Workshops and Trainings
Events and Trainings
Asheville Yoga Center Events: Series Classes, Workshops and 300-hour YA Credit Trainings are listed below:
6PM to 7:30 PM
Click HERE for more information on how to sign up.
This is an on-going series, so please refer to the website to sign-up with the Asheville Yoga Center. In these recent series the focus has been the breath. Our thoughts tend to lead us through life. I have noticed over the years when my breath and body connection is strong my mind tends to follow with a sense of calmness and serenity. Join us for the dance between breath and body to see where it takes us as we explore the power of pranayama practices as we move on our mats consciously. All levels are welcome!
The Power of Now
Asheville Yoga Center
To Be Announced; In-Person and Virtual
300-hour YA credit
All Levels Welcome
Being in the Now or what we often call the present moment is one of the most powerful practices of life and yoga. Paradoxically, when we learn how to be in the Now, we deepen our ability to learn from the past and plan for the future. The book, The Power of Now, is a masterpiece that aligns beautifully with ancient yogic teachings. Instructor Joe Taft has spent several years contemplating and meditating on Tolle's powerful teachings and shares how this work connects to the practice of asana, meditation and yogic philosophy. Come spend the weekend with us as we explore these teachings through our asana practice, group discussion, and most importantly, grounding through the body.
Required Reading:
The Power of Now, A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckard Tolle (any edition)
Recommended Reading (click on book title to purchase):
Stillness Speaks by Eckard Tolle
Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Art of Teaching Yoga
Asheville Yoga Center
TBA; In-Person
300-hour YA credit
All Levels Welcome
In this training we will learn how to refine our teaching language, sequencing, and imagination in order to a create theme-based class. This 5-day workshop will show you how to align your core beliefs with your teaching, providing you with the confidence to plan inspiring yoga classes with your own unique themes. We are often afraid to take ourselves out of our comfort zones and embrace challenges. However, the key to a successful yoga class is learning how to convey inspiring themes that not only uplift the students, but also allow the teacher to continue to grow. This understanding of how our belief in the outcome of our success directly affects our performance is what educators, teachers, and neurologists are now calling growth mindset. Join me to learn more about how to teach an inspiring, theme-based class and how to connect your theme to the actions and alignment principles of yoga.
We will explore how to achieve a growth mindset and apply these principles to your own lives inside and outside the classroom. We will cover techniques to improve your teaching, such as how verbal cuing directly connects to the overarching theme and the breath. We will explore the power of setting an intention or goal for your own practice, in your classes, and in your life. You will leave this training with many examples of how to create a theme-based yoga class, but also with the tools to approach every aspect of your life with a growth mindset.
Curriculum Objectives:
Study your own yoga practice and habitual behavior.
Empower yourself so that you can empower your students.
Explore what is truly important as a yoga teacher to you.
Learn the power of simply setting up a classroom.
Transference and counter transference.
Discover how to keep your teaching simple.
Learn the “So What Mantra” — the mantra of the teacher.
Explore natural breath vs. breath exercises and when is it appropriate to teach which style.
Teach clearly and specifically with confidence and compassion.
Deepen understanding of sequencing and how to do a successful demonstration for students.
TBA in 2023
11:00am-1:30pm
All Levels Welcome
$40
Click HERE for more information on how to sign up.
Come join Joe Taft for an exploration of the mind-body connection as it relates to one of the deepest muscle groups in the body, the iliopsoas. This muscle group has been discovered to affect our mood and health and is otherwise known as the muscle of the soul.This muscle group is key to a balanced, well-organized body and mind as it is closely linked to our fight or flight response. The iliopsoas involuntarily activates when we experience fear by tightening and shortening. Without actually attaching to the pelvis, it crosses over the front of the pelvis and connects to the legs and spine. Therefore, problems may show up in other parts of the body: knee, pelvic, hip, neck/shoulders, sciatica and low back.In this workshop, plan to journey into a deeper understanding of this muscle group, its antagonists and the role of the gluteal muscles. We will explore your body and mind connection and learn how to release your psoas to experience more freedom and happiness. Everybody is welcome!
Pranayama Workshop with Sundar Balasubramanian and Joe Taft
TBA in 2023
300-hour YA credit
All Levels Welcome
$350
Sign up for any 300-hour course remaining in 2021 and save 20%. Use promo code SAVE20
Click HERE to register and more information about the schedule.
Dive into the power of pranayama as we explore how modern science supports the healing properties of breath work. Dr. Sundar Balasubramanian has been studying the benefits of pranayama for 8 years and has intriguing results to share. Joe has been teaching yoga and refining pranayama exercise for students for over two decades. Each session will include lecture, pranayama, asana, and question and answer. Please join us for this unique opportunity to study with both Sundar and Joe who are teaching in collaboration in this exciting new workshop.
Asheville Yoga Center
TBA in 2023
11:00am-1:30pm
All Levels Welcome
$40
Click HERE to register and more information and details.
This workshop is tailored to those who have taken the first Psoas Release Party workshop with Joe and are now ready to dive deeper, or for those with a prior understanding of anatomy and physiology.
By increasing your understanding of the psoas muscle and exploring how it links your upper body to your lower extremities, you will begin to understand low back and hip pain more clearly. You will review the anatomy of the hips, pelvic region, and low back so you may heal the "mother hub" - your hips and low back.
You will explore the hips more thoroughly with self-massage. This class will move consciously and methodically in order to fully understand the details of alignment, the breath, and feel the dance of Pranic Flow (subtle energy moving through your body).
Get Your Head Out of Your Torso: A Workshop on the Shoulders, Head and Neck
Asheville Yoga Center
TBA in 2023
All Levels Welcome
$40
Click HERE to register and more information.
Most people’s head posture is too far forward causing many problems. In order to get the head back, it is imperative to properly align the shoulders in an appropriate position. This can be a somewhat complicated journey but one well worth exploring. When your head is not aligned on top of the spine, it may feel like your head is being pulled into your torso due to tight neck muscles. When your shoulders, head and neck align, it feels like your head is light, floating and free. All levels are welcome to come experience how good it feels to get your head out of your torso.
AshevilleYoga Center
TBA in 2024
300-hour YA credit
All Levels Welcome
$400
Sign up for any 300-hour course remaining in 2021 and save 20%. Use promo code SAVE20
Mandatory Live Stream Attendance:
Friday-Sunday: 9am-12pm & 1pm-4pm (EST)
Contact Hours: 18
Non-Contact Hours: 3
In this training we will meticulously dive into the layers of a yoga practice so that you may cultivate a rich home practice which serves you in the highest. We will experience a variety of meditation methodologies, develop a unique and relatively specific understanding of the biomechanics of asana, and explore a life-affirming yogic philosophy. This workshop is geared toward students and teachers alike who wish to deepen their practice. When yoga teachers create a refined and steadfast practice, then such a practice fuels their teachings. When we live by yogic philosophies that guide us in the direction of celebrating life and the wonder of each moment, we feel a deeper purpose in our lives and a stronger connection to others.
The training will include cohesive biomechanical principles with the intention of creating more clarity of how the human body functions. Such exploration will deepen our relationship to our own bodies, and ultimately, guide us into a richer understanding of the transformative potential of a solid yoga practice for ourselves and our students. Hopefully, you will leave inspired and recharged to take your practice to the next level. In this training, each session will include combinations of asana, meditation, lectures, discussions and some pranayama techniques.
By attending this training, you will:
- Cultivate an intention-based practice.
- Learn to keep your practice and teaching inspiring.
- Apply therapeutic principles in your own practice.
- Deepen your meditation practice by reviewing some basics.
- Discover tips to bring your practice into your everyday life.
- Explore philosophies that encourage the wonder of life, the playful expansion of consciousness, and the celebration for life as a whole.
- How to bring philosophical teachings into the body in a grounded approach.
- Have fun and share some laughter.
Required Reading:
Tantra Illuminated by Christopher D Wallace (the first 162 pages or if listening to it via audible chapter 66)
Yoga Therapeutics
Understanding the Human Body in Asana
Asheville Yoga Center
November 4-6th 2022
300-hour YA credit
All Levels Welcome
$400
Mandatory Live Stream Attendance:
Friday-Sunday: 9am-12pm & 1pm-4pm (EST)
Contact Hours: 18
Non-Contact Hours: 3
In this training, we explore principle-based therapeutics, meaning that one thing builds on the next. This set of principles or actions in the body will help a number of injuries and imbalances that students may have. Every session includes asana, anatomy, body mapping and how to balance the musculature through yoga postures and healthy movement patterns. You will learn techniques to help students in both classroom and in one-on-one private settings. We look at “inner alignment” or how students align attitudinally, because the outer form always reflects the inner state on some level. You will also learn how to empower your students, – so they can help themselves. Most importantly, together we’ll create a fun learning environment that allows our knowledge and body awareness to flourish.
Learning Objectives:
We will look at how the small injuries of the body connect to the energy body as a whole.
We will increase our understanding of how one set of instructions can help an array of different injuries and imbalanced musculature
You will learn techniques to help students in a classroom setting and in a one-on-one private setting.
You will learn how to help your students feel empowered, so they are more open to your help and feel they can help themselves.
We will target injuries and imbalances that we see in a yoga environment, such as sciatica, sacral iliac subluxation, low back pain and hamstring tears.
In the shoulder region, we will explore injuries such as rotator cuff injury, neck pain, carpal tunnel syndrome and more.
We will explore some of the most common injuries in the body in which their source cause is located in parts of the body in which most people do not have awareness.