Embodyoga Study Manual: Part 1 & 2
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Welcome to this guided learning program for teachers and students! I am so excited to share this process for embodying yoga. Yes, these are In-Depth Study Programs and Teacher Training Manuals all in one! The manuals are practical and extensive in their scope. There is so much to learn and enjoy!
This approach to yoga is for all of us.
If you want to actually know your breath intimately as the creative source of all that you are and all that you aspire to be…
If you would like to learn to move in ways that feel fluid, unified, and rich with ease of expression…If you want to know, directly — with every cell of your body — that your entire being is awake, alive, and self aware…
I invite you to join me and others on this journey.
Whether you are an Embodyoga® teacher or not, these manuals provide templates for twelve weekends to make organizing and planning your own teacher training programs easier.
If you simply want to deepen your practice, they guide you step by step into a fuller understanding and embodiment of all things yoga.
This is yoga, your yoga, your journey. I am offering tools to utilize for yourself, in ways that work best for you, at your own pace, on your own inner journey.
HERE’S THE PLAN:
200-HR. STUDY GUIDE AND TEACHER TRAINING MANUAL
This manual will be published in its entirety as we progress. It forms the shape of our process and will be published in sections in the form of Downloadable PDFs.
(I recommend you print the entire 200-HR manual as we go along and put it in a notebook for easy reference.)
300-HR. MANUAL: ESSENTIAL LEARNING FOR TEACHERS
I will regularly supplement our learning with sections from the 300-HR Manual. These offer much more depth in embodying anatomy, movement, philosophy, and practice. These will be posted right on the Substack page. (Feel free to copy and paste for your own reference.)
This will be an in-depth ride of learning, practicing, and dialoguing about the process!
I am looking forward to being your guide.
I hope you will join us.
Let’s begin!
I decided to offer the first section of 200HR Study Guide and Manual to all of you for free this week only! It is introductory and contains the table of contents so you can get a look at where we are going with the study.
Each section of the basic 200HR Study Guide Manual will supported by more advanced articles for those of you who are already teachers and want to go further in each subject.“Embodying the Spine in Yoga” from the 300HR manual is posted below. This is just the first part of this more in depth article “Spine and Yoga”. Look out for more coming very soon.
To maintain the privacy of the participants only paid subscribers will be able to comment on the posts included in this study program.
Thank you for being here and contact me anytime!
EMBODYING THE SPINE IN YOGA: PART ONE (Additional material from 300 Manual)
SPINAL STRUCTURE AND CONSCIOUSNESS
Spine is a multi-layered core structure, from its subtlest and most refined consciousness to its most obvious expression in form. Since hatha yoga is a spine-based practice, it is important to consider the spine thoroughly. Our vertebral column—our central axis—is core in relation to the rest of our skeletal structure. Of course, the spine is more than just the vertebral column. It is home to the central nervous system, which is continuous with the brain. Spine also houses the three main nadis: ida, pingala, and sushumna. Sushumna nadi is our personal conduit and connection to Universal Awareness and can be conceived to be the core of the spine, or the core of core.
Hatha yoga is organized around the esoteric recognition that the three major nadis, or life-force channels—ida, pingala, and sushumna—are contained within the spinal cord. Most of the practices of hatha yoga are directed toward the ultimate balancing of the energetic center of the spine. In yoga, we study the spine for the importance of its structural supports, developmental layers, and esoteric-spiritual and psycho-physical significance.
The main structural components of our adult spine are the discs, bones, ligaments, and spinal cord. Skeletally, we define our spine as axial (core) and all other skeletal bones as appendicular (peripheral). Although western anatomy usually includes the ribs as part of the axial skeleton, in terms of yoga, it makes the most sense to separate the spine from the thorax. Embryologically, ribs do develop from spine, but functionally—in use and in embodiment— they are appendicular, as they are not part of the energetic core.
As yoga teachers, we need inquire into all that it means to live in a spine-based human body. Some of the things we look at are:
Exploring the felt sense of spine as core.
Maintaining a Calm & Mobile Spine—both for experiencing a unified sense of self and remaining injury-free.
All forces coming into the spine must flow along its length head-ward or tail-ward. Avoiding shearing lines of force across the spine at any point.
Understanding all variations of movement possibilities in the spine, how to put them together in whole-body movements, and how the consciousness of the mover is changed by, and changes, these movements.
Practicing all directions of spinal movement, in all relationships to gravity
Understanding how core body awareness affects our spinal curves.
Differentiating core from periphery at the musculoskeletal level.
Recognizing the unity of core and peripheral body at the physical and energetic levels.
The curves of the spine are designed to distribute forces and absorb shock. They especially offer resilience to our core and sense of self. In health, the spine is a fantastically mobile, supportive, and intelligent central structure. Our central nervous system is safely contained in the vertebral canal, protected by the vertebral bodies in front, and by the transverse and spinous processes behind.
When our spinal curves are not balanced, due to environmental and fragmenting and disrupting movement patterns, forces begin to flow in unhealthy ways through and around the vertebral column, which can become rigid and dry. When body tissues are having to do work they are not designed to do, they usually do not do a very good job of it. In the spine, ligaments may get hard or become overstretched. Muscles may brace, discs may become compressed and bones may eventually degrade.
Natural resilience and ease are based on a lot of things going right in the body. Increasing our understanding of the dynamics of the parts and the whole, and how they work synergistically, can help us to improve our own experience of what it means to move with integration and ease, and to assist our students in finding more comfort as well.
Resilience in our core profoundly affects how we feel. The difference between a more frozen or comfortable core is directly related to how we move, and how we move is directly related to how we think we can move.
Contained in the continuation of this article: Our Spine is a Tensegrity Structure, The Vertebral Column, The Coccyx – Freeing the Tail, Sacrum and the Sacroiliac Joints, The Pubic Disk, Sacral Nutation and Counternutation in the Pelvic Bones, Common Back Pain, Lumbare, Thoracic, Cervical, and the Cup of the Occiput, Hyoid Bone, Muscular Supports, and much more.
Stay tuned for much more as we look at our spines in even more depth.
How do our embryological beginnings still resonate in our spines?
What does it mean not to place shearing forces across your spine?
Are bones really supposed to “stack”?
How do we free our tails?
What is the relationship between the pubic disc and the sacroiliac joints? Can we learn to appropriately sabilize the sacroiliac without freezing our spines?
Let me know your thoughts.
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