The HIPS – Intro To Serenity Somatic Sound & Yin Yoga: Gentle Movement-within-Awareness Workshop

This Introductory Somatic Sound & Yin Yoga workshop is experiential, playful, powerful and sense-able (enabling a full-senses experience). It is accessible for the novice, the athlete, the flexible, the stiff, all fitness levels, yogis of all body types, shapes, sizes, and those desiring to learn to teach these amazing practices. Bring an open heart-mind, a desire for a full-body smile and any personal pillows, blankets or bolsters that will help create an even more rest-full experience.

All creatures (including humans) have the innate capacity to maintain physical/emotional balance by surrendering to relaxation and restoration immediately following any stressful situation. Humans, however, also have the ability to over-ride that innate capacity and dwell on that stress – changing our very biochemistry. Every time we succumb to heightened stimulative stress response, we further the distance to our natural equilibrium and balance.

Join Tara & Bill (Cosmic Water Sound & Yoga) on the path to saṃtoṣa or contentment – equanimity in the subtle realm and true ease in the physical realm.

We will merge the wisdom of the ancient spiritual traditions of the medieval Kaśmir Valley & sound healing techniques with the modern practices of Somatic & Yin yogas to re-create that natural and calm state of the heart-mind, body and spirit or saṃtoṣa.

This workshop considers each participant as a unique individual who is inherently whole and perfect. It is not a practice to achieve some THING, it is an invitation to fully experience your body as manifesting within awareness within each presence moment.

Serenity Somatic Sound & Yin Yoga is an exploration of the qualities and the connections within and throughout the body, cultivating a sense of expansive wholeness dancing and flowing softly around your still and centered heart.

Somatic Yoga is a letting go of the *Doing* and the *Desiring* and deeply listening, feeling, sensing … the way your body moves most fluidly, effortlessly and naturally – free from the self-imposed constructs of personal and social expectations.

When we cultivate surrender of *Doing*, *Desiring*, *Pushing*, *Pulling* – a space emerges where this effortless movement becomes habitual, supporting us in a flow-like state of moving gracefully and with ease.

-Play and discover the uniqueness of your body
-Movement perceived from within
-Fluidity and flow directing us from deep inside
-A 3-dimensional dance of wholeness
-A celebration of moving with lightness and stability
-Spaciousness and grounding
-Being in tune with oneself
-Play, breathe, move, smile, sing, hum

********* THE WORKSHOP BRIEF OUTLINE********

We will begin the Workshop with a recitation of ancient mantra to create a calmer and more aware mind-state, feeling the connections between voice, breath, movement, resonance ….

We initiate the focus of our awareness inward by engaging a somatic breathing practice (pranāyama); leading into a brief meditation.

Next we will begin a brief discussion to answer any questions and provide an overview and guideposts for the practice. This will lead to a hands-on demonstration of the power of these practices.

Afterwards, while Tara fills the room with live music, Bill guides you through a luscious somatic movement & Yin flow intended to nourish your body, breath, heart-mind, spirit & connection with the whole.

As we move towards the Bliss of Awareness, you may now be fully supported with props, blankets and eye pillows in a restorative yoga pose.

Then, every cell in your body will be awakened to the transformational vibrations of a Cosmic Water Yoga Sound Immersion & Yoga NIdrā

We end with light snacks, recap the practice and answer any questions.

Bill has been studying and practicing various flavors of yoga (including somatic with E. Criswell in the mid-90s) for over 50 years, an ERYT500 & a lead YTT trainer, has a PhD in BioMolecular Physics from Berkeley, a professor of Chemistry and a research professor of Physiology at Marshall University & associated Medical School. Bill’s understanding and teaching of yoga’s practices and darśan are informed by modern scientific research and aural-lineage-informed yoga/sanskrit textual scholarship. Bill’s teaching practice includes: several weekly yoga classes (principally Somatic, Yin, Restore, Nāda, free monthly darśan and lead YTT trainer) at Studio 8, Huntington; YACEP workshops; Long-time Faculty advisor – MU Yoga Club.

Tara has been practicing yoga for over 20 years, a registered respiratory therapist, a BFA in Voice with Sound Therapy Studies from the Berklee College of Music and has created acclaimed live soundscapes for many and diverse yoga classes and workshops.

Together they are …. Cosmic Water Yoga and Sounds (YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2ZZoXtSbT0eZDLrE5TXarg).

Our intention is to create a fully-embodied tapestry of direct experience. Blissful, fluid patterns of folding and unfolding, flowing focus – spontaneously spun from the fibers of awareness and woven from the threads of a consistent, coherent blend of yogic practices, technologies & wisdom of the medieval Kashmir Valley with modern somatic movement & sensory science – toward the recognition of a deeper, more expansive mosaic of ‘Self’.

Expect a Cosmic Water practice to honor the wisdom and teachings of the ancients by holding the space for the blossoming of surrender, stillness, silence, sound, spaciousness, serenity, spontaneity or sahaja, samādhi (deep meditation), sleep (nidrā)… to re-create a natural and still, silent and spacious state of the body, the heart-mind, and of the spirit.

This workshop is required for a Cosmic Water Serenity Somatic Yin Yoga 30 or 50 hr certification.