300-hour Yoga Teacher Training
Join us for the next training weekend May 31- June 2
Vitality Yoga’s 300-hour teacher training will teach you how to design your meditations, breath work, yoga sequences, qigong sets, and Kundalini Kriyas for each season.
This will keep your teachings fresh and relevant to the seasonal energy that affects the energy of the organs.
Discover how to align your practice and teachings with seasonal energies.
Connect with a community of like-minded yogis who want to deepen their practice and share it with others.
You can join us any seasonal weekend to start your 300-hour teacher training and become a teacher that’s sought after!
During this advanced 300-hour training, you will learn how to design and lead Vinyasa yoga classes with a focus on alignment, breath, and flow. You’ll learn how to incorporate Qigong and Chinese Medicine's 5 Elemental Paradigm into your classes as well as the energetic clearing of Kundalini kriyas. This will add depth and dimension to your teaching.
In addition to the physical practice, you will delve into the philosophy of ancient yoga and Taoist texts, explore meditation techniques, and gain an understanding of energetic anatomy.
This knowledge will not only deepen your practice but also prepare you to teach with confidence and authority.
“This training has been the most comprehensive training I have ever done. I have grown personally and professionally from this amazing journey. I have done other trainings and nothing compared to this. I have learned so much and I can't wait to bring this all to my students. I am forever grateful.”
Why learn this ancient practice?
According to Chinese Medicine, each season has a pair of organs that are energetically running the strongest.
These organs have energy pathways that run through our bodies called meridians. The meridians are like rivers that the Qi (energy) run through. The Qi is like the wifi signal or electricity that runs the organ.
When the Qi is smooth and efficient we feel the benefits of endurance from the kidneys in the winter, inspiration from the liver in the spring, peace and joy from the heart in the early summer, confidence and trust from the spleen in the late summer, and strong integrity and emotional endurance from our lungs in the autumn.
The emotions we suffer are often from maladapted energy flow.
The Meridian Flow and Kundalini practices stimulate these meridians to generate a smooth flow of energy, which soothes emotional dis-ease.
During each season the Meridian Flow practices specifically choose yoga sequences and qigong sets to stimulate the meridians of the season. This way your yoga practice also becomes an acupressure treatment.
How this practice supports healing
Students who suffer from chronic anxiety, pain, and autoimmune issues agree that nothing works better to relieve their symptoms. With their physicians’ approval, many have reduced their medications after consistent practice.
This is the beginning of yoga becoming part of our society's way of healing from trauma, chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and autoimmune issues.
Be part of this revolution to spread yoga and medical qigong to those who need it!
The 300-hour training students come from a wide variety of professions, from nurses, doctors, teachers, social workers, fitness trainers, and therapists who use these practices as tools to help their students, clients, and patients find relief.
If you'd like to stay inspired with other yogis' and learn seasonal yoga, qigong practices, kundalini kriyas, meditations, and breathwork, and have deep meaningful conversations that reflect how the ancient teachings pertain to our current lives, then consider joining us.
Making a 300-hour teacher training work for you
Due to busy lives, immersing yourself in an advanced 300-hour teacher training may seem daunting. Vitality’s 300-hour training schedule is spacious and relaxed.
Throughout the seasonal training weekend and 10 weeks of classes, you will learn how to design sequences to stimulate the physical aspects, the energetic and emotional qualities, and the spiritual expression.
Rather than cramming a lot of information, Vitality Yoga’s 300-hour training is designed to give you a slow drip of inspired teachings.
Seasonal meditations, breathwork, yoga sequences, qigong sets, and kundalini kriyas will be repeated throughout each 10-week season that you can apply immediately to your practices and teachings.
You’ll receive 3 classes per week to join in the studio, virtually live-stream, or take the recording on your own time. This way the information will seep in and become part of your practice and lifestyle.
Connection with others is key to your success
To keep your practices fresh, you’ll meet with other like-minded yogis every 10-12 weeks for a seasonal training weekend to learn the practices for that season.
The weekends are designed to focus on each layer of our being, known as the 5 koshas. The 5 koshas address the physical, energetic, focused mind, observing mind, and surrender into the heart. Each of the weekend workshops will cover the seasonal practices for that kosha.
Friday evening: the Anamaya Kosha, the physical layer, builds up to a peak pose relating to the meridians that are running the strongest.
Saturday morning: the Pranamaya Kosha, the energetic layer, will be a Kundalini practice of meditations, breathwork, Kundalini kriyas, and chanting related to seasonal energy.
Saturday afternoon: the Manomaya Kosha, the focused mind, studies the 5 elemental paradigm according to Chinese medicine. A lecture on the 5 elements, meditations, breathwork, meridian breathing, and qigong sets will be taught that would tonify the organs which are running the strongest in that particular season.
Sunday morning: the Vijnamaya Kosha, the observing mind, reflects on the teachings of the Yoga Sutras and the Tao te Ching in a yin practice. Following the yin practice, journaling and discussion of how the teachings apply to our current lives.
Sunday afternoon: the Anandamaya Kosha, the bliss body, is a workshop of meditation, chanting, healing sounds, and yoga nidra.
“This training has been so deeply profound. Life-changing, life-enhancing. This training has opened doors deep within my heart and soul. Maggie and her team are amazing teachers!”
This new knowledge will keep your your teaching inspired and relevant!
Imagine if your yoga practice kept you inspired and fresh every season!
Imagine if you understood the seasonal proclivity towards specific emotions, and have the ability to design your practice to shift out of pain and into thriving.
Imagine if you could cultivate a daily meditation that would bring peace and ease into your life. Through this training, daily meditations, breathwork, and chants are given to you to provide a focus, so you can rest your mind in tranquility.
Imagine if you could shape these practices for all walks of life! This is so inspiring and hopeful as hospitals, rehabs, schools, prisons, and corporations are all adding yoga, meditation, and qigong into their programs.
A two-year learning journey
Vitality’s 300-hour teacher training is a 2-year program, meeting for a training weekend each of the 5 seasons per year, 10 weekends in total.
Students can join any season!
If you miss a weekend the training can be extended for 3 years to make up for any missed seasonal weekends.
Upcoming seasonal weekend training dates:
* Spring Wood element March 15-17
*Early Summer Fire element: May 31-June 2
*Late Summer Earth element: August 23-25
*Autumn Metal element: October 18-20
*Winter Water element: December 13-15
We are subject to the sun’s energy upon the earth and feel it differently in each season.
We can feel this when the energy wanes in the autumn compared to when it rises and sprouts in the spring. We are affected by these energies, as each season directly affects the energy that runs through our organs.
Energy is based on frequency and vibration. We know when we walk into a room, and someone is angry. We can sense when the frequency of the energy is charged. The same goes for when someone who is calm. We feel calm around them. So too does the frequency of the seasonal energy affect us and our emotions.
Energy is the base of our well-being or dis-ease. When the energy (Qi) is flowing in a balanced and harmonious flow, many of the emotional and physical maladies resolve themselves.
Come join us to build strength and flexibility in the physical layer, stability in the emotional layer, and wisdom in the spiritual layer of your BEING so you can be of benefit to others and share it!
The 5 seasonal weekends focus:
Winter: The water element.
The winter training weekend includes all practices focused on the kidney and bladder Qi, which are running the strongest. The seasonal practices focus on the kidney and bladder meridians. Meditations and intelligently crafted sequences that stimulate these meridians cultivate endurance and wisdom.
When the kidney and bladder Qi is maladapted we suffer from fear and insecurity, and physically we are affected by achy joints, bone loss, hearing loss (as the ears are the sense doors to the kidneys) as well as tinnitus, vertigo, and premature aging.
When the Qi is smooth and efficient we feel a sense of willpower, which makes sense as we need the endurance to get us through the winter. The quiet stillness that comes in the winter allows for our intuition to come forth, so we can see what wants to grow and manifest in the spring.
Inhale up the KIDNEY meridian
Exhale down the BLADDER meridian
Spring: The Wood element
The spring training weekend encompasses all practices that invigorate the liver and gallbladder Qi, which are in energetic high tide.
The liver is known as the General and is responsible for an even inspired energy flow throughout our entire body. When the energy is maladapted, anger, frustration and all forms of resistance arise.
The gallbladder is the partner to the liver and helps execute the liver’s inspiration into the right action with good decision-making.
Through our focus meditations and practices, we can shift out of anger into a generous, inspired, and easygoing disposition.
Inhale up the LIVER meridian
Exhale down the GALLBLADDER meridian
Early Summer: The Fire element
The early summer is the brightest time of year when the heart and small intestine energy is front and center. During the early summer weekend, we practice meditations, breath work, and kundalini kriyas for the heart, which is known as the Emperor of the kingdom.
The small intestine qi is known to help us with clear discernment both physically and mentally.
When the heart’s energy is balanced we benefit from a peaceful and joyful disposition and are able to connect to others and to nature all around us.
When the heart's energy is maladapted we suffer from anxiety, loneliness, manic thinking, and depression.
Through our practices, we strengthen the heart and small intestine qi, which brings us to a peaceful, joyful, and loving heart.
Inhale up the SMALL INTESTINE meridian,
Exhale down the HEART meridian
Late Summer: The Earth element
The late summer’s energy is very different from the early summer. Therefore, in Chinese medicine, there are five seasons in total.
The late summer’s energy is balanced and sweet. Comparing the energy in early June to late August, we shift from rising, exciting energy to sweet, grounded, balanced energy.
This energy corresponds to the spleen and stomach. When out of balance the maladapted energy expresses worry, doubt, insecurity, and neediness.
The spleen, when well-nourished, makes us feel grounded, trusting, nurturing, and sweet. Think of the archetypal Mother Earth energy that’s strong, abundant, and generous. This is the energy we feel in the late summer when balanced.
Inhale up the SPLEEN meridian
Exhale down the STOMACH meridian
Autumn: The Metal Element
The autumn energy connects to our lungs and large intestine Qi.
The metal element has strong integrity, which we benefit from with strong lung Qi. The metal energy elicits a sense of solid discipline and emotional endurance.
As the energy of autumn is moving downward, we see how the natural world is letting go, releasing the leaves from the trees.
We mirror the natural world, so we too are in a period of letting go of the beauty of summer, which elicits past memories, bringing up sadness and grief, which are held in the lungs.
This is the time of year to strengthen our lungs with breathing techniques (pranayama) to process our grief and let go.
Inhale up the LARGE INTESTINE meridian
Exhale down the LUNG meridian
FAQs
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Each weekend is recorded so you can do it on your own time, but to be certified with the Yoga Alliance, you need to show up on the screen or in the studio for the weekend to count towards certification, therefore the training can extend to 3 years if any weekends are missed.
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Yes, each season you’ll have reading assignments based on the teachings. You’ll also learn how to incorporate the teachings into a seasonal sequence that you’ll teach in the Teachers Inner Circle. The Teachers Inner Circle meets on Zoom weekly and rotates each of the 300-hour students to teach a class implementing seasonal practices. This is where new or average teachers transform and become profound teachers that deliver with grace and authenticity!
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Yes, these teachings can be taught in all types of classes from a sweaty dynamic vinyasa class to a yin/restorative class, and even chair yoga.
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$5,200 which includes:
A 2-year unlimited yoga membership
10 seasonal weekend trainings
Recordings of specific classes
Recordings of all weekend trainings
Scholarships & financial aid available
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* Spring Wood element March 14-16 2024
*Early Summer FIRE element: May 31-June 2 2024
*Late Summer Earth element: August 23-25 2024
*Autumn Metal element: October 18-20 2024
*Winter Water element: December 13-15 2024
Director of VITALITY YOGA 300-hour Yoga Teacher Training:
Maggie Heinzel-Neel
Maggie Heinzel-Neel is the lead teacher of the 300-hour teacher training, author of The Empowered Yogi, and owner of Vitality Yoga Flow.
The peaceful feeling Maggie receives from practicing yoga asana and pranayama and the empowerment from becoming strong and flexible is at the core of her teaching.
Maggie combines a wide range of experiences, including dynamic physical yoga sequences with precise alignment instructions, focusing on the breath within the poses, spiritual reflection, and a mindfulness observation leading to a meditative experience.
Maggie’s prime focus is on the breath throughout the entire class, which provides cleansing from the inside out. She strives to teach an equal part of challenge and nurture, a balance of feminine and masculine. As the breath, heart, and body all work together, Maggie hopes to lead students to a deep connection and wholeness to stay focused and quiet their minds.
Maggie’s initial training came from a foundation in Iyengar Yoga, followed by Ashtanga. Combining these two results in an alignment-based vinyasa flow slightly slower than the typical vinyasa class. Maggie emphasizes alignment as she teaches students to move with a rhythmic breath.
Trained in Medical Chi Gong and using the 5 elemental theories to guide the practices according to the seasons, Maggie overlays these teachings in the Meridian Flow Yoga and Qigong. This is the ultimate combination of a strong physical practice combined with a deep inner focus on moving our energy (Qi) through the energy highways (meridians). It’s a unique combination that is deeply healing.