About Light Adaptive Yoga Stretch
Do you need light, gentle, healing activity--to warm up, stretch, and restore flexibility? This class introduces a fusion of yoga and meditation. We begin with easy, flowing motion, then stretch and flex. Cooling down, we finish with, "My entire being is balanced, vital, and healthy," and a few minutes of stillness. In under an hour we increase our energy for emotional health and joy.
About the Form
This practice form follows the tradition carried forward by the late Aikido Master George Leonard. George composed the ITP Kata(R) and then taught it with his late wife Annie Styron Leonard, human potential pioneer Michael Murphy, and sports trainer Erik Riswold. Thus began the work of the not-for-profit ITPI.
About the Leader
Trained at Esalen Institute and Aikido West, Lee Ferguson is an experienced leader of movement and stillness meditation. In church, dojo, studio, and college settings, Lee uses his study of Chi Arts and Yoga, Deep Relaxation, and Silent Meditation to lead Light Adaptive Yoga Stretch. Lee met George in the late nineties and recently ended two years of Kata Leader Training with guidance from the ITPI master trainers Pam Kramer and Barry Robbins.
The Tradition Ancestry
As leaders of Esalen Institute, ITPI founders George and Michael had both noticed inspiring changes in people who attended Esalen seminars. But upon return from insightful experiences, people who realized these changes needed a way to maintain their energy at home. In short, they needed a life practice.
As leaders of Esalen Institute, ITPI founders George and Michael had both noticed inspiring changes in people who attended Esalen seminars. But upon return from insightful experiences, people who realized these changes needed a way to maintain their energy at home. In short, they needed a life practice.
George used yoga and martial arts warm-ups to put together a practice format to meet this need. Michael, Annie, and Erik contributed meditation and exercise experience. The four began to teach the first ITP "ongoing workshop" in 1992.
Transmitting the Practice Commitments
ITP requests its participants to make commitments to (1) responsibility for their own safety in practice, and (2) dedication to the Community, (3) vigorous exercise, (4) Conscious eating, (5) reading and study, (6) open Communication, and (7) Care for others. At its heart, the practice uses (8) affirmations to help realize each practitioner’s intention to reach potential. These eight commitments--plus the daily Kata practice--are the essence of Integral Transformative Practice.
The keystone that supports the other eight commitments is the Kata. The ITP Kata is the form George, Annie, Michael, and Erik taught to warm up and stretch the body and flex to the fullest extent of range of motion. In the same way, practitioners seek to live to our greatest potential as human beings.
Light Adaptive Yoga--Stretch!
Lee's Lazy Yoga, as his practice form has come to be known, is pursued solely for its physical benefits: warming up and strengthening the major muscle groups, stretching out to the full extent of the posture, and flexing the joints to the fullest comfortable range of motion. Unlike the ITP Kata, Lazy Yoga can be practiced independent of other commitments.