An online group yoga therapy program TO EMBODY A mindful RELATIONSHIP WITH SELF, FOOD AND BODY THROUGH THE practices and philosophy of yoga and ayurveda.

starting February 2025

Our relationship with food and body is perhaps the most intimate relationship that we will have in this lifetime. For some of us it can also be the most complex and stressful relationship, and can elicit painful feelings of shame, powerlessness, isolation and despair.

When we are caught in the cycles of emotional eating, compulsive eating or yo-yo dieting, we can also be caught in the cycles of fear, anxiety, depression, hopelessness, and deep doubts about our own self worth. Life can become just a series of strategies to manage these cycles. Our hungers for ease, security, stability, direction, creativity, vitality, purpose, connection, belonging, harmony and many other things get confused as physical hunger, and if we try to satiate these hungers with food, we will forever be caught in this cycle. And then of course there is the billion dollar beauty industry, creating and profiting from our insecurities. As part of a training that I completed on yoga for trauma, anxiety, depression and body image, I can across some heart wrenching statistics on eating disorders and body image issues:-

  • Women who diet frequently are 75% more likely to experience depression

  • A three year study of adolescent girls in Fiji found that purging behaviours increased from 0% to 11% within the first three years of television being introduced to the Nadroga province

  • Risk of premature death from an eating disorder is 6-12 times higher than the general population

  • A 2005 study surveyed 3,300 girls and women between the ages of 15 and 64 in 10 countries. They found that 67% of all women aged 15 to 64 withdraw from life-engaging activities due to feeling badly about they look

    How Yoga Can Help

    If you are pursuing a mindful relationship with food and body like I was, then you have most likely tried many different things already, and maybe they work for a while - until they don’t, and the old behaviours creep back in. Yoga teaches us that emotional eating (or any kind of addiction) is a symptom that is reflecting underlying unmet needs or desires. These symptoms are trying to get our attention and steer us towards a deeper journey. Yoga is a body centred approach, and it recognises that all symptoms arise with a body and mind component. Yoga addresses the underlying fear that keeps symptoms in play, and provides integrated practices that lead us back to the profoundly intelligent rhythm of our own bodies.

This Program Is For you If

  • You feel stuck in the cycle of emotional eating generating an undercurrent of anxiety that you can’t get to the bottom of.

  • You have a confused relationship with hunger cues, and a longing for connection and belonging that you may be trying to satiate with food.

  • You don’t know what your body truly craves; you eat out of habit, without awareness of what you are truly hungry for.

  • You are ready to create a new relationship with food and with your body that is nourishing and uplifting instead of rigid or restrictive.

  • You want to learn more about yoga philosophy while enjoying the yoga practices and ayurvedic recipes.

  • You want to reconnect with your own vitality.

why i created this program

I have taken a very long and windy road to food and body freedom after many years of being disconnected from my body and stuck in the cycle of emotional eating. I knew another diet wasn’t the answer, and that there was something deeper driving my disordered eating, but I did it anyway, many times, in the hope that this time I would stick to it completely. Of course I didn’t. Life happens, something inevitably triggered my stress response, and I turned to old faithful numbing tool of emotional eating.

I applied the ancient teachings of yoga to get to the bottom of my relationship with food and my body.

My practice, and my training as a yoga teacher, yoga therapist and ayurvedic health coach has taken me to a place where I am aligned to my purpose (as my main craving was for creativity and connection beyond the everyday experience of life), have a positive relationship with my body and the food that I put into it, and energetically balanced and focused.

This is a long way from my first time visiting an ayurvedic health practitioner many years ago, where I left completely disheartened. While all the advice and recommendations were sound, there was no real understanding of how difficult it can be to make changes when in trauma recovery, when experiencing mental health challenges, or living with a very dysregulated nervous system. I want to bridge that gap so that everyone can experience the nourishment and vitality that yoga and ayurveda can bring to your life.

Yoga is an embodied practice. It can connect us to our bodies and also stretches us into feeling, intuition, and a connection to the source of our hungers both the everyday physical cravings, and the spiritual (like craving purpose, creativity or liberation). Through the process of releasing layers of physical tension, mental or emotional disconnection, fatigue, or numbness, we discover our long-forgotten selves, and our resilience, grace and ease. We become able to welcome and respond to our deepest hungers of our body, heart and spirit with fresh awareness and greater skillfulness.

module one - compassionate inquiry

Based on the yogic concept of Ahimsa or non violence. The yogis tell us that our actions can be traced back to four main areas - fear, powerlessness, low self regard or imbalance. So feeling out of control around food, or to not yet have developed a respectful and loving relationship with our bodies can be traced back to one of, or a combination of these 4 areas, and it is only through compassion that you can really reconnect to your power.

The Experience

An asana practice designed to embody the felt sense of stability and grounding as a solid foundation to build body love from the ground up

Explore the dance of acceptance and change

Find the balance point of your triggers by tapping into the opposite energy

Trace your actions back to the beginning

Module two - commitment to truth

Based on the yogic concept of Satya or truth. Truth resides in the body, and it is the mind that can come in and override it. We will reconnect to the feelings of expansion and contraction in the body, and explore how listening to and acting on the wisdom of the body builds feelings of self worth and trust within ourselves, lessening the need to use food to avoid discomfort. We embrace our shadow selves as part of nature, and explore truthful self expression which frees up energy that would otherwise go into binge eating.

module three - intrinsic abundance

Based on the yogic concept of Asteya or non stealing. It is a practice of taking the larger view, and looking at all the things that you do have, instead of being pulled into believing that you are not enough. Feelings of lack are transformed into feelings of abundance when we turn our attention inwards, away from comparison and social conditioning, and instead embrace the beauty in your own unique unfolding. As we start to feel whole, the body and mind come into alignment, and integrity is developed. An inward focus helps you to keep coming back to your own source of inner fulfilment and simply sharing it, rather than try to find fulfilment in anything outside of ourselves.

The Experience

An interoceptive practice to access the truth that resides in the body

Look beneath the surface level of desires into what you actually want to experience

Move from objectification to real body love and finding your flow

Integrate the felt sense of belonging in the body practice by practice

The Experience

A practice to build your energetic container through breath, bandha(energetic lock) and movement to embody a sense of “enoughness”

Shifting the perspective that positive body image is not believing that the body looks good, but believing that the body is good, regardless of what it looks like

An exploration of what need has not been met that leads to emotional eating

Bringing your gaze back to what you have, and owning the fullness of you.

Module four - the sweet spot

Based on the yogic concept of Brachmacharya or non excess. The core of this module is a remembering and a connection to the creative force within us. Actions that are coming from our creative spark will not lead us to overindulgence. If you are following that you won't spend a lot of time in situations where you are not aligned. Addictive self destructive patterns lessen. The result is that you only eat to the point of increased energy, not to the point of lethargy. You move to the point of feeling alive and building confidence not to exhaustion, or to feel that you have made up for bingeing. Life becomes directed by creative flow.

The Experience

Practical tools for understanding physical versus emotional hunger cues

An asana practice focused on the sweet spot of Stirha (effort) and sukha (ease) to enable a sense of ease in challenges both on and off the mat

Connection to the creative force within you that leads you away from self destructive habits

Access to deeper rest when not ruled by outside forces, and instead enjoy the body from the inside out.

module five - mind minimalism

Based on the yogic concept of Aparigraha or non grasping. This is a very powerful practice showing that you gain more and more freedom by letting go of attachment to the senses by understanding the four functions of the mind. It is really about presence and being open to what life is offering us moment to moment. The result is that when you have a pleasurable experience you don't try to grasp that - you move on to the next moment with ease and curiosity. What we try to possess possesses us. By letting go of trying to possess the "perfect body" you also let go of other people's opinions and find real self worth.

The Experience

The choice between your attachments and your happiness

As asana practice exploring the theme of appreciation and of letting go

Embracing changes in the body as the evolution of nature

Freedom from perfectionism

Module six - simple nourishment

Based on the yogic concept of Saucha or purity. It is a clean up of anything that is unforgiven in us, to create space for clarity on our deepest intentions. Delve into energetic practices to gather all the scattered pieces of yourself, so that you can direct your energy into actions that are nourishing and aligned with who you are becoming.

The Experience

Align thought, speech and action

Taking stock of what is nourishing you and what is not

Active listening

Gathering all the scattered pieces of ourselves

module seven - emotional alchemy

Based on the yogic principle of Santosha or contentment, which teaches that it is this continued longing that keeps contentment just out of our grasp. We invite contentment into the present moment instead of always getting ready to live, or getting ready to be happy. It is in the present moment that we have a window of opportunity into contentment.

The Experience

Connect to inner fulfillment rather than external craving

An asana practice of relaxing in and receiving

Practices to strengthen present moment awareness

Move from a state of lack to a feeling of having and being enough

Module eight - imperfect discipline

Based on the yogic concept of Tapas or discipline. Tapas is your internal fire, which you build with small consistent action. When you approach tapas with daily devotion, then nourishing and moving your body properly becomes an act of great self kindness. It is showing up for yourself in different ways as you transform what deludes you so that you can return to the rhythm of the body and breath. It is a sweet and consistent endeavor, not a punishing or repressive discipline that we can often enforce on ourselves.

The Experience

Asana practice accessing the fire element in the body

An exploration of what it means to be disciplined

Remembering Sankalpa - our deepest intention

Small consistent actions to return to the rhythm of the body

module nine - sweet surrender

Based on the yogic concepts of Svadhyaya(self study), and Ishvara Pranidhana (surrender), this final module clears away any misperceptions on how you may see yourself. We are often controlled by our limiting beliefs which are called samskaras in yoga philosophy. They are described as grooves in the mind caused by past experience. As you develop the witness mind, you create more space between stimulus and response, so that you can meet each moment of life with full awareness, presence, curiosity and peace.

The Experience

Develop the witness mind

Untangling self limiting beliefs

Practices to calm the fluctuations of the mind

Aligning your attention to what you want to experience

You will Receive

  • 2 private 1:1 yoga therapy consultations

  • Online platform with step-by-step online content

  • Weekly live yoga therapy group class and discussion (recording also available)

  • Personalised yoga practices for your daily sadhana

  • Ayurvedic recipes for your dosha to inspire creativity in the kitchen

  • Easy ayurvedic daily routines to start implementing into your everyday

  • Access to all content for 6 months after the course finishes

  • A community of like minded women

Investment $847

Payment plan available - 3 payments of $283

FAQ’s

  • All parts of the course can be done flexibly, at your convenience. The coaching calls will be recorded so you can watch them at a time that suits you.If you can’t make a coaching call, you can email your questions and they will be answered on the call for when you can watch the recording.

  • You will have access to all content for 6 months after the course finishes

  • DesDuring the 9 week period of the program, I recommend an average of 1 - 2 hours per week on the online content. We will also have a weekly 90 minute live call. You will have access to all content for 12 months after the program ends so you can complete this at a slower pace if you wish.cription text goes here

  • Yes you can. If you are not happy with the course you can get a refund within the first 30 days

  • Yes, I will provide ayurvedic diet and lifestyle guidance aligned to your dosha

  • There is no pressure to share your experience in the group if you don't want to. Many people listen and receive at the beginning or for the entire course. I encourage you to do what works for you.There are 2 private yoga therapy sessions included in the program. You can also book more private sessions if you wish.

Contact me with any further questions or book a free 30 minute consultation

Phone
0404994077

Email
bernie@berniepatton.com