Telluride Yoga Fest: Tias Little, Practices For Living On & Off the Mat

07 Jul Telluride Yoga Fest: Tias Little, Practices For Living On & Off the Mat

This year’s Telluride Yoga Fest includes a top-tier list of presenters, more hikes, SUP, music, inspirational talk.

Tickets/passes to the Telluride Yoga Festival here.

 Please scroll down to listen to a podcast featuring popular returning presenter Tias Little.

Tias is also featured at a book-signing that takes place Saturday, July 22, 1 – 4 p.m. in the lobby of the Palm. Classic yoga, Ayurveda, and wellness books are also available at Between the Covers

Tias Little, returning to present at TYF 2017.

The Internet, sometimes called simply “The Net,” is a worldwide system of computer networks – a network of networks in which users at a given computer can, with permission, get information from any other computer – and sometimes talk directly to users at those other computers.

Our bodies have a complex Internet too. Its structure, according to world-renowned yoga instructor Tias Little, is our fascia or sheaths of connective tissue that, like cellophane or a fine mesh bag that holds delicate laundry, enwrap all our interior structures: bones, muscle, and organ. Ever dismembered a chicken? If yes, you have seen the glassy sheathing that encases the muscle and further connects muscle to the bone via the toughened tissue at the tendon. That’s fascia.

“I like to think of the fascia as the internet, not because it transmits information – more the task of the central nervous system – but because it comprises a web that connects various parts of the body. The lattice of the fascia system provides continuity, connectedness, and integration… While in a pose, tracking these long pathways of connective tissue in our mind’s eye spawns the sensation of greater unity in the mind and body. The magic of the fascia system is that every part of the body is connected to every other part via this internet of tissue. The joy of practicing yoga postures is to surf this net of inner tissue from the skin of the scalp to the tip of the tailbone and cultivating a felt sense of inner sparkle and radiance,” explains Tias.

Kurmasana

Discover the magic of the fascia system and our body’s fascia train yourself on the opening day of the Telluride Yoga Festival, Thursday, July 20, 2017, when Tias leads an all-day ( 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.) workshop: “Yoga, Fascia and the Feeling of Being Me.”

A further description of the immersion follows:

“Connective tissue (fascia) holds us together. Literally. It keeps our bones upright, our organs in place and supports the pathway of our nerves… While fascia is the prime mover of the body, it is also a vessel for holding memory, feelings, dreams and identity. In this immersion, we practice movements that enhance the flow of fascia through the body. We also track how thoughts, feeling, memory, and a sense of ’I’ are imprinted on the connective tissues. Like working in clay, this yoga practice will make the fascia malleable, shapeshifting the container of who we think we are and who we think we ought to be.”

Like a number of his colleagues in town this weekend for the 10th annual Telluride Yoga Festival, Tias Little could be described as a rock star in the Yoga world. He certainly has legions of devoted students and followers – however, message tank tops and loud music, increasingly popular in yoga studios across the country, are not his stock in trade.

Tias is known to guide his students elegantly and efficiently according to the principle of vinyasa krama, taking the right steps in the right order to cultivate a mind-body connection through asana, pranayama, meditation, sensory sensitivity, concentration practices, and the study of sacred texts. The payoff: self-awareness, health, and serenity.

Tias Little is everywhere you want to be at the Telluride Yoga Fest 2017. In addition to the Thursday workshop, his three other classes are spinoffs of Prajna Yoga, his holistic approach to practicing and studying that incorporates anatomy,yoga, and Buddhist meditation, as well as Iyengar and Ashtanga principles of structure, alignment, plus movement, diet, and the language of yoga, Sanskrit.

On Friday, July 21, 10:30 a.m. – 12– 12:30 p.m.,  the focus of “Opening the Inner Eye of Yoga” is  the central pathway of the body, the susumna. The goal is to realize the freshness and clarity of each passing moment through movement and meditation.

On Saturday, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., “The Tides of the Fluid Body” takes into account the fact that our bodies are about 80 percent water.

“…Like the way tides in the ocean move in response to gravitational pull, the body’s fluids – the blood, lymph and cerebral-spinal fluid – move in pulsatory surges. In this yoga practice, we sense and feel the tidal rhythms of our vital fluids in order to support optimal health…”

Later that same day, 3:30 – 5 p.m., Tias guides “Moving Into Stillness,” whether is seated meditation, flowing through postures, or unwinding on the floor. The result: feather-fine concentration and blissful self-awareness.

To learn more about his teaching, press the “play” button and listen to Tias Little’s podcast.

More about Tias LIttle and Prajna Yoga:

Tias Little, returning to town to present at TYF 2017.

The Sanskrit word “prajna”  (from”pra” or before and the root “jna,” to know) can be variously translated as “wisdom,” “insight” ” profound understanding,” “discernment,” and “know-how.” In the Buddhist tradition, prajna connotes true or transcendental wisdom, one of the highest attainments of  practice. In contrast to mere brain-mind ratiocination, prajna is a knowing that permeates the cells of our bodies.

Tias was hardwired to know all that he knows profoundly. His mother Susan Little taught Iyengar and, in 1984, she began instructing Tias in this therapeutic lineage.

In 1989, Tias took his first trip to India, living in Mysore for six months to learn the first two series of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga at the feet of the master, K. Pattabhi Jois.

After practicing Ashtanga Yoga for 10 years, Tias went on to immerse himself in the study of the healing arts, including massage, cranial-sacral therapy and bodywork.

In 1998, Tias  earned a masters degree in Eastern Philosophy from St. John’s College. His dharma training was further informed by teachings from the Zen and Vipassana communities.

Tias Little is currently a student of Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s in the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

He is also the author of three books, The Thread of Breath, Meditations on a Dewdrop, and Yoga of the Subtle Body.