Living Arts Yoga - The Living Leader

Established 2026

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Living Arts Yoga Institute

11465 Central Pike, Mt. Juliet, TN 37122, USA

Mt. Juliet, TN

In person

Dates: TBD

6 days • 75 hours • $ 3200+

Mt. Juliet, TN, US

Christy Lynn Hicks

Led by

Christy Lynn Hicks

Level 3 Yoga Teacher Badge CYT-L3
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Purpose

Expand the personal practice into conscious relationship, communication, and leadership.

What to expect

Build on the Living Practice through deeper inquiry into nervous system regulation, communication, relational dynamics, leadership, discernment, and applying yogic principles in groups, work, and real-world situations.

Style/Lineage

Living Arts Yoga Institute is rooted in the Krishnamacharya tradition, honoring Yoga as a living, adaptive discipline rather than a fixed system.

At the heart of this lineage is the understanding that Yoga should meet the individual. Breath, movement, philosophy, meditation, and other practices are applied with attention to the person, the context, and the intended outcome. Students are encouraged to understand the principles beneath a practice so they can make intelligent choices rather than simply reproduce a prescribed form.

The Living Arts approach is deeply informed by classical Yoga, including the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali and the Bhagavad Gita, while drawing from a broad range of traditional and contemporary disciplines. These include asana, pranayama, meditation, mantra, subtle body and chakra philosophy, Ayurveda, yoga therapeutics, anatomy and physiology, somatic awareness, nervous system science, positive psychology, communication, and leadership development.

This is an integrative program, but not a grab bag of techniques. The curriculum is designed to help students see the relationships between these systems and understand how they support the larger purpose of Yoga: developing awareness, discernment, relationship, and the capacity to meet life skillfully.

Asana is taught as more than physical exercise. Breath is more than a breathing technique. Philosophy is more than something to discuss in a classroom. The nervous system is not simply a modern add-on. Ayurveda is not simply a collection of lifestyle practices. Each becomes part of a larger inquiry into what it means to be a human being who can pay attention, respond intelligently, and participate fully in life.

Living Arts also recognizes that Yoga continues to evolve through the people who practice and teach it. Students are therefore invited to honor lineage without becoming confined by it. They learn to distinguish between tradition and habit, between adaptation and dilution, and between teaching from a framework and teaching from direct experience.

Rather than training students to reproduce one particular branded style, Living Arts Yoga Institute develops practitioners and teachers who can think, feel, observe, discern, adapt, and respond.

The intention is simple: to preserve the depth of Yoga while allowing it to remain alive.

Additional Information

Core competencies

By the end of this program, graduates will be able to…

Teaching Skills
  • Practice leading a basic movement and breath sequence for a general population, adjusting pace and instructions to keep the group safe.
  • Apply basic cueing language when guiding a non-yoga group through a simple practice, avoiding instructions that assume prior movement experience.
  • Examine how a leader's own regulated or dysregulated state influences a group's collective state, distinguishing cause from coincidence in a specific example.
Anatomy, Physiology, Biomechanics
  • Explain polyvagal theory in practical terms, describing the different nervous system states it identifies and their general effect on behavior.
  • Describe how posture and nonverbal signals communicate a person's internal state, explaining why the body is considered to always be talking.
  • Apply a real-time regulation tool when noticing rising tension in a group setting, choosing a technique appropriate to the moment.
Lifestyle & Ethics
  • Examine a leadership role for its underlying sense of dharma and duty, distinguishing personal ambition from a genuine sense of responsibility to others.
  • Evaluate a past leadership decision for its ethical use of influence, justifying whether accountability was taken without slipping into self-punishment.
  • Apply the principle of ahimsa when setting a professional boundary, communicating the limit in a way that avoids harm to either party.
  • Practice deep listening during a difficult conversation, holding space for the other person without moving immediately toward fixing the problem.
  • Evaluate a personal leadership schedule for signs of unsustainable rhythm, justifying which commitments most increase the risk of burnout.
Practice Skills
  • Practice a brief embodiment routine combining movement, breath and stillness, using it to prepare for a demanding leadership moment.
  • Practice a basic meditation technique for a sustained period, using it to support mental clarity before a high-stakes decision.
  • Examine a recent decision for the presence of witness consciousness, distinguishing a considered response from an immediate reaction.
Yoga History & Theory
  • Apply a specific Yama or Niyama to a real leadership decision, using it as the basis for how the decision is made.
  • Summarize the Bhagavad Gita's relevance as a leadership text, describing what the story offers a leader facing a difficult decision.
  • Examine a group dynamic using the chakra system as a leadership map, distinguishing which energetic center appears most active or depleted in that setting.
  • Apply the doshic framework when observing team members' differing working styles, using it as a lens for understanding rather than labeling behavior.

AYC allows each school to state and evaluate the competencies each student acquires. Students rate how well the program delivered them.

Program Emphasis

Evaluation methods

Program evaluations
  • Solo Project Or Presentation
  • Oral Exam
  • Written Exam
  • Written Submission
  • Graded Skill Demonstration
  • Direct Observation

Students will be evaluated through a combination of oral/written submissions, solo projects, direct observations, and skills demonstrations

Did you graduate from this program?

Program Faculty

Featured Faculty

Christy Lynn Hicks
Christy Lynn Hicks

aka Christy Marsden

Level 3 Yoga Teacher Badge
I specialize in Yoga philosophy, the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, asana, meditation, pranayama, visualization, mindfulness, and subtle energetics, integrating these disciplines into practical, embodied teaching for modern practitioners, teachers and leaders. Based in Nashville, TN
Mt. Juliet, TN, US

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