AN eight-week immersion into personal practice
Alternatively, become a supporting member of the Heart of Yoga Studio, which will give you access to this course, the ‘Yoga for a Better World’, and also unlimited weekly classes.
Main teacher: Mark Whitwell
Assistant teacher: Rosalind Atkinson
Welcome… In this immersion you will learn how to do a simple home practice and customise it so it is right for you, honouring the tradition and science of Yoga through experiential learning.
Learn the easy principles of how to adapt Yoga to personal needs, your body type, age, health and cultural background. Learn how to do a practice for your self and family while you are in this time of global retreat.
We would like to see everyone be given a simple breathing practice as care and protection. We fill what is empty and empty what is full. Release what is old to receive what is new. Enhancing the breath enhances all other critical functions of the body and mind.
Best of all, this practice is your direct embrace of reality as it is... the power, intelligence, harmony and utter beauty of the cosmos that brought you here in the first place and presently cares for you and nurtures you. That requires your presence and survival.
If you can breathe, you can do Yoga!
What does the course include?
→ More than 40 videos explaining key principles of Yoga
→ A 20-minute daily practice video
→ Guided asana, pranayama, chanting and meditation practices
→ Solid grounding in how to make breath the focus and purpose of your yoga
→ Downloadable audio files going into more depth
→ Ongoing relationship with teachers and fellow students via optional Zoom call Q&A gatherings once a month or more
→ extensive original PDF workbook to download and print
→ Practical yoga philosophy for everyday life
→ Personal help and guidance available
When you practice at home you get to explore the relationship between the body, the breath and life itself. The whole reason for doing yoga is to enjoy this relationship, this natural intimacy with life.
A home yoga practice allows you to feel the solid ground beneath your feet and the prana that pulses through your body, no matter what.
With breath as the purpose and main focus of asana, the practice is restored to its roots as gentle, powerful, accessible, and above all else, pleasurable practice.
It is very easy to do and anyone can do it — no matter what your age, health, culture, religion, or physicality. It is your birthright to be intimate with life, to enjoy your life, and here is the anciently given means. We will do our best for you.
*Please note: Videos are hosted on Vimeo, so if you are in Indonesia or China, you will need to have a VPN as these countries block Vimeo.*
How Much?
The course is US$140. If you are from a country whose dollar translates unfavourably against the US dollar, or for other reasons need a scholarship, please write to studio@heartofyoga.com.
“This course has given me such a huge relief in my life from the struggle and stress to be “the best”. I have the words and ideas I have been so needing so I can now pass this important message on to others as I guide yoga classes. I can finally relax.”
“Thank you for the emphasis in this course that yoga is not religion. As a Sikh, I felt welcomed and included, with clear instruction that yoga and hinduism were not the same things. Since doing the daily practice i have been inspired to research my own sikh tradition more deeply and finding incredible resonance.”
Your main teacher: Your own Breath
Our goal is to share with you the basic principles of practice that can be incorporated into any brand or style of Yoga, to make it efficient, powerful, and safe. Only when breath is made the key focus of practice do we get all the benefits promised to us from the Yoga traditions.
Mark teaches what he received from his teachers: T. Krishnamacharya and his son T.K.V. Desikachar, informed by their and his friendships with J. and UG Krishnamurti. We pass on the wealth of the tradition while bringing it into accessible relevance to everyday life today, including discussion of relationships. The emphasis is on experiential learning: it’s about you and your practice, not just cramming our heads with knowledge.
This course is in the tradition of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888-1989), the ‘Teacher of the teachers’.
Who is it for?
If you are completely new to Yoga,
If you have Yoga experience, but feel like “something is missing” within the popular styles,
If you teach Yoga, but want to make your practice and teaching more comprehensively breath-oriented,
If you want something that is traditionally accurate, but taught in a friendly, intelligible and relevant way for modern lives,
If you have a religious, spiritual or meditation practice and want a simple movement discipline to support this,
If you sense the imbalance in the world and in your life and want a practical way to honour the feminine aspect,
If you have bodily discomfort and know that a simple Yoga practice would help,
If you’ve read Mark’s books and want to go deeper.
“This is love. I learned for myself what real yoga is and how it affects my day to day life with so much love. I felt understood and felt deeply connected. so much made suddenly more sense to me realising that I AM the power of the cosmos and every being around me. I’m just unbelievably thankful for this course and this opportunity. Thank you Mark. Thank you for making this wisdom available for everyone. I’m grateful. Thank you.”
INTIMACY WITH BODY, BREATH and RELATIONSHIP… in that order
FAQ
Q: Will this immersion give me certification with Yoga Alliance?
Short answer, no. The Heart of Yoga School is registered with Yoga Alliance but Yoga Alliance requires 90% of a programme to be in person to attain certification. Exceptions for COVID-19 lockdowns are for programms that WERE going to be in person and had to move online (i.e., not this). If you come to a later training in the heart of yoga then this immersion can count for 10% of your 200 hours.
A good question would be, why do you want to get certified? Many commercial studios require their teachers to be certified, however we find that most new teachers seek validation from “getting a job” in a studio, only to then have a bad experience teaching in studios, unless they own it themselves or a friend owns it who understands where they are coming from. Modern expectations of yoga have become very strong in the public for a sweaty workout class, stimulation, music pumping, etc.
If you feel the heart-call to teach something more traditional, focused on the breath, that is more like a music lesson rather than a music concert (a learning experience, not a consumer experience), then its important to find a place where your mission is understood, which may be your house, a community centre, a park, a workplace, a garage, or anywhere where you keep your autonomy. Many of the world’s best teachers are not certified and have nothing to do with Yoga alliance.
What Mark says is that only three requirements are needed for a good teacher: 1) that you have a good teacher yourself, 2) that you practice yourself, and 3) that you care about others (number 1 helps with this). We say if you have all these, forget about Yoga alliance and start sharing Yoga with this troubled world in actual and natural non-hierarchical friendships.
Experiences
“Most intimate gift i could give myself throughout this quarantine. It has taken me close to 4 months to complete this course, going back and forth between completing at least one task/self-inquiry/vinyasa krama each day to not practicing for almost a week, simply allowing the body to rest and holding space for 'things' to unfold. The last video on selfish and self love really hit home… I was able to connect with my parents once again, taking power back that i am in no position to fix or change them, rather let things unfold naturally, calling the three-breath discipline, not just let things slide but perhaps slowly change the way I 're-act' to their many triggers, instead act out from a place of truth, compassion and love. It is difficult… but i wont have it done any other way, this is yoga, ultimately not just travelling and having a good time, but working through the triggers and knowing its okay not to be a saint even as i've taken upon the role as a 'yoga teacher'. Thank you so much Mark and Rosalind.” — participant
*****
“Thank you! Two words. Expanding and Attunement. I have had a huge aversion to yoga and never understood why as I seek all that I understood it to offer. I read about Kriya yoga in Autobiography of a Yogi and was so drawn to the idea of the breath is everything practice but I could not find a teacher in my area. My friend recommended this training to me and I am so grateful. This yoga practice has given me what I have been searching decades for — a concrete sense of spirituality springing from within. The threads of equality across genders, cultures and systems is grounding and affirming. Thank you for the gift of yoga, a way to be with God anywhere and always.” —Tracy
*****
“Dear Mark and Rosalind, I started two month ago with my Yoga practice by students of Sybille Schlegel and Andreas Ruhula, who follow your principles in Yoga. So I get in touch with Heart of Yoga very fast and landed of course on your website. There I saw this online Immersion and... WOW! I don't know what to say, I think a THANK YOU is the best way, to express, what I feel after this Immersion! Your thoughts about Yoga, about practice not only helped me better to understand what I am doing, how I am doing this, and what effects it has on my life or better to say, they helped me, to know where to search and where to look after this, but your Immersion in combination with my daily practice in the Studio give me also stability in a time, where we lost this for a while! So thank you so much!!!! I started now to read the Heart of Yoga, because I am very interested also in old texts, like the Yoga Sutra and Desikachar’s translations/interpretations and I will of course stay in touch with the Heart of Yoga. So as you rightly say at the end - it is just the beginning! — Maxim, Germany
*****
“Hello, my name is Anita, I am from Croatia. Your Yoga Immersion has been an enormous help in my practice. I finally comprehended what yoga should be and stopped pushing my body to the unnecessary limits. This knowledge that was given to me has pushed my life foward. Thank you.” — Anita
*****
“I felt a deeper connection and understanding to the philosophical roots and approach of yoga. It is such a profound universal teaching.” — Sarah, UK
*****
“Woa, I had no idea yoga could feel this easy and this good. I don’t know what I’ve been doing up until now - I thought I was pretty “advanced” i guess in astanga system… now it seems like i was trying to get to some crazy perfection, I don’t need to do that any more… just relax into the power of my own breath. thank you so so much for making this by donation, or I could never have participated. — Maya, Mexico