Learn to Teach Conscious Relaxation: The Art of Yoga Nidra (Hybrid) with Mia Park

May 9, 2021

This post was originally published on September 21, 2020 and updated on May 9, 2021.

2020/9/21/learn-to-teach-guided-relaxation-yoga-nidra-training

Learn to safely and confidently teach yoga nidra - the "yoga of sleep" - a simple yet potent technique. The practitioner is led, or leads themselves, into progressively deeper states of consciousness by systematically quieting the nervous system. This deeply restorative practice is said to be the origin of hypnosis. Yoga nidra can be used for healing, relaxation, and to cultivate meditative insight. Clinical studies have affirmed its benefits, including the relief of PTSD symptoms.

Who is this for?

You don't need to be a yoga teacher to lead yoga nidra. It is a helpful addition to the therapeutic toolkit of any wellness practitioner. Yoga nidra can be taught as a stand-alone practice or as part of a complete yoga practice to anyone. Bring this powerful technique of deep relaxation to your clients and yoga students for an enriching experience. Prior experience teaching group experiences or working therapeutically with individuals is strongly suggested.

Training June 1-8, 2021

A 25-hour hybrid teacher training taught in-studio and simultaneously online with access to the training videos for over a month. A 30-minute private session with Mia, a 50-page manual with scripts, monthly support meetings, and more are included. You don't need to be a yoga teacher to lead yoga nidra, helpful addition to the therapeutic toolkit of any wellness practitioner. Hosted by Sat Nam Yoga Chicago.

Live training June 1 - 8, 2021
Enroll by June 15, 2021
Video access until July 31, 2021

View full details and register: https://www.miaparkyoga.com/classes--trainings.html

Mia Park teaches yoga to connect the physical, emotional, and mental bodies to their deeper intelligence. Mia uses yoga poses as a gateway to developing inner refinement. She uses techniques she continually learns, training in energy-focused Tantra hatha yoga, yoga anatomy, yoga therapy, yoga nidra, Daoist taiji, and other studies that support inner development. With self-awareness, a life of purpose can be lived. Mia and her classes are powered by hope and engagement.

Mia is based in Chicago and is a certified iRest Level 1 teacher, Rest and Renew restorative yoga teacher, 500 Hour Viniyoga teacher, E-RYT 500, 200 CYT, a Darshan Certified Integrated Ayurvedic Practitioner and Advanced Yoga Teacher, and a former 500 Hour Parayoga teacher. Mia is also currently becoming an IAYT Yoga Therapist. She is a Domestic Violence Advocate and has volunteered teaching prenatal yoga in Cook County jail since 2010.

Mia has studied the art of yoga nidra with many teachers, including iRest with Richard Miller, Total Yoga Nidra with Uma Dinsmore Tuli, the Himalayan tradition with Rolf Solvik, and Satyananda Yoga Nidra with Tripura Yoga, Rod Stryker and Dr. Swami Shankardev Saraswati. She has led several yoga nidra teacher trainings since 2014 and continues to grow as a yoga nidra practitioner and teacher.

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Life Needs to be Lived in Spontaneity

April 27, 2021

The word Grace has such a welcoming vibration. As Annie Lamont would remind me, “To summon, Grace, say ‘HELP’ and then buckle up. Grace finds you exactly where you are, but it doesn’t leave you where it found you.”

Yes, be prepared to truly let go and let life in. What changes us, heals us, and what ultimately transforms us is the release and then allow the chaos to begin.

I have no idea how one year later we got here! It has been a ride and yet together I feel our community has supported the journey here. We are opening the doors and raising the windows as we return to those sweet spontaneous moments of saying hello. To be able to hear laughter, smell the scent of some passing aroma whether it is hair conditioner, a familiar yet forgotten oil, or just the smell of some wonderful fresh detergent, I want to return to smell, taste, and seeing the unexpected of life in full togetherness.

Zoom serves a great purpose for our survival, but the hunger I have for a genuine hug is my devotion to keeping humanity alive. Life needs to be lived in spontaneity. The freedom to overhear a conversation and learn something new —or be included in a conversation that arose out of some mutually shared moment. To pause and listen as others pass by and to feel belonging in a shared space.

I miss the alive energy of shared souls. I know I am not alone in this desire to be together and hopefully, the inspiration to come back into our sweet center will happen as May begins. We have added some new classes and new teachers, and hope that new faces will soon feel the urge to begin a practice at YAF.

Thank you to everyone who is willing to get the vaccination, and we appreciate the respect of each student that continues to care for one another regardless of bias and learned patterns. We are so fortunate to be at this place now.

Blessings,

Laura Jane

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Unlocking & Releasing Trauma with TRE®

April 27, 2021

“Pull it together.” “Suck it up.” “Get over it.” “What difference does it make, it was so long ago”.

Do any of these phrases sound familiar that were either said to you or you said to yourself?

Trauma, no matter how major or insignificant you think it was, lives in your body. Collectively we are all living in a state of trauma right now, bearing the weight of a global pandemic, civil unrest, fear and not to mention our own past experiences.

Yes, you can have fun, be happy, have lots of money, have a wonderful life, AND still experience trauma. It does not discriminate race, age, gender, economic status, it is pervasive throughout the world.

What exactly is trauma?

Trauma is the physiological response to an event that overwhelms a person’s ability to cope, causing feelings of helplessness, shame, diminishing their sense of self and their ability to feel a full range of emotions and experiences in the body.

Trauma is instinctual and beyond our consciousness to control it, therefore it should never be judged as a negative because it is an automatic response in our system to protect ourselves. It is our own personal emergency response system for safety. Additionally, no two people will react the same to a traumatic experience. One person may get in a horrible car accident and never be able to drive on the expressway again, while another may not be impacted by it at all and be able to drive anywhere and everywhere, just as an example.

Reacting to Trauma

When our body goes into a state of trauma, we tend to go into either fight, flight, or freeze. All of these responses come from our autonomic nervous system causing tension in the body, no matter which way a person reacts, one way is not better than another.

When our body tenses up, it is the fascia, which is like the webbing throughout our body that holds our muscles, bones, and organs in place, the fascia becomes tighter within our body. If the fascia is gripping from stress, this can cause a variety of ailments from back and body pain, high blood pressure, limited mobility, limited range of motion, balance, joint stability, more prone to injury, weakened immune system, migraines, etc.

The Psoas and Trauma

There is a major muscle in our body called the psoas muscle. It connects the lower half of our body to the upper half of our body — from our hip flexor up through the front of our body to our chest. It is the psoas that carries the bulk of this stress and trauma in the body. Think about the center of your body and if it is tight, you lean forward impacting your back, your neck, your balance which impacts your hips down to your knees. It also wraps around all of your internal organs. When the ever-important psoas muscle is stressed, the body will feel it.

The psoas is also rooted in our survival, holding on to trauma from the past. Trauma can lead to a stressed psoas muscle, even though the fascia around the psoas muscle is tightened. The fascia wraps around the psoas muscle, so when the fascia is tightened around this muscle, your entire body is at risk. There is no harmony between the two.

How do we release the fascia in the psoas muscle and throughout the entire body?

There is a process called TRE (Tension/Trauma Release Exercises). TRE was developed by Dr. David Bercelli when he studied trauma within himself and around the world. It is a technique that allows a natural release in the body that is genetically encoded within all mammals. It stems from the reptilian brain to release past traumas and tension in the body naturally.

TRE is a series of 7 accessible exercises the stretch and fatigue muscles in the body, including the psoas muscle, that induces a tremor mechanism in the body naturally. These tremors allow for the fascia in the body to loosen which in turn, releases trauma and tension in the body. The best reference is when you see an animal that is scared and it starts to shake, this is their natural tremor response allowing them to release their trauma, so then they can move on with their day.

As humans, we have been told to pull it together, not show any physiological response to stress. TRE is the opposite, it allows for the body to take care of itself naturally. The healing that can come from TRE is profound and life-altering. Often people don’t realize how much they have been holding on to until they have the release from TRE.

If you (or someone you know) has experienced trauma, consider signing up for Kim’s Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises 5-week class series and/or her monthly Yoga for Trauma class.

About the Author

You can find Kim teaching at Yoga Among Friends:

Thu 8–9a, Slow Flow–Zoom
Select Sundays 3–5 pm, Yoga to Transform Trauma–Studio (Meets Monthly)

Kim Eisendrath, RYT 200, is a certified TRE provider, as well as a certified yoga instructor with a focus on trauma-informed yoga and accessible yoga. Yoga for Trauma and TRE have had a significant impact on her life and the lives of many of her clients. She will lovingly guide you through these practices and hold space for your individual needs.

Kim wants to help people discover their gifts to recover from emotional and physical stressors through the practice of yoga and TRE. She is finally living her soul’s calling by giving back to others through these practices.

Her credentials include: