Grief is a natural emotion that needs to run its course, and as a teacher you can use yoga to provide support to your students who are grieving. In this session, you’ll learn five different ways to help these students, both in group classes and in one-on-one sessions. We'll discuss topics like:

· How to hold space for grief · Ways to help reduce stress associated with grief · Addressing the fatigue grief can cause · Providing a “yoga break” for times when grief is overwhelming · Helping students “move though” grief through gentle movements that can release held emotions

This session will include discussion, practice, and time for Q&A.

In 2019, the National Institute of Health (NIH) wrote an article, “Can you get PTSD/Trauma by watching TV?” They concluded that “TV viewing following trauma exposure may be a marker of vulnerability for developing PTSD and also a consequence of having PTSD. High TV viewing levels may be linked with ineffective coping strategies or social isolation, which increase risk of developing PTSD” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6428392/).

With information at our fingertips, we can watch what’s going on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our exposure to war is constant, but how does the body handle it? Seeing horrific things on the news can cause significant anxiety, depression, trauma, and stress—which impact us in many different ways. Yoga is one tool available that can help mitigate these symptoms.

In this workshop you’ll learn the signs of over-exposure and tools to help protect your mental wellness during these challenging times, plus:

· Understand the history & impact of media on your mental health · Identify symptoms through a simple checklist approach · Learn solutions to combat stress using proven tools such as: yoga, meditation, EFT/Tapping, breathwork, and affirmations

Increase your knowledge and skills on teaching chair yoga for older adults. During this session, Maria Jones will cover age awareness, take a look at some of the benefits of yoga in the lives of older adults, and share best practices for facilitating yoga classes for this demographic. You will leave with practical tips for teaching safe and effective yoga classes to older adults, like:

· The challenges of an aging population and how yoga can support
· What makes chair yoga a positive intervention in the lives of older adults
· How to facilitate effective and accessible chair-based yoga classes for older adults