(1) DHARMA YOGA COMPLETE PRACTICE - PRANAYAM, ASANA and YOGA NIDRA

SUNDAY 26 NOVEMBER - 2:30-4:30pm AT THE POWER YOGA COMPANY

Dharma Yoga is described as a graceful, yet challenging form of yoga based on Sri Dharma Mittra’s practice of classical yoga for over fifty years. Dharma Yoga includes several series of practice through which students move, according to their conditions, and are encouraged to experience in a meditative and spiritual way.

The workshop will be structured so as to enable the students to learn to slowly quiet the mind, withdraw the senses, concentrate and have some experience of the higher limbs of Yoga.

We will start with some purification and breathing (pranayama) techniques.

The physical practice will ignite the entire bodily system, stretch and strengthen all areas of the body.  It will be a complete asana practice, including balancing, back-bending, twisting, hip-opening and inverted poses.

The last part of the workshop will be a 30-minute Yoga Nidra, also called yogic or psychic sleep.  Yoga Nidra belongs to the higher stages of the Raja Yoga system developed in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.  As it involves gradually dis-identifying yourself emotionally from your body and mind, it is a method of Pratyahara, sense withdrawal, the fifth limb of Raja Yoga.  It is a form of deep relaxation leading to complete relaxation and a form active meditation.  Throughout the practice the aspirant is slowly moving deeper into each layer of his being, the koshas, or sheaths.  The ongoing practice of Yoga Nidra will lead one to the bliss body, the most subtle layer of the human personality, where all mental fluctuations cease, where there is no awareness of pain or pleasure, where the instrument of experience has been completely transcended.  Yoga Nidra will be a wonderful way to finishing your Sunday, feeling completely relaxed, energised and rejuvenated.

https://thepoweryogaco.com/event/dharma-yoga-workshop-a-complete-practice/

(2) BACKBENDING WORKSHOP

SATURDAY 10 FEBRUARY - 2:30-4:30pm AT THE POWER YOGA COMPANY

Backbends are a category of poses that people react to very differently; often it involves extremes, they either love them or hate them, often they are scared. However you feel about them, we spend so much time bending or hunching forward that it is very important to practise backbends daily.  Think of your position when you are sitting at a desk, looking at your phone, eating, tidying up and so on.  Too much forward folding can result in poor posture, restrictive blood flow to vital organs, back pain….

In this workshop we will start by warming up the whole body as backbends involve every part of the body: we need strong legs for stability, hips that extend, opened chest and shoulders and a strong back. We will work on each area in a safe way, decomposing the main postures and learning how to use our bandhas/energetic locks to protect our body. We will of course work on Cobra and the wheel, but many other wonderful heart opening postures. Backbends are fantastic at a physical level but are also deeply linked to our emotions. Practising them stimulates the sympathetic nervous system.  The happy feeling at the end of a backbending yoga practice is priceless, the feeling that anything negative doesn’t matter anymore. In the words of B.K.S Iyengar, “you create tremendous depth and vastness in the chest through the backbends that the emotional centre accommodates [absorbs and withstands] all types of pressures and strains.  There is no chance for a person who does backbends to get emotionally depressed or distressed.”

The workshop is open to all level practitioners, except complete beginners. I hope to see you there!