LifeForce Yoga^® to Manage Your Mood
A WEEKEND with Amy Weintraub, MFA, E-RYT 500
Author of Yoga for Depression
CEU’s Yoga Alliance

March 20th-22nd, 2009

March 20th Friday 7:00-9:00pm
LifeForce Yoga – Assessing the Mood

March 21st Saturday 10:00am-5:00pm
LifeForce Yoga – Meeting the Tamasic (Depressed) Mood

March 22nd Sunday 10:00am-5:00pm
LifeForce Yoga: Meeting the Rajasic (anxious) Mood

Costs:
Friday: $45
Saturday: $130
Sunday: $130
Full weekend: $255

Early bird – register by February 20th for these discounted prices
Friday: $40
Saturday: $120
Sunday: $120
Full weekend: $240

Note: It is strongly recommended by Amy Weintraub that if you are going to take only one workshop, be it Saturday or Sunday, that you also take the Friday night workshop as a pre-requisite.

We’ll practice:

• Pranayama and kriya breathing techniques that regulate the emotions
• Meditations that lift the mood
• Creating Affirmation (sankalpa)
• Guided Visualizations (bhavana)
• Tones that regulate the emotions (mantras)
• Hand gestures that affect different areas of the chakra system and the body (mudras)
• Yoga asanas suitable for all levels

You’ll leave feeling refreshed and renewed, with ancient strategies to revitalize your practice and manage your mood. Psychotherapists, health professionals, and yoga teachers will learn techniques they can use to help their clients focus, relax, and have greater access to their feelings. Yoga Alliance CEU’s.

Suggested Reading & Practice: Yoga for Depression: A Compassionate Guide to Relieve Suffering Through Yoga (Broadway Books), LifeForce Yoga to Beat the Blues – level 1 & Level 2 (DVDs), and Breathe to Beat the Blues (CD).

The Details

Friday Evening: LifeForce Yoga – Assessing the Mood
Friday evening session will introduce fundamental relationships between mood, your brain, and the breath. You'll learn assessment tools for yourself and others and simple yogic strategies that combine the breath with sound and visualization to meet and manage your mood. The emphasis will be on pranayama breathing and Nada (sound). Please do not eat two hours prior to the workshop.

Saturday: LifeForce Yoga – Meeting the Tamasic (Depressed) Mood
In this workshop, we will explore ways in which we can work with lethargy and depression. We will explore a yogic method of deep inquiry to help you strip away whatever is blocking the free flow of your energy and your gifts to the world.  You’ll uncover your vision (bhavana) and the sankalpa (intention) to live it.

The morning begins with restorative practices, simple breathing, visualization and self-inquiry. Then we’ll practice pranayama and kriya breathing that energizes and lifts the mood.

The afternoon builds to a stronger, more dynamic practice, energizing body, mind, and spirit. We’ll end with a restorative practice of Yoga Nidra.

You will leave this workshop feeling refreshed, renewed, and excited about returning to your at-home or teaching practice with new tools to bring balance to the emotional and physical body.
Please do not eat two hours prior to the workshop.
Poses will be accessible for all levels, including beginners.

Sunday: LifeForce Yoga: Meeting the Rajasic (anxious) Mood
80% of depression is accompanied by anxiety. In this workshop, we will meet anxiety based depression and other anxiety disorders with a more vigorous practice of asana, pranayama, kriya, sound, and visualization, burning away the anxious mood. We’ll then slow down with calming (langhana) practices and Yoga Nidra.

In the afternoon, we’ll practice the LifeForce Yoga Chakra Clearing Meditation, a meditation technique that incorporates mantra, mudra and breath to clear the central energy channel of the body. We’ll follow with a gentle asana practice that incorporates kriya breathing, mantra, bhavana (visualization), and yoga nidra. Some Yoga experience required, although modifications will be suggested for beginners.

Bio

Amy Weintraub, MFA, E-RYT (500), author of Yoga for Depression (Broadway Books) and founding director of the LifeForce Yoga® Healing Institute, leads professional certification trainings in LifeForce Yoga for Depression and Anxiety for mental health professionals and Yoga teachers internationally. She is also a senior Kripalu teacher and Mentor. Amy is featured on the CD, Breathe to Beat the Blues and the award-winning home Yoga practice series for mood management, LifeForce Yoga to Beat the Blues 1 & 2. Her bi-monthly newsletter includes current research, news and media reviews on Yoga and mental health. To subscribe: www.yogafordepression.com.

Professional Testimonials:

“LIFEFORCE YOGA TO BEAT THE BLUES, LEVEL I, is a rare gem. I love it! Clear and bright, Amy’s obvious love of Yoga shines through in every moment. This is a DVD that I will enjoy, and continue to learn from, for years to come.”
     —Richard Miller, PhD – President,The Center of Timeless Being; author, Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga

“This is a wonderful testament to self-acceptance, the sentiment at the core of beating the blues. Although the practice is indicated as Level1, advanced students will find its comprehensiveness engaging. The outdoor setting creates a feeling of expansiveness, and its tranquility helps us stay focused on Amy’s clear demonstrations.”
     –Yvonne Pwequera, LA Yoga

Amy Weintraub's work is some of the most important in our world today for helping humanity understand more deeply the significance of the mind-body connection. Her insights are inspirational for yoga teachers and all readers. Her in-depth understanding of her subject is an important basis for personal, as well as societal transformation.
     —Rama Jyoti Vernon, Founder, American Yoga College

"YOGA FOR DEPRESSION is a godsend: beautifully written, medically accurate, and very practical. I highly recommend it!"
     -- Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause

"Weintraub has written…a sensitive, intelligent, painstaking exploration of the deeper psychospiritual issues that make up the complex experience of depression."  
     --  Phil Catalfo, Yoga Journal

Amy Weintraub’s Yoga for Depression offers us a powerful and comprehensive guidebook that provides the reader with a precise path for healing from depression. This book belongs in the hands of every person who experiences depression and in the library of every therapist who works with people suffering from depression.
     —Richard C. Miller, PhD, author of Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga and founding editor of The International Journal of Yoga Therapy

It is rare to find such a generous soul, willing to embrace all approaches to yoga, unbiased and yet having intelligent discernment and advice for those searching for help. Amy offers many guidelines and solutions through yoga, to both those who suffer from depression and to yoga teachers working with them.
     —Angela Farmer, internationally known master Yoga teacher

Student Testimonials:

I learned lots of ways to reduce the anxiety and depression of my patients and myself.
     –Aviva Sinvany-Nubel, PhD, APN, CNSC, RN, psychotherapist, Bridgewater, N.J.

My life is already changed! I will use the tools I learned in my own practice and in my work. I feel safe and seen.
     —Susan Andrea Weiner, MA, teacher/expressive arts facilitator, El Cerrito, CA.

This workshop has changed so much—my self-image and my life. My own heart’s desire is 100% clear. I gained tools to help myself and others to live life fully.
     —Marcia Siegel, Yoga teacher, therapist, Carlsbad, CA.

I have gained a softer heart, more receptive mind, and tools to enrich both personal and professional aspects of my life.
     –Regina Trailweaver, LICSW, clinical social worker, Hancock, VT..