Gentle Yoga Class and Q&A - 2025 Neuroscience and Yoga Conference

Hello, everyone.

We'll get started now.

We will start first with the gentle yoga class, and then we will do a Q&A session about the conference. I'm super excited you're all here. It's so good to see all of you. So let's get started.

Come to a comfortable seated position. You can sit on your knees, on a chair like me. And once you're comfortable, shoulders back, eyes closed. And as you inhale, imagine the breath moving from the center of the chest all the way up to the space between the eyebrows, and exhaling down center of the chest. Inhaling up space between the eyebrows, and exhaling down center of the chest.

Inhaling up Exhaling down.

And continuing this breathing on your own for about half a minute. The next time you exhale, you may conclude the breathing, keeping the eyes closed. Resume normal breathing. And we'll do one loud, long om together.

If you don't want to do the om, you can just listen.

Exhaling completely. Big deep inhale. Ah. May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may they enjoy this practice through our senses. Okay, slowly opening the eyes, and let's get started now. So come to a standing position.

Make sure you don't have any furniture or things you can hit into around you.

Make sure you have a safe space for yoga.

And during this practice, we're going to be doing gentle postures.

Okay, so top of the mat, feet together, hands in a prayer position, and let's start with Sun Salutations.

Sun Salutations.

Arms with the ears reaching up, arching back. Forward fold, chest on the thighs. Right foot back, knee down, look up. Left meets right, plank pose. Knees, forehead down. Brush the nose. Cobra pose. Downward facing dog. In the downward facing dog, you can adjust the feet, bend one knee at a time. If you'd like, you can lift one leg up, then the other. Very good, Ruth. Now right foot comes between the hands, left knee down, look up. Left meets right, forward fold. And arms with the ears reaching up, arching.

Hands in front of the chest.

Again, reaching up, arching back. Forward fold. Left foot back. Knee down, look up. Right meets left, plank pose. Knees, forehead down, brush the nose, cobra. And downward facing dog. Again, any variations you like, go ahead.

Some people like to bring One knee up to the opposite elbow and then bring it back. Some people, after they bring one leg up, they like to do opposite hand up. These are very difficult.

But just for fun. One more breath here. Now left foot front, right knee down, looking up. Right meets left, forward fold. And arms with the ears reaching, arching. Hands in front of the chest. Taking 2 normal breaths, let everything normalize. And shake everything out. Don't take anything too seriously. Stepping the feet apart a little bit, maybe a little bit wider. And left foot turns to the left, right foot turns in a little bit. Arms one straight line, reaching out over the left foot. The left hand comes down to the shin, the ankle.

Some people may touch the floor. And then the right arm comes up, gazing at the right thumb.

After a couple of breaths, you can play around with pushing the hips slightly forward. Right shoulder keeps turning back.

Excellent.

And gracefully coming up, switching sides. The left foot turns in, the right foot turns out, reaching out over the right foot. The right hand comes down, left arm up. Gazing at the left thumb. And gracefully coming up, hands in front of the chest. If you can, stepping the feet together. And now finding your way down onto the mat, setting up on the abdomen, forehead on the mat, hands underneath the shoulders. We're gonna set up now for a cobra pose. So bring the feet together, hands underneath the shoulders, elbows by the sides of the ribs. And we're going to come up to the count of 8. You reach your maximum at 8. Together. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. If the shoulders came up towards the ears, try to bring the shoulders down. Head is back slightly. If you'd like, you can roll the neck out a little bit. And to the count of 8, coming down. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. On the mat, bending the right knee, the right elbow, turning the head to the right. It's almost like making a chalk outline on the floor. And coming back to center again, the Cobra Pose, hands underneath the shoulders. To the count of 8, coming up. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. And to the count of 8, slowly lowering down. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Bending the left knee, the left elbow, turning the head to the left. Coming back to center and finding your way to sit up with the legs out in front.

The knees are bent.

And then arms with the ears, forward fold, chest on the thighs, and then the hands take hold of the calves, the ankles, maybe the heels. And then use bending the elbows to bring the chest and the thighs closer together. Head hangs loose and heavy. And after a couple of breaths, if you'd like, you can walk the seat back a little bit, elongating the legs. And gracefully reaching past the feet, arms with the ears, coming up, releasing. And setting up for spinal twist. Right sole of the foot outside the left calf. Right arm comes behind you, left arm up, and twist, gazing out the right shoulder. Each inhalation, elongate the spine, push the lower back in, and exhale, twist a little bit further. One more inhale, elongate, and exhale, twist. And slowly coming back to center, switch everything. Left sole of the foot outside the right calf, left hand back, right arm up, and twist, gazing out the left shoulder. And slowly releasing. Setting up now for relaxation. So the corpse pose, shavasana, and we're going to come into it together. So watch me for one second. We're all going to lift the limbs, the arms and the legs, squeeze everything like someone's punching you, and then drop.

So give it a try. Squeeze every muscle in the body, lift the limbs, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and drop. No, you guys are dropping like feathers. You need to drop like rocks.

One more time.

Squeeze very, very hard.

Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.

And drop.

Very good.

Shake the limbs out. Let them land in a natural resting position. During this practice, we're going to be guiding the attention. Only the attention moves. When I call out a body part, all the attention There. Let's begin with both of the hands. All the attention, both of the hands. The eyes are closed. Attention on the hands. Feel them tingling, loose, heavy.

Dead-like.

Both of the wrists, forearms, upper arms, and shoulders. Concentrate. At this moment, only that part exists. All the attention now, both of the feet, toe by toe, tingling, loose, heavy, dead-like. Both of the ankles.

Calves.

Knees and the thighs. The left hip joint region. The right hip joint region. The lower back loose. The upper back heavy. The abdomen loose. The chest heavy. Sides of the head and ears. Top of the head and scalp. The skin hanging from your bones.

The forehead.

Now feel the eyebrows separating from each other.

The eyelids.

Left cheek. Right cheek. Upper lip. Lower Lip and chin. Now the body is completely relaxed. For just a few moments, leave the body by itself and go within. Return your attention to your breath. Let the breath fill the chest and begin to wiggle the fingers, wiggle the toes, slowly reaching the arms overhead. Point the toes. Take a great big stretch. And without disturbing the mind, find your way to a comfortable seated position. And once you're comfortably seated, place the hands on your palms—

sorry, and place the hands on your knees, palms facing up. We're gonna do a breathing and meditation in one.

So as we inhale, the hands will come together.

Index and thumb will touch, and as you exhale, the hands slowly come apart. We're gonna have a mental sound as we do this, so I will be saying the sound.

You can just do it mentally; you don't have to say the sound out loud.

Okay?

So sitting up nice and tall, shoulders back, eyes closed. When I say so, you inhale, and when I say hum, you exhale. We'll do it all together.

So.

Um. So.

Um.

So. Continuing mentally. This mantra means I am you, you are me. This is the main message of yoga. And the next time you exhale, concluding the breathing, keeping the eyes closed. And we'll finish with one quiet om together. Shanti, shanti, shanti. Shanti just means peace. Thank you all for coming. This concludes the yoga portion of today.

So we'll take about a 1-minute break and get ready for Q&A.

All right, I think we can get started with the Q&A.

Welcome everyone. So we'll do introductions in 1 second, but I'm so excited everyone is here, and I Can't wait to talk more about the conference this year and all of the recent developments with it. So please write down questions as we go, save them. You can put them in the chat. You can ask them verbally at the end. And yeah, if you wanna put in the chat what your name is, where you're from, it's really nice to meet everyone that way. Many of you I actually know already, which is also really nice. And then we also have a quick poll. Just to see if everyone has signed up already or, you know, where you are in terms of thinking about the Neuroscience and Yoga Conference. So just answer with which ticket you have already, and if you don't have a ticket, that's okay too. We're just trying to get a sense of who's here so we know who to address things towards. Okay, it's a good mix of everyone.

Great.

So it looks like we have a good number of people who've signed up already, a good number of people who haven't yet, and that's great. So we'll try to make sure that everyone gets all of their questions answered.

And okay, so let's do some introductions.

So there are 3 of us from the team here, Charlotte, Ashley, and me, and we're gonna take turns introducing ourselves. Charlotte, would you like to go first?

Sure. That's a great honor. So first of all, I apologize because I do have a strong accent. So feel free to, to ask questions if you don't understand fully what I'm saying. So my name is Charlotte. I'm a primary school teacher and I'm also a yoga teacher and the founder of a yoga school informed by science in France. I've been teaching and presenting in the Neuroscience and Yoga Conference over the last 2 years, I think. And this year I'm so happy that I'm leading the Neuroscience and Yoga in-person parts together with Jonathan. And I also would like to thank you very much, Jonathan, for everything he's been organizing and the great knowledge he's bringing for us. over the last 5 years. Yeah, I'm so happy to meet you all.

Thank you, Charlotte. Ashley, would you like to go next?

Hi everybody, I'm Ashley. I live in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and I joined the Neuroscience and Yoga Conference team this year to help out with the virtual side of the conference for the, for this 2025 year. And I'm just so excited to be here and meet you all. And hopefully I'll see you on the virtual side, or hopefully you'll see Charlotte and Jonathan on the in-person side this year.

Awesome. Thank you, Ashley. And I am Jonathan. I'm a neurologist in New York City, and I'm also a yoga student and have been practicing yoga much longer than I've been in medicine. And so I was always very curious about how yoga affects the brain. But I always kind of felt like an outcast, like the yoga world didn't accept science and the science world didn't accept yoga. And so that's where the idea of having events and conferences about bringing yogis and scientists together came from for me. And so this is the 11th event that I've hosted about neuroscience and yoga, and this is the 5th year of the Neuroscience and Yoga Conference. And just to show you some of the history of our in-person events, these go back to 2014. You can even see a virtual picture that was actually 2020. And so just lots of amazing times exploring neuroscience and yoga. Really awesome people have come together for this, and it makes me really happy. This is like my passion project. And so for 2025, we have an amazing lineup for you. The goal of the conference has really evolved to help you as yoga teachers, yoga students, yoga therapists, but also researchers on yoga, to help you transcend misinformation and learn the actual science of yoga so that you can improve how you practice, teach, and advocate for yoga. Each year we focus on different topics. This year we have 3 main topics: yoga and brain injury and concussion, yoga and endocrine health, and yoga and reproductive health. And then we also have an introductory day where we'll go over the basics of neuroscience, the basics of physiology, the basics of yoga, just so everyone's on the same page. In other words, no prior knowledge needed. You can come as you are. Um, and then we also have a concluding day, which will have some really special, interesting talks. We just confirmed one on chanting and mantra and yoga and how it affects the brain, which is super interesting. And then also wrapping up and making sure we have good takeaways from the conference. Otherwise, every day of the conference will have presentations from leading researchers around the world, yoga classes with top teachers. Q&A sessions where you can meet the yoga teachers and the researchers and ask them your questions, as well as discussion groups to practice applying this knowledge. So that's an overview of the topics this year and what each day will be like. And I should just clearly say each day is a different topic. So April 23rd is the introductory day. And we have presentations, Introduction to Neuroscience, Accessing and Evaluating Published Scientific Research. Yoga therapy, an introduction to yoga therapy, a special yoga class with Eddie Stern, and we're also working on getting an introduction to yoga session. Day 2 is brain injury. We have leading researchers including Arlene Schmid, Sheila Vaidya, and Susan Duncan. Susan Duncan is doing a really awesome presentation on aphasia, which is very, very interesting area that she's been researching for a while. And then also Kyla Pierce. Is gonna talk about her work from Love Your Brain and developing an intervention for brain injury. And then yoga and endocrine health is day 3. I'm gonna move a little bit faster because this gets dull just listing all the presentations, but we have topics on thyroid health, topics on bone health and osteoporosis, stress physiology, and as well as metabolism and diabetes. And then the last day. We have PCOS, menopause. We have another one confirmed on pregnancy that still needs to be uploaded to the website. And then one that I just confirmed a couple of hours ago on fertility. So yoga interventions for fertility in both men and women. We'll also have yoga teachers specializing in things like pelvic floor health and endometriosis. And then on the concluding day, we have a few more things being filled in, but I mentioned the chanting and mantra. Presentation as well as the concluding presentation. But okay, so that's just an overview of the conference in general. For everyone who's attending, some of you asked the question, will it also be online or is it only in person? You know, we've been really emphasizing the in-person part this year and the whole conference will be hybrid. So it will still exist online, but we're so excited about the in-person part and we want to get all the information out there about the in-person part right now. So for the last few years, the conference has primarily been online. But this year we're adding the full in-person experience, which Charlotte has been organizing so painstakingly and working so hard on. And this is going to be like a mix between a yoga teacher training with a lot of learning, but also a yoga retreat where you have like a quiet, peaceful environment to learn and connect with your practice. And I can't emphasize enough how amazing it's going to be. I'm super excited by it. And if you're the kind of person who feels like you learn better in a dedicated setting, like all the distractions are removed, lots of colleagues around you also learning, I think it's a really good idea to consider the in-person. And basically every event on the schedule will be in person. The entire conference will be in person. Not all of the speakers will be in person, but about 2 to 3 per day will be able to make it out in person, which is really, really cool. And they'll also be having lunch and dinner with us. So we'll be able to talk to them, get to know them more. Learn from their work really one-on-one and face-to-face. And we'll be providing all the food during the conference.

Okay.

So Scarlett is going to talk a little bit about some of the unique in-person benefits.

Yeah. Thank you, Jonathan. So yeah, I think it's been a thing with the Neuroscience on Your Way conference over the last years that it's really helping to build this amazing community over I mean, everywhere on the planet, we have, we have people from like the US, obviously, but also Europe, like India, uh, who are really trying to connect yoga and science. And sometimes it can feel a bit lonely, I've been there. So I know what it is like. And just having this amazing community wanting to share their knowledge and also, you know, some things like, how can you advocate for yoga in like public spaces? I'm thinking about like health advocates. Or like even like education advocacy. And I think this in-person part can just bring it like a bit further because we all know that there's nothing compared to like real bonds, like physical bonds. I mean, not physical bonds, but like personal bonds that you can create over like an in-person event. And we really were going to like take it a step further by, like Jonathan said, having like some amazing meals together. So like really some like warm moments and even at night, some like kirtan sessions. So we can like, you know, sing together. So the idea is really to connect together at a very deep level so that we can follow up with each other in the next month or so to like follow up on our research projects or like yoga projects. Because we do need a community when we go on this road, which is not that easy. Which is connecting yoga and science. Like Jonathan already mentioned, you'll have the opportunity to connect with amazing speakers coming in person. I'm just thinking about, for instance, like Eddie Stern or Sadhguru, who are just like so like incredible yoga teachers. I'm personally, I'm like so happy to, to see them and to get to spend time with these people who are so inspiring for all of us and who have such amazing careers and like life paths actually. And I've made such like big dedications on how to connect yoga and science. And also Jonathan mentioned the food because it is a really important part of connecting together, right? Especially as a French person, we do connect a lot on food. We've, we have options. We're going to eat together amazing vegan food and, uh, at the studio because we want to be very like into the learning in the day. And at night we will go outside in some really, really nice places that we found. In Jersey City. So we really want this experience to be obviously a learning experience like the one you've experienced before in the previous online conference, but also something where you can actually, you know, feel and experience the yoga aspect of the conference and as well as the learning aspect, but at a more, I would say, emotional and embodied level, kind of. So this is really what we are trying to create with this retreat. And we're so excited to welcome you in this atmosphere.

And I'll tell you a little bit more about the location. So we'll be at Sound of Om Yoga Center in Jersey City. So this is Jersey City right here for people who are not familiar. This is Manhattan. So I think everyone's familiar with New York City. So it's right across the river connected by multiple trains. And Sound of Om is right outside, just like a 10-minute walk from one of the train stations. And so for local attendees, you'll be able to get there really easily via the PATH train. There are also buses that run right along this avenue and go to Port Authority. And for people who are traveling from out of state or out of country even, we have a few options. So it's very local to get to from all of the airports. So Newark, Newark, I'm trying to really emphasize it. That's the New Jersey airport is like right over here. So it's just a quick train ride to Sound of Ulm. JFK is like over here on the map, also connected by train. And then LaGuardia is the more difficult one. You'd probably want to take a taxi from LaGuardia. And then we have reserved Airbnbs in the area. So they would be shared Airbnbs where you could stay with other conference attendees. And then the local Marriott, which is right around here, has given us a discount that I can share. You know, if you sign up for the in-person conference, you'll automatically get the discount code if you want to reserve a space at the Marriott. So that's just a quick overview of the location. I should also emphasize that Sound of OM is beautiful. This is an actual picture of the inside. And so we're going to have a lot of learning materials in there, like posters and books, and we're working on getting some nice furniture and all kinds of stuff to make it a really welcoming space.

Okay.

And then I think Charlotte's going to talk about the daily schedule.

Yeah. So the idea is really to get you in the mood of this retreat-like learning experience. So we want to start really early. And of course we start the day with a yoga class just to get into that like bright mood that you get from yoga. And also that very deep attention mood that is required to have for the, for the next, the next thing, which is the learning time at 10 AM. So it would be You'll be able to access the presentations that are prerecorded or live. And this would really be a time where we learn together. We, you know, we can like talk together and like say, ah, have you understood this or no? Fill out our little notebooks, learning notebooks. So it would be like calm but very deep focus and intense learning mode. And right after that comes the most exciting part of the day, the lunch, with obviously the researchers and the yoga teachers. That we mentioned already. So it would be still at Sound of Om because we want to stay in that mood of learning and getting into the experience. And then we'd have another session of learning time from 2 PM to 4 PM. Again, presentation prerecorded or live depending on the schedule of the day, and also Q&A sessions with the speakers, researchers, and yoga teachers. And then to, to like Chill out a little bit, we'll have another yoga class at 4 PM. So sometimes the yoga class will be in person, sometimes it will be live. But let's say it's live, I'll always be here to like make sure you're comfortable, to like adjust you. So it will really be like a very, again, embodied experience of the yoga. And we'll then have discussion group. So we, it also happens online, but it will be obviously very different because we'll be like small, like in person, having been able to like discuss over everything we learned during the day, which I think is so important when we learn to have this moment where you can just like chill out and remind yourself, what do I want to retain from this conference? What do I want to, how do I want to apply it into my life, into my practice, into my teaching? So this will also be super interesting and we'll end the day with a very nice group dinner. So Sometimes it would be at Son of Om, sometimes we go outside, Italian places that, so it will also be very, very nice atmosphere and really nice way to connect with each other. And then we get back to Son of Om for some community activities. So sometimes it would be kirtan, sometimes some games, again, to just like get to know each other and to create like stronger bonds in this community that is the in-person neuroscience and yoga conference.

Awesome.

And pretty much every day we'll follow this schedule except for the last day where we'll end around 6:30 PM so that people have time to get back to wherever home is and prepare for the work week. You may remember that conferences in the past, we would end at like 8 PM on a Sunday and then it was like, okay, go back to work.

All right.

Just a little bit about accommodations. These are some of the pictures of the Airbnbs that have been reserved. And so just wanna show you these so that you get a sense of what's available. The prices for these range from $100 a night for the couch to like $170 a night for a single private room. All of them have shared bathrooms, so it'd be like 3 to 4 people to a shared bathroom, just so you know. It's like a 5 to 10 minute walk.

I stay in Folkestone, so it's really convenient and you can really stay in the mode of like learning.

Yeah.

Okay.

And so just a little bit about the passes so you know what you need to sign up for when you're signing up. So as normal, there's a free pass so that everyone around the world can enjoy the conference. That's called the Presentation Access Pass. The Lifetime Access Pass online is the same as in years past. So it includes recordings of everything from the conference. Conference forever. It also adds the yoga classes, the discussion groups, the Q&A sessions, as well as workbooks and quizzes and continuing education credit. And then the in-person pass adds all of that, but obviously the in-person experience of all of those events in this amazing setting in Jersey City. It includes all of the food that will be for those 5 days and then the community building activities. So everything we went over. So hopefully that addresses the— oh, go ahead.

So sorry, I think I didn't mention in the daily schedule that we have some light breakfast after yoga class in the learning time, like nuts, fruits and stuff. So you can, you know, feed your brain and obviously not starve because you do need a lot of food for learning.

And we're serious yogis, but we're also going to offer tea and coffee too.

Yeah, just because we love coffee. Yeah.

So I hope that that overview answers a lot of questions and helps you get a sense of what this, what this experience is going to be like. We did ask for FAQs via the signup form and we got a good number. So I'm just gonna, many of them were very similar. So we're just gonna answer some of them right now. The first one is, are day passes available for in-person? And this makes a lot of sense, right? Like you're Maybe working during the week, you can't take off, and you want to come just for certain days. Yes, based on the number of people requesting this, we are going to offer day passes. It will be $150 per day. That includes all the presentations that day, the yoga classes that day, and all the food that day. And this is the link for that. So if you want to sign up for that, you can sign up for the day pass, and that will be that. Next question that we got a lot of is, what should we bring to the in-person? So I'll tell you what we'll have on site. We'll have mats, blocks, and bolsters. If you prefer to bring your own mat, you are welcome to.

We'll have printed workbooks for you.

So as in the past where we had the workbook, but you had to print it at home on your own, now we'll actually have like a binded printed version for you and you can fill it out. You don't have to print it on your own. We'll also have food and drinks. You're welcome to bring snacks and any other foods that you want to bring, but you don't have to. The things that we are gonna ask you to bring, please bring a pen. We'll have some that you can use, but just to make sure that we have enough pens for everyone. And then we're gonna try to be ecological and not waste too much. We will have some, you know, cups and silverware available, but just to reduce waste, if you can bring a reusable cup like a Stojo or reusable silverware, that would be great.

And also regarding snacks, there are nice bakeries around and coffee places. So if you want to, you know, to like have a little treat in the afternoon, it's obviously possible. Yeah. We tried it out. It's pretty good.

Yeah, Charlotte and I did a tour of Jersey City and we found some really good bakeries.

All right.

And the next question is, are there any scholarships? And the answer is yes. We want to make this accessible to everyone. So just reach out to me, and we will try to work something out. It won't be free, unfortunately. The cost of hosting in person is such that we can bring the cost probably down to about $500 instead of the $700 it normally is. But I think hopefully that, that will help out. So yeah, that is everything. There's a question in the chat from Whitney. For those who are unable to take off work, will there be a recording? And yes, So whether you have a Lifetime Access Pass online or in person, recordings will be available the same way that they have been in the past through that learning management system that you log into members.neuroyoganyc.com. Okay. Any other questions?

Agnes sent me a DM and she asked, for those who have strict dietary restrictions, can we bring our own food?

Absolutely.

And if you want to let us know what those dietary restrictions are, if you're comfortable, we can also pass those along to the caterers we have every day and try to get, you know, what you need. But yeah, reach out to us and we're happy to accommodate.

I think there's a question about the number of attendees, Jonathan, which one would you like?

Great question. Thank you for the question, Sonia. It's not a new conference. So this is the 5th year that this conference has existed in this form. This is the 2nd year we've had in-person. The 1st year has been a really developed in-person. In-person, how many people will attend? We're estimating around 20 to 30. And so it's going to be an intimate group. And then for online, thousands. I'm not exactly sure what to say. Last year it was about 5,000 who attended live. All right. If there are no other questions, we can wrap up, but please don't hesitate to reach out at any point with questions. We're super excited about this conference. We want everyone to have a great experience. So we're really open to everything you have to say.

We're literally only an email away ever.

So just reach out.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Aaron.

Good.

Great to see you.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone, for coming.

Bye.

Goodbye, everyone.