Organic Intelligence basics for yoga & meditation practice

Four talks on the basics of Organic Intelligence (OI) as it might be applied to yoga and meditation practice. These talks were given in the context of a “Trauma-Sensitive Yoga” weekend at Namaste (June 2018), and look at the building blocks of OI using the common practice of yoga class and posture work as the main examples.

Some of what we talked about were indications and contraindications for various student situations yoga teachers might encounter, and the various interventions they might make. We touched as always on systemic trauma, mainly in the last talk, but mostly laid out a foundation for how individual trauma and its somatic manifestations can play out in the context of yoga and mindfulness practice.

And how mindful embodiment and directed attention, the exact qualities strengthened by yoga and meditation, can be good medicine for trauma, but only if appropriately and wisely engaged with.


Talk 1: The approach-avoidance system


Talk 2: Initial conditions: orientation & stabilization of blue


Talk 3: How the Autonomic Nervous System works


Talk 4: Threshold or “tipping point” in complex systems, then relating with systemic issues, the trauma-privilege spectrum, and the 5 layers of identity


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