Intro to Forrest Yoga Workshop--Little Backbends August 2; Yoga Now; 11am-1pm

"Listening is so powerful as to be alchemical in its ability to transform a conversation or conflict.  When someone feels really heard, everything changes. Anxiety diminishes, defensiveness disappears, and true communication begins. Many great healers, including Sigmund Freud and the listening lineages he inspired in the West, have found that one of the ways to help people heal is to let them retell their story deliberately in the company of someone who is fully present and receiving it with an open nonjudgmental ear."
from Everything is Workable; A Zen Approach to Conflict Resolution, Diane Musho Hamilton

In this practice, we will learn to use a second person, full-bodied, listening technique in our first person [individual] practice.  In the act listening to our body's needs, we learn if having a deep listening approach changes our current relationship with our body, with our understanding of the practice.

Using little backbends as an embodied way to deeper listening, we will cover the basics of Forrest yoga and its contemporized approach to treating the feet, hands, neck, and abdominals.

This workshop is appropriate for both novice practitioners and the intermediate.
August 2, 2014
Yoga Now
742 N. LaSalle; Chicago
11am-1pm
Parking is validated in lot behind building [$10]

How important is food quality to consciousness?

Nora Gedgaudas:  It's everything.  [Mainstream, commonly available supermarket food] It's a good recipe for dumbing down.
We live in a much more hostile environment than our hominid antecedents did.  It's deceptively safe and friendly.
When we're sitting in our climate-controlled environments, watching celebrity bloopers, eating nutrient devoid garbage, as a means of entertainment, not giving any thought at all to the fact that these are the things that form the very compounds that run our biochemistry and neurochemistry   Our brain's health [or lack thereof] define how we experience the world.

http://www.bulletproofexec.com/food-for-consciousness-with-nora-gedgaudas-podcast-136/

What is that quality in a performer that creates in you a desire to listen intently?  What is it about TED talks, for expample, that are so engaging?  Why do certain people command a room or stage?


Presence.  Listening Presence.  Embodied Listening Presence.


Saturday July 19 is a two part workshop
Part I:  asana practice 9 [sharp]-11am
Part II:  Hands-on; making the tools of practice come alive, off the mat 1130am-1pm 

Where:  Xuntas
2258 W. Grand [Oakley & Grand]
Street parking is easy and free.  
Some mats can be provided, bringing your own is always recommended.

[To do Part II, please attend Part I. You may choose to participate in only Part I.]

In this workshop, we will use asana [Forrest yoga] to prime the pump.  In Forrest yoga, we have many techniques that invite and help develop a receptive state, an intuitive state, and of course, healing.

Deep Listening is a visceral experience to which we readily respond.  Are minds "lean in," our bodies' physical defenses soften, we absorb and remember information, we digest that information, be it internally generated or environmentally provided.  We enable the intuitive communication with our bodies, we might even anticipate speech and ideas before they're expressed.  We ride an edge through the performance.

Our practice can, with right intent, ready our person for heightened receptivity--deep listening.

Deep Embodied Listening Presence

Deep Listening is essential for yoga teachers, bodyworkers, therapists, performers, artists, stand-up comedians, musicians, and any profession or art that involves communication.  For this to be as experiential and useful to you as possible, bring a monologue, some jokes, or poetry to read aloud.  Maybe you sing?  Bring material that we can retool together in group; preparation can be minimal.  No performance anxiety necessary.  Play.

• Our primary focus for the hands-on component will be through the use of hands and voice.  
  
• We will learn how receptivity is important when using our hands and voice.  
  
• We will experience how changing our state [can] change an audience response. 
• You will learn how Deep Listening helps elicit a more Authentic version of you--a version we all want to witness! 
  
• You will learn the importance of a good question-mantra
  

Cost is $0-50 [cash or check].  Invite anyone interested.  Let there be no financial restrictions in your decision to join.
[check, cash...]


Word.

We must claim for ourselves and enact immaculate and ruthless self care. 

Our postures act in both regulatory and expressional capacities.
They speak to the energy for which we take responsibility, for which we accrue, and gift the world.
Slouching?  Dim breathing?  Luminous?  

Self care actions are those dedicated actions, 
contained in, practiced, and
enacted in Sanctuary
to help preserve a robust sense of self
by claiming needs
serving those needs

The Sanctuary,
the deliberately made container,
allows us to learn where our self care practices 
are met with
interference
where we'e left ourself penetrable,
too accessible
too open
too fused
overly virtually connected

Set immaculate boundaries for practice.
Be ruthless and excise the rest.
Care enough to carry a brighter torch
You may not think you need more light
but the world is waiting for your light.

7/19/14
Xuntas [Grand & Western]
9-11am; 1130am-2pm

more details soon...!

Thursday July 3 is a double-header.

Yoga Now:  400-530pm
then
Yoga Now:  545-715pm

Come for one or the other.
Anyone who decides to do both, the classes will follow as Part I and II

3 hours of [Forrest] yoga [workshop]
Do it.