New Home Forums Course Ideas & Outlines Pilgrimage to India: Circumambulating our Self

14 replies, 7 voices Last updated by  Bradley Morris 8 years, 6 months ago
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
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  • #16782

    Alexis
    Adventurer
    @alexiscox

    Aloha, everyone! I’m still working with the same theme I began with, a Pilgrimage to India, but I now have a Pilgrimage within a pilgrimage:) this whole course is based on my own personal transformative journey to Mother India, incorporating knowledge and teachings I have received since then as well. I have a lot of photos and personal experiences to interweave throughout the course to keep the theme alive on all levels. all of the practices I teach will come from India, primarily Hatha and Bhakti Yogas, Tantra, & Ayurveda. Since this class is for women only, the focus will be on the feminine but the masculine will be introduced both as a part of ourselves and as in working with our male partners, children, fathers, friends. I have structured my course into 4 main modules, with each module containing 4 or 5 lessons. Several of the lessons have more than one part (ie; an intro to a topic in one video, then a “follow-along” practice video or audio.)

    My Course begins “At the Ashram”, where we all meet and develop Sangha (group support) and learn basic skills in Yoga, Ayurveda & Bhakti and develop our daily Sadhana based on our Ayurvedic constitution. We will introduce the 8 limbs of yoga here and they will be all demonstrated/worked with throughout the course.
    1)Intro to the Course/Opening Ceremony
    2)Intro to Sadhana (daily practices)
    3)Yoga and Ayurveda (balancing our bodies and minds)
    4)Bhakti Yoga (Deities: who are they, Prayer/Mantra: how it works, Kirtan/Storytime)
    5)1st 30 min Vedic Astrology consult to determine: What is the Reality you are working with?
    Bonus Video: Sound-Healing with Owen Home

    The second leg of the journey is “On the Road”, where we will explore stepping out of our comfort zone, trying new things, experiencing other cultures and learning about the sacred use of communication, as well as mantra and sound.
    1)Intro to India (slideshow and meditation)
    2)Getting from Point A to Point B (traveling outside your comfort zone, literally)
    3)Eating Out (trying new foods, cooking video, different cultural eating etiquette/foods and what this shows about our culture and India’s culture)
    4)Communication (Sacred Language, Mantra, NVC)
    Bonus videos: Sacred Yin Yoga: Story of Saraswati and the creation of the universe from the sound Aum.

    The 3rd part of the pilgrimage is the pilgrimage in the pilgrimage….One place I went on my 2nd trip to India was to Tiruvunamalai, where there is a wide mountain that people spend all night on the New and Full Moons circumambulating barefoot, dropping in prayer at little temples set up along the way. The female way of working through our life’s “problems” is to circle them and see them from different perspectives, while the masculine is more linear. I am going to use this image/idea of the mountain we circumambulate as our way of taking the deepest dive into our own selves. This is the section where we will work with our shadow, death, sex and Tantra. Bhakti and prayer will also play a big role here. The final lesson in this section will be to celebrate our highest peak experience of Releasing what no longer serves us and recognizing what does serve us.
    1)Temple Tour (basic intro to the pilgrimage, and why people pilgrimage and pray like this, slides)
    2)Ceremony at the Mountain (call to work with a specific deity/field of consciousness)
    3)meditation on the 3-fold face of the Goddess, stages in life
    4)Tantra (what is and specific practices)
    5)Death/Fears/Transformation (shadow work, movement, dance, art expressions, journal, share, also a juice cleanse will be included here)
    6)Aha! Ceremony (Now I see what I couldn’t see….Bringing back in the Love, Bhakti, prayer)
    Bonus Videos: Sacred Vinyasa Flow: Story of Durga and the Buffalo-headed Demon Part 1
    Sacred Restorative Flow: story of Durga part 2 (w/ Kali story)

    The final module of my course will be bringing it back to the ashram, where we reintegrate and come up with our game plan moving forward.
    1) Reintegration (what that looks like for each person, meditation/worksheet on How We Envision Our Life Now)
    2)2nd Astrology consult: Where do we go from here?
    3) Money and Time (practical accounting skills mixed with priestessing Magic, design your money and time plan of action)
    4)Closing ceremony (final share back and sangha closure)
    Bonus Video: Story of Lakshmi & Vishnu, with a Lakshmi meditation on Gratitude, Abundance, Fertility, and Sustainability

    I have broken this down into every lesson in very specific detail and accompanying video/PDF/audio, but this is a general overview. Each module will have Bonus Videos: new practices and also videos of my yoga class I teach weekly with my husband: Live Music, Yoga and Sacred Story. The mythology and Deities in those classes will help move the progress and psychology along like a song does for the plot in a musical. There will be the general grouping of lessons that bring out qualities of Saraswati in the beginning, Durga/Kali in the middle, and finally Lakshmi to help us continue on, nourishing and preserving our vision.

    Mahalo for listening, this has been so much fun!

    #17262

    Stephanie
    Adventurer
    @sssheely

    Wow, awesome, Alexis πŸ™‚ This is so unique and cool. Reading this reminded me of the work of Sarah Avant Stover. Have you heard of her? She does a 9-month spiritual living course for women involving yoga and buddhist philosophies. You may want to check out her work for ideas and inspiration on structuring and marketing your course. πŸ™‚

    #17305

    Peggy
    Adventurer
    @Peggy

    I really enjoyed India when I went for a trekk. Then I am curious how it is going to look like. Are you going to create an imaginary map, or are you going to use a known geography?

    #18140

    Alexis
    Adventurer
    @alexiscox

    Thank you, @sssheely! I will look her up:)

    aloha, @peggy! I’m going to be doing my course with an ashram for a “home base” and then a trip to a specific (real life) mountain in Southern India for the Pilgrimage part of the journey (of course the real pilgrimage is within). There will be no map as we are circumambulating the mountain and ourselves, we are not linear “getting somewhere” per se.

    Mahalo!

    #18158

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    Wow Alexis @alexiscox, this is looking SO GOOD! I love the descriptions, the flow and the depth you’ll take people through the lessons. This is going to be such a magical experience for people to go through!

    If you learn the simple pleasures of using a green screen, you could literally transport people to India with you to be at the sites you speak of (temples, mountains, etc…)

    Green screens are cheap and learning to edit with them isn’t super complicated. πŸ˜‰

    So excited to see your course come alive!

    #18187

    Andy Freist
    Mountain Guide
    @andyfreist

    AWESOME!!! Go alexis go! So stoked you are stoked with what you are bringing to life πŸ™‚

    #18466

    Alexis
    Adventurer
    @alexiscox

    Mahalo, @bradleytmorris and @andyfreist! I appreciate y’all’s support….and yes, I will learn about green screens! I’m super stoked on this process and am nervously almost ready for Camp Medias once I get my name/tag line figured out. (I’m going to start a new post with those so maybe more pp will see and comment). You guys are awesome!

    #18470

    Alexis
    Adventurer
    @alexiscox

    Changed my mind, I’m gonna do it right here, where my course description is close by;-)

    E-Pilgrimage to India: http://www.epilgrimagetoindia.com
    E-Pilgrimage:www.epilgrimage.com
    (Neither of these names are available sans “e”, but I kind of like it b/c it says upfront it’s an ecourse)

    “A sacred journey to your own ancient center to reveal your true life’s path”
    “Reveal your Truth, Find your path, Transform your life”
    “Ancient secrets to transform your life”
    “Journey through the ancient practices of India to reveal the mysteries of your own life path”

    I appreciate any comments here, I have been struggling with this for two days!
    Mahalo!

    #18472

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    Love it Alexis. I’d say my favourite is:

    β€œJourney through the ancient practices of India to reveal the mysteries of your own life path”

    Curious what everyone else thinks πŸ™‚

    #18493

    Penny Claringbull
    Adventurer
    @pennyclaringbull

    This is such a beautiful idea @alexiscox, especially if you had a green screen. India is so full of luscious images and extraordinary sites that it would really bring it alive and give your course a sense of place, which is often lacking in ecourses. Not Brad and Andy’s of course πŸ™‚

    I also like ‘Journey through the ancient practices…etc.’ too because it is more specific and tells you what the course is about.

    And linking practical skills with myths and yoga practices would work well I think. There is so much material here, do you have an idea of how long the course would go for? I’m thinking that if you have the site ‘epilgramage…’ (great name btw) then you could have a whole suite of modules and courses under that banner. All in good time, of course!

    #18796

    Stephanie
    Adventurer
    @sssheely

    I’ve pondered this for a few days, @alexiscox (well not the entire time of course), and would have to agree that “Journey through the ancient practices…” is my favorite, as well. Though I wonder about replacing the word “mysteries” or “reveal”. I’m unclear EXACTLY what “reveal the mysteries” means. Does it mean uncover truths? Find hidden gems and secretes? Or solve mysteries? My guess is that it means to dive deeper into life’s mysteries, thereby uncovering mysteries we might never have thought about before. But my concern about this is that people might not immediately want to sign up for the confusion and unknown implicated there, if that makes sense. Some examples to hopefully clarify what I mean, would be changing “reveal the mysteries…” to “reveal the secrets of your soul’s purpose,” or “reveal the wonder of your life path.” Not sure if these are what you’re going for, but hopefully you get the idea. I feel like you are so close. Now onto the puzzle of my own tagline. πŸ™‚

    Also, seeing http://www.epilgrimage.com on paper makes me like it even more as a domain name. For a course title, though, it is just a bit wonky to say out loud. Perhaps Virtual Pilgrimage to India? Or Pilgrimage to Your Inner India? Though if you went with E-Pilgrimage to India, I totally wouldn’t blame you.

    #18803

    Alexis
    Adventurer
    @alexiscox

    Mahalo @bradleytmorris @sssheely @pennyclaringbull ! I appreciate all your comments and suggestions:) I am still not sold on my tag line, but I think of the ones I’ve come up with so far, I am in agreeance with everyone else…I appreciate your added insight on that Stephanie! I am thinking of rewording ‘mysteries’. I also don’t want pp confused! I am going with E-pilgrimage to India and have the domain! As far as the length of the course, Penny, I’ve broken it down to be about a 5 month course with 2 breaks for a week each…and I’m definitely planning on offering some of the courses as solo purchases. Those will mainly be 3 or 4 from the classes in the first module, which I will offer as separate purchase or as a package called “Sadhana”. Some of the bonus material will also be sold separately as classes. The problem with separating them into modules that I sell separately I’ve run into is that these are meant to build on each other for the full transformation, and I would need participants to have earlier information in order for the later information to make sense. I so appreciate everyone’s thoughts on this!!

    #18815

    Deb Robson
    Adventurer
    @robson

    I’m with everyone on the tagline comments.

    I’d like to back up just a little, though, to your course structure–not the structure per se, but the presentation. The first module uses a lot of terms that are familiar territory for you, but may feel like fences for others who have not already done a bunch of study on related topics (I have, but I’ve also edited publications for years and have a sensor that picks up on this stuff).

    While the phrasing you are using is perfect for your own organizational strategies, I’d suggest reversing the way things are presented when you face the world. E.g.,

    1)Intro to the Course/Opening Ceremony
    2)Intro to daily practices (sadhana)
    3)Balancing our bodies and minds (yoga and ayurveda)
    4)Deities, chanting, and the power of story (Bhakti yoga and kirtan)–[if you go this direction, you’ll need to tweak this one more; I wanted it to be simpler without oversimplifying – I shifted from “storytime,” which is very friendly and appealing, to “the power of story” mostly in order not to lighten up the deities too much by association]
    5)What is the Reality you are working with? (1st 30 min Vedic Astrology consult

    The other modules don’t have the same need–they’re quite approachable.

    Use what’s helpful, ignore what isn’t πŸ™‚

    #19332

    Alexis
    Adventurer
    @alexiscox

    Mahalo, for your suggestions, @robson! Certainly some good food for thought:)

    #28494

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    Alexis, how’s your climb to Launch Summit going? We haven’t heard from you for a while. Wanna check in, did you get lost in India? Did you find a beautiful cave to meditate in for the next twenty years. How’s your course coming? Any support Andy and I can offer? Looking forward to an update Β  πŸ™‚

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