The Evolution of ‘Prana’ and its Relationship to our understanding of Fascia: Key Therapeutic Insights for the Modern Yoga Teacher — An Introduction

The ‘Prana’ is one of the most fundamental concepts and themes to run through yoga literature and concepts of practice — but it gets more practical elaboration (in texts) with the advent of Tantra philosophy and Hatha Yoga texts.
After a brief outline of the development of the idea of Prana, we’ll look more closely at that elaboration of the ‘yoga body,’ with its elements of nadis, granthis, chakras and so on, and at the idea of the pranamaya kosha —— all of this in the context of the new role of visualization and imagination in the Sadanga (six-limbed) path of tantra, with special emphasis on the role and purpose of this in Tantric philosophy and especially pranayama and Yoga Nidra.
This will provide the lead-in to the Yoga Nidra and Guided Meditation that follows after the dinner break.
Included in the discussion will be some suggestions as to how the functional role of Prana in these approaches to practice (including the ‘cleansing of the nadis’) parallels and illuminates our evolving understanding of the fascia, and the role of that understanding in yoga practice. While most of today’s focus is on ‘fascial release’ — an important idea (!) — this session will consider how fascial awareness (as awareness of the ‘Pranamaya Kosha’) goes much deeper, especially in practices of pranayama, meditation and Yoga Nidra.
This will include an outline of how the concept of ‘Sadanga Yoga’ in Tantra provides the foundation for the structure of Yoga Nidra practice in its earlier forms. This will open up some new vistas in our understanding of the practice!

$35 early bird / $40 day of