August 10th – August 15th
Crestone Mountain Zen Center
Crestone, Colorado
This 6-day annual retreat will combine asana, movement, breath work and a series of practices that communicate Sofia’s unique understanding of the yoga of feeling. Participants will learn to integrate breath, yoga posture, and heart feeling to strengthen the body, release constricting emotions, and ground the whole being in happiness.
REGISTRATION:
* Dormitory $1195
(3 per room, 15 spaces available)
*Large Studio $1095
(9 in a large room)
* Camping $995
In the large dome- 15 spaces available, bring warm bedding.
(No other camping on Zen Center grounds is permitted)
Fees include tuition for the retreat, lodging & meals. This event has filled up quickly in the past years, registration will be conducted on first come first served basis. Register early to reserve your space today!!
Cancellation policy:
Before July 1st, 2009, $150 processing fee subtracted. No refund after July 1st.
What to bring:
Please bring celebratory clothing that you can comfortably move in, your yoga mat, note book & a water bottle.
Schedule:
Tuesday
12-3 pm Arrival & Registration
4-5:30 pm Yoga
5:30-7 pm Dinner
7-9 pm Introduction & Welcome
Daily Schedule:
7-9 am Yoga
9:30-10:30 am
Breakfast, Nature time, hiking, journaling, visiting sacred sites & temples in Crestone.
12:30-1:30 pm Lunch
1:30-2:30 pm Private Sessions with Sofia
4-5:30 pm Yoga
5:30-6:30 pm Dinner
7-9 pm Movement class
Sunday
7:30-8:30 am Breakfast, Nature Time & Journaling
9:30-11:30 am Final Yoga Circle
12:30-1:30pm Snack Lunch, End of Retreat, Departure
About the location:
In Crestone, the stillness and vibrancy of nature becomes as obvious as the nature of our bodies. Crestone is situated in a very sacred valley at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains honored by the Native Americans indigenous to this area. It is home to many spiritual centers, and is a very powerful place for healing, transformation & regeneration. At the elevation of eight thousand feet the air is thinner & the sun brighter, with occasional afternoon showers. We suggest you bring a hat, sunscreen, moisturizing cream & layered comfortable clothing. Also bring a jacket for cool evenings of stargazing & a bathing suit for the hot springs. Bring ceremonial & celebratory clothes to dance in & please do not forget to bring your Yoga Mat (it will not be provided).
Travel Notes:
The closest airports to Crestone are Albuquerque and Denver. Both are a 4.5 hours drive to Crestone.
For ride arrangements & scheduling private sessions with Sofia contact Kelly Sosan Bearer at kellysosanbearer [at] gmail [dot] com.
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Thursday, June 24th – Thursday, August 19th
Meets every Thursday for 9 consecutive weeks.
5-6:30pm PT, 6-7:30pm MT, 8-9:30pm ET
Online Telecourse/Webinar
Registration: $285
Each session is recorded and available via MP3 download. Can’t make the live session? No problem!
* Please note, you did not need to complete Real Yoga I to participate in Real Yoga II. If this applies to you, please send an email to realyogateleseries [at] gmail [dot] com.
This 9-week telecourse of cyberyoga-ing practice will emphasize the capacity to ‘feelingly listen’ (developed in Real Yoga Level I) in order to receive and, Use the formula of geometric perfection in the development of yogasanas into personal ‘knowing’.
The Rainbow of spinal experience will be the foundation of each of the 9 lessons, while the sublime extension of the limbs (arms, legs, head) will be the learning ground for both conversation about our understanding, as well as, mutual breathing into our personal draw towards service in our individual and collective worlds.
Re-member that our world begins with our willingness to be This Body!!!
Each weekly 90-minute class will include:
- 15 minute Theoretical introduction
- 45 minute virtual yoga practice from the comfort of your own home
- 5 minute Savasana Silent digestion
- 25 minute discussion/Q&A
- downloadable mp3 of each class
- weekly practice assignments
You can participate live or listen to the recordings later, at any time, from anywhere in the world. Each session is recorded and available for download as MP3’s for your records.
Weeks 1 & 2:
- 9 Touchstone review
- Fundamentals of Forward Bends
Weeks 3 & 4:
- The Five-Pointed Star of Standing & Back Extensions
Weeks 5 & 6:
- Twists, Hand Balances and the Complexity of Conscious Joints
Weeks 7 & 8:
- The Rainbow of the Spine Inverted
Week 9:
- Review and the Specialization of Asanas for Our Individual Dispositions
Registration: $285
Can’t Make the Call?
No problem… If for any reason you can’t attend the live call, you can download a recording of the call and listen to it whenever you like. This includes 9 weeks and 90-minute MP3′s. We will post the recording from each class as soon as possible after the event.
How can I Ask Questions?
Throughout this teleseminar series you can submit questions via email. You can even submit questions online during the call as Sofia Diaz will be answering them live. Questions will also be answered live via the phone.
Weekly Assignments:
Each week Sofia Diaz will present an assignment for you to engage to assist you in your Hatha Yoga practice.
For questions, email kellysosanbearer [at] gmail [dot] com.
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True Awakeness is an Open Body: A Masterful Yoga Weekend
May 21 – 23, 2010
Red Feather Lakes, Colorado
Shambhala Mountain Center
REGISTER
Join us for this precious opportunity to practice deeply with a truly extraordinary yoga teacher.
In the modern world, it’s easy to become estranged from the body. Join us for this weekend of yoga practice as we reconnect freshly with the body’s awareness, widening our view of true perception and liberating the fundamental emotional knots in our embodiments as men and women. We will concentrate on directing our breathing into postures that open yogic channels of clarity, insight, and sense perception and practice both flowing sequences and steadying postures (asanas). We will also explore communal and partner exercises, sharing the fruits of our practice together. Instruction will be tailored specifically to the level of those participating; all levels are welcome.
Sofia Diaz, M.A. is a Hatha yoga master, a lineage holder in the Balasaraswati lineage of the South Indian temple arts, and a recipient of numerous meditation empowerments in both Tibetan and Shakta Tantric traditions. For nearly thirty years, she has traveled throughout the world leading workshops on feminine spiritual practice, sacred movement, and yoga. Known for her great ability to make Eastern body-based wisdom teachings accessible for Western students, she is a core founder and faculty member of iEvolve: Global Practice Community and a fellow of the Integral Life Spiritual Center.
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Yoga postures as “The Cup of Grace” and “The Full Offering of Will.”
April 2nd – April 11th
Rudramandir
Berkeley, California
REGISTER: info@Rudramandir.com; 510-486-8700
As the light grows in the days, so does our need to re-recognize the descent of light on and in our bodies as the radiance of consciousness and love. Hatha yoga postures are geometrical realizations of the receiving and releasing of life-force as light, radiance or conscious love. In springtime, magnification of receptivity in the frontal line of the body purifies and magnifies the ascent of life-force up the spine, clearing the mind and vision, perception and emotion. Therefore, gentle and precise back extensions will be emphasized and balanced by dynamic forward folds and gentle inversions.
This weekend will center around whole-body, meditative awareness of yogasanas (yoga postures) as positions of availability to sense and receive more light/life-force. Awareness will be honed by detailed pranayama (breathwork) and meticulous alignment will be emphasized and achieved by working the edges of each individual’s personal endurance level.
Instruction in perfectly balanced sitting, standing and walking alignment will be tailored to each individual present.
In a time where all practice seems to create more striving it becomes necessary to stop and re-relate ourselves to the source or sources of our deepest delight and inspiration, it then becomes easy and obvious where and how to aim the full-moon of our powerful will.
All levels welcome. Men and Women are all invited to ‘Spring’ forth in this weekend of practice and clarification.
Weekday Classes
Monday, April 5th – Thursday, April 8th
Mon: 2-4 pm Women
Mon: 7:15-9:15pm COED
Tues: 2-4 pm Women
Tues: 7:15-9:15pm Men
Wed: 2-4 pm Women
Wed: 7:15-9:15pm Women
Thu: 7:15-9:15pm COED
$30 Drop in Per Class
Women: Six Class Pass – $150
Men: Three Class Pass – $75
REGISTER: info@Rudramandir.com; 510-486-8700
Weekend Workshop: COED
Friday, April 9th – Sunday, April 11th
$400, Early bird – $350 Expires March 10th
Fri: 7 pm – 9 pm
Sat: 9 am- 9 pm
Sun: 9 am- 9 pm
Packages:
Men: Classes & Workshop
$450, Early bird -$400 Expires March 10th
Women: Classes & Workshop
$500, Early bird – $450 Expires March 10th
REGISTER: info@Rudramandir.com; 510-486-8700
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Real Yoga: The Portal to “Life as Good Practice”
The Nine Levels of Hatha Yogic Understanding with Sofia Diaz
A 9-Week Telecourse/Webinar – Starts March 25th
Thursdays – 5-6:30pm PT, 6-7:30pm MT, 8-9:30pm ET
Notice!!! What you do is all done through, with, AS; the bone, nerve and sinew of The Body. If you are attracted to refining yourself out of shitty-ass suffering, and, you’ve intuited that yoga, as in: moving the body, as in: Hatha Yoga; has something for you, then, come along on the ride of this nine week cyber-yoga telecourse – down the ‘rabbit-hole’ of Real Yoga and the Nine levels of Hatha Yogic understanding.
Each week will include weekly practice and homework assignments kicked off by a ‘touch stone’ or practice consideration of each of the nine levels of Hatha Yoga realization.
Each weekly 90-minute class will include:
- 15 minute Theoretical introduction
- 45 minute virtual yoga practice from the comfort of your own home
- 5 minute Savasana Silent digestion
- 25 minute discussion/Q&A
- downloadable mp3 of each class
- weekly practice assignments
You can participate live or listen to the recordings later, at any time, from anywhere in the world. Each session is recorded and available for download as MP3′s for your records.
Register: $285
Week 1-3:
In depth traditional introductory asana sequences with homework assignments in between calls.
Weeks 3-6:
Fine tuning of asana choices and over-all practice to meet the edge of each individual as edges present themselves in life and practice.
Weeks 6-8:
More advanced asanas added and layered with breath and awareness techniques aimed toward individual practice challenges and realizations.
Week 9:
Letting “the phat lady sing!”, dedication of merit, a week of conscious celebration of advanced practice sprinkled with individual assignments to be lived through-out the week concluded by a one hour free-form concluding call.
If anyone is interested in a formal, ongoing Yogic apprenticeship with Sofia, this telecourse would be the requirement necessary in order to be considered in her upcoming 6 month and year long apprenticeship programs.
Register: $285
Can’t Make the Call?
No problem… If for any reason you can’t attend the live call, you can download a recording of the call and listen to it whenever you like. This includes 9 weeks and 90-minute MP3′s. We will post the recording from each class as soon as possible after the event.
How can I Ask Questions?
Throughout this teleseminar series you can submit questions via email. You can even submit questions online during the call as Sofia Diaz will be answering them live. Questions will also be answered live via the phone.
Weekly Assignments:
Each week Sofia Diaz will present an assignment for you to engage to assist you in your Hatha Yoga practice.
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January 29th – February 7th
Rudramandir
Berkeley, California
February is a great time of year to clean the house of the psyche. The winter’s dark allows for stagnation in the patterns of our thoughts and lives to be felt more easily. In the sinew and weave of the joints of our bodies, are matrixes of consciousness, open or bound depending on the held-ness or release of life experiences and breath into this moment. In the activation of feeling awareness of these nadis is an explosion of purifying force that has the capacity to liberate long standing habits that limit the inherently expansive awareness of our minds.
In the other extreme of vinyasa or flow of asanas, this weekend will focus on steady presencing of breath and feeling in what are considered some of the most potent postures of the yogic wisdom lineages. Enhancing the purification into the patterns of our modern minds, we will spend some time identifying the rhythmical patterns of anxiety, insidious hopelessness and unlove that personally riddle our minds in ways unique to us and then shine the light of deep yogic practice on the un-thought potential of our inherently awake and radiant bodies of life. February is ecstatic house cleaning month for the nervous system!
Weekday class schedule:
Mon: 9-11 am Women
Mon: 7:15-9:15pm Women
Tues: 2-4 pm Women
Tues: 7:15-9:15pm Men
Wed: 2-4 pm Women
Wed: 7:15-9:15pm Women
Thu: 7:15-9:15pm COED
$30 Drop in Per Class
Women: Six Class Pass - $150
Men: Three Class Pass - $75
Register: info@Rudramandir.com, Rudramandir.com, 510-486-8700
Weekend Workshop COED
Fri-Sun, Nov. 20th-22nd
$400
Fri: 7 pm – 9 pm
Sat: 9 am- 9 pm
Sun: 9 am- 9 pm
Packages:
Men: Classes & Workshop
$450
Women: Classes & Workshop
$500
Register: info@Rudramandir.com, www.Rudramandir.com, 510-486-8700
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Join Sofia Diaz Saturday, December 5th for a free teleseminar “Caring for Ourselves While Caring for the World” as a part of the celebrated Women on the Edge of Evolution teleseries.
CLICK HERE to register now
Deeply caring is a fundamental feminine trait—innate, powerful and profound. The way we experience this impulse to care effects everything we do: how we relate with our selves, our loved ones and the world. It’s also too easy, however, to become overly-caring and endlessly giving, while forgetting to Deeply Care for ourselves. Finding our balance is key. If we deny ourselves proper nurturing or deny our embodiment as a vital caregiver to the World, we may become confused and end up despairing of the very gifts that define our nature. In this dialogue with Katherine Woodward Thomas, Sofia Diaz will share with us a variety of physical practices and techniques, both new and ancient, to help us balance Deep Care for ourselves and for others.
All calls are are recorded and can be listenned to any time. Register for free now at www.WomenOnTheEdgeOfEvolution.com and you’ll also have access to over 14 other dialogues with many of today’s leading female luminaries, thinkers and agents of change include Diane Musho Hamilton, Sally Kempton, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Jean Houston and more.
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November 16th-22nd
Rudramandir
Berkeley, California
To be fully breathed, without obstruction is the beginning and the culmination of “Real” Hatha Yoga. The root and the crown of true Hatha practice is the Heart recognition of prior unity with Absolute Light simultaneous to devotional intimacy with habits in consciousness lodged as gross physical traits or samskaras. Depending on the actual, liberated whole-body love-awareness of any individual, transformational Hatha practice must either be lodged in strengthening the capacity to receive and release or in magnifying the capacity of surrender to being received and released. All this reflected and practiced in the breath. Needless to say, the above is an advanced motive for Hatha yoga practices but the bud from which all yogic capacities actually flower over the fodder of egoic motives.
This weekend intensive will concentrate on the Maha Prana cycles within Surya Namaskar (Sun Salute) balanced by emphasis on minute capacities of feeling-ly living the breath through more slow and subtle breath practices. Reception and release cycles of basic vinyasa practice will be fine tuned to the individuals attending as well as gentle inversions and joint transforming stationary asanas for physical issues presented by yogis and yoginis attending. The ribbon around the gift of practicing this weekend together will be individually tailored Surya Namaskar-based practice for every body in attendance.
May we all fully receive Who we truly are and may we rejoice in not withholding even a shred of our born-to-give Light!
Weekday class schedule:
Mon: 2-4 pm Women
Mon: 7:15-9:15pm Men
Tues: 2-4 pm Women
Tues: 7:15-9:15pm Women
Wed: 2-4 pm Women
Wed: 7:15-9:15pm Men
Thu: 7:15-9:15pm COED
$30 Drop in Per Class
Women: Five Class Pass - $125
Men: Three Class Pass - $75
Register: info@Rudramandir.com, Rudramandir.com, 510-486-8700
Weekend Workshop COED
Fri-Sun, Nov. 20th-22nd
$400
Fri: 7 pm – 9 pm
Sat: 9 am- 9 pm
Sun: 9 am- 9 pm
Packages:
Men: Classes & Workshop
$450
Women: Classes & Workshop
$500
Register: info@Rudramandir.com, www.Rudramandir.com, 510-486-8700
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September 21-27
Rudramandir
Berkeley, CA
Our bodies are a perfect reflection of the universe, as noted in the Purusha Sukta; our bodies are our universe. The verticality of our embodiment opens vision and the visionary dimension of our being. Our relatedness to the horizon or the horizontal dimension of being is our feeling capacity. We ‘happen’ as two legs and two arms only from a deeper than deep intention to Be.
The skin spreads only around the bright light of the spine, the bright light of the spine only shines from the Heart. In truth, we are a compass into which all directions magnetize at the Heart, then, we decide consciously or unconsciously to identify with up and down, being or action, the left or the right. This weekend will center on heart awareness of the classical Surya-Chandra Bhedana (The piercing of the Sun and Moon) or the relaxation of opposites in the center of being/feeling through a great balance of forward and back-bending asanas, the meticulous use of all horizontal asanas and a tremendous amount of subtle application of pranayama. All this interspersed with inter-relational exercizes to widen all understanding into our personal lives.
Weekday class schedule:
Mon: 2-4 pm Women
Mon: 7:15-9:15pm Men
Tues: 2-4 pm Women
Tues: 7:15-9:15pm Women
Wed: 2-4 pm Women
Wed: 7:15-9:15pm Men
Thu: 7:15-9:15pm COED
$30 Drop in Per Class
Women: Five Class Pass - $125
Men: Three Class Pass - $75
Register: info@Rudramandir.com, Rudramandir.com, 510-486-8700
Weekend Workshop
fri-sun, sept 25-27
(for men and women)
Fri: 7 pm – 9 pm
Sat: 9 am- 9 pm
Sun: 9 am- 9 pm
$400, Early bird – $350 Aug 24
Packages:
Men: Classes & Workshop
$450, Early bird -$400-Aug 24
Women: Classes & Workshop
$500, Early bird – $450-Aug 24
Register: info@Rudramandir.com, Rudramandir.com, 510-486-8700
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Standard Registration: $450
Advanced Registration” $299 by August 15th
Sex, Spirit, & Shadow Couples Rate: 2 for $549 by August 15th
What participants are saying about Sex, Spirit, & Shadow:
“I send blessings and my eternal gratitude to all of you who made this last week possible. Sexuality, Spirituality and & Shadow gifted me with new eyes. Eyes of the heart, of the soul and of the mind. My life has been transformed. My husband noticed it the first day and every day after it just got better and better. He is so thrilled with the dramatic change in my life that he is already making arrangements to be involved in a Men’s workshop that Rabbi Marc Gafni is doing. Thank you for facilitating a safe environment that allowed me to see into my unique self and discover how I really want to show up in this world. I love you all so much and I hope to see you again very soon.” ~ Stepheny A.
Sofia Diaz is a gifted teacher of Hatha yoga, sacred movement, and feminine spiritual practice, deriving her form of teaching and body philosophy from the South Indian Temple Arts and their accompanying scriptures. She has apprenticed with dance and music masters of the Balasaraswati lineage of Devadasi Sadir. She is also a core founder and faculty of iEvolve: Global Practice Community.
Dr. Marc Gafni is a rabbi and iconlastic teacher of Kabbalah and Evolutionary Spirituality. He is a core founder and faculty member of iEvolve: Global Practice Community as well as director of the Integral Life Spiritual Center of Integral Life. He has written seven books, including the national bestseller Soul Prints, and The Mystery of Love, a Kabbalistic exploration of the relationship between the sexual, the erotic, and the sacred. Gafni’s teaching is marked by a deep transmission of open heart, love and leading edge provocative wisdom. Gafni’s path of personal evolution, in both the agony and the ecstasy of what he calls “sacred autobiography,” woven together with profound reverence and reading of sacred texts have formed the context for his personal realization. It is from this place of broken-hearted humility, radical joy and and sacred audacity that he teaches.
Diane Musho Hamilton is a gifted mediator, facilitator and teacher of Zen and Integral Spirituality. She is a co-director of the Integral Life Spiritual Center and has worked with Ken Wilber and Integral Institute since 2004. Diane is the Senior Teacher for Integral Recovery. She is the lead trainer on Integral Life Practice. She is also a core founder and faculty of iEvolve: Global Practice Community.
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