SELF CULTIVATION IMMERSION

Thursdays in September, October, November, December (2-4pm EST)
Price: $400 full program ($30 per session)

All hours bankable toward your Katonah Yoga® Certification.

We all want something more of ourselves and for ourselves, seeking ways to make the unconscious conscious, so that our first nature doesn’t steer our narrative. As esoteric explorers we are always looking for intentional ways to address the slings and arrows of our personal circumstances, to cultivate our second nature so that we can express our greatest humanity.

Join us this fall to explore a series of self cultivation techniques that address our physical health, mental well-being, spiritual stamina and emotional maturity. Whether it’s new ideas about nutrition, developing a home practice, wrestling with the mind in contemplation or finding insight in the tarot, each will open up a portal to a new experience and each experience will offer us an opportunity to unearth those pieces of ourselves that are disconnected, overworked, out of tune, misaligned or overloaded.

THE BODY AS A GARDEN (Thursday September 8th)
with Chase Connolly

We start our journey of self cultivation considering our body as a garden, stepping outside of the house to consider the patterns of Great Nature and how they intersect with the self - the gardener. Growing a healthy and abundant garden takes consistent effort for continued grace. In this session we will explore the body as a garden as it reflects the internal ecology of our own soil, as well as the external ecology of the current state of cultural and worldly affairs.

HOME PRACTICE: DEVELOPING A PRACTICE (Thursday September 15th)
with Abbie Galvin

A home practice addresses the vision and virtue of personal health, wellbeing and long life. A home practice is a commitment to self-care, a ritualized modus operandi for one’s participation in a technical integration of mind, body and breath. Engaging in a home practice is a way of addressing the manner in which one personally organizes one’s self. The repetition of a refined home practice, over time, is what changes us.

HOME PRACTICE: STAYING WITH YOURSELF (Thursday September 22nd)
with Abbie Galvin

The integration of a home practice is a continuous act of self cultivation, a process that is never over. It is recreated and redirected with every experience one encounters through their life, making the Home Practice the ultimate refuge and space for insight. One of the most difficult conundrums of practicing with oneself is how to harness the mind. Like a goat on a tether, the mind needs that thread of connection preventing it from wandering so that we can get on with the business of being fully present, contained inside ourselves, just under the surface of daily life so that we can access more time and space within.

SEASONAL NUTRITION (Wednesday September 28th)
with Chris Chen

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, proper nutrition and digestion is the foundation of good health. More than counting calories and vitamins, traditional wisdom relies on eating in balance with each season of the year in accordance with Yin and Yang principles and Five-Element Theory.

SOUND FOR SELF SOOTHING (Thursday October 6th)
with Linsey Boisvert

Sound is a powerful tool that can be used to retune our bodies to higher vibrational frequencies and natural rhythms. In this session we will explore and experience the benefits of sound which can be used support the health of our organs and bones, help to unravel our overthinking minds and aid in the regulation of our nervous system, immune system, hormones and sleep cycles.

QUALITIES OF THE MIND (Thursday October 13th)
with Ally Bogard

Concentrated focus, non-judgmental observation and genuine curiosity are inherent qualities of the mind, but also must be cultivated to shift incessant thinking to presence and inner-criticism to self-awareness. This session will provide tools of inquiry and insight in order to use our own stressful thoughts and reactive patterns, in real time, to gain mental clarity and emotional regulation.

CARING FOR YOURSELF WHILE WORKING ON YOURSELF (Thursday October 20th)
with Alex Sharry

What do we do with the insights discovered through our yoga practice? If the buck doesn't stop in the body, how do we tend to an inquiring mind? In this session we will explore both the burden and relief of working on yourself, learning to contextualize psychological connections and cultivate a practice that elicits care, patience, self-acceptance, relief and the capacity to cope.

A BODY BASED APPROACH TO REGULATING THE MIND (Thursday October 27th)
with Giuliana Hazelwood

If “the body keeps the score” what goes wrong when we feel “off?” In this session we delve into the science of the nervous system, stress cycles, burnout and overwhelm and move through somatic exercises designed to complete the stress cycle and bring the brain and body back "onto the same page."

MAGIC SQUARE PRANAYAMA (Thursday November 3rd)
with Abbie Galvin

Moving through the route of the magic square organizes us in time and space. For the structure of anything, determines how it functions. In this session we will experience a magic square pranayama practice, traveling the route of the magic square, as we move through the metaphorical house of our personal abode.

KUNDALINI BREATH WORK (Thursday November 10th)
with Hari Kaur

In this session we will experience Kundalini breath work; a rhythmic practice of pranayama, meditation, mudra and deep relaxation, to create a state of coordinated mind and body that can give rise to expanded states of consciousness and vastness.

THE WRAPS FOR RAPTURE (Thursday November 17th)
with Ty Watson

If the body is the vehicle, the mind the passenger and the breath the driver, then the wraps for rapture become the way to track and move through a route. The map of the moment, 24 hours in a day, the seasons and the the ebb and flow of circadian rhythms all become our personal relationship with TIME. How do we meet ourselves in the moment, how do we use the potential of our day, or cultivate ourselves over a year? In this session we will discuss the potency of the breath as a way to organize the mind, travel through time and then move through pranayama to synthesize it all!

CONTEMPLATIVE EMBODIMENT (Thursday December 1st)
with Chase Connolly

In this session we will descend the staircase, temporarily setting aside the intellectual endeavor of the practice, to delve into a more subtle space, spending our time learning how to tap into the felt sense of the body through stillness and slow investigatory movements in order to build neurological pathways allowing us to develop interception; ones ability to become more cognizant of the interior states of the physical body.

TAROT FOR DIVINATION + GROUNDING (Thursday December 8th)
with Kyle Freeman

In this session we will explore how to use the tarot as a divinatory tool to access our own inner guidance around anything we might be working on. We will review a spread for grounding and then pull cards, to offer support in grounding in whatever comes up. Come with an inquiry and a tarot deck, if you don’t have one we can pull cards for you! No previous knowledge of tarot required.

CULTIVATING OUR SHEN (Thursday December 15th)
with Kyle Henry

Shen is the Chinese word for spirit. The Taoists believe that spirit is something that emanates from each of us, that makes us unique and special. In this session, we will delve into the concepts of spirit from a Taoist perspective and explore means to cultivate our spirit within ourselves and in relationship to the universe around us.

THE NARRATIVE THREAD (Thursday December 22nd)
with Abbie Galvin

In this session we will explore how to make implicit information, our third strand, more available to us, for a richer, more expressive personal journey. We use the metaphor of a braid that holds us together in order to explore our three natures; Lunar, Solar and Stellar and it is our third nature, our implicit, soul’s nature, accessed by the first two, that completes us. This third nature is our narrative thread, our esoteric braid, our imagination, our choices, the artistry with which we live our lives.