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​Sanskrit - The Language of Yoga
by Kira Rafuse

​As I walk through life, I experience the world around me and feel the rhythms of nature. When chanting in Sanskrit, we are brought closer to nature by embodying these vibrations. We feel in rhythmic harmony with our true selves.

Today, I write to you from the mountains near Talkeetna Alaska.  I feel the breeze move through the cabin, the wind chimes speaking in soft rhythms, and the birds tell stories of the rain storm passing through.  It reminds me of Sanskrit.  Why, you may wonder? 

Well, Sanskrit is a vibrational language.  Through sound, Sanskrit embodies its meanings.  It is a representation of the universe and all that resides in the natural world.
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​The ancient Ṛṣi (a seer or sage) in India could “see” the universal vibrations unfold as Sanskrit in their deep meditations. They did not translate but could “see” and hear the vibrational language of Sanskrit revealed in the natural world.

You may have felt the healing vibrations of Sanskrit while chanting a mantra in a Yoga class, meditation or singing along with a recording. Because the meaning of a Sanskrit word or chant can be understood on an energetic level as well as an intellectual level it can be a profound experience.  I had one student describe it as “a direct line to the divine.”  My teacher Dr. Vasant Lad talks about Sanskrit having the ability to help heal the energetic and physical body.  It is a powerful method for healing in the Yogic tradition.  

Just as you say or chant the word Śānti (Shanti), the feeling of peace begins to resonate in the body and mind.  I hope to share the deeper aspects of Sanskrit with you in my upcoming Sanskrit Fundamentals weekend workshop through the DAYA Foundation on September 23-25, so you can experience for yourself the connectivity that Sanskrit brings.  ​

Learn More About Sanskrit Immersion

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India - Home of the Sacred Language
by Kira Rafuse

Arriving in India over 3500 years ago, Sanskrit was first recorded in the Vedas and is thought to be much older as well. It is the root of many Indo European languages. In the ancient stories of the Veda, Sanskrit is the world spoken into being. Sanskrit, the language of yoga, is the vehicle that we use to teach Yoga Āsana.  Āsana itself means “seat of awareness”. By studying and learning how to pronounce Sanskrit words you honor the deep history of Yoga.  

I have been fortunate to have had two opportunities to travel to India. Once, I lived there for an entire year which allowed me to connect deeply with the roots of Yoga.  It was an amazing experience that continues to inform my Yoga, Āyurveda and Sanskrit teachings.  In a 30 day Yoga teacher training in the Himalayas on the banks of the Ganga river, I began to embrace chanting Sanskrit daily. I continued this daily study of Sanskrit in an Ashram in South India during a 6 month Karma Yoga volunteer time. I listened to the nightly chantings of the Lalitā Sahasranāma and my heart was filled with the pulsing vibrations of Sanskrit, the Śakti (Shakti) or power behind the language kept me wanting more of this practice.  

I felt so connected when chanting and studying Sanskrit. I kept my studies going for years to come after this. When studying Ayurveda with Dr. Lad at The Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico I was deeply immersed into a classical study of Sanskrit in an academic way. We learned our foundational practices from Swami Ma Bhaskarānanda (Ma Bha) who I still reference today in my chanting of the Sanskrit alphabet. Dr. Lad had us learn Devanāgarī, the traditional Sanskrit script, as well as chanting as an integral part of learning Āyurveda.  I went on to study with many teachers and institutions to round out my Sanskrit knowledge base so I can confidently offer a foundation of Sanskrit to students of Yogic traditions.  

Of course, these are not mine alone, Sanskrit is for everyone and I am a conduit to share from my years of study on the subject.  I hope that I can share from my experience so that you may be able to have your own embodied experience through chanting the Sanskrit alphabet to then build upon in your Yogic Journey.  

In the Sanskrit Fundamentals workshop, we will learn the linguistic and Vedic history of Sanskrit as a foundation to the language. We will then move on to learn each letter of the Sanskrit alphabet as a song that you can hold in your heart forever. As it lives there you can recall it any time you come across a Sanskrit word and feel confident in pronouncing it with beauty and in a way that respects the origins of Yoga in India. We will also go over some invocation chants often used in Yoga classes, learn how to read transliterated Sanskrit, learn how the chanting Sanskrit can balance and nourish the 5 elements of the body, and learn the Bīja mantras of the Cakras (Chakras).

As you move through your day, take time to feel the rhythms of nature.  The warm sun, gentle breeze, birds fluttering, and trees rooted in the earth.  A simple chant like OM can be the first step on the path of Sanskrit study and connection to the ancient language of Yoga. Take a moment to chant it and see if it can bring that deeper connection to your true self and nature.  Does the chant bring you closer to that connection?  Let’s be in touch and share our experiences.  

In Loving Kindness,
Kira ​

Learn More About Sanskrit Immersion

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​“TRE® & Yoga for a Calmer Nervous System”
by Alice Peters Diffely

​Many of you might know me as a longtime student of Sarahjoy’s, having completed my 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training with her in 2011, as well as my 300-hour and Yoga Psychology Training with her in 2022. Recently, I’ve had the privilege of teaching weekly All-Levels yoga classes through the DAYA Foundation on Tuesdays from 9:00am-10:15am. In addition to holding my RYT-500 certification, my other certifications include being a TRE® Certified Provider. I am also among the team of DAYA Foundation teachers who has had the privilege of subbing classes for Sarahjoy as she continues to recover from her concussions.​

In Fall 2022, I look forward to offering a 5-week series through the DAYA Foundation called “TRE® & Yoga for a Calmer Nervous System”. This series will give you the opportunity to enhance the calming effects of yoga by blending it with TRE® (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises), a unique, movement-based approach to down-regulating the nervous system and helping bring it back into balance.

My Training, Approach, and Commitment to Sharing TRE®.
I’ve been dedicated to my yoga practice for over 25 years and have been so fortunate to have the opportunity to deepen my practice and my teaching skills through extensive study with Sarahjoy. Also a Certified ChiRunning® & ChiWalking® Master Instructor and an Original Strength® Certified Coach, in 2017 I completed the process to become a TRE® Certified Provider. 

Before I tell you more about TRE® itself, I’d like to share a bit of my own history, and how it led me to explore TRE®. My fascination with TRE® actually emerged from my own experience of following my body’s impulse for spontaneous movement. Through years of yoga practice, I had learned to bring non-judgmental awareness to sensations in my body. At one point in 2016, I chose to remain deeply present with strong physical sensations that arose in my neck and chest several hours after a stressful event. As I breathed gently with the sensations and observed their subtle variations from moment-to-moment, I gradually became aware of an impulse to turn my head and move one arm across the midline of my body. As I continued to tune in and follow my body’s lead, I eased into a gentle yoga-like sequence of rolling gracefully from my back and onto one side; then on to my back and to the other side. As I allowed this process to unfold, I experienced deep waves of relief.

Over the course of a week or two, I developed a deep trust for my body’s inherent wisdom to initiate and sustain movement in an intuitive, improvisational way. Oftentimes, it felt like a highly- skilled, body worker was expertly manipulating my body from one position into another, revealing fascial networks I had never consciously considered. This movement often evolved into a graceful, fluid, dance-like sequence that I never could have planned out cognitively. For someone who has long considered herself to be strongly left-brain dominant, it was intriguing to experience this creative exploration that was clearly emerging from the right hemisphere of my brain. Again, these increasingly elaborate explorations in spontaneous movement were often accompanied by waves of calm and relaxation that felt intimately related to unwinding of tension I was experiencing in my body. At the same time, I experienced more potent and longer-lasting tastes of the bliss of samadhi or anandamayakosha than I had previously glimpsed through years of asana practice, as well as a deepening sense of connection to others around me and to the totality of life. I was gaining first-hand experience of the profound interrelationship between body, mind, and nervous system. As a yoga teacher of several years already by that time, I longed to share the healing power of spontaneous movement with others but was puzzled as to how I might help them replicate my experience.
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I initiated a series of formal and informal conversations with Sarahjoy, as well as with trusted body workers and psychotherapists, to help put my experience in context and lead me to resources I could explore to deepen my understanding. Ultimately, these explorations led me to TRE®, and I quickly determined that pursuing the provider training would give me a protocol to help my clients safely and reliably access spontaneous movement and develop it as a tool to support the wellbeing of their bodies, minds, and nervous systems. Since becoming a TRE® Certified Provider in 2017, I have supported individual clients and workshop groups in learning to engage effectively with what we call the Self-Induced Therapeutic Tremor, and I’ve developed a unique approach of blending TRE® with yoga and related practices.

Learn More About TRE® & Yoga

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About TRE® and Its Origins
by Alice Peters Diffely

TRE® was developed by Dr. David Berceli, a psychotherapist and body worker with over 20 years of experience doing humanitarian relief work in countries around the globe. In his travels, Dr. Berceli observed that in the midst of extremely stressful situations, such as in conflict zones with bombs exploding nearby or in areas experiencing aftershocks following a major earthquake, it is quite common for very young children - toddler-aged and younger - to unselfconsciously shake and tremble. Older kids and adults, by contrast, are much less likely to exhibit that sort of spontaneous shaking, and even if they do so they often seem unsettled or embarrassed by it, making them inclined to inhibit it. Dr. Berceli also noticed that the little ones who have shaken and trembled, often in the arms of a loving parent or other trusted adult, generally seem to bounce back quite quickly after a crisis has passed. The older kids and adults seem to have a much harder time putting the stressful event behind them, perhaps suffering from flashbacks, insomnia, anxiety, or other signs of post-traumatic stress.

Dr. Berceli connected his observations above to research in the field of wildlife biology into a phenomenon called the mammalian stress response. When a mammal in the wild survives an attack, as its body moves out of a freeze state it shakes and trembles before the animal returns to its ordinary activities in a relatively calm, relaxed state. Dr. Berceli developed a hypothesis that as mammals, humans must be born with that same shaking mechanism as a recovery response, but that we learn to suppress it as we grow up, as shaking and trembling are viewed as signs of weakness in our own culture and in many other cultures around the world.

In developing TRE®, Dr. Berceli devised a set of 7 gentle, easy to learn physical exercises designed to either mildly fatigue or mildly stretch the main “fight or flight” muscles of the body, from the feet, up through the legs and gluteal muscles, and into the hip flexors. In between each of the exercises, we are encouraged to deeply relax and let go of tension in the body. Essentially, each exercise slightly activates the body and the nervous system, creating a brief impression that there is a potential threat that we might need to either fend off or escape. Each intervening interval of rest and relaxation reassures our systems that all is well. At the conclusion of the 7th exercise, we move into an easeful position that we sometimes refer to as constructive rest in yoga class - lying on the back with the knees bent and the feet flat on the floor. Here’s where the magic happens. Reliably, individuals will experience some manifestation of the Self-Induced Therapeutic Tremor. The tremor might involve a range of sensations, from the soles of the feet through the crown of the skull. Sometimes it might entail quite obvious shaking or trembling; others it might show up more subtly in the form of internal sensations of warmth, pulsation, or vibration. Each body has its own intelligence about how to use the tremor most effectively in the moment to unwind tension patterns, discharge pent up stress, and down-regulate the nervous system.

A key component of TRE® is the process of self-regulation. In order to work most effectively with the tremor, it is important to operate from a place of safety and comfort throughout the process. As I lead you through a session, I will periodically prompt you to check in with your body sensations and emotions. If at any point you feel uncomfortable or uneasy, you will have the ability to slow the process down, pause it, or stop it altogether. As we go, I will teach you various ways to effectively put on the brakes, so that you will be able to guide your own experience.

TRE® is offered as a lifetime practice for you to integrate into your ordinary self-care routine. It’s an excellent complement to yoga, meditation, and other mind-body practices. 

An Introduction to the Nervous System Through the Lens of Polyvagal Theory Will Deepen Your Experience of Working with the Tremor.
To support you in working most effectively with TRE®, at the outset of the workshop I will provide background information about the nervous system through the lens of Polyvagal Theory. Polyvagal Theory was developed by Dr. Stephen Porges and has been embraced by leading trauma therapists as a model for understanding the human nervous system.

You’ll Have Opportunities to Blend TRE® with Yoga and Related Practices.
Early in the workshop, we’ll devote a couple of sessions to a more formal experience of TRE®, in which I’ll lead you through the 7 exercises, perhaps with some modifications or omissions depending on the needs of the group. As the weeks progress, in our final session or two I will guide you through opportunities to integrate brief periods of tremoring into a gentle yoga practice. With a bit of experience, quite likely you’ll be able to access the tension-relieving benefits of the tremor pretty much at-will, so that you’ll be able to weave brief periods of tremoring into your home yoga practice, or allow yourself a short period of tremoring time as you ease into savasana at the end of class. Ultimately, tapping into the body’s capacity for spontaneous movement to release pent up tension from muscles and fascia and gradually down-regulate the nervous system will be a tool that’s available to you anytime.

We’ll also explore how pranayama practices, meditation practices, and chanting can deepen the experience of TRE®. You’ll come away with a deeper appreciation for the wisdom of ancient yogic practices and their effectiveness in supporting the resilience of the nervous system.

I hope you can join me for the "TRE® & Yoga for a Calmer Nervous System" series on Tuesday, Novermber 1, 2022 to November 29, 22 from 6 pm - 7:30 pm. The cost is $120 for the series.

Learn More About TRE® & Yoga

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Come on baby make it hurt so good:
The benefits of foam rolling
by Sadie Barr

Oh the beloved foam roller- you love it or hate it (maybe both). Foam rolling has become a staple in my personal practice, public classes and private sessions. It’s a fantastic tool to facilitate healing, increase flexibility and range of motion, decrease pain, and more. But before I dive into the benefits, let’s cover some basic info about myofascial tissue.
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Myofascial tissue is thin, strong, fibrous connective tissue that extends throughout your body to provide support and protection to your muscles, bones, organs, nerve fibers, and blood vessels. It’s made up of collagen and elastin that are arranged in a web-like structure. You can think of myofascial tissue as being similar to a mesh bag that contains your groceries. 

It is pliable, and can expand and contract as the contents of the bag change. It envelops your body like a wetsuit, from the tips of your toes to the top of your head. It’s designed to move and stretch with your body, but certain things can cause it to thicken and tighten. This thickening can be the cause of pain, stiffness, injury, poor posture, and has even been said to increase the appearance of cellulite. Using self massage with a foam roller (and tennis or lacrosse ball) is a fantastic way to get unstuck and find relief. Here are some of the benefits you could expect.

Increases Range of Motion
Foam rolling before a workout can reduce stiffness and help your body feel more limber. As mentioned, foam rolling signals the parasympathetic nervous system to relax the muscles and tendons you are rolling. As these tissues relax, the fibers move from a contracted state to an elongated state. This can increase the range of motion around the joint the muscles control, improving mobility and optimizing motion.

Increases Circulation
Foam rolling increases blood flow to the tissues you work with the foam roller. This can be especially beneficial for fascial, tendons, and ligaments, which have relatively little blood flow under normal circumstances. Because blood carries oxygen, glucose, and other nutrients muscles and connective tissues need to contract and repair, increasing blood flow enhances the delivery of vital nutrients and can maximize function and recovery.

If you have an injury or are sore after a workout, foam rolling can help encourage the removal of inflammatory waste products, flushing these tissues with fresh nutrients and circulating out toxins.

Warm Up Muscles
The friction generated by rolling over your tissues creates heat that warms up muscles, tendons, fascia, and other connective tissues. Warm tissues are more pliable and less likely to get injured, so adding foam rolling to your pre-workout routine can be an important step in mitigating the risk of injury, especially if you’ve been sedentary for a few hours prior to your workout.

Reduce Muscle Soreness
Research has found that foam rolling after a hard workout can decrease the intensity of delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), the achy pain that can creep up 24-48 hours after intense exercise. Foam rolling helps prevent muscle adhesions and enhances the circulation of oxygenated blood to depleted muscles after exercise. In this way, foam rolling can reduce inflammation and soreness in and around muscles and joints.

Reduce Pain
If you have pain due to stiffness, foam rolling can provide the stimulus your muscles need to relax, effectively easing pain. Research has demonstrated an improvement in reported back pain severity as well as chronic widespread pain for fibromyalgia sufferers with regular foam rolling.

Help You Relax
Studies have found a psychological benefit of foam rolling as well, with reported feelings of relaxation, tension and stress relief, and an improvement in overall mood. Many athletes report that ending an exercise session with a gentle, full-body foam rolling routine simulates a massage and can increase feelings of overall well-being and workout satisfaction.

Join me for Foam Rolling Basics.

learn more about foam rolling basics