Relating Yoga at Sofia University

Sunday, February 26, 2017 at 2 PM - 5 PM

Sofia University USA
1069 E Meadow Cir,
Palo Alto, California 94303



Have you ever felt awkward talking to someone, and wished you felt more comfortable? Have you ever wanted to get to know a person better, but weren't sure what to say?

I've been in situations where I felt so much pressure to say the right thing that I wanted to run away (even though I really didn't).

Why is it that for some people it just seems to flow easily? The bad news is there's no magic pill. The good news is there is this workshop!

Relating Yoga is a synthesis of yoga tools, interpersonal awareness practices, and communication games to help get to know yourself and other people more deeply.

These skills can also be useful in interviews, dating, and making any interpersonal interaction more fulfilling and enjoyable.

No previous experience or yoga ability necessary. Not a standard yoga class, but bring a yoga mat or bath towel. Arrive hydrated and bring a water bottle. Refrain from eating an hour before class. Or if you must, select something light. You may bring a snack to enjoy during our break time.

Please wear clothes you can move and feel good in. Stretchy, comfy, breathable things are the best, and layers are always a good idea. Please be ready to remove any jewelry or other restrictive items.

Cost: $20.



White Tantra Snuggle Puja and Play

Sunday, February 26, 2016 at 5:30 PM - 10:30 PM

GUAVA
4210 Holden St.,
Emeryville


It's a sweet Tantra puja and (first-base) play party where we gather to share heart-based sensual connection through eye-gazing, soulful communication, conscious touch, gentle massage, cuddling, and running tantric energy. It's a drug and alcohol-free party where we can relax and connect with like-minded people. Singles, couples, polysensuals, and all sexual orientation are welcome. Most importantly, this is a laboratory to deepen sensual pleasure, practice expressing what feels good and what doesn't, making requests to tickle your sensual fantasies, and maintaining clear boundaries that allow you to relax and know you are totally held in your Yes and in your No Thank You. This is a gender balanced event.

5:30pm Doors Open, Mix Mingle, Light Snacks,
6:00pm Orientation and connection games (doors close. No one is admitted past this time)
6:45pm White Tantra Puja
7:30pm Guided sensual experiences
8:15pm Self-directed snuggle & sensual play
9:45pm-10:00pm Closing Circle
10:00pm-10:30pm Chill & Mingle

Facilitator: Katrina Vaillancourt

Cost:
$40 Single Male
$30 Single Female
$65 Couple (Male/Female)
$85 Triad (1 Male/2 Females, or 3 Females)



Deep Dating: The New Rules for Creating Intimacy

Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 5 PM - 7:30 PM

Avenue D and 12th St. Treasure Island,
San Francisco, California 94130



You are about to go on a first date. It will be the date you've been waiting for your entire life.

The unique beauty of your dating partner will quickly become apparent to you. They, in turn, will feel moved by you. Over time, they'll really start to get you. You'll feel less alone in the world. In turn, they'll feel gotten by you, known, understood. As you feel more and more deeply connected, you'll come to trust one another. You'll fall in love. Eventually, the power of your connection will change you, make you more into the person you've always wished you could be.

And then, the date will be over. All of this will have happened in a single encounter. Welcome to the world of Deep Dating.

Deep Dating is different from normal dating. Normal dating is future-oriented. Everything frustrating, discouraging, disappointing, and unfulfilling about normal dating comes from it's future-oriented nature. On a normal date, you gradually lay the groundwork for a potential future relationship. In Deep Dating, the date you're on right now IS the relationship. There's no time for postponing, performing, pretending, or playing games. You're not waiting to find out if you'll become partners someday. You're getting as close as you can, right now, today, on this date.

When intimacy is your goal, you don't hang out on the surface waiting for the conditions to be right. Instead, you learn to create as much intimacy as you possibly can in whatever time is available, on any date, with any person. Deep Dating is a set of rules for creating intimacy. Follow the rules, and every date is fulfilling. Every date is new.

During this day-long, experiential workshop led by Steve Bearman, you'll learn:
* How to begin interactions with realness instead of smalltalk
* A reliable formula for creating intimacy with anyone
* Fulfilling alternatives to rejection, and flexible ways to assert boundaries
* The keys to building real trust in relationships
* Practices for getting even closer, no matter how close you already are
* How to never again have another failed online date
* Ways to integrate learning, healing, and growth into first encounters and long-term partnerships
* How to make dating as much of a spiritual practice as meditation or yoga

Come learn a set of simple rules for going deep with anyone, anytime. This experiential class will be a series of encounters. After a set of relational warm-ups, you'll have a chance to practice each of the principles of deep dating. We'll end with a couple full on (practice) deep dates, and practical guidelines for initiating Deep Dating in the world outside this very large workshop.

Bring a date or meet one here! Join us if you're single and dating, in a committed partnership, or anywhere else on the relationship spectrum. These principles can be applied to romantic and non-romantic dates, whatever your boundaries or desires.

Cost: $75 per person



Intuitive Voice: Kundalini Yoga & Sound Immersion Experience

Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 5 PM - 7:30 PM

Breathe Together Yoga
14107 Winchester Blvd, Ste H,
Los Gatos, California 95032



When faced with an important decision, do you have the tools that will help guide you to your highest choice? Learning how to hear the intuitive voice of the Soul is one of the most helpful skills in life. We are faced with thousands of choices a day. The voice of the Soul is often a whisper. It is often subtle. Its very nature is simplicity, and that is why we humans have such a hard time hearing it sometimes.

In this 2.5 hour workshop, we will experience a deep state of shuniya, or deep listening, in order to discover what the voice of the Soul sounds and feels like. Meditations from the lineage of Kundalini yoga, as taught by Yogi Bhajan, will be shared to strengthen the Ajna Chakra, or third eye space, which is the center for visualizing and inner-knowing.

Accompanying this experience is sound healer, Danny Goldberg. In the last hour, you will rest in Savasana as you are guided into a deep meditation by the sound vibrations of the singing bowls, gongs and chimes. These healing vibrations pass through the body, opening blockages and allowing the mind to quiet. The physiological impact of sound on the body, emotions, and cognition, is apparent.

Facilitators: Charanpal Kuar and Danny Goldberg

Cost: $65



Yoga & Mindfulness for Stress Management

Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 6:15 AM - 8:15 PM

Yoga Mayu - Noe Valley
4159 24th St,
San Francisco, California 94114


Stress got you down? Feeling overwhelmed? Need a break?

Let's quiet the mind and open the heart. Let's be gentle with ourselves and find stillness. Let's remember who you are.... LIGHT and LOVE.

Come heal, rejuvenate, and rest with mindful movement, creative visualization, Yoga Nidra, and breath work. Explore how stress affects your body and mind in a safe and supportive community.
We'll learn to listen and communicate with our bodies in a new way with present-focused exploration and awareness during asana, linking breath to movement and noticing energy flow/sensations.
Let the tension roll off your mat and out the door. Get in touch with the deeper, more divine part of yourself.

Facilitator: Erica Edwards

Cost: $40



The 2nd Annual Palo Alto Swing Dance

Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM PST

Terman Middle School Cafe
655 Arastradero Rd
Palo Alto, CA 94306


This is the 2nd Annual Palo Alto Swing Dance hosted by the Gunn High School Band & Orchestra Boosters. The dance will have live music for the entire event provided by the Gunn Jazz Bands. Anyone is welcome to attend and all proceeds will go to the Gunn High School music program!

Multiple ticket options are available! Add-ons include song dedications or even singing/performing with the jazz band! Each ticket includes group swing dance lessons with Nick and Melissa Enge, light food, and non-alcoholic drinks throughout the evening. Please print your ticket and bring it to the event.

No dancing experience necessary! A perfect date night or a night out to celebrate our wonderful community, students, and the arts together.

Tickets may be sold at the door if we are not sold out online.

Cost: $40

Yoga to Live Music Surrounded by Candlelight

Friday, February 24, 2017 at 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM PST

The Center SF
548 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA 94117



You are invited to gather in a welcoming and supportive community event. Please join us for a special Friday night Yoga class led by Wataya Roberson and Sound Healing by Amber Field.

Gentle flow with alignment to live music, surrounded by candlelight. Bathe in the love and support of community. Bring friends and food to share in the celebration of our united hearts.

All levels Welcome.

Pot luck and complimentary tea after.

Cost: Early Bird $20, Doors $25




Turned On Tantra with Deva Dawn and Deborah Kat

Friday, February 24, 2017 at 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Pure Pleasure
111 Cooper St.,
Santa Cruz, CA


Join us for an evening of Exquisite Attention inspired by practices from Orgasmic Mediation and Tantric Yoga. Attention is the simple magic that heals, whether it is on our self or another.

Everybody is welcome! All Genders and relationship configurations.

This is an interactive experience, you are invited to join us as we practice honing our attention and share it with others through communication games and exercises. Enjoy and play with a full spectrum sensation in a safe space.

Get vulnerable, feel more.

It's amazing how connected we can end up feeling - even in a room full of strangers - when we are willing to say what's real.

Cost: $10 no one turned away for lack of funds.


More February 2017 events:


Soul Agreements: Healing Lessons from our Relationships

Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM PST

East West Bookshop
324 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041


When it comes to soul mates, Hollywood’s got it all wrong. Their romantic fantasies can make us feel hopeless when real-life love doesn’t measure up.

Integrative Healer Shirani M. Pathak blends spirituality and psychology to ask: Who are our real soul mates? Why do we attract certain types of people? How do we find the gifts in all relationships, even the difficult ones?

With heaps of soul-shifting wisdom (and a dash of laughter), Shirani empowers you to gracefully navigate your soul's evolution through this life.

Cost: Free, but call to reserve a seat (phone 650-988-9800)

Do I know You? Dance Workshop (W32)

Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 7:30 PM - 9 PM

Li's Wushu Academy
10268 Bandley Dr, Ste 107-B,
Cupertino, CA 95014

“The shortest distance between two people is a story.” 

― Patti Digh



Dance therapy is offering numerous benefits for physical, mental, and emotional health. Music itself can be a very powerful tool. It can affect our moods and our state of well-being by triggering memories and other emotional experiences. When dance or any movement is set to music, it can create a stress relieving, joyful and sometimes healing moment for those involved, as well as increasing/releasing endorphins in the brain.

Please join us for the dance movement therapy workshop in Cupertino, where we will explore different attributes of the emotional and physical well-being through set of the creative and fun exercises, mixed with the episodes, filled with free-form dancing.

Main benefits you may expect:

- Getting a good ability to express suppressed emotions
- Establishing a positive and rejuvenating connection with your body
- Improving general physical fitness and gross motor skills development
- Processing internal negative beliefs, improving confidence and self-esteem
- Encourages creativity and imagination
- Connecting others people on emotional level
- Creating a positive life outlook, addressing stressful life events and depressive episodes

Every workshop is different, and the facilitator will follow the flow, adjusting the list of the exercises and free-form dance activities to the created team spirit and atmosphere.

Important notes:

- No partner or previous dancing experience necessary.
- All ages and physical capabilities are welcome. You choose you own level of participation and involvement.
- Please try to be on time, as it is easier to “catch a wave” if you are present from the class beginning.
- Clothing: anything that would let you move freely.
- Shoes: dancing bare-feet is the best, but you can also use soft flat shoes. Please no outdoor shoes on the floor.
- There is plenty of parking near the studio. Follow the GPS guidance, however as soon as you turn to the parking lot from Bandley Drive, you need to drive around the building to find the Li's Wushu Academy Entrance at the back. There are no entrances from the front or sides of the building.

Workshop Facilitator: Tanya Pekker, LMFT

Cost: Recommended donation $15 (cash, at the door).


More February 2017 events: