Continuing Studies Course Guide 2022

Continuing Studies

Course Agenda 1 2 3

Welcome and Catching up with Participants

Being an Effective Yoga Teacher

Teaching Online Yoga Classes Refining and Deepening Poses without Physical Reference

Morning yoga practice Mind, Consciousness, and Activation

DAY THREE:

The Many Facets of Pain

Comparing and Contrasting Psychological, Emotional, Discussion with Adaptive Student

Physical, and Pranic /Energetic Pain

Final Discussion and Wrap-up ps. Don’t forget our follow up Zoom sessions!

Welcome!

Under the influence of the Virus That Shall Not Be Named, our only choice is to remain undaunted. So here we are, together again...mostly. We WILL learn together….we HAVE the technology (oblique allusion to what 70’s tv show?).

Seriously, we are glad that you came back. During this week, access to the sensations of your own practice, to memories of being together, to working with your own students, to the spirit of exploration are going to be more important than ever. These next three days, there will be some shared yoga practice, hopefully some whole group interaction, but definitely small group interactions in Zoom rooms.

Listen to each other, learn from each other, and support each other both in and out of our workshop time. Remember, we believe that the most important insights that underpin adaptive yoga cannot be taught...they are shared.

Over the next three days we’ll renew connections with one another, reacquaint ourselves with the core principles that drive this work, determine better ways to reach our students online, and take a deeper dive into the relationship between mind, consciousness, and inward and outward activation.

On the third day, we will give special focus on the multi dimensional aspects of pain and discuss the role that the teacher plays in helping students. Then we will meet three more times to keep on discussing.

Remember, we believe that the most important insights that underpin adaptive yoga cannot be taught...they are shared.

Beingan EffectiveYoga Teacher…

(With a ‘Bake Your Noodle’ Slant)

Being a good adaptive yoga teacher requires integrating a number of abstract principles and insights with concrete instructions and a confident teaching presence.

This involves:

QUOTABLE

Self-realizationbeginsandends inthesameplace.

Knowing one’s own story and not being afraid of one’s own suffering.

Genuinely questioning your assumptions about, and relationship to, disability.

Appreciating and exploring the fundamental sensations associated with the inner and outer body.

The ability to see and describe the ‘miraculous’ unfolding under the guise of what may appear ordinary. This helps our adaptive students feel in their own practice.

To be strong and grounded enough to let the realization of another touch the emptiness in the center of your chest.

Recognizing the intangible and uncontrollable aspects of your yoga poses and realizing how and when they are included into the ‘doing’ of poses.

To allow for the ‘unchanging’ aspect of your experience in poses as the body keeps changing through movement. What is the unchanging dimension of your experience?

Realizing the advantages and disadvantages of muscular action.

Not to get lost in the ether of your own energetic realization, staying steady enough to find words that others can understand.

A deepened appreciation for the interconnections between alignment, precision, the center of gravity, sensing direction, breathing, and movement.

Realizing the non breathing aspects of prana and their role in asana, activation and its relation to breathing.

The realization of the sensation of space and its connection to the inner body and one’s surroundings.

05

Beingan Effective Yoga Teacher…

QUOTABLE

Themind/brainorganizesthedoing. Consciousnessrealizestheexperience.

Realizing the possibility of direction within the unity of inward and outward space.

The ability to change one’s relation to gravity, the resulting sensations, and how to maximize its potential.

Gravity travels through the body.

Being able and unafraid to explore and re-explore concepts and insights, and apply them to concrete instruction. In other words, how to maintain a beginner's mind (and body), despite your increasing knowledge as a means to improve your teaching.

The ability to draw out, witness, and facilitate the intangible and uncontrollable aspects of others as an ordinary part of the human metaphysic. The ability to affirm and normalize the ‘unseen’ aspects of the human experience.

The ability to ‘see’ connections between different poses and even between the parts of different poses. The realization of micro and macro unity within the same experience.

The inward and outward realization of simultaneity both within your poses and between you and the world around you.

The ability to listen to, draw out, and ‘hear’ the stories of others.

The realization of stories as moving, evolving energy to which you are witness.

A recognition of the subtle (and not so subtle) differences between doing ‘to” a student and being ‘with’ a student in non verbal ways. Put another way, the realization of nonviolent, non invasive energetic connection that is the medium of teaching.

Recognizing the differences between fixing, healing, and revealing…. learning to be a witness to how healing happens over time.

The healing of another is NEVER power for the witness..

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Mybodybringsmywholelifetome.

~MATTHEWSANFORD

Teaching Online

Physical safety must be a fundamental sign post, especially when teaching people living with a wide range of ability and in the wide range of situations, i.e. home, group homes, assisted living, nursing homes, day programs, and on and on.

Add to this, knowing the students individually may not be possible and visual assessment of a student’s situation is limited at best when looking into a computer screen.

At Mind Body Solutions, we keep students in chairs at all times, unless the teacher knows each student personally and their safety constraints.

For further information, see Online Teaching Basics on the following pages.

TeachingOnline 07

Safety considerations means that balance must be constantly emphasized.

Teach hand and feet placement very overtly. Demonstrate where to grab and utilize their chair to maintain balance and safety.

Accept that the variety of different poses will be somewhat limited. This means the ability to teach the ‘inside’ of poses becomes even more important.

Teach and cue the whole body. Don’t get caught teaching only the upper body.

Experiment in one’s own practice how to make poses dynamic and challenging. Don’t hold poses too long. Students will be forced into awkward positions because doing yoga poses while sitting in a chair is awkward.

Emphasize the physical base in cuing, for example, the chair seat, the foot pedals (or floor), and the chair back.

Learn to teach from the midline to the outer edges of the body.

Emphasize how and where to grab the chair as part of the sequence of the instruction.

Layer in breath awareness after the physical movement is taught as the foundation of the pose. Too much emphasis on breathing can sometimes create too much complexity and distraction if the physical action is challenging.

Be very mindful when you are teaching poses with gravity shifts away from the midline.

Teach deeper yogic insights, not necessarily harder postures.

Teach the process of realizing yogic insight as much as the poses.

Help your students be students on their own yogic journey by sharing your own journey.

Learn to teach the yoga fundamentals as profound and of the utmost importance.

Teach what makes asana possible and how it travels through the body.

Online Teaching Basics

Things to Consider Before You Begin

PLATFORM LIVE classes

Determine video platform for teaching delivery. Examples may include Zoom, GoToMeeting, WebEx, YouTube Live, Instagram Live, Facebook Live, etc.

ONLINE ETIQUETTE Decide how participants will interact. Will you mute them during class? Can they ask a question during class? Know how to remove a student from class if needed. Consider starting the class 5 10 minutes late to allow time for conversation and community building.

UNIQUE CLASS LINK VS. PUBLIC ACCESS You can automate some features like class reminders on several scheduling platforms. Some examples: Schedulicity, MindBody Online, Offering Tree, Tula, etc

TEACHING ATTENDEES HOW TO UTILIZE THE PLATFORM. Interaction with attendees? When will you use “mute” and when will you take questions/have conversations?

TECHNICAL SUPPORT for you and the class. Consider having a dedicated tech support person so you can focus on teaching the class. This is necessary in large, live classes.

ps. Don’t expect perfection!

RECORDED classes

KEEPING PEOPLE SAFE when you have a limited view of them. Will you keep the class seated? Go at a pace to allow for slow movement transitions. Some participants will opt to keep their camera off. NOTE: During social media “live” offerings, you will not see your students at all.

USING A WAIVER/release of liability check with your insurer regarding teaching online and liability.

SAFETY AND PACING the class. Go slowly to allow for students to respond to instructions. Provide lots of clear verbal cues.

DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING How will people find your classes?

DISCLAIMER/RELEASE of liability check with your insurer regarding teaching online and liability. Use editing software such as iMovie to edit.

Tutorials on YouTube for editing. Zoom has limited editing capabilities, you can trim the beginning and end of each video within Zoom itself.

Teaching Considerations

For a virtual Class

SETTING UP

CAMERA PLACEMENT AND ANGLE Make sure your students can see you. Practice your set up, giving your students an optimal angle from which to view your poses.If possible, demonstrate the pose you are teaching for those who need visual cues to do the pose. Make sure there is a full view of the teacher.

LIGHTING Avoid backlighting and shadows. Purchase additional lighting as needed.

BACKGROUND Don’t melt into your background! High contrast clothing and props are essential for good viewing e.g. blocks should stand out from mat, dark clothes against a light background.

Audio Internal computer mic v. external mic

To stand or not to stand??

Think, safety first! Standing poses can be risky. Consider your audience and opt for seated or floor poses.

SAFETY FIRST

COMMON SENSE PRECAUTIONS

Note: This is not an exhaustive list. Know your audience and err on the side of caution when teaching.

Move slowly in and out of poses. Limit movement transitions. Don’t do a pose if it causes pain. Use caution with poses that shift the center of gravity.

Remind participants who use wheelchairs to lock brakes or turn off power WCs.

Students with limited trunk stability may need to keep their seatbelt fastened.

Encourage participants to keep breathing.

Twist gently avoid twists if they have rods.

Limit forward folds for those with osteoporosis/osteopenia, impaired balance.

No inversions “upside down” poses. Consider keeping the class seated in a chair.

Teaching Considerations

and Sequencing Ideas

TEACHING the class SIMPLE SEQUENCES

Keep instructions simple and easy to follow.

Invite people to gather props beforehand if you are using them. This can be as simple as a blanket and a robe sash, hardcover books for blocks, pillows for bolsters, etc.

Use slow movements to allow people to follow along. Recognize that you may not be able to see your participants well or at all.

Take time for rests and repositioning. With breathing exercises, show on your body where you feel the expansion, e.g. hands on ribs or chest, etc. Demonstrate the poses as audio may be compromised. Too much time spent on breathing activities can be fatiguing and hard to watch. Consider layering in the breath as you come into a pose. Keep your routine simple and short. Do a variety of simple movements so there is something for everyone. Remind them that they do not have to do every pose and that skipping a pose is okay. Always end with final relaxation pose (Savasana).

REMEMBER

CENTERING

Simple breath practice or short meditation Consider carrying this as a theme and layering in the simple breath practice in poses.

GENTLE WARM UP

Rolling shoulders

Arm motions start small, increase as desired. Cat/cow or kitty/calf Wide arc arms with breath Side arc Hip warm up movements

THEME OF CLASS

Some

examples

Grounding and Expansion Rhythm

Modified standing poses in a chair Side-body opening

Gentle Backbends

Gentle Twisting

We are more interested in the experience of the pose rather than the perfect physical manifestation of the pose. Poses may look very different from one person to another. Keep the whole class moving in the same general direction. Create a supportive community in your classes.

ALITTLE HOMEWORK

PRANA FOLLOWS CONSCIOUSNESS MORE THAN IT FOLLOWS BREATH

TO DO: Please watch these two videos in preparation for Day 2

Matthew explores what this seemingly paradoxical line from an ancient yogi's text might mean for a centering practice. He explores how to ‘fill’ your vessel with consciousness (the transformation of emptiness to fullness) and then utilize the breath to ‘touch’ everything through that fullness. The aim is to transition the mind from judgment to felt experience as a means to let prana follow consciousness and thus improve the quality of breath. “Humble to your experience is the way for the yogi to be.”

ACTIVATION THROUGH A WIDER BASE

Matthew explores alignment and activation while utilizing a wider base as a precursor to other asanas, especially standing poses. In so doing, he harkens to many of the themes in the series thus far: the importance of alignment and symmetry, how prana follows consciousness more than breath, how a lifted chest activates the flow of prana, how breath amplifies life force, and finally how time can be used to dissolve the mind into a flow of consciousness. “Prana is like a river and you’re trying to be clean cut riverbanks.”

Mind, Consciousness, andActivation

Speaking, describing, and making distinctions within inward experiences is like trying to stop a vast river with only your hands. And yet, that is what a teacher must try to do, especially a teacher endeavoring to share yoga with students of all abilities. There is usually no easy default to the ‘doing’ of poses as the main vehicle for the adaptive student’s learning. This makes an adaptive yoga teacher’s personal practice and the ability to put inward experiences into descriptions even more important. Add to this a premium on a teacher’s ability to witness, affirm, confirm, and encourage your student’s inward experiences. Learn to foster the non verbal sharing of similar experiences. Finding words and descriptions for the multi leveled relationships between mind, consciousness, and activation is incredibly difficult. This is our task on Day 2. On this day, our discussion will start after I have taught a yoga class in which I have emphasized some strategies for initiating a deeper level of inner to outer activation. These strategies are more meant for your own practices and eventually integrated into your teaching. The next page offers bullet points in which hands are being put into the river...some of them are intended as reminders, some will be posed as questions, many will feel paradoxical.

MIND, CONSCIOUSNESS, & ACTIVATION, CONTINUED...

The subtle body (or inner body) is received, more that it is asserted. One implication is that the subtle body is less tangible and less controllable. A line that B.K.S. Iyengar said in a class many years ago with a stern voice, “The brain must remain passive. You must learn to measure the immeasurable infinity within.” This quote should make you wonder about the role of the asana in yogic realization. How do you stay grounded in the immensity of the expanse? How do you feel such an expanse?

Perhaps asana is a form of measurement, like taking a tape measure to measure the water in a river. Is such an endeavor pointless?

The receiving of poses is better received and therefore perceived, when it travels through some sort of structure. Examples might be alignment and precision. What else?

And yet, space is the conduit of the subtle body. How are you going to reconcile these last two bullet points?

Why would B.K.S. Iyengar refer to different “sheaths” within the inward perception of yoga poses? Can the mind truly perceive multiple ‘sheaths’ simultaneously? Can the brain be active when doing so? What happens when the brain becomes passive in relationship to the ‘happenings’ of the body. What, then, is doing the observing?

How is it that interoception and proprioception are possible simultaneously? How do you teach a balance between the two?

Mind and consciousness are not the same thing. Find a way to distinguish them within your own experience, even if ‘consciousness’ becomes just a placeholder, an emptiness.

Why would yogic texts refer to consciousness as the “observer?” Why must the observer be devoid of ego?

Consciousness might be described as the experience of presence without a judging mind.

The sensing of the subtle body requires transitioning the mind toward consciousness. What does it mean to keep the brain passive?

Perhaps one description is that asana instruction aims to help the mind participate. The cultivation of the ‘happening’ is for the realization of the observer of consciousness.

QUOTABLE

Unitywillneverappearbeforeyoureyes; itwillneverbecomeanobjectforyourmind. ~ MATTHEWSANFORD

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Consciousnessdoesn’tneed distinctions,minddoes.

~MATTHEWSANFORD

MIND, CONSCIOUSNESS, & ACTIVATION, CONTINUED...

Repetition is crucial for deepening your experience of the subtle body as long as the observer stays alert.

Time and practice dissolve the mind into consciousness.

Practice does not make perfect. It cultivates transformation.

“You only need two things for a yoga pose: a center of gravity and a sense of direction.” B.K.S. Iyengar.

What does it mean for the practitioner if the sense of direction in a pose is not the direct product of physical action?

Rather it often appears within and through the precise, aligned structure of an asserted physical asana.

Who’s doing the doing? What is observing? Why would ‘observing’ the overall ‘happening’ matter?

Consider some things you already know about yoga poses. A part of a pose can reflect the whole pose. There are mirrors within mirrors in poses, for example, the elbow pits reflect the back of the knee. Or the sacrum reflects the sternum? Or that stretching out through the center of the back arm in warrior II can help the inner front groin release toward the knee and then down to the heel. Or that rotating the belly up toward the ceiling in triangle pose helps make the connection to the back heel. Or that opening a ‘space’ in the center of the chest by broadening the space between the shoulder blades can spread another sheath of awareness through the limbs.

How might you use the fact that there are microcosms within the macrocosm of a pose, combine it with changes in gravity, and utilize breath to create a greater sense of activation with an added sense of direction?

ALITTLE HOMEWORK more

TO DO:

Think about and jot down some thoughts about the relationship between psychological, emotional, and physical pain. Then think through how your initial intuitions might apply to the interactions between these three different aspects of pain and the practice of cutting. Don’t worry. Your ideas can be half baked and speculative. The exercise is meant to help you apply abstract ideas to the practical.

PSYCHOLOGICAL EMOTIONAL

PHYSICAL

The Many Facets of Pain: Comparing, Contrasting

Psychological,EmotionalPhysical,Pranic/EnergeticPain

Pain has many faces. Some faces derive more directly from the physical body, some more directly catalyze the emptiness that we carry within us. All of them affect both mind and body in one form or another. We are one ‘being’ and yet differentiate different kinds of pain. On some level, this means that the different aspects of pain can be described as different qualitative sensations. Sensations can be transformed.

Our sensation based approach can help in this transformation.

pain,andtheabsenceof; nothinginbetween.”

Pain is a cornerstone of our evolutionary survival.

Pain grabs our attention.

PAIN SUCKS.

Pain is something we all share. There is inherent commonality in the experience.

Pain comes to guide us, to warn us, and leads us to modify behavior. Sometimes it can be a teacher.

All the different aspects of pain intersect and interrelate. Remember, we are one organism, but must make distinctions to appreciate the various aspects of our pain experience. Pain will eventually lead to changes in outward and inward behavior.

Pain is a complex process of experiences and behaviors that cut across both mind and body.

Pain tolerance varies from person to person and from day to day. It is affected by all sorts of variables, including lack of sleep, amount of stress, loneliness, and the need for attention. Why might this be the case?

What are the differences between psychological and emotional pain?

Insights

OntheExperienceofPain

Perhaps psychological pain has a tendency toward sensations that are more ‘static’ or ‘frozen.’

Perhaps emotions are a form of energetic movement, both from out to in and in to out. Perhaps emotions are more likely to lead to outward behavior.

Contrast in your mind pranic pain with pranic relief.

Psychological, emotional, and pranic pain catalyzes inward emptiness. Physical pain tends to fill emptiness or acutely obliterate it.

Why would people tend to hold their breath and clench the inside of their mouths in response to pain? What would this make ‘space’ for? Is it a block pattern, a holding pattern? Is it an unconscious strategy? What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a strategy?

Physical pain is the easiest to detect.

Physical pain may have a physical cause and thus a physical solution. Only occasionally is the alleviation of pain this simple.

Insights

OntheExperienceofPain

The mind can amplify the effect of pain. It can also deny it… but only temporarily.

The mind can disconnect from pain. Disconnection is not usually an effective long term strategy. Disconnection has a cost over time.

When left alone, the mind lacks the grounding to be solely in charge of chronic pain management.

The mind tends to collapse in the face of overwhelming pain. Often this is a protective response led by our more primitive nervous system. The body is left to absorb; the mind is allowed to phase out.

In some sense, extreme physical pain is more manageable because, at a certain point, it can induce unconsciousness. It can often be eased somewhat by pain medication, at least temporarily.

Chronic emotional and psychological pain can be harder to directly manage because they are less tangible. They are more like an inward gnawing, unseen pressure.

The process of grieving can cleanse pain, similar to washing a cut out with soap and water.

It is possible to discover that you are in pain. This is especially true with pranic pain.

Physical pain collapses your sense of freedom and space. So does emotional and psychological pain, but in a less acute fashion.

Pranic pain is more of a ‘stuckness,’ more like a ‘logjam’ that can also express itself as physical, emotional, and psychological pain, too. Pranic pain is often characterized by a lack of boundary, an unknown dissipation, an unnecessary holding, a loss of ‘flow.’

Pranic pain is not ‘located’ in space in the same way as physical pain. And yet, pranic pain ‘lives’ closer to the physical realm than psychological or emotional pain. When living with pranic pain, there is a tremendous loss of freedom, especially inward freedom, on many levels.

Natural pain behavior is to recede or disconnect within the mind-body relationship.

On a physical level, this can mean tightening down muscles, clenching the jaw, tightening the mouth and lips, slouching, moving the shoulders up toward the ears. People who are truly living with strong and persistent pain often look pale.

On a postural level, a natural response to pain is to make ‘hollow’ spaces within the body. This is most evident with a sunken chest and slumped shoulders. Know that this is a pain-dulling strategy. The person intuitively hides pain in the ‘empty spaces’ within the body. Often these kinds of postures lead to a complex of victimization, a sense of powerlessness, or martyrdom.

Within the subtle body, pain often ‘flattens’ perception of subtle, inward dimension. Pain sufferers tend to focus on the levels of their mind body relationship that are most painful. This is part of what ‘flattens’ means.

Insights

OntheExperienceofPain

Pain behavior can be very similar to reactions to anxious behavior. Anxiety can be seen as a form of pain.

Pain causes a movement of awareness away from the feet and toward the head.

With all pain, there is a loss of grounding and a fear of exposure. This is why the world ‘flattens’ for a pain sufferer. Being open or exposed becomes confused with the pain itself. Pain becomes anticipated and thereby amplified. This often makes people afraid to re enter the world, whether through action, effort, or extension, deepened inhalation, or exhalation.

Some pain sufferers are primarily experiencing their bodies through the sensation of pain or its expectation. This is especially true with older people.

Often chronic pain sufferers have given up the hope of being pain free. (or even experiencing less pain). This is a survival strategy that must be respected. It is extremely painful to carry the hope or expectation of living with less pain when living with chronic and persistent pain. Beginning to foster the hope of reduced pain and the corresponding freedom is a delicate process. Don’t promise too much while also remaining confident that the current state of affairs can change.

MindBodyStrategies

ForDealingwithChronicPain

The very general main strategy is to reveal a deeper level of inward perception within the mind body relationship, one that precedes or is underneath the perceived pain. [Notice the reference here to time (precedes) and space (underneath)].

The goal is not necessarily to offset or neutralize the pain. This is one of the limitations of the more western paradigm. Sometimes pain simply cannot be eliminated and life still has to be lived.

The goal is also not to distract, nor is it simply to teach a pain sufferer to manage. The goal is to help the pain sufferer reclaim a sense of boundary and therefore space and expansion.

The differentiation of body parts through inner to outer awareness is a way to reboot the sensation of wholeness. Alivened wholeness is a profound form of boundary.

Dulling one’s senses is a form of distraction. This can happen with drugs or eating or even watching screens all day.

By revealing more depth within the mind body relationship, the hope is to help pain sufferers ‘surround’ the pain that they have. The experience of pain must be brought away from the periphery of their consciousness. The sufferer must come to know that they are ‘bigger’ than the pain and thus are not defined by it.

If pain stays on the periphery, freedom is lost and sense experience becomes duller.

MindBodyStrategies

ForDealingwithChronicPain

Facilitate experiences within the body that are not painful. This is not to distract but to reveal the limitations and containment of the pain. Otherwise, pain can become virtually all-consuming, at least on the psychological level of self representation of one’s own experience.

The subtle body does not experience pain, at least in the same way. It contracts or recedes or gets covered up. The loss of the ability to perceive the subtle body can increase the perception of the pain, however. There is freedom in the realization of the subtle body as a level that ‘precedes’ or is ‘underneath’ the pain.

Of course, perception of the subtle body is blocked or at least inhibited by the presence of pain.

Create the conditions of safety for the subtle body to flow through the physical body. This might mean through an adjustment or relief from the force of gravity.

Emphasize the sensations of grounding and expansion. Show the sufferer that not everything hurts.

Pain sufferers must learn to receive again. Their intuitive survival response to pain is to block pain out and overcome it. This strategy can lead to depression if the pain is chronic.

Also, pain sufferers can benefit from giving, especially when it is balanced with receiving. Remember, if pain cannot be eliminated, then it must be moved or released from inner to outer.

Help pain sufferers feel strong. Over time, pain creates the sensation of feeling fragile. Feeling fragile makes pain tolerance more tenuous.

Help people discover and notice the moments that are painfree. Help them realize that what ‘feels’ unrelenting may not in fact be unrelenting.

Show them little movements that don’t hurt. Show them freedom within the microcosm and from there to reclaim the macrocosm.

Help sufferers study and distribute the sensation of relief.

Don’t be surprised by a pain sufferer’s anger or hopelessness. Don’t try to fix their hopelessness. Just know that they are mistaken and trust time.

Pain causes a self protecting narrowing of consciousness. Help facilitate an grounded expansion.

The silent emptiness within the mind body relationship is not for hiding pain in. It is to help reveal spaciousness, relief, and hope. Help awaken the senses and connect them to the outer world without focusing the pain sufferer on pain.

Know that pain creates blotches and/or fog in the clarity of consciousness.Help people translate their pain into stories. In the words of Kevin Kling, “Once you can tell a story about something, it no longer controls you. You control it.”

Pain is exhausting. Lack of sleep increases pain or lessens pain tolerance. If possible, help your students sleep better.

Help your students claim or reclaim savasana.

You are not there to fix.

You are not there to promise.

Foster hope by fostering curiosity and possibilities.

Role of the Teacher With Respect to Pain in Another 22

Foster options, ordinary ones through sharing attainable, simple practices.

Strike the balance of acknowledging and honoring a person’s pain descriptions without empowering them.

Help the person understand that living with pain is a process, not a destination.

Meet their vulnerability by acknowledging and sharing your own.

Help them know that they are not alone.

Stay even and steady a non verbal expression of grounding.

Sometimes you can do nothing to alleviate the pain but be company and stay curious.

Know your limits. Attempting to ‘feel’ another’s pain is not only a mistake, but it demonstrates a lack of confidence in your own story.

Don’t take or allow for too much credit for successes.

Always look to empower the process of the person being helped, but do so authentically in ways beyond words.

QUOTABLE

Yourwayyousustainhopeis knowingthatitwillreturn. ~MATTHEWSANFORD

90 minute follow up session on Zoom!

Link below, but we'll send a reminder, too.

FINAL DISCUSSION & WRAP UP

Resources

Looking for full length adaptive yoga class, enlightening conversations, and interviews with our adaptive students?

Check out our YouTube Channel, The Hub for full length adaptive yoga classes, enlightening conversations, and interviews with our adaptive students.

Read Matthew's memoir, "Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence."

Watch a full-length yoga class with Matthew Sanford "Beyond Disability"

Listen to Matthew's interview, "The Body's Grace" with Krista Tippett on her podcast, On Being.

And check out our website for new workshop offerings and more.