Welcome to the Lila Wellness Summit with special guest speaker Erin Moon. Erin joined us to discuss the advantages of savoring the small in everyday movement.
How we move depends on our mood, and our attitude depends on how we move! The brain and body work together to create a signature of movement. Our actions directly influence our thought process and develop the overall perception and reception of the spaces we occupy.
The observation and development of patterns have the ability to change our perspective and affect our motor programs in how we address stress and pain. — Erin Moon.
In the lecture, Savoring the Small, Erin summarizes how to enhance the overall quality of life through gentle, subtle movements that deregulate the nervous system.
10 Things You Will Learn in
Savoring the Small with Erin Moon:
The tools within the Eight Fold Path to sharpen your focus.
How to address your ‘Soup of Stress.’
How to identify positive versus negative stressors and change your relationship with them.
The benefits of moving without a goal.
How to make changes to your physiology to see more of yourself and how you react.
Postures to reduce body pain in the lower back and sacral area.
How subtle practices create new neural pathways.
A way to reform tissues, motor programs, and how we feel through movement.
The power of concentrated effort over time.
The connection between exercise and feeling and how it affects the nervous system.
Watch the full lecture on Savoring the Small with Erin Moon.
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About the Lila Wellness Summit
Knowledge is power –
With knowledge, we can make more informed decisions.
Join us for an educational Wellness Summit to learn more about your body, from the anatomical to the energetic, from the material to the subtle.
We asked 4 health care practitioners to offer a lecture on what they are most passionate about and what they feel would benefit our community.
What they brought back to us was magical.
Meet Erin Moon—
Yoga Therapist and special guest speaker for the Lila Wellness Summit.
Erin is joining us to present on Savoring the Small: the significance of the subtle practices and how they aid in regulating the nervous system, emotions, and sensory perceptions.
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Introduction to Savoring the Small
Read the excerpt taken from the on-demand lecture with Erin Moon, IAYT 800, ERYT 500, YACEP
I’ve been a teacher since 2005 and continue to be a deep, deep learner. There is no limit or no end to what I can learn in this practice. I am sharing this with you today specifically because I like to know how things work; it’s probably why I enjoy anatomy so much.
Curiosity helps me find focus; it helps me dive deeper.
It builds up the concentration muscles. When I took my certification in applied positive psychology, one of the things of the many that we learned was a whole unit on savoring. If you sat down and actually savored every bite of your meal, it would be a deep, deep mindfulness practice.
Savoring was one of the units that emphasized for me how the practices of yoga and the long, long traditions of yoga from India have and can build out our fundamental, broader perspective of what it is to live and to connect to our deepened true selves. This has allowed me to participate in my life in a deeper and more full way.
“Yoga [is] the process of reconnecting and regaining the ability to find happiness from within. To start this process, we need to focus. Our practice gives us that.”
—Shanna Small, Director of AYS Charlotte.
So why get curious and savor the subtle?
Specifically, when looking at the pranayama technique and asana, why would we dial everything right back down? One of the reasons is that yoga is the process of connecting and regaining the ability to find happiness from within to relieve suffering. To start this process, we need to focus.
We need to learn the tool of focusing, and the practices of yoga give us that. Concentration, in regards to yoga philosophy, is Dharana. It is one part of the Eight Fold Path. The idea is that Dharana, concentration, leads to Dhyana, which is a state of meditation. So one is a practice, and one is a state.
Each time the mind evades you, runs here and there, and you bring it back; that is called concentration. Concentration is trying to fix the mind on one thing. Meditation is when you have tried and are successful.
— Swami Satchidananda.
I love this quote because it gives us an idea, just a place to start.
The practice of yoga teaches us that when we learn/train to focus, we have a greater chance of knowing our true selves. Asanas and pranayama practices bring steadiness; both move vigorous and subtler. If we are leading ourselves toward the state of meditation (the deepest knowing), then yes, we need to know ourselves under stressors, and we also need to get used to ourselves/be with ourselves in the quietest, subtlest Dharana practices, too.
The fastest and easiest way to start moving better and feeling better is to make changes in the nervous system. — Source: P4 Guide to Better Movement.
Sometimes getting subtle, or sometimes getting big, with our bodies in our asana, can help us actually help us find Svadhyaya (self-study) to observe if what we experience is a positive or negative stressor.
Not all stress and stressors are bad.
It’s all about the story. Our perception of a stressor categorizes it, and this changes how we are in relationship to it. If we don’t know the story, then we don’t get to make a decision about the story; if we don’t know what set us off, the story just happens.
- Positive stressors: brief increase in heart rate, mild elevation in stress hormone levels.
- Tolerable stressors: serious, temporary stress response buffered by supportive relationships.
- Toxic stressors: prolonged activation of stress response system in the absence of protective relationships.
The parts of your brain that control movement are linked to the parts that control thoughts, emotions and sensory perceptions. — Source: P3 Guide to Better Movement.
The key takeaway from this is that the better you feel, the better you move; the better you move, the better you feel.
About Erin Moon
Erin’s focus has been anatomy, neurobiology and biomechanics, which has led her deeper into a spiritual practice. The more she learns about the mind and body, the more she perceives just how little we know! Her awareness of the nervous system has led to her increased understanding of how much we can intuit and need to listen to learn about our own individual existence. Erin went from studying Vinyasa to Restorative, Reiki, Thai Massage, Yin and the meridians. From bones to the nervous system, her practices are becoming more subtle.
Clients seek Erin’s support to assist with lessening anxiety, depression, or pain through embodied practices such as yoga and subtle body practices. She strives to make her work fully accessible to her community. Her clients range in age and ability; the common issue she resolves is a disruption to movement caused by discomfort.
Her first introduction to yoga was at theatre school. She did her first teacher training at Sonic Yoga in New York when she returned from tour. Erin is an actor by training, and her main professional pursuits are still as an actor. A storyteller, she truly loves to nurture those around her.
Erin’s Teachers include Lisa Benner (Eldersisters Apothecary, yoga and holistic health), Jesal Parikh, rev. Angel Kyodo Williams (Radical Dharma), Jonathan Fields (Good Life Project), and Sharon Salzberg, Sally Kempton, and Emiliya Zhivotovskaya (The Flourishing Center), and Jules Mitchell (Anatomy and BIomechanics).
Read more about Erin on her website or follow her story on Instagram.
Join the Lila Wellness Summit!
Join us for this educational Wellness Summit to learn more about your body, from the anatomical to the energetic, from the material to the subtle.
Clara hand-picked each speaker to share their expertise with you!
What’s included:
Weekly LIVE Yoga classes led by Clara, based on the topic of the week.
LIVE Q&A after class with a wellness expert.
4 on-demand lectures on a special topic.
4 weeks of on-demand classes featuring Lila Flow Yoga!
Meet Our Guest Speakers at the Summit:
Your Guide to the Anatomy of the Shoulder with Dr. Paul Ochoa—Orthopedic Therapist, COMT.
Your Guide to the Anatomy of Meditation with Ramesh Tarun Narine—3000-hour RMT + Yoga Teacher.
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