Month 1 Yoga Immersion & Teacher Training Complete!
We just completed the first month of Shraddhā & Sanctuary’s Yoga Immersion and Teaching Training! If you’re curious about what this group of 35 beautiful beings have been up to, you can experience tid bits of the material in Corinne’s weekly Wednesday 9:15am class here at Sanctuary. Please read on below to learn a little about what they’ve been exploring!
Week 1
We began our journey with Corinne in a pūja (Sānskrit word meaning worship), as a ritual to honor the beginning of our time together. We chanted to Ganesha, who guided us as we crossed the threshold and offered the five elements and other mantras. We spoke about the importance of creating a sacred home space and an altar. We met one another and set intentions for creating our new community together that is rooted in respect, compassion, and love.
In our first in-person class, we learned about creating vertical & horizontal space/length in the core/spine/center of our bodies. Through embodied anatomy and āsana, we explored all the ways we can create this healthy space. We explored mantra, breath, and the question “who am I?,” in addition to seeking the reach of head-tail, tail-head as we moved our bodies in all directions relative to gravity.
Week 2
We explored our body’s central core versus our periphery with Corinne, as this relates to the whole of our lives as well as in āsana. We explored movement guided by more mobility in the pubic symphysis and more stability in the sacroiliac joints.
We had our first philosophy session with Matthew, who guided us in a heart-centered meditation and asked us to consider yoga as a set of practices that supports us on a path and brings us to a state of being. We continue to learn the connection of our bodies to the natural world and all of life. We are exploring how all of life is yoga.
Week 3
We continued our journey by learning more breathing practices (nadi shodhana and kalabhati), and two important concepts of functional anatomy: collapse-yield-prop, and the hands to tail/feet to head pattern. We connected this with the three gunas (Sānskrit word for qualities) of the natural world and how we are moving within the gunas in our embodied lives. We are beginning to recognize that “anatomy is philosophy and philosophy is anatomy”! We had a beautiful philosophy session with Matthew about yoga as a state of being and process of becoming.
Week 4
This week we learned about some root supports in our bodies: the iliopsoas complex, the pelvic floor, mulabandha and pit of belly/kanda. Breathwork is another way to ground ourselves, and we explored ujjāyi prānāyāma (victorious one). We started to explore the Vedas and the Rigveda as the root text of the Sanskritic Yogic tradition. We explored the teaching of the evolution of consciousness and life as a process of evolution that is moving forward into greater wholeness all the time. We finished off with a much appreciated yoga nidra (yogic sleep).
