Take a deep dive into the chakras with your YTA community!

Using Anodea Judith's Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to Self (EBWM) and Wheels of Life: A User's Guide to the Chakras (WOL) as our source material, each of our monthly discussions will focus on a single chakra. We will discuss our own understanding of these energy centers and how we experience them on and off the mat. We will have group discussion as well as breakout sessions for more intimate connections in smaller groups that will remain the same throughout the series.

We will meet on the following Mondays at 6:30–8 p.m. EST: January 27, February 24, March 24, April 28, June 2, June 30, July 28.

To ensure confidentiality, sessions will not be recorded.

Please read each chakra's chapter in both books in advance of its meeting. If time is limited, EBWM has more background information and explains how each chakra is linked to a developmental stage and other Western social/psychological theories; WOL provides more detailed methods (yoga and otherwise) to balance each chakra.

About the books:

In Eastern Body, Western Mind, chakra authority Anodea Judith brought a fresh approach to the yoga-based Eastern chakra system, adapting it to the Western framework of Jungian psychology, somatic therapy, childhood developmental theory, and metaphysics and applying the chakra system to important modern social realities and issues such as addiction, codependence, family dynamics, sexuality, and personal empowerment.

Each chapter focuses on a single chakra, starting with a description of its characteristics and then exploring its particular childhood developmental patterns, traumas and abuses, and how to heal and maintain balance.

Anodea Judith's classic introduction to the chakra system, Wheels of Life takes you on a powerful journey through progressively transcendent levels of consciousness. View this ancient metaphysical system through the light of new metaphors, ranging from quantum physics to child development.

Learn how to explore and balance your own chakras using poetic meditations and simple yoga movements―along with gaining spiritual wisdom, you'll experience better health, more energy, enhanced creativity, and the ability to manifest your dreams.

You can purchase the books at Bookshop.org (choose an independent bookstore to benefit before purchasing) or ThriftBooks, or order directly from a local bookstore. 

Anodea Judith, Ph.D., has been called a prophet for our time. A globally recognized teacher, speaker, healer, and writer on the intersection of personal and collective awakening, her passion for the realization of our potential matches her concern for humanity’s impending crises—her fervent wish that we “wake up in time.”

Anodea holds master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology and health. She is a 500-hour E-RYT) and a therapist with lifelong studies in somatic psychology, mythology, history, sociology, systems theory, and mystic spirituality.

Anodea is best known for her groundbreaking work reviving the chakra system of ancient yoga, and its profound correlation to human psychology, cultural evolution, and the downward process of manifestation. Her award-winning and best-selling books have gained worldwide recognition with over a million books in print in 18 languages.

Learn more about Anodea Judith on her website.

After a quick and light lesson on the extraordinary Sanskrit language (alphabet and pronunciation), we will delve into the Yoga Sutras and how the practices of yoga can become a way of life that supports us as individuals as well as helping to create a healthy and happy society.

We will overview the eight limbs from a practical perspective, as a journey away from names and labels and toward real values that are cultivated by a steady practice of turning our attention inward. This process clears the heart-mind, gives a new perspective on suffering, and provides the tools needed to attain deep inner happiness.

Yoga in the broad sense elucidated in the Yoga Sutras is much more than postures—it is truly a way of life whose principles and practices are applicable in every culture. During the workshop, many sutras will be chanted in call-and-response format and translated directly from the original Sanskrit.

A recording will be made available to all participants for two weeks following the workshop.

Note: This workshop will be a lecture/discussion and will not incorporate a movement session.

Nicolai Bachman has been teaching Sanskrit, chanting, yoga philosophy, and Ayurveda since 1994. His education combines informal traditional study with the academic rigor of university classes. He holds an M.A. in Eastern Philosophy, an M.S. in Nutrition, and is eRYT500 and YACEP certified. His publications include The Language of Yoga, The Path of the Yoga Sutras, The Yoga Sutras Desk Reference, 108 Sanskrit Flashcards, and The Language of Ayurveda. Since COVID his offerings have been mostly online. Learn more at SanskritSounds.com.