Hello, yogis!
I hope everyone is having a great first few days of spring. Days are getting longer, and regardless of all the snow still on the ground, the air smells like spring. Soon we’ll be seeing grass and flowers, and those warm breezes will become more and more frequent and fragrant.
Spring is also bringing about some changes for Stone Turtle Yoga, and I’m so excited for what’s coming later this spring and summer, I can hardly stand it! But before I start talking about summer, here is what you can expect for the next few weeks.
This week, the week of March 24th, will be our last week at the Gerrish Township Fire Hall. We will have class as normal – Gentle Yoga on Monday at 8:30am and Tuesday at 6:00pm, and Empower on Tuesday at 6:00am. The space at Gerrish has served us well. We were lucky enough to have somewhere clean and reliable to practice during the winter months while the Stone Turtle Day Lodge was in use for the cross country ski business, and we were also able to explore poses in new ways using the walls and folding chairs at the hall. Overall it was a fine winter substitute, and I am grateful to the township for allowing us to practice there for the past few months. I’d also like to thank all of you who continued to practice throughout the winter, despite the cold weather and often treacherous driving conditions. The Stone Turtle Yoga community definitely got closer, and it was often humbling and always inspiring to share that time with everyone.
That being said, I am unbelievably excited to re-open the Stone Turtle Day Lodge for yoga! It is time to dust off the big sail, move some furniture, and prepare the space for a spring and summer of yoga. In order to do this, as well as other administrative tasks, plus a bit of much needed, post-ski-season relaxation time, Stone Turtle will be entering a “spring cleaning” phase for the month of April. This means that after this week (March 24th), classes will be postponed for the month of April, and will resume the first week of May. Towards the end of April, stay tuned for the summer yoga schedule, which will include some very fun new classes, plus a couple other surprises. 🙂
In the meantime, I would like to recommend some helpful material for maintaining your yoga practice at home. A home practice is always important, but will be extra crucial for the month of April so that you don’t start your practice back up in May having done no yoga for a month. Here are some books I’ve read that have great poses, sequences, and descriptions to help you practice at home:
“Yoga the Iyengar Way” – by Sylva, Mira & Shyam Mehta
“Yoga – the Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness” – by Erich Schiffmann
“Moving Towards Balance – 8 Weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee” – by Rodney Yee with Nina Zolotow
Also, if you are in the grocery store and see a copy of Yoga Journal, grab it! Or check out the Yoga Journal website at http://www.yogajournal.com/. There are informative articles on there, plus some videos with poses and sequences that are broken down and easy to interpret.
Keep in mind that you can always email me or call me if you have any questions about your practice, poses, or whatever else about yoga – mariah@stoneturtleyoga.com. I am always here for you!
I hope to see you this week. If not, see you in May. Thanks again for the wonderful winter! Namaste.
– Mariah
