I’m grateful that I’m in a great place in my life, but I can only hope that when the the difficult times come (we all know they will), I have resources available to work through it.
So even though I am in a loving relationship, and my life right now is nicely put together, I found myself drawn to all the emotion-exploring, strength-tapping, energy-flowing classes at the upcoming Yoga Journal conference. There’s at least one class designed to bring joy and strength to your everyday life in every session, so you can spend a whole weekend exploring your emotions and finding strength. And judging from the bios of the instructors, you can explore your soul with some of the most qualified practitioners out there.
So even though I decided to schedule in some sweat, high-energy classes instead, I wanted to point to what seem like self-transforming classes that might just get you out of your funk (in order of their scheduled time, with teacher bios):
Finding Ease at Your Edge
Friday, May 13, 9am – 4:30pm
Friday All-Day Intensives
Mixed Levels
When you’re in the midst of a life challenge, do you tense up? Get aggressive? Turn away in fear? One of the greatest benefits of yoga practice is that it trains you to stay calm in the eye of any storm. Come learn to work hard and approach poses that challenge you from a relaxed state. Asana practice with discussion.
Jason Crandell is the creator of Yoga Journal’s most recent DVDs, contributing editor for Yoga Journal and a teacher on YJ’s monthly Podcast. Jason’s integrative and accessible teaching has led him to be one of San Francisco’s most popular and respected teachers.
Anusara Yoga: Stepping into the Currents of Grace
Friday, May 13, 9am – 4:30pm
Friday All-Day Intensives
Mixed Levels
The combination of Anusara Yoga’s philosophy and its Universal Principles of Alignment reveals our own intrinsic goodness, unlimited freedom, and creative power. Learn how to create change in body and mind that ultimately leads to peace and joy. In the morning we’ll practice heart-opening backbends; in the afternoon we’ll practice hip openers and turn inward with forward bends. Mostly asana.
Softening Our Armor: Opening the Outer Seams of the Body
Bo Forbes
Mixed Levels
Saturday, May 14 — 8am – 10am
Main Conference – Session 1
The outer seams of our bodies are charged with the task of armoring us to deal with daily life. Excessive fascial tightness or weakness in these areas can contribute to physical tension and emotional dysregulation. This therapeutic flow class will focus on expanding space in the side body, promote healthy boundaries, and maximize emotional well-being.
Bo Forbes is a clinical psychologist, yoga teacher, and integrative yoga therapist whose background includes training in biopsychology, behavioral medicine, sleep disorders, and stress management. She is the founder of Integrative Yoga Therapeutics, a system that specializes in the therapeutic application of yoga for anxiety, insomnia, depression, immune disorders, chronic pain, physical injuries, and athletic performance. She is the author of Yoga for Emotional Balance: Simple Practices to Relieve Anxiety and Depression.
Mind-Body Flow: Crafting a Therapeutic Vinyasa Practice
Bo Forbes
Therapeutic, Mixed Levels
Saturday, May 14 — 10:30am – 12:30pm
Main Conference – Session 2
This vinyasa class will be infused with therapeutic elements you can add to your existing practice, including simple pranayama, postural adjustments, mindful transitions, block work and isometrics, and restorative poses. We will use these elements to create space in the body, calm the mind, stimulate lymphatic flow, and build inner awareness and integration.
Anusara Yoga Handstands: Love Is Stronger Than Fear
Desiree Rumbaugh
Mixed Levels
Saturday, May 14 — 10:30am – 12:30pm
Main Conference – Session 2
The grip of fear can be strong. But it is no match for the greatness and the power of love. Supported by your heart, learn how to approach Handstands and other inversions. Move away from lower back pain and the fear of falling, and into long-lasting strength and freedom.
Mostly asana.
Desiree Rumbaugh has been immersed in yoga since 1987. The discovery of the transformational power of Anusara yoga has helped her to lift so many veils in her life that she is now compelled to travel the world and share this practice with all who are open to it.
Yoga for a Broken Heart
Seane Corn
Mixed Levels
Saturday, May 14 — 3:30pm – 5:30pm
Main Conference – Session 3
In this inspirational class, you’ll learn to see beyond the grief, loss, and confusion. We’ll work on being in the mystery of life so that we can stand powerfully in this journey with gratitude, reconciliation, understanding and peace of mind. A wonderful opportunity to shift your resistance into surrender, your judgment into compassion, and your fear into faith. Practice and discussion.
Seane Corn has been featured in commercials and magazines, and named National Yoga Ambassador for YouthAIDS in 2005. Since 2007, she has been training leaders of activism through her cofounded organization, Off the Mat, Into the World. Seane is also cofounder of the Seva Challenge Humanitarian Tours, encouraging yoga teachers to get involved in fund- and awareness-raising efforts across the globe. Her award-winning DVDs are available through Gaiam and Yoga Journal.
Awakening from the Daydream: The Wheel of Life
David Nichtern
Contemplative, Mixed Levels
Saturday, May 14 — 3:30pm – 5:30pm
Main Conference – Session 3
The Buddhist Wheel of Life teachings describe how karma works in our lives and how we can shape a better future for ourselves and others by cultivating mindfulness and compassion. We’ll include a playful and very contemporary look at the six realms (six styles of habitual patterns) described in the Wheel of Life, along with guided meditation and discussion. What to bring: Something to sit on. Discussion and meditation.
David Nichtern is a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and his son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. David is also the director of Buddhist Studies and Practice at OM Yoga, founded by Cyndi Lee, David’s wife. Cocreators of the OM Yoga & Meditation Workshop DVD, Cyndi and David teach workshops together around the world.
How to Live a Problem-Free Life
Desiree Rumbaugh
Contemplative, Mixed Levels
Saturday, May 14 — 3:30pm – 5:30pm
Main Conference – Session 3
There is a way to live the rest of your life gracefully and peacefully. Learn the three keys to having a more joy-filled earthly experience.
Lecture. No asana.
Pranayama: Building the Bridge Between Body and Soul
Rod Stryker
Mixed Levels
Saturday, May 14 — 3:30pm – 5:30pm
Main Conference – Session 3
Learn the secrets to refining and mastering your breath. Through theory and guided practice, you’ll experience the power of the sacred science of breath and discover how its perfection stills the mind and attracts the forces of happiness, success, and fearlessness. Discussion and pranayama practice. Two years of asana practice recommended.
Rod Stryker, the founder of ParaYoga, is widely considered one of the country’s leading yoga and meditation teachers. He has taught for more than 30 years and leads retreats, workshops, and trainings worldwide.
Transforming Fear
Ana Forrest
Mixed Levels
Sunday, May 15 — 8am – 10am
Main Conference – Session 4
We’ll use breath and asana to access, comfort, and support the parts of your body that are constricted by fear. This new approach to our fearful places brings about change immediately. Mostly asana. The room will be heated.
Ana Forrest is an internationally renowned pioneer in yoga and healing. Her own trauma and life experiences have formed the foundation from which she created Forrest Yoga, a distinct approach of using yoga to address today’s physical and emotional challenges with a highly developed understanding of the human body and psyche. Ana has taught yoga for more than 35 years. She is an ordained practitioner of Native American medicine and has studied Polarity Therapy, acupressure, homeopathy, hands-on healing, martial arts, psychotherapy, and regression therapy. Her book, Truth Speaker (HarperOne) will be published in 2011.
Everyday Miracles
Seane Corn
Mixed Levels
Sunday, May 15 — 10:30am – 12:30pm
Main Conference – Session 5
This class will illuminate the miracles that exist in each moment and remind us how Spirit conspires to give us exactly what we need, revealing that which is both obvious and sometimes impossible to discern. Come remember that the answers to our prayers are often right in front of us or, more to the point, directly within. Vinyasa practice with some discussion.
Struggle-Free Yoga
Ana Forrest
Mixed Levels
Sunday, May 15 — 10:30am – 12:30pm
Main Conference – Session 5
Deepen your practice and ride the power of breath. Learn how to relax your core and safely change fear into excitement. Free yourself from breathlessness, struggle, and panic. Deepen your poses by relating in a fresh, intelligent way to your challenging edges. Mostly asana. The room will be heated.
Lymphatic Web: Revitalizing the Immune System, the Emotional Body, and the Happiness Pathways
Bo Forbes
Therapeutic, Mixed Levels
Sunday, May 15 — 3:30pm – 5:30pm
Main Conference – Session 6
The immune system is part of an intricate web whose filaments reach deep into the nervous system and emotional body. Stimulating the lymph boosts the immune system, calms the brain, improves sleep, and strengthens positive emotional pathways. Using Integrative Yoga Therapeutics, we’ll explore ways to flush toxins from all components of the lymphatic web, enhancing physical, emotional, and energetic life force and creating the blueprint for emotional well-being.
Self-Realization and the Asana
Matthew Sanford
Mixed Levels
Sunday, May 15 — 3:30pm – 5:30pm
Main Conference – Session 6
Through a variety of asanas–some strenuous, some subtle–we’ll explore the asana as a practical vehicle for self-realization.
Matthew Sanford is an Iyengar Yoga teacher, a renowned public speaker, the award-winning author of Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence, and is paralyzed from the chest down. He is the founder of the nonprofit Mind Body Solutions and is a leading voice in the integrative health movement. Matthew recently won the California Pacific Medical Center’s Institute of Health and Healing 2010 Pioneer of Integrative Medicine Award. (Previous winners include Deepak Chopra, Mehmet Oz, and Andrew Weil.) He is also a pioneer in adapting yoga for people living with a wide variety of trauma, loss, and disability, including our wounded-warrior population and our veterans.
Yoga for the Nervous System: Healing Anxiety, Insomnia, and Chronic Stress
Monday, May 16 — 9am – 4:30pm
Monday All-Day Intensives
Therapeutic, Mixed Levels
Come learn about the neural principles that underlie progressive change, how we keep anxiety alive, and what we can do to help change happen. We’ll explore the integration of breathing exercises, postural adjustments, mindful asana practice, and restorative postures that will balance your nervous system, quiet your mind, and regulate your emotions. What to bring: A bolster or two to three blankets, an eye pillow, and two blocks. Asana, pranayama, restorative yoga, lecture.
The Art of Thai Yoga Massage: Hands-on Healing Intensive
Monday, May 16 — 9am – 4:30pm
Monday All-Day Intensives
Therapeutic, Mixed Levels
Thai Yoga Massage is an ancient and sacred system of healing with roots in yoga, Ayurveda, and Buddhist spiritual practice. This system of yoga therapy combines elements of massage, acupressure, twisting, stretching, and meditation to release tension, increase vital energy and well-being, and enhance wholeness of body, mind, and spirit in both giver and receiver. Gain a deeper understanding of yogic healing and learn a powerful and effective sequence to relieve tension in the feet, legs, back, shoulders, and head. What to bring: A mat and a blanket.
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