AYN Immersion 2017

NOW FULL!
​We are pleased to announce another special program of Yoga Immersion at Ashtanga Yoga Northampton. Our program is designed for the committed student of Ashtanga Yoga who would like to deepen their understanding of the traditional practice and its transmission methods, and begin to gain a greater understanding of the spiritual background of Yoga. It will give participants a deep experience of the Primary Series of Ashtanga Yoga as taught by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. It will also help teachers and students learn how to see the human body more clearly while doing asana, with the intention of learning how, through appropriate words and hands-on transmission, to facilitate the movement of prana in a body - whether it is your own or your students'. 

It has been designed to be convenient, with one-weekend-a-month clinics over 4 months. All levels of yoga student are welcome to attend the program, beginners to more-seasoned students. The main goal of the Immersion is to become an informed and grounded student in an established yoga practice that explores more than asana alone. The Immersion is highly recommended to:

-students who wish to delve more deeply into a Yoga practice
-students who wish to integrate a daily Ashtanga Practice into their life;
-students who wish to learn more about the other limbs of the practice and the spiritual underpinnings of Yoga; 
-Yoga teachers who wish to learn the basics of hands-on assisting/adjusting.
-Yoga teachers who would like to learn how to safely and sensibly teach and assist more challenging asana, including inversions, backbends and drop-backs;

Immersion Clinics 
The Clinics will be held from 12:30-5 Saturday and Sunday afternoons, one weekend a month (generally, the third weekend.) The four 9-hour Weekend Clinics (4.5 hours on Saturday and Sunday afternoon) will begin each month with a focus on basics of yoga philosophy, meditation, basic pranayama, and Hindu mythology.and after a short break, we will break down the classical formation of the postures of the Primary Series of Ashtanga Yoga, emphasizing seeing the flow of prana in the body, with some instruction in hands-on and verbal transmission of the asana series, along with appropriate modifications, informed by the related anatomy.  

Saturday and Sunday morning Mysore classes are provided for FREE to Immersion Students during each Immersion Weekend as well.

January 21-22 - Foundations
Free Breathing, Bandhas & Drishti - Saturday
​Channeling our Prana: A breakdown of breath, internal energy locks and the gazing points in our practice of Ashtanga Yoga.
Patanjali's Yoga, the Eight Limbs  - Sunday
An overview of the first two Padas of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, one of the most relevant texts that underly Yoga Philosophy, including Sanskrit chanting and discussion of relevant Sutras. 
Samasthithi, Suryanamaskar & the Standing postures - all weekend
Detailed discussion and review of these postures and movement systems; first steps in building strength, balance and flexibility, and learning to see/perceive and facilitate prana flow in the body through modifications, and hands-on assists. 

February 18-19 - Moving Deeper 
Introduction to Basic Kriyas - the Four Purifications - Saturday
Daily practice of Nadi Shodhana, Kapalabati, Agnisara Dhauti, and Ashwini Mudra to open the channels and begin the process of channelling prana.
Readings from and discussion of the Bhagavad Gita - Sunday
An ancient spiritual teaching, expounded in these vital chapters of the much larger and expansive Hindu saga The Mahabharata, that provides a means for liberation and freedom from suffering.
Balancing postures through Navasana - all weekend
From a grounded place, we begin to bring health, vitality and wellbeing to our digestive system, using breath and bandha to revitalize the system and awaken the central nerve channel of the body. Tools for teachers and students alike, including assists and modifications.

March 25-26 - Looking Inside
Introduction to Pranayama - Saturday 
Recap of the Kriyas and Introduction to Anuloma Viloma, Ujayyii, and Sitali/Sitkari
Hindu Myths: Stories of Shiva, Parvati and Ganesh - Sunday
Basics of Hindu Mythology, touching upon the relationship of the three main Hindu deities, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, along with the origin stories of Parvati and Ganesh, including several stories of Shiva, Yogeshvara, Lord of the Yogis. 
Bhujapidasana through Setubandasana - all weekend
Postures of pratyahara, looking inwards, and how these more challenging asana begin to make us look at our own reactive patterns. Again, more study of modifications and hands-on assists.

April 22-23 - Sustaining and Integrating
Intro to Vipassana Meditation - Saturday
Dhyana (meditation) is the seventh limb. How your asana and pranayama practices work together to help you cultivate dharana, concentration and hence, meditation. We will utilize Vipassana/Mindfulness based meditation techniques to help students begin to cultivate a "sitting" practice.
Sensible Sadhana throughout our lives - Sunday
There will be times in your life when you can't do yoga asana. What then? Shifting the goal of asana practice away from the physical to the spiritual - to one of mindfulness - so that one's sadhana is both sustainable and sustaining for us, regardless of age or physical ability. 
Backbends and the Salamba Sarvangasana (Closing) Sequence 
Opening our hearts and bodies safely and wisely, learning how to face fear in both backbends and the Inversion/Closing sequence. Helping student get there through hands on and verbal assists and modifications. Tools for teachers and students alike.
Course Completion and Certificate
Upon successful completion of all Immersion Weekends, each participant will receive a certificate of completion from Ashtanga Yoga Northampton.

However, no program of immersion or training should be undertaken for the receipt of a certificate. While this course is designed for both serious students and teachers of yoga, and  Ashtanga Yoga Northampton recognizes the value of certification as a measure of dedication to a practice, we also feel that a student of the practice can only become a good practitioner - and a good teacher - after many years of personal practice and self-study, and years spent actually working with and helping students. 

​This Immersion Program is a support to (not a substitute for) study with Senior Teachers of the Ashtanga Yoga tradition, and we wholeheartedly encourage students who wish to teach to seek out highly qualified individuals. This list includes the holder of the Ashtanga lineage in Mysore, India, R. Sharath Jois, his Mother, Saraswati Jois and Uncle Manju Jois, along with our own teachers: Nancy Gilgoff, Tim Miller, and Beryl Bender Birch, all of whom have decades of teaching and practice experience. They embody the parampara and share the practice with joy, wisdom and compassion. 
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The cost of the Immersion Program, all four weekend clinics, plus morning Mysore practice on both Saturday and Sunday of each Immersion Weekend, plus the 2017 AYN Immersion Workbook & Study Guide, with full curriculum, asana charts and syllabus:
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$725 if paid by January 1, 2017, $775 thereafter.  
Students, seniors 65+: $650 by January 1, 2017, $700 thereafter.  
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​While we recommend highly that you participate in all four weekend clinics, we understand this may be impossible for some schedules. Individual Clinics may be taken ad hoc, for a cost of $200/$185 students & seniors each weekend. 

The Cost of each weekend Immersion includes Mysore Yoga Practice on both Saturday and Sunday morning those weekends. 

A $100 non-refundable deposit required with registration in the Immersion Program. Full payment is due January 16 - 5 days before the beginning of the Immersion. Payment plans are available only if students discuss this necessity in advance. Full refunds are available up to 5 days before the start of the Clinics (January 16). Once training has begun, no refunds will be offered.


NOW FULL! 
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About Michelle:
Michelle started yoga in 1991, but didn't find Ashtanga Yoga until after the birth of her third child, in 1997. She met Beryl Bender Birch in 2001, and completed her first teacher training with her. In 2006, she began studying traditional Ashtanga Yoga with Nancy Gilgoff, one of the first Western students of Ashtanga master Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Michelle had the great fortune to meet Sri K. Pattabhi Jois during his last teaching visit to the US in 2007. She continues to study with Nancy and Beryl, as well as authorized Ashtanga teacher Christine Hoar annually (or as often as her own teaching commitments allow!) She also completed Primary Series teacher training with Tim Miller in the Spring of 2014., and studied with Sharath and Saraswati Jois on the October 2016 Namarupa Yatra in Uttarakhand, India. Michelle has over 600 hours of Ashtanga Yoga-based teacher training, with a strong emphasis on hand-ons adjustments. In over a dozen years of teaching Ashtanga, Michelle has developed a transmission style that is lighthearted, compassionate and practical. She is also a student of Sanskrit, Eastern Philosophy and Hindu Mythology and shares those passions in her teaching. She opened Florence Yoga in late 2009 and taught traditional Ashtanga there for 5 years, before moving her yoga community to downtown Northampton in the Fall of 2014, with the opening of Ashtanga Yoga Northampton, one of only two traditional Mysore style Ashtanga yoga shalas in Western Massachusetts, and one of the only yoga studios in the world where its teachers are co-owners of the studio.