with Founder, Shannon Paige Schneider
And Anjali Restorative Teachers:  Kim Peirce, Joyce Mayagishama, Kelli Davis, Avril Bright, Krista Overly, and Elizabeth Potter

What would happen if--for one moment--you were able to regard your breath, body, and mind as perfect, complete, essential experienced and enlightened?

You would be a complete possibility of potential and grace.

You would be in the unique position of simultaneous deep surrender and full participation with the universe.

You would be authentically, fully, deeply, creatively be embodying life as a wonderful paradox of choosing the patterns of divine expression in the regularity of the everyday.

What if--you could sincerely, expansively share this with those you love by the simple act of giving yourself this time and space to slow down, go deeper inside yourself and heal the edges of exhaustion?

Anjali Restorative Yoga is a highly regarded nurturing style of yoga. Through this thoughtful practice of intentional rest, the body is supported by bolsters, pillows, and blankets. The mind and breath are guided through gentle images and practices. The effect is profoundly restful and serene.

The physiological effects of the practice are remarkable: increased lung capacity, improved circulation, spinal flexibility, and significant reduction in various stress related and chronic fatigue symptoms. By providing the body with the freedom to intentionally rest, one is able to tap into one’s own innate healing wisdom. Over time, the practitioner begins to enjoy the cumulative benefits and a marked increase in the ability to access states of calm and gentleness in day-to-day activities. 

Overtime, we learn to be more response-able:  we learn to respond, rather than knee-jerk react to the stimuli of stress and repetitive patterns that keep us from the most expressive spaces of vital living.

This practice is ideal for those engaging any personal healing path and with its gentle pacing and restorative nature, it is appropriate for longtime practitioners and first time visitors.  This practice has had tremendous success with those who have entered a healing protocol for cancer, hiv/aids, chronic fatigue, eating disorders, addiction and depression.  It has received raves from those who felt they would never find an alternative to power workouts, coffee, or alcohol as a means to find spaces of release and letting go. There are no yoga experience pre-requisites and we feel that if you come to us feeling as though you may be too stressed to sit still, perfect.  If you come to us too exhausted to take another step, perfect.  If you come to us feeling fine and needing a subtle energy tune up, perfect.

Come as you are.  Perfect.  Lie down.  Breathe deep.  Perhaps it is time to except this invitation to stop trying so hard.  Perhaps it is time to take some time for you.  Perhaps this time for you, make create more space for you to effectively gather yourself in order to give out more fully tomorrow.

What to expect in an Anjali Restorative Yoga Class:

You will enter a dimly-lit, candle-illumined room of soft music, hushed voices, and a distant, faint scent of lavender and chamomile tea.   The Anjali Angel will invite you to your space and you will come to lie on a cushy, blanket-covered mat, with your legs up and over a bolster, bent at the knees.  Your ankles will be supported from below and your body will be called to receive the rest as it comes over you in the initial waves of softening your back body into the world below and opening the ease of the breath up to the sky.  Your palms will turn to face up and as the blanket is drawn up to cover your body and the eye pillow is lowered across your eyes.  You will let go… maybe a little at first, but as the guided meditation begins and you begin to follow the story through your body, deliberately choosing spaces of ease and release, the body will unfold into an ever-deepening meditation.

From the first pose, “basic relaxation pose”, you will be called softly in and out of 8 others.  Each pose will offer the body a supported space with bolsters pillows and blankets.  Each posture will involve a guided meditation carrying the instructors initial theme through appropriate breathing exercises and visualizations.  The progression of the postures is evolutionary, one pose providing space to teach the next.  Experience the spine being moved in seven different directions:  forward bend, back bend, side bend right, side bend left, twist right, twist left and extension.  The consistency of the sequence allows a practitioner to gauge physical openings and release, the difference in the theme and story and instructional offering each class ensure that you will never experience the same exact class twice.

Classes can range in time between 45, 60, 75, and 90 minutes.  The instructors are each deeply experienced, expressive, and thoughtful.  You will notice that time disappears and you lose yourself in the subtle rhythms of rest and relaxation.  Regardless of the class time you commit to it will feel like mere moments and you will begin to crave carving out more time for more classes in which to lie down and both lose and find yourself in the pulses of your heart and breath.

Please, arrive wearing whatever you are comfortable wearing.  We recommend socks and sleeves, as the body temperature naturally drops as you engage spaces of deepened rest. 

Please, communicate with the instructor any special needs, each is deeply skilled in helping accommodate a vast array of modifications and meeting emotional needs with additional weight and coverings. 

Please, arrive ten minutes early to class.  Once a practice begins, by the sheer nature of the practice, and the sequential deepening of awareness into the invitation of meditation, we are unable to allow latecomers.  If you find yourself too late to join class, please understand and accept our apologies for needing to hold this sacred boundary for those who are in the class.  Go for a gentle walk to your favorite teashop.  Sit.  Sip. Breathe.  Think of the ten people you love most in the world.  Send each of those sweet hearts a little prayer of love.

We look forward to having you in class.  Please, send any specific questions to anjali@omtime.com and we will respond promptly.

Anjali Restorative Yoga Teacher Development

Love your Anjali Restorative Yoga Practice?

Feel the call to offer it to others, weave its concepts into your day-to-day asana classes?

Do you have a special population to which you would like to bring this practice?

Consider one of our Anjali Restorative Yoga Teacher Development programs, workshops, intensives, retreats, immersions and trainings.

Teaching Anjali Restorative Yoga is significantly different from other styles of yoga.  Those that guide these classes engage a process of personal development and access into a space of evolutionary healing and progressive transformation in order to hold a healing space for those who enter the Anjali practice.  An Anjali teacher is more of a nurturer and a guided meditation provider than a “teacher.”

In the spaces of the workshops, intensives, immersions, and retreats, gain a skill set of personal evolution.  Learn the processes and practices that give you the affirmation, wisdom and courage to go deeper into the spaces of your story, heal the unseen and set patterns of chronic stress free.  Gain the skills to empower your personal yoga practices.  For teachers, learn skills that you can weave into any asana class.  These events are open to practitioners of all level and require no training and experiential pre-requisites.

The Anjali Restorative Teacher Training is a 6-month training spanning 108 hours of committed energy ad evolution towards streaming guided meditations, offering the spinal sequence with elegance and grace to others.  It is open to those who demonstrate a deep propensity to offer this practice to others in a unique and connected personal voice.

In this training you will hone your unique communication skills verbally, creatively, and inspirationally. The focus of the training is not simply to memorize a set sequence of asanas, but rather to deepen your personal knowledge of the subtle sensations that arise in your own practice and direct the challenges into actions and poetic vocabulary that can inspire ease in another.  It involves a great deal of personal inventory taking, reading, contemplating, digesting thoughts, writing inspirations, and verbally sharing yourself in a public, though sacredly supportive space.

Cultivating the benefits of Anjali Restorative Yoga in oneself is genuine beauty; cultivating the benefits in others is a heartfelt service path. One of the most challenging aspects for all teachers is getting what is inside the heart, out of the mouth and into a classroom full of students.

This challenge can only be met by deep, personally engaged sadhana or practice. From that deepened place and by inviting in the trust of others, we practice, we speak, we share, and we unfold.

Our Level One Anjali Teacher’s training is special. It is transformative and unique, as you will:

• Explore the methodology of rest and meditation: the patterning periods of rest that can optimize brain chemistry and its increase hormonal functioning; the patterning visualization can optimize in heart rhythms and response to stimuli, thoughts, and breath; the therapeutic benefits of optimal alignment for the spine, shoulders, and pelvis held in biomechanical neutral in spaces of deep rest.

• Surround yourself in the history, philosophy, and mythology from our deep yogic path through the lessons and practices offered by our esteemed faculty: Shannon Paige Schneider, and special guests:  Chris Muchow, Lorin Roche PhD., Cindy Williams, James Ripley, and Douglas Brooks PhD.

• Dive into the deep currents of your own history and story and determine an intentional vantage point from which to build a teaching practice.  Learn to respond to your personal story with wisdom, compassion, and the ability to choose to let go of what patterns no longer serve you of reaction rather than response.

• Develop instruction, observation, and verbalization skills of the highest order and create an ever-evolving teaching practice from the deep ocean of thoughtful restorative techniques and methodology.

From that place in the story, from the seat of expanded knowledge, we begin to teach what is in our hearts to the world around us.

Those who have completed this training experience a confidence: verbally guiding a class through a detailed spinal sequence practice; weaving lessons, stories, and guided meditations to support the breath and imagery of a practice; as well as expressing the physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of rest to enhance the swift currents of life on and off the mat.

Registration

Training sizes are limited. Please, contact anjali@omtime.com with questions, registration inquiries and for an application. Submission of an application does not guarantee acceptance into the program.

A general Teacher Training Includes:

• 54 hour class contact and training with Shannon Paige Schneider and special guests.

• Anjali Teacher Training Manual and supplementary articles.

• In-Class Observations with Shannon and Anjali Mentors, to see how each teacher utilizes the methodology to create a unique and inspired class experience.

• In-Class Assisting with Shannon and Anjali Mentors.

• A ten class punch card to om time.

• Bi-weekly email contemplations and meditations.

• Personal Practice Development with Shannon and Anjali Restorative Mentors

*Guest teachers are subject to change based on scheduling and availability.