Coming Back to Our Senses: The Yoga of Sensory Awareness

How long should I stay?  How deep should I go? What should I do today? What should I be feeling? These are all questions that arise through seeking an external reference and standing outside our own direct experience. Yet, the “breaking news” of the body’s weather is arising moment-to-moment as a fresh and accurate portrayal of our inner experience, whatever it may be.  Learning to adapt, clothe, and to tailor our approach based on this body weather report can transform Yoga practice into a powerful self-inquiry that paves the way towards self-knowledge and self-healing.

Our sense perception offers us knowledge through direct experience versus knowledge as information, yet from a very young age we’re taught to distrust our felt perception.  Years of indoctrination in methods, techniques, and formulaic paradigms developed by outside authorities can tyrannize perception, pulling us away from, rather than towards our own insight. Unconscious conditioning about pain, comfort, effort and relaxation, can thwart self-care towards self-coercion. This intensive is a chance to explore building a greater connection to and confidence in your own kinesthesia (interoception).  As you shift from the outward striving of acquisition towards the inward journey of inquisitiveness the body suggests new options, vectors, and subtle possible entry points into movement leading you back to what is true and helpful.

Our session each day will include lecture discussion followed by experiential practices such as Body Weather Reading in sitting meditation, guided movement inquiry, both active and Restorative yoga practice, and deep relaxation.  There will be time at the end of each session for questions and answers.

This intensive is for practitioners of Yoga and somatics with at least one year of consistent personal practice.

Donna's Bio

Donna Farhi is a Yoga teacher who has been practicing for over 40 years and teaching since 1982.  As a post-lineage pioneer, Donna has been at the forefront of generating a new model for teaching and practice that fosters self-inquiry through the cultivation of each person’s innate sensitivity and bodily intelligence.  Going beyond the archaic pedagogic model that is characterised by “Simon Says” mimicry and rigid formulaic methodology, she endeavours to create a safe learning environment where her students can investigate, adapt and evolve their practice to honour their individual needs.  Incorporating the rigorous backing of anatomical principles for safe and sustainable practice, Donna offers progressive levels of engagement that allow people of all levels of experience and from all traditions to build their own authentic Yoga practice.  Considered the “teacher of teachers” students return to Donna’s intensives year after year to be a part of the inspiring evolution of Donna’s own practice and teaching.

Donna is the author of four contemporary classics: The Breathing Book, Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness, Bringing Yoga to Life, and Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship which is a curricular text for teaching trainings worldwide. Her fifth and most recent book, co-authored with Leila Stuart, Pathways to a Centered Body: Gentle Yoga Therapy for Core Stability, Healing Back Pain and Moving with Ease is becoming the go-to text for Yoga teachers, therapists and somatic practitioners. Her latest online tutorial courses on Anatomy of a Centered Body and Yoga for Lower Back Pain: Keys to Sacroiliac Stability and Ease of Movement is making her expertise more accessible to teachers and students worldwide (www.donnafarhi.co.nz).