2026 NaYC Orientation Encore

Okay. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the orientation for the Neuroscience and Yoga Conference. I'm so excited you're all here. So this event is our opportunity just to be oriented, make sure we all know what's going on for the conference, and I'll also introduce myself in a moment. I am overjoyed at the number of people interested in this. We have almost 7,000 people registered for this conference, which is amazing. And so in this presentation, we're going to go over the story behind the conference, the goal of the conference, how the conference works, how to get the most out of all the events, how to win prizes, what to expect every day, how to learn and have fun at the same time. I promise it's possible. Some frequently asked questions, and where to go if you have more questions or need any support. So I love to meet all of you. I love to hear all of your stories. I've been learning so much about everyone in the Facebook group already. In return, I suppose I should introduce myself, even though I always feel awkward every time. So I'll tell you about me through some photos. So I'm Jonathan. The first thing to know about me is that I am a yoga student. So this is me pictured with my teacher, Sri Dharma Mitra, in 2013. And again, again in 2024. And yoga is very, very important to me. It's a huge part of my life and my lifestyle. The other thing to know about me is that I'm a physician. So science is really, really important to me. I see science save lives every day. And I'm a neurologist, and I subspecialize in something called clinical neurophysiology. So using electricity to diagnose and treat the nervous system. So things like EEGs, motor evoked potentials, somatosensory evoked potentials. And I, I really focus on something called intraoperative monitoring for my career. The other thing to know about me is I'm really passionate about neuroscience outreach, which means sharing neuroscience with everyone. And so here is a photo from last year's conference. I'm holding a brain that someone donated after they passed away. So they had offered up their brain to be used for teaching. And so we were going over neuroanatomy during the conference last year with the brain. So I share all of this so that you think of me as approachable and human. I'm here and I'm available to help, and I want you to have an amazing experience during this conference. And so yeah, that's a little bit about me. Now I want to tell you about these events. So Neuroscience and Yoga events started in 2014, and all with the goal of sharing the actual science of yoga so that students and teachers can improve how they practice, teach, and advocate for yoga. And every year we take a photo, so we have lots of photos and more photos. And more photos and more photos and more photos and more photos. And this is from the conference last year. The other people I want to introduce you to are the amazing speakers and yoga teachers. You'll get to— you'll get to meet each of them during their sessions, and you can also always visit the speaker page to learn more about them. But I can't emphasize enough how amazing they all are. I look up to all of them. And you don't even have to take my word for it. They've been featured in major news sources like Time, Scientific American, NPR, TED, the New York Times, and they've been published in major scientific journals like the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Neurology, Annals of Internal Medicine, and so many more. The other group I want to introduce you to is a group we're very grateful for. These are our sponsors who make this conference possible. So as you know, the base pass for this conference is free, and that is in no small part thanks to our sponsors. And we have sponsors corresponding to each day of the conference, so you'll learn more about them on each day as you go through the conference. But if a particular day or topic of the conference really interests you, the sponsor for that topic adds many more resources for continuing your education in that area. So I highly recommend checking out what they're offering, and I just have to say they're all These aren't like huge company sponsors. These are all down-to-earth, amazing, real people. The next group I want to introduce you to is the people who make this conference possible. So the staff, we have Ashley here. Ashley, do you want to introduce yourself really quickly?

Sure. Hi everybody. I'm so excited to be with you guys over the next few days. I was here last year, so I may recognize some of your names and just so excited to be here. I'll be chatting in the Zoom chat box, Facebook, maybe answering your emails. So yeah, if you have any questions, just let us know.

And I just have to say, Ashley is amazing. She's really made the conference so much better. Like anyone who attended years ago and has seen how much the conference has improved, you can thank Ashley for that. And the other people are Dua and Natalie and Sharon, Vidanshi and Soha, who help make the quizzes and the workbooks. As well as Cece, Emmanuel, and Chen Ling, who help with many other parts of the conference. One other person to thank is AI. AI made possible all of the translations. So in this conference, as you're going through, you'll have the opportunity— if your native language is not English, you'll be able to have captions in Chinese, Spanish, or French. Okay. So all of this history, all of these people come together for the 2026 Neuroscience and Yoga Conference. The goal of the conference is to help you transcend misinformation and learn the actual science of how yoga affects the brain so you can improve how you practice, teach, and advocate for yoga. The conference has 4 days, each with a different topic. And every year we do different topics. We'll never run out of topics, it seems. And so the first day is an introductory day. This is introduction to neuroscience, introduction to yoga, introduction to research, basically everything you need to know to get the rest— to get the most out of the rest of the conference. The second day is yoga, migraine, and headache. The third day is yoga schools and neurodiversity. And the fourth and final day is yoga and brain longevity. Each day will have main components like neuroscience presentations from expert MDs and PhDs, yoga workshops with top teachers, Q&A sessions, discussion groups, experiments, and so much more. And new this year, we will also have a poster session. And so we'll tell you more about that at the end of this part of the conference. Before we go over the schedule and all the other components of the conference, I want to go over the passes to prevent any confusion. And the reason I bring this up now is that for the schedule, different parts of the schedule will be available based on which pass you sign up for. So what are the options for registration? Well, first on the left here is the presentation pass. The presentation pass attendees with this pass will have access to all of the presentations by expert MDs and PhDs for 7 days. We really want this knowledge to be accessible to everyone. So this pass is free. The pass also includes access to our Facebook group. Which I'll talk about shortly. Also new this year, there are a few yoga workshops that would normally only be available to upgraded passes, but thanks to our sponsors will be available to everyone. Okay, so that's the presentation pass. Now the upgrade options. These are designed to enhance the conference as an educational experience and as professional development. So of the upgrade options, we'll start with the subscription pass in the middle here. This pass is for people who want longer access and a more immersive experience to the conference, but for a customized amount of time and a customizable cost. So people with the subscription pass will have access to the yoga workshops, discussion groups, Q&A sessions, and the workbooks and quizzes, really giving you the immersive experience. And for as long as you maintain the subscription, you'll have access to the recordings of all of those. The subscription pass also comes with our prior conferences and an AI chatbot to help you build a custom study plan for your interests. Finally, you'll have membership to monthly meetings that we'll have throughout the year for as long as your subscription remains active. So in summary, the subscription pass is an amazing pass for customizing what you want to get out of the conference. The main thing the subscription pass does not offer is continuing education credits. If you want continuing education credits though, and you have a subscription pass over time, the fees that you pay towards the subscription pass can be converted into a lifetime pass. But just note the early bird discount won't apply for that.

Okay.

All right. So that is the subscription pass. Again, as you're thinking of questions, don't hesitate to put them in the chat. Finally, the lifetime pass. So this is the pass for lifelong learners, people who want to turn this conference into a mini teacher training. During the live conference, you'll have access to everything, the yoga workshops, the discussion groups, the Q&A sessions, the workbooks, the quizzes, again, the full immersive experience, but you'll have lifetime access to all of the recordings. We're able to offer also 30 hours of continuing education credit for the Yoga Alliance, International Association of Yoga Therapists, and American Yoga Council. All of those are pre-approved. And we have successfully been able to petition for continuing education credits for speech and language pathology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy in the past. So if you have another certifying body that you would like credit from, Just let us know and we can help write a letter and a course program so that you can submit to them. And with the lifetime pass, you'll also have access to our monthly membership meetings through the end of 2026. So in summary, the lifetime pass is great if you want a comprehensive structured learning plan for everything in this year's conference, lifetime access so that you can go back and review to continue building your expertise. and continuing education credits. And one really big question we get is, does the lifetime pass apply to future conferences? Meaning if I buy a lifetime pass, do I have lifetime access to every future conference? The answer is no. This is a lifetime pass to this conference, not future conferences. If you had a subscription and you kept a subscription, then you would have conferences because you're continuing in the subscription, but that's a different story. Okay, so with the upgrades, you can upgrade at any point during the conference if you haven't already, but I'd highly recommend that you ask your questions now, figure it out now, because the early bird offer will end 24 hours from now. If you're interested in scholarship options for the lifetime pass, just reach out. We do have a way to make that work. And you might be wondering, what does my money get used for? Why do I have to pay for this? Well, everyone who contributes to this conference is paid. There's a lot of technology that costs money on the backend to make everything work, and this is really where the money goes. Okay. One more thing about upgrading. Let's say you heard all that and you're like, I don't know what's best for me. If you go to the upgrade page, you'll see this little decision-making assistant. Want help deciding which upgrade option is best for you? And when you click to start, it'll ask you just 5 questions. And at the end of those 5 questions, it will give you a recommendation based on your responses. You're not obligated based on anything it says, but it just helps you think through it. Okay. All right. So that's everything about the passes. Next, the schedule and conference hub. On that page, you'll see the schedule listed like this. You can scroll through each day. You'll notice that events that require an upgrade are in pink and swan and no longer requires an upgrade, by the way. She's blue. And if you tap and click, you'll see that the description of the event comes up. However, links are not in here. Okay? This only contains information. It doesn't contain the links. All the links are gonna be in the emails you receive daily.

Okay?

All right. Next, emails. So emails are super important for this conference. This is our best way to communicate with you. I try to keep the emails very concise and organized, but there's a lot of information because this is a robust conference. So there are different sections in the emails that I'll go over now. The first is presentations. So in the presentation section, you'll see any presentations that are prerecorded and any that are live. The live ones will be links to those events at that time. And then if you want the recordings, the recordings link is at the bottom here.

Okay.

Next, the upgraded section. So this will be for the yoga workshops, the Q&A sessions, the discussion groups. Same thing. So there will be The link to the event live, and then where to get the recording. And then the final section will be what to do next. This is at the bottom of the email, and it's a super clear step-by-step. These are the things you should be doing. So there's a link to the schedule page. There's a link to the Facebook group so that you can discuss with other people. There's a link to the question form so you can submit questions to the researchers. There's a link to share the conference and win prizes. And if you have an upgraded pass, there's a link to the workbook. Okay. Okay. So one common thing that happens, about 30% of our emails will go to spam unless you take my email, jonathan@neuroyoganyc.com, and add it to your safe sender list. So I highly recommend you do that, or there's a 30% chance you will miss our emails. Further, if you unsubscribe, you will not receive further communication from the conference. So if you're planning to unsubscribe, maybe do it at the end of the conference. Okay? This way you can still participate. All right, so we went over the schedule, we went over emails. This is what the presentation page will look like. Again, for people with the presentation pass, all presentations will say how much longer you have to access it. Upgraded pass members will be able to see this in their member portal, and there will be no timer because they have ongoing access to it. Okay, so what are the other things to note? You'll notice that there is the presentation itself, the title, the speaker's name, a quick summary of who the speaker is, and then there's a question form. So I really want you to submit questions as soon as you think of them. The questions will be given to the speakers who can then give us updated information, can answer the questions in the question and answer sessions. And we also use these questions to figure out what topics to do for next year's conference. So please, please, please, if you think of a question, submit it. And these are questions about content, not technical questions. You know, how do I access this link? Well, this isn't working. You know, those come to the support page and we'll help you. But for these, these are content questions. Okay, another thing I'll say is if you have the conference workbooks, I highly recommend having them with you as you watch the presentation because you can fill things in as you go and get the most out of the workbooks. Okay, so those are presentations which are available to everyone. Next, we'll go over upgraded sessions. So these are the things that come with upgrading to a subscription pass or a lifetime pass. So upgraded sessions include yoga workshops, question and answer sessions, experiments, and discussion groups. The links for all of these will be in your daily emails, and this is just a picture of everyone being happy during a discussion group. So that's a little bit about the upgraded events. Next, The member portal. So this is how I was talking about how upgraded passes will access their recordings and their events and their workbooks and their quizzes. All recordings will be stored in here. Okay, so how to get it? The easiest way is if you find the menu bar for the website, you click it, you'll see login, and you'll be taken to this page. From there, you type your username and password and log in. Obviously, if you have any issues, you do forgot your password, There is an issue that comes up sometimes where it'll say student number is not enrolled in course blah. Okay, this is an ongoing glitch that we've been having trouble resolving. I apologize for it. The best solution right now is, is a little annoying but pretty easy, is if you just open private browsing mode or another browser and try to log in again, it will work. And the reason this is happening is because there's a cache and cookie issue where they, like, the website thinks that you're someone else. It's, it's annoying. I'm not going to get into it. Okay. Once you log in, you'll see all of the different conferences we've ever hosted. The topics for this year will say 2026 conference. And some of these boxes for you may be grayed out. That's because you haven't joined those prior conferences yet, but you can always click them and decide to join if you so desire. There's also one that's Dharma Yoga Classes. This is from yoga classes that I've taught in the past. Again, totally optional. Once you click into one of the topics, you'll see the workbook, the presentations, the Q&A sessions, the yoga, everything that you could ever need from the conference. We also have the live links if you're trying to access live events through there. And so that's what you'll find inside the member portal. If you scroll down on that page that listed all the different topics, you'll see something that says resources. So there's manage your receipts, account, and billing info. Let's say that you want to change the title of your receipt, change the address of your receipt so that you can use it as a business deduction. You can do that here. If you have a subscription, you can also edit your subscription there. And we also have access to our support page if you need help with anything there. And then links to some of our different socials. Okay. CE credits. So to have CE credits again, you must get a lifetime pass. You can in the future convert a subscription pass to a lifetime pass. And just remember, the early bird offer ends after 24 hours for the lifetime pass. So that's for $100 off. And After you complete all parts of the conference, all you have to do is send us a support request and we'll submit on your behalf for the CE credits. Okay, so you just let us know, hey, I finished everything, I would like to get my CE credits. In order to do this, just so you know, you must complete all of the quizzes in advance of submitting to us. If you submit to us and I see you haven't done the quizzes, I'll ask you to do the quizzes. There's no minimum score, okay, for the quizzes. They're— it's not— it's graded in the sense you'll get feedback if you get things wrong, but it's really that feedback and learning. That's what the quizzes are serving. So in other words, they're formative, not summative, the quizzes. Okay. And again, if you have another certifying body, we can always provide a certificate and a letter of attestation. And in the past, we've successfully done this for SLP, PT, and OT. The workbooks. So the workbooks are available to turn passive listening into active learning, and then you leave the conference with a mini textbook to refer back to with everything you learned. So I think the workbooks are an amazing resource. There are 2 ways to get the workbooks. The first is by upgrading to either a subscription pass or a lifetime pass, and then the second is by sharing the conference. So I'll go over sharing right now. In some of the emails, you'll see this block of text, and this is our kind of call to share. And we reward people who share because it's so hard to get the word out about a conference like this. So we really depend on people who are here to help spread the word, and we want to reward you for it. So the prizes include extra on-demand practices, bonus presentations, the workbooks, which are available if you refer 10 people to the conference. A souvenir mug, which will be mailed to you. And also, I don't know if anyone would want this, but I had to think of something else. So there's a one-on-one session with me where we can talk anything neuroscience and yoga that you want. So this is our way of saying thank you for sharing the conference. We really, really appreciate the word of mouth. And the other thing to note is you can refer people and they can sign up for the free pass. They don't have to like sign up for an upgraded pass for the referral to count. Okay, so to find the link to share with your friends, you can just tap here, click here to access your referral hub. Boom. And then you'll see this, and this is the link that you're going to share with people. It'll start with SparkLoop, and you copy that and you can send it via text message, email, any way you want. And when people click it, it will track that you referred them. You can also click any of these links And it will open in that social media thing. So you could do it on Twitter, Facebook, email, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and Telegram, I think. All right. Next, the Facebook group. So the purpose of the Facebook group is to build interpersonal connection and community during the conference, much like we would have if we had an in-person, you know, a fully in-person conference and you would bump into people in the hallway, talk to people in between sessions or during sessions. So this is a way to have some of that during an online conference. And I know Facebook, it's an ideal. Okay. I know I personally didn't have a Facebook before I started doing this conference because I didn't wanna be on social media like that. But I made an account just to be in this Facebook group and I don't use Facebook otherwise. So that is always an option. And the great thing about Facebook is that it's easy to log into, it works well. And so yeah, we're continuing to use Facebook for now, but exploring other options for the future. And in the Facebook group, we try to avoid tech questions, just like in that question support form. So the Facebook group is really for discussion, content, connecting with people, sharing about yourself, meeting others that you'll stay in touch with, really that interpersonal part. And again, for tech questions or any support questions, always come to the support page. We help you so fast. We're so good as a support team. Next, the experiments. So the experiments are optional, and they're at the beginning and end of every yoga class. They're available to people with upgraded passes, and the way to find them is in emails where you'll see just underneath any of the upgraded events, it'll say experiments. Please complete the 10 to 15 experiment before and after each class. The email address for the teacher is, and it'll tell you the teacher's email, and you'll also find it in the calendar. So in the calendar we went over on the schedule page, there will be a link to the experiments. Now, what are the experiments? I'm not going to give too much away, but they're basically measures of anxiety and interoception, and you'll be able to see how each yoga class affects you. So you'll get an email after you take take each of the experiments telling you your results, and you can compare before and after. The reason we ask for you to enter the teacher's email address is if you want to, you can share your results with the yoga teacher who taught the class. It is anonymous, so they won't know it's you who did it, but you need to put their email address in in order for them to get the results. And they won't get an individual result for every single person. What they'll see instead is actually a dashboard with everyone's results compiled, so they'll just see That's how they won't be able to know if it's you who did it. Okay. And just so you know, this is also part of a research project in development, so it's— it'll be really cool and we'll be able to tell you more about it. Next, the conference shop. So for anyone who loves souvenirs and cozy clothing with our cute little brain logo, all of that stuff is available in the conference shop. It's made on demand, shipped around the world. Just so you know, the logo was made by my brother-in-law and I absolutely love it. I think it's the cutest logo. All right, so that's a lot of the stuff about the conference. Where do you go if you have questions? So if you go to the support page, you will find FAQs about all the things that we get the most common questions about, right? So you just click one of these, it'll open, and it'll tell you everything that you need to know for that answer. If you don't get your question answered by the FAQs, You scroll down, there's something that says support form, and you can choose to talk to an AI chatbot, which knows most things about the conference and can answer you in seconds, or you submit a form to a human and we usually get back to you really, really fast too. Like maybe we depends on what time of day it is, but like if it's during the live conference, we usually get back to people within a few minutes. And if you click submit to a human, you just submit your name, your email. The form may even recognize you and autofill those. And then please fill out as much detail as you can. So tell us what you tried so far, what page you were on, what you clicked, what didn't work, just so that we can actually help.

Okay.

All right. And one more thing. I, I say this every year. When you're submitting for support, please practice kindness. I promise you we're doing our best. If something's not working, it's not because we're trying to scam you or screw you over or anything like that. There's a— there are a lot of moving pieces to this conference. We are doing our best, so if you tell us that there's a problem, we will do our best to fix it. And please just ask us kindly, and we're happy to help. Okay, next I just want to tell you a little bit about our organization. Like, what the heck is NeuroYoga NYC? So we have a lot of projects going on that are super exciting, and our mission comes down to 3 prongs. Education, research, and clinical implementation. So we'll start with education. There are two main parts to education that we do. The first is this conference, and the second is something called the Community Showcase, which happens in November. So both have the mission of learning the actual science to help yoga teachers improve how they practice, teach, and advocate for yoga. The conference is focused primarily on research. The Community Showcase is focused primarily on implementation. And so you'll have the opportunity to get the recordings from last year's community showcase at the end of this conference. And if you stay on our mailing list, we will tell you when the next community showcase is available as well. Okay, next is research. So we are actively engaged in research. Earlier, like about a year or 2 ago, Paolo Paciolla and I conducted a randomized controlled trial online of breathing exercises versus sleep hygiene for sleep quality and anxiety. You can see the YouTube recording of our presentation on that here. So you can just screenshot this and copy this into YouTube if you want to watch it. And this is Paolo and I at the Symposium on Yoga Research presenting the results. Earlier last year, we conducted an international study, like a survey on yoga, and the results are currently being processed. And we're also launching this Yoga Outcomes Lab, which you'll be using during the conference as the experiments as we test it, and we hope to launch it more broadly soon once everything is ready. And finally, clinical care. So this is taking what we learn and trying to apply it to help people with different ailments. And so we'll be launching at the end of this conference the Headache Relief Blueprint, and this is a project I've been working on for a while since I saw that yoga was given a Level B of evidence for treating migraine. And did you know that migraine is one of the most disabling conditions in the world, with 1 in 7 people affected, including me and including my colleague who's working on this project with me, Adrienne DiLurco? And you'll meet her during this conference. And so together we made this Headache Relief Blueprint, and it's focused on teaching people yoga-based lifestyle interventions that in scientific studies have helped reduce migraine intensity, frequency, duration, and disability. And it will consist of short nightly practices, weekly longer practices, weekly live sessions, all that can be tailored to each individual. We'll also have built-in measurements and feedback for people who are participating. And so yeah, I'm super excited to tell you more about this as we get through the conference. I am so happy you're all here. Thank you for being a part of this amazing community. I haven't said this yet, but this conference is my passion project. I absolutely love doing this, and I truly believe in yoga as something that can change people's lives and the world. So thank you for being a part of this. Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm, and I open it up to questions in a moment. Before we do questions, we should just officially open the conference with an Om. Okay, so we'll do one group om together. Please sit up nice and tall, shoulders back, eyes closed, and we'll do one loud long om together.

Ah.

And slowly opening the eyes. All right, so I open it up to questions. I know there are probably a lot in the Question document. So I'm just gonna open that up. I have lifetime access. Is there a way to purchase past conferences? Yes, there is. So just reach out to us over email if that's something that interests you, and, and we can set that up. There is, when you purchase a lifetime pass, there's a deal, like a discounted purchase of past lifetime passes. If you missed that and you still wanna take advantage, we can set up like a coupon code for you. Do we need to watch everything to get CEUs? So yes, CEUs are part of the standard program, so you must complete everything. If you watched it on 2x speed and like, you know, the things you weren't as interested in, you, you just like kind of went through them quickly, that's fine. Okay, you— but the idea is that it's certified as a whole program, so you should complete the whole program. If you get a subscription, but then do the add-on. I'm a little confused. If you get a subscription, but then do the add-on I see for any past conferences and their lifetime passes, will you get CE credits? Yes. So if you purchase past conferences, you can get CE credits for everything that you purchase. Any lifetime pass comes with CE credits. So if you, let's say you buy the 2026 lifetime pass, but you buy 2025 and 2024 at the same time. You could get 90 credits of continuing education. Okay, so that's 30 per year. If you get a subscription but then do the add-on— oh, that's the same question. Do all these options for the lifetime pass expire in December? So only the monthly membership meetings will expire in December. Everything else for lifetime will continue. So you'll have access to the recordings of presentations, workshops, Q&A sessions, discussion groups, workbooks, quizzes, everything. And there's no deadline to finish the continuing education credit. So some people from 2024 are still submitting to me to finish that conference. So it's totally fine if you take as long as you need. And someone's asking, where do I find the quizzes for CE credit? They're in your member portal. So it'll just be under each topic. Each topic has its own quiz, and you'll see listed under each topic. And Megan, the quizzes are already ready. I stayed up late last night and finished them. So the lifetime pass doesn't include access to previous conferences? No, the lifetime pass, you can purchase prior conferences with the lifetime pass for a discounted rate, but it does not automatically include previous conferences.

Okay.

But you're, so you're saying I can't find my password to the member portal. And if you're not getting the emails to reset, they may have gone to junk or spam. And if not, just reach out to us and I can solve that on the backend. Oh, great question, Jessica. I didn't even— I forgot to mention this. So the question is about getting access to the Facebook group. If you try to join the Facebook group from a phone, there is a very good chance that it will not show you the group questions, and the group will not approve you if you don't agree to the questions and the group rules. So if you get denied from the Facebook group, that is the answer. That's why it happened. I didn't manually— no one manually rejected it. It's automatic. So you, you can just try again on a computer, answer the group questions, and say yes to the group rules, and you should be good. Okay, so you found it. It was in spam. Yeah, so often again Most of the time things aren't working, it's because 30% of emails go to spam. So thank you for checking spam whenever something goes wrong. I really appreciate it. Okay, sounds good, Trudy. Where do I access the workbooks and the quizzes to get the CE credits? So that will be in your member portal, which you can find on the website by clicking the menu and going to login, or you can always go to members. neuroyoganyc.com. And if you ever can't find the website, you can just Google neuroscience and yoga conference and it should come up. And I agree, Carla, it's so nice to see familiar people. The conference really does feel like a community. All right, last minute, any other questions? Any other tech problems? All right, so the recording of this orientation should be available. So thank you all for being here. Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and see you later.

Thank you.