ASHTANGA YOGA AND THE ART OF TOUCH.
THROUGH ADJUSTMENTS, FEELING AND UNDERSTANDING THE BODY, ENERGY AND EMOTIONS.

Description of the retreat 

A good adjustment during the session can be defined as “ the art of touch “

The art of touch in ashtanga yoga is a fundamental part of the teaching. The teacher by touching you not only aligns you, but brings you to feel the change in the shape of the body and to allow you to experience new emotions as the body, like a channel empties to receive the energy of the new posture.
Touch in other cases helps to give you momentum, encourages you and supports you physically, letting you feel how you can lift yourself up, carry your weight further forward or further back depending on what the Asana is asking for.

Touch allows you to feel, speaks to the body’s intelligence, its nature, while the voice speaks to your rational dimension. The most profound moment is when touch helps to overcome fears, to face Asanas we do not have the courage to do: accompanied by safe hands, we can find that that dreaded step is possible. Then without rushing we will redo the path together until each person can walk it alone.
The work will take place individually and in pairs, we will experience touching/adjusting and being touched ( adjusted )
So asking for trust and putting it back.

In the April retreat, the afternoon sessions will include three workshops conducted with the art of touch that will address three themes: alignment, fluidity and fear.
What does it mean to have an aligned and fluid practice? How to get there? First of all, a fluid practice is in alignment, in complete communion with the breath: Vinyasa builds up the Asana, promotes transitions, because Vinyasa is not only the physiological breath, but it is also and above all the fluidity that allows us to enter and exit the postures with harmony as if it were a real dance.

Not infrequently the transit from one posture to another involves flying Asanas, difficult transitions that create hesitation and fear: the art of touch in this case serves by encouraging you to ‘experience’ the shift by letting you feel which muscles and bandhas you need to use to make the transition.

In this workshop we will address challenging transitional postures such as jumping back and forth, exits as from Pujapidasana, entrances as in Junusirsasana and more. Alignment is the other essential component of the practice. To be aligned means to be open so that the energy flows smoothly and thus without getting hurt.

Touch turns out to be almost magical in this case, the teacher touching you puts you in the right alignment, the brain activates new synapses and the memory of the muscle will remember the experience and try to reproduce it when you practice on your own.

In this workshop we will look at standing postures where it is easiest to feel alignment, but also some from sitting where alignment is often overlooked.
Finally, the fears. In the practice of Ashtangayoga we not infrequently find ourselves facing Asanas that make us afraid; Yoga is precisely the path to cross fears and overcome them.

In the art of touch, the teacher, while performing the posture, holds you in her arms, supports you and accompanies you so that you can have the experience of the posture totally entrusted and relaxed; in this way you will have also had the experience of trust–which is no small thing. In this workshop, protected by the hands of the teacher, we will do the very postures that scare us such as: bridges (Urdva Danurasana), verticals (Addhomukka Vrichasana) and more.

Focus of the workshops:

Yoga is an experiential path that remains with you as a treasure to be preserved and embellished. The practice of Ashtanga Yoga moves energy through a dynamic
rhythmic, which does not include interruptions to reason, to stop and settle.

For this reason, time is needed to examine the steps, to go deeper, and to stop and look to understand and to redo if necessary. This is the purpose of the retreat

At the end of each workshop, there will be a Pranayama session: breath control will be approached gradually from deep relaxation and with postures that prepare the chest for breathing; specific breathing techniques will then be introduced.

We will close with meditation by reciting Mantra in Himalayan.