Instructor
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Gary KraftsowM.A., E-RYT 500, C-IAYT
Gary Kraftsow is the founder, director, and senior teacher of the American Viniyoga Institute. He is the author of Yoga for Wellness and Yoga for Transformation as well as the educational DVD series: Viniyoga Therapy for Low Back, Sacrum and Hips; Viniyoga Therapy for Upper Back, Neck and Shoulders; Viniyoga Therapy for Anxiety; and Viniyoga Therapy for Depression.
He began his journey as a student, practitioner, teacher, and therapist at age 19 when he traveled to Madras (now Chennai) India, to study. He later received a Viniyoga Special Diploma from Viniyoga International in Paris, France. Gary graduated from Colgate University in 1976 and received his master’s degree in psychology and religion from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1983.
Yoga for Life – Online
Thursdays: June 3, 10, 17, and 24
Join Gary Kraftsow, founder of the American Viniyoga Institute, to explore specific yogic teachings and practices for modern living. This online workshop includes lecture and practice, and will help move you towards optimum health by adapting various Yoga practices to your unique condition, needs, and interests. Whether you are a Yoga teacher or practitioner, learn to individualize and actualize the process of self-discovery and personal transformation through Yoga.
Session 1: The Relationship with your Spine – June 3
Are you living for your Yoga practice, or using your Yoga practice to help you live your life? Focusing on the spine, we will consider what is essential for creating and maintaining a healthy and integrated structure. Then we will explore how to use breath-centric Äsana (posture) as a functional tool to help you move through life with stability and ease.
Session 2: The Relationship with Your Autonomic Nervous System – June 10
Do you ever find yourself fluctuating between fatigue and stress? Would you like to understand how to use your practice to manage your energy? Focusing on the autonomic nervous system, we’ll consider how to create and maintain balanced energy throughout the day. Then we’ll explore how to use breath-centric Äsana (posture) and prÄṇÄyÄma (breathwork) as functional tools to help you move through life with vitality and relaxation.
Session 3: The Relationship with Your Mind – June 17
Do you have clarity about who you are and where you are going? Would you like to deepen your self-understanding and create a life guided by your values and priorities? Focusing on the mind, we will explore issues like choices and life orientation. Then we will explore meditation as a functional tool to help you set a direction for your future and move through life with purpose and grace.
Session 4: The Relationship with your Heart (Tantra) – June 24
Do you recognize that your thoughts, emotions, and behavior mutually influence each other, are provoked by your conditioning, and form the basis of your personality? Would you like to overcome troubling emotions and experience more happiness and love in your life? Come explore Tantric practices as a tool to help transform dysfunctional patterns of thought, mood, and behavior and actualize your highest potential.
Live sessions with Gary on Thursdays at 6-9 pm ET.
You will have access to the video recordings until July 8, 2021, for 2 weeks after the program ends.
In addition, you will have access to the Ashram’s Live Hatha Yoga classes at 5 pm ET and access to an online social community to connect and communicate with other participants about this course.
Continuing Education (CE) Opportunities
- Yoga Alliance (YA): Approximately 12 contact hours.
You can input your contact hours using your YA login information. - Integral Yoga Teachers Association (IYTA) can provide you a CE certificate with your program’s total contact hours for a $10 fee (free for IYTA members.) For more information, email [email protected].