CE Online Workshop: The Surya Namaskaram Lineup

The Sun Salutation is a beautiful and beneficial practice that elegantly flows as a moving meditation.

Well, that’s the goal. For most beginning students, Surya Namaskaram does not look or feel anything like a fluid, graceful gesture. My own experience was more similar to a choppy conglomeration of awkward maneuvers punctuated by suffering in stillness. But nowadays, I practice 2 rounds of Sun Salutations as soon as I wake up, and I couldn’t imagine skipping this nourishing ritual.

How can we move our practice, and that of our students, from rough stuff to a fulfilling fluid meditation? In my experience, the divine is in the details. During 10 years of practicing Integral Yoga and 6 years of teaching, I’ve gathered a lot of details that have supported my students and transformed my own salutations.

By refining the alignment of each position to enhance stability and spaciousness, and by coordinating many mini movements for more easeful transitions, this series of 12 individual poses becomes one joyful flow.

In the Surya Namaskaram Lineup workshop, we’ll

• dive into the details, practice and polish the physical forms
• design ways to share with students, and
• explore the energetic effects when we turn the attention from the physical to the pranic experience

In examining and integrating the details of the physical form, we experience that the energetic whole is more powerful than the sum of its parts.

Bio

Yogeśwarī Jessica Bertin trained to teach Hatha Yoga at the Integral Yoga Institute NY in 2016, and is certified in Meditation, Raja Yoga philosophy, and Intermediate Hatha. YJB’s classes are interactive and have been described as “joyful,” “spacious,” and “methodical.” During a 15 year NYC coffee career, YJB began Yoga and was profoundly impacted by the practice’s mental health benefits. Presently, YJB teaches Hatha theory for teacher trainings and classes for various levels of experience and ability. In addition, Yogeśwarī’s services include staffing Yoga trainings and retreats, as well as consulting and development for Spiro Collective. Some of YJB’s favorite activities are playing in kitchens, getting lost in the woods, and twisting wild woody vines into wreaths.