Befriending the Breath, Gravity and Space and Yoga

With LiSA PETerSeN

What is your Yoga practice built on? One key foundation is your relationship to the ground, gravity, and space. This workshop explores how to combine spaciousness with strength, ease, poise and grace within asana and life. The breath will be our friend.

Befriending Gravity

Learn what happens when you truly trust the earth to hold you up. Day One investigates how you relate to the pull of gravity as a place of support, grounding and relaxation. We will focus on the practice of asana and mindful vinyasa, and explore how ease, poise, stability and integrity can spontaneously unfold in a movement practice.

This is an opportunity to take a deep dive into the art of yielding as the middle path. Yielding involves consciously giving, receiving and surrendering on a deep physiological level. We will inquire into the body systems that support yield, and discover how it is influenced by tissue tone, posture and the nervous system. You will start to experience how yielding creates the optimum conditions for effortless breathing.

“‘Yielding is an act of simultaneously giving and receiving.’ ”

— Lisa Petersen

Befriending the Breath

Explores the breath as a friend and teacher. Discover how to tap into this renewable energy source as an antidote to stress, tension and overwhelm and burn out. Practice being present with the breath so all yoga is a moment-to-moment meditation.

We will continue to investigate the relationship between breathing and yielding, and how the internal pathways that allow free movement of the breath are the same pathways that lead to intelligent, refined practice. We will approach asana as shapes or conduits for prana, and practice aligning ourselves for optimum pranic flow. You will carefully cultivate the experience of being nurtured, sustained, vitally alive and resilient by tapping into your breathfulness.

Examine the key role of the thoracic diaphragm in finding your middle ground between life’s push and pull. We will engage specific releasing practices to repattern holding in your breathing muscles and free the roots of essential breath. We will also consider where to position your spine in any posture to catch the wave of the breath.

“‘Breath is the fluid ground from which all movement emerges.’ ”

— Peggy Hackney

Befriending Space

Learn what happens when you find an effortless rebound into space. Explore how to consciously receive support from space and the world around you. We investigate the idea that feeling safe in your body allows you feel safe in yourself, and how the support of space leads to a vibrant aliveness. It delves into posture, resilience and taking up space.

We will examine how spatial awareness translates into seamless flow, poise and grace within an asana practice. We will explore the support of the fascial matrix and how to recruit our inner elasticity for skilful movement, co-ordination and balance. Along the way, we will call on the resources of inner and outer space and discover how reaching and pulling complete the cycle of yielding and pushing.

Learn how you move out into the world from the ballast of a secure centre. Re-connect with your natural curiosity and desire, and practice accessing these qualities to feel safe and secure, lively and alert, relaxed and at ease. Refine your rich and multi-layered sixth sense (proprioception) as well as your ability to know what and how you feel inside (interoreception).

“
‘Learning is movement moment to moment.’ ”

— Krishnamurti

Who is this for? It’s an Invitation!

Come move, play and discover new possibilities and choices. The workshop includes movement inquiry, embodied anatomy, developmental movement, yoga asana, somatics, breathwork, and guided relaxation.

It is suitable for students from all streams of yoga. Bring your whole self on a new adventure.

Dates: Saturday & Sunday 26 & 27 October 2024
Time: 12:00-18:00
Location: Studio Fly | Croeselaan 209 Utrecht
Price: (vat included)
Early Bird prices:
Until 1 August: €145
Until 1 Sept: €160
Regular Price: €175

SIGN UP

Don’t miss Lisa’s other workshopS in June:

FREE THE HEAD, NECK AND SHOULDERS WITH SOMATICS
&
SOMATIC SOLUTIONS FOR STRESS

Plus She will be starting a 100+ hour Hanna Somatics course in March of 2025!

about the teacher:

Featured

Lisa Petersen

Lisa Petersen is a somatics innovator and yoga teacher who is passionate about guiding people towards personal transformation both on and off the mat. She is internationally known for her integrity, clarity and presence. Her teaching is informed by a rich understanding of embodiment, experiential anatomy and developmental movement patterns. She is moved by finding the balance between being and doing, movement and stillness, strength and fluidity, discipline and freedom.