Sedona Yoga Festival 2019

To love your lower back, we will use the principles of Ahimsa and Satya, the 2 yamas, or guidelines, that do no harm and accept truth. After anatomical discussion, floor work and asanas are presented to experience this 'be kind to your spine' philosophy and practice, finishing with relaxation. Excerpts from the Concise Book of Yoga Anatomy book will be used, as well as a power point presentation to explain the intricacies of the lumbar/sacral connection, the very center of the body.

Your life is connected in an unbroken thread that reaches back to the beginning of life on Earth 3 billion years ago, and your life is connected with all living things. The air we breathe is refreshed by the green plants of Earth, who use the Sun's energy to build the building blocks of our food from the substance of our exhale. Every breath we take is an intimate connection to the natural world that sustains all life on Earth. As we recognize our interdependence with other life, we marvel in our utter uniqueness - there has never been and never will be another being exactly like us. We joyfully immerse ourselves in connectedness to Life as we experience this uplifting asana and meditation practice of gratitude for the gift of life.

Enjoy a Hatha Yoga class that is all about opening the hips; although some advanced asanas will be taught, Alissa teaches postures in layers so this class is well suited for beginner to advanced practitioners. Enjoy a fast-paced sun salutation and namaskar warm up. This will be followed by some deep hip openers, which will be held while practicing moving meditation techniques. Seal the practice in with breath and meditation to close out the session.

Soft and delicious, need more be said? You will sing and your ears will ring with the cheesy goodness of the 70's. Peace could be reached in the Middle East with this playlist. Yoga Rocks is one of many signature classes of Eric Paskel, The Godfather of bringing real music to the yoga world. Come get a kick your asana kinda of class set to the classics of the hairy chest, gold chains, and handle bar mustache era. Done and done!

Session Title: Asanas as a Path to Compassion and Self-Acceptance

Session Description: Our relationship with ourselves is the foundation to our life – our
emotional states, our relationships with others, our successes/accomplishments.
With asana practice there is no hiding out if we allow it. Our tightness, body rolls,
frustrations, and injuries will present themselves. We can restrict our awareness by
judging our condition with an idea of how things should be OR open to freedom and
inner joy and wisdom by noticing with acceptance. Awareness transforms our
internal state and our bodies and brings us to that “No Problem” open state. This
practice of awareness without judgment can be carried into all yoga styles and into
living with Freedom rather than Resistance.

Bio: Practicing and teaching yoga is my time for presence and being open to what shows
up. It happens without force or struggle. Gratitude, acceptance, light-heartedness
naturally expands to that “no problem state.” This is what I encourage in my
students. I’m blessed to have the guidance of amazing teachers and lineages, ranging
from Gentle Hatha, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Yin, Restorative, Anusara, Bikram, and
AcroYoga over the past 40 plus years. My teaching blends these styles as needed. In
addition, I offer private Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy and Interactive Guided
Imagery sessions to connect with trust and inner wisdom.

Requirements & Preparation: Mobility & fitness level: All participants must be capable of hiking 2-3 miles on uneven surfaces as well as navigate various gradients of terrain without the assistance of a walking aid or third party. Each participant must maintain a current health level that is conducive to hiking at 4000 + elevation without preexisting health conditions that could jeopardize the safety of self or others.

The title describes the class perfectly. This Slow, Stretchy, Delicious class is suitable for Every Body - even those that have never taken a yoga class before. This class targets the whole body with sweet, delicious stretches, which are sure to improve your range of motion and enable you to move with more ease. Modifications and assists given for YOUR body!

Creativity is the magic force of life, and your body is the vehicle for that life force. When you let your creativity flow through the layers of your body, you also make your soul visible. Join this special flow yoga practice that helps you find pathways of connection from your center to the outside world. You will be challenged a little bit, not technically but creatively – you'll find yourself a tool to release any blocks you might occasionally meet. We will start slowly and end up having a lot of fun, we might even step out of the asanas every now and then... This practice works best if you have even a little bit of yoga experience.

Join us in an invigorating and intensive hip opening session and experience precise and fluid movements that can remove tension on a physical, emotional, and energetic level. You will be guided to approach the opening of the hips in a fun and patient way, allowing the body time to respond. When the hips are open and loose, the rest of your body will feel more supported and at ease. Learn tech­niques to gen­tly stretch and open the hips. Increase flex­i­bil­ity, explore dif­fer­ent rota­tions of the hips and safe, effec­tive ways to open them, reliev­ing stress on lum­bar, sacroil­iac, and knee joints, plus you’ll clear, awaken and balance the two base chakras. The hip area is a com­plex clus­ter of pow­er­ful mus­cles, ten­dons, and lig­a­ments, and we can begin to loose the rota­tion, flex­ion, and exten­sion they need to remain agile. Life today requires that we sit too much — sports, such as run­ning and cycling (even walk­ing) demand hip strength but not flex­i­bil­ity, and every­day stress cre­ates ten­sion in your hip area. You will be guided to approach the open­ing of the hips in a patient way, allow­ing the body time to respond. When the hips are open and loose, the rest of your body will feel more sup­ported and at ease. Unstick your hips and get them glid­ing freely again!

We talk about working the “core” yet when we hear that, most of us immediately think of the “six pack abs” when in fact there is much more to the core than a nice looking stomach. The body’s “core” refers to the muscles around the abdomen, pelvis and back, they are also the spines primary stabilizers. The core muscles are almost always active, from sitting to standing, walking to running, the core muscles are at work stabilizing our body. Weak core muscles make one more susceptible to poor posture, back pain and injuries during activity. Core exercises train the muscles in your pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen to work in harmony. This leads to better balance, stability, lean and strong abdominal muscles, and a stronger, more fluid yoga practice.

Yin Yoga is quiet, subtle, and deep. It's physical purpose is to work beneath the muscle tissues, delving into our connective tissues, ligaments, joints, bones, cartilage and the deepest facia networks in the body. Emotionally, it's one hell of a release! This great transformative system, coupled with a charged opening sequence to get the body hot and juicy, is the perfect compliment to old and new, hard and soft, slow and fast, yin and yang. It's another Eric Paskel original which always is more than just a class!