DOUG KELLER WEEKEND IMMERSION

Understanding and Mastering Healthy Core Work: The psoas and the core
Friday morning, April 26, 2013, 10 am — 1 pm

We will take a detailed look at the Iliopsoas – its component ‘parts’ of both the psoas and iliacus: their importance, actions, and their effects upon the body in therapeutic matters.

This will be put in the context of "Core Work" in both Yoga and Pilates, with an eye to the most beneficial practices and sequencing. Our understanding of healthy core work in yoga is necessary especially for maintaining a healthy spine, alleviating and preventing low back pain, as well as maintaining a healthy and functioning sacrum. The iliopsoas and the body's core system of support are the keys to achieving this; and a teacher's understanding of the "Core" is vital for productive sequencing of classes as well as individual work.

We will also include the subtler emotional and energetic considerations of this work in both asana and pranayama.

Asana Practice: Harvesting the Field of Gravity
Friday afternoon, April 26, 2013, 3 pm —6 pm

Our bodies are asymmetrical, with patterns that are established while still in the womb and then altered and reinforced through our life experience. We will begin with a brief look at our own postural tendencies — how we tend to carry our weight and ‘feel’ gravity through our limbs. This gives insight into the various aches, pains and tightness we may feel in the body, as well as how we might make a conscious shift through practice.

To that end, we will introduce some practical techniques for rebalancing the body to find a ‘new normal’ and bringing those insights into an asana practice focusing on the relationship between our core — the psoas and its support system — and gravity.

Jalandhara Banda and the Shoulders
Saturday morning, April 27, 2013, 9 am — noon

A fundamental action in hatha yoga, Jalandhara Bandha, is also one of the most neglected. The essence of this action promotes neck and upper body health, and is a key to healthy shoulder action as well. We'll explore the anatomy of the neck and shoulders, common therapeutic problems that arise from misalignment, and how to adjust the relationship between head and shoulders.

This will lead into an asana practice based on the awareness of the neck and shoulders as the key to freedom and flexibility in an asana flow practice. This practice will be sequenced to find freedom and asana from the subtle awareness encapsulated in the idea of Jalandhara Bandha.

Experience of the Self as expressed through Yoga;
Philosophy, Pranayama and Meditation: "The One Who is Looking"
Saturday afternoon, April 27, 2013, 2 pm — 5 pm

St. Francis expressed the essence of the spiritual path in his statement, “The One you are looking for is the one who is looking.”

In this session we will explore the awareness and experience of the Self as expressed in yoga philosophy — principally Vedanta and tantra — and also how

• this focus has been reflected in the thought of medieval Christian Mystics, and how
• the perspective of Vedanta influenced and was interpreted through Western thinkers (starting with Emerson and Thoreau, and also the influence of Swami Vivekananda),

leading to an ever richer and more subtle and challenging awareness of this Self.

The discussion will bring us to a better understanding of where we stand now in our conception of yoga, understanding that it has been shaped by all of these forces.

This conversation will be paired with practices of yoga nidra, pranayama and meditation, and will include the use of mantra. Recorded instrumentation composed by Doug will be used as a support for the pranayama and meditation.

Awareness of Jalandhara Bandha will be key to the pranayama practice, and will be included in the instruction.

MASTER CLASS

Principles of action, alignment and myofascial fitness
Sunday, April 28, 2013, 9 am — 12 pm

Tired of hearing of yoga as being little more than “stretching?” Or just another challenging workout? We will take a different look at the practice from the perspective of “fascial fitness” and its profound effect upon the structural and organic health of the body — explained in common sense terms, though it really reflects what the sages have had to say about the health bestowed by a balanced flow of the prana.

This practice–oriented segment of the training will include an overview of overall principles of action – starting with the basics of the bandhas as key to the core integrity of yoga poses – and fascial alignment in yoga asanas. It will include some insights into postural assessment that will help us to better understand the goals and principles of the sequencing.

We will put asana practice in the context of the myofascial sutras described in Yoga As Therapy, and will provide a relatively simple categorization of asanas for the purpose of better understanding the goals of sequencing.

Structural form and alignment in yoga poses usually concerns the basic alignment of bones and joints; but the teaching points regarding asana practice has more to do with the intentional actions that align and work the relationships between the threads of myofascia in the body that relate muscle groups in movement from head to toe.