This intensive is Module One of the 300-Hour Advanced Yoga Training, but can also be booked as a standalone course.
Overview
This intensive establishes the foundation for how participants orient attention, perception, and presence within practice and learning environments. Rather than revisiting how to structure a class or memorize cues, we focus on the internal conditions that support steady, informed participation in practice—such as awareness, breath, and responsiveness.
For participants who are not currently teaching, this intensive offers a deeper way of inhabiting practice. Attention is placed on breath, sensation, and subtle experience as guides for self-observation and refinement, supporting greater clarity, steadiness, and ease on the mat.
For participants who are teaching or preparing to teach, this intensive assumes familiarity with basic instructional skills. Rather than focusing on what to teach, the work here introduces how orientation and awareness influence choice. Participants begin to recognize how presence, timing, and attention shape responses—without yet moving into assessment, intervention, or technique.
This intensive is not about adding more information. It is about settling the lens—learning to notice more clearly, listen more carefully, and remain grounded as practice unfolds.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this intensive, participants will be able to:
- Cultivate sustained attention and presence within personal practice and shared learning spaces.
- Experience the subtle body: The subtle body refers to the lived internal field of experience; breath, sensation, tone, attention, and perception—that shapes how practice is inhabited from the inside. It describes how experience is felt, not a symbolic or mystical structure.
- Explore the koshas: The koshas are traditionally described as layers of the body that move inward toward the soul. Kosha translates as sheath, referring to the layers of ourselves that range from the more gross, physical body to the most subtle aspects of energetic and perceptual experience — the koshas are used as a framework for discernment, helping practitioners recognize which aspect of experience is beingengaged—physical effort, breath rhythm, emotional tone, mental focus, or perceptual clarity. Rather than describing experience itself, the koshas support clarity by naming where attention is operating within practice.
- Recognize breath as a primary organizing force for awareness, rhythm, and internal coherence.
- Understand breath anatomy through fascial relationships.
- Observe how breath quality reflects internal orientation and attentional state.
- Unpack the bandhas: In yoga and meditation, bandhas describe how awareness, breath, and tone organize around a stable center. Rather than being applied or engaged, they reflect the conditions that support clarity, continuity, and ease whether in stillness or movement.
- Develop sensitivity to how one’s internal state of presence, and the timing of attention or action, influence how responses arise within personal practice and teaching spaces.
- Establish perceptual foundations that will support later work in anatomy, assessment, and application.
Teaching Schedule & Focus
Friday | 5:30–8:30 PM
Subtle Body Foundations — The Koshas
- Introduction to the subtle body as lived experience
- Exploring the koshas as layers of perception and inquiry
- Relationship between sensation, attention, and awareness
- Reflective and experiential practices to ground understanding
Saturday | 9:00 AM–12:00 PM
Breath Anatomy & Fascial Relationships with Shila LaGrua
- Breath as an anatomical and experiential process
- Fascial continuity and breath distribution
- Observational practices emphasizing perception over control
- Breath as a steady reference for presence and attention
Saturday | 1:00–5:00 PM
Bandhas as Center & Orientation
- Bandhas approached without mysticism or force
- Bandhas as a center from which movement is organized
- Bandhas as a dṛṣṭi of focused attention and conscious awareness
- Experiential practices supporting clarity and internal containment
Sunday | 9:00 AM–12:00 PM
Orientation, Awareness & Choice
- How internal orientation shapes experience and response
- Recognizing choice points without urgency or correction
- Awareness as a stabilizing and informative force
Sunday | 1:00–5:00 PM
Integrated Physical Practice
- Physical practices integrating subtle body, breath, and awareness
- Moving without outcome fixation or correction
- Foundations of skillful participation and teaching
- Reflection and integration
Capacity
To preserve the integrity of the learning environment and support meaningful mentorship, this intensive is capped at 20 participants.
CEUs
5 Anatomy CEUs + 20 CEUs
Cost:
$467
Location:
Body Electric Yoga
3015 7th St. North
St. Petersburg, FL 33704
Dates:
- 2027: February 26-28 (bookable soon)
- 2028: March 3-5