Movement and Breathwork as Essential Preparatory Practices for Meditation
The physiological and psychological benefits of meditation are widely known. Research indicates that meditation helps a wide variety of conditions from reducing blood pressure and stress to managing anxiety and depression. Yet, most people don’t meditate. How many times have you said to yourself or heard from clients “My mind is too busy. I can’t sit still. I can’t stop my thoughts. I can’t meditate” ?
In fact, few people can just sit down and meditate. Most of us need foundational practices to ease our nervous systems toward meditative states. Movement and breathwork are important preparatory practices that help create a neurological container conducive to meditation. The more dysregulated your mind, the more important these practices can be. The secret to their effectiveness may lie in a bottom up mechanism as vagal nerve activity mediates shifts in the tone of the autonomic nervous system. The shift in neurological functioning can be so potent that the techniques segue seamlessly into meditative states.
The ancient traditions of yoga offer a wide variety of movement (asana) and breathwork (pranayama) techniques to facilitate meditative states. In modern times, yoga is associated almost exclusively with the physical practice of poses or asana. However, the history of yoga is steeped in meditative technologies with the ultimate goal of reduced suffering. We can use these techniques to help ourselves, our clients, more readily enter meditative states and develop an effective meditation practice.
This webinar will include
Review of vagal nerve anatomy
Why breathwork and movement matter from the perspective of polyvagal theory
An overview of the four styles of NeuroMeditation practice
Two techniques for each style of practice
Cautions for some breathing practices
Suggestions for checking in with your clients
Participants will gain an introductory understanding of how movement and breathwork shift autonomic nervous system tone to facilitate meditation and two techniques for each of the four NeuroMeditation styles of practice. We will also discuss some precautions in offering breath practices and suggestions for follow up with your clients.
Date: Wednesday, September 2nd
Time: 9am - 11am PST
Cost: $35
Instructor:
Angela Grace, MS, ERYT500, C-IAYT, NMY-T
Angela holds two master’s degrees, one in neuroscience from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the second in special education from Portland State University. She is certified through the International Association of Yoga Therapists and has well over a thousand hours of training and teaching in multiple yoga modalities. In addition, she has training in pain science with Dr. Kevin Cucarro. Her varied experiences have led her to a passionate conviction of the benefits of mental skills training available through the yoga techniques of movement, breath exercise, and meditation.
Angela has worked with a wide variety of people throughout her 15 years of teaching yoga. Most recently as a special education teacher, Angela works with young adults who live with a range of disabilities including autism, cerebral palsy, and intellectual disabilities. Her extensive teaching experience and enthusiasm for the subject matter create engaging presentations and an infectious joy for the wonders apparent when neuroscience intersects yogic practice.
With the guidance of Dr. Tarrant and in partnership with the NeuroMeditation Institute, Angela is currently writing the first curriculum for NeuroMeditation Yoga. She leads NeuroMeditation Yoga trainings for yoga instructors as well as workshop series for yoga practitioners.
