(No availability) 7 Day Mindfulness Yin Yoga Course with Kathy Ward in on the Ox Mountains, County Sligo
The listing is fully booked, get notified when dates are available
We’ll only ever send you one email notification and will never spam you
Mindfulness Yin Yoga Course in Ireland
Mindfulness Yin Yoga offers you the gift of a heart-centered practice, allowing you to wake up from automatic pilot and return to the center where true healing begins. The course is suitable for those with an existing yoga practice (not necessarily Yin yoga) and an interest in learning or deepening the practice of Yin and meditation.
You do not need to be a yoga teacher to attend; however, if you are a teacher, you will be able to add the skills to your teaching practice. The course is also registered as a USA Yoga Alliance continuing education course, so you will be able to add the hours to your teaching record. The remote and scenic location is perfect for reconnecting with yourself in a nurturing environment, rejuvenating the body, mind, and spirit!
Meet the instructors
Read more
Highlights
- Mindfulness Yin yoga course
- Optional sound gong meditation
- Detailed instruction and practice on Yin yoga asanas
- USA Yoga Alliance (RYT®) can count the hours as Continuing Education hours
- Additional study and practice of pranayama, mudras, and meridians
- Extensive manual covering every aspect of practice
- 6 nights shared accommodation in an eco-cabin
- Full board vegetarian cuisine
Skill level
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Yoga styles
Accommodation
With just 4 x 2 bedroomed en-suite eco-cabins, a retreat center has been created, offering you the perfect escape in top-quality comfort, and privacy, set in beautiful peaceful woodland. You will be accommodated in a shared twin room (same-sex) with en-suite bathroom in a 2-bedroom eco-cabin.
A newly fitted kitchen and a dining area provide all you need for a comfortable and enjoyable stay. The kitchen area comes complete with cutlery, crockery, and glassware. Sheets, towels, and duvets are of a high quality, designed to ensure coziness and warmth. There are hairdryers, an iron and an ironing board provided.
The bathrooms have a shower, toilet, and wash hand basin. The beds can be configured either with 2 singles beds in a room or one king size. Each has an outdoor balcony with patio furniture.
Guests comment on the peaceful energy and the delightful wood aroma of this unique accommodation. Built to a passive design standard, with a minimal impact in the local scenic environment, the cabins have adjustable electrical heating, partially supplied by their own turbine.
Program
With an emphasis on awareness of the present moment and focus on being in your practice, rather than doing your practice, the course will include detailed instruction and practice on Yin yoga asanas for the meridians, pranayama (breathing), mudras (energy connections), and mindfulness meditation.
Mindfulness meditation.
The mindfulness-based meditation we will explore was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in the USA over 40-years ago. It is has been designed to help people learn new ways of handling the stressors of modern living and to help you find balance both on and off the mat.
Mindfulness is a life skill that can deepen your sense of well-being and fulfillment. It involves paying attention to what is occurring in your present moment experience, with an attitude of openness and non-judgmental acceptance.
It engages all of your senses as you open to your entire experience, becoming aware of your body, thoughts, and emotions - not always that comfortable during the long holds of Mindfulness Yin Yoga! Cultivating the skills of Mindfulness, you will be able to skillfully deepen your practice allowing you to tap into the true essence of the quieter practices.
As Jon Kabat-Zinn so eloquently describes it, Mindfulness is “arriving at our own door”, being in touch with yourself, with others, and your surroundings in the present moment. It is a natural and intuitive state of presence in which you can feel more connected, real, and alive.
Topics covered
During the training, you will learn how to deepen your own practice and explore:
- What is Yin Yoga and its history
- The differences between a Yang and Yin practice
- The differences between Yin and Restorative yoga
- The most common Yin yoga postures
- Full instruction on alignment principles, modifications, assists, and use of props to suit the individual including Restorative options.
- Benefits and contraindications of Yin yoga
- Sequences for organ health including the kidney/urinary, liver/gallbladder, stomach/spleen, lung/heart, and intestine and governing/conceptual vessel
- Visualizations for each of the pair sequences to bring the practice alive
- A Meridian pairs sequence (sometimes called Makko Ho or Shiatsu stretches) to bring balance to your energy body
- How to practice pranayama to bring balance to the body & mind during the postures
- How to bring Mindfulness-based meditation into your Yin practice and life
- Exploring through practice the four heart qualities (love, compassion, joy, and equanimity) known as the “Four Immeasurables”
- For yoga teachers, this course will give you the essential skills you need to be able to teach Mindfulness Yin Yoga
Pranayama
You will also learn to practice pranayama (breath practices) in a mindful way, taking into consideration your own needs, and if teaching the needs of your students and any contra-indications. Some textbooks refer to teaching pranayama in different levels, this gives the impression that Pranayama techniques are something to attain, leading students to become goal-orientated towards “the most difficult” when in fact, the simpler pranayama may be the very one you need.
Practice
- Breath awareness including deep tummy breathing to bring balance to the nervous system
- Centering with a 3-step anchoring space
- Heart breath
- Learning how to exhale with Kaki pranayama to release stress, anxiety, and tension
- Ujjayi - the ocean breath
- Nadhi Shodhana to bring balance to yin and yang
- Orbiting energy breath through the conceptual vessel and governing vessel meridians
Mindfulness Yin Yoga
Yin yoga is part of the original Hatha yoga tradition, and some say it was the original practice. Mindfulness Yin yoga combines the influences of traditional Hatha yoga with modern Mindfulness practices to improve health, well-being, and happiness.
Recently brought back into the spotlight by Bernie Clark, Sarah Powers, Paul Grilley, and Biff Mithoefer and others, Yin yoga is the practice of floor postures held for three to five minutes (sometimes more). It emphasizes the connective tissue of the hips, thighs, pelvis, and lower spine.
By drawing awareness away from the muscles and deeper into the bones, a deep level of relaxation can be achieved. There is usually an element of Yang with a Yin pose, for example, in swan, the muscles in the arms will be working, and props can be used to help take the strain off the arms.
Optional Gong meditation
Each evening after dinner at the Cabragh Lodge, you will have the opportunity to experience a spaciously guided mindfulness-based meditation followed by the gongs with Fiona in An Croi, the beautiful octagonal meditation room. Please note: this event is not suitable for people with pacemakers, epilepsy, schizophrenia, or who are pregnant.
Gong meditation is a unique type of sound practice that involves using gong sounds to promote relaxation and the soothing of the body. The use of sound for healing and balancing has been used therapeutically for thousands of years. The gong journey is based on the understanding that all forms of matter - including your body’s cells - vibrate at different frequencies. Factors such as stress, depression, and disease cause cells and organs within your body to vibrate at non-optimal frequencies.
Difference between Restorative Yoga and Yin yoga
Yin yoga is not intended to be Restorative yoga, and there is some confusion on the differences. Yin yoga encompasses long-held, static stresses of the deep connective tissues allowing them to be remodeled, it may or may not be relaxing and there is a saying that goes "if you are feeling it you are doing it".
Props can be used to support the part of the body not being focused on, for example, a bolster under the chest in sphinx. In this way, the joint or in this case, the governing vessel and conceptual vessel, spine, etc. can be stretched with gentle, but persistent pressure for the length of the hold, full details including options will be given, allowing you to customize the practice to suit your body in each moment.
The course also uses the tools of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction MBSR to step out of automatic pilot and just be in your body in this present moment, to find the middle path.
Yin yoga is not intended to promote recovery from injury and illness in the way that Restorative yoga does. Generally speaking, in Restorative Yoga, the postures are held for longer periods too but in a fully supported position allowing the body to let go. There are some overlaps but they are two distinct methods with different intentions.
This Mindfulness Yin yoga is the perfect time for cultivating the yama 'do no harm' by stepping out of automatic pilot and with a foundation of ahimsa and Mindfulness, you tune into the experience of what is happening just now - in this moment.
Yoga Sutras II:16 “Heyam Dukham Anagatam - Suffering that has not yet come can, and should be avoided”
This sutra really supports Mindful Academy International's vision of teaching yoga. They often ask "as you practice yoga can you relinquish the goal of physical accomplishment for the intention of cultivating awareness of well-being, peace, joy, and happiness?"
Instructors
Kathy Ward
Kathy Ward is a TEDx speaker, senior International Mindfulness MBSR & MBA trainer, supervisor, supervisor, teacher, MBCT cancer teacher, and mindfulness consultant for the World Health Organization. She is the founder and CEO of Mindful Academy International and has trained over 560 teachers in the mindfulness and yoga field worldwide since 2010. In total, Kathy has nearly 40 years and many thousands of hours experience in writing, developing and delivering training packages, workshops and conferences, supervising and coaching both live and online, and in-depth training in mind-body therapies.
Retreat location
Cabragh Lodge is located in a quiet, rural, scenic setting on the Ox Mountains, overlooking the countryside below with Kesh Mountain and Knocknashee in the distance.
This is the perfect place to sit on your private balcony and enjoy the picturesque countryside and the abundance of wild nature.
The center is just 5 kilometers from Coolaney village and there are many varied and interesting walks in the surrounding hills and mountains.
This Yoga Retreat is vegetarian-friendly
Click to see more vegetarian-friendly Yoga Retreats
Food
The ethos of Cabragh Lodge Retreat Centre is vegetarian, so no meat is consumed or brought onto the site and there is a no smoking policy. The delicious food is sourced locally where ever possible and cooked at the Lodge by our host Fiona or her Chef.
The following meals are included:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
The following drinks are included:
- Water
- Tea
The following dietary requirement(s) are served and/or catered for:
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
What's included
- 6 nights accommodation
- Full board vegetarian cuisine
- Tuition
- Extensive manual covering every aspect of practice
- Optional sound gong meditation
What's not included
- Flights
- Airport transfer
- Holiday insurance
How to get there
Recommended Airports
Ireland West Airport Knock
32 km
Transfer not provided
Arrival by airplane
Please book your flight to arrive at Ireland West Airport Knock (NOC). Mindful Academy International is able to arrange private taxis from this airport at an additional cost, and a shared service may be available subject to flight arrival times. Please ask for details.
Cancellation Policy
- A reservation requires a deposit of 16.94% of the total price.
- The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
- The rest of the payment should be paid 30 days before arrival.
