Yoga Offerings
Below is a brief description of all the classes/workshops that are offered:
| Yoga Classes | Workshops/Special Programs | Other offerings |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate Yoga/Stress Management |
Understanding Yoga Sutras (Private) |
Yoga Classes
Level 1 Yoga
This is an open, ongoing class designed for the beginner level students. However, the class can be enjoyed by students at all levels - total beginners to seasoned practitioners, as each participant is encouraged to practice at his or her own level of flexibility, strength, endurance and balance. The students will be introduced to the basic hatha yoga routine for Integral Yoga. Each class lasts approximately 1.5 hours and consists of opening and closing chants, Asanas (postures), Yoga Nidra (deep relaxation), Pranayama (breathing techniques), and Dhyana (meditation) and/or discussion on the philosophy of yoga. Please visit the schedule page to determine the class(es) most suitable for you.
Level 1/Level 2 Yoga
This class is intended for those students who wish to take their yoga practice to a higher level compared to the Level 1 classes. The overall structure of the class is similar to the Level 1 class. However, we add more variations to the asanas done in Level 1 as well as learn a few more challenging asanas (like headstand and its variations, peacock etc.). We also add a few advanced breathing techniques (including breath retention, bandhas, kriyas etc). One of the main components of each class is a meditation session (guided or otherwise).
Prenatal Yoga (private only)
The prenatal yoga class is specially designed for pregnant women who have completed their first trimester of pregnancy. This class consists of gentle stretches, breathing techniques, relaxation and meditation. The gentle yoga stretching stimulates the reproductive organs to ensure a relatively easy childbirth, ensures optimum blood supply and nutrients to the developing fetus, enhances correct posture, establishes balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic system, improves blood circulation, tones the muscles of spine, abdomen and pelvis, which help to support the added weight of the uterus, and prevents common ailments such as back-ache, leg cramps, breathlessness and edema in the feet. Pranayama (Breath Work) ensures the abundant supply of oxygen and prana (life force) for both mother and child. It induces tranquility and a feeling of well being. It tunes up the nervous system, improves emotional stability, helps to eliminate anxiety, relieves insomnia, high blood pressure and breathlessness, while improving breathing capacity, stamina and vitality - promoting an easy delivery with minimum distress and fatigue. Meditation provides the necessary insight, will-power and discrimination for making sound lifestyle choices during and after pregnancy. As a therapeutic tool, meditation helps resolve neuroses, fears and conflicts common during pregnancy.
Please visit this page for a Prenatal Yoga Photo Gallery.
Private Lessons - Yoga
In a private lesson, 100% of my undivided attention is focused on YOU. Based on your individual situation, you will set your own goals. Whether your goal is stress management, weight management, taking care of some specific ailment/injury or any other personal objective that you might have, I will work with you to develop a routine suitable to your individual needs and goals. Because you are the focus of these lessons, I start exactly where you are now and let you set the pace - baby steps or strides – whatever feels best to you. During these sessions, I encourage you to listen to your body, because pushing yourself beyond your abilities can be counterproductive and may aggravate existing problems or create new ones. You will gradually develop your potential in strength, endurance and flexibility. Through a program which includes stretching, breathing techniques, relaxation, and guided meditation, designed specifically to suit your needs, you will soon begin to realize the benefits of yoga and feel better than you thought possible.
21-Day Yoga Immersion
Recently I received an email asking me to join a 30-day yoga challenge program. I did a quick search on Google for something like "30-day yoga challenge" or just "yoga challenge", and I came across a large variety of yoga challenge programs being offered. Most of these programs entail making a commitment and then practicing at your own home using a video or a tape that the originator of the program offers you. Since I am myself a firm believer in establishing an on-going regular practice, I thought about offering my own version of a similar challenge program. In this program, instead of practicing on your own at home, you will be practicing with me as a group.
Pranayama and Meditation Intensive
Pranayama (breathing techniques) and meditation are two of the key ingredients of an integrated yoga routine. Patanjali, in his Yoga Sutras, has given us these 8 "tools", called the eight limbs of yoga (Ashtanga Yoga) to achieve stillness of the mind - yamas, niyamas, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi. Many of the yoga practitioners tend to limit their practice to only the 3rd limb, asana, the physical postures. There is no doubt that the practice of asana will make the body more flexible and stronger. However, by practicing only asanas we are limiting ourselves to a small subset of the benefits that yoga can provide. If we want to achieve the full complement of benefits of yoga, we need to avail of all the "tools" that are given to us.
In an effort to encourage the students to include pranayama and meditation as part of their daily yoga routine, I periodically offer a 12-day pranayama/meditation intensive.
Ashtanga-Vinyasa Flow
Ashtanga (eight limb) yoga is a complete systematic yoga method based on bhakti (devotion). It was created by the late Sri K. Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, India. Ashtanga involves a set sequence of postures sewn together using the breath to guide movement known as vinyasa. Physiologically, the purpose of vinyasa is to promote a healthy circulatory system, allowing the blood flow of the body to dance with gravity according to the asana. Vinyasa promotes purification of the body as a whole from the outer most layers to the inner most layers-- from the musculature to the sense organs and the nervous system to the mind. The primary series involves seated postures that focus on opening the hips and strengthening the back to allow for a more comfortable seated Padmasana in order to begin Dharana (concentration) or Dhyana (meditation).
The practitioner should develop the three places to focus attention (tristhana) during the practice: the posture (asana), the breathing system (ujjayii), and the looking place (dristhi). The three practiced in conjunction with each other purify the body, the nervous system and the mind. The asanas purify the body by making it flexible and strong. The ujayii breath involves even inhalations and exhalations to purify and control the nervous system. The dristhi is the point at which the gaze is focused to stabilize the functioning of the mind.
Bandhas (locks) play an important role in breathing. The mula bandha (root lock) and the uddiyana bandha (diaphragm lock) strengthen the asana by sealing energy within the area of the spinal cord from bottom to top. Without focusing on the lock system, the breath will be fluctuant. When mula bandha is achieved, the mind can be controlled automatically.
Read more: http://kpjayi.org
Workshops and Special Programs
Yoga for Kids
This is a fun-filled class for kids in the 5 to 12 year age group. Each class consists of asana (postures) which are taught and practiced in a very playful manner, relaxation with visualization, and pranayama (breathing) techniques. These practices provide many physical, physiological, mental and emotional benefits for the growing child.
By practicing yoga, kids can enjoy these benefits (and many more...):
- Increased flexibility, strength, balance, coordination, and body awareness
- Improve concentration, sense of calmness and relaxation.
- Improve self-esteem, self-confidence
- Connect with nature through various asanas that are named after natural beings - animals, birds, trees etc
- Kids have fun practicing yoga in a non-competitive environment.
- Breathing practices help with improved nervous health, mental clarity and balance
- Meditation and relaxation teaches them how to combat stress and stay calm in difficult situations
Yoga for Teens
This is a class specially geared to address the needs of teens who usually go through changes, sometimes unsettling and disturbing, at the physical, mental and emotional levesl throughout the teen years.
Classes integrate traditional yoga poses, flowing sequences, breathing exercises, deep-relaxation and meditation techniques as well as self-reflection.
By practicing yoga, teens can enjoy these benefits (and many more...):
- Increased flexibility, strength, balance, coordination, and body awareness
- Improve concentration, sense of calmness and relaxation.
- Improve self-esteem, self-confidence
- Understand yoga concepts and how the practice of yoga can guide them smoothly through the tender teen years
- Gain a deeper understanding of the physical and philosophical aspects of yoga.
- Develop strength and flexibility for the body and the mind
- Acquire tools for stress management
- Teens have fun practicing yoga in a non-competitive environment
- Breathing practices help with improved nervous health, mental clarity and balance
- Many more ...
Gentle Yoga
This practice of yoga is accessible to everyone- from beginners to a seasoned practitioner, including hard-core athletes who need to stretch their muscles out and allow their bodies to recover. This practice focuses on the static and some dynamic postures as we bring awareness towards breath, alignment and practice with mindfulness to build endurance, strength and flexibility. In this class we smoothly move from one pose to another and offer options to modify poses to adapt to practitioner’s own level of comfort. We gradually go deeper in each asana to bring ease as well as challenge in the practice.
As we refine the basic postures, our practice remains safe, interesting and unique to each person.
We end each practice with a Restorative Shavasana!
No prior yoga experience required.
Low back care yoga
Back pain is one of the most frequent causes of activity limitation in people. However, 95% of all back problems are organic, meaning that they are the result of sprains due to common postural and movement habits that can easily be addressed through yoga.
The Low Back Program Series is designed to lead you through a pathway to a “Better Back”. By bringing attention to muscular dysfunction and imbalance, postural asymmetries, alignment and life-style; this program effectively addresses the problem of lower back pain which could be the result of -
- Degenerative disc disease
- Mild scoliosis
- Sacral instability
- Low back strain
- Sciatica
- Chronic tension or weakness.
In this program you begin and end with deep yoga breathing, access and strengthen your inner core (stabilizers), asanas coordinated with breath while engaging your core, and relaxation. The emphasis on the breath is intentional to teach a powerful tool for calming your nervous system and unwinding yourself out of pain.
Yoga Philosophy Workshops
Even though yoga has been mentioned in various ancient texts, including the Vedas, Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita etc, the credit for putting together a formal, cohesive philosophy of yoga goes to Sage Patanjali. In his Yoga Sutras, Patanjali has provided the very essence of the philosophy and teachings of yoga in a highly scientific and systematic exposition. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (YSP) are one of the six darshanas ( Hindu schools of philosophy) and a very important milestone in the history of Yoga. The book is a set of 195 aphorisms (sutras), which are short, terse phrases designed to be easy to memorize. Though brief, the Yoga Sutras is an enormously influential work that is just as relevant for yoga philosophy and practice today as it was when it was written.
In this workshop, I discuss how an understanding of the underlying concepts of yoga can help us live a more peaceful, meaningful and fulfilling life. We will learn what causes stress in life and how to cope with stress under varying circumstances. We will study the various concepts that are presented in the yoga sutras. We also learn how by applying these concepts in our day-to-day life, we can understand and analyze our own mind so we can control our emotions and behavior patterns.
I have been teaching these workshops to various groups in the triangle area since early 2007. I taught yoga philosophy at the Moving Mantra Yoga Studio, once a month, for almost three years. I have also presented these workshops to students undergoing teacher training programs offered by various yoga studios in the area.
In addition to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, I have also offered workshops on various other topics related to yoga philosophy - The Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, Ramayana and Mahabharat etc.
Please contact me if you would like to arrange for a workshop on any of these topics at your studio or any other convenient location.
A brief introduction to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is available here.
Corporate Yoga/Chair Yoga/Stress Management
In the current highly competitive corporate world, employers are faced with the challenge of keeping the employees motivated and satisfied with their work environment. Longer working hours, tight and often unrealistic deadlines, changing targets - all add up to a highly stressful work life. Stress in the workplace has been recognized as being responsible for – loss of productivity, inability to focus on the task at hand, poor judgment, aggressive and escapist behavior, increased medical expenses etc. Yoga-based stress management techniques are increasingly being used by many corporations to help their employees cope with stressful situations, both at home and work. A regular practice of yoga helps relax and rejuvenate both the mind and the body.
I can offer corporate yoga sessions in a few different formats - a regular yoga session, a chair-based yoga session or a Stress Management Workshop. Please see here for a brief description of these options.
Corporate Yoga Teaching Experience
I started teaching corporate yoga while I was living in New Jersey. There I taught lunch hour classes at ATT and Lucent Technologies (about three years each). I also taught several stress management workshops at these corporations.
In North Carolina, I have taught corporate classes at GSK and Quintiles in the past (about 2.5 years each). In addition to the regular yoga class, I also presented stress management workshops and taught chair yoga classes at Quintiles.
Currently, I am teaching lunch-hour yoga classes at Credit Suisse.
Other Offerings
Yoga Sutra of Patanjali Study Group
The purpose of this study group is to develop an understanding of the underlying philosophy of yoga as expounded by Sage Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (YSP) is one of the six Indian schools of philosophy and a very important milestone in the history of Yoga. The book is a set of 195 aphorisms (sutras), which are short, terse phrases designed to be easy to memorize. Though brief, the Yoga Sutras are an enormously influential work that is just as relevant for yoga philosophy and practice today as it was when it was written. In order to facilitate a better understanding of the sutras, many well-known commentators have provided detailed explanation of the sutras. We will use some of these commentaries for our discussions in this study group.
Currently, the group meets twice a month on the second and fourth Saturdays at 2:00-4:00 PM.
Understanding Yoga Sutras (Private and Semi-private)
In this course, we will go over some of the fundamental concepts of yoga philosophy as given by Sage Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. You will learn how to pronounce some of the commonly used words and expressions in yoga. We will cover the following:
- Definition of yoga
- The five vrittis (fluctuations of the mind)
- Concept of Abhyasa (practice) and Vairagya (detachment)
- The five kleshas (afflictions)
- Theory of Karma and reincarnation
- The eight limbs of yoga - yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi
In all the discussions, we will learn when and how to apply these concepts in our day-to-day life so we can enrich our life with positive and inspiring thoughts and learn how to cope with stresses and strains of life.
You can attend this class either in person or online.In order to attend this class online, you will need a PC with a microphone, speakers, a webcam video camera and an application like Skype or Googe Talk installed.
Community Yoga Classes
I strongly believe that we all need to give something back to the community for all that we receive from it. In my humble effort in that direction, I have been teaching the following yoga classes in the community. By offering these classes, I hope that the participants will realize the benefits of yoga and continue practicing on their own on a regular basis.
Hindu Bhavan, Morrisville
Hindu Society of North Carolina (HSNC, aka Hindu Bhavan or Hindu Temple) offers a large number of cultural, social and educational activities for the benefit of the community. As a part of the educational program, two weekly yoga classes are currently offered there. of these two, I have been teaching the Wednesday evening yoga class (6:30 - 8:00 PM) there since early 2006. For these classes, the students pay a small donation to the temple. These yoga classes are very well attended, averaging about 40 participants each week.
Please call 919-926-9717 or send email to get more information or to sign up for any of the classes on the schedule.
