Oct 30

A Couple Schedule Changes

Hello yogis!

I hope everyone is surviving our crazy bit of weather, and that all friends and relatives out east and to the south are safe.

A couple last minute schedule changes for this week – Chair Yoga is cancelled tomorrow (Wednesday) night due to Trunk or Treat, and Thursday evening’s Core Yoga class is 5:30pm-6:30pm this week due to a township meeting. Everything else this week is normal.

Next week is election week, plus I’ll be out of town in Chicago for a mini vacation and a couple intensive yoga workshops with Ana Forrest (a very inspiring and intense yogi… watch this video (or copy paste this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTcLhOlIk5I&noredirect=1 if you’re curious about arm balancing). Because of this, we will not be holding class next week. We’ll resume classes the following week with our winter schedule, which I will post in the coming days.

Thanks to all of you for continuing to share your practice… It is inspiring beyond words to witness everyone’s practices growing in their own unique ways! Keep up the great work, keep welcoming that inward awareness, and keep smiling.

Have a great week! Namaste.

Oct 15

Class Schedule for this week

Hello everyone!

Hopefully you’re all staying warm in this wet weather. A couple notes about the schedule this week:

Gentle Yoga on Tuesday evening (10/16) has been cancelled due to an event at the Township Hall that evening. Tuesday evening class will resume the following week. Early Tuesday class (6am) will still take place this week.

Chair Yoga will be back at its original time of 5:30pm this Wednesday evening. The feedback was very positive after our first Chair class, and even a couple yogis who normally attend Gentle Yoga enjoyed the change of pace. Feel free to spread the word, or give it a try yourself!

Lastly, there is something I heard over the weekend at a yoga class that really stuck with me, and that I want to share with you. I took a class with Philip Urso, a Vinyasa teacher who taught a great, challenging class of about 80 people. Before the class he was talking about the power of forgiveness, and how the things about ourselves that we haven’t forgiven, or that we think are unforgivable, can manifest themselves in our yoga practice as as a blockage – a discomfort or difficulty with certain poses. His answer wasn’t to just plow through the discomfort, be annoyed or frustrated by it, ignore it, or shift our attention to something else. It was to send love to the source of that discomfort; to welcome that sensation with love and forgiveness, not aggression, irritation, or ignorance. (He was not talking about pain, mind you – pain should be avoided at all costs.) I find sometimes in yoga, especially with balancing poses, students will lose their balance and suddenly become visibly disappointed or frustrated. Instead of getting pissed off or sad, why not greet that situation with love and a smile? So what if I’m more flexible on one side than the other, or if I can’t touch my toes today but I could last week. What’s not to love about ourselves and our little idiosyncrasies? They are what make us unique.

Philip, this teacher, strongly believed this. In face, he would make us say “ha ha ha” every time we would lose our footing in a balancing posture during the class. It didn’t take long before the whole room was laughing. His message was simple and beautiful: to greet uncomfortable situations in our yoga practice, our bodies, and in our lives with an open, loving , forgiving heart.

Just some food for thought as you kick off your week. Hope to see all of you in class soon. Om shanti, shanti, shanti – Happy Fall!

Oct 10

LAST MINUTE SCHEDULE CHANGE!

Last minute schedule change!! There’s a meeting in the Gerrish Township Hall at 6pm tomorrow, Wednesday 10/10, so Chair Yoga will move 30 minutes earlier to 5:00pm. Please spread the word! Chair Yoga tomorrow night from 5pm-5:45pm.