Discovering DSL Let-Go Yoga

If You are a Yoga Teacher or Yoga Therapist, You're in the Right Place.

Members of the General Public, Please Click Here

Are You Ready . . . ?
To BE On The Leading Edge of Maximizing Results
While Minimizing Injury In The Practice & Teaching Of Yoga?

Please Take A Moment With Me To Imagine Your Near Future . . .

Fully engaged in creating their own similar, yet individualized “Perfect, In-the-Moment Asana,” your students are Being with What Is — discovering, not forcing, their internal sense of alignment — working up to and with, yet not exceeding, their natural physical & mental Edges. Not attempting to out-perform each other, nor themselves, they are getting stronger and more flexible without building excess tension or stress.

As they internally explore what they never felt or noticed before, they sink deeper into their poses than ever, feeling and releasing tensions, stresses and habit patterns they didn’t even know existed, that they could not even feel let alone process . . .

Until YOU Showed Them How . . .

You quietly, confidently observe each students’ unique and subtle variations and modifications you’ve personally coached them in. . . . Variations that spontaneously and dynamically shift and change from moment-to-moment. … Variations you helped them discover, and sometimes create, based on their unique circumstances and your new-found and extensive, Scientific Knowledge and Experiential Skills of how the human bodymind REALLY works in posture, movement and asana…

While DSL's concept and execution of bodywork is nothing short of amazing, it is his approach to yoga that has been life altering for me. The profound yet subtle changes have reinvented not only my own practice, but the way I teach yoga as well. Of all the yoga techniques I've studied in the past 30 years, not only are David's methods  what I've been searching for, but the feedback from my students is equally as positive. I'm excited about teaching yoga again.

Nan Araneo • Yoga Teacher
Rockport, Massachusetts
Former Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapist

New skills you’ve now taught them, as well. Physical and mental skills along with the Ten Principles for Maximizing Results, enhancing their benefits from that “perfect asana” — safely exploring their limits — discovering their true, organic source of proper alignment that naturally occurs with their internal Lines of Energy. … Yet they are, with the very same techniques, Minimizing Their Risk of Injury.

David’s passionate interest in anatomy and physiology as they relate to yoga has sparked my own curiosity and deeper investigation into these areas. His depth of understanding as to how the body operates, and how it responds to yoga practice, filled gaps in my own understanding as a yoga teacher. I like his 10 principles for maximizing results and preventing injuries while practicing yoga asana, which emphasize safety and honoring individual needs. David’s experience as a yoga teacher, bodyworker, trainer, and passionate student of the human body make him a valuable resource for yoga teachers looking to expand their knowledge and learn sound principles on which to practice and teach yoga. I appreciate that David encouraged us never to just accept his ideas on anatomy and yoga, but to test them for ourselves, in our own bodies and with our students.

Ben Cohen • Yoga Teacher
Newton, Massachusetts
(emphasis added)

Their minds are not running from body-part to body-part, attempting to place, push or prod their bodies into so-called Proper Alignment — an approach you now know doesn’t really work all that well. . . .

Especially when trying to quiet your mind. . . .

Or finding true structural integrity in your BodyMind.

They progress further and deeper than ever, yet relaxing more fully, too. At the same time, they're preventing any short or long-term injuries that far too many people used to develop from doing yoga too aggressively, with poor bio-Structural Dynamics (which is NOT about precise, pre-determined alignment.) They did not realize that the willful quest for so-called Perfect Alignment was a major cause of injury.

Yes, there were, and are, many who would strive for that perfect posture & alignment, but were building far too much subtle tension and stress in the process. They were unknowingly pushing their joints where they were not yet ready to go. Yes, many of them got VERY flexible, but their flexibility was masking the hidden, subtle tensions, stresses and strains that were accumulating over the years. Tensions that eventually caused a wide-range of physical stress and problems … even injury.

They were, without realizing it, developing stability through rigidity, rather than stability through fluidity.

Most of them did NOT know the Inner BodyMind Dynamics of what works, and what does NOT work, in Asana practice. They were doing what most everyone thought was accepted as factual and correct, even scientific. Yet you took the time to study YogasAnalysis™ — The Analysis of Yoga Asana — which vastly expanded and deepened your understanding to SEE and FEEL and KNOW what happens in your — and your Student's and Client's — human bodymind during yoga practice.

You also know where effortless, great posture and energetic, coordinated movement really come from, as well as the causes of and solutions for many of the aches, pains and dysfunction too many people suffer from. You know why sit ups, crunches and other so-called abdominal strengthening exercises actually cause far more trouble with posture and pain — and bad backs, necks and shoulders — than most people, even physicians, realize.

David's work is amazing! A year ago I was hardly able to move due to severe back pain (this was not the first time). The doctor prescribed, once again, physical therapy and though I practiced these PT techniques for months, my pain grew stronger and my ability to move lessened. I then hired David Scott Lynn and within a short time I not only felt relief, but my standing, walking, sitting, and moving postures had improved. Now, 12 months later, I seldom feel pain and move with ease, freedom, and flexibility; moving in ways I never imagined were possible a year ago. Thanks to David, I have a daily pain-free yoga, standing, walking, and sitting practice, and I have new methods to share with my students. David's knowledge is extraordinary! David's techniques work!

Diana T. Kyricos • Kripalu Yoga
& Pilates Instructor
Chelmsford, Massachusetts

Your foresight, and your quest to BE on the Leading Edge of Yoga, led you to discover and apply principles, sciences and therapeutic keys — the inner BodyMind Dynamics — rather than the many Myth-Conceptions so many used to (and many still do) believe and practice.

This has kept your students safe in the midst of their great gains from practicing a combined form of physical/mental yoga. A system based on well-established  principles of physical and medical sciences, wholistic medicine and human nature.

Knowing the combined perspectives and sciences that a small handful of leading structural, neuromuscular and myofascial bodyworkers know, plus your vast knowledge from traditional and modern approaches to yoga, your knowledge and skills are greatly expanded … as are your abilities to teach, coach, and get the results you get for your Students & Clients … and Your Own Self and Experience.

David is a Master Bodyworker who continues to be invited back here over and over by clients who love his work! His yoga workshops help one to get into their body and experience the principles of how yoga and the body works.

Sandy Aquila • BodyMind Therapist &
Director, Omaha Healing Arts Center
Omaha, Nebraska

Your teaching … and the results for your students … and your own personal practice … and your reputation … have now gone through great and positive transformations. So much so that other yoga teachers are taking your classes now, too. … And you are getting far more requests for Private Classes and Therapeutic sessions, as well … If you want them.

Application of David's Teachings will take Yoga to new heights in the Western World. … The DSL Method makes profound sense.

Lesli Hunter • Yoga Teacher & Student
Sedona, Arizona

One opportunity to go down this path is by way of DSL Let-Go Yoga™, a modern and unique — some say revolutionary — Leading Edge System of Physical/Mental Yoga informed by the practices and sciences of hands-on bodywork plus orthodox medical sciences and wholistic medicine. A system that builds upon and expands the systems you already use, rather than replacing them. . . . A system that will enhance your abilities the very day you begin to explore it.

This is an essential course for anyone who is serious about teaching yoga. David presents the information in an interesting, insightful and  amusing manner. I want to learn EVERYTHING David knows, that’s why I’m coming back for more!

Lucy F. • Iyengar Style Yoga Teacher
London, England

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HELLO! . . .

This is David Scott Lynn, and I'm here, obviously, to talk with you about Yoga.

FIRST of ALL . . . I'll be the first to admit that this letter to you is kind of long. Some people would say, REALLY long. Yet, there are four things to remember about that:

• You don't have to read it all! … Unless you want to!
  

• If you DO get interested in what I'm telling you, I want to make sure as many of your questions are answered as possible.

• You are, obviously, free to roam around the rest of this website anywhere and anytime you want.

• Many of the people who have attended my programs told me they had read every word of my marketing materials, SEVERAL TIMES, and decided I was offering exactly what they wanted. So the fairly detailed description that follows helps you determine whether what I am offering is what you want and need.

So if you don't read it all, I'm NOT going to jump out of your computer screen and complain.  (I have NOT figured out how to do THAT yet!)

But there is another reason for telling you as much as I can about my work and this website. I want you to be happy! … And in order for you to get as much as you can out of this website, you will need to like, or at least be willing, to read.

Yes, it is true, a picture can be worth a thousand words. But, which thousand words?  Sometimes only words can tell the whole or precise story, just as sometimes it takes a picture, or a video; of which there will be many. (I am planning on having as much of the text available in MP3 format so you can listen on your computer or your iPod/MP3 Player, but that will take some time.)

So I am going to tell you Right Up Front:

You WILL be able to get a lot from watching the videos, animations and other graphics I will be producing. And I will have audio recordings of much, if not all, of the text. But right now, its mostly text. So it will take a fair amount of reading to benefit from this site at this time.

Okay . . . If you're still reading, GREAT!

Now, recalling the few paragraphs at the beginning of this letter, describing your possible future yoga class, that was quite a lot to promise, wouldn't you agree?

But, What If I Could Deliver to you the insights, information and skills necessary to achieve that level of competence as a Yoga Teacher (and/or Yoga Therapist)?

If you've read this far, you are probably wondering whether or not I can actually deliver on those promises if you decide to work with me. So, please look at this short, partial list and see if you are motivated by any of the following . . .

Here are the mainly Experiential Components of DSL Let-Go Yoga:

• How to work with your Edges or Limits of pain, fear and resistance

• How just THINKING the word S-T-R-E-T-C-H could lead to problems and injury

• How to maximize and focus your breath to dissolve tension and stress

• How your breath really works in yoga asana, movement and life in general
  

• How breathing past your Edges could INCREASE internal stress & tension

• The first step in getting control of your breath … It's NOT what you think!

• How to integrate the Meditative Mind into your physical yoga, and vice versa

• Dissolving the paradox, and conflicts, between your thinking and feeling mind

• How neurophysiology coordinates your body-mind relationships

• Building a deep feeling, intuitive, meditative sensitivity upon the physical and medical sciences

• Understanding how many yoga practitioners are actually compressing their joints while doing yoga, and what to do about it

We work a lot with the orientation of integrating mental processes into the physical body. Yet we do this in simple, here-and-now, easy to understand and NON-mystical ways. (And NO, I am not much into mysti-physics. I DO believe there are many things going on at very subtle levels that science cannot, and might not ever, be able to see or measure. But if you feel that true mysticism is a necessary part of your yoga experience, DSL Yoga is NOT for you. … Sorry.)

One reason to stay away from the mystical or more flowery language is that it is often too imprecise for those who have not experienced how you think and feel. They really do NOT know what you are talking about, even though to you what you're saying makes perfect sense.

The trick is to find the instructions or cues that just about anyone can follow. Finding unambiguous common denominators without losing their essential meaning. Ideas that don't bring up too many questions or barriers to the experience we want them to have. (What you and I might consider to be simple and easy can, to many others, especially new students, be totally abstract and appear to them as impossible to do.)

It's also a good idea to avoid the Roll The Eyes factor.  Unless you don't mind narrowing your potential market WAY down, it's good to realize most people just will NOT relate to many of the things that are said and done in many yoga classes today. And you can do this without losing one shred of the value and essence of what yoga has to offer to just about anyone who will invest the time and energy in doing it.

It is not their job to figure out how to relate to you. If you want them to have a fully integrated body-mind experience, it is YOUR job to find out how to relate to your potential and new students, to not use language or concepts that puts up barriers.

The DSL System of Yoga/Bodywork Therapeutics is revolutionizing and uniting the worlds of yoga and bodymind therapy. I have found that this original system is a practical way for both recipient and practitioner to maximize the benefits and minimize the potential injuries from both yoga and bodywork. Through the ongoing process of learning about my Edge, I have been able to expand my awareness and to bring the practice of meditation into daily life activities. At the deepest level The DSL Method represents significant advances in the work of emotional clearing, including opening the possibilities of healing through microgenetic moments.*

Jenny Dysart • Lifetime Client and
Yoga & BodyWork Student
Sedona, Arizona

*Microgenetic Moments: the convergence of nerve and energy
memory and stimulus from the brain down and the body up,
leading to an integrating and healing moment. — DSL

 A major focus is how to Maximize Results While Minimizing Potential Injury. Learning to pay REAL attention (which is meditative in itself) is a major key to this goal.

We also get extensively into the scientific foundations of physical and mental yoga and healing processes. This way, you'll have a far better ability to evaluate what's going on with yoga in general and individual people in specific. But don't worry, my approach to teaching sciences is almost exactly opposite of most teachers.

A lot of teachers start with This is a Muscle, This is a Bone. Now, all you have to do is memorize a whole bunch of weird Latin names,  and THEN we can learn how they work together. … IF you don't get short-circuited at those Latin names! … And, HOW MANY muscles are there? … TOO MANY!

So, I do it the exact opposite way.

 Accessing Kinesthetic Learning Styles . . .
Paving The Way for Future Participants . . .

In my LIVE Anatomy & Kinesiology Trainings, we work first on feeling things in our bodies, seeing things in other people's bodies, then examining and discussing our experience and observations. We then look for possible scientific explanations behind them. And most important, I want you to GET it before you walk out the door, not just in your mind, but to actually feel it in your body.

I believe THAT is the best way to get your mind around these scientific, technical things. START with what you can see and feel, THEN go deeper to the unseen.

CONFESSION: Teaching this way via the Internet will be, for me, all new territory. I am not sure how well it will work out in the very beginning, or how quickly I can get it right. I am sure it will take some time to get all theinformationn properly formatted to be useful for learning on the Internet. How much time? … You and I have a Great Opportunity to find out, don't we?

That is one reason I am still going to do LIVE Trainings for a year or two. I will be recording as much of the Live Trainings as I can, and figuring out how to convert the material to Internet media that most people can understand.

That is one reason you might want to look at participating in my LIVE Trainings while they are still available. That way, you are sure to get the work as best as possible. PLUS, you will be contributing to making this information more available to yoga teachers in the future who cannot afford to attend the Live Trainings; or won't be able to because I am too busy running and producing materials for this web site to teach live programs.

(And have you ever tried to draw something in THREE dimensions on a computer? It's hard enough on a piece of paper!)

But I will do my very best to give you the experiences, tools, and concepts necessary to evaluate what we do on your own, to experiment and see if it works to your satisfaction, and if it is a significant contribution to your practice and teaching skills. . . .

And that is also why the monthly subscription fee will be REALLY low for the early adapters!

Becoming Your OWN Authority

This is not a sit down, shut up and listen approach to learning. It is about interacting as much as possible. YOU become your own authority in what you learn.

How I was taught growing up was to figure out things for myself — with guidance — but learn it at its core, rather than just believing what someone told me was true. That's how I figured out for myself that much of what is being taught in traditional approaches — in yoga, in bodywork, in physical therapy, fitness, medicine, and so on — is just not how it really is.

But my job is not to just try and convince you of new propaganda. My job is for you to be able to SEE & FEEL whether something is true or not for yourself. So YOU can become better able to figure out for yourself whether something works or not, or is true or not. So YOU can becomeyouru own authority, for yourself and your Students and Clients.

None of us can be right about everything. But we can learn and develop better tools for how to discern more clearly what's going on in our Human BodyMind and the world in general. My Purpose and Objective is to help you develop . . .

A Superior Scientific Knowledge
of How the Human BodyMind Works in
Yoga & Posture, in Fitness & Exercise, in Sickness & Health

Here's what you'll be doing/getting if you study The DSL Method of Let-Go Yoga:

• Building a strong scientific foundation for everything you do

• Far more knowledge of the anatomy and kinesiology of how your muscles function

• How your muscles work in asana in general and in specific postures

• The TRUTH about yinness and yangness in Muscles, Tendons and Ligaments

• How neuromuscular and myofascial physiology affect your yoga practice

• How to tailor and modify asana for individual circumstances with YogasAnalysis™

• How to adjust Students and Clients verbally and with touch, yet non-invasively

• How to see, feel and generate natural forces of internal alignment without always thinking about it

• How to decompress joints, lengthen the body and untrap nerves

• How muscles are the Nexus between your inner experience and outer reality

• Where effortless great posture comes from (Its NOT strong back muscles)

• Why LENGTHENING the Abdominals often produces more strength than sit ups or crunches

• Where Great Posture and Coordinated Movement REALLY come from

Then, we look at the principles of Yoga Therapy. Even if you are not intending to be a Yoga Therapist per se, it is immensely valuable to have a better idea of what is happening from this perspective. That way, you can, at very least, have better strategies in how to keep certain people out of trouble when doing yoga, as well as minimize injuries for all:

• How to build a strong foundation for Yoga Therapy

• Or, refine your existing Yoga Therapy skills

• SEE & FEEL the Bio-Structural Dynamics Behind Posture & Movement

• Evaluate Posture, Analyze Imbalances, Strategize Asana Sequencing

• Better understand sources of Aches, Pains & Dysfunction

• Understand & Develop Internal & External Ergonomics

• How you can utilize Yoga Therapy in Group Yoga Classes

• Dealing with Individual versus Group needs in classroom settings

• How to apply principles of Homeopathic Medicine to Yoga

• How organ physiology and pathology affect everything, and vice versa

David Scott Lynn is a bodyworker extraordinaire. His knowledge of the structure of the body and the way the muscles cooperate with each other in their movement has prompted us to put him on our faculty as the anatomy professor in our Yoga Teacher Training Program. His work is state of the art and goes way beyond most traditional understanding of how the physical body operates. His patience and genius in working on me has changed my awareness of myself. His work is lasting and his selflessness is amazing.

Gary Majchrzak • Co-Director
7 Centers Yoga Arts
Sedona, Arizona

[I am no longer teaching at 7 Centers — DSL]

And all of that is just a portion of what you'll learn if you Become a Member of the DSL Let-Go Yoga Website. And some of it you can learn just by signing up for my FREE weekly articles and frequent updates and commentary.

Subscribing to the FREE e-Zine will also get you my Free e-Course on the 7 Natural Laws of Yoga. These Laws begin building the Foundation of Yoga from the DSL perspective. You will see why yoga, in its more organic form, can be thought of as a natural extension of Being Human, if we only followed the natural realities and impulses built into us by nature at birth.

And notice in the list above I'm saying things like YOUR muscles, not THE muscles or your Students' muscles. Why is that important?

Well, you see, this is about YOU having your own personal knowledge and insight emanate from your own inner experience. If you can learn to SEE & FEEL what's happening at a deeper level in your own BodyMind, you will not have to "remember" how things work. You'll just instantly know, because the anatomical, kinesiological and physiological information will become a part of who you are. Therefore, it will be instantly accessible to you at any moment.

Actually, it already is. . . . One definition of Education is to bring out that which is within. We are looking for your mental knowledge and physical experience, your conscious and unconscious processes, to Merge . . . and to Emerge.

Bringing Your Mind Into Your Musculature
So As To Dissolve the Distinctions Between
Them, Is A Main Focus of DSL Let-Go Yoga

David Scott Lynn

Again, this knowledge already is a part of who you are, but we must learn the capacity to Abstract (meaning to  Lift Out) the stuff that's embedded in your Human BodyMind, by nature, from birth. . . . 

In the DSL Philosophy of Teaching, from a Western Perspective, one of the things you'll learn is that as a teacher, educator or therapist, one of your jobs is to literally Abstract (to Lift Out of your personal experience of life — and yoga) certain experiences and information to pass on – to Time-Bind – to your Students and Clients.

Higher-level Abstractions and Time-Binding are two
primary characteristics of Being Human. (paraphrased)

 . . . Alfred Korzybski
Founder of General Semantics

In Yoga for the WEST of Us, Two Core Components
are Abstracting & Time-Binding. These help establish
the Philosophical Foundations of the DSL Approach
to Physical/Mental & Therapeutic Yoga.

 . . . David Scott Lynn
The Guy Writing This!

And we attempt, as much as possible, to apply the Scientific Method in an wholistic and conscious way. We also use our own bodymind as a laboratory to explore What Is. . . . This is called Phenomenology, studying reality through our own experience as a neutral observer (as much as possible, anyway — not always easy, if ever.)

Phenomenology can work pretty well . . . sometimes. And it works quite often if you are really good at remaining relatively neutral. Learning how to do that is a meditative exercise in itself. We must remain vigilant to our own subtle, subconscious biases and misinterpretations of reality, which happens quite frequently for most of us. The scientific method helps moderate the blind spots of phenomenology, and vice versa.

Yoga — For The WEST Of Us . . .

Abstractions, Phenomenology, Scientific Method & Time Binding – are a great part of the Philosophy, Psychology & Science of Being Human portion of the DSL Let-Go Yoga Trainings. For those of you who are interested in establishing a strong philosophical basis — from a Western Perspective, yet well informed by Essential Insights from the East – for what you do, there is plenty of that here.

Doing so can help you make your personal approach to yoga more relevant for your potential students, and existing Students & Clients, from a more Western point-of-view. There is nothing wrong with teaching the more Eastern approaches, but many potential Students and Clients do not pursue yoga for that very reason. They are not much interested in embracing Eastern ideals or practices.

Yet most of the ideas and insights from the East CAN be restated in Western terms and experience, by-the-way. A few maybe cannot, but that does not diminish the immense value yoga can be to people. And you are free to take what works for you, leave what does not, modify the rest according to your own understandings of Life, Being, and Yoga.

And that, behind scenes, is what DSL Yoga is really all about: helping YOU to become your own authority in your life, your teaching, your therapy (for your self or for others).

Learning To SEE & Apply:
Physics & Geometry . . .

The next step is learning to observe the bodymind through the physical sciences, like geometry and physics. This allows you to see how structure and posture work, how they go out of balance, the many problems that causes, and what to do about it. Again, there are ways to internalize this knowledge, which you will learn here in these pages and in the Live Trainings.

• Structural Dynamics – Seeing & Feeling how Physical Structures & Internal/External Forces Work

• Structural Analysis – Understand the Dynamics of Posture, Movement & Dysfunction

• Postural Evaluation – Determining Specific Structural & Postural Imbalances in Individuals

• Structural Balancing – Strategies on How to Normalize & Balance the Human Structure

Again, we don't start with This is a Muscle and This is a Bone, then working out from there. . . . We start with what you'll see in a Student or Client when they walk into your class, and work inward from there. It's much easier to learn the details that way, especially if you're a kinesthetic learner.

Some people are surprised to find out that was MY problem when I first started trying to learn anatomy. The first few times I tried, I got nowhere. No one had given me a context or structure to plug the technical data into. They just started feeding my facts and details without creating the Matrix of Thought, Feeling & Experience I could plug the individual facts into.

I don't know about you, but MY brain does NOT work that way. . . . So I had to create my own Matrix without knowing what I was doing.

This approach to teaching is about reducing your dependence on your teacher(s) — yes, even me — as quickly as possible. And if you can do that, you will actually become MORE VALUABLE to the people you teach or provide yoga therapy to. That, by-the-way, is a part of what Time-Binding is all about.

Now, I Must Warn You About Something … !

And that is there is A LOT of material in this website that goes contrary to much of what is taught in most yoga classes and trainings. And not just yoga, but chiropractic, massage and bodywork, medical orthopedics, neurology, physical therapy, tai chi, many Pilates sessions, personal training, and so on.

I am, in certain circles, known as somewhat of a contrarian. Its not so much that I want to be. Its just that I have to say it the way I see it. — Maybe its genetic, but I just plain see things differently than most others. I probably learned a lot of this from my three mentors in life: my Dad, Joel Kramer, and another, Kevin Cullinane, whom is in another field all together. But they are all known for seeing things almost exactly opposite as most other people do. . . .
So, I just can't help myself, I guess.

Which means that in order to apply much of what I show and tell you, you are going to need to be willing to suspend much of what you've been told before about yoga and related stuff. Even if you were told by some who are considered World Class Masters of Yoga. . . . But suspend judgement just long enough to check it out and see if what I am saying makes sense or not, and whether it works in the Real World of Human BodyMind Health and Integration.

Having had experience with many different bodyworkers, David’s technique is certainly unique. There are levels of healing he achieves I’ve never seen before. This is clearly a result of a vast knowledge of anatomy and physiology combined with decades of hands-on experience.

Dr. John Bordiuk, • Yoga Teacher
Nutritionally Oriented Medical Doctor
 Marino Center • Wellesley, Massachusetts

Ultimately, YOU decide. When tradition does not keep up or coordinate with reality, reality must win, IF we are to be effective human beings, and on an evolutionary course in life.

Which Brings Up the Big Question:
Why Should YOU Listen To ME?

Well, I'll let You be the Judge . . .

How A Structural Steel Ironworker Turned
Yoga Teacher Turned Structural
Bodyworker . . . Invented A System of
Yoga/Bodywork Principles & Therapeutics

I have a background that is unique in the Yoga World.

I go into this in more depth in this website, especially The History of how I developed this work, so I'll just tell you the highlights here.

First, in 1967, when I was only thirteen years old, I started in martial arts where I had my first "accidental" Zen-style meditation experience. The next year, I started reading about Buddhism and doing the meditations found in the Dhammapadha, the Buddhist Bible.

From age 17 to 22 I was a full-time structural steel ironworker, building steel buildings, most of the time as a foreman. Trained by my Dad, John, a Total Master of the Trade, I developed an ability to see and work with physical structures more competently than most of my fellow ironworkers, even guys who had been in the trade for 20 or 30 years longer than I was. (Now, would you be surprised to discover that this skill transferred over to my structural analysis skills when I became a structural bodyworker?)

Becoming A Master Structural Repairman . . .

Only problem is, I developed a reputation for being able to fix all the problems everyone else in the other construction crews had created. So I was always fixing stuff that other people screwed up. I wasn't putting up new buildings most of the time, which, frankly, is far more satisfying. How would YOU feel about going around and fixing everyone else's mistakes and errors all the time? Frankly, it's not that much fun.

But Guess What? . . . YOU Benefit! . . . Doing all of that turned me into a real Problem Solver, a skill that YOU can learn and benefit from. . . . IF you will invest some time, awareness, thought and energy.

Truth is, straightening out complex steel structures has a lot of similarities to straightening out an out-of-balance human neuro-musculo-skeletal structure. Yes, there are also a lot of differences, but I truly believe this was vital to my overall development as a Structurally Oriented Yoga/Bodywork Therapist and, later on, Trainer.

Now, here's the leap from martial arts and construction to Yoga.

Studying With The Father of American Yoga . . .

When I was nineteen, my mom, Linda, told me about a lecture and demonstration on yoga. (I had read some about yoga, but had not really dived in to it yet.) The presenter, Joel Kramer, has been called, by Yoga Journal and many others, the First American Yoga Master and the Father of American Yoga.

Although not widely known like Iyengar, Amrit Desai, or Vishnudevananda, he was far more influential in the development of yoga in America than most people realize. And, he has not till very recently taught yoga since 1984! He has, however, been making a comeback after a more than two decade absence from teaching.

His viewpoints are not always what people want to hear, but he sure makes you think! And he really has the bodymind integration thing down really well. And in ways I have not read or heard about even from most of the great, and far better known, masters of yoga.

Anyway, that seminar is how I got into doing Hatha (physical) and Jnana (mental) yoga.

Then, while I was still an ironworker, in 1976, I went to a small island off the coast of British Columbia. There, I had the great opportunity to study full time for a full month, in residence, with Joel and his invaluable partner, Diana Alstad.

Their teachings were and are unique, effective and, in my opinion, quite profound. Yet, because they taught a very here-and-now approach to yoga and meditation, with no mystical component, and their style was very non-Hindu, non-authoritarian and non-guru, their appeal was not very wide in the yoga community at the time. Their approach was an integration of East and West, without the more religious, mystical, or aesthetic aspects of the Eastern approach to yoga.

Joel and Diana provided a strong and deep foundation upon which much of my own Life Work and professional developments are based. A foundation that YOU can benefit from. . . . And in my opinion, A Lot.

You will learn a lot about the Joel Kramer/Diana Alstad Principles in the DSL Yoga web pages.

Needless to say, after hanging out on an isolated, beautiful island, doing yoga and personal growth exercises everyday, for a whole month, I just could not bring myself to go back to ironworking. So I then quit ironworking and just started teaching yoga, retaining and building upon Joel and Diana's work applied to several aspects of bodymind integration, health and healing. The foundation was, of course, yoga. But I did not stop there.

Becoming A Structural Bodyworker . . .

When I was, in 1977, Yoga Teacher in Residence at the Inner Garden (the first Holistic Helaing Arts Center, but now defunct) in Aspen, Colorado, I met and worked with a man named Eugene Donaldson. From him, I received my first bodywork session. Some of it hurt like heck, but it opened a new and really big door for me. Because I had a natural talent for it, Eugene and I began doing bodywork trades. I immediately began evaluating and revising how I would do things based on my experience with yoga and Joel Kramer. The first idea was applying Joel's concept of staying within one's Edges of Pain, Fear & Resistance. That's where I got the basis for my  No Pain, MORE Gain  philosophy and technology of yoga and bodywork therapeutics.

(Eugene went on, by the way, to co-found Educating Hands, a very successful massage school in Miami, Florida. He is no longer involved in the school, but was a main force at the founding and for several years thereafter.)

I started hanging out with and learning, mostly informally, from a lot of different types of massage and bodywork people, mostly massage school owners. Eventually, long story short, in 1981, I became a massage and bodywork practitioner, and went into private practice in Downtown Chicago.

After about a year, I studied for 250 hours (eight hours a day, four days a week) with Daniel Blake, a man who had been trained directly by Ida Rolf, creator of Rolfing™, otherwise known as Structural Integration. Having disagreements with Ida about some of her basic principles, he left to study further and create his own system of Structural Bodywork. So I figured he would be a good guy to study with.

Building The Scientific Basis . . .

As a result of studying with Daniel, I became known as very effective at solving neuromuscular and myofascial problems with posture, pain, loss of movement and other dysfunction that others could not. Along the way, I did extensive research into the physical and medical sciences that apply to yoga and bodywork, as well as related fields.

In the mid-eighties, I spent quite a bit of time working with alternative and nutritional medical doctors, chiropractors, and osteopaths. It was here that I began integrating orthodox and alternative/wholistic medical principles into the Big Picture of Yoga & Bodywork Therapeutics.

I have worked with many soft tissue therapists over the years. David Scott Lynn is the only one educated and skilled enough to do what I want with full confidence that the job will be done. My patients definitely feel the difference.

Gary Fujinami • Doctor of Chiropractic
Prescott, Arizona

My yoga/bodywork system is based solidly on principles of physical, mental and relational yoga. My yoga system has been, in turn, heavily modified by what I have learned working privately with Real World Problems of my Clients in the Hands-On Bodywork realm. As a result, much of what is taught in the two fields I have found to be anywhere from inefficient to inaccurate to outright dangerous.  So I decided to do something about that.

First, Do NO Harm . . .

You might be aware that there has in recent years been a significant increase in yoga-related injuries. There are many reasons for that, which I write about on this website. But most of these injuries are not necessary.

And, contrary to popular opinion — Here I Go, I Warned You! — most of them are NOT caused by not aligning or positioning the body exactly correctly in an asana. In fact, in many cases, it is actually the too aggressive attempt to align the body in a recommended way that is causing the problems!

But don't get me started with that now. Otherwise this letter will go on forever!

DSL has taught in the last 3 teacher training programs I have run this year [2003]. I chose him for the Anatomy & Physiology part of our training because of his yoga background and orientation. I have observed him and participated in his classes in each one of those trainings and have the highest regard for his expertise and knowledge of the body and ways to approach asana. He brings an awareness of how injury occurs in the first place and what role yoga is able to play in healing the body. He brings a depth of knowledge that is unusual to find and a way of teaching that allows students regardless of background to understand and utilize the principles in their teaching of yoga. He is very respectful and pays particular attention to all levels of safety for his students. In my opinion, he definitely should be considered as having mastered the teaching of yoga.

. . . Ruth Hartung • Director & Instructor
7 Centers Yoga Arts
Sedona, Arizona

[I am no longer teaching at 7 Centers — DSL]

One of my most important missions, then, is to prevent injury as much as possible, in both realms — yoga and bodywork. And a large number of teachers and therapists are doing far more harm, or providing far less benefit, than they realize or are capable of knowing without the full spectrum of knowledge that you will have access to in these web pages and in my LIVE Trainings.

To solve many of the problems that people have, and others cannot help, I have had to spend huge amounts of time thinking, studying and experimenting with different approaches. But because I was fortunate enough to study yoga with Joel Kramer, and in bodywork, two very innovative men, Eugene Donaldson and Daniel Blake, I have been able to maximize results and avoid negative consequences with my work.

One Other – Kind of Important – Thing . . .

Maybe most important, which I will tell you just a bit about here, is my own problems with pain.

As an heavy construction worker (ironwork), and a few other things in my teens like racing (often crashing) motorcycles, I developed SEVERE posture, pain and movement issues. Worse, even, than most of my Clients over the later years when I became a Yoga/Bodywork Therapist.

Not anywhere near as bad as Evel Knievel (the daredevil motorcycle stunt man who broke every bone in his body at one time or another), but no one, not even the people I trained with, or was trained by, could help me. I had to figure it out on my own.

And I did. . . . But it took A LOT of time and experimentation. I had to apply EVERYTHING I knew and had learned over the years, and figure out a lot of stuff I did NOT know, to solve these problems.

Now, I have a reputation in many places in America of being able to solve neuromuscular and myofascial problems that very few are able to help. Some people say no one else does what I do. Sure, there are similarities between myself and a few others, but I have yet, so far, to run into someone with anywhere near the same approach.

Maybe true, maybe not . . .

TO: Yoga Alliance
Reference Letter for David Scott Lynn

The workshop I attended with David was about anatomy and alignment of the spine combined with demonstrations of gentle yoga poses of a more healing and restorative nature. Poses like the cobra, half locust, gentle lying twists, tadasana, taking time to really sink into these simpler poses to experience their full benefits without rushing.

David is a wonderful blend of clarity, humor, strength and compassion as a person and with respect to his teaching style. He has a way of keeping people's attention focused and on track. He's very interesting to listen to.

David is excellent at working with people in groups and individually. In his workshop he would sometimes demonstrate a pose and then have the students try, providing insights on alignments and modifications based on the specific needs of individuals. He does not teach yoga on a "one size fits all" basis. He understands a student's need for individualized instruction. He's very versatile and intuitive in this way.

He creates a very safe physical, emotional and psychological environment. He's very professional and personable at the same time, a nice blend of both.

In addition, David is also an expert bodyworker and his understanding of anatomy and physiology is vast. He is creative with his own theories of bodywork and applies this understanding to the practice of yoga.

He's very intelligent and well-read. He has many years of experience. I go to him for bodywork and he is in my opinion a true healer.

Sincerely, Jennifer Lynn Marcussen
Yoga Teacher • OM Center
Omaha, Nebraska

Anyway, YOU now have the opportunity to learn and benefit from thirty plus years of experience in a wide range of disciplines and conditions that have ALL contributed to the DSL Let-Go Yoga System.

So, when you study with me, you get the benefit of a combination of:

• Physical & Mental Yoga

• Emotional & Relational Yoga

• Hands-On Bodywork Release Techniques

• Application of that Skill to Manual Assists & Asana Adjustment

• Neuromuscular & Myofascial Sciences

• Orthodox Musculoskeletal Science & Pathology

• Insights from Medical, Chiropractic & Osteopathic Medicine

• Bio-Structural Analysis & Postural Evaluation

• Physical Sciences, such as How Physics and Gravity Affect the BodyMind

• Principles of Wholistic and Homeopathic Medicine & Natural Healing

• Philosophy, Psychology & Science of Being Human

• An Eye for Structure Developed as a Structural, Heavy Construction Worker

All of the stuff in the above list can all be summed up in my overall system of PsychoMuscular Release & Bio-Structural Balancing. That's my technical name for physical & mental yoga, hands-on bodywork, wholistic medicine and bodymind therapeutics.

• PsychoMuscular implies the Mind, the Active Body and the Nerves that connect and integrate them

• Release is the Letting Go of Chronic, Excess Muscle & Nerve Tension (which includes the myofascial sytem) that causes so many problems

• Bio-Structural implies the living, breathing, Beingness that manifests in the psycho-physical, neuro-musculo-fascial-skeletal structure

• Balancing is figuring out what's not working, and bringing about the ability for someone to learn how to Feel, Relax, Lengthen, Coordinate & Balance the psycho-braino-neuro-musculo-fascial-skeletal structure (say that 3 times fast!)

For those who want to go even deeper, my complete system, including Advanced Structural Balancing Strategies & Hands-On Release Techniques, is called DSL EdgeWork: Yoga/BodyWork Therapeutics.

You did for me in 4 hours what physiotherapy couldn’t do in 4 years. And, you gave me the tools to continue working on my own.

Michelle Sands • Yoga Teacher
Montreal, Quebec

Now, you might be wondering . . .

How Can Anyone . . . ?

How can one guy know enough about all that stuff to really know anything of substance about any of it …?

Well, I must confess that many years ago, when I was first starting out, someone (a fellow bodyworker and co-student of Daniel Blake) asked me that very question. Whether he intended it this way or not, I took it as an accusation that I could NOT know all that stuff. And to be honest, that negatively affected me for a VERY long time. It played significantly into my insecurities from early childhood. (I could tell you a lot of stories. It all started in kindergarten…)

Down deep, something inside me believed he was right. How could I, how could anyone, really know all that stuff to any degree of competence?

So for many years, because of that and a few other similar events, I held back on putting my work out to the world … and you! … for a long time. … until I was as sure as I could be that what I was doing and  teaching made sense and really worked.

It's been 30 years in professional development, actually. Until now … Starting with this Website.

So Please, think about it for a moment. … I have devoted almost my entire life to this kind of practice and work. I got started in my early teens, almost 40 years ago. And I admit it, I'm a compulsive learner and a data junky. And from my main teachers in life, whether driven by my insecurities or not, I learned to dig deeper into things than most people do. I literally Live and Breathe this stuff.

Also, if for no other reason, I have watched almost NO TeeVee in my adult life. I don't even own one.

That frees up a LOT of time.

And by-the-way, even Ida Rolf, founder of Rolfing®, who was a chemist before becoming a bodyworker, said construction workers were usually better equipped to learn balancing of the human structure than doctors. Most doctors deal with tissue rather than structure.

I have spent most of my life working around
and with structures of various kinds . . .

But being able to make a living at what you love and are best at helps, too. It gives you more time to explore, study and analyze.

The downside, however, is that while other people were out there making money,  I was in a medical library somewhere for days at a time looking things up, trying to piece together scientific facts that few people have delved into before. … And also trying to figure out how to best communicate this stuff to more people. … People like you.

And if you're thinking that if something is really all that good, that it just sells itself, think again. It just ain't true. Some of the Very Best Products require far more marketing than products that are truly inferior.

As many of the Top Marketing Gurus in the world will tell you: If you invent a better mouse-trap, you better have a Great Marketing Plan. Otherwise, you will die with a garage fulll of better mouse-traps. … Which is why I am comitted to helping my students with their marketing, to help them learn things that, frankly, are VERY counter-intuitive, but WORK.

I've also spent huge amounts of time trying out new therapeutic strategies with Clients, and a lot of the time not charging them for it, or not very much. (One year, when I was working with a lot of classical music students at a leading music college, I gave about 20 THOUSAND dollars of discounts, just to figure out how successful my work would be with musicians, and because most musicians have very little money.) I was far more interested in figuring out how to help people than in making top dollar.

(NOT always the best strategy, by-the-way.  )

And the people I tend to work with have, in their estimation, been to so many places and therapies — both orthodox AND alternative — that they had nearly given up on ever finding relief. … NO, I do not have a 100 per cent track record. But its at least 80 per cent, which in this business is pretty darn good.

With 18 years experience in the health care professions, I appreciate soundly researched & scientifically based approaches to rehabilitation. The DSL Method of BodyWork has expanded and refined my understanding and applications for achieving postural correctness and pain relief in less time.
David has a unique way of reiterating known fundamental laws, redefining erroneous concepts, and instructing the participants through a successful treatment program.

Al Cujas • Physical Therapist • A.T.C.
N.M.T., Former NMT Instructor
Winston Salem, North Carolina

What's MY Job . . . ?
To Help YOU BE On The Leading Edge of
Yoga Principles, Sciences & Therapeutics

With the vast increase in the number of teachers and therapists out there, you need an Edge to stay ahead of the … do I DARE use the word? … Competition!

But if you look closely at the word competition, and break it down to its parts, it means, literally,

    To Seek (petition — to ask for)
    Together (com — as in community) . . .
    To Seek Together . . .

Now I ask you, what's wrong with that?

What happens in REAL competition in the FREE-Market Place* is that different people offer different products or services — some similar, some not — in the attempt to satisfy the needs and desires of their customers (lke Students & Clients; and technically speaking, an employer is a customer for our services, too.)

As an extreme example, when I first started teaching yoga, one of my best friends expressed an interest, yet, told me he loved going out drinking beer with his friends a few nights a week. He then said he was afraid that, if he started doing yoga, he would lose interest in going out with his friends — and drinking beer with them. … Now, who am I to tell him he's wrong? (There is an old saying in marketing: The customer might not always be right, but they are NEVER Wrong!)

But I also realized I would not be competing just with yoga teachers, I would also be competing with anyone who provided beer to anyone. So the question is, who creates a better experience? A yoga teacher, or a beer bar? (SEE, if you read this far, you get to read the funny stuff!  )

Who ever does a better job, or provides a better or more deisrable product, whether it's yoga or beer, gets more Students and Clients, or a promotion and a raise.

If I went on a campaign to outlaw beer drinking, then I would be working AGAINST the truly Free-Marketplace.

* The Free-Market, as originally developed here in America, includes freedom from deception, fraud, coercion or force. If there are any of those elements, then it is NOT a truly FREE-marketplace. However, it does require that the participants have a strong sense of honesty and morality, something that many yogi's are trying to promote in their teachings. Especially if they are paying any attention to the Yamas and Niyamas. The American correlates are the 10 Commandments, and the 10 Articles of the Bill of Rights.  But, just as many yoga philosophers lament the fact that very few people pay much attention to the spiritual foundations of the Yamas and Niyamas of Yoga, it is also lamentable that most American have literally no idea about the spiritual, political, economic and legal foundations of American government. Via something called the Living Constitution idea, the essence of the 10 Commandments and the Bill of Rights has nearly been destroyed.

Although I do my best to keep yoga and politics separate, I believe that an American Yogi  needs to know the spiritual and social background of such things if they are ever intending to apply yoga principles to social change and progress in the West. But I leave most of those issues to a different website.

This is how the Free Marketplace seeks the best means of helping and satisfying The People. Individuals like you are cooperating with each other — even if they never meet or know one another — via the marketplace of ideas, services and products to improve the quality and innovation, to increase availability, and/or to lower the prices, or all three. Those who do not do so well at serving their customers either have to improve their contribution, or find another line of work they are better at.

Yes, there are those who engage in Cut-Throat Competition. However they tend to be in the minority. You and I want to succeed by figuring out, to the best of our ability, what is best for people and providing it for them. That's how most people make a living, or prosper, or even get rich: by serving their customers (or employers) as well as possible. The more you provide a better service, the more likely you will be able to live the life-style you choose doing something you love to do.

Helping YOU Stay On The Leading Edge . . .

It is my objective to do the study, research and experimentation to help you stay on the Leading Edge of physical, mental and therapeutic yoga, as well as how to get your knowledge and skills out to The People as best as possible.

Now, a number of my friends and acquaintences in both the yoga and bodywork fields have gotten rich. A few of them I even helped develop what they do. One school of neuromuscular therapy redesigned their entire cirriculum based on what the owner learned from me in a workshop in Sarasota, Florida, back in 1993.

I don't know if you want to get rich or not, but I Promise — and 100 % GUARANTEE – that you WILL be able to deliver Leading Edge, State-of-the-Art ideas and techniques to your Students and Clients. You will have knowledge and abilities that few people have right now.

At least until more people start to find this website. Even then, the more people that are evolving the work of yoga, the more people are improving their teachings, the better it is for the whole profession.

David Scott Lynn's gift is extraordinary. Not only did his personal brand of bodywork restore me to physical balance and freed me of life-long chronic pain, he went on to instruct me in the art of yoga. Sensitively — and amazingly knowledgeably — David taught me how to help myself maintain and build upon all his solid achievements. David is a natural, and I'll be forever grateful that our paths crossed.

Marc J. Lane • Internationally
Known Finance & Tax Attorney
Chicago, Illinois

On the DSL Let-Go Yoga website, you will — over the coming weeks, months and years — learn as much as I can possibly deliver via the Internet that applies to yoga and related information and technique.

Frankly, this website is, in part, an experiment. I have always taught this stuff live and in-person before. I don't know how much of it will be teachable over the internet. I am pretty darn sure that AT LEAST 25 percent of it can be, maybe more. What cannot be taught over the 'net, you can come to Live Trainings to get what needs to be presented in person.

But only after you've proven to yourself that what's here on the website is VERY useful and valuable to you. THEN you should invest the time, energy and money to come to a Live Training, while they are still available.

• At this moment time, since the website is in its infancy, the BEST way to get going on DSL Let-Go Yoga is to attend a Live Training. Right now, if you want to learn all the above mentioned stuff LIVE, please check out the Live Trainings Link. I will only be doing a handful of these in the near future. Then, certain portions of it will only be available on the website, or for a VERY increased price. – DSL

Even the course on hands-on bodywork techniques, partly designed for massage and bodyworkers, will provide you with significant insights into doing physical adjustments in asana. Yet there are some aspects even of that that can be communicated via the web.

Although I can only teach the real in-depth, more physical aspects in the Live Trainings, actually experiencing my hands-on release technique gives MOST people a very different experience of their muscles and way-of-being, even those who have been practicing yoga, massage or bodywork for a very long time.

By-The-Way . . . when I first set out to do this website work, I needed a way to expand my mind to see what was really possible, rather than focusing on the limitations. So I started asking myself the question: How would I deliver a massage over the internet?

Obviously, that cannot be done directly. Yet you might be amazed at the ideas that brought up.

Well, hopefully, you have a better idea of what this site is all about, and what you can get here.

Oh Yeah . . .
How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?

Some of you might be too young to remember that phrase in the old song How Much is that Doggy in Window? from the olden days in America, but it's also an inside joke that you'll figure out when you sign up for my FREE Weekly e-Zine. As a bonus, you will recieve my e-book on the 7 Natural Laws of Yoga. In the first Law you receive, you'll get the punch line.

To answer the question of how much, though, you will be able to access A LOT of the information for . . .

. . . NO CHARGE.

Then, the next level, if you become a Member, is, get this, only 7 dollars per month!!! Yes, only SEVEN dolars per month (FOR THE NEAR FUTURE), charged to your credit card on a monthly basis. I don't know how long I will keep the price that low, but if you sign up soon, the Basic Level will never go above that for YOU.

Then, I will have 3 or more levels for more complex, in-depth information. That is where the animations, videos and in-depth YogasAnalysis™ will be. Yes, they will cost more money. . . . But first, why not find out what you can get for FREE or for $7.00 per month?

If I cannot come up with several ideas and pieces of information EACH MONTH that are worth SEVEN DOLLARS to you — that's 23 CENTS per day — then I think you would agree with me, if I am not worth 23 CENTS per day to you, then I should just shut this site down RIGHT NOW and find something I can do of more value! . . . Right?

Of course, if you want to jump in with both feet an dsubscribe at a higher level, that's okay, too.

The Member Portion of the website is a few weeks to a month away from operation.
So right now, the free stuff is all that's available.

So, the best thing you could do right now is sign up for my FREE (approximately) Weekly e-Zine. This will allow me to deliver my weekly article (I will do my best to keep these short, like, 1200 words or so) and notifications of when I put more information on or make additions to the website, as well as many other insights into the nature of physical and mental yoga and general health and healing.

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OKAY! Here's Another Opportunity To Sign Up For Your FREE (approximately) Weekly Newsletter!

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To Learn About DSL Let-Go Yoga Website
MEMBERSHIP <==CLICK HERE

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To Discover MORE about the
LIVE DSL Let-Go Yoga Trainings <==CLICK HERE

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To Further Explore This Website <==CLICK HERE

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OKAY!
Thanks For Reading, and I Hope
To See You In The Rest of the Website!

Take Care,
David Scott Lynn
DSL: Your Hi-Touch Up-Link to the Inner-Net

 P.S. Don't forget about me now. You've read way too far to not take action on this. You Too can become a Master of the Experiential & Scientific Foundations of Physical, Mental & Therapeutic Yoga. You can know what most others do not about the Human BodyMind and its Psycho-Physical Structures. You too can Master the 10 Principles of Maximizing Results while Minimizing Injury in the Practice & Teaching of Yoga. — So don't wait, Please Sign Up Now for your FREE Weekly e-Zine to keep informed of what's going on in the world of yoga from the DSL Perspective, and then check out More Pages on this Website. — DSL