Creativity, Sexuality and the Cycles of our Lives: a Yoga CPD Day

What is the relationship between creativity, sexuality and the cycles of our lives? How does energy move, as creative and sexual expression, and how does she get blocked? What is the relationship between rest and activity in relation to our creative and sexual cycles? What is the nature of Shakti and how has she been constrained? How can we understand the movements of Shakti? How can the Great Wisdom Goddesses Kamalatmika (the lotus goddess of delight) and Matangi (the wild outcaste poet) support our understanding of creative and sexual energies?

This experiential day long workshop is open to all women and yoga teachers, yoga therapists and health care practitioners who are seeking to support positive experiences of creativity and sexuality in women’s lives, either for themselves personally, or for their students and clients.

The day counts as continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers who have completed prior trainings with Uma, and can also count towards CPD points for general yoga teachers and therapists, depending upon the requirements of their professional associations. Health care practitioners, psychotherapists, sexological body workers and coaches with an interest in yoga, sexuality and creativity are also welcome to attend, provided they have a living interest in and practice of yoga.

The intention of this day is to provide practical experience of breath (pranayama), rhythmic and restorative yoga postures (asana), gestures (mudra), heart-based meditations (yoga nidra) and deep, joyful heart songs (kirtan) that promote healthy creative and sexual energies. Supportive sequences of integrated yoga postures will be taught, and there will be time for discussion. An overview of common creative and sexual challenges and opportunities will be discussed in relation to appropriate yogic responses. By the end of the day, participants will have an understanding of the key practical and theoretical yoga-tantra responses that are helpful to support the expression of women’s creativity and sexuality.

There will be plenty of opportunity for questions and discussions. The programme is open to responsive, intuitive attunements and adjustments to meet the specific needs of those attending.

Pre-course listening
The Wild Garden Total Yoga Nidra track is freely downloadable from www.yonishakti.co and www.yoganidranetwork.org

Pre-course reading
This session is informed by extensive research into the history and politics of yoga, and it reclaims for women’s bodies, the practices that nourish our source and heal the disconnections that we often experience as women living in a man’s world. The cycles of energy and the rhythms of sexual and creative pleasures that the session explores are rooted in menstruality consciousness, an awareness of the cycles of creativity and sexual patterns of arousal, desire, satiation and disinterest.

Optional suggested course reading (during and after the day workshop): Yoni Shakti is the key text for reference during this day workshop

Drawing of Kamalatmika by Sivani Mata Francis

STATEMENT OF INCLUSION
Are you pregnant? Breastfeeding? Do you have young children? Or perhaps you want to know more about your eligibility – Please click here to download the Statement of Inclusion document which is a genuine welcome from Uma and details the appropriate support for women considering attending any of her courses.

What our students say

It is a joy to study with Uma as you learn so many practices rarely taught. And they were taught with such sincere kindness. Yogacampus student , May 2014