What is an energy body anyway???
My 6 week series, Pranic Flow: Yoga, Breathwork and Meditation for Your Energy Body, begins tomorrow!!!
*** And in case you're not sure what I mean by "pranic flow" and "your energy body", here's a little prana 101 for you :-)
I’ve been nerding out lately on the interplay between the physical body, the energy body and the nervous system - reflecting on how the three systems interact and support each other and exploring how it actually works through yogic practices.
Your energy body (pranamaya kosha) is the sheath that governs your vital life force (prana). It’s made up of 72,000 channels (nadis) which act as a circulatory system for prana. And like the circulatory system, you can have blocks and back-ups that interrupt the flow of energy, which in turn can affect your physical health.
The energy body plays a crucial role in breathing, digestion and circulation, supporting the intake and movement of prana, the digestive fire and the elimination of waste. It also plays a critical role in balancing the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system, helping us to stay both calm and energized at the same time.
The question you might be asking is, why work with the energy body when the physical body is already making sure that we inhale and exhale, and that we eat, digest and eliminate?
While the physical body does do these things, it doesn’t always do them well. When we’re stressed (enter nervous system dysregulation), we often take a shallow inhale without using our diaphragm and we follow it with an incomplete exhale, not fully emptying our lungs. And when we’re eating in this state, we don’t properly digest or fully eliminate our food. In other words, when we’re in fight, flight or freeze, our systems are compromised. So working with the energy body may actually be our best line of defense for supporting the health of our physical body, because the first thing it does is calm the nervous system.
Practices that activate the energy body - like breathwork (pranayama), help turn up our parasympathetic response which in turn supports our digestive system. And they help us moderate the sympathetic response which gives us access to more pure prana - think vibrancy and aliveness without the caffeine and adrenaline.
In other words, it takes the help of our pranamaya kosha to fire on all cylinders, and move into more optimal states.
This lens is the foundation for the 6-week series I’m teaching. But the real fun comes with the practice.
In each class, I’ll offer a framework that illuminates a part of the energy system i.e., the nadis, vayus, chakras and bandhas, and breathwork, meditation and yoga asana practices to explore them.
This series will help you:
Become more aware and sensitive to your energy body
Learn how to ground yourself
Tap into your own source of prana and enhance your ability to feel more energized
Understand the interplay between your energy body, physical body and nervous system while exploring practices to more effectively support all three.
Ultimately, it comes down to feeling more alive. The world we live in is intense and can leave us feeling stressed, scattered, overwhelmed and fatigued. I want you to feel more relaxed, grounded and energized. And I have some fantastic tools to support you with this!
If you’d like to join me, there are a few ways to do it:
I'll offer 6 in-person classes in Salt Lake City. We’ll meet on Wednesdays at the Gait Lab from 9:30-10:45, June 11 - July 16.
I'll also be recording the same class each week from my home studio on Wednesday or Friday (depending on my schedule for the week) at noon. You'll receive that recording whether you come live or not. All recordings are yours to keep it, so you can revisit the practices.
And I'll be recording live on zoom if you'd like to join me for the recorded classes.
Whether you come in person, on zoom, watch recordings at your own pace or a combo of the 3, the cost is $99 for the whole series and recordings are yours to keep!
*** Your Yoga members take $20 off!
Click below to learn more or register!
Pranic Flow: Yoga, Breathwork and Meditation for Your Energy Body
I hope you will join me. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out!
Sending love your way,
Rachel