Yin Yoga and Mindfulness Meditation – Paths toward Ease and Contentment with Josh Summers and Lila Kate Wheeler
Sunday September 19th – 1-5pm – $45 before Sept. 12; $55 after
This afternoon workshop is a dynamic combination of disciplines and teachers. Josh will teach the gentle, long-held poses of Yin Yoga, which brings us gently to our physical edges and prepares us for sitting meditation. Lila Kate will offer sitting meditation instructions, redirecting awareness away from the distracted and cluttered mind.
Reconnecting body and mind in this way allows experiences to resolve themselves naturally, without our habitual struggles. Dwelling within in our own presence of awareness can release an integrated, healing force of intuition and inner contentment. This workshop is a great way for students of yoga to explore ways of integrating meditation into their yoga practice and for meditators to discover how a physical practice can enhance their meditative awareness. The goal for both is to discover ease and a sense of contentment.
About Lila Kate:
Lila Kate Wheeler, who lives in Somerville, began practicing yoga at age 12 and did her first Buddhist meditation retreat in her 20s. She teaches groups and individuals all over the USA and in Mexico. She also writes fiction and travel journalism.
About Josh:
Josh Summers is an acupuncturist and a Yin Yoga and an Insight Meditation instructor. He holds a Masters in Oriental Medicine from the New England School of Acupuncture and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University. Josh recently co-founded Sati Solutions, a mindfulness-based strategy firm, and co-wrote The Buddha’s Playbook: Strategies for Enlightened Living, available here.
After college, Josh spent several years living abroad in India, Taiwan and Burma where he has studied both yoga and meditation. As his interest in Vipassana or Insight Meditation developed, so too did his interest in more contemplative forms of yoga practice. With a professional background in Oriental Medicine and a personal passion for the dharma, Josh fell in love with Yin Yoga as a beautiful synthesis of these two interests. He teaches Yin Yoga teacher trainings and workshops throughout the United States and Europe.
Josh’s yoga and meditation classes emphasize safe alignment, the cultivation of moment-to-moment awareness and the potential for freedom in the here and now. www.joshsummers.net
JourneyDance with Faith McClellan
Sunday September 19th – 7-9pm – $15 or $12 for students
Join us in a grooving celebration that will have you loving your body and loving your life! Weaving simple, guided movement sequences and free exploration, JourneyDance reconnects you with your innate state of joyous well-being. Your mind becomes clear, free, and positive, and your body feels supple, energized, and powerful. Practiced barefoot to inspiring world music, your dance is an empowering journey of transformation.
About Faith
Faith McClellan is a Registered Kripalu Yoga instructor with certifications in Kripalu YogaDance, Shake Your Soul, JourneyDance and SomaSoul Somatic Movement Therapy. Her movement work is informed by Soul Motion, Authentic Movement, 5 Rhythms, and improvisational theater. Faith has performed with Dances for a Variable Population, an intergenerational dance troupe in New York City. She holds a Masters Degree in Public and Non-profit Administration and has over 10 years of experience managing programs in social work, leadership development, and education. Faith teaches dance and movement workshops nationally and internationally and is faculty at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health and Lesley University.
Partner Yoga with Chandra Cantor
Saturday – September 25th – 2-4pm – $25
This deep yet gentle class will introduce you to some wonderfully effective ways to experience yoga with a partner. Sometimes playful, sometime challenging, and sometimes caring and relaxing, Partner yoga will deepen and expand your yoga practice. Sign up with a spouse, partner, friend or neighbor… or just by yourself and we will partner you up with someone at the workshop.
Learn to listen, receive, share and play! All levels are welcome.
About Chandra:
Chandra has had a lifelong relationship with movement. She was introduced to yoga by her parents and took classes on and off through her teens. In 1998 she received a BFA in Dance from Emerson and the same year won Dance Magazine’s Outstanding Student Performer of the Year award. Chandra began teaching yoga in 1996 and has completed numerous teacher trainings, workshops and advanced learning courses with world renowned teachers. Her teaching style is strongly influenced by the White Lotus Flow Series, Eric Shiffmann, Astanga Yoga and a mindful melding of many other styles and teachers.
Sacred Groove with Caroline Harvey
Sunday September 26th – 7-9pm – $15 or $12 for students
Sacred Groove is a soulful dance and breath meditation with a sweet yoga vibe. This improvised movement practice, inspired by Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms, is set to an eclectic and lively soundtrack and is guided by verbal direction, poetry and ceremonial theme. Participants are not expected to do any “dance steps” and no experience is required. Together we move through two full waves of rhythmic meditation, exploring a wide spectrum of beats, tempo and focal points. Sacred Groove is instinctual and fun, a great way to connect to your body, get in an energetic workout and free yourself from pain, tension and habitual modes of moving and being. For more information, visit www.carolineharvey.com.
About Caroline
A dedicated teacher, professional artist and health practitioner for over a decade, Caroline works as a yoga, dance and meditation instructor, a doula (birth attendant) and is also in private practice as a Somatic Therapist, specializing in CranioSacral Therapy. She is the creator of Sacred Groove, an ecstatic dance practice, Awakening the Yogini: Extraordinary Yoga and Education for Women, and SomaPulse Yoga, the artful synthesis of Restorative Yin Yoga and CranioSacral Therapy.
She feels incredibly lucky and wholeheartedly indebted to the many pilgrims, elders, family members, mentors and friends who lead the way and light her path. When not on the yoga mat, Caroline also teaches and performs poetry nationwide. She was featured in two documentaries and appeared on Season 5 of HBO’s Def Poetry. Caroline also teaches two original voice curricula, Free Your Voice and Embodied Poetics, and is especially committed to facilitating creative writing classes for at-risk youth, survivors of trauma and those working to get free from drug and alcohol addiction.
As a movement and yoga instructor, Caroline names creativity, honesty, self-awareness and transformation as her pillars of integrity. Her classes are described as challenging, intense, smart, nurturing and safe.
Yin Yoga Teacher Training with Josh Summers
October 22nd-24th & 30th-31st - $310 before 10/11; $350 after
Yin Yoga is a complementary yoga practice to the more dynamic and invigorating yoga styles that are predominant today. In Yin Yoga, floor postures are held passively for several minutes in order to access a safe and positive ‘stress’ on the deep layers of connective tissue in the body.
Physically, Yin Yoga restores and maintains the natural mobility of the joints, primarily between the navel and the knees. Energetically, Yin Yoga opens the body’s meridian system, which enhances the body’s energetic flow and supports emotional equilibrium.
And as this practice emphasizes stillness and silence, Yin Yoga prepares both the body and the mind for deeper experiences in meditation.
Yin Yoga Teacher Training will include:
-Learning to practice and and teach four essential Yin sequences, with relevant modifications and adjustments
-The positive physiological effects of Yin Yoga on the connective tissue and joint health
-The Chinese energy system that is impacted by the Yin practice, in terms of meridian and organ health
-Acquire experiential and theoretical knowledge of the Buddha’s teachings on mindfulness meditation, which is a great framework for integrating meditative themes into Yin classes or personal practice
About Josh:
Josh Summers is an acupuncturist and a Yin Yoga and an Insight Meditation instructor. He holds a Masters in Oriental Medicine from the New England School of Acupuncture and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University. Josh recently co-founded Sati Solutions, a mindfulness-based strategy firm, and co-wrote The Buddha’s Playbook: Strategies for Enlightened Living, available here.
After college, Josh spent several years living abroad in India, Taiwan and Burma where he has studied both yoga and meditation. As his interest in Vipassana or Insight Meditation developed, so too did his interest in more contemplative forms of yoga practice. With a professional background in Oriental Medicine and a personal passion for the dharma, Josh fell in love with Yin Yoga as a beautiful synthesis of these two interests. He teaches Yin Yoga teacher trainings and workshops throughout the United States and Europe.
Josh’s yoga and meditation classes emphasize safe alignment, the cultivation of moment-to-moment awareness and the potential for freedom in the here and now. www.joshsummers.net
Community Acupuncture!
Every Friday - Between 11:45am-3pm– $25
Community Acupuncture makes great care accessible to all people, providing treatments at a discounted rate in a group setting. Treatments last approximately 40 minutes. Because of the nature of a group setting, treatments will focus on overall wellness and health, while taking into account an individual’s main complaint. Needles will only be inserted from shoulder down and knee down. Using this distal needling method is incredibly effective for a wide variety of conditions, but a private session may be more appropriate for complex chronic cases or for conditions that require local needling into the torso. In private sessions, treatment is expanded to also include: muscle therapy, fascial stretching, local needling, Chinese movement therapy, and nutritional recommendations. In the community clinic, treatment modalities will be limited to acupuncture, and each patient will receive a limited amount of time so that everyone can be treated.
To reserve your spot during Community Acupuncture, or to ask additional questions, call Brad Cox at (908) 403-3951.
