The Power of Flow:
Learning to Play the Edge in Advancing Your Practice
May 3, 2008
2:00-5:00pm

How do you know when to push harder or let up in your practice? How are effort and ease best balanced in exploring different poses? How can the breath be a more effective tool for deepening your
practice?

In this 3-hour Vinyasa Flow Yoga workshop, we will explore how to "play the edge" in getting the most out of ongoing yoga practices. Basic elements of the practice - breath, energy locks (bandhas), alignment principles and energetic actions in the poses - will be reviewed and applied in taking your personal practice to a deeper level in a sequence of standing poses, core work, arm balances,
backbends and integrative poses designed to help you elevate and
refine your practice. This workshop will leave you with a more practical and experiential understanding of how to apply the tools of Vinyasa Flow in cultivating a sustainable and self-transforming yoga practice.

Price: $45

To Register: please contact yoga source at 408-402-YOGA

YOGA SOURCE LOS GATOS
15545C Los Gatos Boulevard
Los Gatos, California
Click here for a map

Breaking Down the Sun Salutations
May 4, 2008
12:30-5:30

Chataranga, Up Dog, Down Dog. Sounds easy enough, yet it doesn't always feel that way. The steady flow of the salutations often makes it difficult to fully explore the elements of each pose and transition, often leading to confusion, frustration and even injury. Yet Sun Salutations are at the heart of most Hatha yoga practices. Here we set the rhythm and mood for all that follows, warming the entire body as we connect breath and movement in the gradual opening to deeper practice. And as simple as they are, they are also fairly complex when we look at them closely. Learning the subtle nuances of each pose open up your practice in incredible ways, making it more and more a practice of freedom and joy.

In this workshop we will go deeply into each element of the Sun Salutations, exploring basic principles of alignment, breath, movement, bandhas and dristi within and between each of ten basic poses. The workshop is designed for all levels of students as well as teachers interested in deepening their understanding of how to teach safe, expansive, spirited Sun Salutations in Vinyasa Flow, Ashtanga Vinyasa and other flow-oriented classes.

Price: $35

Sacred Partnership
With Linda & Charlie Bloom
Saturday, May 10th
1:30-4:30pm

The bliss of the experience of merging into the feeling of boundaryless union can be more intoxicating than the most powerful of mind-altering substances. It is so compelling that we can become slaves to the longing for love. This desire is actually a displaced yearning for merging with the divine that we have mistakenly personified in the form of an individual. This misunderstanding almost always leads to disillusionment and suffering since our expectations are inevitably disappointed.

While relationships can't bring us permanent bliss, they can provide us a means through which we can experience the sense of wholeness and fulfillment that is our birthright. This path however is not for the feint of heart since it continually brings us into contact with those elements in our psyche that resist growth and exposure as well as the fears and attachments that underlie them. The rewards of the journey however, far outweigh the difficulties.

Join us for this half day workshop as we investigate this territory interactively and individually, through process work, dialogue, meditation and exercises. We will also identify the practices that allow us to cultivate the strengths that are requisite for this journey. The workshop is open to singles as well as couples.

Linda Bloom LCSW and Charlie Bloom MSW are trained psychotherapists and marriage counselors. They have been facilitating relationships workshops for over twenty years to thousands of people across the country and internationally in Japan, China, Indonesia, South America, Sweden, Denmark, and many other countries. They are authors of the widely-acclaimed book 101 Things I Wish I Knew When I Got Married: Simple Lessons to Make Love Last (New World Library) 2004, which is currently in its 13th printing and has sold over 75,000 copies. Their organization, Bloomwork, can be reached at www.bloomwork.com. They have been married for 35 years and are the parents of grown children.

*Tickets: $35 in advance, $40 at the door.*

Developing a Sustainable
Arm Balance Practice
May 18, 2008
1:30-4:30pm

Arm balances simultaneously require and help us to develop strength, flexibility, focus and openness. These qualities are heightened when movement into the pose involves hip rotation or flexion - poses like Bakasana (Crane Pose), Astavakrasana (Eight Crooks Pose) or the Mukta Hasta Sirsana Vinyasa (a sustained series of interconnected arm balances that from Tripod Headsdtand). More concentrated mental focus is harnessed when then moving into poses involve steadier balnce, such as Adho Mukha Svanasana (Handstand) and Pincha Mayurasana (Forearm Balance). Practicing these asana sequences safely and consciously leads to equanimity, confidence and personal freedom well beyond the mat.

In this workshop we explore how to approach arm balances with patience, intelligence and compassion. We will look closely at the basic elements of each pose and work on cultivating the integrity of these elements as we integrate them into the fuller poses. Along the way we will practice being present to the whole experience of this practice as Vinyasa Yoga, consciously connecting the breath and bodymind moment by conscious moment.

Price: $25

ONE YOGA CENTER
846 Front Street
Downtown, Santa Cruz
Click here for a map