Vinyasa Foundations Intensive Module, Jan. 10-12, 2020

Foundations: The Roots of Vinyasa

January 10-12, 2019

Teacher: Jacquelyn Nash

The Vinyasa yoga style that we practice today comes from a history that is rich and layered. Learn the connection and progression from the ancient philosophy to the modern day experience of yoga in the West as we examine different lineages and styles, including Iyengar yoga, breath-based yoga (or Viniyoga), Classical Hatha Yoga and others, and discover how those style can influence your practice and teaching. We’ll spend a day diving deep into the Ashtanga Vinyasa lineage, which is at the heart of Vinyasa yoga, and discuss how to incorporate the foundations of Ashtanga yoga, most importantly breath, drishti and asanas, into your practice and your teaching.

Learn:
  • the spiritual, philosophical, & physical history of yoga.
  • different lineages and methods of asana to inspire your practice and teaching.
  • the Ashtanga Yoga primary series and the keystones of the Ashtanga lineage.

Required Books: Ashtanga Yoga: the Practice Manual by David Swenson

Jacquelyn Nash

As co-founder of The Yoga House, Jacquelyn is committed to demystifying the secret language of yoga and making it accessible to all people. After her first introduction with the Ashtanga Yoga Practice, Jacquelyn immediately found value in the authenticity, history and integrity of the practice. The practice inspired Jacquelyn to become a forever student of yoga, studying the Ashtanga Primary Series with David Swenson and Shelley Washington and learning the rich history and foundations of different yoga lineages and styles in her advanced training. Influenced by the light-heartedness but also sincerity of David and Shelley’s teachings, Jacquelyn has a nurturing and compassionate approach to sharing the richness of yoga that brings a sense of accessibility to those practicing and learning with her.

Register for TRAINING MODULE – FOUNDATIONS WEEKEND

New Class: Soul Power Flow, Wednesdays, 9:30-11:00am–begins 2/6

Soul Power Flow

with Jacquelyn Nash

Wednesdays, 9:30-11:00am

begins February 6th

at our Midtown Studio

   

Soul Power Flow

90 minutes

This soulful and invigorating class is designed to help you find your inner power and strength through continuous movement and dynamic flow. We’ll build a crescendo with familiar postures and methods to gradually open the body and to reach our pinnacle and challenging pose or sequence where we’ll take time to explore our own true potential. Prepare to break a sweat but also to find those sweet moments to reconnect with your mind and body. This class is best for those with yoga experience.

Practice Inspirations: Core Yoga Concepts Workshop with Laura Olson, Sat. 2/2

Practice Inspirations: Core Yoga Concepts

with Laura Olson

Saturday, Feb. 2, 12:00-2:00pm

Midtown Studio

$30 pre-register/ $35 day-of


So often in yoga class there isn’t time to slow down and talk about details or dive deeply and talk about the bigger concepts. In this workshop you will learn about some key concepts of yoga, and why when we put them into action yoga really works. We’ll talk about breath or vinyasa, energy locks or bandha, gaze points or dristi and postures or asana as vehicles for transformation then put them into practice right away, and much more. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion.

 

Laura Olson

As a former dancer, Laura has always been kinesthetic, but yoga is what made her finally feel at home. A devoted Ashtangi and reverently rebellious yoga teacher, she has studied extensively in the United States as well as in Mysore, India with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and Sharath Jois. Laura teaches both traditional Ashtanga as well as Ashtanga-influenced vinyasa in workshops, classes, and private lessons in the New York City and Woodstock areas. She also offers cooking classes and health coaching and most delights in making healthy indulgences for everyone. She offers deep gratitude to all the friends, mentors and teachers who have guided her and kept her company along the path.

 

 

 

 

   
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Meditation Intensive Module, with Aaron Dias, Feb. 8-10

Meditation: Traversing the Inner World

February 8-10, 2019

Teacher: Aaron Dias

YTT 200 hour, yoga teacher training, hudson valley, kingston, ny, modulesMeditation is the most fundamental spiritual practice of all because it develops our most valuable asset of all–our awareness. Sharing just a few simple tools and insights, Aaron teaches you how to overcome common obstacles and develop a practice that is steady, satisfying, authentic to your own path and wildly effective in helping you reach your goals. We will devote the rest of the weekend to the study of the energy body–which effects everything about your lived experience on the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels. Though you may not be able to see the subtle body (yet!) everyone can learn how to detect it and learn what it needs. By the end of the weekend you will feel much more confident about who you are, what you need and how to make it all fall into balance.

Learn:

  • the tools you need to establish a committed self-meditation practice.
  • how to translate the information that your own energy body is trying to share.
  • to become the authority on your own spiritual development.
Aaron Dias
Aaron is a facilitator of spiritual evolution who, through one-on-one coaching as well as group experiences, has helped hundreds of individuals discover their own innate capacity for healing, insight and positive transformation. She is initiated in the Q’ero lineage of the High Andes and has extensive training in various other enlightenment traditions and energy systems, most notably Mahayana Buddhism, Tantric Yoga and Taoism. She combines this knowledge with a lifetime as a wordsmith, philosopher, theater-maker and nature-enthusiast to model her highest values–authenticity, courage, integrity, wisdom and, most of all love–and to mirror back to you your own best self.

 


Meditation



September Focus of the Month – Cultivating Calm in a Chaotic World

Cultivating Calm in a Chaotic World

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States today. It doesn’t take a diagnosis to feel the impact. Whether it’s your own occasional suffering or a loved one’s persistent condition, anxiety crops up everywhere — draining life of its color, leaving exhausted humans in its wake.

This month we bring you tools to address the anxiety in your life, taught by yogis for millennia. While not a replacement for therapy or medication, yoga offers its practitioners many resources to access calm and peace even when these feel far away.

Some of the many tools of yoga:

  • Breath awareness, or pranayama practices. Ranging from the simple to the adventurous, yoga’s breath practices offer a way to become grounded and embodied, pulling the practitioner out of head space and into body space.
    • This month your teachers will guide you through breath awareness and breath techniques.
  • Gaze points, or drishti. Yoga is very concerned with focusing the mind. Its underlying assumption is that each of us has the power to tame the mind as a charioteer might tame horses. Focusing the eyes on a single spot is just one way to reign in the mind and to bring it under conscious control.
    • Notice when your instructor suggests where you should gaze.
  • Movement, or asana. Not everyone feels relaxed or at ease when they sit down, for instance to meditate. Agitating thoughts, like memories and worries, can sometimes be more noisy when all is still. Physical movement provides a way to lull and vitalize the mind and body, bringing them into better connection, stimulating happiness hormones and elevating mood.
    • The hearty part of any yoga class, consider how breath, gaze, mind and body come into balance when you’re doing asana.
  • Meditation. Anxiety and related disorders can have the effect of tightening and constricting consciousness. Sometimes done prior to movement, sometimes done afterward, meditation has the power to give you access to a wider field of awareness, bringing stressful thoughts into perspective, calming the nervous system, and kicking on the restorative centers of the brain.
    • Even a single minute of meditation can have a powerful effect. Your teachers can point you to more opportunities to learn how to meditate, if that interests you.
  • Yoga Nidra, or yogic sleep. Yoga nidra is a restorative practice wherein the instructor guides you into a rested waking state while your body is positioned comfortably. The usual brain centers get a break and the healing centers work their magic.
    • TYH teacher Susan DeRyder and her partner Shawn are offering Asana and Sound Healing with yoga nidra this month, Friday, Sept. 28th, 7:30-9:30pm.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, and yoga’s true impact comes when it is practiced regularly and over the long term as a lifestyle. Tune in to your teachers’ suggestions all month long. Balanced, peaceful, calm and joyful people are especially needed right now, and all the work you do to embody these qualities has a ripple effect “out there.”

Thanks for your commitment to the practice. See you on the mat <3.

 

In gratitude and service,

 

Leigha & Jacquelyn