Deepening Practices (PYTT)

Deepening Practices: Maturing the Foundations
is available for all yoga practitioners who have a
minimum 200 hour YTT certification (or permission of the instructor).
See below, registration for Deepening Practices in 2024 is open.
This Oct. 7-8, the Esoteric Anatomy weekend is open. 

The 45-hour advanced course is a core course required in our 300 Hour + PYTT.
This courses serves as the prerequisite Bridge Course for
our Yoga Therapy Training, see more here or below.
In-person attendance is preferred, contact us about hybrid options.

Come and learn PranaYoga’s style of teaching before committing to the full PranaYoga Cikitsa Training which requires a total of 500 hours training with 300 hours of advanced yoga training. 

15-hour Esoteric Anatomy weekend only
CEs for yoga practitioners
:
October 7-8, 2023

Meets both days: 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. 
Meets Saturday in Denver: 
PranaYoga and Ayurveda Mandala 
3333 Federal Boulevard (parking off the alley)
Denver, Colorado 80211
 
Meets Sunday in Colorado Springs: 
Yoga Home at The Haven
115 N. Parkside Dr. #2
Colorado Springs, CO 80925
 

$300.00 Early Bird discount for Esoteric Anatomy weekend 

  • $350.00 after Saturday, August 26, 2023
  • $400.00 after Saturday, September 9, 2023

 

2024 offering meets 10 weekday sessions plus 1 weekend:
January 10, 17, 24, 31 February 3-4, 7, 14, 21, 28, March 6, 13 2024
 

Meets weekly 3 – 6 p.m, weekend days from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

15-hour Esoteric Anatomy weekend only, CEs for yoga practitioners
2024: February 3-4, 2024

Meets both days: 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. 

$815.00 Early Bird discount for full course, $300.00 for Esoteric Anatomy weekend only

  • $890.00, $350.00 after Wednesday, December 13, 2023
  • $950.00, $400.00 after Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Course Overview: The course objective is to create a deeper foundation of basic yoga information. It includes a survey of advanced yoga topics, which may help you to choose further advanced trainings. We will review the cosmology of yoga and the tools to help us remember our truth, and an overview of the basics of asana, pranayama, meditation, drsti, mudra, mantra and bandha. We will delve into the effect of yoga tools in relationship to yogic anatomy and ayurveda. A general, brief overview of many classical yoga texts rounds out the course. See below for topic details, including Esoteric Anatomy which can be taken separately.

Our Yoga Therapist training program known as PranaYoga Cikitsa: The Therapeutic Application of Yoga is accredited by the International Association of Yoga Therapists. For more information, visit: www.iayt.org

Link here to see the details of our PranaYoga Cikitsa Training.

Deepening Practices: Maturing the Foundations 

See the four topics below that comprise the full course.

TOPIC
Foundations

Yoga and Āyurveda, two of the Vedic Sciences are grounded deeply within a philosophy of Spirit to Nature.  There is a deep subtle body   We will review the basic philosophy of Kashmir Śaivism, Saṁkhyā, yoga anatomy, āyurveda philosophy, and western musculoskeletal anatomy.  

The subtle body is multi-layered and reviewing the factors that form the cakra (more will be in the esoteric anatomy component), movement of subtle body to the āyurveda doṣa, the kośa and the movement of prāna in the prānavāyu will be discussed and practiced.

Important too, is to be able to read the subtle body balance through body reading the anatomical body.  What is it saying?  Is the body really the Silent Communicator of the Spirit? 

 
Handouts will be part of the course materials.
Suggested Materials:  
Lad, Vasant,  Ayurveda, The Science of Healing.  1984, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.
Dychtwald, Ken.  BodyMind. 1977, Jeremy P. Tarcher, Los Angeles, CA.
Shapiro, Deb, Your Body Speaks Your Mind: Decoding the Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Messages That Underlie Illness, 2006.  Sounds True, Boulder, CO.

TOPIC
Esoteric Anatomy
offered as a stand-alone CE course on October 7-8 in Colorado Springs, and again on February 3-4, 2024 

Rather than learning about the external manifestations of the cakra, we are going to enter the vibrations of the Divine and explore the inside story. Explore the concept of being an expansion of Divine energy, receiving an opportunity to experience itself in form.
– Learn about the cakra’s source energy as a vibration of the Divine essence.
– Explore how the movement of the vibration creates a unique vrtti, or dynamic for us to explore in our life.
– Learn where the vibration moves through the nadi to points on the skin called marma points, ksetra, or bindu points.
– Acquaint yourself how the channeling of consciousness into form creates our unique dosha.
– Learn to select movements that tap into the vibration of your expanded Self in asana, pranayama, and meditation to support your personal growth and that of your students.

 
Handouts will be part of the course materials.
Required, choice of:
Johari, Harish, Chakras, 1987, Destiny Books, Rochester, VT.
or
Radha, Swami Sivananda, Kundalini Yoga for the West,  1985, Shambala, Boston, Massachusettes.
 
Required, choice of:
Frawley, David, Ranade, Dr, Subhash, and Lele, Dr. Avishash, Ayurveda and Marma Therapy, 2003, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.
or
Lad, Dr. Vasant and Durve, Anisha, Marma Points of Ayurveda, 2008, The Ayurvedic Press. Albuquerque, New Mexico.
 
Suggested reading: Frawley, David, Mantra Yoga and Primal Sound: Secret of Seed (Bija) Mantras, 2010, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, WI.

TOPIC
Overview of Classical Texts

The classical texts set the groundwork to understand yoga as a therapeutic tool.  We review and summarize the basic Raja Yoga and Hatha Yoga texts to understand the power of the tools of yoga.  We will explore teachings to integrate the ancient awareness of psychology through an in-depth study of the Yoga Sutra and application of the principles through the Epics who apply the teachings to life experiences. 

Even though will will have only a short time, the overview of the teachings in the Epics, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa and the Bhagavad Gita, we will touch on yoga philosophy and psychology in an allegorical way.  The Epics guide us to integrate spiritual attitudes into lessons for  everyday life challenges. 

The goal is to plant seeds on how to apply the themes from the texts into teaching tools within a yogāsana class or as a yoga therapy tool.  We will learn the philosophy of Jñana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Karma Yoga into our practices and learn how to share these with students.

 
Handouts will be part of the course materials.
Required books:
Your choice of the Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali.
Digambaraji, Swami, Hathapridipka of Svatmarama.  1970, Kaivalyadhama, Lonavla, Pune, India 
Digambaraji, Swami, Gheranda Samhita.  1978, Kaivalyadhama, Lonavla, Pune, India
Mohan, A.G.  Yoga-Yajnavalkya,  Ganesh and Company, Madras, India
Vasu, Rai Bahadur Srisa Chandra, The Shiva Samhita. 1996, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Dehli.
Yogananda, Paramahansa, The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita, 2007, Self Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, California.

TOPIC 
Yoga Tools and Yoga Therapy vs. Yoga Teaching

Classically, yoga was an individualized personal discipline developed to enhance personal growth.  Yoga Cikitsā offers much more than guidance in a group class with an āsana focus or using yoga personally as a tool for self-discovery.  The course will begin to touch on the integration of eastern subtle body anatomy in āsana and western anatomy.  We will review the differences between yoga teaching and yoga therapy.  This is to support our understanding of the scope of practice for different ways to teach and apply yoga tools.

We will experience and discuss how the the body systems are an interwoven fabric, linked together to harmoniously move us through our life.  By acknowledging the musculoskeletal system is “out of whack”, it becomes the Communicator of the Spirit.  Yoga tools become the path through prāna to recreate balance.  We will discuss the many tools of yoga: āsana prānāyāma, meditation, mudrā, mantra, marma, dṛṣṭi, pratipakṣa bhāvana, yoga nidrā svādyāyam.  We will experience and practice breathing based on western anatomy and how, when done anatomically, it supports the integration of spinal movement, prāna flow and tools such as the bandha.

Going to the mind, a review of pratipakṣa bhāvana will point us to integrating the mind into interpreting daily living experiences.   The inner journey tools of meditation, yoga nidrā and yoga nidrā svādyāyam will round out this overview of yoga tools.  

 
Handouts will be part of the course materials.
Suggested reading:
Frawley, David, Ranade, Dr, Subhash, and Lele, Dr. Avishash, Ayurveda and Marma Therapy, 2003 Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.
-or-
Lad, Dr. Vasant and Durve, Anisha, Marma Points of Ayurveda, 2008, The Ayurvedic Press. Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Calais-Germain, Blandin.  Anatomy of Breathing.  2006, Eastland Press, Seattle, Washington.
Desai, Kamini  Yoga Nidra: The Art of Transformational Sleep, 2017, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.

Reminder: For continuing into the Yoga Therapy certification, don’t delay
to submit your application for an evaluation of your education.

Read more about our PranaYoga Cikitsa Training.

PranaYoga Teacher Training: 300 Hour +

Grow Your Yoga

Deepen Your Practice

300-hour trainings are typically the next step for teachers.

We offer the option to attain 300-hours and more, with an excess of over 1000 hours of advanced classes available.

A required 200 hours of core courses must be supplemented with 100 hours additional elective courses to complete the 300 Hour + certification.

And, then you can continue your studies and earn the Certificate of PranaYoga Advanced Yoga Teacher Training (CPYT) for attaining 1000 hours of education.

You must have a 200 hour YTT certification before you can register. Courses can be used as continuing education.

Samples of core topics include these and more:

Chakra, Tantra, and Esoteric Anatomy
Patanjali Yoga Sutras
Yoga Teaching Methodology
Hatha Yoga Classical Texts
Ayurveda for Yogasana Teachers
Bhagavad Gita

Samples of special interest electives include:

Children’s Yoga
Prenatal Yoga
Senior Yoga
Yoga Nidra
Sanskrit
Yoga as Therapy