Breath and Self-Mastery with Doug Keller
The Tantric Revolution in Pranayama
with Contemporary Illuminations from the Vagus Nerve
Livestream ~ January 23, 2022
The sage advice of yogis in trying times was a little more than ‘just breathe’ —
though that’s certainly a good start!
Tantra revolutionized pranayama, introducing terms, concepts, and practices that had not appeared in the ‘Classical’ forms of yoga — and also drew upon ideas such as the Vayus and the role of the nadis that go back to the Upanishads, but were relatively unused and ignored in Classical Yoga. Pranayama was reframed and reimagined in a way that integrated mind, emotion, imagination, and interoceptive body-awareness, coupling that new understanding with practical physical techniques.
Our modern understanding of the nervous system — particularly of the autonomic or ‘automatic’ functioning of the nervous system, and the vagus nerve in particular — is evolving in ways that give added insight into what these yogis intuited. The Vagus Nerve, with its central role in ‘self-regulation’ of emotional as well as physiological states in the body as responses to our inner and outer environment, holds an important key to the ‘self-mastery’ that the tantric yogis defined as a goal of yoga practice.
The emphasis in yoga on self-mastery can be understood as the same ‘self-regulation,’ harnessing the power of mind and emotion to overcome obstacles and meet life’s challenges in the most fulfilling way possible.
• This workshop is meant to identify and clarify the key aspects of the breath and pranayama as envisioned by the tantric innovators of yoga, particularly in the Natha tradition. Employ the physical practices they introduced, including bandha set in proper context, and the deeper purposes of fundamental pranayama techniques.
• Along with this, key insights from the Polyvagal theory will be explained in a way that gives us concrete grounding for the more esoteric descriptions given by the tantric yogis, as well as illuminating and refining the actions such as bandha that facilitate our connection with the ‘nadis’ by which we achieve greater mastery in self-regulation and self-expression of mind, body, and emotion.
• In addition to the live lecture and its supporting materials, short pre-recorded guided practices of key pranayamas will be provided, that you can work with again and again to realize the full value of this deep dive into the most valuable and yet most often neglected aspects of yoga practice!
• A recording of this workshop will be made available to all participants. So even if you cannot attend in real time, watch later at your convenience!
Cost: $65 Register
Schedule
10:00 am – 12:00 pm and 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm; 30 minute lunch from 12:00 – 12:30 pm
• The live session will be in a lecture format and include experiential pranayama practices.
• The lecture materials will be illustrated slides with text, which can be downloaded as pdf files.
• There will be opportunities for questions and interaction with the Doug.
• Short pre-recorded guided practices of key pranayamas will be provided, that you can work with again and again.
CEU Credit
The training will carry the added value of 4 hours CEU credit for both Yoga Alliance and the International Association of Yoga Therapy (IAYT)
Doug Keller has been teaching workshops and trainings in the therapeutic applications of yoga for two decades, and is known not only for his effectiveness in communicating this ever-evolving approach in these trainings, but also for his extensive writing on the topic in magazines, journals and his two-volume work on ‘Yoga As Therapy.
He is also, in addition to his traveling and teaching, a Distinguished Professor at the Maryland University of Integrative Health in their Master’s Degree program in Yoga Therapy. This program is state-approved and accredited for granting a Master’s degree in this field, and is fully accredited by the International Association of Yoga Therapists. Visit Doug at www.doyoga.com