You’ll learn a new way of seeing anatomical patterns through our unique approach to body reading and postural assessment, and you’ll discover how yoga, movement, and fascial release might be best used to unwind those deeply ingrained patterns and invite structural and functional integration. The result: increased vitality, balance, grace, and ease.

Anatomy/Ayurvedic Walking Massage |

We will discuss the origins of the three sacred rivers/sisters and their ancient Vedic traditions combining to create a comprehensive and holistic approach to health, longevity, happiness and ultimately freedom (moksha). Ayurveda as “the science of Life” is a vast field of practices, principles, and philosophy to purify and strengthen the body and immune system while working on the subtle energy body and mind. We will discuss how yoga relates to the Ayurvedic Walking Massage with demonstration and practice while reviewing the main muscle groups, joints, skeletal system, lymphatic, circulatory and nervous system as well as the subtle body. The ancient systems employed walking massage by using the feet as instruments to help to move the lymphatic wastes and maintains elasticity of the muscle fibers. The focus on this lecture will revolve around the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system including the “fight or flight” (as well as freeze) response. Ayurveda emphasizes Purification, Digestion, Rejuvenation, Sensory management, Immunity-Ojas and Strengthening

We will apply physical observation to reading bodies, cueing poses, and teaching and practicing yoga.

Anatomy objectives:

Understand the basic arrangement of bones, muscles, joints, and fascia relative to six regions of the body.

Understand why fascia is important to the body, yoga, and how it works in stretching as well as, strengthening, injury, and recovery

Learn how to read bodies and assess postural patterns in many yoga poses

Develop strategies for addressing common postural patterns and other things noticed during body reading and postural assessment.

In this segment you will get: 

A complete breakdown of the key bones, bony landmarks, muscles, ligaments, and tendons of a part of the body, along with their function and a way to identify them on your own body.

Tips for reading bodies and strategies for how to address common patterns.

One book we will be using the Yoga Anatomy Coloring book, to make this easy and fun.

Additionally, we will be using the book, Yoga Anatomy by Leslie Kaminoff and Anatomy of Movement by Blandine Calais-Germaine.

Journey to an ecstatic retreat within yourself, to the light of the Lotus, thru a vibrational sound healing journey into the natural rhythms of creation.

The Healing Power of Sound has been an integral part of Human civilization for thousands of years. We live in a Vibratory Universe where there is no such thing as Matter. Everything we sense and feel and see and touch is pure Energy, tiny, denser bits of energy which we call particles, vibrating according to the Laws of Creation.

The basic principle of sound healing is the concept of resonance (the vibratory frequency of an object.) The entire Universe is in a state of vibration. This includes human beings. Every organ, cell, bone, tissue and liquid of the body, and the electromagnetic fields which surround the body, has a healthy vibratory frequency. If we are not resonating with some part of ourselves or our surroundings, we become dissonant and therefore unhealthy, our naturally healthy frequency becomes a frequency that vibrates without harmony, creating illness.
Sound is measured in terms of Frequency or Hertz (Hz).

Sound Healing is the application of Healing frequencies to the physical and subtle energy fields around the body. These healing or therapeutic frequencies and sounds are delivered via, live sound therapy sessions, the Voice, vocal Overtone Singing and a variety of sound healing tools such as Tuning forks, Tibetan singing bowls, quartz crystal bowls, monochords as well as those from more Shamanic Sound Healing traditions, such as digeridoo, Native drum, Native flute, rattles and so on.

 We will also discuss the correlation of the beneficial effects that Mantras have as sound therapy instruments, the vibrations and their transformational effects. We will focus on Sanskrit and Tibetan mantras. As with all the therapeutic sound instruments, direct and personal experience of working with the sound vibrations of mantras brings the deepest level of understanding.

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We open to Source through our hearts in Bhakti devotion.

Essentially, Kirtan is the practice of devotional chanting, singing over and over the many names of God and Goddess, the many faces, aspects and manifestations of the One. It is said that there is no difference between the name and that which is being named, and as the words roll off our lips in song, the Divine is invoked, invited, made manifest in our hearts.

With roots dating back over 500 years to India, this form of Bhakti Yoga (yoga of devotion) refers to your path and daily activities that bring you back to the magical ability to open to Source through your Heart.

Musical instruments, vocals and rhythmic drumming all encourage the participants to chant, clap and dance along. This heartfelt and joyous expression can induce profound states of meditation, bliss and ecstasy.

All the voices in the room become one. Let us meet on the bridge in the Land of Truth.

Every person in the room is on a different path, has a story, has different beliefs and background, as we are all unique and different. Through chanting we unify into one beautiful voice and focus. It reminds us that at our core, as human beings, that we can remove the hard boundaries and what separates us and chant together as one voice. Chanting is the bridge which unites us, dissolving differences and personal stories and remembering the truth of our infinite essence.

We will be immersing ourselves in beautiful kirtan led by Lakshmi Delsesto (formerly known as Lakshmi Devi). She will skillfully guide us to tap into the frequencies of compassion as the enchanting melodies carry us away to ecstatic states.

The word kirtan, or kirtana, means ‘telling, narrating, enumerating or describing’ and originates from the Vedic period, where it was first written as anukirtana or anukriti, meaning a ‘re-telling’. These anukirtanas would re-tell the ancient vedic hymns and passages. As was the way with the ancient world, everything was transmitted orally via spoken Sanskrit until the Vedas (knowledge) were written down by sages and scholars. The root word kirt, can be found in these ancient Vedic texts and is also known to go by the name sankirtana, meaning ‘collective performance’. Kirtan is an important aspect of yoga and one which holds so much potential for awakening and transformation.

The Language of the Divine

The ancient Sanskrit language is both mathematical and vibrational, meaning each letter, syllable and word has a specific meaning and effect when it is sounded out loud. Often noted as a religious and ceremonial language, Sanskrit is also revered as the ‘language of the divine’. Considered the ‘perfect language’, the correct pronunciation of each word is said to create a vibration throughout the universe that makes contact with the subconscious mind and the world around us.

Kirtan differs from mantra, in the way that mantras are often intended for personal use, whereas kirtan is all about community. A coming together of people, as we will be doing in our Teacher Training. The sankirtana chants are usually sung in call-and-response style and derive from religious ceremonies or celebrations. Many of the kirtan chants focus upon directing the devotion and love towards a deity or the divine.

Immersing ourselves in the Holy Stream of Bhakti

These Kirtan chants have been sung for millennium by devotees, and the great ancient yogis. There are Temples in India where many of the chants have continued night and day, in an unbroken stream for centuries.

And, as we sing, we get to dip into this stream of that intense and unbroken devotion. We touch the spirits of the millions of people across the centuries who have sung the same songs, while pouring out their hearts and tears. This  is an endless stream of sacred longing that has been flowing since the birth of the first human beings, longing to know their creator.

To learn to chant, you need only close your eyes, and practice following the sounds, without worrying about how you sound. This is "call and respond", so Lakshmi will sing the line first that we are to sing after her. Beginners can follow along in the Kirtan book, but the book needs to be held so that you can sit erect and connect to the breath. Don’t worry that it is in Sanskrit or that it is culturally foreign or that you are not a good singer and you don’t have a good voice. Eventually you will pick up the chants, and develop a liking for particular chants that correspond to your own inner vibration. It is a devotional, intuitive approach to meditation and not an intellectual one.

Bhakti Storytelling with mudras and bijasanas

We will be enchanted with the beautiful stories that are at the heart of the chants, the stories which Lakshmi and Shamana Ma will bring to life within our sacred sangha. Shamana Ma will also show mudras and bijasanas which help to embody the gods and goddesses we are sharing about in the devotional segments, as learned in Bhakti Nova with Nubia Teixeira.

The mystics and poets have always found ways to write about true presence and sacramental symbol, yet the subtle experience of Divinity eludes the best use of language. It’s hard to grasp what true presence is because it is not a place, but a dimension of existence.

Tantra is connection, presence and conscious awareness while relating with oneself or another. The practice is all about being present to the totality of life as the spacious, ecstatic and vibrating manifestation of Shiva-Shakti consciousness pulsing with the expansive vitality of creation.  It is about awakening to our highest identity as part of the Divine, teaching us to shift our self-perception from the limited isolated self to the unlimited highest Self flowing within, around and from us.

Shiva and Shakti are personifications of the great powers of Yoga which reflect the higher realities and energies that are behind, and beyond, all universal forces. Shiva and Shakti can be seen as the guiding deities of yoga offering us the power of transformation and liberation. Shiva, the Divine Masculine, represents consciousness and awareness, while Shakti, the Divine Feminine, represents activating power and energy.

Both Shakti & Shiva are alive in both men and women as the "Thee Red & White Essence of Tantra".  All of us have divine feminine (Shakti/power) and divine masculine(Shiva/space) aspects to our being. Masculine and Feminine are not gender-based.

It’s said that our feminine side resides on our left side, while the masculine resides on our right side. We hold these energies within us and, when united, there’s a complete balance, joy and presence within our very being.

They are the manifestations of divine consciousness where the ‘whole’  is made up of two opposed but complementary forces. Like yin and yang, they represent the duality behind all energies in the universe.  These energies are present in our internal worlds as they are in the external cosmos.

Discover how to sit with another, and drop into pure presence, allowing everything to dissolve away with the breath, eye-gazing and more techniques. Dissolve all stories. Or choose to meditate alone on this inner-union and balance, dropping your gaze inwards.

Open to Holy Love and the Presence of Being.

Course facilitated by Sharene Shamana Ma and Patrick Papa Love