Yin Explorations: Quietude & Consciousness

with Joe Barnett, ERYT- 500
Thursday evenings October 2, 23, 30, from 6:30 to 8:30

You are welcome to attend any, and encouraged to attend all
$50/session  Sol Member discount applicable

Each cycle of a Yin Yoga asana culminates in a depth of surrender that opens the possibility for a pleasant “rebound,” a mini “Savasana:” a period of contentment, subtle sensation, and spaciousness that is repeated throughout a Yin Yoga class. It’s brief: The Yin Yoga guide leads the practitioners out of this final phase in a minute or less to prevent them from dropping into a deep unconsciousness where they may not hear the sound of the bell and the verbal directions toward the next cycle/asana.

But what if the best medicine is actually the deep dive into sleep? Beyond the studio class setting, Yin Yoga has the potential to help us slide into a full night of sleep, develop a napping practice, build a more harmonious relationship with the dream world, and even lead us toward more peaceful transitions between living and dying and returning.

Beyond a general class, these three sessions will more fully weave asana, pranayama, chanting, poetry, teaching, discussion, and inquiry to illuminate the vast terrain from physical rest, to lucid dreaming, to states of consciousness, to considerations of death, dying, and beyond.

Hi! I am Joe Barnett, an ERYT-500 Yoga Teacher Trainer, based in the southwestern deserts of USA.
I was the original assistant and still a close colleague and friend to Paul Grilley, the founder of Yin Yoga and innovator of a highly popular functional approach to anatomy and yoga asana. I copy edited Grilley’s recent works on meditation, philosophy and energy work. I have been teaching Yin and Yang forms of Yoga for 25 years, and continue traveling nationally and internationally throughout each year offering presentations and trainings based on my long-time mentor’s work. Staying true to the curriculum of Grilley, I provide a deep study (both experiential and anatomical) of skeletal variation, the fascia system, and yoga asana. I also lead a study into the more subtle mind/body practices through a framework of the revered and ancient texts of Patanjali Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita. I guide tantric practices of Pranayama and Chakra meditation as inspired by Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama that combine breath and imagery to soothe the mind, calm the nervous system and nurture Spirit. Parallel with yoga, I proudly serve my home community as an end-of-life doula, volunteer at my local hospice, and lead gatherings on mortality awareness and releasing fear of death, the greatest obstacle to living one’s best life. Integrating the education and normalization of death & dying with the philosophies and techniques of yoga is the ultimate goal.
However, play time is usually spent playing poorly at chess, learning Sanskrit, loving my goats and cats and family, practicing acroyoga, and studying anatomy, including a regular dissection course focused on the fascia layers, and one focused on the brain.