Deane Juhan eloquently brings alive and makes accessible and intriguing the subjects of anatomy and physiology. These workshops allow us to develop new images and new language in order to more deeply understand the anatomical, physiological, and philosophical aspects of the body-mind.
All webinars will include extensive slides and lecture to illustrate and describe the material in their titles. They are the accumulation and consolidation of knowledge on their subjects that has been gleaned from Deane Juhan’s fifty years of research and practice.
Much of content of these classes is uniquely applied to somatic healing disciplines of all kinds. It offer perspectives that are not found in textbooks, and that in fact often run counter to accepted opinions about the nature of our organisms’ processes of development and healing.
Anxiety is one of the most prevalent and potent stressors in the culture around us, and as a pervasive state in our lives it is not only profoundly uncomfortable, it is very damaging to our organs, our immune system, and our clarity of thought and feeling. It is an inevitable aftermath of the many kinds of traumas that can befall us.
The real trauma is not the thing that happened to us, but is the ways in which our bodies and minds react to it—and keep on reacting long after the thing has past. Anxiety—like all feeling states—is anchored in the body, in the neural processes, in the glandular secretions, the muscular tensions, the compulsive behaviors. It is a state of extensive dysregulation of our organisms.
It is not that we have an emotion and then the body reacts; the body’s reactions are the emotion. Anxiety is a biochemistry that is happening in the body which is then experienced in the mind as a feeling state. It is attentiveness to the body—through yoga, meditation, mindfulness in all forms—that most effectively neutralizes it
The pharmacological approach to anxiety is a multibillion dollar industry, churning out a large menu of drugs to combat this dysregulated biochemistry. And yet, the most powerful tools of mindful self-awareness we all possess is actually the most powerful way to address it.
What is the biochemistry of anxiety and stress? When we are confronted with danger, the brain/pituitary/adrenal axis sets off a chain of events that releases adrenaline into our system. This gives us the boost of energy we need to fuel the heightened fight or flight response. Normally this biochemical boost lasts until we have either overcome the danger of have fled from it, and then it quickly recedes. But if we cannot successfully fight or flee to resolve the threat we are traumatized by it. And when we habitually remember the moment of threat and trauma, or when we imagine threats that really are not there, this adrenaline secretion keeps pumping, and like the long term effects of any powerful stimulant it exhausts our organism and degrades our mental capacity.
What are the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems? The sympathetic system naturally stimulates our organs, muscles and thought processes so that we can get our day’s work done. The sympathetic activity recedes and the parasympathetic system takes over when we relax, rest, sleep and all of our spent fuel of the day is restored. Chronic anxiety interrupts this normal cycle and prevents the restful state from taking over.
What is the opposite of constant adrenaline flow, fight or flight mode, chronic anxiety? It has been demonstrated that states of deep mental and physical relaxation—as in meditative states—effectively reverse the biochemistry of fear, anxiety and stress and allow our bodies and minds to restore and heal themselves.
When? Sunday, September 17th at 2pm Pacific Time. Please use this time converter if you need.
Cost: $45
Where? Online. The zoom link will be part of your confirmation email and you will also receive a reminder email 2 days before and one hour before it starts.
After registering, you will receive 2 emails: a receipt and a confirmation email. The Zoom link will be part of the confirmation email. If you don't receive it, please contact asap info@yogakula.com. Thank you!
Recorded Video will be available and sent automatically to all registered participants. If you cannot make the time but would like to attend, please register to receive the video link.
CEU available for NCBTMB.
Watch previous workshops by Deane Juhan - Visit our Online Academy.
Originally trained in-residence at Esalen Institute from 1973 to 1990, Deane Juhan has been a professional bodyworker for 30 years. He is a Trager practitioner and instructor, with a private practice in the Berkeley area. The author of "Job's Body: A Handbook for bodywork," and "Touched by the Goddess: The Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Dimensions of Bodywork," he has long had a passion for understanding the relations between mind, body and spirit and the creative forces at work in all self-development, healing and artistic expression. His workshops have been presented all across the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. Their content is focused on both cutting edge research into many aspects of the body-mind and his years of experience as a practitioner.
Website: jobsbody.com