Myofasciae, Prana, + the Bandhas: Merging Anatomy and Spirit

Releasing the biological fabric through asana, pranayama, and the bandhas

*300 Hour Kunga Yoga Essentials Track Required Training

THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS 20- HOUR MODULE WILL BE TO:

• explore the anatomy, physiology, and function of connective tissue( fascia) as a way of understanding how its health is integral to the function of our other “life” systems, including, but not limited to, our physical, emotional, energetic, and “communicative” self.
• apply this knowledge experientially in our own yoga practice using asana, kriyas, pranayams, and bandhas to sense the pervasive nature of this flexible armor that creates the shape we’ve come to know, while continuing to sculpt who we are to become.
• provide for us as teachers, therapists, and bodyworkers new ways of body-reading; coming to better understand and support our work with both students and clients.

“You see….., I believe in shapes. I believe everything good has a shape. Shapes are the way in which we know who we are and where we are in our universe. Show me the shapes and forms a person gives to her or his life, and I will tell you whether she/he is a master or victim of that life”.
(paraphrased from Gail Goodwin’s “Glass People”.)

In the introduction to the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, under the sub-heading titled The real purpose of hatha yoga, there is the following reminder:
“Just to improve the physical health ( of a patient) is not enough. The mental health must also improve, the nature must change, the personality must change, the psychological and the psychic framework also has to change. You should not merely feel freedom from disease, but freedom from bondage and from the vagaries of the mind. Now, the time has come when teachers in every part of the world must understand and transmit the true nature of hatha yoga”.
Our bodies, minds, and spirits all represent form. As the Pradipika reminds us; these are not separate entities, but one form. All ‘systems’ must then, for optimal health, be communicating synchronistically, consistently, to function properly. As American Architect Louis Sullivan stated: form follows function, but to flip it around, function will inevitably, necessarily, be a byproduct of form as well…
Our myofascial network is our stand- alone matrix of channels and pathways in which all other of the body’s systems are suspended in, and rely upon,, a full representation of a micro-universe; the materials most anatomists have until recently discarded and/or ignored in dissection labs. One thing we need to remember first and foremost about fascia is that “It’s Alive”!