The incense wafted towards us in the breeze from the open window and he sighed deeply. His mom watched and occasionally snapped photos to share with her family.

Most of us take movement for granted, but with Jack it can take minutes of patient work to turn his head or flex his foot. I showed him each pose like I do to any Yoga kid; with a mix of playful seriousness that is the trademark of Sonia’s method. I supported him while allowing space for him to initiate movements; my voice praised each time he moved his hand, knee, or arm toward a position. As we moved through each position his breathing was steady and his attention was easeful yet alert.

The guided relaxation at the end of class is important for Jack, his muscles have a tendency towards spasticity which leads his arms, wrists, and fingers to clench tightly. As I chanted Om shanti (peace) and named each body part he chanted Om with me. His mom softly said, “Oh wow,” as his shoulders and arms visibly released. His relaxed focus during Yoga is the measure of the practice’s power; a form that allows our perception to move beyond limitation and into the power of now.

After class, Jack giggled and wiggled in what his mom and I call his “happy dance.” Then we wheeled him outside where the breeze had turned decidedly autumnal. It swirled around our feet and we joked that soon it would be time for sweatshirts and cocoa. Later that afternoon I pulled the bunny-eaten carrots, amid the soil with compost, and planted more seeds. The seeds were scarcely larger than a grain of dust, and the wind threatened to carry them away. I sheltered the row with my body and sprinkled them into the soil, tamped them down, and watered it gently.

Jack reminded me that all this Yoga stuff—and gardening—is not to “get something.” It’s not about chasing the brass ring of enlightenment or reaping a bushel of carrots. Nor is it the latest fitness craze that is just another self-improvement trap. Yoga practice is not an obligation or something we do because someone said once that it would “be good for us.”

A few weeks later the new carrots are up and growing, only this time surrounded by fencing. But now I know that “getting something” from my garden, or from my Yoga, is not the point. Trying to strive toward something, or trying to hold onto something, is as futile as trying to catch the sandalwood-scented wind. The practices are only there to provide a moment into which past and future can suspend; where we drop into the present. And in this moment we discover that the “something” that we have been striving toward has always been as close as our own heart.

What Jack and the carrots are teaching me is that the rewards of spiritual life do not lay outside of myself. They are to be found in the dedication of using practice to dwell fully in each moment and to be loving and supportive to each other on the mat, in the garden, and out in the world.

Author’s note: student’s name and other identifying features have been changed to protect their privacy.

About the Author:

Gita Brown is a wellness activist, musician, and writer. She is a certified Advanced Integral Yoga®  teacher and licensed Yoga for the Special Child® practitioner. Through her “Yoga with Gita courses” and podcast, “The Gita Brown Show,” her mission is to teach her students how to adapt the traditional practices of Yoga to bring more ease, wellness, and joy into everyday life. Gita started Yoga as a teenager, when her love of Yoga grew in tandem with her career as a classical clarinetist and music therapist. For three decades, she has taught Yoga, wellness, and music courses at colleges, schools of music, community schools, private studios, public schools, and hospitals. She is currently finishing final revisions to her memoir. The story is about how she repurposed her wedding vows into a yogic vow to live love as a way of life—a pilgrimage that endured even as her husband and childhood sweetheart battled end-stage alcoholism. She offers Yoga to students of all ages and abilities through online programs and in person at her home studio at Three Dog Farm in Kingston, Massachusetts. Learn more about her services by visiting:  https://www.gitabrown.com

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The program includes:

• Morning Meditation and Hatha Yoga Class.
• How to add variations to Surya Namaskar without losing its focus and flow.
• Anatomy of asanas – how to apply the knowledge when teaching yoga poses.
• Adjusting yourself in a yoga pose and cultivating inner awareness.
• Adjusting your students in a class.
• How to teach them the knowledge of learning from within.
• The practice of Pranayama to increase focus during your practice of asanas.
• Creating sequences for yoga class that will accommodate different levels of students.

This course is an approved for 18H of training towards the 300H RYT designation with Yoga Alliance.

Who should attend: This course is open to therapists, Yoga instructors and Yoga students with a year or more of Yoga practice/experience. More info and registration details here.

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