In person, Tune Yoga Room, Brighton, NY

Breakdown of workshop time, with strict adherence to the following schedule
ALL levels welcome, including teachers and any level yoga practioner even beginner

• 11:45 – 11:55am: arrive 
• Noon – 12:15pm: settled in
• 12:15 – 12:30pm: short movement warm-up before sitting for lecture
• 12:30 – 1:30pm: interesting overview lecture on the anatomy and influences of the psoas and the vagus nerve – their functions separately and then how they co-mingle (brief mentions of the solar plexus, and the sacral and root chakras)  
• 1:30 – 3:00pm: accessible and active yoga practice/exploratory movements (putting the “anatomy into action”) designed for both the psoas and vagus nerve, toning and benefitting, feeling, analyzing, awakening and softening. Traditional yoga poses and unique moves to deeply explore
• 3:00 – 3:30pm: tea and snack break with group connection
• 3:30 – 4:45pm: gentle, restorative yoga combined with pranayama – critical non-action to significantly impact both the psoas and the vagus nerve (less can be more!)
• 4:45 – 5:00pm: wrap-up and send off

A detailed color handout will be provided with note space for capturing key personal observations during practice time. Tea break includes a wide range of tea options as well as other beverages, homemade gluten free bread and low sugar jams, fresh fruit and (of course) chocolate.

Please bring*:

• yoga mat
• two yoga blankets OR two beach towels* (some can be provided)
• a yoga bolster if you own one or one will be provided
• washcloth or scarf to cover eyes during restorative yoga stillness
• hoodie pullover and socks for restorative yoga

(*Since the Covid pandemic, many studios and teaching centers are asking students to bring their own props.)

KEY WORKSHOP POINTS

1. Self-care is community care: part of the intention of this workshop is to stop pushing energy and awareness externally and bring it internally to shift and build resilience. 

2. This is my favorite topic to teach. I know a lot about the psoas – through deep study with experts like Liz Koch and many others, coupled with my own personal journey. 

3. Background: The PSOAS as an important hip flexor does more than just lift the leg to walk, run, be active. It plays a key structural role in optimal postural alignment and back health (low back pain? SI joint pain? It’s likely your tight or traumatized psoas!) And, the psoas’ intermingled relationship with the diaphragm – our primary breathing apparatus – has been described as “where walking meets breathing.”

But also, the psoas in the subtle body energy helps link us to the earth – which is our embodied situation – with our emotions and our concepts about our life/current state. Similarly, the psoas stabilizes our mental and emotional states to our actual embodied circumstances. 

It can control our fear reflex and gut instinct and co-mingles with digestive and reproductive organs. Wowza!

Well intentioned yoga can actually be making psoas issues worse; and unintended lack of specific moves leave the vagus nerve needing more attention. 

The incredible VAGUS NERVE (dubbed “the wandering nerve”) comes off the brain stem and routes to the face, eyes, mouth, vocal cords into the gut running right along the psoas into the pelvic bowl. Even more specifically, this wanderer innervates the larynx, traveling through the throat and making its way through the digestive system and internal organs all the way down to the cervix!  The heart and lungs receive info from the vagus nerve and information from the organs is routed back up to the brain via this channel. Our parasympathetic nervous system’s response (rest, digest, tend, befriend) is largely governed by the vagus nerve. Properly performed neck exercises and other somatic moves specifically help tone the vagus nerve and optimize its function. Also, the “bee buzzing” pranayama of Bharamani offers proven vibrational healing in subtle and powerful ways (research proven). 

Last, the psoas and the vagus nerve have implications for and from our critical body epicenter of the solar plexus – a major nerve ganglion of the solar plexus – as well as energetically with regard to the sacral and root chakras.

Soooooo…let’s get to it! xo

Preregistration required. More details sent upon registration. 

This is a small, in person event that will fill quickly. 

Workshop will be recorded for a later time recording link if attendees interested.

FOUR (4) CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDIT with Yoga Alliance offered to yoga teachers