What is Dynamic Gentle Yoga?

Subtle, Slow and Breath-Initiated

Dynamic Gentle Yoga is a refined style of gentle yoga that is characterized by active stretching, stimulating the flow of energy, focusing inward and developing meditative awareness. This approach to yoga is based on the Kripalu style of yoga, a yoga of conscious awareness. Dynamic Gentle Yoga emphasizes attuning to your inner experience. That attunement begins with body awareness, closely linked to the next subtler level, breath awareness.

Elements of Dynamic Gentle Yoga

In addition to the basic qualities that make up an excellent gentle yoga class, Dynamic Gentle Yoga involves the following elements:

1. Inclusion of only those postures and warm-ups that have great benefit and little or no risk
2. Precise details of instruction
3. Core-stabilized pelvic alignment
4. Active stretching vs static postures
5. Breath-initiated movement
6. Direction of attention inward
7. Guidance to practice one-pointed focus
8. Encouragement and instruction in how to discover what one’s own body needs
9. Preparation to source the practice from within
10. The cumulative effects of the breath practices and inner attunement raises the energy level, increases sensitivity and brings the mind into a steady meditative state.
    • This energized, neutral meditative state can unfold into a graceful letting go of the typical mind-directed movement, that allows for access to spontaneous, automatic movement.
    • The emergence of this transcendent flow state empowers students to listen from within for cues from their body’s natural wisdom. In this free-flowing meditation-in-motion students experience a new freedom of movement, and a new depth of meditation.
    • This flow state facilitates the release of deep-seated tensions on both a physical and emotional level.
11. Challenge
    • One of the pitfalls of an unskillfully lead gentle yoga class is that it can be too easy, and therefore, is not engaging enough to draw the attention inward.
    • The type of challenge does not need to be in the realm of flexibility, strength or balance.
    • The appropriate challenge, as offered in Dynamic Gentle Yoga, is that of sustained attention:
      • to the breath cues, the types and qualities of breath
      • to the alignment cues, specific placement of the skeletal structure, and exploring options
      • to the internal experience, noticing changes, noticing differences, noticing subtleties.