FUNCTIONAL ALIGNMENT  For accessibility + transformation

Nirguna Yoga School
Featured Training Module

Functional Alignment & Yoga’s Paradox

With Avery Kalapa | August 7th – 9th

Avery Kalapa

Explore a rich field of “both-and” beyond binaries and limitations.

Alignment in asana isn’t about dogmatic right and wrong; it’s a way of understanding your divine design, your mental, physical, and emotional patterns, and how to get free.

Avery will help bring to light the many paradoxes in Yoga. Empower your practice and teaching with a framework for functional alignment that is both practical and mystical. Discover new ways of working with embodiment and awareness that allow for greater accessibility, healing, and tangible transformation in body, mind, and nervous system.

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Training & Certification Details

This weekend immersion is designed for maximum flexibility. You do not need to be enrolled in the full Teacher Training program to attend; it is open to all dedicated practitioners.

  • Embodied Core Studies: Deep dive into functional anatomy, stability, and subtle body connection.
  • Continuing Education: Eligible for Yoga Alliance YACEP hours.
  • Teacher Certification: Counts as one module toward your RYT 200, 300, or 500.
  • Studio Benefit: Includes a one-month unlimited membership at Nirguna Yoga.

Weekend Syllabus

Friday, August 7th
Free Public Talk
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Yoga‘s Paradox: The Alchemy of Transformation & Community Potluck

Patanjali‘s Yoga Sutras invite us to embrace effortless effort, to commit to steadfast practice, and simultaneously to surrender. As practitioners, we are interested in transformation: moving what is heavy (tamasic) or agitated (rajasic) into what is luminous and harmonious (sattva).

However, transformation paradoxically requires radical acceptance. We will explore key sutras (1.12, 2.1, 2.47) as a framework towards tangible techniques we can embody in asana and in life to gain more equanimity. This philosophy provides an empowering framework for how our personal practice can support a more liberated, balanced world.

Saturday, August 8th
10:00am – 5:00pm
The Art of Functional Alignment

  • Key frameworks to empower your personal practice and teaching methodology.
  • Finding the balance between Alignment, Stability, and Mobility to reduce pain and open new possibilities.

Sunday, August 9th
10:00am – 6:00pm
The Art of Functional Alignment (Cont.)

  • Understanding the profound connection between physical alignment, the mind, the subtle body, and nervous system regulation.

Avery Kalapa

Meet Avery Kalapa

Avery Kalapa (they/them) is a deeply inclusive yoga teacher, community weaver, and wellness organizer.

With 20 years of experience, Avery is a CIYT, eRYT500, YACEP, and BFA. Their approach is rooted in anti-oppression: focusing on inner healing towards collective liberation. Celebrated for their enthusiasm, accessibility, and depth of technique, their teaching reflects a profound gratitude for the Iyengar Lineage. They offer a vast knowledge of integrative functional anatomy and stability that empowers students to experience tangible transformation in body, mind, and consciousness.

They love creating healing spaces that cherish and center queer & trans folks, outsiders, changemakers, and socially conscious communities that don’t require assimilation. Involved in various yoga equity projects such as ABQ Queer Trans Community Yoga, Avery is also a gardener, and parent—a white, queer, nonbinary settler grateful to live on unceded Tiwa land in Albuquerque, NM.

© Nirguna Yoga, 2022