Subtle Yoga with Kristine Weber

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Subtle Yoga with Kristine Weber

http://www.subtleyoga.com Online Yoga Trainings! CEUs for yoga professionals. Also check out our in person trainings at MAHEC.net.

Neuroscience, subtle body, evidence-based, accessible, nurturing, and grounded in the yoga tradition. Subtle Yoga is a yoga of personal transformation and expanding consciousness. The process of increasing our subtle awareness of ourselves, our lives and our place on this planet is one of continually transforming our negative habits and thought patterns into energy for our spiritual growth and expansion. Therefore the cultivation of self-awareness in yoga practice is as important as any techniques which are learned. Subtle Yoga helps you connect not only to the physical body but also to the deeper layers of self, exploring the breath, the organs and glands, the flows of prana, the chakras, and the mental/emotional layers of self. In classes, various yoga philosophy themes are introduced and students are invited to explore the application of this ancient wisdom in their own lives. Subtle Yoga is not the same thing as Gentle Yoga. Subtle Yoga is about going beyond instinctual and intellectual ways of knowing about yoga in order to understand and practice from a deeper part of the self and open to greater awareness. The experience of yoga broadens when one taps into more subtle capacities of mind, such as intuition and surrender. Subtle Yoga is about approaching the deepest part of yourself and allowing that inner wisdom and knowing to overflow from your practice into your daily life. "Kaoverii's professional insights and knowledge of the therapeutic application of yoga principles and practices is vast and compelling. She is able to skillfully convey the information in a way that is both engaging and informative as well as thought provoking. I've learned so much about yoga as prevention for disease of all kinds and feel that yoga is (once again) the new medicine for mind/body and spirit. This training is comprehensive and based on current best evidence as well as progressive with an eye on future trends in public healthcare. I am inspired by the Subtle Yoga Therapeutic Yoga Teacher Training. I feel confident, well-prepared and highly enthusiastic to take my training into the world to serve those who need it most and might not otherwise step into a yoga studio." Margaret Kirshner, Asheville, NC

“I have been practicing, studying, and teaching yoga for 25 years, and I learned more in Kaoverii's 500 hour teacher training than I have in all those years of studying yoga. Kaoverii is masterful with her deep body of knowledge of the current research and trends in yoga therapy, along with her personal experience and practice of yoga. She truly embodies this practice and is able to take so much knowledge and convey it so beautifully through the practice and lectures. Kaoverii's Subtle yoga training has forever changed the way that I look at, understand, and practice yoga. I feel that I have gained the skills to be able to work with a wide variety of students in class and one on one, in a safe and effective way. Kaoverii makes yoga accessible to everyone, and I am so grateful for her teachings and those of the other instructors in her 500 hour training." Robin Fann-Costanzo, Asheville, NC

02/17/2026

Some days chip away at your confidence.⁠
Doesn’t mean it’s gone for good --> just that your nervous system needs a little support.⁠
⁠Here's a short practice to reset your confidence.⁠
⁠Try it out and let me know how it lands for you in the comments. 👇️⁠
⁠

02/16/2026

Paul Grossman, the author of the article I posted the other day, just commented on my blog about Polyvagal Theory.

He wrote, "Your summary is wrong. The authors of the article are the leading experts in the physiology of the vagus nerve and evolution biologists. The author of the polyvagal theory is a psychologist with no formal training in these areas and no direct research experience. Even if you are unfamiliar with the terrain, whose judgement should you trust—38 too experts who have devoted their lives to studying the vagus or one lonely psychologist, without a single expert to support his theory. If that’s not clear, i wouldn’t know what to tell you."

And I wouldn't know what to tell someone who has no interest in expanding their perspective. 🤷‍♀️ I wish Rupert Sheldrake would respond to that comment. Anyone know Rupert? Could you ask him for me?

02/15/2026

Thanks for the great discussion about PVT yesterday. I wrote a blog with some other thoughts. 👇
And here are some baby capybaras - just cuz.

02/12/2026

Y'all eventually...We're gonna have to talk about this:
"WHY THE POLYVAGAL THEORY IS UNTENABLE. An international expert evaluation of the polyvagal theory and commentary upon Porges" published February 9, 2026. (I put the URL in the comments)
Many clinicians love PTV and find it a very helpful framework especially for explaining trauma and how we respond to it. I have written and taught about PVT for years - (always with some caveats and an expanded perspective because, well, according to the yoga tradition, you are much more than just one nerve).
And while I think PVT is a useful tool - it's just a model.
One of my favorite sayings is "All models are wrong, but some are useful." It's definitely a useful model, but it doesn't explain everything about what it means to be human.

According to this article, the science of PVT is problematic - and this has been understood for a while now. Some say Paul Grossman has a vendetta against Porges. I have no idea if that's true or not, but now, with the publication of this article, he has a panel of 39 psychophysiology and neuroanatomy experts backing him up.

Here is some of what this paper is saying:
- RSA/HRV tell us specifically about CARDIAC vagal influence, not whole-body ‘vagal tone."
- HRV is heavily influenced by breathing. Your heart naturally speeds up when you inhale and slows down when you exhale. So if someone’s HRV looks “better,” it might simply mean they were breathing slower or more deeply during the measurement, not that their nervous system is universally calmer or more resilient.
- There's also some neuroanatomy critique - The brain doesn’t work in chunks - one for social connection and another for shutdown. It’s more like a network of systems talking to each other. So any theory that assigns big emotional states to a few ‘primitive’ vs ‘higher’ brain areas may be oversimplifying what’s actually happening.
- And then there's the evolutionary stuff. The idea that ventral vagal is related to mammals social engagement is a bit reductive. Non-mammals (like birds) have highly complex social behavior. so it's not accurate to collapse it into the ventral vagal - different species use different brain architecture (I mean octopuses have the weirdest but crazily sophisticated brains and are incredibly intelligent. and some can be very social).

As I said above, many clinicians find PVT very useful so I'm not trashing the whole thing.
But it's a model, not the terrain.
We can be a little more circumspect about it.
Yoga postures, breathing practices, yoga nidra, and meditation are certainly wonderful and relaxing. They are so helpful for so many people. But maybe we don't have to frame it solidly as "ventral vagal" practices.
Maybe we can simply use language like "resilience building" and "nervous system regulating."
I think as far as our practices go - they stand for themselves.
And don't forget, the yoga tradition has some beautifully sophisticated ontological models too.
We have a lot to offer the hard sciences (in a complementary way) about what it means to be human.

Edit: As I said originally in this post, it's something we need to talk about. I'm not landing hard here and I appreciate the discussion. To some extent, the bulk of the critique to me is nitpicky (but I'm not a scientist so there's that). I like to think that yoga philosophy, and it's many fascinating ontological models, plus it's non-materialist worldview may be very useful for guiding future scientific inquiry - I would love to see more of this kind of research. The fact that Porges is interested in alternative mechanisms at all (as opposed to most scientists in the dominate model) says quite a lot.

02/11/2026

What is our role and responsibility as yoga teachers in the era of Epstein?
How do we help people - even those who live on the "other side" during these difficult times?
My thoughts:
- Help people regulate so they can make better decisions.
- Remind folks - you are being socially engineered to hate the other side while the real enemy are the power brokers and elite who have been orchestrating this and manipulating you for decades.
- Find common ground - agree on things we all care about.

02/10/2026

I am often asked about psychotherapy - who do I recommend? what kind of therapy is best?
Full disclosure: I am trained as a yoga therapist, not a psychotherapist - so take that for what it's worth. But because I've worked with psychotherapists for nearly 2 decades (and I'm married to one) I have some opinions about therapy.
When a therapist suggests that you protect yourself from people who are toxic to you - that's great. They are helping you build better boundaries.
But unless they help you dig into how you could potentially be contributing to the relationship issues, that's a problem.
It's no longer therapy. It's paying someone to help you deny, deflect, blame and/or project [and if you are completely blameless, you can feel solid about owning that, because you examined the situation in therapy].
Real transformation takes work.
A therapist should be able to hold your feet to the fire (gently and tenderly with lots of kindness and trauma informed awareness, but nevertheless, a part of their job is to help you own your stuff - never with shame or blame, just with responsibility).

Wondering if the therapy your currently doing is right for you?
Here are some red flags:
🚩Therapy is comfortable and you enjoy it. [Don't confuse safety with progress. There's a balance between building you up enough so that you can handle the work and then actually doing the work. Sometimes you need to stay in that building up phase for quite a while.]
🚩Your therapist agrees with you that everyone else is the problem. [Yes, people hurt others, not suggesting otherwise AND hurt people hurt people, so sometimes we have to reflect back on how we facilitate dysfunction in relationships]
🚩You tell a version of the same story each time you have a session and while it makes you feel a little better in the moment, nothing is really changing in your life [yes, it's nice to have someone listen to you, but that's friendship, not the goal of therapy]
🚩You've been seeing the same therapist for years and your trauma symptoms have not changed. [this is an incredibly common situation, you may wish to check out trauma therapy specifically and move on]
🚩The trauma therapy your doing doesn't include the body [trauma lives in the body so therapy that addresses the nervous system is an essential element]
I love therapy. I love therapists in general. They are amazing people who do really hard work.
But not all therapy is the same.
And sometimes we don't resonate with a therapist - that's so normal.
It doesn't mean that therapy is ineffective, just that you need to look for another therapist.
Therapists are professionals - they typically understand when you need to move on. You don't have to worry about hurting their feelings by moving on - a good therapist will encourage you to seek out what you need.

02/09/2026

Focus isn’t a mindset issue—it’s a nervous system state.⁠
⁠
Contralateral movement supports prefrontal cortex engagement, while eye yoga activates attention networks in the brain. 🧠👀⁠
⁠
A simple somatic way to support concentration without cognitive strain.⁠
⁠
Save + share with a student who needs this. ✨⁠
⁠

02/07/2026

Yoga Kitties - which means only that my blog is out!
It's about grift in the wellness space and the preciousness of trust.
Please have a look! 👇

02/06/2026

Doctors, plumbers, psychotherapists w/little or no training get shut down quickly - but not yoga professionals. Thoughts?

02/05/2026

When did it become okay/normal to not mention anything about your training or teachers in your bio?
What is that about?

02/04/2026

Annamaya – The “made of food” or Physical Body Sheath
The coarsest layer of self. It consists of all the tissues, organs, and bones. It may also include all the unconscious habits of how we use and move the body.

Prāṇamaya – The Energy Sheath
Prana is the life force energy. Understanding how to work with it is essential for living a healthy and long life. It consists of the 5 prāṇavāyus
1. Prāṇavāyu: Located in the chest and head, Governs the inward flow of breath as well as sensory reception.
2. Apānavāyu: It’s located in the pelvis. Responsible for elimination – defecation, menstruation, and childbirth.
3. Samānavāyu: This vāyu works in the waist/navel area. It acts to balance the energy between prāṇavāyu and apānavāyu and governs digestion, metabolism, and assimilation – not only of food, but also of all life experiences.
4. Udānavāyu: Located in the throat. It governs speech and expression, growth, and the upward and outward flow of energy, for example coughing and vomiting.
5. Vyānavāyu: This is the pervasive vāyu that distributes energy all through the body and coordinates communication. It governs the circulatory system, the nervous system, and the movement of lymphatic fluid.

Manomaya – The Mental Sheath
The Manomaya is the kosha responsible for thinking, emotions, sensing, reactivity, and stress patterns.

Vijñānamaya – The Wisdom Sheath
The word Vijñānamaya means the sheath of “special knowledge.” The Vijñānamaya is a refinement, or more subtle expression of the mind. Whereas the mind can go in thousands of different directions exploring millions of thoughts and feelings, the special capacity of Vijñānamaya is to discern. It is wise. It understands values and beliefs and seeks to align your actions with them.

Ānandamaya – The Bliss Sheath
The final, deepest layer of the five koshas, before you get to the core self or ātmān, is the Ānandamaya, which literally means, the sheath “made of bliss.” This is the fifth, final, and subtlest of all the koshas. It is made of joy, rejoicing, and bliss.

Ātman – The True Self
Beyond the koshas lies the ātman, the ultimate true self – which has no characteristics, no personality, no mind to speak of. It is a drop of the undifferentiated Oneness, or pure consciousness, that is Brahman.

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96 Central Avenue
Asheville, NC
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http://www.subtleyoga.com/

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Subtle Yoga is a broadly applicable, person-centered approach to yoga practice which can be tailored to differing body types/physical abilities and various contexts - from wellness, to mental illness to public health.

Subtle Yoga incorporates six key processes: mindful movement, breathing practices, meditation, awareness of values/ethical engagement, spiritual development, and service. Together these practices promote attention, mindfulness, body awareness, self-regulation, resilience, self-actualization and pro-social behavior. Subtle Yoga calms the nervous system, improves breathing, increases the body-mind connection, and is trauma-informed. It is a holistic intervention which can complement and enhance traditional healthcare approaches through health promotion, prevention, treatment or aftercare/recovery, from the individual through the population health level. "Kaoverii's professional insights and knowledge of the therapeutic application of yoga principles and practices is vast and compelling. She is able to skillfully convey the information in a way that is both engaging and informative as well as thought provoking. I've learned so much about yoga as prevention for disease of all kinds and feel that yoga is (once again) the new medicine for mind/body and spirit. This training is comprehensive and based on current best evidence as well as progressive with an eye on future trends in public healthcare. I am inspired by the Subtle Yoga Therapeutic Yoga Teacher Training. I feel confident, well-prepared and highly enthusiastic to take my training into the world to serve those who need it most and might not otherwise step into a yoga studio." Margaret Kirshner, Asheville, NC “I have been practicing, studying, and teaching yoga for 25 years, and I learned more in Kaoverii's 500 hour teacher training than I have in all those years of studying yoga. Kaoverii is masterful with her deep body of knowledge of the current research and trends in yoga therapy, along with her personal experience and practice of yoga. She truly embodies this practice and is able to take so much knowledge and convey it so beautifully through the practice and lectures. Kaoverii's Subtle yoga training has forever changed the way that I look at, understand, and practice yoga. I feel that I have gained the skills to be able to work with a wide variety of students in class and one on one, in a safe and effective way. Kaoverii makes yoga accessible to everyone, and I am so grateful for her teachings and those of the other instructors in her 500 hour training." Robin Fann-Costanzo, Asheville, NC