kripalu Yoga Blog

New Pathways began for us at Kripalu on September 21, 2008. We are immensely grateful for all the support and encouragement you have given as we have embarked on this journey. We wanted to give you a little overview of all that has happened in these first nine months…

* 2 Concerts

* 2 Seminars

* 9 Workshops

* Hilary Coplestone qualified at Kripalu USA and is now teaching at Kripalu UK.

* Lou Ionascu has qualified, and is now establishing her work as a Yoga Therapist, alongside her teaching.

* Kripalu UK was featured in a full-page editorial with Yoga: Mind, Body & Spirit Magazine.

* Suzie Jennings has been interviewed for Yoga Bulletin, Kripalu USA’s worldwide publication (soon to be released).

* We have added a new weekly belly dancing class and continue to host a twice weekly Pilates class.

* Along with The Ashcombe School, The Priory School is now also offering yoga at Kripalu to its students.

We have had the immense privilege of being taught by incredibly gifted healers, lecturers and teachers. We have gathered together to learn about massage, meditation, mindfulness, yoga nidra, and the chakras, each experience deepening our understanding and increasing compassion for our selves and one another. We have heard drumming, and singing, and had an evening of poetry, ritual and harp music to celebrate the gift of the shortest day. We have had 60 new students enroll since January, have hosted two teachers of renown from America as well as two from the UK and more are contacting us with a desire to come lead workshops and teach in the upcoming months. It has indeed been a time of abundance and joy.

What blessings we have received. Our nine month anniversary seemed a fitting time to share all the news, for this season is all about birth and new growth.

Namaste.

Kripalu UK is thrilled to be hosting Amy Weintraub this spring at her 3-day workshop, Life Force Yoga to Manage Your Mood . Amy’s work with yoga as an alleviator of depression and anxiety is groundbreaking. Her book, Yoga for Depression, is a beautifully written, inspirational guide for those who struggle with mental health issues, for those who looking for a way of wholeness and freedom from the pain and struggle associated with feeling overwhelmed and out of control. She has journeyed on this path her self and offers a map to healing from an extremely personal and powerful perspective.

This is one workshop not to be missed.

June 12-14, 2009

After much positive feedback following her Yoga Nidra workshop earlier this month, and motivated by a deep desire to help other business people reduce stresses in this season, the Director of Kripalu UK, Suzie Jennings, will be offering two free lunchtime Yoga Nidra classes to those who work in offices near The Kripalu Centre.

Here is how Suzie describes Yoga Nidra:

Yoga Nidra is an enjoyable and easy practise. It is more accessible than most forms of yoga since all it requires is laying down and listening. You cannot do it incorrectly. The instructions are simple. Lay down, eyes closed and listen to the voice guiding you into a deep relaxation. Yoga Nidra, by inducing the relaxation response, offers a swift entry into all layers of being where healing and regeneration occur. 

Our bodies know exactly what to do to attain and maintain perfect health and equilibrium, but we need the necessary conditions for that to happen, and Yoga Nidra creates these very conditions. The complete occupation of the mind during Yoga Nidra reduces or eliminates our habitual thought patterns. This is the key for both relaxation and healing processes as these habitual thought patterns are often unconscious.

Please join us on Tuesday  27^th January at 12:15pm or Wednesday  28^th January at 1:00pm. Each class will last for 45 minutes. 

There is no charge, no marketing, no pressure! 

Just enjoy!!

This is Heather’s second workshop at Kripalu UK and we are delighted to welcome her once more.

Heather Holds a Masters of Arts in Buddhist Studies from SOAS University of London and is completing her Masters of Arts in Clinical Psychotherapy at the Karuna Institute, as accredited by Middlesex University.

Heather’s Yoga practice began in India in 1996 while studying abroad as part of her Bachelors of Arts in East-West Philosophy and her Bachelors of Arts in Anthropology. In 2000, plagued by her own depression and anxiety, she returned to Asia and spent three years living in Buddhist monasteries in intensive retreats cultivating inner peace. In 2003 she returned to the West to undertake academic studies to further her formal education so that she could share her experiences and help others within a Western context. 

Heather is certified as an advanced yoga teacher and as a yoga therapist. She has been teaching since 2001 and has taught all over the world, including the UK, the USA, India, Taiwan, Thailand and Burma. 

In addition to Yoga for Emotional Healing, Heather also teaches Hatha Yoga, Vinyasa Flow, Restorative Yoga and Meditation.

For more information on her amazing work visit www.yogaforthemind.info. There, under Latest Posts, you can read her interview with Yoga Journal as well as read her paper, Yoga for Mental Health, which was delivered to the Psychiatry Department of King’s College London.

This is a privilege not to be missed.

ABOUT DANA MOORE

Dana Moore holds a Masters of Arts degree in religion awarded by Yale University Divinity School as well as a Masters of Arts degree. Dana studied counseling psychology at Boston College and received his yoga teacher training at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health and completed the advanced level of training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare and Society founded by John Kabat-Zinn. He utilizes Kripalu Yoga, mindful living, and counseling to help individuals and groups who have experienced childhood maltreatment and highly stressful events as adults.

Dana first began doing psychotherapy at the Boston Veterans Center in Boston, Massachusetts where he used a mindfulness-based psychotherapy approach to treat combat veterans with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

 He is a founding member of the Trauma Center Yoga Program, where he continues to serve as staff member, and is a faculty member of the Trauma Center Professional Training Institute at the Justice Research Institute in Brookline, Massachusetts. Along with his ongoing classes he facilitates workshops at Kripalu USA imparting to others the great gift of the work he is developing. This is Dana’s first visit to the UK, what a privilege it is for us at Kripalu UK to welcome him.

Dana is a Benedictine oblate of Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey, a Catholic monastery.

To read more about the tremendous work of the Justice Research Institute visit the website: www.traumacenter.org.

We are in for a wonderful experience.

We are incredibly honoured to have Dana Moore, Kripalu teacher from the United States, and Heather Mason, a yoga therapist and Buddhist scholar, joining us for a weekend workshop. The workshop, entitled Pathways of Healing Through Yoga, will be held on March 21st and March 22nd and the fee is £100. 

Heather and Dana will offer both practical steps towards healing and insights into groundbreaking theory around yoga and trauma. The Boston Trauma Center is the first place in the world to conduct comprehensive research on the neurobiology of trauma and profound impact of yoga in the lives of those who have suffered traumatic events, as adults or children. Dana is a staff member at the Boston Trauma Center and Heather is the only person in the UK to have trained with them.

If you have been hurt or wounded and can no longer, “Just get on with it” think about joining us, think about taking time to truly care for yourself and begin the much-needed and longed for process of healing. Or, if you are someone who works caring for those who have been harmed emotional, mentally or physically, come learn new tools to help free them from the bondage of the pain and intense suffering they are locked in. 

Namaste