Day 2 :
Keynote Forum
Johnny V. Yuhas
Arizona State University, USA
Keynote: Supporting Healthcare Workers through Integrative Wellness Modalities for Improved Patient Outcomes
Time : 09:30
Biography:
Johnny Yuhas is an acute care and psychiatric Registered Nurse, holding a bachelor’s degree in both Science and Journalism. He is currently enrolled in a doctoral program with Arizona State University as a Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. Johnny is a 20-year practitioner of Yoga and Meditation, and is a certified teacher by both Yoga Alliance, and the International Yoga Federation. Extended visits in Mysore and Northern India, have cultivated Johnny’s dedicated Ashtanga Yoga practice, under the tutelage of his current teacher Saraswathi Jois. He remains inspired by his practice in both nursing and yoga, looking for new ways to unify these sciences to help patients live better lives.
Abstract:
This talk will focus on the growing need to embed holistic and integrative modalities into traditional healthcare facilities to help support staff wellness, potentially leading to improved patient outcomes. I will discuss a recent project that was recognized and presented at the Southern California Evidence-based Practice Symposium hosted by Loma Linda University. The purpose of this project was to inspire a change in practice through delivering a supportive, integrative therapy intervention to ICU nurses, during designated break times within a 12-hour shift. The chosen intervention for this project was a 15-minute mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) guided meditation facilitated by an RN who is a certified yoga and meditation teacher. Outcome variables in this project measured perceived stress levels, mental clarity, and empathy. High-stress work environments, such as the intensive care unit (ICU), have now become the focus of a growing body of research, studying interventions that support nurses in this area. The looming nursing shortage, staff burnout and illness, and adverse patient outcomes, has prompted hospital administrators to look for new ways in facilitating global wellness into their health care organizations. As the stressful environment of the ICU and many other healthcare delivery units continue to affect the emotional and physical stability of nursing teams, unit-based integrative therapies are offering a promising solution.
Keynote Forum
Rukmani Kaur
Reiki Master, Las Vegas, USA
Keynote: Awakening through the Heart: The Journey back to the Self
Time : 10:15
Biography:
Claudia is a Twinflame reincarnated into this world to show humanity the meaning of unconditional love. A Reiki Master with multiple Yoga Certifications, she guides her students to understand that love starts within; accepting oneself, loving oneself and being truthful to one's experience.
"Love is what unite us all; not just human beings but every single living being on our Mother Earth. Love starts with YOU; loving yourself, accepting yourself and being yourself. It was the practice of Yoga that showed me the way to my truth, to my core, to my light."
Abstract:
Learn to tap within. Remember who you are and why you came to this existence.
- Yoga Workshops
Location: San Diego
Biography:
Making Peace with Anxiety is a fusion of yoga, neuroscience and deep personal insight, brought together by a yogini who lived with severe anxiety for a couple of decades of life.
This workshop is a hands-on experience of self-exploration, where, by using our divine gift - our BREATHING we will:
- change oxygen levels and chemistry of the blood;
- modify our cardiac rhythm;
- manage our mental and emotional state;
- adjust the temperature and energy flow in the body.
Join me for a journey around The Wheel of Healing - a 12 steps we go through on our way toward healing. The story shared and exercises presented in it will help you gain confidence and faith in your inner transformation.
Abstract:
My name is Yana Kazbekova, I am a multicultural yogini and a registered E-RYT500 teacher who also holds a university degree in Spanish Linguistic.
At the age of 13 I was diagnosed with advanced scoliosis. That brought me to the corrective gymnastics and autogenic training, which is how yoga and meditation were called in my country back then. I was lucky to have a knowledgeable teacher, who walked me into yoga so wisely that it became my way of life. Yoga inhabited me forever, it matched my temperament and worked the best for my health condition.
Since young adult, I've traveled and lived in different parts of my country and the world, learning yoga with teachers from Russia, Ukraine, Mexico, India and USA.
My formal methodical practice of this discipline commenced in Mexico, where during my years of severe anxiety, I discovered the healing side of yoga.
I received my Teacher Training with a Master from Kerala (India), whose unique approach showed me the science and art of yoga.
Biography:
Abstract:
Nisarga Yoga is not something that has come up recently but has been around for ages. Literally Nisarga means ‘natural’ and yoga means ‘union’, thus, Nisarga Yoga means a union of one with his True natural Self. This clearly points to the fact that we are not what we presently believe ourselves to be. Now, by conventional standards, this is something that is usually unacceptable, hence Nisarga Yoga has not been very popular. I am the body, I am so-and-so, I belong to this cast, creed or nation are some common beliefs that have been so strongly hammered into us that to accept it all as false appears impossible. Unfortunately very few have come to understand that these very notions are cause of all the miseries in the entire world. Nisarga Yoga offers us a way out of all the miseries and hence is The Ultimate Medicine.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981) has been known all over the world as a vehement proponent of Nisarga Yoga which rightly befits his name. Let us try to understand the basics of the Nisarga Yoga and then we can attempt to actually follow it. You have to understand your sense of ‘being’, ‘presence’ or the feeling ‘I am’ which you may also call consciousness or awareness in its absolute purity. The best way to do it is to go back in time and try to recollect when for the first time you came to know that ‘you are’ or ‘I am’, which is usually around the age of three or so. This phase of living with the pure sense of ‘just being’ or the ‘I am’ without words continues for some time and then gradually the contamination begins. This sets in the process we call ‘conditioning’ which carves you out into an individual living in the world under a certain set of circumstances. If you are unable to recollect the moment when for the first time you came to know that ‘you are’ or ‘I am’, then you can try to observe it when you just wake up. This will require some effort, because when you just wake up, the movement ‘I am this body called so-and-so in the world, I have to do this or that…’ is so fast that you fail to pay attention to the pure ‘I am’. The first may be called the ‘childhood recollection’ approach while the second may be called the ‘waking up’ approach. You may use whichever suits you best or you may also use a combination of both, the idea is to approach the ‘I am’ in its absolute purity.
After having understood the ‘I am’, next comes the abiding in it, which is the Sadhana or the practice. Many understand but very few actually undertake the practice and waste a lot of time in reading and never do the practice. If you can straightaway understand the ‘I am’ and abide it, great! But if you cannot then I can share what methods I explored and found effective. The first is through the Chakras, the second through the Ashtang Yoga and the third through Namasmarana or remembering God’s Name or a statement of Truth.
The clue to the first, which is, through the Chakras came from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj itself when he tells us that the wordless ‘I am’ is first felt in the Brahma Randhra (The Brahma aperture). This is in the mid-scalp or in the Sahasrara Chakra, the seventh primary chakra. Then as we get conditioned the ‘I am’ moves downwards and takes firms hold in the first Muladhara Chakra. Thus holding to the ‘I am’ beginning from the Muladhara we move it upwards through the frontal path traversing Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha, Agya, Sahasrara to the Brahma Randhra and stay there.
The second method, that of Ashtanga Yoga begins by holding onto only one control(Yama) ‘I am’, only one observance( Niyama) ‘I am’, holding onto the ‘I am’ in sitting(Sukhasana) or Lying(Shavasana) postures(Asanas), while breathing(Pranayama) inhale ‘I am’(Purak), and exhale ‘I am’(Rechak). The next comes withdrawing all senses (Pratyahara) into to the ‘I am’ and holding onto (Dharana) the ‘I am’ and finally meditating (Dhyana) on the ‘I am’. An ‘I am’ Samadhi would automatically ensue if you follow this.
A clue to the third method has also been given by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj as he has often said that the ‘I am’ and God’s Name are one and the same. Thus one can use remembering God’s Name (Namasmarana) as a practice to abide in the ‘I am’. If one is not familiar or comfortable with God’s Name, a statement of Truth like ‘I am The Self’, ‘I am not the body’ or ‘I am Unborn’ may also be used. This method can also be done while working, it appears simple and easy but not so in actual practice.
What is the ultimate purpose behind a Sadhana or practice? Or for that matter behind Yoga? As stated earlier it’s a journey or quest into one’s True Self or to the question ‘Who Am I?’ Through the methods described above you get established in the ‘I am’ in its absolute purity which is nothing else but the Fourth (Turiya) background state of consciousness that underlies the other three (Waking, Dream and Deep Sleep). In the process of doing so over a prolonged period and depending upon one’s earnestness and intensity, the ‘I am’ is transcended (Turiyatita) and then…well, I leave it there.
Leave aside transcending the ‘I am’, but to even get the slightest of a glimpse of the ‘I am’ in its absolute purity (Turiya), I can recommend a certain length of time for the practice. It maybe any type of person, he must close his eyes and regularly follow any one of the above practices for three Ghatikas (72 minutes) and one Mandala (40 days). This, if done sincerely, I can say from my own experience, will definitely give positive results.
Biography:
Paul Wellin,California-State Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Chi Gong Teacher, Apprenticed Yoga Teacher, Counselor/ Health Coach, and Educator. I received my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, from the University of Maryland (1981). I received my Master of Arts in Counseling from USIU/ Alliant University, San Diego (1985). I currently teach Psychology at Argosy University, San Diego.
Abstract:
I have worked with my client’s life force for twenty-four years. These healing sessions have revealed hidden mysteries about our body physiology. Our material reality -- brain and body -- is connected to a larger field of influence that includes our Chakras and our Energy Fields. Yoga is a 5,000 year-old science that teaches mindfulness and how to connect to our Higher Self.
In this workshop, Paul Wellin (Vitality Seminars), will describe the interaction between our Chakras and our Qi energy, to improve your health and happiness. Many of us understand our Chakras as energy centers (“wheels”) around our body. However, Chakras also shape our personality. Balancing each of our Chakras develops personal and interpersonal strengths and skills. Open Chakras can relax and empower, enhance our ability to love and to communicate, plus reveal our life purpose.
- The workshop will activate Life Force (“Qi”) in your body’s health symptoms, your brain chemistry, and your emotional moods.
- Your Chakra personalities will express with sound, breath, visualizations, and compassion.
- Participants will learn about Yoga philosophy, Yoga Therapy, the science of Life Force, body physiology, spiritual anatomy, Soul Psychology, meditation, integrative healing, and super-consciousness. Paul will answer questions about your specific health or stress challenges, from the life force perspective (time permitting).
- Bring your “cosmic questions,” about your life lessons, your life purpose, and the patterns that show up in your life.