Ashtanga in Groningen
maxi@ashtangaingroningen.com
  • Welcome
  • Classes
    • Class Schedule / Class Descriptions >
      • Ashtanga >
        • Ashtanga in General
        • Mysore Style Practice
        • Therapeutic Vinyasa
    • Contribution / Class Tuition
    • Team >
      • Maxi
      • Jacquelien
      • Peter
    • Location
    • Terms & Conditions & School Etiquette & Forms
  • Workshops
    • Beginners Ashtanga Mysore Yoga Immersion 30.8.-29.9.
    • Ashtanga Special Course with Susanna Finocchi. November 5-8 2020
    • Self-Care Sundays: Yin & Restorative Yoga Workshops
    • Modular Yoga Adjustment Training for Yoga Teachers with Maxi Meissner in Groningen
  • Consultations
  • STORIES
  • Links
    • Shop
    • News
    • Linktree
    • Bhumi Yoga - Audios & Videos
    • Yoga at Work

Our Monthly Assistants-Workshop

25/2/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Behind the scenes!
​
Today after practice we had our monthly assistants workshop at the school and welcomed Daria, Thian and Peter into the assisting team, starting with the basics of practice: helping a student to access the sound breath and explaining its benefits, helping a student to access their lungs (and breath) more fully, the principles  of samasthitih and how those principles come back in all asanas, and teaching a beginner sun salutation A - a full program for their first workshop! Lovely to have you three supporting the school, you will see them in Mysore class with me once a week observing and starting to assist.

Here Thian is helping Daria to access her lungs more fully, and thus breathe more fully. 

Then when Elena and Klazina joined we discussed observations during class, how to teach bhujapidasana,  kurmasana, headstand and headstand preparations and what to watch out for, while also reviewing adjustments on different poses. Always love coming together with you all and sharing ♥️ while also building more and more depth and ground at our school with a stronger assitant team!

0 Comments

Yin & Restorative Yoga - From Doing to Being

21/2/2019

0 Comments

 
Every Wednesday evening I hold a ninety minute practice and about once a month I offer a long session of Yin and Restorative Yoga. Today I want to describe a few of the benefits of this deeply nurturing and healing practice. I call yin & restorative yoga an advanced practice as it is a practice of slowing down and being rather than doing - which is a true skill in our fast-paced, overachieving society. An advanced practice, yet accessible to all. 
Picture
Most of us are "programmed" to do a lot. Doing a lot gives us a sense of being productive and in control - and without a doubt: getting things done is important. Yet, fueling ourselves with that extra coffee day by day, running on ambition checking our long to-do list - all can be a manner of avoiding unwelcome discomforts and feels. The practice of yin & restorative yoga asks us to slow down and direct our attention from all outside focus and doing towards our inner landscapes and settle in with being just ourselves. Slowing down and not-doing helps us to gain literacy about our inner landscapes while it also helps us to face and befriend what we are avoiding about ourselves. It allows us to explore, learn and take care of the whole of ourselves in ways we are not accustomed to - allowing more space for the whole of who we are.

Picture
Befriending the whole of who we are is an essential asset towards healing.

Notably, yin & restorative yoga creates conditions for our relaxation response to kick in. The relaxation response is a neurological response leaving us with the sense of feeling safe which initiates the body's self-healing processes. This - the embodied sense of safety - is utmost important in a world where most of us are overloaded by tight (work / family) schedules, high expectations (mostly our own), worry, and technological advances that when their use is not moderated hijack our attention - and thus a world where for most of us the fight-or flight response (sympathetic nervous system) is chronically stimulated and periods of real rest are very sparse. Thus, by creating a situation, such as in yin & restorative yoga, where the body understands it is safe, we change from worrying about "staying safe" to activating the parasympathetic nervous system thereby strengthen the longterm health systems, such as immunity, digestion, repair, reproduction and reflection.

Importantly, through using long-held supportive resting poses in yin & restorative yoga and their accompanied embodied sense of support and safety the skill of conscious relaxation is cultivated. 

Picture
Conscious relaxtion is different to sitting on the couch with our attention on whatever netflix throws at us. Moreover, this practice allows us to discover where we hold unnecessary habitual tension in body and mind while creating space to release it.

Let's state that again: yin & restorative yoga helps us discover where we hold tension.  The actual effort in this practice is the willingness to look at where and how we are holding tension.  This willingness helps us find room for change, we allow a letting go of all muscular and mental effort (both of which most of us  favor and already overengage most of the time) - thereby we let go of control and plans - and allow to be present, embrace and acknowledge what 

is (not what has been or could be, but what is) which enables a deep release on various levels of the body. 

​
These here are just a few of the benefits of yin & restorative yoga. Those who have been to my workshops know how enthusiastic I can get to explain the effects of certain practices herein on ​ our physiological and mental wellbeing..., the effect it has on fascia, the link to eastern traditions of medicine ,.....  (may be another few chapters soon).

It is always a pleasure to offer and share about this practice, witnessing bodies, faces and self-talk softened much during a session - oftentimes receiving an e-mail a few days later where a participant shares about powerful insights they have gained during such a practice.  

​The next long yin & restorative yoga session I offer comes up Sunday, March 3, 11.00-13.30h - there are still a few spaces available (you can register here or for a later session here).
​
I also appreicate if you leave a comment on how this practice has possibly affected you.
0 Comments

    Archives

    June 2020
    September 2019
    July 2019
    February 2019
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2016
    February 2014
    September 2013
    August 2013
    February 2013

    Categories

    All
    All Is One
    Asana
    Asana Names
    Asanas
    Ashtanga
    Ashtanga Groningen
    Ashtanga Is Powerful
    Ashtangalove
    Ashtanga Mysore Style
    Ashtanga Practice
    Ashtanga Yoga Groningen
    Assistants
    Balance
    Bandha
    Be
    Beasty Boys!
    Behindthescenes
    Breath
    Challenge
    Compassion
    David Garrigues
    Doubt
    Duhkha
    Earth
    Ekam
    Feelings
    Fragile Times
    Fundamental Poses
    Gaze
    Homework
    Inner Knowledge
    Introspection
    Learning
    Learning The Name Of The Asanas
    Limitations
    Love
    Michael Hamilton
    Mysore Groningen
    Mysore Vs Led Classes
    Names
    Nirodha
    Nourish
    Pacing
    Padahastasana
    Padangusthasana
    Parsvakonasana
    Parsvattonasana
    Philosophy
    Practice
    Practice Notes
    Practice Practice And All Is Coming
    Prasarita Padottanasana
    Pratice
    Primary Series
    Progress
    Regular Practice
    Restorative Yoga
    Restorative Yoga Groningen
    Ronald Steiner
    Sanskrit
    Sharmila Desai
    Showing Up
    Source
    Source Youself
    Space
    Stillness
    Surya Namaskara A
    Transitions
    Trikonasana
    Tristana
    Uddiyana Bandha
    Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana
    Value
    Vinyasa
    Vinyasa Count
    Visceral Understanding
    Workshop
    Yin
    Yin Yoga Groningen
    Yoga Cats
    Yoga Groningen
    Yoga Philosophy Talk
    Yoga Sutra 1.14
    Yoga-Sutra 1.14
    Yoga Sutras
    Yogi

    RSS Feed

Yes, I want to subscribe to the newsletter of Bhumi Yoga!

 

 

dit veld niet invullen s.v.p.
Address:
Damsterdiep 46,

​9711SM Groningen
Class Schedule
​Terms & Conditions
Privacy Statement
Yoga-Beak / Bhumi Yoga
KVK: 54689627

Write us
​