Basics:-

• Tension - the great teacher - the adjustment of the mind in asana
• Gravity and uprightness - growing from the ground up
• Through the joints – a new model of support and movement

N.B. If you wish to do the course, but are unable to attend some dates, let me know what they are and if more than 5 people of the group selected are unable to attend, I will move the dates along .

If you need to catch up, you can always book extra private sessions with me . I would strongly recommend at least one private session per month anyway, to help clarify the work in a way that is personal to you – I have noticed that those that take advantage of this offer tend to benefit enormously from the course.

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.

And alothough it is not a requirement of the course, occasional or regular one to one sessions with me have proved to be highly beneficial to those that have taken up the offer of cut price sessions before. The advantage is obviously in having the chance to work with the current subject specifically in reference to your particular issues (this also works well with small groups of 2 or 3 people that happen to have similar issues).

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.

Costs: I am looking to make Part 1 average at around just £35 per workshop (depending on venue costs). Those that commit to Part1 of the course will be asked to pay a £200 deposit, followed by a second deposit of £200 before it starts onJune 15th - leaving 6 payments of £50 to be collected monthly (either direct debit or a series of post dated cheques) from 1^st July onwards.

Course attendees get the benefit of one-to-ones for just £25 for a one hour session (usually £40) throughout the course (groups of 2 or 3 - £30) – and you can also attend my regular retreats at a £40 discount ! (subject to availability). I will also offer discounts on workshops outside of the course , and i would like to put on a weekend somewhere at cost for the group (potentially Marsh Farm 19th-21stSeptember… My intention is to work deeply and consistently with a core group of inspired and inspiring people.

The breath in relation to posture and state of mind - the final key (at least 12 workshops), covering…

• Advanced Asana – sitting postures – sitting with lightness
• 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)
• Adjustment of the mind, body and prana in sitting
• Voice and breathing – mantra, kirtan – the simple solution
• The physicality of chakra and movements of prana through the nadis – understanding it all in today’s language
• Mudras and movements towards and within stillness
• Tapping into the source - the power of stillness