The Continuum of Yoga: Nature’s Perfect Blend of Psyche and Soma

“God is not elsewhere, but is moving through our cells and in every part of us.” ~Emilie Conrad

Discover new and unexpected possibilities when you combine the fluid movement practices of Continuum Yoga.

Continuum Yoga is an embodied movement practice created by Bobbie Ellis based on the work of somatic visionary Emilie Conrad. It is a meditative somatic practice using breath, sound, mindful awareness and gentle movement. Emilie Conrad developed Continuum for almost 50 years until her death in 2014. The teachers who studied with her, including yoga teacher Bobbie Ellis, have continued to carry forward this important work into the world.

Emily Conrad's practice of Continuum has been used for 50 years to enhance health and function with many types of health issues. With the multiple stressors and trauma of living, over time, our body tissues contract and become less fluid. Compression creates body density and isolates tissue. Our body is more rigid and less able to move. With compression, we are less able to respond in new ways to what life presents.

Continuum Yoga helps you to:

• Increase fluid movement and flexibility

• Enhance health and vitality

• Experience pleasure and enjoyment in your body

• Develop renewed creativity and spontaneity

• Slow the aging process

In this course, Continuum Yoga teacher Bobbie Ellis will show how the techniques of Continuum Yoga can be used to inform your yoga practice and bring it to a new level. In our time together we will start with posture shapes, explore gravity and space in relationship to movements and stimulate fluid wisdom.

What You Will Learn:

• The Art of Self-Regulation and Slowing Down: Listening to the language of the body which speaks to us in sensation takes some time. Learn and explore skills in quiet listening to “hear” and follow fluid wisdom. Trust yourself to know what is enough and what is too little in movement and sensation. Self-regulating your experience can bring a deep sense of pleasure in practice. Allowing movement and posture to emerge rather than taking a shape and staying there from someone else’s cueing.

• Introduction to Sensory Play as a Way to Awaken Fluid Wisdom: Sound is a shape changer. To explore and move sound throughout the body changes its structure because of the vibratory quality. This is miraculous and at the same time nothing new. Birds, turtles, wolves, frogs and all species know this stream of pure sound. We will explore how sound can lead into play, self-knowledge, resilience and rising health properties that are our ongoing birthright!

We will explore:

• How the fluid nature of the body and Continuum Yoga can inform and evolve yoga practices

• Curiosity to develop new resources for embodied living

• The body as a resilient creative process, rather than an object to force and mold

• A process of pouring your body into and out of movement exploration rather than a fixed static state that can be taken into your asana practice

• How your yoga practice can be informed by the moment, as opposed to perfecting form

• How changing your habitual tempo and listening from within in new and novel ways to develop empowerment and self-regulation can inform your movement both on and off the mat

From the article “Slow Movement with Awareness: Better than Exercise?” By Alan Fogel from Psychology Today:

• Slow movement with body sense awareness has astounding health benefits.

• Attending slow movement classes are increasingly seen as having essential “nutrients” for the body.

• Studies have shown slow movement classes can relieve symptoms of arthritis, depression, anxiety and other disabilities.

• Slow movement with awareness is the best cure for pain because the attention helps direct the body’s own healing resources to the area.

• Body sensing is medicine.

This Course Also Includes:

• Recordings of All Webinar Sessions: It’s generally acknowledged that many people only retain 10-20 percent of what they learn in a workshop. You will get access to the recordings of all webinar sessions - both MP3 (downloadable) and MP4 (streaming online), enabling you to go back and listen to the workshop as many times as you like.

• Transcripts of All Sessions: Ever wanted to refer to a certain part of a course? Even the best note takers miss a point every so often. With the transcripts of the webinar sessions, you can go back and refer to particularly important passages or clarify sections you were in doubt about.

This course qualifies for 4 non-contact hour CEs with Yoga Alliance.