Workshops

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
~ Lao Tzu

workshops will be listed soon

Past Workshops
Dive Into Yourself – Yoga Lifestyle Off The Mat

Did you know that there are over 70 definitions of Yoga named in traditional scriptures and texts?! Our definition of Yoga in the West is narrow and limits Yoga to mainly a physical practice focused on tools and techniques. While this isn’t ‘wrong,’ it misses the essence of what Yoga is all about.

Yoga is a spiritual path that leads us to the core of who we truly are. The path encourages us to use life and all of its experiences for this deeper self-understanding. For anyone wanting to decrease emotional reactions, inner awareness is necessary!

Start taking Yoga off the mat and into a lifestyle practice that builds self-understanding, self-love, and inner peace.  In this workshop, after experiencing a Yoga Asana (pose) practice that calms the nervous system and strengthens inner awareness, we will dive into Yoga as a lifestyle practice.

Using one of the most famous Yoga scriptures – The Bhagavad Gita – we will explore 3 important ways the Gita encourages us to incorporate Yoga into daily life. Think of this as Yoga for the Mind. All paths of Yoga lead to a calmer mind because this is necessary to understand more clearly the essence of ‘Who I am.’

Introduction To Yoga Psychology
An Online Webinar

My journey as a mental health counselor and coach was ‘revolutionized’ when I discovered the psychology of Yoga – Yoga for the Mind. Personally, it has been the path, perspective, and practices that have allowed my anxious, worrying, quick-to-react mind to transform into consistently staying calm and centered to move through life challenges gracefully.

My clients consistently have succeeded in being more in control of their reactions, increasing self-love, and enjoying life more fully due to the Yoga Psychology principles. This is your opportunity to learn what Yoga for the Mind is all about!

Introduction to Pranayama

Did you know that the Yoga postures, or asanas, are actually a very small part of Traditional Yoga? Pranayama, or breath control, is a more subtle Yoga practice that makes Yoga poses ‘yoga,’ instead of just a fitness class.

Join Twyla and learn all about this aspect of Yoga that will enhance your Yoga practice on and off the mat. Learn how this important ‘limb’ of Yoga can transform your mind and mood with simple practices to use throughout your day.

Introduction to Meditation

Most people think of Buddhism when they think of meditation, but traditionally, meditation is one of the most important aspects of the path of Yoga. All other Yoga tools and techniques are to prepare the body and mind for the subtler practice of meditation.

Join Twyla to learn how you can access the practice of Yogic meditation in your daily life. It doesn’t matter who you are…you can learn to meditate! Not only will we go over specific techniques but you will unlearn expectations of meditation that may be keeping you from this widely beneficial practice. Let’s dive inward!

“3 Steps to Start Saying ‘YES!’ To Yourself Now” Masterclass
FREE Virtual Masterclass with Samya Yoga Healing Owner Twyla Gingrich!

This session will show you three steps from Traditional Yoga to develop a trusting and honest relationship with yourself. In this FREE, virtual masterclass, you will discover:

  • The biggest obstacle in valuing yourself and how to avoid it. Understanding what’s limiting you is half the battle!
  • The secret to creating lasting change that’s so simple you can’t believe you didn’t realize it yourself.
  • The REAL reason change is so hard and the simple shift to help increase motivation and remove this block.
  • You’ll walk away from this session feeling empowered and motivated to start taking your life into your own hands, rather than living by other people’s stories and definitions of who they think you should be.

Women’s Full Moon Gathering
At Yoga of Broadway

This Month’s full moon is known as the Chitra Full Moon. This full moon can give renewed clarity, compassion, and self-understanding.

Join Twyla for a Yoga practice that focuses on these three qualities through asana, pranayama, meditation, and chanting.

Start your weekend off feeling grounded, focused, and centered!

8-Week Yamas and Niyamas Sangha

Do you enjoy Yoga and want to learn more? This is the perfect place to start. The Yamas and Niyamas are the first two parts of the 8-fold path of Yoga laid out in Patanjali Yoga Sutras. In ancient times, students who were ready to commit to the path of Raja Yoga (Yoga for the Mind), would start first by studying the Yamas and Niyamas.

Over the 8 weeks, you will have a much deeper and broader understanding of what Traditional Yoga is all about, have the foundation to bring Yoga off the mat and into a lifestyle practice, and a like-minded community to support you on the journey.

18 hours of CE for RYTs available.

Love Your Nervous System! Using Yoga to calm, soothe and strengthen your nervous system.

We’ve all just been through quite a year in 2020 from the pandemic, to racial injustice unrest, to weather related disasters, to local tragedy. And that’s not even talking about day to day living. Most of our nervous systems have been fired up more than usual, with the majority of people entering 2020 with an over extended nervous system already! Our modern lifestyle of overdoing, overextending, and putting our needs last is creating a society filled with anxious, depressed, overwhelmed, and fearful individuals. Do you identify as this?

In this workshop, Twyla will be leading you through an Yoga experience that will teach you how to use the science of neuroplasticity so that your yoga practice will actually heal your nervous system and strengthen your mind. You will be able to incorporate specific techniques into daily living so that no matter what 2021 may present you with, you will be able to meet life with more calm, the ability to soothe your nervous system effectively, and strengthen your ability to respond instead of react.

Finding Your Voice Within, A Yoga-based Workshop

Virtual Workshop part of the “Find Your Voice Series” for the Riverbridge Annual Fundraiser

Mindfulness, Interoception, and Awareness have all been shown to help build neuroplasticity, widen the window of emotional tolerance, and help to move past traumatic events through the body. In this workshop, you will learn about how to use gentle body movement, breathing, and mindful awareness to tap into the healing power that’s within all of us. Connect to your inner wisdom to speak your truth!

All proceeds go to River Bridge Regional Center, Inc, a local organization that “provides collaborative services to child abuse victims, their families, and the community in a supportive environment through a child-centered approach.”

FREE YOURSELF! The Secret to Managing Emotions Effectively

Wouldn’t it be such a relief to not feel like you are powerless when it comes to the wave of emotions that makes it so hard to catch your breath sometimes, and feel completely empowered and confident to manage your emotions effectively, so that you can focus more on just relaxing and enjoying life?

It’d feel like you can breathe again! And that’s exactly what you’ll feel after this hour long webinar. You’ll learn the secret that goes against everything you’ve been taught in how to deal with emotions, and yet is exactly what you need, so that you can meet people, situations, and life events with calm composure and respond with grace leaving you feeling proud of yourself.

You will be able to see your relationships change before your very eyes, as this one secret will help you begin to become clear on your needs so you can set healthy boundaries that will leave you with more inspiring interconnections.

Self-Love Yoga Workshop for Women

As women, we tend to put others before ourselves, be caretakers, and struggle to find time for self-care and nurturing. In this workshop, we will combine a gentle asana (physical posture) practice with understanding what self-love really means, discussing how to cultivate more awareness and focus for ourselves in daily life, learn breathing techniques to help connect with a more calm place and end with a guided heart meditation.

BUILDING YOUR EMOTIONAL MUSCLE, A Webinar Series

How amazing and powerful would it feel to be able to use those challenging emotions as tools to help guide you in taking action towards what is important to you?

It would be so amazing! In this webinar series, through learning about emotions through a yogic perspective and gaining powerful yet simple tools to control emotions, you will cultivate the ability to meet life’s stressors with strength and assurance so you can stay focused on what is important to you in your life.

Webinar Topics
Facing Self-Doubt! Getting to Know the Inner Critic
Take Back Your Power! Meeting Fear and Anxiety in Uncertain Times
Top 3 Power Leaks and How to Plug Them
Reduce the Most Energy Draining Emotion – Worry!
Understanding the Need to Control and How to Let Go

Stay Connected to Calm, Clarity and Compassion for Helping Professionals

Wouldn’t it feel refreshing to finish a day of engaging in the work you are passionate about and feel positive and energized?

It would be like a breath of fresh air! In this workshop, through simple and effective inward practices, you will be able to stay laser focused on how you use your gifts and time to help others so you can have plenty of energy and a positive mind set to be present in the other important areas of your life.

How fantastic would it be to find consistency in taking time each day to care for yourself and STILL help others while feeling calm and centered?

Calm and centered…who doesn’t want to feel that?! In this workshop, through the practice of self-compassion and learning what is in your control, you will gain the ability to set boundaries that feel authentic while honoring yourself so that you have time every day to take care of yourself, allowing you to hold space for others with a loving heart.

Through the lens of Yoga Psychology, you will learn three areas of focus and specific tools to help you feel more calm and centered when working with others, find your own clarity in self-care, and learn how to use compassion towards yourself so you can show up as your best self in your professional role.

Yoga Psychology, An Introduction to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras

Traditionally, Yoga practices were developed with the goal of uniting with our True Nature. In order to do this, one must still the fluctuations of the mind, which leads to a state of peace and contentment. I know most of use would give anything to experience peace of mind! Patanjalit’s Yoga Sutras is a step by step guide, so to speak, that is specifically focused on the mind and calming the mind. This form of Yoga is called Raja Yoga.

Looking for an alternative to the Western Psychology model to heal and stabilize mood? Join me as I go through an introduction to Yoga Psychology based on the Yoga Sutras to learn more about taking yoga off the mat and into your daily life!

Basics of Yogic Meditation

Research shows that a regular meditation practice increases positive emotions, decreases depression and anxiety symptoms (even after one class), boosts compassion and empathy…the list goes on an on!

If you’ve wanted to try meditation or are struggling to have a regular practice, this workshop is your ticket to your success! You will learn about the process of meditation from a yogic perspective, myths of meditation, and experience meditation tools that you can use at home for a regular practice that help to meet the mind where it’s at any given day.

8-Week Beginning Meditation Course

Hearing about the amazing benefits of a regular mediation practice on mind and body health? Tried to meditate and just feel like, “I can’t do it”? Just want to be consistent? You will learn all about mediation from a yoga perspective, experience different techniques to find one that fits you, and be able to sit for up to 25 minutes for a consistent meditation practice to find more calm and peace in your life.

Pranayama: The fourth limb of yoga and the key to the mind and body connection.

This Yoga Teacher Training module is open to the public! Learn about the role of breath in yoga through the Yoga Sutras, understand the physiology of the breath and why it is an essential part of mind and body transformation, and learn specific pranayama practices to incorporate in to a home practice. Pranayama is key in helping the fluctations with the mind that fuels our more challenging moods, help to slow us down and be more in the present, and helps with responding versus reacting in situations.

Balance The Mind

The second sutra of the Yoga Sutras states the purpose of yoga. Yoga is the complete restraint of the fluctuations of the mind. This what yoga has to offer, more then becoming strong and flexible…being able to have calm state of mind. What?! Oh, Yes. Come join me in learning techniques that go beyond just the physical postures of yoga and enjoy a practice will leave you with a more balanced mind state.

Compassionately Responsive, A Parenting Workshop

Are up finding yourself over worrying about your children? Focused on “Am I doing this right? How do I help my children be happy?” Maybe living in fear about what the world will be like for your children? This workshop focuses on the MOST important parenting tool… you!! We will spend time helping you feel more at peace and more empowered as a parent with concrete tools that are yoga-based, can be used throughout your child’s life, and you can use no matter where you are. This workshop with focus on tools to move from a more reactive and fear-based mindset to one of inward reflection, responsiveness and self-compassion that allows parenting from a more responsive and loving place.

Yama and Niyama

Yama and Niyama Group Study: 10 month group study, meeting once a month. Want to dive deeper into yoga as a lifestyle and self-development tool? The Yamas and Niyamas are two of the eight limbs of yoga as described in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. They are a guide of Dos and Donts or ethical practices for yogis. Meet once a month for ten months and spend each month focused on one of the yamas and niyamas with weekly questions and support from the group with online discussions.

Breathing and Meditation Class for Teens

Teens – Are you feeling a lot of stress in life about school, friends, family, and everything that you have to get done? Come learn how to relax, let go, get real about what you can control and have more fun in life. We will focus on age old techniques from yoga that you can use every day, at home or at school, and are very effective in managing life stressors in a healthy way.

The Importance of Breath

Breath is vital in every aspect of our being, from the physical to the psychological and more. When we aren’t breathing correctly we start to experience fatigue, stress, anxiety, depression, and low motivation. If this continues for a significant period of time, our bodies start to break down and disease occurs. Come learn the joy of breathing through breathing techniques, asana practice, meditation and prana physiology.

Creating Awareness

Awareness is the starting point for creating change in life. One of the key benefits of practicing yoga is creating awareness in our body and minds. This workshop focuses specifically on how to cultivate awareness both on and off the mat through asanas (poses), breath, and cognitive (mind) techniques. Feel more empowered through awareness!

Moving Towards the Exhale: Self-Care through yoga techniques

Our fast paced lives can get in the way of being able to take care of ourselves in the way we deserve and need in order to have a sustainable, healthy life. Come, take a moment for yourself to learn through yoga how to slow down, create awareness and breathe. This workshop includes yoga poses, breathing techniques, and discussions for self discovery.

Opening The Body Through Sound: Using Bija Mantras

Bija Mantras are sounds associated with the seven chakras along our spine and can be used to open up blocks in our physical, emotional and spiritual systems. In this workshops you will learn these seven sounds, as well as seven calming sounds, use them in an asana practice and learn the LifeForce Yoga Chakra Clearing Meditation. Experience yoga with sound.

Embracing Your Fears

Going beyond the physical postures of yoga into other exercises and techniques that allow you to create greater awareness and self-compassion that facilitate a deeper understanding of yourself. Our fears are not to run and hide from, but to listen, embrace and grow with. You will leave this workshop with your own Sankalpa (affirmation) and experience Bhavana (visual imagery). Leave feeling full of love and compassion! Please bring a journal with you.

Testimonials
“I loved taking this workshop from Twyla. With her caring and professional nature, and her deep training in yoga and spirit nurturing, she created a loving environment where I felt safe and excited to take on new challenges, physically and emotionally. Using the soothing techniques of yoga, she helped me relax and open up about how I wanted to grow. She integrated teachings she had learned from her gurus in India with the wisdom she was gained from her own life experiences, and brought them together in a way that was relevant to what I wanted to learn. The workshop was soothing for my physical body and invigorating for my spirit. Afterward I felt nurtured and refreshed. In the workshop, Twyla gave me a mantra specially designed for me, to help me meditate on what I had learned, and continue learning and growing from this experience in the future.”