9/8/06

Dear Student, 

I hope this letter finds you well after a great summer! I am sorry for the long delay between emails. As a writer it seems I make a better Yoga teacherJ. 

The Fall season is upon us and I hope you will take the time to re-consider and re-commit to the practices of Yoga and Mediation in a way that serves your self an life. All of the activities we do are best done from a place of physical and mental wellness and within these disciplines are a myriad of practices to restore and enhance wellness, bring stress relief and support the lifestyle you wish to lead. 

I wish to remind you that I will again be teaching at the Branford Adult Education on Thursday Evenings from 7:15-8:30pm beginning on September 28^th. Call the Adult Ed office at (203)488-5693to register. 

In support of all of that I believe I have developed an exciting schedule for the Fall that will offer you some great choices toward physical wellness, stress relief, pain relief and overall life enjoyment. Attached is a copy of this Fall’s schedule of classes.

You can go to www.creativeedgeyoga.com for the class schedules and descriptions along with special event details.

As a reminder to New Haven, Hamden, Orange and Woodbridge area students; I am teaching Monday nights at the Jewish Community Center on 360 Amity Road, in Woodbridge. The space is comfortable and accessible and I hope to see you there. You do not need to belong to the JCC to participate.

Thanks to all those who attended this weeks special workshops; Posture, Pain Relief and Enhanced Living---Postural Therapy for Function, Healing and Pain Relief and Healing through the Chakras--A Kundalini Yoga mini retreat.   There will be more workshops upcoming so please keep in contact. More workshops and intensive experiences are in the works---keep checking the website for more news. Also, please continue to offer me feedback and make requests for things you would like to see come your way in the future. 

The ongoing Yoga and Egoscue®  class continues on Saturdays from 10-11:30am at the Shoreline Center for Wholistic Health. Let the insights and special Yoga and therapeutic functional exercise work designed to bring the best out of your body help you attack the cause of chronic pain issues. The goal and hope for this work is not simply pain relief, it is ultimately about transforming unnecessary self limiting enhancing your performance in the games and life activities you love.

Ana Brett and Ravi Singh return to Raven’s Wing Yoga on Sunday, October 22^nd  from 1-4pm for another of their terrific Kundalini Yoga experiences.

Entitled "Live Your Colors--A Kundalini Yoga Fall Equinox Event", I anticipate the same powerful, transforming and fun experience that Ana and Ravi consistently provide. It is your extraordinary group energy that helps us all to “Keep Up” and be Kept Up” in these experiences so register soon and we’ll see you there!

Ongoing Kundalini Yoga classes are on Wednesdays, Form 7:30-8-45pm at the Shoreline Center for Wholistic Health.

Yoga Therapy

In considering the importance of self care as we go older I believe that our notion of fitness is one of the first things that needs to evolve in order to meet challenges of changing lives and changing bodies. As Steven Levine has said in his masterful book on meditation and mindfulness “A Gradual Awakening”, “Indeed, if we were to try to find a single truth all could agree on, it would perhaps be that everything changes.”

As habits become ingrained in our minds and bodies our tolerance to personal change, and thus to the flow of life’s changes can diminish. If you consider for a moment the Yogic perspective that the very definition of stress is “resistance to what is” then our inability to respond to life’s changes can be seen to be the root cause of a turbulent and stress filled existence.

An effective Yoga practice can help us meet many of our physical and mental fitness goals, it can make us more stress resistant by the fact we are working the body, mind and consciousness at the same time. We can choose the level physical challenge by in a general way selecting a class that addresses our general desires and needs—basic, open, flow, Kundalini classes all have differing levels of physical and energetic challenges. From this fundamental choice we can, in each session and moment, choose the experience we will create. This freedom to choose can seem to be a lost art and a good deal of the joy in Yoga can be its re-discovery and practice on the mat and in our lives!

The focus on awareness and the conscious direction of breath and energy in the process of our Yoga practice is the key element that can separate this work from many strictly physical disciplines. Because of this added dimension, mindfulness in Yoga gives us choice and responsibility in the direction and approach we are taking and the benefits we will receive. We can work with greater or lesser effort in each session and pose as we are awake to the body and minds needs at anyone time. The invitation to be fully present as the architect of each Yoga pose and movement benefits both mind and body. Overtime, being less reactive and more conscious allows whole self to be a better container for and director of the challenges in our practice. Struggle and strain are released from our poses and movements and more immediately addressed and released throughout our practice. We can find within the general guidelines of each yoga session the awareness of and solutions to our physical and mental fitness needs and the deeper healing and peace we seek. In these moments we are truly responsible for the course of our self care. As these strengths grow over time and though practice we can may apply to situations and the course of our live off the Yoga mat. From the view of Yoga, we can become a stronger container for the vicissitudes of life, less reactive to the slings and arrows of our fortunes and more awake to life solutions. In my belief this approach to practice  leads us toward a more authentic and vital life, far beyond the empty and often destructive habits and ways of being that have long outlived their usefulness. 

Practice:

So often it is difficult to even begin to practice Mediation and/or Yoga on a regular basis because we don’t even know how to still the mind enough to prepare ourselves and settle into practice. This “3 Minute Meditation for the Neutral Mind” from Kundalini Yoga is a simple 3 minute experience designed to develop a meditative mind. This can become fertile ground for a deeper meditation and Yoga practice and offers important benefits on its own.

To begin:

     Sit in Rock pose---seated on your heels.

     Stretch your arms overhead with palms pressed together and the elbows hugging your ears

     Your eyes are one tenth open and looking down slightly

     Breathe in slowly and deeply several times to prepare, then

    Breathe in slowly and deeply, hold the breath in as long as you can, and then exhale slowly and completely. The full breath sequence should last one    minute.
   Repeat this two more times.

According to Kundalini Yoga this technique can give you the intuitive ability to realize the consequences of a sequence of actions.
In this way it offers help in dealing with cause and effect and minimizing karma.  
Upcoming Workshops

With Ana Brett and RavI Singh
Live Your Colors
A Kundalini Yoga Fall Equinox Event
Sunday October 22nd, 1-4PM

at: Raven’s Wing Yoga
869 West Main ST
Branford, CT 06405
(On Rt 1, 1.3 miles north off exit 51 of I95 on the hill in Branford

Isn’t it time for a breakthrough? Shine like the sun with Kundalini Yoga's dynamic blend of breathing, movement, stretching, meditation, and more. Traditionally, Kundalini was known as the "jewel in the crown," of yoga systems. In this special workshop, Ana & Ravi will share special technqiues to capitalize on the energy of the Fall Equinox for balance in our lives.
In addition to a whole body workout, this session will feature exercises to help us maintain a graceful existence in the face of shifting tides of emotions and circumstance.  We will generate a powerful group energy to help us all make great gains on the inner and outer planes.

  85% physical/ 15% meditative.  For All Levels. 

Private, semi private and small group Yoga Sessions 

Over the past several years I have worked with several students in private sessions in both brief and longer term scenarios. The sessions have served different purposes for each individual  depending on specific needs and intentions. Students have utilized this time to: 

I am available for private Yoga instruction, Yoga Therapy, Postural Alignment Therapy via the Egoscue Method clinic as well as employing meditative healing session format consisting of an experience of Yogic balancing and healing techniques. Sessions can be held in your home or at my teaching studio locations. For details and to answer questions about how you may benefit from one of these modalities please contact me at (203)488-1700.  

I will be developing more workshop opportunities over these next few months. Please let me know of any requests or suggestion that you have.
I deeply appreciate your ongoing support and I hope to see you soon. 

Namaste & Sat nam,
Alan

Please pass this email along to a friend who will appreciate its information
--to unsubscribe please reply to ceyoga@att.net with the word remove in the subject line