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A course for dedicated practitioners and teachers

Yoga advancement courses

A yoga courses and workshops for dedicated practitioners and teachers looking for a deeper practical understanding of the work.

I work with a small informal groups, offering a deeper understanding of the work that I teach. I have crystalized my work into several individual themes, any of which can form a good foundation for a workshop. I run generalized workshops in the UK Europe and the USA (see calendar for details), and usually will find myself centering the work around one or a few of the topics listed below.

All together, the themes form two Modules – Part 1 currently consists of around 24 workshops, covering the details of structural reintegration as well as the conditions that lead to simplifying movement and breath... which naturallly brings us towards the deeper aspects of yoga - the movements of the breath and its relevance to posture and state of mind...with more clarity in our awareness we are more able to delve deeper into the subtle aspects of practice covered extensively in Part 2.

The open workshops I run in Brighton deal with the most appropriate theme from either module for those that come along ...

The course in Glasgow over 2009 will cover the whole of Part 1 and will be presented as a series of full weekends over and 8 month period. Email me if you are interested in this course.

Brighton 2010 Glasgow 2009

Structural re-integration ... functional relationships in movement and support.

covering.........

• Tension - the great teacher - the adjustment of the mind in asana
• Gravity - using gravity to create movement and support
• Gravity - using gravity to create space
• Through the joints – a new model of strength and movement
• Clarifying the relationships between....
  • feet - ankles - knees and hips
  • hands - wrists - elbows and shoulders
  • the pelvis and the head through the spine
  • the shoulder girdle, the rib cage and the spine
• Through the joints – integrated use of the limbs in asana
• Spirals – the double helix through the limbs and structural core relating to movement
• Freedom through the fluid core of the body - diaphragms and antigravity
• The fluid core and structure - the bandhas, breathing and antigravity
• Awakening the spine within the structure - the sacrum, dorsum and occiput
• True structural balance – the spine at the central axis of support & movement
• Pranayama and posture - the role of the respiratory mechanism in postural support
• Putting it all together - Moving into wholeness
• Letting it all go - Moving into stillness

If you would like me to run a workshop on any theme in your area, please check my online Calendar to see if I am available (I spend most of my time in France or the UK) and then contact me to discuss.

- Part 2.

... Pranayama, Posture and Beyond

Understanding the breath is the key to understanding the physical practise of yoga. Embodying that understanding in a natural way is one of the purposes of pranayama. One of my aims is to use these further sessions to help unveil the nature of breathing, as well as to explore its relationships to postural support and state of mind. This will naturally lead on to the more subtle and profound aspects of the work, which I have organised into a second course.

The subjects covered on my Part 2 sessions include...

• Advanced asana – sitting postures
• Pelvic bowl/sacral/lumbar/abdominal/ diaphragmatic responses
• Thoracic spine and ribcage/diaphragmatic cervical and occipital responses
• The great 'smiles' of the body - clarifying mula, uddiyana and jalandhara bandhas
• The bandhas & breathing - influencing movements of apana/prana/samana/udana
• Movements of prana, the 3 main nadis, and gravity (pranayama)
• The physicality of chakra and movements of prana through the nadis – understanding it all in today’s language
• Adjustment of the mind, body and prana in sitting
• Mudras and movements towards and within stillness
• Tapping into the source - the power of stillness
• Voice and breathing – mantra, kirtan – the simple solution

Please note: Although we will be clarifying the relationships between key structures of the body, this is not an anatomy course … the information I will be giving you will involve references to anatomy, but I believe it is important that course participants to do their own research into the anatomy of what is being taught. The ‘Anatomy of movement’ (ISBN 0-939616-17-3) I find is a useful guide, as well as explaining the terminology. Although it is easy to get the idea that the body works as a pulley/lever type mechanism if you give too much importance to the detail of what muscle does what. There are more recent publications with fantastic illustrations and plates if you are happy to spend a little more money (again you would need to do your own research on this). Certainly an intimate familiarity with the joint and fluid structures of the body is very useful when trying to understand the structure of movement and support, so a good clear picture of the skeleton and body cavities is very much worth developing.

I will be setting homeworks that are mostly practical . There is usually also a question set to get you to research the anatomy of what is going on, but I won’t be interested in receiving homeworks that are simply read and copied out of the books – but I am deeply interested in your process, so describing what you discover about your practice and about your own personal physiology having done some research will be very welcome .

I will also be very keen for participants to work together in between workshop dates to help each other with what is understood – to thrash out ideas and reveal questions that may not have been answered.

I would also like to mention that, in my opinion, understanding the mechanics of yoga is not actually the Yoga itself. However, when we begin to move without conflict within ourselves, a practical philosophy seems to arise naturally and effortlessly from the practice.

I am very happy indeed for this phenomenon to be discussed and explored within the course, but I feel it is not my place to attempt to teach anyone philosophy or spirituality … by all means read up on the subject, or we can spend some time in meditation together (which I would like). I believe the practice is a meditation in itself, and it would be nice if we feel free to explore this aspect and its effect on consciousness together.

Course attendees get the benefit of attending my regular retreats at a £40 discount ! (subject to availability). I will also offer discounts on workshops outside of the course … My intention is to work deeply and consistently with a core group of inspired and inspiring people.