Module 4: Speaking your Truth, the “Kuleana” of the teacher.

“I accept My responsibilities and I will be held accountable”. The commitment to become a teacher is a serious and rewarding undertaking. As we grow in our teaching skills we learn that the best teacher always remains the best student, open to the mystery, the unknown vastness of Infinite Spirit.

Taking the seat of the teacher we vow to listen to our  inner voice, and to allow this wisdom of the guru to continually infuse or learning and teaching with the knowledge of all the great saints, prophets, sages, shamans and ordinary beings.

Techniques Training and Practice 25 hours

Level one and two asana Syllabus

These hours will be a mix between:
1) analytical training in how to teach and practice the techniques, and
2) guided practice of the techniques themselves.

Morning Asana Practice will focus on up tempo warming and stimulating practices: standing poses, forward bends, inversions, backbends, hand balancing.

Afternoon Asana Practice will focus more on calming and quieting practices: hip openers, forward bends, twists, restoratives.

Level one and two Asana’s
The trainee will practice and learn the key poses in each category of asana (standing poses, forward bends, backbends, twists, and inversions) and will begin to develop a relationship to both the form and the function of these different categories.

We will bring a focus to sequencing. How do we create sequences for all levels classes, beginners, mixed levels, intermediates and more advanced.

Tadasana, Surya Namaskar, Adho Mukha Svanasana, Uttanasana, Lunge pose, Adho Mukha Vrksasana, Pincha Mayurasana, Parsvakonasana,Trikonasana, Prasarita Padottanasana,Virabhdrasana two, parsvottanasana, Ardha Chandrasana,Vrksasana, Uttihita Hasta Padangusthasana,Eka Pada Bhekasana, Eka Pada Rajakapotasana, Bakasana, Vasisthasana,Virasana, Setubandha Sarvangasana,Dhanurasana,Ustrasana, Urdhva Dhanurasana, Supta Padangusthasana, Sukhasana,Ardha Matsyendrasana, Baddha Konasana, Triangmukhaipada Paschimottanasana, Agnisthambasana,Sarvangasana

Awareness Through Movement lessons will be used to bring more sensitivity to our practices: you will begin lying on the floor while you scan your awareness over your body, sensing and feeling your own form and self image. You will then be given precisely structured movement explorations that involve creative thinking, sensing, moving, and imagining. Many of the explorations are based on developmental movements we all made as children. Some are based on more abstract explorations of joint, muscle, and postural relationships. Lessons consist of comfortable, easy movements that gradually evolve into movements of greater range and complexity. After an Awareness Through Movement class, participants often comment that they feel much younger, move and think with greater ease, and experience the world around them as more vibrant. These Awareness through movement lessons are specifically designed and chosen by Skeeter to allow all Students and Teachers of Yoga access to a deeper dimension of sensitivity and subtle energy.

Morning and afternoon meditation
Morning and afternoon pranayama

Teaching Methodology 7.5 hours

The use of voice in Teaching Part four, Understanding the difference between Active and Passive commands and how to use these to guide students into General form of the pose.

Uplifting Philosophy and Heart Themes, Learning how to use positive themes and messages in directing students into General Form of Poses.

Observing Students before Adjusting, learning to recognize functional general forms of poses, Using observation before either verbal or hands on adjustments moving from the inside out, how to see this and guide a student to experience it.

How to create powerful Demos Part four
Verbal Adjustments part four
Hands on Adjustments part four
Sensitive, Stabilize, Adjust SSA
Creating Invariants to increase stability and freedom
Integrating the three paths of yoga in Asana practice: Karma, Jnana and Bhakti jnana and vijnana….knowledge learned taught and experiential knowledge, differentiating how you are teaching.

The four gates of speech as a guide to creating Powerful themes with meaning
The four gates of speech as a guide to verbal Adjustments
The four gates of speed as a guide to Hands on Adjustments
The term “Purnahuti” means, “Complete offering away of oneself”. How do we create classes that embody fullness while maintaing the boundaries of a felt sense of safety and individuality.

Anatomy and Physiology 5 hours

The subtle body Chakra’s and Kosha’s
The connection of Psoas, Diaprahm, and the nervous system
The legs and lower back in Backbending
The anatomy of a functional forward bend
The function of rolling on a healthy spine
The Legs and lower back in sitting
Meditation posture
Na Iwi (The Bones)

In Hawaii the mana or spiritual essence and power of a person is believed to  reside in their bones, their iwi. For native Hawaiians, it was important for the bones of a deceased person to complete their journey and return to the Earth to impart their mana.The skeletal anatomy makes up the most fundamental structure of our bodies, strongly connecting us and grounding us deeply to the Earth.  In this section, you will learn the basic foundational frame of the body, learn major bones of the axial and appendicular skeleton, major landmarks of the shoulders and pelvis as well as Hawaiian, Chinese and Western perspectives on the constitution and function of the skeletal body and an easy and therapeutic 5 minute Qi Gong self massage form designed to awaken energy from the center of the bones each morning.

The relationship of the Upper body and lower body and how to create the awareness of moving from the core.

Yoga Philosophy, Lifestyle and Ethics 7. 5 hours

Bhagavad Gita Overview review
Bhagavad Gita third 6 chapters
Review the Guna’s
Introduction to the Doshas
Introduction to the Mala’s and relationships to Dosha’s
Anava, Iccha, Kapha
Mayiya, Jnana, Pitta
Karma, Kriya, Vata
“noisphere” and Dharma /
svadharma and kuleana of the teacher
purna and purnahuti

Practicum 2.5 hours

Practice teaching
Receiving and giving feedback
Observing others teaching
Assisting students while someone else is teaching

Homework/ reading list

Hike up to a waterfall!!!
Poised for Grace by Dr. Douglas Brooks
Bhagavad Gita,Stephen Mitchell translation
Tantra Illuminated by Christopher D. Wallace
Call your Mother.
Hug those you love
Hug your enemies with the energy of Love
Patanjali’s Yoga Surtras…..any translation
Anatomy of Movement by Blandine Calais-Germain
Review of Notes made during class.
Journaling each morning and each night……. and or a Swim in the Ocean!