Sitting: The Physical Art of Meditation

We have all discovered how the physical body seeks the optimum posture for meditation. This workshop offers practical instruction on how to release habitual patterns of tension, making the difference between struggling to conform to an ideal posture or the ability to relax more fully.

Saturday, March 23, 2019

Shambhala Meditation Center of Chicago

37 N. Carpenter

Chicago, IL

773-743-8147

Co-sponsored by the

Chicago Center Integration & Healing (CCIH)

Part 1 – 9:00am – Noon $75.00

Erika will present principles of alignment, breathing and experiential anatomy, including guided exercises offering imagery to release tension and stress. She will offer a special focus on the role of the heart as a physical and emotional support for one’s mindfulness practice.

Part 2 – 1:30 – 5:00pm $75.00

The afternoon offers an opportunity to deepen experience and understanding of “somatization” through the posture of meditation. The experience of direct sensing and feeling of one’s body has the potential of rousing past experiences of trauma. Erika will bring attention to how mental/physical health providers, yoga and meditation instructors can support themselves and their clients/students through a deeper sense of embodiment.

Parts 1 & 2 (entire day) $125.00 includes a copy of Erika’s book Sitting: the Physical Art of Meditation

CEUs available for additional $25.00 for LCPC, LCSW, LMFT and Clinical Psychologists

Register at https://chicago.shambhala.org/programs or call 773-743-8147

Erika Berland is a member of a pioneering generation of somatic movement educators. As a Certified Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering, a licensed Massage Therapist, and Registered Movement Therapist, she is a founding faculty and co-creator of the MFA Theater: Contemporary Performance Program at Naropa University where she has been at the forefront of creating new techniques and applications of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s groundbreaking work, Body-Mind Centering. Erika is also a senior teacher of meditation in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition.