In this workshop series our goal is to gain awareness of the nervous system and practice practical application of this knowledge through four yoga and movement classes. You’ll learn about your body’s stress response, what’s going on physiologically when you feel worked up or numbed out. You’ll use yoga and movement to tone your nervous system and work towards finding emotional balance. Classes will start with a 10-15 minute talk on the sciencey stuff and then we’ll get into the movement portion of class.

Class 1: Physiology of the Stress Response
What’s going on in your body when you get worked up.

This you probably already feel and know, at least to some degree, but I hope to add a few details about your autonomic nervous system that might make it easier to understand what’s happening when you feel threatened. Your body’s job is to keep you alive. This means that from the perspective of your nervous system, regular, every day, not-going-to-kill-you stress is approached in terms of survival. Yoga helps to smooth out the natural ebb-and-flow of stress and relaxation in life.

Class 2: On Edge
What if I feel worked up a lot of the time? What’s going on in my body? What can I do about it?

Any balanced yoga practice calms the body and mind. Week 2 we’ll focus in on specific tools that elicit your body’s relaxation response. It’s not uncommon for folks to have nervous systems that are running on overdrive. This is what I mean when I say that yoga tones the nervous system. A well-toned muscle knows when and how to relax and when and how to contract. That is, when to settle down and when to activate. Same with a well-toned nervous system.

This week I’ll be sharing more about ways you can use your body and breath to physiologically activate your parasympathetic, rest and digest nervous system. This is a bottoms-up approach. That is, it’s not about mind over matter. Here you aren’t talking yourself out of the sympathetic reaction by rationalizing why you needn’t be worked up.

This practice is about accessing and consciously using your body processes in a way that’s typically subconscious, and in so doing, feeling better from the inside out.

Class 3: Numbing Out
What if I don’t feel much of anything? Where does feeling numb fit in? Is it safe to open up to the stress?

It’s normal to feel on edge, and it’s normal to feel numb. Each of us have different responses to the stressors in our lives because of our history, present environment, and the tools we have to deal with things. Feeling dissociated, out of body, or head-in-the-clouds is another of the body’s survival responses.

This week we’ll work to feel that somatic (felt-sense) self. Get in your body, identify a physical part of you that feels confident, capable, alert, and strong. Grow from there.

Class 4: Bottoms Up Balance 

The final week is a culmination of the series where you’ll continue to use your body to balance your emotions. The truth is, the practice works whether you know what’s physiologically happening inside of you or not. The two pathways that your present experience travel in your brain also represent two strategies you can use to manage your emotions and reactions. From the rational brain down (tops-down) or from the nervous system up (bottoms-up).

This week in class we focus on bottoms-up regulation. By bringing your usually subconscious breath into consciousness and moving your body in yoga, you’re improving your ability to self-regulate, manage and thrive through life’s certain stressors.

Location: SE Hawthorne Studio

Dates:  Sunday Nov 6 – Sun Nov 27th

Times: 3:30-5pm

Cost: Drop In $28, Full 4 week series: $100