Teaching Yoga To Addicts: Parasympathetic and Sympathatic, Squirrel and Klesha:

We examined a wider view of addiction,  riffing off the Tibetian mantra ' already healed, already whole'. A loose, working definition become something like 'that which holds us back from not seeing our divine self clearly.'

We played in the practices of sutra 1.34 (the breath) and sutra 1.12 (abhyasa and surrender) and in the model of how the mind works as described by the kleshas (sutra  2.3).


Opening hello and gathering:
Notice who is here and showing up. Practicing ease in learning names and  "please tell me again, what's your name?'

Asana Practice:
windshield wiper

supine knee to chest with "soccer kick" noticing effects of grip
supine pada gustasana and twist using strap
rest
"naming the feeling"

into to parasympathetic nervous system
tailbone awareness
cervical spine awareness

shimmy

cat/cow
barrel roll
balasana
puppy dog

plank
downdog
uttanasana
tadasana
shoulder rolls and shrugs

standing shoulder opener with strap

Crazy 8's

(this lead to a wonderful discussion of shaking off traumatic stress aka "Squirrel")

tadasana
1/4 sun salutes x3

lunge
low crescent or hanamunasana
other side

balasana

with chairs
pranayama practice with the thoughts experiment

twisted root

waterfall

sit
OM
Namaste

break

circle
Autonomic Nervous System discussion and demonstration.  Sutra 1.34
Klesha and tree imagery discussion

Homework assignment:
notice the kleshas and breath into them
begin to notice what has you in its grip the most, As you begin to see it more clearly allow it to be the juice of your class. Begin to think about what this might look like
Read Schiffmann article and Joel Kramer article
Watch Gil Hedleys videos

A yogi asked 'who is Gil Hedley?'. After much swooning from Lulu peeps we read one of his poems from our manual.

heart opener over bolster with 3 part pranayama

sit
OM
Namaste