
Essay taken from Sharon Gannon’s Book Eternity is Happening Now

TEACHING TIPS
By: Camila Veel
- Review the Chakra Balancing DVD with Sharon Gannon and/ or review your notes of the Chakra Tuning Class from the 300HR TT course. These classes were created by our dear teacher Sharon Gannon and are unique to the Jivamukti Yoga method.
Here are the two links for Chakra Balancing and Chakra Tuning with David:
https://jivamuktiyogadigital.vhx.tv/videos/signature-class-chakra-tuning
https://jivamuktiyogadigital.vhx.tv/videos/chakra-balancing-yoga-class-sharon-gannon - Plan you class and āsana sequence(s) according to the order of the chakras starting from the bottom moving upwards. Focus on how specific āsanas are associated with different karmic relationships and therefore issues in these relationships may be resolved in the āsana practice.
- You could teach an in-depth investigation of one āsana or group of āsanas at a time.
- Discuss the term and philosophic idea of consciousness in the image of the serpent Kundalini. For textural support, study chapter 3 verses 1 and 2 of Hatha Yoga Pradipika.
- Explore the chakras and how they relate to the five elements and the five senses. How could this inspire your āsana sequence?
- Practice the prāṇāyāma practice #option 4 on page 53 in the Magic Ten and Beyond book by Sharon Gannon.
- Chant the Bija mantras: LAM-VAM-RAM-YAM-HAM-OM
- Teach Savasana like in the Chakra Tuning class, addressing each chakra at a time: Inhale through the soles of the feet to each chakra, pausing there, before exhaling through the feet and chanting the corresponding Bija mantra.
Repeat 3 times for each chakra. End with silence, encouraging the students to pause after the last exhalation before they breathe in. - Teach a chakra meditation for the meditation part of the class. There are many different ones found online – most of them include some form of concentration on each chakra, visualizing the corresponding colour.
- Also include practices like kriyā and bandhā as alternative ways to open and tune the chakras.
- Review Sharon Gannon’s Focus of the Month from August 2006 to February 2007 (found in the FOTM archives).
- Explore the different Jivamukti Yoga sequences in the Jivamukti Yoga book and how they can relate to different chakras. For example, you could teach the Blossoming Lotus sequence as a chakra tuning sequence focusing on the 2nd to 4th chakra.
- Chant verses 5 and 19 from the second chapter of Hatha Yoga Pradipika