Reclaiming Peace: A Toolkit for Modern Stress

Online & In-person

$54 | $45 Early bird, use promo code PEACE, exp. 11/8

Please register in advance; a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

We appreciate advance registration.

We’re living in stressful times. The safety and order of our world seem to be disappearing, and the pace of change is accelerating. It’s no wonder that worry and anxiety have become regular companions for many of us.

It’s easy to get caught in doom-scrolling and catastrophizing about the unknown. We do this in an effort to be prepared if the worst happens. But our worry about the future often robs us of the beauty of the present moment. Instead of helping us feel prepared, chronic stress and anxiety create mental imbalance and physical exhaustion, leaving us unable to clearly see our best options for being a positive influence in the world.

Yoga offers practical tools to cultivate mental and emotional calm, helping us rest in our inner peace—regardless of what our lives look like or how the world around us is shifting. This is real power: being in charge of our internal state, no matter the circumstances. From that place of inner steadiness, we can better recognize where and how we can make a meaningful difference.

In this workshop, you will experience:

  • Yoga strategies for reducing stress and caring for yourself, to find inner steadiness in an unsteady world
  • Techniques for working with your thoughts and emotions during times of anxiety, to reduce negative conditioning and catastrophizing
  • Yogic perspectives to help you see your place in the bigger picture
  • Tools for using the body and breath to stay grounded in the present
  • Practice of yoga poses, breathwork, relaxation, and centering for stress relief
  • Discussion of yoga philosophy and wisdom for rising above stress and anxiety

Suitable for all levels.

This workshop will be recorded for later viewing and shared for 2 weeks with all enrolled students.

Yoga Alliance CEUs (3 hours) are available to teachers upon request.


Swami Vidyananda has been teaching Integral Yoga since 1973, and practicing Yoga Therapy since 1979, specializing in Yoga as Stress Management. Vidyananda co-developed the Integral Yoga Stress Management Teacher Training with Swami Ramananda, and taught it for over 30 years. She has taught in many therapeutic programs, including Smith Center Cancer Retreats, Yoga for children with Down Syndrome, Yoga for university students with eating disorders, and chair Yoga for seniors. She is also trained as a hospital chaplain, with an emphasis on end-of-life issues.

Vidyananda has created therapeutic yoga programs for clients with stress-related mental and physical challenges, anxiety, sports and other injuries, and complex trauma. She uses a multi-leveled approach to Stress Management, including adapted stretches, breathing, relaxation, centering and wisdom teachings, to bring wellness to the body, emotions and mind.

Before becoming a Yoga teacher, Vidyananda worked as a broadcast news producer and reporter. Since 1983 she has produced and edited dozens of Yoga Videos, audios and documentaries for Integral Yoga. She also served as conference translator into French for her teacher, Swami Satchidananda, and other notable Yoga Masters. She has been a monk (Swami) since 1983. She founded the Integral Yoga Teachers’ Association and serves as the Director of the Integral Yoga Therapy Training Program. She lives in Satchidananda Ashram, VA, and travels and teaches internationally.

 

Fueling the Flame: Cultivating True Sincerity on the Spiritual Path

Online and In-person | $10-25 sliding scale
Free for active teachers

Please register in advance; a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

We appreciate advance registration.

What is sincerity? How can we deepen it? And how do we recognize when it is truly present in us?

We engage in practices that nurture the well-being of body and mind—this is our sadhana. Yet at times, we unconsciously undermine those efforts. One foot presses the accelerator, while the other rests on the brake.

In this workshop, Swami Asokananda will offer heartfelt insights and practical tools to help us become more earnest and focused on the spiritual path. Learn how to release the brake, press the gas with confidence, and move forward with greater clarity, sincerity, and inner momentum.

“If you are earnest, whatever way you choose will take you to your goal. It is the earnestness that is the decisive factor. Earnestness is the homing instinct which makes the bird return to its nest and the fish to the mountain stream where it was born. The seed returns to the earth when the fruit is ripe.” Nisargadatta Maharaj

Everyone is welcome to stay for tea and visit with Swami Asokananda afterwards.

This workshop will be recorded for later viewing and shared for 2 weeks with all enrolled students.


Swami Asokananda, a monk since 1973, is one of Integral Yoga’s foremost teachers, known for his warmth, intelligence, and good humor. His teaching comes out of his own practice and experience, since he has absorbed the wisdom of his guru, Sri Swami Satchidananda, since the age of 19. While he enjoys sharing the practical wisdom of the Yogic philosophy (especially that of the great Indian scripture the Bhagavad Gita), he also loves his practice of Hatha Yoga and is one of our primary instructors for Intermediate and Advanced Hatha Yoga Teacher Training. In the past, he has served as the president of Satchidananda Ashram–Yogaville® and Integral Yoga® International; he is currently the President of the New York Integral Yoga Institute.

Toward a Healthier Spine

Online & in-person | $35 | $27 Early bird, use promo code SPINE, exp. 4/6

Please register in advance; a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

We appreciate advance registration.

In ‘Toward a Healthier Spine’ workshop, we will combine teachings from Integral Hatha Yoga, Pilates, strength training, and Somatic Experiencing® mindfulness practices.
We will first do a brief exploration into anatomy of the spine and core, followed by practicing movements that add strength and stability to these areas. We aim to find the support for various movements that we do in everyday life with our spine. After creating a support system for the spine we will proceed to explore Asanas, physical Yoga postures, including back bends, forward bends and twists. There will be plenty of opportunities during the workshop for questions. This workshop provides simple tools to help attendees safely support the healthy function of the spine in their movement practices and daily life.

No previous experience in these practices needed.


Raisa Divyajyothi Punkki, RYT-500, was introduced to Yoga while studying at the University of Arts, Finland in 1988. Studying with various schools of yoga and after years of practicing and wandering on the quest of deeper knowledge, she found her spiritual home at Integral Yoga Institute San Francisco in 2019. Raisa has been certified to teach Hatha Yoga from the Beginning to Advanced levels, Raja Yoga and Stress Management. She is teaching in person and online Hatha classes at the IYI San Francisco. Raisa has over 30 years of experience in teaching movement. She holds an MA in Dance and is a Certified Pilates Teacher with two decades of teaching experience with various age groups and populations. Raisa is also a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, SEP®. She guides the private movement and Somatic Experiencing® sessions in her studio located by the Union Square in downtown San Francisco. She wishes to share the beauty of Integral Hatha Yoga’s healing, centering and strengthening power with others in their journey. This sharing of wisdom of Yoga happens with kindness, compassion and passion.

Breath: Mysterious and Therapeutic

Online & In-person | $32 Early bird, use promo code BREATH, exp. 3/23 | $39 Regular

Please register in advance; a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

We appreciate advance registration.

The Breath can be used in multiple therapeutic applications to promote healing on a physical, emotional and mental level. It is something our body does continuously on its own. It can be challenging to really take a good look at one’s own breathing.
Breath has a potential to open doors to a greater awareness, a path to our spiritual awakening. Many traditions use the breath as a vehicle for transformation, healing, and looking beyond ordinary perception of day-to-day life.

In this workshop we will explore the breath gently and from different perspectives. You will learn:

• Getting to know your breath with mindfulness practices
• The basics of physiological and energetic aspects of the breath
• An introduction to pranayama, yogic breath control, its benefits and techniques
• Assessing your nervous system (NS) with breath awareness, activating vagus nerve
• Discovering patterns of holding
• Basics of self-healing with the breath
• Scriptural references as well as western medical research

We will explore the breath in asana, yoga nidra, pranayama and meditation practices. Lecture and discussion will be included. We will tailor our explorations to your interests.
This workshop will be recorded and shared with participants for later viewing.
CEUs 2 hours for Yoga Alliance offered to attending teachers upon request.


Diana Meltsner, C-IAYT, ERYT-500, YACEP, has been teaching a variety of classes and workshops since 2001 and since 2017 offers yoga therapy sessions privately and at Integral Yoga Therapy Clinic in San Francisco. She has been working in the clinical setting for Kaiser Permanente since 2005 as a yoga teacher, yoga therapist, and health educator and is teaching mindfulness and meditation to the medical staff. Her focus is on the healing aspects of yoga on the mind as well as the body by applying the teachings of Yoga, practices of breath-control, mindfulness and meditation. Diana helps her clients to find healing and the ability to move through life with increased ease, stress resilience, and intuition. Diana Meltsner works as a programs manager at Integral Yoga Institute, an urban ashram in San Francisco. She is a yoga teacher trainer for the 200-hour and Meditation Teacher trainings. www.dianameltsner.com

Go to Top