Satya

Sensory Awareness Training for Yoga Attunement

Designed by Tias Little after 30 years of education, practice, study, and research, SATYA is a somatic practice that builds mindfulness through movement. We practice fine articulated movement to open new pathways of perception and feeling. Done mostly on the floor, SATYA involves sliding, gliding, stretching, unwinding, and core-building movements. The movements are a powerful tonic to reduce fatigue, strain, and holding in the body. The SATYA movements aim to increase circulation throughout all the tissues of the body. In this way, SATYA acts as a “prana pump” to oxygenate the bloodstream and irrigate the tissues.

While yoga today often emphasizes the “doing” of a posture, SATYA encourages “being” in a movement with heightened awareness. Our aim is to tap an inner potency and to help support the body’s innate intelligence and capacity to self-regulate. All movements increase proprioceptive awareness and neuroplasticity. This practice is a therapeutic, “yin” tonic for the body.

SATYA is very similar to contemporary yoga that focuses on vinyasa, combining breath with movement. In SATYA we synthesize breath with movement but without force. Done on the floor, SATYA supports connective tissue mobilization. Deep inner listening is required to heal both mind and body. To that end, SATYA builds meditative awareness while increasing physical vitality. Thus SATYA is mindfulness training through movement. As a movement meditation, SATYA builds vipassana (insight) into the sensory-motor pathways of the body. This practice builds deep relaxation and clarity. The SATYA movements replenish the body by “soaking” the tissues. Thus SATYA movements can be done in conjunction with savasana and yoga nidra.

This training covers the foundational movements of the SATYA practice. This week will revitalize your own body by reducing fatigue and increasing mobility in your fascia. At the same time, you will learn the key principles of the SATYA practice for the classroom. For yoga teachers who work therapeutically or with aging populations, SATYA is a simple yet highly effective system to help safely mobilize and repair the connective tissues.

Each morning includes guided meditation, sound resonance, dharma study, visualization training, and SATYA practice. We do yoga postures following SATYA to stabilize the joints and tissues of the body. Tias teaches anatomy of through an array of colorful slides. We study the muscular-skeletal system, the organs, nerves, and glands. Tias also integrates images from nature, sacred architecture, and art to describe the energetic flow of prana through the body. Tias brings his background in Sanskrit, cranial-sacral study, yoga philosophy, and mystical anatomy to provide a transformational week of practice and study.

Course of Study

• cultivate essential sensory-motor awareness
• mobilize the joints and build bi-lateral symmetry in the body
• address low back pain
• design fundamental sequences that include both SATYA and asana
• discover the importance of spirals and counter spirals
• “it’s all about the joints”: working with tendons, ligaments, and joint spaces
• being in the “Pause”: the importance of not-doing
• using gravity to help center inward
• re-educating the neural-muscular system and brain pathways
• learn how to “ride the edge” through small movements
• learn the healing potential of the movements and their effects on the myofascial system
• reduce fatigue and exhaustion
• reduce the effects of speed trapped in the body
• sense and feel the connection of the iliopsoas muscle to your spine
• discover how to use the SATYA movements to stretch the myofascial sheaths
• investigate the most current myofascial and brain information based on current research