Yoga seminars in the Dechmont Memorial Hall began some 15 years ago, instituted and taught by Yoga Jayanti (Jane Russell) until 2017, when she went to live in Portugal. Since then Yoga Jayanti's regular attenders have by consensus kept the seminars going as often as possible. Essentially we are a group of Yoga Jayanti's friends and students who just want to carry on meeting regularly, enjoying one another's company, devotion to yoga, and practices including asanas, pranayama, yoga nidra (especially yoga nidra!) and meditation.
For the autumn of 2019 the theme will be Pranayama and neuroscience, four linked sessions in September, October, November and December.
There is almost certainly a connection between the (hopefully successful) surgery I had in May 2019 for the removal of a meningioma, a tumour involving the meningeal covering of the brain. Naturally I have been revising my knowledge of the brain and nervous system and finding yoga practices, especially pranayama and meditation, very helpful in the healing process. I have been wonderfully supported by my principal pranayama teacher Philip Xerri, whose course I first took in 2001 -2 and am currently repeating. I have also been studying online with Kristine Kaoveri Weber, a yoga teacher in the USA whose system of Subtle Yoga feels very similar to Satyananda Yoga. Over the last ten years or so Kristine has done a lot of research on the Yoga and Neuroscience connection and presents insights from research that supports what most of us have intuitively discovered from our own practice about the healing power of yoga.
In some ways the course builds on the foundational Progressive Pranayama course I have taught in various locations over the past two years (including in Zinal in 2018 and Finland this year); but I hope it will also develop more of the connection between yogic and western scientific knowledge.
The programme will include
- Overview / revision of the brain and nervous system
- Stress and the autonomic nervous system
- Chronic inflammation (including auto-immune disorders) and its impact on health
- Breath-centred asanas, pranayama, yoga nidra and meditation practices to balance the autonomic nervous system, especially moving from over-activity (sympathetic stimulation) towards more rest/digest (parasympathetic enhancement).
- Tea/coffee and biscuits with discussion – hoping participants will bring their own books and other sources to share
- Home practice schedules
Dates 14th September, 5th October, 9th November, 7th December
Times: 10 am to 1 pm
