Author: Singing Dragon

Robin Rothenberg: Pranayama and Chronic Conditions

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Robin Rothenberg is an author and internationally respected yoga therapist with a full time practice serving people living with chronic pain and illness. She is director of Essential Yoga Therapy with an IAYT Accredited Therapist Training Program and has been involved in yoga research since 2000.

Her Summit offering is based on her soon to be published text, Restoring Prana: A therapeutic Guide to Pranayama and Healing Through the Breath (Singing Dragon, 2019). Robin will share the knowledge she’s accrued from intensive study in respiratory science, and the original Vedic teachings on pranayama.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN ROBIN’S LIVE WEBINAR NOW

Restoring Prana
A Therapeutic Guide to Pranayama and Healing Through the Breath for Yoga Therapists, Yoga Teachers and Healthcare Practitioners
Robin Rothenberg

Grounded in the yogic teachings, this text introduces the Buteyko breathing method as a more contemporary way of understanding the original intention of pranayama. Through extensive research, Robin Rothenberg establishes that as with Dr. Buteyko’s breath retraining technique, the ancient yogis prescribed breathing less not more. Read more

Barbara Dancer: Why does a medical system want yoga?

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Yoga therapy and its intersection with healthcare

“Why does a medical system want yoga?” Dr. Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani asked me this in a conversation about yoga therapy and its intersection with healthcare. “Because modern medicine focuses on curing, but when yoga is added to the equation, it can help individuals heal and give them a sense of their own inner wellness.”

Dr. Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani is both a medical doctor and successor to an ancient yogic tradition and therefore has a foot firmly in each camp of mainstream medicine and traditional yoga. “Modern medicine is good at acute interventions. First, medicine was an art, then it became a science and now it’s more like a business. So is yoga, by the way,” he joked. His view is that medical treatment has changed over time; from treatment of the individual, then to treatment of the diagnosis and now to treatment to the lab report. “But the limitation of modern medicine is the strength of yoga. Yoga empowers the individual and it helps them to connect with their own inner resources. Hence when they come together, they help in the best possible way.” Continue reading →

Heather Mason: Yoga in Healthcare – Head to our Facebook Page Now!

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Heather Mason, MA, MA, MSc, RYT-500, and yoga therapist is the founder of The Minded Institute, a yoga therapy training school, and also the Yoga in Health Care Alliance, a charity devoted to bringing yoga into healthcare at both the grassroots and policy level in the UK. Heather has been teaching yoga since 2001 and has specialised in the use of yoga therapy for mental health populations since 2007.

Heather is actively focused on the integration of yoga into the UK’s National Health Service and in 2018 helped to create an All-Party Parliamentary Group, “Yoga in Society”, in hopes of gaining support from central government.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN A LIVE WEBINAR WITH HEATHER NOW

Shelly Prosko: Hope and Possibility for People with Chronic Pain

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Shelly is a physiotherapist, yoga therapist, educator and pioneer of PhysioYoga with over 20 years of experience integrating yoga into rehabilitation with a focus on helping people suffering from chronic or persistent pain, pelvic health conditions and professional burnout. She guest lectures at yoga and physiotherapy programs, presents at yoga therapy and medical conferences globally, provides mentorship to health providers, offers onsite and online continuing education courses for yoga and health professionals and is a Pain Care U Yoga Trainer.

She maintains a clinical practice in Sylvan Lake, Canada and believes that cultivating meaningful connections, compassion and joy can be powerful contributors to recovery and well-being. Shelly is co-editor of the book Yoga and Science in Pain Care: Treating the Person in Pain (Singing Dragon, 2019).

In this webinar, Shelly discusses chronic pain and the possibilities that lie in yoga therapy to improve health and manage pain.

 

 

 Yoga and Science in Pain Care
Treating the Person in Pain
Edited by Neil Pearson, Shelly Prosko and Marlysa Sullivan. Foreword by Timothy McCall.

This is an integrated approach to pain rehabilitation that combines pain science, rehabilitation and yoga with evidence-based approaches from respected contributors. The book shows how to integrate the practices of yoga and pain science, and promotes the movement to a patient-valued, partnership-based biopsychosocial-spiritual model of healthcare. Read more

Donna Noble: Body Positivity – Head to our Instagram Now!

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Donna Noble has been practising yoga since 1999. She is the creator of CurveSomeYoga. She has been a certified yoga specialist since 2011 with the Yoga Alliance and British Wheel of Yoga. She is also a certified NLP Master Practitioner. As well as teaching in New York and Texas she teaches all over the UK, and also taught at the Om Show, runs workshops and yoga retreats. She hosts her own show “The Noble Art of Wellbeing” on Natural Health Radio as well as being a fitness writer and blogger. She is on a mission to make yoga more accessible and diverse.

Donna is currently working on a book for Singing Dragon about making yoga classes body positive, due to be published in 2021.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE LIVE CHAT NOW

James Foulkes: Yoga Therapy and Lifestyle Medicine

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James Foulkes is a yoga teacher and IAYT Registered Yoga Therapist. Originally from England, James has trained for 15 years with the students of Vanda Scaravelli.

His book, Principles and Themes in Yoga Therapy was released by Singing Dragon in 2017.

At present, James operates a busy Yoga Therapy Practice, and has taught on numerous Yoga Therapy trainings and Yoga Teacher trainings. He conducts classes and workshops around the Washington DC Area, around the United States and internationally.

In this video James discusses yoga therapy and lifestyle medicine, touch, complex illness as well as using yoga therapy to support those who have been incarcerated.

 

Principles and Themes in Yoga Therapy
An Introduction to Integrative Mind/Body Yoga Therapeutics
James Foulkes, Foreword by Mikhail Kogan, MD, illustrated by Simon Barkworth

Provides a brief history of yoga therapy before offering a new way to think about anatomy and the wholeness of the human being. Through case studies, the author explores different principles of practice with tips for yoga therapy practitioners to develop their working client relationship and their own conditioning. Read more

Max Strom: Is Yoga a Women’s World?

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Born with severe clubbed feet, Max Strom spent much of the first six years of his life with his feet confined in plaster casts and braces. Today, he is known for inspiring and impacting the lives of people from all walks of life, teaching breathing patterns and personal transformation worldwide. His method, Inner Axis, is known to produce immediate results in alleviating stress, anxiety, burnout, and depression, impacting the internal and emotional aspects of our life, as well as physical healing. His TEDx talk, Breathe to Heal, is approaching one million views on Youtube. Many know him for his two inspiring books: There is No APP for Happiness, addressing the challenge of finding meaning in the digital age, and A Life Worth Breathing.

In this video, Max discusses men in yoga: why they might feel excluded, the importance of connecting with emotions, and the benefits for men in joining the yoga community.

 

Andrew McGonigle: 5 Reasons Why Lotus Might Not be for You

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 Have you ever wondered why certain yoga postures can feel so easeful in your body while others can feel like such a challenge?

Or why one person can sit cross-legged for hours having never practiced yoga and you still need to sit on four cushions after practicing yoga for years?

The short answer to this is that every body is entirely unique and will express a certain yoga pose in a completely unique way. There are also emotional, psychological and nervous system components that affect how much movement our joints make and the quality of that movement.

Let’s explore some of these factors using our hip joints as an example. Continue reading →

Catherine Annis: Inclusivity in a Group Setting

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Originally a professional dancer, Catherine discovered yoga as a teenager. Practicing for over 35 years, she has explored everything from Sivananda to Astanga before gravitating to the teachings of Vanda Scaravelli.

Catherine’s practice and teaching focuses on deepening physical awareness and alignment to reveal the natural freedom of the body, particularly the spine. She teaches regular weekly classes in London at triyoga and the Life Centre and leads retreats worldwide. She created the first Scaravelli-inspired immersion course.

Catherine has contributed to the Yoga Student Handbook with an essay on Scaravelli yoga.

In this video, Catherine discusses how to approach teaching inclusively, the importance of language, how to communicate with students confidently and comfortably, and much more.

Matthew J. Taylor: Inclusive Yoga – It Ought to Be a Touchy Subject

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These remarks are based on my 17 years as an expert witness in yoga injury cases and yoga safety advocate. This is not legal advice nor counsel because I’m not an attorney, but reflects my understanding from working with attorneys as to what they look for and utilize in either defending or prosecuting a matter. These remarks also reveal my deep biases as a “recovering manual physio” and how yoga differs, at least philosophically, from other practices.

 

The Hot Topic of Touch and Consent in Yoga

If there ever was a veneer of “purity” around yoga teachers and gurus in yoga’s reemergence in the 20th century, it’s now long gone in the first part of the 21st century… and “good riddance”!

So much so, that touch and consent are now very popular topics in the yoga world. I won’t be covering the sordid details here. You can easily find them online. Rather, I want to spotlight the importance of both students and yoga professionals being clear how important having high standards around touch and consent are to making yoga inclusive.

Let’s briefly look at how they influence yoga inclusivity, some points to consider in developing your own standards/boundaries, and a few take-away action steps to consider. May this fuel many deeper conversations… Continue reading →