A Year to Breathe: Practicing Grief, Gratitude and Endings unto our Last Breath
Once a month on Zoom for a YEAR!
13 monthly meetings, 13 optional chat meetings, plus recordings of meetings, meditations, breath and movement practices!
“Of all things in life, what is the most astounding?”, Yudhiṣṭhira is asked. “That a person, seeing others die all around him, never thinks that he will die.”
— From the Mahābhārata, translated by Michael Stone in the Inner Tradition of Yoga
Is it possible to behave as though we know we will die, and prepare for our own death? In a death-phobic, grief-illiterate and ageist society, the chances of attending to our own death, while on the roller coaster of everyday life, is unfortunately low. As a consequence, our deep connection to our life suffers, and we find ourselves in shock when we brush against illness, loss or “unexpected” death.
As a yoga practitioner, how can we practice our svādhyāya more deliberately, turning toward that which scares us, abhiniveśa? When we find our way to our mats and bring awareness to our breath, how can we also learn something of endings, thus planting alchemical seeds of appreciation and gratitude? And how can our own personal work create a welcome co- regulation, when working with clients who find themselves devastated with a diagnosis or shattered by life’s sorrows.
What do the texts and practices of yoga say about attachment and impermanence? In this year- long study, reflection and meditation course, sit in community with other yoga practitioners and practice an intentional svādhyāya on grief, endings and death. We have found that gratitude and the joy of living are natural consequences when befriending the ending of days.
“Apprentice yourself to the curve of your own disappearance”
— David Whyte
Throughout this year, we will:
- Cultivate our love of life while making room for the ending of our days
- Explore the skilfulness of grief and bereavement-sensitive practices to nourish sorrow alongside gratitude
- Study the way we speak about death as a consequence of death anxiety cross-culturally, and the historic response of religious and spiritual traditions
- Notice how ageism, in part, is a consequence of grief illiteracy and death-phobia, and how true eldership, lost in our culture, is a needed function for cultural sanity
- Consider how anxiety and depression have roots in death phobia, and how to work with this awareness with clients
- Favour authenticity over positivity, and in this way be of truthful sattvic service to others, who will also fail to live forever
- Consider how the body dies (and why), and yogic views on the purpose and processes of death
- Surface our own personal beliefs and fears about suffering, dying and death (or abhiniveśa), and other kleśas, with compassion
- Address unwelcome and unacknowledged regrets and their intelligent purpose.
- Study our own lineage's view on death and bring this knowledge to the wider group
- Work with the many practices of breath entrusted to us, our first met and final loyal friend
- Learn a variety of thanatology-aware practices and begin to cultivate an intimacy and curiosity with our own dying
- Discover poetry and beauty practices that honour impermanence, our life and our times
- Practice Savasana as more than rest, as a time honoured practice of endings of days
- Embody the learnings and deep humanity they bring, and sit with more grace, empathy and equanimity in the presence of other people's suffering. Walk more purposefully along the humble path of yogic work
“Bringing grief and death out of the shadow is our spiritual responsibility, our sacred duty. By
doing so, we may be able to feel our desire for life again and remember who we are, where we
belong, and what is sacred”.
— Francis Weller
IMPORTANT DATES:
2 Info sessions, 13 monthly meetings, 13 optional chat meetings
Information Meetings (Zoom): Find out more about the program!!
Please register by email at: anne@embodiedyogatherapy.com
February 23, 2025, 12-2pm EST
March 16, 2025,12-2pm EST
Monthly Gatherings for a Year to Breathe – Spring 2025 to Spring 2026
First Sunday of each month, 12-4pm EST, 13 gatherings in total
Sunday Meeting Dates 2025: April 6, May 4, June 1, July 6, August 3, September 7, October 5, November 2, December 7
Sunday Meeting Dates 2026: January 4, February 1, March 1, April 5
At each monthly meeting: Check-in with fellow practitioners and hear reflections on their monthly practices and lived experience. Follow the bread-crumb trail in various yogic texts that guide us in our inquiry, explore thanatological themes cross-culturally, and embody somatic/yogic practices with various approaches to endings, grief and dying.
Caveat: There will be lightness and laughter too, guaranteed
Open to: yoga therapists, yoga teachers, yoga practitioners, health care practitioners, psychotherapists and counsellors - anyone who works in the presence of suffering
IAYT Yoga Therapists: CE (APD from IAYT) credits will be given to those who choose to complete the optional written assessments, in order to reconcile learning objectives. Total credit hours for the course is 54.
Zoom recordings are made available each month, along with meditation, breath and savasana practices
Cost: $800 for 13 months or $75/month. Sliding scale available. Please don't let money be the barrier.
All Meetings Held On Zoom: recordings will be available, but your full-of-life presence is most appreciated and needed!
Optional Chat meetings: Third Tuesday of each month, 1 pm EST: to connect and discuss - no new material
Tuesday Chat Dates 2025: April 15, May 20, June 17, July 15, August 19, September 16, October 21, November 18, December 16, December 20
Tuesday Chat Dates 2026: January 20, February 17, March 17
Register here