If your local yoga class leaves you a little cold in the spirituality department, there’s a newish and growing fusion in town. Integral Transformative Practice (ITP), founded about 15 years ago by Esalen Institute co-founder Michael Murphy and author George Leonard, is a 40-minute session that combines yoga, martial arts, visualization, relaxation, meditation, and basic stretching.

A recently completed three-year study of ITP, conducted by the Stanford Center for Research and Disease Prevention, will soon be published in a medical journal, according to the ITP website Researchers found that the method “provided measurable gains in reaction time, short- and long-term memory, reasoning ability and global cognitive processing. This allowed participants to become more focused and better able to manifest their goals,” according to a Natural Health article on the approach. Spiritual thinker and author Ken Wilbur is also a fan and practitioner. Though it’s mainly taught in workshops at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California (one is coming up March 12-17 and there will be others in May and August), the ITP website offers tips for creating your own group.

The same Natural Health story lists the practice’s eight commandments. Participants in ITP are instructed to say them aloud before each session to affirm their intentions, which range from sharpening the intellect to promising to do cardio and be of service to others. A favorite is the first commandment: “I take full responsibility for my practice and all the transformations of my body and being that flow from it. I fully understand that I’m the final authority of what my body can and cannot do.”

On their site Leonard and Murphy explain the ultimate mission of the practice: “We are dedicated to the realization of the awesome potential that exists in each of us. Through our works, we aim toward the creation of a society dedicated to the greater realization of the human birthright to learn, to love, to feel deeply, and to create.” To learn more visit itp-life.com. Or check out their recently published book, The Life We Are Given: A Long-Term Program for Realizing the Potential of Body, Mind, Heart, and Soul. For a taste, try these sample ITP exercises.

Image: Natural Health