Soma Nidra: River of Stars

River of Stars: Neuroendocrine Integration

This workshop explores the communicative capacities of our nervous and endocrine systems across local, global, and relational scales.

Soma Nidra: Body Tripping through the Communities of You

A Monthly Somatic Rest Series

Soma Nidra: Body Tripping through the Communities of You is a series of multi-scale body trips in a monthly workshop format, exploring your embodied anatomy through gentle movement, Yin and Restorative Yoga, and Soma Nidra (Bex Naj’s somatic approach to Yoga Nidra). Yoga Nidra bridges our conscious and unconscious minds through storytelling and deep rest, and Bex keeps it somatic by grounding the stories she tells in the felt-sense awareness of your body and breath as dynamic processes. We’ll explore our inner space through the body maps of western anatomy, physiology, and embryology as an energetic practice, melting away tension, resting deeply, and illuminating the mysterious places within to see what they have to say when we cultivate deep listening. These classes are appropriate for all levels of yoga and will often feature drawing and/or journaling prompts to integrate the dreamlike wisdom of your bodied revelations.

Come dressed in comfortable and warm layers you can move gently in. While yoga props and materials for writing and drawing will be provided, students are encouraged to bring their own beloved drawing and journaling supplies should they wish.

Bex Naj has been a dancer and mover her entire life. She is an E-RYT 500+ and Somatic Movement Educator. She has practiced yoga for more than two decades, taught private and group yoga classes for fifteen years, and has spent the past decade immersed in Body-Mind Centering®, a somatic modality for exploring consciousness through your body, your movement, and your mind as a continuum of experience. She is working to become a somatic movement therapist in this modality.

Her facilitation style reflects her deep enthusiasm for exploring and expressing consciousness through touch, movement, and imaginal practice. She draws inspiration from all of her teachers, in particular, Amy Matthews, Nikki Costello, Sarah Barnaby, and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.

Bex believes that feeling strong, expressive, present, and comfortable in your body is your birthright. Movement is the foundation of everything we are, including the mysterious processes we call “our bodies,” “consciousness,” and “thought.” She grounds suggestions of spirituality in felt-sense and whole body inquiry rather than relying on abstract, dualistic dogma. Her ongoing project is articulating nondual philosophy through the laboratory of embodied research. Embodiment is the fundament from which all spiritual practice and self-transformation emerge, aspirations that are not separate from exploring ourselves through movement and stillness. The unique minds and interwoven communities of each of our diverse tissues await the light of our exploratory attention.

You can learn more about Bex at bexnaj.yoga

Host or Publisher The Berkeley Alembic Foundation