The Psoas and the Koshas: Bridging Anatomy and the Subtle Body

Through guided somatic inquiry and interoceptive awareness practices, we will explore how this deep core muscle influences not only your structure and movement, but also your breath, energy, emotional patterns, and sense of groundedness. As the primary myofascial structure connecting your upper and lower body, center to periphery, and back to front, the psoas demonstrates how physical, energetic, emotional, and consciousness dimensions are intimately woven together.

You will learn how a single anatomical structure can affect multiple layers of your experience simultaneously—from how you stand and breathe to how safe and centered you feel in the world. Material will be drawn from Leila’s books Experiential Anatomy, Therapeutic Applications of Embodied Movement and Awareness and Pathways to a Centered Body co-authored with Donna Farhi.

What Will You Learn?

In this workshop, you will learn to:

• Sense the psoas through simple experiential practices to understand its role as "the great connector"
• Experience how the psoas affects both physical structure (Annamaya kosha) and breath/energy (Pranamaya kosha)
• Understand the psoas as a repository for protective responses and emotional holding (Manomaya kosha)
• Experience the psoas as "homebase" for groundedness and authentic presence (Vijnanamaya kosha
• Learn practical tools for befriending your psoas in daily life
• Understand the koshic framework as a way to recognize the multidimensional nature of your embodied experience
   

Who Is This Workshop For?

This workshop will appeal to yoga teachers, therapists, students as well as teachers of other disciplines interested in learning about the psoas muscle from a multidimensional perspective.

Meet the Teacher

Leila Stuart BA, LLB, C-IAYT is a retired Registered Massage Therapist and has practiced and taught yoga for over 40 years. She developed and taught an innovative 300-hour Yoga Therapy training for 15 years, focusing on experiential anatomy, alignment and movement repatterning, and embodiment of the deeper teachings of yoga as pathways to self-healing.  With a deep love and intuitive knowledge of experiential anatomy, Leila specializes in transforming academic information into somatic awareness and life changing experience.  She is an international teacher, online educator, and conference presenter. Leila is author of Experiential Anatomy: Therapeutic Applications of Embodied Movement and Awareness and co-author of Pathways to a Centered Body with Donna Farhi.

·       Visit www.leilastuart.com