Yoga
• for Stress Resilience
• to Prevent and Heal Injury
• of Food, Eating, and Digestion
Yoga of Food, Eating, and Digestion • Sunday, October 17, 2010 • 1:30-4:30 pm
Yoga has much to teach us about cleaning up our bodies and our lives. Yet stress and habitual patterns often foil our good intentions, especially regarding food and digestion.
Our workshop will include:
1. 90-minute asana practice to energize digestion, elimination and cleansing
2. State-of-the-art review of proven nutritional science integrated with how food can support your mood, hormones, and
neurotransmitter balance
3. Support for strengthening wise nutritional choices through inner divinity, yoga practice, the internet and community
4. What is a sugar addict? Food addict? What are the ways of changing your relationship with food?
5. Evidence-based ways to manifest peace and serenity around your plan of eating
Our local yogi Michael Pollen tells us to “Eat Real Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much.” How often do you recognize the reverence and restraint in his wise words, but can’t quite pull it off? Do you eat to soothe, numb or distract? Are you a sugaraholic? What are the hormonal and neurotransmitter drivers of altered appetite? What scientific basis do we have about how we get derailed? Do you tend toward constipation, loose stool or bloating?
How we eat is a complex mix of nature, nurture and core beliefs. It is a gateway to the bright, joyous inner divinity we all posess. Diets end; they don’t work 98% of the time. Whether you are overweight, bulemic or crave chocolate a little too much or have some other hint of food dysregulation, you will benefit from studying your relationship to food and looking through the lens of what Yoga and Integrative Medicine have to offer.
Yoga to Prevent and Heal Injury • Sunday, November 14 • 1:30-4:30
After shoulder and lumbar/sacral injuries in her beloved Ashtanga practice, Dr. Sara began an inquiry into the proven ways to both prevent and heal injuries that we commonly face, particularly of the low back, shoulder/rotator cuff, neck, wrist, knee, IT band, hamstrings, ankle, Achilles tendon, and foot including plantar fasciitis. When should you see a doctor? How can you define your personal edge better in group classes?
Our emphasis will be on asana practice that integrates concepts that both prevent and heal injury, drawing on principles of Forrest and yin yoga, physical therapy, and both ancient and cutting-edge wisdom of how to reduce misalignment and inflammation. We’ve come a long way since the days of RICE! We know far more about how women especially are vulnerable and can reduce risk. Come get curious about your habitual strain patterns (we all have them!) and learn how you may best unwind them.
Yoga for Stress Resilience • Sunday, January 23, 2011 • 1:30-4:30
Resilience – our capacity to stay buoyant as we encounter stressors – is a crucial aspect of how we live sustainably in the world and thrive. Each person’s stress resilience depends on many factors, but top of the list is the adrenals: the little endocrine glands sitting atop the kidneys that are responsible for “fight, flight or collapse.” The untrained mind also can reduce our resilience significantly. In this workshop, Dr. Sara Gottfried, MD, will describe how stress affects our bodies physically, energetically and emotionally. We’ll discuss natural means of creating more resilience with yoga, nutrient-dense food and — when needed — bioidentical hormone and neurotransmitter balancing.
Michelle Cordero and Dr. Sara will co-lead your asana and pranayama practice aimed at rejuvenating the endocrine glands, particularly the adrenal and thryoid glands, and galvanizing neuroplasticity. Dr. Sara will lead a discussion of the our latest understanding of stress, how it may affect you, and possibly accelerate your aging process. Together we will review the latest data on the hormonal, neurotransmitter and lifestyle determinants of optimal resilience.
Note: All three workshops are appropriate for beginning to advanced men and women of all ages and will consist of 50% asana and 50% lecture/discussion.
Sara Gottfried, MD, is a Board-Certified Gynecologist, Certified Yoga Teacher and Integrative Medicine Physician. After graduating from Harvard Medical School, she completed her residency in OB/GYN at UCSF where she still serves on the teaching faculty. Dr. Gottfried has 20+ years of experience in integrative medicine for women. Her training and experience has been pivotal in the development of her novel ideas about “evidence-based integration” of conventional women’s health with complementary and alternative medicine. She is both top-tier physician scientist superbly grounded in the latest data and a gifted healer. Her expertise is greatest in menopausal medicine, bioidentical hormones, prevention of breast cancer and issues of libido.
Dr. Gottfried is a life-long student of ancient healing systems such as yoga, botanicals and Ayurveda. At a young age she learned yoga from her great-grandmother and has practiced daily since 1989. After discovering that her night sweats worsened with her Ashtanga practice, she developed a remarkably effective approach to managing premenopausal and menopausal symptoms with a combination of yoga, and when needed, nutraceutical, botanical and bioidentical hormone support.
Dr. Gottfried feels blessed to have studied with yoga pioneers such as Ana Forrest, Shiva Rea and Patricia Walden, all of whom have greatly influenced her teaching.
Michelle Cordero, MFA, CFYT, brings many years of yoga, bodywork and fitness experience to her yoga teaching. She is a graduate of three yoga teacher training programs and is a certified Forrest Yoga teacher. Deeply committed to high
quality instruction and to evolving her practice, Michelle continues to study with some of the most accomplished yoga masters in the country including: Ana Forrest, Shiva Rea, and Sarah Powers. A dedicated mover, Michelle also studies pole dancing, aerial rope and tissue and dances in a cabaret trio. For more information on Michelle, visit www.yogaluz.com
Dates: Sundays
• October 17
• November 14
• January 23
Time: 1:30 – 4:30pm
Cost:
• $75 for series of 3
• $35 one week in advance
• $45 at the door
