I really enjoyed exploring the book The Yamas and Niyamas: Yoga’s Ethical Practice when I was in teacher training. The book was the inspiration for the final ‘assignment’ of mine in teacher training. We had to create a workshop and be ready to present it. I had this idea that I would create a workshop using these ethical practices and tie them to building communities of social justice within our own personal and community yoga classes.
Needless to say it got really convoluted on paper and the exploring of ideas was a little flat. It was good learning experience working to bring yoga philosophy into a primarily physically focused group. BUT despite the awkward conversation, the 60 minute class inspired by the book ended up being really cool. It was the first of many nonviolent based yin classes in a power yoga setting I’ve gone on to offer. With each exploration of this book I have refined the offering. Most recently, I developed a workshop that I will link to as a resource at the bottom of this post. It is for you to use personally or to explore with other students.
On this second teacher training module I was able to get a little more clear. I created a clear agenda, exploring questions, a tool for engaging in your home practice and an experiential sequence. It was a written exploration of key concepts of each of the yamas and niyamas. After which the teacher trainees participated in a power yin style sequence that was directly tied to the individual practices (purity, non-stealing, nonviolence etc.).
Here are links to the materials:
Rachel Townsend 