6/25/07
Dear Student,
Summer is upon us and I hope that you will have a great time
in the sun and fun!.
The summer series of Yoga
classes begins is underway and continues until August 22nd.
I am on hiatus from July 2nd-July 9th. The
new schedule is attached, Please take
note of the Monday night schedule change. I will be teaching one all level open
Yoga class this summer at the JCC from 7:00-:15pm. 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.
Thanks to
those who attended Ana Brett and Ravi’s
Singh’s Kundalini Yoga Spring workshop!! Of course, many thanks to
Ana and Ravi for the great experience. Keep your eyes open for the dates of
their return this fall.
This is a reminder that There is an ongoing Kundalini class at the Shoreline
Center for Wholistic Health on Wednesdays at 7:30pm throughout the summer. I
hope you will tale some time to try this unique and powerful practice.
Thanks as well to those who attended my Yoga
and Meditation Practices for Healing and Balance workshop on
Wednesday, May 30th.
Please keep me informed of any workshop experiences you would like to see come
your way. I believe that taking time to delve into an immersion experience in
workshop and seminar such as these are terrific ways to enhance and accelerate
your ongoing work in Yoga
As always,
the ongoing Kundalini Yoga Class continues on Wednesday evenings form
7:30-8:45pm at the Shoreline Center in Guilford.
I have recently become a certified Posture
Alignment Specialist(PAS) trained by Egoscue and am pleased to
augment Yoga with this unique and powerful approach to posture alignment and the
resolution of musculo-skeletal pain. Call me if you have question on how this
method may help you.
Another way to experience
the impact of posture alignment on pain, athletic performance as well as simple
day to day comfort, energy and ease in your body you is through a group class.
The Saturday morning
Yoga and Functional Movement for Posture, Pain Relief and Stress Management
class continues at the Shoreline Center.
The time is 10:00-11:30 am and you can
drop-in or join the series anytime!
Yoga Therapy:
What follows is a very
general outline of two basic approaches toward mediation and consciousness.
Within these approaches are many different techniques and philosophical
underpinnings. In addition, meditation, imagery and affirmation are used in both
very mundane and very esoteric ways. No outline this basic can do these profound
disciplines justice so I encourage those interested to explore further on your
own with caution and respect for the practices, utilizing a teacher and/or other
trusted resources to responsibly ground your explorations.
From the point of view of Yoga, the process of
our deepest healing involves the
destruction of the individual
ego’s painful and mistaken experience of
separation, of being a separate vulnerable self alone in the world.
Yogis and sages believe that as we evolve through the
experience of living as well as our conscious
efforts to grow through practices such as Yoga and
meditation, the truth of our
individual self’s greater connection to our world reveals itself in due course.
The more we attain and remain connected to this experience of experience of
“unitive consciousness” is the extent
that we live with the deepest sense of peace and well-being amidst the
challenges of our lives.
Within the practice of
meditation there are innumerable techniques used to work with the mind and it
processes to create the ground in which this higher consciousness can reveal
itself and take root. Mindfulness meditation
practice is considered an Inclusive practice because it invites the
inclusion of the activity of our busy
“monkey mind” while using a focal
point as a resting place for our awareness This allows the ongoing movement and
unwinding of conscious thoughts and emotions, as well as external phenomenon
within the background of a more spacious awareness that is “bigger’ than that
which our individual self is usually aware. Ultimately one’s
relationship to the inner and outer worlds is changed from that of an
active participant to a more objective and detached
“witness” to all that is. Watching
events unfolding within a spacious choiceless
awareness allows us to enter experience the
“eternal now” directly, without the
interface of the conditioned mind’s narrow,
often fear based judgments and preferences. This has practical
applications in healing modalities; working with pain, obsessive behavior and a
myriad of other problems of life. Time spent cultivating this type of higher
perspective in sitting meditation practice and in our Yoga asana practice can
lead to changed perspectives, heightened awareness and greater clarity and peace
of mind in life.
For more information on
insight mediation(mindfulness) practice you can visit:
http://www.shinzen.org.
The practice of
Mantra Yoga involves the repetition of a
“mantra” or words, phrases or sounds
silently or aloud to impact the quality of consciousness and transform the mind
state of the practitioner. These sounds or phrases are often, but not
exclusively from the ancient Sanskrit language
or its variants. According to Yoga, the sound structure and supports
the attainment of states of higher
consciousness due to the
vibrational frequency and other attributes. The use of sound in similar ways is
certainly not exclusive to Yoga,
but the discipline of Mantra Yoga is among the most ancient. In sitting
meditation the mantra is intoned silently,
at varying rhythms and pacing to generate different effects in consciousness.
Because the sound is often used in ways that limit or restrict the normal
thoughts and emotion the practices are sometimes considered to be
exclusive. Though mantra does to some
degree replace ordinary thought, this exclusion of other mental activity
is not done with intensity or force as
this will set up unpleasant side effects and sometimes more painful
repercussions. Generally speaking one predominant reason for using mantra
silently in meditation practice is to bring greater clarity to the thinking,
intellectual aspect of mind. In doing so deeper aspects of consciousness can be
accessed and utilized. Chanting mantra aloud has a similar impact on the
emotional mind, creating clarity and a
sense of freedom and peace that can transform
the often difficult and stressful relationship with have with deeply conditioned
and reactive aspects of emotions. The mantra sound itself, the
changes in breathing pattern and the shared experience of chanting sessions(Yogic
kirtan, for example) and church
hymns and ecstatic practices
are powerful methods of using sound to bring a sense of peace and well being
throughout the body/mind.
For more information on
Mantra and Mantra yoga you can visit:
www.sanatansociety.org/indian_music_and_mantras/sounds_of_tantra_mantras.htm.
Yoga
in its classic form is designed to be
meditation in movement on the Yoga mat, as well as also a technology
create a body/mind that is fertile ground to
open to and integrate the highest aspects of consciousness. Though
the basic target of any practice may be largely physical, energetic or mental,
they impact all these different aspects of the self to some degree.
The many types of
Asana(Physical Yoga poses and
movement) and Pranayama(Yogic
breath practice) are designed to strengthen, balance and open the physical and
energetic aspects of the self to healing and further growth. This work prepares
us for the meditation practices that build upon this foundation to even more
profoundly transform the occasional glimpses and notions we may have of the deep
peace possible within us. With this we develop an ongoing and firm connection to
source; “Unitive Consciousness” that inspires and informs our lives
throughout the day.
Yoga Practice:
Because breath is always
with us and is always in the moment Yoga as have used breath as a catalyst for
change in many ways. A very simple and profound mantra mediation practice is the
So Hum meditation. So Hum is a
mantra that represents the sound of the inhale and exhale.
To practice this simple
mediation:
I am available for private Yoga
instruction, Yoga Therapy with a focus on Postural Alignment Therapy. In
addition sessions are available that employ a meditative healing practice format
to support deep inner shifts and transformation that can accelerate your
personal growth an amazing ways. 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 hope you enjoy the summer.
Again, 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
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****This newsletter is intended to inspire and
stimulate thought and insight according to the general concepts and practices of
Yoga and Meditative arts.
The use of these opinions and ideas and techniques is no substitute for any and
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