URBAN YOGA
 

HAMBURG, GERMANY
MAY 25 – 28
 

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The fabric of yoga is woven from the threads of asana, pranayama and meditation. This intensive will empower you to consciously and sensitively weave these threads into the whole of your personal practice or teaching.

• 2 Days on Breathing and Meditation
• 2 Days on Refining Asana
• 3 Guided Practices – including Friday NIght on Yoga for Better Sleep

Thursday-Friday on Pranayama and Meditation

While asana practice helps us to prepare for pranayama, pranayama practice can deepen our meditation experience. Here we apply the concept of vinyasa krama – gradual progression – to exploring several classic breathing techniques and how the\y affect our meditation. In four sessions (Thursday/Friday morning/afternoon), we will gradually move from broad questions of theory, philosophy and science to more and more personal experience of pranayama and meditation in practice.

• Learn more about the ancient-to-modern theories of breath and consciousness.
• Experience gradual progression from natural to cultivate breathing using each of several pranayama techniques.
• Deepen (or begin!) your experience of ujjayi, sama/visama vritti, viloma, and kumbhakaalong with techniques that stimulate either greater awakening or deeper calming.
• Develop your understanding and practice of bandhas (mula, uddiyana, jalandhara).
• Explore several different approaches to mindful, contemplative, and meditative practices, tapping into insights from traditional yoga, Tantra, Buddhism, and New Age innovations.

Saturday-Sunday on Refining Asanas

Postural yoga can make our lives better. It can also be unnecessarily difficult and even cause injuries. Here we look in close detail at the nuances of foundational asanas, learning where to place our attention, what to look and feel for, how to modify based on different conditions and intentions of unique students, and the better communicate using the tools of verbal cues, visual demonstration, and tactile cues (hands-on adjustments).

• Learn or refine your knowledge of the fundamentals of asanas.
• Separate sessions on Standing Asanas, Backbends/Forward Bends, Twists, and Inversions/Arm Balances.
• Discussion and application of insights from functional anatomy and kinesiology.
• Practice and individual “tune-ups” with each asana.

Open Practices, 18:00-20:00

Thursday Night – Asana Pranayama and Meditation

Asana, pranayama, meditation and acoustical practices have been the primary pillars of yoga since the rise of hatha yoga in India about 500 years ago. Yet today, asana is usually King, Queen, and Court, with the other practices consigned to lesser prominence in the palace. In these two 2-hour classes, we will experience it all in waves, from sound to mind to breath to posture to deeper breath to greater mindfulness to sublime sound to perhaps something like bliss. Come experience of the whole of the practice to more fully feel the whole of you.

Friday Night Yoga for Better Sleep Practice

Sleeping well is the primary source of living well and fully awakening. Yet most people do not sleep well. With insights from ancient-to-modern yoga and contemporary psychology and neuroscience, we will do a 2-hour practice for all levels of students to create the conditions for better sleep.

• Starts with a 15-minute lecture on the nature and sleep and the science of why it’s vitalin our wellbeing (especially brain health).
• Easy-going asana, pranayama and meditation practice designed for inducing andmaintaining healthy sleep.

Saturday Night – Asana Pranyama and Meditation

In this 2-hour class, we will experience it all in waves, from sound to mind to breath to posture to deeper breath to greater mindfulness to sublime sound to perhaps something like bliss. Come experience of the whole of the practice to more fully feel the whole of you.