Reflections from YogaVahini: Upcoming Programs October

Dear Sanga,

We hope you have been well, enjoyed Deepavali with family and friends after the long hiatus! As life is returning to normalcy, we are also wondering how to take the learnings from the past 3 years into the future. While yoga has much to offer in the area of health and wellbeing, for most people, consistent practice to break unwholesome habit patterns remains a big challenge. How can we create spaces for fostering healthy life practices that will ensure a strong, resilient body and mind that can help us face the challenges of life? We don't need more information or knowledge, we need to simply practice!

Our Sangati series for October was very well received with so many of you joining from all over the world! Next month we come with another series on Sound into Silence offered by Savithri Ravikrishnan. Please join these live sessions so that we can experience the collective energy of practice that can ripple out into the world…

This Saturday, October 29th, we have a special Guest, Dr. Rao Mallampati from the Little Flower Zendo, Kodaikanal, honour our Chennai centre yet again after 5 years, offering a session on the four Brahma Viharas, Maitri, Karuna, Mudita and Upeksa which are considered an integral aspect of Buddhist teachings, also reflected in the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. Cultivating these aspirational qualities can transform our relationship with ourselves, with others and the larger world.

Next week, November 9th Dr. Rob & I are offering a special half-day workshop on Assessing Low Back Pain/Scoliosis combining Yoga Therapeutic approach and analysis of posture and movement based on Western scientific approach. This will be an in-person workshop, also offered online! We are also offering our next combined online series on Yoga Therapy for Neck Pain in December through 5 sessions across 3 weeks.

We are also offering a workshop for teachers on Yoga for Healthy Ageing, understanding the needs and challenges of this phase of life and offering suitable practices and support.

In association with Yoga Therapy Australia, I have been offering a monthly session on Themes from the Yoga Sutras, also our special New Year offering on Meditations from the Yoga Sutra is coming up in January 2023.

As we move towards the end of 2022, let us hold our practice at the centre of our life so we can stay anchored and expand beyond our conceived limits...

Warm wishes,
Saraswathi

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Brahma Viharas are a series of four virtues and meditative practices taught in all Buddhist traditions. They are also part of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as well as other post Buddhist texts. In these teachings, the meditator, beginning with himself to all beings in the Universe, is instructed to radiate the states of Benevolence (Metta), Compassion (Karuna), Sympathetic Joy (Mudita), Equanimity (Upeksha). While they may be studied separately, in practice they are interlinked and provide mutual support for one another. Let us come together with Dr. Rao to look at the Brahma Viharas yet again from a fresh perspective, learn practices to cultivate and keep these attitudes alive in our everyday life to enrich ourselves and our relationships.

Dr. Rao is a medical doctor and researcher, also a staunch practitioner of Zen meditation, from Bodhi Zendo under the discipleship of Fr. AMA Samy. This is his second session at YogaVahini, the previous one was in 2017 at our Besant Nagar centre. Those of you living in Chennai, please join the in-person session, others can join online.

For more information & registration, click here:

Savithri Ravikrishnan is a yoga student - sincere practitioner and a certified yoga teacher in Sri Krishnamacharya yoga tradition for the last 20 years. Having trained as a Yoga Vaidya with Yogavahini Chennai, she has been inspired to actively practice, learn and share nuances of yoga and yoga therapy with aspiring seekers.
As a certified Healing Chanting Teacher trained from KYM Chennai she teaches chanting one on one and also continues to learn vedic chanting and other important yoga texts with senior teachers of Sri Krishnamacharya lineage.

To register, click here:

Do you find assessing your students a challenge?

Are you clear on what you should be looking for?

Do you find it hard to formulate therapy programs
based on what you see?

Join Saraswathi Vasudevan and Dr Rob Lamport for this half day workshop, as they combine their experience to assess students with musculoskeletal (scoliosis/Low back pain) issues.

Saras and Dr Rob will observe real students, and together, they will share their findings: what they see and believe is needed to help each student.

Saraswathi will utilise her knowledge of yoga therapy to understand what is bothering a person, its impact at multiple levels, including the breath and mind, and how to guide a person step by step towards holistic healing.

Dr Rob's approach is primarily western, with a strong focus on postural analysis and understanding of human movement. His deep knowledge of how muscles and joints interact in health and disease will help provide new insights and tools that you can utilise with your students.

For more information & registration, click here:

Teachers who work with the elderly must fully comprehend what it means to guide these individuals. Our workshop will help you understand the stages in life and what one can expect while we teach the elderly. There will be some yogic perspectives through which we can understand this stage better. Understanding the do's and don'ts, appropriate diet and lifestyle suggestions for better health and preventive care and practical sessions exploring tools and techniques that are best suited to the needs of this stage of life.

Please note that this workshop will NOT address therapeutic needs of the elderly but focus on general wellbeing and preventive care for the ageing population.

Do join us to learn how to care for our elders.

For more information & registration, click here:

Every endeavour requires consistent effort in the right direction. In our progress on the path of yoga, we encounter yet another obstacle that is so familiar! We fail to build a deeper ground to stand on, keep falling back, giving up…

Let us, together explore this obstacle, learn to recognise how it operates and how to deal with it.

For more information & registration, click here:

For Indian students living in India, please register here:

Learn new insights for preventive care & healing from modern, western & traditional Yoga perspectives for this challenging region of the body.

Saraswathi will draw on ancient yogic wisdom and from her extensive experience, and Dr. Rob will cover the anatomy, function & dysfunction of the neck. Together they will explain ways to approach neck issues for yourself or your student better.

For more information & registration, click here:

Through the study of the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, one enters the fascinating, complex world and workings of the inner psyche. Each time we engage with the text, there is something new and profound that gets revealed of ourselves. Drawing inspiration from the Sutras, let us explore a few meditative practices to develop a deeper understanding of the self and how we experience the world around us, that can guide us towards better choice making and actions in life.

Every layer peeled away brings more clarity to take the next step forward in the direction of yoga!

For more information & registration, click here:

For Indian students living in India, please register here:

YogaVahini is a vibrant and growing community of Yoga practitioners, students, teachers, and therapists. We strive to provide an environment such that our personal learning flows into daily life seamlessly, manifesting as coherent and harmonised action.

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