3/18//07
Dear Student,
I hope you are well. I thank you very much for your
participation in the great start to Yoga classes in 2007.
The new schedule
is attached, Details and updates about these and additional classes and
workshops are available on my website:
www.creativeedgeyoga.com.
Please let me know of suggestions and feedback about these offerings and what
you would like to see in the future.
!!!!Coming this Sunday March 25th: Ana Brett and Ravi Singh
here for another
Kundalini Yoga Experience. Ana and
Ravi teach for all levels of student, offering instruction and frequent
modifications to support your needs and enabling all to benefit from this
extraordinary practice.
Entitled
New Life New Possibilities with Kundalini Yoga-a Spring
Equinox Workshop!
The
date is Sunday, March25th at Raven's Wing
Yoga. Come and enjoy the beginning of Spring with the
light and energy of their terrific
Kundalini Yoga experiences! To pre-register or contact me with any questions you
may have you may call me at (203)488-1700.
As always,
the ongoing Kundalini Yoga Class continues on Wednesday evenings form
7:30-8:45pm at the Shoreline Center in Guilford.
The Saturday morning
Yoga and Egoscue® Style Functional Movement for Posture, Pain Relief and Stress
Management class continues at the
Shoreline Center.
Yoga Therapy
"Surprised by Joy"**
In so many of the modes of
physical culture, exercises and other disciplines the
focus of our work is usually on the
end effects or outcomes. Whether we
seek measures of increased heart rate, muscle mass, mileage covered or some
other external variable, these external
measures become linked in our minds to the benefits of the time
spent. When aligned with our overall goals, advances in exercise technology are
important and the these measures can be helpful aids to our endeavors. However,
I invite you to consider that whether we are looking for one aspect of gain or
improvement to address some health issue, life problem or athletic goal, ignoring the whole
self can lead to greater imbalance and distress in other aspect of
our experience. Sweating to the oldies or running marathons with headphones on
or while lost in TV programs to distract us from our challenges is symptomatic
of the external orientation that keeps us from ourselves. This inability to
remain aware of, connected to or in neglecting the feedback of our inner
experience often has led to the very distress or symptoms that we seek to
change. When we work unconsciously
we may indeed become stronger along one or two dimensions, but quite often we
remain unable to respond to the overall
experiences of our lives in helpful and healthy ways.
Our
journey to yoga may be based upon the same
premise as any other self-enhancement discipline. Our feelings of
being stressed out, growing aches, pain and injury or simply a desire to gain
some element of flexibility and strength are all common incentives to begin the
practice of Yoga. All these benefits are quite possible
and routinely attained in Yoga practice. At the core of the
body positive disciplines of
Yoga,
physical health is considered the foundation of
our evolution toward the total wellness and happiness to which we are
entitled. However, if we bring don’t include some ongoing process to address the
overall attitudes and behaviors that have lead us to the imbalance that are
manifesting in our present disease or distress, then I believe that attempts to
“repair” the physical body or
“learn to relax” alone are limited.
Perhaps the first and most important aim of our Yoga practice is to realize that
awareness and conscious activity on the path
toward our goals is more important than anything. In this regard.
Where the challenges of a pose or practice begins is where the benefits are
received. The invitation to be present at these
edges of experience can keep us
responsible for and safely in the Yoga
pose or other technique. It also offers the added application of
strengthening our ability to be conscious and
aware the many challenges in our daily life. We are able to remain
present and apply appropriate “skillful means”
to accomplish more of our life’s goals. For that reason student can
‘do yoga” despite an inability to attain to some
ideal of a particular asana(Yoga posture), movement or technique
Yogis believe that cultivating the awareness and practices that keep us in our
physical bodies and present in our awareness strengthens faculties that can held
positively transform our lives elsewhere.
Often times, as students hold
physical Yoga poses or practice increasingly challenging breathwork or
meditative experiences, I reinforce invitation to increase the sense of
relaxing or “softening” to the
waves of sensations, agitated thinking or sense
of increasing difficulty that inevitably arises. In this way the
possibility exists that as we are working our physical body we can also directly
strengthen self-awareness and peace
amidst the difficulty in ways that enhances our life in many other ways. It
is a gift of grace in our Yoga practice
when we are able attain to greater accomplishments with less and less of the
needless struggle that the conditioned self or ”ego” would have us undergo.
More and more often we enter a “witness
consciousness that creates the space for the transformation of our
consciousness. In our practice there are many moments in which we can watch
ourselves in a more detached way than usual, attend to our responses and feeling
without getting lost in them. In this space between our consciousness and our
conditioned or habitual mind there is room for adjustments and change within the
practice. Even as this faculty is cultivated in our physical practice it becomes
able to be utilized in other aspects of life. It provides the intuitive overview
and perspective that allows for new insight and creative living. Within this
space fears dissolve and the seeds for solutions to the thorniest of dilemmas
with which we are faced may be found.
From the point of view of Yoga, through the higher benefits of
mindful practice we may:
v
Discover and compassionately
address unconscious self limiting beliefs about our bodies, our world and our
deepest selves
v
Allow day to day and deeply
held tensions and fears to be released as our bodies relax consciously during
the challenges of the practice
v
Recover the energy it has taken
to hold these stored trapped tensions to restore vitality to our lives
v
Release the hold of self
destructive and reactive impulses and behavior patterns we have adopted in
reaction old injuries, and trauma
v
Gain greater clarity and
insight to meaningfully change our behavior in life as we let go of these deeper
holdings that bind and drain us
Time and time again in my work I see the effect of adding the
Yogic dimensions of a mindful, balanced and
compassionate approach to replace the reactive and fear driven
motivation we initially bring to our efforts toward self-improvement. The
drudgery and struggle that can drive the most mundane disciplines we employ to
improve any one facet of our lives can be transformed into
door ways into new meaning and purpose
to life. It is a daily occurrence that in Yoga that the simplest of
movements toward awakening leaves us
surprised by joy.
**This
striking and wonderful phrase is also the title of the 1956 book by C. S. Lewis.
Yoga
Practice:
Awakening and being fully present is a simple as being in bare attention to that
which exist in the here and now. This most simple and elegant way to derive the
benefits of Meditation s to simply attend to the the experience of our bodies
without the filter of our thoughts and emotions. A body scan can be done in most
places and unobtrusively to give us a time out of our mind and get us back to
our immediate sense experience.
Body Scan: Lie comfortably on a soft but firm surface, feet apart, arms
at your side. You may also do this sitting comfortably, spine erect and body
relaxed. Begin the meditation on breathing, but now focus your attention on
a particular muscle area or body component with each INHALE. On each EXHALE,
stay with your attention on the sensations that are felt there. Stay with each area for several breaths
and allow9no force) the patterns of feeling to change over time as awareness deepens. Start with
your head, neck, shoulders, arms.. Then scan your chest and stomach, back, legs and
feet in the same manner. Now let yourself lie limp. Slowly open your eyes. You’ll see what it’s
like to be completely aware yet completely relaxed and alert though the power of
presence alone..
Workshops:
New Life New Possibilities!---A Spring Equinox Kundalini Yoga Workshop!
with Ravi Singh & Ana Brett
On: Sunday March 25th 1:00—4:00 PM
At: "Raven's Wing Yoga"
869 West Main St, 2nd floor
Branford, CT
Fee: 50.00 pre-registered, $55.00 at the door
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 techniques to capitalize
on the new energy of Spring for to plant the seeds for new possibilities in our
lives. In addition to a whole body workout, this session will feature exercises
to help us let go old stress and emotions and make room for the new. As always,
we will generate a powerful group energy to help us all make great gains on the
inner and outer planes. 85% physical/ 15% meditative.
In an Ana & Ravi class or workshop you will: Get a full body workout. Learn the
purpose of each exercise on every level: body, mind and spirit. Share in Ana &
Ravi’s in-depth knowledge of physical anatomy and its metaphysical counterparts.
Learn how to modify an exercise to minimize physical discomfort, maximize
results. Be assured of Ana & Ravi’s personal concern for your well being.
Receive modifications for each exercise so you can always participate.
Experience a sonic healing to the transcendent sounds of live gong music.
Participate in uplifting chants and group meditations. 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:
