“People venturing into the unknown and exploring and discovering always has a human aspect to it,” he says.īut what do modern humans have to do with fish? A lot, Shubin says. Shubin says he relies on the power of scientific discovery as a storytelling device. Before you know it, you may find yourself discussing the evolution of the inner ear with friends or hear yourself saying the word “gonads” in polite conversation.

Shubin’s enthusiasm about his subject is infectious. He says fish, sharks, even worms and jellyfish, help explain why, for example, our inner ear is made up of three tiny bones or why we get hernias. He also hosted a three-part PBS series called Your Inner Fish. Neil Shubin, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago, has written a new book called, Your Inner Fish - A Journey Into the 3.5 Billion Year History of the Human Body. But if you really want to understand how and why the human body works the way it does, you need to look further up the evolutionary tree. Props: a yoga mat, 2-3 blankets, a bolster, and a yoga block and belt.Īs these are single 90-minute classes, the 15-day money-back guarantee that applies to longer-duration courses is not applicable.Ĭlick here for details about other classes and the bundles.We all know that humans evolved from a common ancestor of apes. Through playful movements and variations on more traditional yoga asanas we’ll explore how rediscovering our inner fish can release the deep intervertebral muscles of the spine and restore fluid ease to our movement. In Anatomy Trains, Thomas Myers describes lateral movement as “the kind involved in the swimming of a fish, consisting of reciprocal reflexes flowing down the musculature in waves.” We begin to see the world (and ourselves) from a different perspective. Lateral movement shifts us out of yes and no answers and moves us into the dimension of choice and possibility. While working in the sagittal plane can build strength and cohesion in the core and spine, overemphasis of movement in this plane can also create rigidity and lack of fluidity and differentiation in the spinal column. The rectangular shape of the standard yoga mat reinforces this linear dimension: inviting us to bend forwards, backwards or to stand sideways. So much of modern postural yoga practice is oriented in the to-and-fro of the sagittal plane. To see the details of all classes and find out more about the teachers, please click here. Purchase gives you access to the livestream class and the recording for 30 days or a minimum of 75 days with bundle purchases. The classes began September 29th and continued weekly through to December 14, 2022. Welcome to the 2022 Livestream Classes presented by Donna and two of her senior associates, Neal Ghoshal and Lisa Petersen.

Your inner fish series