$20 | Please register in advance, a Zoom link and passcode will be provided via confirmation email.

The core is the foundation upon which all movement is based and stability maintained at both the physical and energetic levels. Almost every yoga pose involves the core in some way and a strong core can facilitate one’s yoga practice in improving balance, stabilizing the spine, and preventing injury. At a more subtle level, It can also cultivate a greater sense of centeredness, emotional strength and wellbeing. Many people have an aversion to core exercises and automatically associate core strengthening with sit-ups, crunches and leg lifts.

This workshop will explore the various ways one can include core strengthening into a home practice that is safe, accessible and even fun. Participants will gain a greater awareness of the core muscles and how something as simple as shifting one’s awareness in a familiar pose, incorporating the breath, extending the hold, or altering the transition coming in and out of familiar poses can strengthen core muscles in an easeful way that can yield noticeable results overtime, while still feeling like yoga.

This workshop is appropriate for all levels and participants will need a mat, and comfortable clothing conducive to Hatha.

Melanie Saraswati Takahashi, PhD, RYT-500, has been a dedicated practitioner of meditation and yoga for many years. Having a keen interest in spirituality and how it’s expressed cross-culturally, she received her Masters in Anthropology in 1996 and a Doctorate in Religious Studies in 2004. She taught at the University of Ottawa and was a full-time professor at Heritage College before moving to San Francisco. Saraswati has been teaching yoga since 2008 and became the Head of Teachers at Integral Yoga San Francisco in 2009. She is trained in Gentle, Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced levels of yoga. She encourages students to have an inward experience of the class by approaching yoga as a moving meditation that incorporates the breath. Saraswati is also a classically trained pianist and currently teaches piano full-time. She continues to research and publish in the discipline of anthropology which is her on-going passion.