The Yoga Body (LIVE at Yogawerkstatt) with Doug Keller

The Yoga Body - Workshop live & online with Doug Keller

3-Day-Workshop (Fr-Sun)
November 15 – 17, 2024

A training-intensive for yoga teachers and inquiring students

In this year’s live workshop, we’ll explore the many dimensions of how our body — and our experience of our body — is shaped and transformed through yoga, and well as the guidance we receive through the philosophies of yoga.

On a practical level, we’ll be looking at the question of aging well with yoga. The process of aging well is a lifelong concern, with many stages — and we’ll be looking from a fascial perspective at how our own practice can and should evolve with the changes in our body, and in our fascia in particular. This will be connected with the myofascial ‘lines’ or ‘sutras’ that connect and coordinate our joints and muscles for movement, and how awareness of these can inform and improve our practice, and reduce the risk of inflammation or injury.

On a deeper level, we’ll explore the ‘body maps’ described by the yogis — in particular, including the nadis and chakras — and how we can connect experientially to what they describe, through asana, pranayama, dharana, and meditation.

Friday

Session One:

The Yoga Body — Fascia, Prana, and Movement as We Move through Life

This session will introduce the main ideas concerning fascia, aging well, and fascial lines that serve to inform our practice and sequencing. Some main sutras as well as ideas about approaches to stretching, releasing, and strengthening along these lines will be introduced, leading us into a general, well-rounded practice

• The practice will especially focus on the lower body, particularly the health of the hips and knees in relation to the actions of the feet.

Session Two:

The ‘Core’ of the Yoga Body: Sacral and Back Health, Bandhas and Muladhara

The area of the pelvis — including the movements of the sacrum, hip bones and muscles of the ‘core’ are of particular interest for avoiding back and sacroiliac pain — and must be kept both mobile and stable. Even more, they pertain to our experience of the root and foundation of practice — the Muladhara.

• The practice will focus on all of these elements in relation to the pelvic floor, maintenance of its health, its relationship to the breath — and ultimately to the experience of Muladhara, the entryway into meditation through the breath.

Saturday

Session Three:

Awakening the ‘Core’

All facets of asana practice serve to awaken and mobilize the ‘Core’ in many ways, and these pertain especially to the two chakras that are the theme in the afternoon.

• This session, through asana, will explore the sutras governing the torso, and which connect lower and upper body in twisting, backbending, and forward bending movements (as well as inversions) and must be maintained and balanced for healthy aging as well as for deeper work with breath and bandha.

Session Four:

Swadisthana and Manipura — the Abdominals, torso, and ‘Gut'

From the lower belly to the navel and solar plexus we’ll focus on the deeper aspects of the ‘gut’ and its connection to our samskaras as well as our emotional intelligence.

• This session will include some asana for exploring this area, especially in terms of breath and bandha, and will begin to unpack the experience that goes with the symbology of these chakras - along with Muladhara - that is ‘awakened’ through practices of breath and meditation.

Sunday

Session Five:

Anahata and Vishuddha

Awareness of the Heart and throat chakras are very much connected to freedom and stability in the shoulder girdle and neck. This practice session will be for the sake of the shoulders and neck — with connections to the hands and wrists — leading to an exploration of these chakras in conjunction with healthy breath patterns. This will include meditation and mudra, and the role of bandha — in the upper as well as lower body — in supporting the experience.

Session Six:

From Ajna to Sahasrara

The afternoon will pull together the ‘big’ picture of the chakras and the approach to the experience of the chakras through practice. This session will be mainly lecture, pranayama, meditation, and yoga nidra, with some stretching to keep the body fresh.

The Ajna is the higher gateway, which requires subtle alignment of the head and neck in conjunction with the breath for our focus to be effective and fruitful. We will explore this at the level of Ajna in particular, along with the ‘big picture’ being provided.

 

Support Materials

Some very important support materials are provided with the training to ensure that you can take in the information and work with it even when the training itself is over.

The slide presentations used in the lecture portions of the weekend, which follow the information in the manual, will also be available to you to download. You will be able to save them to your computer or tablet as high quality color documents for you to review whenever you wish.

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Workshop times

Friday
9.00 - 12.00 (Session 1)
13.30 - 16.30 (Session 2)

Saturday
9.00 - 12.00 (Session 3)
13.30 - 16.30 (Session 4)

Sunday
9.00 - 12.00 (Session 5)
13.30 - 16.30 (Session 6)

Costs

LIVE at Yogawerkstatt (includes recordings of the sessions booked)

Full workshop (6 sessions) includes an illustrated manual - 440 EUR ( till 31.7.2024 only 400 EUR)

One day (2 sessions) - 160 EUR

One session - 85 EUR

Please make your reservation here

ONLINE participation (includes recording of the sessions booked)

Full workshop (6 sessions+recordings) - 220 EUR

One day (2 sessions+recordings) - 80 EUR

One session (+recording) - 50 EUR

Please make your reservation here