Yoga Fundamentals Workshop: Alignment Principles for a Safe Practice
Upcoming

The Yoga Fundamentals Workshop is geared for people who are either starting out in their yoga practice or for those would like to revisit and clarify basic alignment principles.

Through demonstration, discussion and experiential movement, the workshop will empower you with key understandings and information on how to help keep your body safe - whether you are practicing in a class or on your own.

The safety and positioning of three key areas of the body will be examined in relation to yoga postures: the shoulders, the lower back and the knees. Correct alignment of these areas will be explored in relationship to building an awareness of core strength and stability.

When asanas (yoga postures) are practiced with awareness and knowledge of healthy alignment, you will find greater comfort and ease in the body. Proper alignment is essential to avoid the risks of injury and to establish a solid foundation on which a practice can grow.

Once the body feels taken care of and is not risking injury, we are also more available to explore the benefits of subtler practices such as pranayama (yogic breathing) and meditation.

The Yoga Fundamentals Workshop will deepen your understanding of basic alignment principles to promote safety and ease in all yoga postures.

* Although weekly classes at Yogaspace are open to new students, the classes are not specifically introductory. This workshop will provide an optimal orientation (or re-orientation) to anyone wishing to practice yoga regularly - whether here at the studio or elsewhere.

Instructor
Clearlight Gerald, MA, E-RYT500

Registration Details
• Enrollment is limited and workshops can fill in advance. Please register early to secure a space.
• The workshop fee of $65 includes applicable 5% and 9.975% taxes, and must be received within 5 days of your registration in order to reserve your space.
• Payment can be confirmed with Visa/MasterCard (by phone 514-933-8671) or by personal cheque (by mail).
• Workshop fees are non-refundable unless your space can be filled. A $20 processing fee is applied to refunds.
• Contact Clearlight for more information or to register, by email or by phone (514) 933-8671.

Reflections from past 'Yoga Fundamentals' Workshops

"This is an excellent opportunity to finally learn the correct positions and alignment that often we miss when doing yoga via videotapes or with an occasional class. This course has opened the door to years of progress for me."
- Anna Woodrow

"As an orthopaedic physiotherapist, I recommend Clearlight's yoga classes as being absolutely safe and excellent for correcting spinal postures and spinal strengthening. I recommend her classes to my recovering back patients."
- Karen Cassini

"With the popularity of yoga these days, it's wonderful to have a specific workshop designed with safety in mind."
- Jeanette Ward




Clearlight Gerald, MA, E-RYT500, founder and director of Yogaspace Studio, is a professional level certified Kripalu and Prenatal Yoga Teacher. Clearlight currently teaches classes and workshops at Yogaspace in Kripalu Yoga, Pregnancy Yoga, Childbirth Preparation for Couples and Mom & Baby Yoga.

Clearlight started practicing yoga in 1991, and began teaching in 1999 after she completed her certification as a Kripalu Yoga Teacher and Pregnancy Yoga Teacher. Today, Clearlight is a student of nondual wisdom teachings as taught by her teachers and mentors Richard Miller and Joan Ruvinsky. Clearlight actively pursues her love of yoga in her studies, personal practice, teaching and family life.

During her first years of teaching, Clearlight studied and practiced with many wonderful teachers from around the world, including Donna Farhi, Gary Kraftsow, Anodea Judith, and Krishna Das. It was at this time she gained extensive experience and insight into the practice and application of yogic breathing and asana, physical and energetic anatomy, and the ancient teachings of yoga.

During these formative years she taught at different locations throughout Montreal, including Concordia University, Marianopolis College and the Montreal Athletic Association, and worked part-time as a program assistant at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts. In 2002, Clearlight created Yogaspace Studio in Montreal, where she now teaches exclusively.

In 2004 Clearlight met Richard Miller and Joan Ruvinsky, senior teachers of the pathless path of nondual teachings, both students themselves of Jean Klein. During her first interactions with Richard and Joan she felt that she was "coming home to truth" - and in that moment knew she had found the teachings that she was deeply compelled to follow. Since then, Clearlight has been deeply immersed with Richard and Joan in studies that are dedicated to these teachings.

Clearlight completed the Yoga Nidra (iRest) Teacher Training with Richard Miller in 2009, and is now a mentor for others pursuing their certification as Yoga Nidra teachers at the Integrative Restoration Institute (IRI). (IRI is a non profit organization dedicated to the path of self-inquiry and awakening through the teachings of nondual wisdom.) The teaching of yoga nidra is a beautiful method of self-inquiry and meditation and informs every level of Clearlight's teaching.

Concurrently, Clearlight continues to deepen her focus and skill as a specialist in teaching prenatal yoga and postnatal yoga, a path she chose after feeling profoundly inspired, well before her teacher training, to bring yoga to pregnant and new mothers. As a result of following her heart, she has had the privilege of teaching several thousand expectant and new mothers in her pregnancy yoga, and in her mom and baby yoga classes.

Clearlight brings lived wisdom to her teaching that she has gained both from her personal life as a mother of two daughters and her 12 years of professional experience. The prenatal and postnatal classes emphasize ways to bring yoga and nondual teachings to life, both practically and spiritually, into the role of being a parent.

She continues to offer an inspiring context in which women and couples can connect more deeply to the wisdom, balance, and joyfulness that they bring with them into childbirth and parenthood. (Make sure to read the wonderful birth stories by moms who were in Clearlight's classes.)

Clearlight's dynamic teaching style reflects the passion she has for her personal practice and her love of inquiry. Her teaching of the physical practice of postures balances both an emphasis on core stability techniques and safe alignment with the importance of not only liberating deeply held tensions, but of discovering how the practice of yoga can bring a greater sense of wholeness and balance to every aspect of one's life.

Other aspects of her teaching include yogic breathing, chanting, the sharing of inspiring music and poetry, discussion based on ancient texts and meditation practice (including yoga nidra) - all led with the understanding that yoga is a practice not of acquiring, but of recognizing the wholeness of our True Nature.

Finally, since the question does come up so frequently, it must be shared that Clearlight was named Clearlight at birth by her mom and dad, and that she feels a deep gratitude for this beautiful gift from her parents!




• Special Sadhana Intensives
• Couples Workshop: Yoga for Pregnancy and Childbirth
• Deepening Your Yoga Practice with Pranayama