Spiral Syllabus by Karen Kirkness

02/03/2025

Grab the flipbook here: https://designrr.page/?id=415942&token=592984763&type=FP&h=7770

🌀 Nature's spiral mathematics isn't just beautiful—it's functional intelligence in action! Check out this flipbook exploring how Fibonacci and Fermat's spirals organize everything from pine cones to YOUR body's fascia... this video shows the flipbook… grab it via the link above.

Whether in sunflowers, pine cones, or the myofascial organization of your body, these spiral patterns aren't random—they're nature's solution to efficient space utilization, load distribution, and dynamic movement.

As movement educators, understanding these patterns helps us see beyond isolated "parts" to the interconnected whole. Just as a pine cone isn't merely a collection of bracts but a mathematical masterpiece of form following function, your body isn't simply muscles and bones but a spiral-organized, breathing tensegrity structure.

The same mathematical principles that determine seed arrangement in a sunflower head also influence how fascial planes distribute force through your body during movement!

This video is a flipbook that just scratches the surface of nature's brilliant design...

https://designrr.page/?id=415942&token=592984763&type=FP&h=7770

Which slide surprised you most? Drop a 🌀 if you're seeing these connections in your own movement practice!

BodyIntelligence

15/02/2025

♻️♻️♻️♻️

14/02/2025

🌹 Happy Valentine's day! 🌹

Have you fed your butterflies today? We all know it's the vagus nerve that orchestrates the complex comms between your gut and your brain through the the gut-brain axis.

Stress Signal → Vagus Nerve → Neurotransmitter Release → Heart Rate Change

But what isn't as widely known is that improving "vagal tone" isn't about avoiding all stress. In fact, there is sound cause to seek eustress, the good kind of stress that comes with a side of butterflies.

This is one of my key treatments on the usual "sattvic" script in yoga (middle path only). Heartache, heartbreak, high waves and some natural lows all tug on the heartstrings and ask us to be bigger and learn more than we ever thought possible.

I say the Sattvic path isn't about hardening against polarity, but increasing our capacity for it.

The heart hurting, the butterflies fluttering, all evidence of that sophisticated preparation system engaging what's known as "physiological toughening" – a process that, when properly regulated, enhances our resilience. It's a paradox, then, where "toughening" really means increasing our capacity for flow.

Read the full post here:

The strength and flexibility of Vagal braking system is what we measure as vagal tone, and it's reflected in your HRV – the tiny variations in time between each heartbeat.

03/02/2025

Well, well. If it isn't my "That sounds like a January problem" problems coming home to roost.
–February.

Interested in the pathology of stealing from the future, when your December self promises to "hop on calls" that your Jan-Feb self cannot even existentially contemplate?

This series of posts looks at the science of balancing seasonal shifts by getting a sense of the brain-metabolism connection.

Ecxerpt:

Looking into the neurobiology of what makes us want to do hard things, I find it fascinating to see that this conflict between what the mind wants and what the body needs is written like an epic family feud, with wants and needs cast as foes:

Your mind wants to do hard things for the rewards it anticipates yet it is winter and your body needs to rest. What drives this at-all-costs craving?

In a word: dopamine.

Dopamine plays a significant role in the motivation to exert effort, influencing both exercise addiction and the willingness to engage in effortful activities. But here's the crux: it primarily enhances motivation by associating effort with potential rewards, rather than directly responding to the effort itself.

We are all gambling with our future, it turns out, to one degree or another. So you can blame dopamine for those chickens.
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Head over to the continuation of this post – Sliding Doors, Slow Rewards – exploring the power of yoga and mindfulness practices to balance dopamine and metabolism for healthy seasonal transitions.

It's time to talk about nurturing our metabolic health through spiral motion. Physical activity plays a crucial role in maintaining metabolic health. Dr Karen Kirkness highlights how intensity, low friction movement patterns can optimize our body's energy systems.

10/12/2024

Read about the inspiration behind our Prenatal Yoga CPD at Trika Yoga here:

Karen is Charlene’s yoga teacher and friend (some of you may be familiar with Charlenes classes). Her teaching that is firmly rooted in scientific understanding was one of the major things that first drew Charlene to studying with Karen. Her breath of yoga knowledge underpinned by scientific under...

06/12/2024

The word around my house this holiday is *regulation*... check out the latest in my Metabolic Mover series here: https://www.spiralsyllabus.com/blog/spiral-motion-yoga-and-metabolic-health-part-three
------------------------------------------------
Churchill said:

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often."

My take on his sentiments in light of metabolism:

To live is to change; to thrive is to *regulate* change.

But then again, I am a card-carrying Virgo with control issues 🤓 More poetic yet still accurate versions:
..to thrive is to *dance* with change.
..to thrive is to *fall in rhythm* with change.
..to thrive is to *embrace* change.
..to thrive is to *cultivate* change.

I would love to hear your suggestions in the comments below!

It's time to talk about nurturing our metabolic health through spiral motion. Physical activity plays a crucial role in maintaining metabolic health. Dr Karen Kirkness highlights how intensity, low friction movement patterns can optimize our body's energy systems.

18/11/2024

My Ashtanga teacher Sarah Durney Hatcher says that backbending is all about rhythm.

Too fast or too slow = no go.

Since having my kids, I have realized how health is generally about rhythm, the timing of tissues and the consistency of habits. Parenthood only reinforces the relentless wheel of circadian rhythms, the importance of consistent sleep and daily patterns.

In cellular terms, that timing is called metabolism, where our health depends largely on some ancient, ambitious, and extremely clever former bacteria now known as mitochondria.
https://www.spiralsyllabus.com/blog/spiral-motion-yoga-and-metabolic-health-part-one

You will not find a more ninja organelle than the mitochondria. They're the cellular batteries, powering your every every move and coordinating wellbeing from the molecular level.

Your mitochondria dictate energy levels throughout the day, contribute to how your genes express in health and disease, and generally power your *youness*.

But what are we doing to support our cellular health in practice? I know that when I practice intensively with my teacher, I feel sore for a couple of days afterwards as my tissues adapt... then POW, the magic of recovery leaves me with higher energy levels. That is partly down to Sarah's legendary ability to get the best out of her students, and a lot to do with mitochondrial adaptations.

How does movement harness mitochondrial health? How much should I focus on flexibility now that I'm over forty, or do I lean into the cardio and resistance instead? In my research, I've found that rather than pushing bendiness, it is *mitochondrial* flexibility that is my new obsession.

I want you to know how and why spiral motion is our best chance of pushing metabolic health levels while sparing the joints of mitochondrial stress leading to injury & wear and tear. Head over to my blog for a deeper dive into movement and metabolic health in this nine + part series called The Metabolic Mover.

https://www.spiralsyllabus.com/blog/spiral-motion-yoga-and-metabolic-health-part-one

24/10/2024

Reflecting on the privileged status we assign to productivity in our adult lives, do you ever wonder where this urge to get stuff done comes from?

What is the nature of motivation, why do some suffer from chronic procrastination or the opposite, and how do we find that sweet spot?

I'm always looking to the embryo for insights. The embryo is instantly on the razor's edge of survival and has much to teach us.

Research shows that the developmental potential, implantation and live birth rates of day 3 embryos increased with cell number, which means embryos that have not reached at least 6-10 cells are already at risk.

However, it is also generally accepted that embryos with either lower or *higher* cell numbers have significantly reduced developmental potential. Enter the Goldilocks phenomenon: too many or too few is no good. We are looking for the sweet spot where the porridge is just right.

To simplify, if an embryo's cells don't proliferate fast enough, or they do so too quickly, the tiny proto-human is already in trouble three days after conception. Talk about a steep curve!

So this idea that a human can be out of sync with an optimal species-wide rhythm is really interesting here, because it isn't just about the cellular motivation to get something done (multiply self, in this case) or not.

The research points to the *timing* of getting things done as the key factor for a healthy outcome.

But the forward momentum of proliferation has to come from somewhere. What is it that motivates us as lifeforms to increase our cell numbers?

Of course, we look to the genome as a kind of oracle for form and function. Our Biotensegrity Global friends talk about movement as geometrically determined by a triangulated balance of tension/compression through the tissues. But what about the motivation to proliferate? Where does that come from?

Going deeper into the metaphysics of embryology, I find it useful to consider proliferation, measured as cell number as a *function of time*.

Cells progress through a sequence of phases collectively known as the mitotic cycle, tightly regulated in normal cells but not so much in the proliferation of cancer cells. I won't go into the activation of cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (Cdk1), the reaction rapidly and irreversibly sets the cell up for division...

Suffice it to say that division involves a large number of complex, interconnected signalling cascades about which we have a solid knowledge base. However, *how* these loops coordinate as a robust system triggering mitosis precisely in the right rhythm needed for health is not well understood.

In short, we don't exactly know why or how our cells get motivated to proliferate, but I want to go back to the metaphysics here, specifically the spatiotemporal aspects.

The biotensegrity conversation, from my understanding, places focus on the "spatio" side of things. The positive space, the material of our cells, is set up to behave as a function *over time*. So I am interested in the temporal aspect, the timing of the material behaviour.

That timing gives rise to what we experience as vibration, pulsatility, oscillation, frequency. The circadian rhythms of metabolic health built around our human timing, beating to the rhythm of Nature. My sense is that cellular motivation arises from its intimacy with the infinite.

And we'll never get to grips with precisely what that means, but in yoga there is a simple tripartite view on it: rajasic (hot/fast); tamasic (cold/slow). Sattvic is the sweet spot where timing and temperature are balanced.

Going back to our leading question, where does motivation come from and how do we settle into the sweet spot for productivity?

I don't think we know where meta-motivation comes from. However, we do know that the more we make time for connection to Nature and its rhythms, the more likely we are to fall in time with our intrinsic metabolic health.

Less panic, more practice.
Less procrastination, more courage to face uncomfortable feelings.
More resilience, more routine, more room for spontaneity.

What is on your to-do list today, and when can you get outdoors for a walk to forget about half of it? I'll see you there.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4831697/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482449/

23/10/2024

Tweed Valley yogis, don’t miss your chance to practice with the lovely Lel 🔔 this winter ❄️

Have you met Lel Bell? Everyone needs some Lel energy in their life. Personally I have known Lel for around 15 years. Being in her company is like sunshine.

I'm delighted to welcome Lel to A Wee Retreat.

A few words from Lel...."I'm excited to be jumping on board a Wee Retreat to bring some Shenanigrannygans to a Wednesday Ashtanga class! I trained in Ashtanga under the wonderful guidance of June Mitchell and Judi Farrell at Classical Yoga School in Perth in 2022, having completed my 200 hour training. I have since had the tremendous privilege of working with Karen Kirkness in progressing all things Ashtanga. I'm a 57 year old Granny to 2 gorgeous boys ... hence shenanigrannygans!, which can only be defined as fun and good mischief! I'm also qualified in Mind Detox, Mind Calm, Reiki and EFT."

Lel will be taking Karen's Ashtanga Class for the next term and of course adding her own wonderful energy to it!

It starts next week Wednesday 30th of October for 8 weeks 10.30 - 12 in the Studio at A Wee Retreat.

You can book for the 8 weeks and some drop in places are available. £70 - £90 for the block.

Please contact Lel for more info and to book!

Lelbell2208@gmail.com
07946 639229

(some knowledge of the Ashtanga flow required for this class)

20/10/2024

If you’ve been looking for the right time to train as a yoga teacher…
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02/10/2024

Ready to share your passion for Yoga? My 2025 Teacher Training Course marks ten years of teaching teachers to lead yoga classes safely from the heart. Will you join the first cohort graduating with me in the Tweed Valley? Applications are now open.

The course curriculum takes a blended learning approach where trainees engage both online and in person. The syllabus is based on the traditional Ashtanga Yoga of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, the Krishnmacharya lineage of asana evolution, and Karen's book, Spiral Bound: Integrated Anatomy for Yoga.