MPS04: Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Say What? A Fifth-Chakra Practice to Consider Our Conditioned Responses in Communicating with Ourselves and Others

See Materials Tab above the image for downloads

MPS04: Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Say What? A Fifth-Chakra Practice to Consider Our Conditioned Responses in Communicating with Ourselves and Others

Instructor bio: Julie Shaw, MEd, RYT-500, C-IAYT

We live in a time when healthy communication is suffering. As yogis, we understand the nature of miscommunication and misunderstanding, often resulting from viparyaya (misperception) and the avidya (ignorance) underlying our complicated relationship with the outer world and our inner being.

This yoga practice uses the chakra model, focusing on the fifth chakra, to explore the conditioning that affects how we habitually speak and how we hear others. Weaving together several yoga tools will help us look honestly at those habits and consider how we might orient ourselves in a more sattvic direction, toward healthier, clearer communication. In this way, we’ll see how the chakra model can provide a map of life’s potholes, as well as the treasures available to us in the form of our highest potentials.

This Viniyoga practice will integrate breath and movement to encourage slowing down, enhance presence and focus, and progressively balance the autonomic nervous system. We will also employ chanting, not only while seated, but also in asana, which has a profound effect on raising prana and bringing the meaning of the chant into the heart and mind. Our meditation tools will include central channel–focused breath awareness and imagery, along with the technique of bhuta suddhi, purifying the contents of our meditation and “erasing the tape” of the samskara, granting ourselves the opportunity to try again with renewed awareness.

This class can be practiced on/in a chair or a mat.

SESSION SPONSORED BY: