While much of the writing on this website is geared for the General Public, the content is as much for Yoga Educators & Yoga Therapists, as well. I hope you’ll excuse some of the language, which is sometimes difficult to easily distinguish between the two groups. … But we can all get along, right?  😀

MORE on
Maximizing Results While Minimizing Injury
in the Practice & Teaching of Yoga

HELLO! . . .

This is David Scott Lynn (DSL), again, and I’m here, obviously, to talk with you more about Yoga.

FIRST of ALL . . . I’ll be the first to admit that this multi-page description to you is kind of long. Some people would say, REALLY long. Yet, there are a few things to remember about that:

If you get more involved with my programs (such as the several e-Courses, which provide the most in-depth content of this website), I don’t want you worrying whether they are right for you or not. And in order for you to be happy with what you can get out of this website, you will need to like, or at least be willing, to read. If you don’t like, or are not at least willing, to read, you won’t be happy.

Yes, it is true, a picture can be worth a thousand words. But, which thousand words? Sometimes you need both. Because we’ll be focusing a lot on depth of understanding, sometimes only words can tell the whole or precise story; just as sometimes it takes a drawing or picture, an animation, or a video; of which there will be many. You’ll see a lot of them in my e-book on The Simple Steps to Let-Go Yoga.

(I am planning on having as much of the text available in MP3 format so you can listen on your computer or your iPod/MP3 Player, but that will take some time.)

So I am going to tell you Right Up Front:

You WILL as time goes on, be able to get a lot from watching the videos, animations and other graphics I will be producing. And I will have audio recordings of much, if not all, of the text. But right now, because I am just getting started, and I’m only ONE GUY with a MAC, right now, this website is mostly text. So it will take a fair amount of reading to benefit from this site at this time.

Okay . . . If You’re Still Reading, GREAT!

Now, recalling the few paragraphs at the beginning of this letter (on the previous page), describing your possible future yoga class, that was quite a lot to suggest or promise, wouldn’t you agree?

But, what if I could deliver to you the insights, information and skills necessary to achieve that level of competence as a Yoga Practitioner or Educator (a Teacher and/or Yoga Therapist)? … Or at least add substantially to your existing abilities while protecting you from injury?

If you’ve read this far, you are probably wondering whether or not I can actually deliver on those promises if you decide to work with me. So, please look at this short, partial list and see if you are motivated by any of the following . . .

Here are the mainly Experiential Components of DSL Let-Go Yoga:

• How to work with your Edges or Limits of pain, fear and resistance
• How just THINKING the word S-T-R-E-T-C-H could lead to problems and injury
• How to maximize and focus your breath to dissolve tension and stress
• How your breath really works in yoga asana, movement and life in general
  
• How even just breathing beyond your Edges could INCREASE internal stress & tension
• How Low-intensity or Micro-dose levels of stretch can be extremely beneficial to all
  
• How to integrate your Meditative Mind into your physical yoga, and vice versa
• Dissolving the paradox, and conflicts, between your thinking mind and feeling body
• How you coordinate your body-mind relationships via your neurophysiology
• Building a deep feeling, intuitive, meditative sensitivity and understanding upon the physical and medical sciences … and vice versa
• Feeling and Seeing how many yoga practitioners and teachers are actually compressing their joints while doing yoga, and what to do about it
• You’ll Learn How LENGTHENING through body segments is more important than “bending the joints” (flexibility)
• and a Whole Lot More … !!!

We work a lot with the orientation of integrating mental processes into the physical body. Yet we do this in simple, here-and-now, easy to understand and NON-mystical ways. And NO, I am not much into mysti-physics (not to be confused with metaphysics, which is a usually misused & misunderstood term.) But I DO believe there are many things going on at very subtle levels that science cannot yet, and might not ever, be able to see, measure or understand.

Making Yoga Relevant to the Western Mind & Culture …

Yet if you feel that so-called “Real Yoga” requires mysticism or a specifically Eastern approach to spirituality or consciousness to be authentic, then DSL Yoga might NOT be for you. … Sorry about that. … But if you can appreciate a non-mystical, yet very conscious & intuitive approach to yoga, with a Western psycho-philosophical and spiritual orientation, then everything should be fine.

(I’m not going to discourage mysticism if you’re into it, but you won’t find much, if any, of it here or with me.)

As we’ll discuss later, I’m about making yoga more accessible to the Western mindset and culture.

Know The Science Enough to Talk to Your Doctor

At one extreme, I want you to be able to sit down with a doctor and describe to him or her what you’re doing — and why yoga is so beneficial, and how it works — in terms and concepts he or she can relate to, and have them know that you know what you’re talking about. …

No, that’s NOT going to happen over-night, but it is available here if that’s what you want to be able to do. I also want you to have more ideas with which to talk to the average person — such as your Family Members, or Students & Clients if you’re an educator — who’s never done yoga in ways they can relate to, and will make them want to try out your classes.

In such cases, it’s usually a pretty good idea to avoid the Roll-the-Eyes Factor. 🙄 You gain more credibility, and people aren’t worried they’re going off on some weird cult or religious thing or whatever. You want them to be able to relate to you without effort, without unnecessary barriers.

This is one of the many things I’ve learned as a hands-on, yoga-based bodyworker. You get to know people and human nature pretty intimately in that work. I realized long ago it’s not their job to figure out how to relate to you or me. If you want them to have a fully integrated body-mind experience, it is YOUR  job (or actually MY job) to find out how to relate to your potential and new students, or their doctors, where THEY are, including not using language, actions or concepts that put up barriers.

YOU Can Make A Difference In People’s Lives, as Well as Your Own!

YOU can provide a doorway from the ordinary consciousness The West is typically known for to a deeper appreciation and understanding of Life & Being. YOU can be the bridge between areas of Human Health and Being that more people could benefit from, IF it was presented in a way they could relate to.

The DSL System of Yoga/Bodywork Therapeutics is revolutionizing and uniting the worlds of yoga and bodymind therapy. I have found that this original system is a practical way for both recipient and practitioner to maximize the benefits and minimize the potential injuries from both yoga and bodywork. Through the ongoing process of learning about my Edge, I have been able to expand my awareness and to bring the practice of meditation into daily life activities. At the deepest level The DSL Method represents significant advances in the work of emotional clearing, including opening the possibilities of healing through microgenetic moments.*

Jenny Dysart • Lifetime Client and
Yoga & BodyWork Student
Sedona, Arizona
*Microgenetic Moments: the convergence of nerve energy
(memory and current stimulus) from the brain down and the
body up, leading to an integrating and healing moment. — DSL

A major focus of DSL Let-Go Yoga is how to Maximize Results While Minimizing Potential Injury. Learning to pay REAL attention (which is a meditative experience in itself) is a major key to this goal. Many if not most people think that attention is about thinking. But actual attention is more about FEELING the Experience of life as it passes through our being a that moment.

The electrical impulses coursing through your brain & nerves, comprising your thoughts, feelings, memories and visual images — pretty much EVERY-thing, are basically the same in their fundamental electro-chemical nature. … At one level, it’s ALL physical.

A Special Note Geared for Yoga Educators, Personal Trainers, Therapists
and All Those Who Want To Know How Their BodyMind Actually Works …

And if You ARE a Member of the Public, the MORE You Know
About How Your BodyMind Works, the Better Off You’ll Be

In addition to such Subjective Experience of Objective Reality, we’ll also go extensively into the Scientific Foundations of physical and mental yoga and yoga-based healing processes. This way, you’ll have far more ability to evaluate what’s going on with yoga in general and individual people in specific. But don’t worry, my approach to teaching sciences is almost exactly opposite of most teachers.

A lot of teachers start with “This is a Cell, This is a Muscle, This is a Bone” …

Then, all you have to do is memorize a whole bunch of weird Latin names and technical terms, and THEN you can learn how they work together. And THEN they’ll tell you what to DO with it all. Finally, if you get that far, you an actually DO the stuff. … IF you don’t get short-circuited by those Latin and technical names, or lose interest from boredom! … And, HOW MANY bones and muscles are there? … TOO MANY! 😕  … When you first start out learning, anyway. 😉

So, I do it the exact opposite way.

Accessing Kinesthetic Learning Styles . . .
Paving The Way for Future Participants . . .

In both my LIVE, In-Person Anatomy, Kinesiology & Physiology Trainings, and the On-Line e-Course, we work first on feeling what happens in our bodies — for example, in a slouched posture when sitting and standing, then seeing those happenings in other people’s bodies, then examining and discussing our experiences and observations. Only then do we look for and discuss possible scientific explanations behind them. These sciences include:

• Anatomy: How body parts are shaped and where they are located
  
• Kinesiology: How the body parts move when certain muscles are activated
  
• Physiology: The control processes that activate and coordinate body function
  
• Neurology: Brain-Mind-Body control/integration via the nervous system
  
• Pathology: What goes wrong with the parts, systems & functions
  

These five elements will be important to truly understanding how things work in your — and/or your Student’s and Client’s — bodymind. But most important, I want YOU to GET it in your feeling states, before you walk out the classroom door, not just in your mind, but to actually FEEL it in your body. You might have to repeat it a few or a number of times to let it really emerge then sink in, but the process will have started. … If you let it.

I believe THAT is the best way to get your mind around these scientific, technical things. START with what you can see and feel, THEN go deeper to the unseen, less intuitive, more abstract and linear information.

Becoming Your OWN Authority

The DSL Method is not a sit down, shut up and listen approach to learning. It is about interacting with me as much as possible (even if it is over the internet). YOU become your own authority in what you learn.

How I was taught while growing up was to figure things out for myself — with guidance, of course — and to learn it at its core, rather than just mimic the superficial aspects, nor just believing that what someone told me was true. That’s how I figured out for myself — more than 25 years ago — that much of what is being taught in traditional approaches — in yoga, in bodywork, in physical therapy, fitness, medicine, and so on — is just not how things really are.

But my job is not to just try and convince you of my own propaganda. My job is for you to be able to SEE & FEEL & THINK whether something is true or not for yourself. So YOU become better able to figure out whether something works or not, or is true or not. So YOU can become your own authority, for Yourself and Your Family & Friends, or your Students & Clients.

None of us can be right about everything.  😥

But we can learn and develop better tools for how to discern more clearly what’s going on in our Human BodyMind and the world in general. My Purpose & Objectives are to help you develop . . .

A Superior Scientific Knowledge
of How the Human BodyMind Works in
Yoga & Posture, in Fitness & Exercise, in Sickness & Health
Yet Based on Sound Experiential Awareness

Here’s what you’ll be doing/getting if you studyThe DSL Method of Let-Go Yoga:

• Building a strong scientific foundation for everything you do
• Far more knowledge of the anatomy and kinesiology of how your muscles function
• How your muscles work in asana in general and in specific postures
• The wider TRUTH about Yin-ness & Yang-ness in Muscles, Tendons & Ligaments
• How neuromuscular & myofascial physiology affect your yoga practice
• How to tailor and modify asana for individual circumstances with YogasAnalysis™
• How to non-invasively adjust Yourself — or Students & Clients, verbally and with touch
• How to see, feel & generate natural forces of internal alignment without always thinking about it
• How to decompress your joints, lengthen the body and un-trap nerves
• How Muscles are the Nexus between your inner experience and outer reality
• Where effortless great posture comes from (NO, its NOT strong back muscles)
• Why RELAXING & LENGTHENING the Abdominals often produces more “strength” than sit ups or crunches
• Where Great Posture & Coordinated Movement REALLY come from

Then, we look at the principles of Preventive Yoga Therapy. Even if you are not intending to be a Yoga Therapist per se, it is immensely valuable to have a better idea of what is happening from this perspective. That way, you can, at very least, have better strategies in how to keep certain Students and Clients out of trouble when doing yoga, as well as minimize injuries for all (including YOU!):

• How to build a strong foundation for Preventive Yoga Therapy
• Or, refine your existing Yoga Therapy skills
• SEE & FEEL the Bio-Structural Dynamics Behind Posture & Movement
• Evaluate Posture, Analyze Imbalances, Strategize Asana Sequencing
• Better understand sources of Aches, Pains & Dysfunction
• Understand and Develop Internal & External Ergonomics
• How you can utilize Preventive Yoga Therapy — and in Group Yoga Classes, too
• Dealing with Individual versus Group needs in classroom settings
• How to apply principles of Homeopathic Medicine to Yoga
• How organ Physiology and Pathology affect everything, and vice versa

David Scott Lynn is a bodyworker extraordinaire. His knowledge of the structure of the body and the way the muscles cooperate with each other in their movement has prompted us to put him on our faculty as the anatomy professor in our Yoga Teacher Training Program. His work is state of the art and goes way beyond most traditional understanding of how the physical body operates. His patience and genius in working on me has changed my awareness of myself. His work is lasting and his selflessness is amazing.

Gary Majchrzak • Co-Founder
7 Centers Yoga Arts
Sedona, Arizona

[I am no longer teaching at 7 Centers
and neither is Gary! — DSL]

And all of that is just a portion of what you’ll learn if you Become a Member of the DSL Let-Go Yoga Website. And some of it you can learn just by signing up for my FREE -Letter informing you weekly of my articles, updates and commentary.

Subscribe to the FREE Occasional e-Letter on Yoga HERE.

You can also get access to my FREE Min-e-Course on the 9 Natural Laws of Yoga. These Laws begin building a Foundation of Yoga from the DSL Perspective. You’ll see why yoga, in its more organic form, can be thought of as a natural extension of Being Human, if we only followed the natural realities and impulses built into us by nature at birth.

You see, this is all about YOU having your own personal knowledge and insight emanate from your own inner experience. If you can learn to SEE & FEEL what’s happening at a deeper level in your own BodyMind, you will not have to “remember” how things work. You’ll just instantly know, because the anatomical, kinesiological and physiological information will become a part of who you are. … Actually, it already IS!

That information — embedded in your nervous system — often will do the thinking for you. Therefore, the relevant in-form-ation — that which is in your form — will be instantly accessible to you at any moment.

Actually, it already is. (Yeah, I said that already.) … I guess it’s important!

One definition of Education is to bring out that which is within. We are looking for your mental knowledge and physical experience, your conscious and unconscious processes, to Merge … and to Emerge.

Bringing Your Mind Into Your Musculature
So As To Dissolve the Distinctions Between
Them, Is A Main Focus of DSL Let-Go Yoga

. . . David Scott Lynn

Again, this knowledge already is a part of who you are — it’s within your own form — but we must learn the capacity to Abstract (meaning to  Lift Out) the stuff that’s embedded in your Human BodyMind, by nature, from birth. That is a primary function of your Linear or Analytical Mind. . . .

In the DSL Philosophy of Teaching from a Western Perspective, one of the things you’ll learn is that as a teacher, educator or therapist, one of your jobs is to literally Abstract (to Lift Out of your personal experience of life — and yoga) certain experiences and information to pass on — to Time-Bind — to your Students and Clients.

Higher-level Abstractions and Time-Binding are two
primary characteristics of Being Human. (paraphrased)

. . . Alfred Korzybski
Founder of General Semantics

And we attempt, as much as possible, to apply the Scientific Method in a wholistic and conscious way. We also use our own bodymind as a laboratory to explore What Is. … This is called Phenomenology, studying reality through our own experience as a neutral observer (as neutral as possible, anyway — not always easy, if ever.)

Phenomenology can work pretty well … sometimes. And it works quite often if you are really good at remaining relatively neutral. Learning how to do that is a meditative exercise in itself. (That’s an essential part of Jnana Yoga, the yoga of wisdom.) We must remain vigilant to our own subtle, subconscious biases and filters, our misinterpretations of reality, which happen quite frequently for most of us. The scientific method, though by no means perfect, helps moderate the blind spots of phenomenology, and vice versa.

In Yoga for the WEST of Us, four Core Components are
Abstracting, Time-Binding, the Scientific Method and Phenomenology.
These aspects of Being Human help establish a Psycho-Philosophical
Foundation for the DSL Approach to Physical/Mental & Therapeutic Yoga.

. . . David Scott Lynn

Yoga For The WEST Of Us . . .

Abstractions, Time Binding, Phenomenology and the Scientific Method are a great part of the Philosophy, Psychology & Science of Being Human portion of the DSL Let-Go Yoga e-Courses & Trainings. For those of you who are interested in establishing a strong philosophical basis — from a Western Perspective, yet well informed by Essential Insights from the East  — for what you do, there is plenty of that here.

Doing so can help you make your personal approach to yoga more relevant for your potential students, and existing Students & Clients, from a more Western point-of-view, especially here in America. There is nothing wrong with teaching the more Eastern approaches, but many potential Students and Clients are not much interested in embracing Eastern ideals or practices. They do not pursue yoga for that very reason.

Yet most of the ideas and insights from the East CAN be restated in very relevant Western terms and experience. A very few maybe cannot, but that does not diminish the immense value yoga can be to people, regardless of the religious, cultural or aesthetic context it is presented in. And you are free to take what works for you, leave what does not, modify the rest according to your own understandings of Life, Being, and Yoga.

And that, behind scenes, is ultimately what DSL Yoga is really all about: helping YOU to become your own authority, based on YOU discovering your own, solid Philosophy, Psychology and Science of Being Human, in your own life, in your own teaching, in your own therapy (for your self and/or for others).

Learning To FEEL On The Internet . . .???

CONFESSION: Teaching this way via the Internet will be, for me, and probably you too, all new territory. I’m not exactly sure how well it will work out in the very beginning, or how quickly I can get it right. I am sure it will take some time to get all the information properly formatted to be fully useful for learning on the Internet.

I can tell you that I have already gotten VERY positive feedback from a number of yoga teachers about my explanations of physiology via e-mail as well as my papers and e-books — via words only.

How much time will it take? How much of it will you be able to learn via the internet? … Well, I don’t know yet. … But You and I have a Great Opportunity to find out, don’t we?

That’s One Reason the Price will be so LOW for those of you who see the potential and act on it … sooner rather than later.

And I do have a GREAT and NIFTY new computer animation program that I think will help me get the more complex visuals and ideas across quite nicely. … I’m just now learning how to use it. (And have you ever tried to draw something in THREE dimensions on a computer? It’s hard enough doing TWO dimensions on a piece of paper!)

Now that said, you might find that you want to look at participating in my LIVE, In-Person Trainings while they are still available. That way, if you truly need a more personal touch, you can get it in a more personal environment. PLUS, since I will be recording my live trainings, you will be contributing to making this information more available to more yoga students & teachers in the future who cannot afford to attend the Live Trainings; or won’t be able to because I am too busy producing materials for and running this web site to teach live programs.

And that is also the reason why the monthly subscription fee to certain elements of this website will be REALLY LOW for the early adapters! … (YES, there will be a fee for the more structured courses on this website. But you will be able to learn a lot from the free stuff, too.)

Get Started in Deepening Your Knowledge, Insights & Skills in
Physical & Mental Yoga, Therapeutic Let-Go Yoga
and many Related Topics:

SIGN UP, and You’ll Receive My FREE Min-e-Course on
The 9 Natural Laws of Yoga . . .
Delivered, one part every 3 to 4 days, directly to your e-mail box.

Not Ready to Sign Up yet? … Okay. Maybe you need more information? … Well, I have a LOT of THAT.

HERE’S WHAT’S NEXT …

Thanks for Reading,
David Scott Lynn (DSL*)
*DSL: Your Hi-Touch Up-Link to the Inner-Net.
Inner-Net: Your Psycho-Neuro-Musculo-Fascial Network.

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David Scott Lynn (DSL)

DSL the Yogi at Whole Life Perspectives

Beginning at 13 years of age, DSL's been involved with alternative philosophies & practices most of his life. Becoming a yoga teacher in 1976, then a hands-on bodyworker in 1981, he developed a unique & highly effective form of Yoga / Bodywork / Whole Health Fitness & Therapeutics. … David wrote the chapters on a wholistic philosophy & physiology of bodywork & stretching for the textbook Structural Balancing, published by McGraw-Hill, Inc. in 2010. … He is the author of the e-Book Simple Steps to Let-Go Yoga, available at: www.letgoyoga.com/simple-steps/ and several other upcoming e-books.

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Latest posts by David Scott Lynn (DSL) (see all)

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