Sustainable Gift Giving

Every year at this time I like to give a holiday gift to each of the yoga teachers who instructs at Shree.  They are all amazing people, teachers, yogis and the life blood of the studio.  I honor them and appreciate their integrity, trustworthyness, excellence, training and friendship.  Many have been teaching at Shree for 10 - 15+ years.  I wanted to give something sustainable - something that doesn’t come with a big carbon footprint, packaging and plastic wrap, something that had meaning.

 I asked each teacher what charity I could donate to on their behalf to show my gratitude.  Their choices were inspiring: Ocean Conservancy, Alzheimer’s Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council and more.  I became more aware that there are so many people doing good with tremendous generosity in this world: people helping people, the environment, animals and much more.

Consider giving sustainably this holiday season. Most of us don't need more stuff. Yoga makes a great gift, or a donation to charity in honor of someone....here's to help you choose a well rated charity if that's where you decide to give.

https://www.charitynavigator.org/

And, if you live near Saddle River, NJ, consider giving yoga at Shree: 

http://shreeyoga.com/gift-certificates/

Happy Holidays!

Love and blessings to you and yours,

Chaya

The Benefits of Chair Yoga

“I once counted the “5 Most Important Decisions” I had made in my life. One of those was getting involved and staying involved with yoga.” ~ Herb Benkel 

Yoga can be incredibly beneficial for people with mobility issues, including people with injuries, and people of all shapes, ages and sizes. What’s more, yoga can be practiced from the comfort of a chair.

Jan Jeremias, Chair Yoga Instructor at Shree Yoga explains: A chair: you can sit on it, you can stand and use it to help you balance, or put your foot on it to help open up the hips.  Chairs are a beautiful and freeing prop that are beneficial for people of any age from those who are new to yoga to those who are seasoned practitioners.  The idea is to find steadiness and ease in every pose, which is the very thing that the ancient sage Patanjali wrote in Yoga Sutra 2.46: sthira sukham asanam.

Jeramias continues: Yoga has been shown to improve overall health, prevent and (even in some cases) reverse disease when practiced regularly as a lifestyle. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that it can therefore lend its benefits to everyone.

You can improve your strength. This means that older people will be better able to continue with hobbies and daily activities independently for many more years to come. If you suffer a fall or injury, a strong body will be able to withstand this better and sustain fewer injuries.

Yoga can help to improve flexibility. Chair yoga can help those with mobility issues to undertake activities that they have perhaps been unable to, such as reaching down to tie shoe laces or pick things up.

Yoga helps the skill of knowing where your body is in space, and coordinating your movements accurately. This can improve balance and can help prevent falls. For people with disabilities or conditions such as mild MS, it may mean having greater control over your body and its movements.

Chair yoga can lessen the impact of chronic illnesses and pain. Being calmer and more relaxed inevitably leads to a greater feeling of happiness and well-being. Joining chair yoga classes will also give you a venue to socialize and make friends.

Chair yoga includes breath work, which can help with stress management and pain management. Through meditation and paying attention to your breath, you can help your body and mind to cope with the pain of an illness or chronic condition concludes Jeremias.

Herb Benkel shares his 70 year old perspective of an adapted yoga practice due to a severe disability in his leg: “Today, I can’t bend the titanium knee past 40 degrees (so it’s very straight in its metal brace) and there is no functioning quad or hamstring at all. Both muscles are totally atrophied. Yoga still accommodated my needs both physically and mentally. I attend classes 2 or 3 times a week. They are now “Chair Yoga” classes. All moves are with the support of a chair, with no time spent on the floor. In the class are others with different physical or age related problems. There is still a strong and supportive social and emotional framework. We are, not even necessarily older. The need for modified types of yoga is based, not on age but on ability. Ability or need brings people to chair yoga. The ultimate result of doing yoga is the same from any level practice. Yoga creates self confidence, physical and mental strength and well being, personal awareness, better balance and the ability to handle life’s curves after injuries, or age, catch up to you.”  Read Herb's story here.

Shree Yoga Chair Yoga Class Description and Schedule

In this class we will do modified gentle yoga poses while seated and supported in a chair. These modifications make yoga accessible to people who cannot stand or lack the mobility to move easily from standing to seated to supine positions on the floor. While seated on chairs, students can do versions of twists, hip stretches, forward bends, and mild backbends.

In addition to a good stretch, chair yoga participants can also enjoy other health benefits of yoga, including improved muscle tone, better breathing habits, reduction of stress, improved proprioception, better sleep, and a sense of well-being.

Mondays 12:30 – 1:30 pm

Wednesdays 11:00 – 12:00 pm

Drop-ins welcome: $22, $20 seniors 65+, Newcomer Special 20 days for $30. 

See our full class schedule here.

5 Essential Qualities of a Great Yoga Teacher

As I prepare for the upcoming teacher training at Shree I’ve been reflecting on what I value most in my most beloved teachers. I’ve distilled it down to five qualities that are the top of the list:

Authenticity - I want to study with teachers who practice what they preach, who truly live their yoga in all aspects of their lives, not just for show in the front of a yoga class.  They have a love of what they do and desire to share it from their hearts with everyone they can.

Genuineness -  Great yoga teachers know who they are, and have a strong connection to something bigger than themselves.  They speak from their heart and their truth.

Groundedness - Great teachers stay connected to their own higher guiding principles and respond rather than react to any situation.

Creativity - A great teacher is creative in planning class themes and sequencing of asana (poses) that enhance those themes and weave them together harmoniously, not just for the sake of just trying something new, but from a deep love of the body and spirit and desire to help students bring these two aspects of themselves closer. These practices help enhance life both on and off the mat.   

Intuition - A great teacher is attuned to his or her students.  It seems that they always know what you need to hear that day, the way you need to be adjusted or left alone, the poses that will help you feel in your body and ultimately your heart the quality they are trying to evoke in the practice on any particular day.

 

Notice “doing dramatic poses” or “having an amazing body” didn’t make this list. There is a misconception that comes up each time we offer a training that you have to be able to do “advanced” asana to be a good yoga teacher.  I do believe that Yoga teachers should be advanced yoga practitioners, which for some does mean very deep asana, but for others means a strong meditation practice and ability to share their experience, for some a deep knowledge of anatomy of physical and subtle body, and others a love of scripture and gift of sharing the mythology of yoga to name just a few. Yoga teachers come in all shapes, sizes, ages, religions, lifestyles and life circumstances. Student of yoga want teachers who look and feel like they do, not like they are airbrushed on the cover of Yoga Journal or filtered on Instagram. 

If any of these aspects of yoga speak to you, our Teacher Training is for you. If you read this list and felt an urge to grow and develop one or two of these qualities in your own life, it means you are ready to take this step. Some of these qualities emerge quite naturally as a result of diving so deep into your own practice, but we also have real practical, methodical ways to work on these things throughout the training and help them to develop and emerge.

Although the shared goals of yoga are few, the paths are many.  One of the most amazing things about Teacher Training is that, in your desire to share a practice that you love, you learn to embody all the qualities you admire in your own teachers, and become your own inner guru. Join us to start your own journey of transformation. Your students are waiting for you. 

Upcoming information sessions: 

Saturday, September 8 4:30 – 5:30 pm at Chaya’s home for a cup of tea and chat.  Email Chaya to reserve and get the address: chaya@shreeyoga.com

Saturday, September 22 1:00-1:30 pm at Shree

For all information, including dates and fees, and application click here

Why You Should Sign Up for the Shree Teacher Training Today

Thoughts from Rachel Dewan on her upcoming Teacher Training Program at Shree.

Reason 1: FLASH SALE!  We’re offering an additional $200 off the early bird discount now through August 1.  In other words, take $400 off the full price today. That’s over 10% off the price of the training, the equivalent of getting 21 of those 200 hours for free!  And, if you pay in full with cash or check, deduct an additional $50!

Reason 2: Two certifications for the price of one. Shree is a YA Registered School, as well a certified Anusara School of Hatha Yoga school.  So our training, unlike others, actually gives you two certifications, one as a RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) with Yoga Alliance, as well as giving you the ability to register as an Anusara affiliated teacher so you are getting more bang for your buck than with other TT’s (Teacher Trainings) on the market.

Reason 3: An investment in your future. An investment is defined as allocating money (or sometimes another resource, such as time) with the expectation of some benefit in the future. Once you start teaching you will recoup your financial investment over time.  Other benefits include expanding your own yoga asana practice, learning new skills, including clearer communication and organization, and a calmer a more centered demeanor to name a few. It’s hard to say what the greatest payback I have received in all my years of taking and leading Trainings and Immersions has been, but at the top of the list is how yoga has given me the guiding principles of how to live a meaningful and satisfying life. It’s hard to put a price on that.

Reason 4: You’ll get time back.  The minimum number of hours for a basic certification is 200 hours, as specified by Yoga Alliance, the largest certifying organization in the USA. Since the standard of becoming an “expert” at anything is usually defined as 10,000 hours doing said activity, this is really not too bad! I have either taken or co-taught 8 TT’s over the 15-year course of my yoga teaching career.  Every one of them required sacrifices by me and my family that enabled me to be away for stretches of time and have time in between to complete course work. Yet each one left me calmer, happier, and more fulfilled, which led me to be more productive both at home and work.  It enhanced my personal relationships by giving me clarity about my own priorities and direction so I felt less stress over personal and career choices.  My overall physical and emotional health improved, which meant less time at the chiropractor, acupuncturist, therapist, and GP managing symptoms of stress. 

Reason 5: The time is there. As we know, there is a finite amount of time in each day, so the question really isn’t whether you have time, but how do you want to spend the time you have?  For me, participating in numerous teacher trainings was a meaningful and joyful way to spend periods of my life and well worth the sacrifices I had to make.  And although it took time from other things in my life for the span of the training, it was time invested in myself and my own growth which allowed me more space in my schedule as I learned how to be more discerning about how I spent my time.  Will your life be busier for 9 months? Yes.  Will the quality of that time enhance everything you do? Absolutely!

Chaya and I are both available to answer any questions you might have and help guide you in your decision making process.  Grab that $400 off and sign up today.

A Recap of Our Journey Into the Heart: Ireland Yoga Retreat June 2018

What a journey it was.  Ireland. Green.  Magical. History and mythology everywhere we looked.  Thirteen of us journeyed there in June for a sweet adventure into the heart.  Our venue was the lovely eco retreat, Ard Nahoo, set in the rolling green hills of Letrim.  It was peaceful, serene and perfectly suited.  We meditated together in the morning, practiced yoga themed to a different ancient Irish myth, and dined on delicious fresh local vegetarian fare.  Did I mention desert?  It was really good!

We hiked up a mountain to the cairn of Queen Maeve, and canoed out to the Lake Isle of Innishfree to recite Irish poet W.B. Yeats’ poem of the same name. We restored ourselves with gentle yoga in the afternoons, took walks, had a seaweed bath in Sligo and visited the magical white horses next door.  The misty mornings burned off to bright sunny days.  We were lucky to have Bróga Bríomhar dancers & Riverstown CCE musicians come one evening to perform for us and get some of us up and dancing the brush (broom) dance!  Our hosts invited us for gin and tonics before dinner, taught us how to make Irish soda bread, carved us walking sticks for our hike and set up a bonfire where we offered our intentions for the retreat supported by our shared community and journey.

Yeats wrote:

Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand,

For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

For a week, we stole away from the weeping of the world and into our own hearts where we experienced healing, peace and community.

Below are some comments from those who attended.  But sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, so – here are some pictures courtesy of Michael Miller, Bea Cronin, Adventure Gently and myself.

Hope you can come next time!  Let me know if you’d like to.

Love,

Chaya

Here are just a few of the comments from the group:

This retreat has been one of the most joyful and inspiring experiences of my life.  The beauty is indescribable and the sense of community has been enriching.  I hate to leave.  I will strive to bring this all inside and with me.  Thank you, Chaya.  Clearly you put so much thought and love into preparing for this very special retreat. - Bea C.

We are changed because of the retreat. It was obvious the amount of time and self you put into the prep for this retreat and it was very appreciated. We have been processing our time at the retreat and marveling how it keeps leading to new thoughts, perspectives and ideas totally divergent from the original. - D & M Miller

This was better than I could have imagined!  What a rich experience – full of nature, poetry, music, mystery and legend and stories, yoga and meditation – a deep experience for me and transformative. - Lois PH

The retreat was perfect.  Location, people, hiking, canoeing, and of course the different types of yoga classes, from meditation to asana, restorative to yoga nidra.  It was a great experience.  Thank you, Chaya

Ronnie and Paul C.

I had great expectations, being an alumnus of Shree and inspired by Chaya for many happy days.  This retreat so exceeded my expectations.  To start the day with story, music, spiritual encouragement, journey through the day surrounded by natural beauty, and ended the day with shared blessing.  How do I manage in non-fairly land and ride the white horse.

Kate G.

Rest is Radical Magic

Restorative Yoga: Luxury or Necessity?

By Karon Shovers RYT 500, Anusara Certified Yoga Teacher

The weekly restorative class prepares and grounds me for the week.  It is a time I have carved out for self love and reflection.  The themes each week are terrific.  I share them and try to apply them to my daily life.  Yoga and meditation as well as Shree Yoga are like a sanctuary for me. 

I love the calm it offers my soul. 

L.S.

I often hear that Restorative Yoga is a luxury activity like a manicure or a massage or that it is for people who are not strong and flexible or can’t do a “regular” yoga class.  Some students believe that conscious resting will not help them shed unwanted weight.  Students who practice Restorative Yoga regularly claim that it is a necessity like brushing their teeth.  It helps prevent stiffness, back pain, feeling overstressed and helps them manage life.  What is the truth about Restorative yoga?

Restorative yoga compliments and magnifies the benefits of our asana practice and all types of movement.   It helps us unlock the secret to going slow, paying attention and sitting still.  When you practice intense rest you will discover more energy for your family, work, creativity and more vigorous exercise.

Rest is Radical Magic.

According to Roger Cole, sleep researcher, “Restorative Yoga allows you to recover fully from all the stresses and strains of life.  By relaxing muscles, lowering your heart rate and allowing your nervous system to stop constantly reacting, you are not only more relaxed but more focused and effective.”  This, in itself, lends to greater productivity and time management. 

We find that the practice builds on itself so the more you practice the more quickly you can drop into that place of calm and relaxation - whether that is in class or in daily life. Studies have found that consistent yoga practice increase serotonin levels and reduce monamine oxidase levels. As a result yoga has the potential to reduce stress, anxiety and depression. 

A 48-week study was done by the National Institute of Health to prove that Restorative Yoga can help people lose significant weight and subcutaneous fat.   Restorative yoga decreases the stress hormone cortisol, which is associated with weight gain, high blood pressure and heart disease. 

The fact that restorative yoga helps people lose weight is a good thing, researches say, because the more aerobic styles of yoga or a gym workout can prove to be challenging or intimidating for someone overweight or injured and restorative yoga is easily accessible to all.

Rest is radical magic.  Come take Restorative classes during the month of July for $10 and experience what going slow can do for you.

Mondays 6:00 PM

Tuesdays 10:45 AM

Thursdays 10:45 AM

Sundays 11:30 AM

On Fear vs. Joy

I was recently reminiscing about the first time we took my youngest son Rakhi skiing.  The Saturday night before we went we had a family movie night and watched Finding Nemo.  There is a scene right at the beginning of the movie where his dad, Marlin, is about to take Nemo to his 1^st day of school.  Marlin is instructing Nemo on how to leave their home cautiously: poke your head out, look around for danger, pull your head back in, then do it again, and again “just to be safe”, until Nemo gets so frustrated with his father’s anxiousness that he just swims away when Marlin isn’t looking. The next day I spent hours on the bunny slope with Rakhi, then 3 years old, surrounded by both little and big people, learning to conquer their fears on skis. Most of the little ones, including mine, were completely fearless, leaning into the hill, skis parallel, bombing their way down in a racer’s tuck, knowing some big person would get in the way to stop them before they crashed.  Or they would just crash and then get up and do it all over. I couldn’t help but feel that there is a middle ground between these two extremes.

Rakhi on his skis for the first time

Yoga teaches us the middle ground.  When we practice regularly we come to learn that most of our fears exist in our heads and serve no more purpose than keeping us imprisoned in self-limiting thought patterns and behaviors.  Here are some of the daily fears I live with: FOMO, saying the wrong thing, gaining weight, not fitting in, my kids saying or doing something hurtful to someone else, my classes not being interesting enough or inspiring enough or good enough...I could keep going but you get the point. Here’s the thing about fear and what it does to us. Fear of falling off a ski lift is a legitimate mortal fear and one we should listen to. The fear of saying something stupid is not, and yet from a physiological perspective, the reaction is the same: fight or flight, otherwise known as the stress response. Living with fear, or its punky little sister anxiety, is no joke.  Fight or flight pumps adrenaline through the body, which, when you are actually facing a bear on the bike path or saving your child from falling off a ski lift, can be super helpful.  But when it’s not a life or death situation, that same adrenaline that can help you fight the bear or catch the child causes increased heart rate, higher blood pressure and breathing rate, and slowed digestion. When we succumb to these daily little fears, we become perpetually stuck in a fight or flight cycle, which, since most of us are not in mortal danger with any sort of regularity, only functions to hold us back from the life we really want to be living.

One of the more popular slogans I hear in yoga and other mindfulness circles is “the opposite of fear is love”. Although I understand where this comes from, on the practical level this does not ring so true for me.  In fact, I think love (the love of my children and husband for example) has almost made me more fearful, because the more you love, the more you have to lose of course. For me, one of the best antidotes to fear is joy.  I was in a mindfulness seminar a couple of years ago and the speaker taught us that if you can connect to joy in the present moment, it’s nearly impossible to feel things like fear, anxiety, disquiet, or unease.  I have found this to be completely true in my own life.  When I am present with happiness my fears disappear.  And the ones that don’t, well those are the ski lift variety and those are the ones you should pay attention to. Melody Beattie says it like this: “Do not allow the fear of what if to ruin the joy of what is.” Connecting to pleasure is the doorway to releasing fear. Life doesn’t have to be so hard! A friend asked me recently “Is it possible to get where you want to go with pleasure rather than pain?” YES! But it is a choice, and not always one easy to make because it requires vulnerability, authenticity, and the courage to stand steady and strong in your own light.  It requires the risk of being seen in all your glory.

The actor Jim Carrey speaks about fear both eloquently and hilariously in his commencement address at Maharishi University in 2014.  It is worth listening to the whole thing when you have 25 minutes to spare (I often listen to motivational clips on YouTube while I make my children’s lunches in the morning), but here is one of my favorite clips from the speech: 

 “My father could have been a great comedian but he didn't believe that was possible for him so he made a conservative choice.  He took a safe job as an accountant and when I was 12 years old he was let go from that safe job. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which is that you can fail at doing what you don't love, so might as well take a chance doing what you love. Fear is going to be a player in life, but you get to decide how much.  You can spend your whole life imagining ghosts, worrying about the pathway to the future, but all it will ever be is what’s happening here, the decisions in that we make in this moment, which are based in either love or fear.  So many of us choose our path based on fear disguised as practicality.  What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect so we never ask the universe for it.  I'm saying I'm the proof that you can ask the Universe for it.  And if it doesn't happen for you right away it's because the Universe is too busy filling my order.”

For more YouTube inspiration, as promised, check out this video of the making of the song “This is Me” with Keala Settle from The Greatest Showman.

In yoga practice we open to the bigger energy of the universe, the energy that moves the planets, that breathes our breath, beats our hearts, and changes the tides. We come to know the part of ourselves that is an integral part of creation and we learn that we can participate in its unfolding in whatever way we uniquely can. We learn to take pleasure in what our bodies are able to do, the joy of challenging poses and the sweet reveling in their release and integration. Joy (Ananda) is one of the attributes of the Divine. When you choose joy you deepen your connection to God, Source, the Universe, love, or any other name you want to call whatever it is that is bigger than you and me and all of us.  We don’t have to look for it, it is always there, just like all the possibilities and passions of our hearts. When we are living with constant fear or anxiety joy can be hard to find and we feel stuck. We often find ourselves staring at what we think is a wall but it’s actually a door.  Sometimes we know it’s a door but we still choose not to open it because we don’t REALLY know what’s behind it. But if we believe we are truly worthy of love, of success, and of being happy, the barriers will disintegrate before our eyes.  

Off the Mat:

Visuzliation exercise: Unrecognized or unacknowledged fear keeps us from moving forward. Melody Beattie tells us that power comes from being vulnerable enough to say “I’m scared”. 

Take a moment to close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and get quiet with yourself.  Then ask yourself “What are you afraid of? What scares you?” See what comes up. As each fear arises, acknowledge it, face it then release its energy, let it dissipate. Usually the little things come up first but let yourself go deeper, and then deeper still.  What are you so afraid of you’d never voice it out loud?  Acknowledge it, see it, then release it.  Breathe it out with the exhale. 

Into the space you’ve created inside by releasing your fear, now invite in joy. What brings you joy or connects you to pleasure?  Bring to mind all the things that make you feel full, content, and connected, like a happy little parade marching across your consciousness.  The big things and the little things. Really let the feeling of joy arise inside you.  Let it well up and fill you up until you can’t help but smile. Then let go of your parade and just sit with the joy of simply being. 

On the Mat:

I made sure we did some scary poses this week, so we all got a lot of good practice at connecting to joy in the face of worry, stress, and challenge. I encouraged all my students to judge their practice by the level of joy achieved, rather than the depth of pose.  Because nothing magical happens when you finally nail ganda bherundasana (ok, maybe for a second), but it sure as hell does when you can live with joy in every moment.

What are you Manifesting?

When we were moving from Chicago 6 years ago, I came to New Jersey on a whirlwind tour of houses and preschools.  Since we had moved around a bunch while my older children were little, I had seen many, many preschools, but when I walked into “the one” and met Grace*, within minutes of seeing her classroom, her interactions with the children, and having a brief conversation with her, I knew she was the one my son needed to be with. She was such a source of help and strength for me that, a couple of months into that first year, I told her I was going to have to have another baby so we could stay in the school for many more years and she could keep helping me learn how to be a good parent.  So I did, and now my 3rd child has had her for several years, and my middle son has continued learning from her in the religious school program. Over the years she was someone I went to for advice about parenting and childhood issues - even when my children weren’t her students at the time - and she has always been there for me with a listening ear and thoughtful, helpful, relevant advice.  

(*Grace is a private person, and I am purposely not listing the name of the school and have changed her name to respect her privacy).  

I learned last week that her husband has had metastatic cancer for the last 8 years. As long as I have known her. She is a private person and didn’t want to bring her sorrows to work, so none of her students or their families knew. What affected me most deeply about this was how she was not only able survive herself and support her husband and her own 3 children through this time, but that she thrived.  Instead of his illness beating her down, which I’m sure it must have in some ways, over the time I have known her she has evolved as a teacher, always learning and doing what is best for the children. She shifted and changed the class’s curriculum based on her learning and the needs of the students, she presented at teaching conferences, developed a large online following for her early childhood work, inspired and taught hundreds of children, and coached me and so many other parents in being the best parents we can be.

Humans are powerful beings.  We are manifestors and creators, but it’s easy to forget we have that power, especially in the face of illness or injury.  When things aren’t going our way, it is so easy to feel like the victim, but there is another way. Grace could have easily let this tragedy pull her down into a dark place, she could have easily felt powerless in the face of the illness eating away at her husband.  Instead she harnessed the power she did have to create stability and magic and radical growth for so many children. 

It has been a hard year for me personally. It feels like the bad news keeps coming. I keep writing about it and about connecting to my power because it is what I need to remember for myself. All of us have struggles - busy schedules, injuries, illnesses, losses, and all of us are living in a toxic political climate in which many of us feel very powerless.  And yet, we have the ability to use the power that is available to us to manifest amazing things in spite of, or perhaps, in some mysterious way, because of it. I remember hearing an interview with the Great Mohammed Ali a few years ago, in which his speech was so slurred due to Parkinson’s disease that they had to have subtitles on the screen so we could understand what he was saying.  The interviewer asked how he got through every day, this man who had been the pinnacle of strength, fitness, and vitality for so many years, but who now could barely even speak.  He replied “By doing what I’ve always done, focusing on what I can do rather than what I can’t.”

When we practice yoga, we harness the power of the muscles and bones to transform our bodies. We harness the power of the breath to create vibrancy and health and connect to that which is infinite and ineffable inside us. We harness the power of the divine flow of life that moves through us to create the life we desire. It works. I have been able to use this practice to transform my own life. When I reflect back, I can clearly see all the ways that I have used my power to transform and shift and change things that needed to shift during times that I was particularly attuned to it.  It’s easy for me to write about this, but the practice requires work.  It’s not even such hard work, but it does require dedication and commitment.  We have to get on the mat or meditation cushion every day and DO it, do the practice. Doing so keeps us connected the inextinguishable spark of life inside us that is beyond our humanness, so the light of who we really are will rise up in the moments we need it to. Which, if we’re being honest, is pretty much every moment. As Christina Sell writes: “yoga [is] not a “time out” from a busy or stressful life, but [is], instead, a training in warriorship, a preparation for service, and an exercise in compassion.” Train on my friends. 

Off the Mat:

Notice all the ways you feel “the victim” in your daily life.  All the times “Why me?” thoughts arise.  When they do arise, focus your attention back to your power of manifestation. Remember what it is you want to bring forth in your day, in your life, and guide your awareness back to those thoughts and actions.  It is helpful to have a mantra or affirmation you can repeat to yourself in these moments to help turn your mind in the right direction.

Springtime is the perfect time to tap into your power of creation, when life is exploding into glorious wonder around you.

On the Mat:

Harnessing your power of manifestation starts with a vision.  Springtime is the perfect time to begin planting seeds you want to grow. What do you wish to manifest in your life?  What do you want to create?  Really, it all starts with love, the ultimate creative force of the universe.  What do you love?  What wants to come forth, through you? In each pose you create in your practice, begin with a vision, this is the moment of Opening to Grace where we soften and recognize our power. Then practice poses that reflect that highest vision you have for yourself, ones that help you connect to your power to create beauty and strength and express your intention through your practice. 

For the Anusara junkies:

Open to Grace: Soften and open to the power of the universe that exists inside you. 

Feel the power of the universe that comes to you as the breath, each time you inhale imagine you are bringing in all you wish to draw to yourself today.

Soften and know that even though we don’t have ultimate power over everything, we have the power to choose our experience in each moment.

Muscular Energy: Draw to midline to connect inside to the power of creation

Hug in to the place inside that is untouchable by the human challenges we all face.

Activate the wonder twin powers of your legs to manifest (your pose)

Turn on the power of your legs to ignite your creative power.

Organic Energy: Expand the dynamic potentiality of your power through your whole body.

Expand your vision into your being.

Shine the highest vision of your heart out to light up the world around you.

Fire at Shree

At 8:30 this Sunday morning, April 8, we began our regular offering of yoga classes. We enjoyed a lovely flow class with Valerie. The 10:00 am Beginner class, ever popular, went off without a hitch. However, in the middle of Elizabeth's Restorative Yoga and Meditation class at 11:30, a gust of brown acrid smoke belched into the studio around the beam that connects into the bathroom area, filling the studio. The class disbanded, our students being as always, so gracious and helpful exemplifying the sense of community that is found at Shree. Elizabeth called me and she moved all the props away from the wall to protect them. She opened and aired the smoke out of the studio. Fire department and police were called. The men doing the renovations had been using a welding torch and the area around had caught fire. Though a fire extinguisher was used to put out the immediate flames, the two fire departments that arrived on the scene found more smoldering burning insulation with a heat sensor. Bathroom walls were ripped out and water was hosed into the area. We stood outside praying that the water wouldn't penetrate into the studio. A miracle. It didn't. 

The studio is bone dry, fully aired out, smells fresh as a daisy and all classes are taking place as scheduled.  We are open.  We haven't missed a beat.

I feel such a sense of gratitude. We could have been burned to the ground - those old wood buildings that give Shree its unique airy and welcoming feel, can catch quickly. A big thank you to Elizabeth for handling the situation until I arrived, and staying with me throughout. And, to my husband William, right there by my side.

The biggest gratitude goes to the Saddle River Police and the many volunteer fire fighters of Saddle River and Wyckoff, the Fire Chiefs and Fire Marshall Rich, and others I wasn't even aware of, who came out on a Sunday afternoon - ready to battle the flames and restore order. Selfless Service or Seva is one of the great yogic components. We do yoga inside the studio, they do yoga outside the studio with their actions and generosity of time, skill, courage and caring. One kind volunteer fireman kept checking the studio to see if water was coming in and giving me the thumbs up. So thoughtful and kind. Blessings abound.

I am reminded of an oft touted saying, "life can change in an instant".  While this was a scare that could of ended in disaster for our beautiful studio and the important part it plays in many of our student's lives, not just as a physical practice, but as a provider of emotional and spiritual support, we were spared.  Carpe Diem.  Seize the day. Practice now while you can.  Live fully.  Life can, and does, change in an instant.

With gratitude,
Chaya

Spring Cleaning

We are in the week leading up to Passover and Easter, and hopefully more spring-like weather, so to me this indicates a good time to think about spring cleaning.  In many Jewish households, this week (and usually the several leading up to it as well) is spent scouring the house for any and every crumb of bread.  We actually search for anything made from the 5 leavenable grains, anything capable of rising or “puffing up”. The Hebrew word for these grains and their products is chametz. The word chametz comes from l'chmotz, which means to sour or ferment (fermentation is the process by which bread rises). In the physical world, this means sweeping under every couch cushion, vacuuming in crevices between furniture we usually ignore, and scouring your oven until it shines like the day you got it in order to rid your entire home of any last morsel of anything even remotely resembling bread (which, when you live in a house with 3 young boys, means it could be literally anything!). 

In the world of the spirit, we can also do a spring cleaning. This is a perfect time to examine what we have left to sour in our own hearts, to notice what we have left to ferment. I recently had to opportunity to make my own fermented elixir and the process included putting lots of strong, spicy veggies into vinegar, sealing it all with an airtight lid, and hiding it away in a closet for a few months. It was pretty stinky when I reopened it.  This happens with thoughts and feelings we allow to fester as well - and the longer they sit in the dark un-examined, the more murky and foul they become.

What injustice, hurt, or angry feelings have been left to embitter your heart? One of my favorite reminders is the saying “Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” This is the time to let go of the poison. It’s hard to let go of old patterns, forgive someone who has hurt us, or even forgive ourselves for a mistake or misstep. Jewish tradition holds that even after all the cleaning, on the night before Passover we ritually take a candle and a feather and search out every last crumb that might be hiding. To me this is emblematic of 2 things – the first is really taking a look into our own dark spaces, the nooks and crannies in our hearts we are usually too ashamed or afraid to look at, and bringing light to them. We can be a little softer with ourselves in the dark, and it makes the seeking somewhat less scary. The other part is the feather. Our old patterns and stories feel so real, so concrete, and often we can see no other way of being.  The thing is, most of the time they are just thoughts, ideas, or fabrications of our own human minds.  They aren’t reality, or at least all of reality, and they can be swept away with the brush of a feather if we are willing to let them go and see who we really are underneath the layers of everyday life. 

This spring cleaning of the heart is a particularly helpful practice to do before coming together with family where our old habits and behaviors have dug deep grooves in relationships. Ram Das famously said “If you think you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your family.” Doing a spiritual purge before engaging in intense family holiday time is important, not because it will make us a “better” or more “enlightened” people, but because when we look at our own sour places with compassion and self-love, we are that much more likely to look at others’ that way, and it opens up avenues of empathy and compassion and makes our interactions that much sweeter.

The way this has manifested for me this week (well, at least the one way I’m willing to share openly!) is with my leg. For the past few months I’ve been dealing with an old hamstring tear that I re-injured. Because of the injury, I’ve been in a lot of pain for what seems like a really long time. I’ve had to seriously modify my yoga practice and take some time off running and I am realizing this week as I seek out my soured places that I’ve been holding onto resentment and anger towards my leg for being the source of so much pain, and for not “allowing” me to do the things I love to do the way I love to do them, and towards myself for “stupidly” causing the injury in the first place. I recognize that I need to let go of my intense feelings about it, let go of my frustrations, and make space for the slow process of healing.  This is easy for me to acknowledge and write about, but each time I work on my PT routine, or try to jog a couple of miles and find myself hurting so much that I have to stop, or go to a yoga class where seemingly EVERYONE else in the room can do EVERYTHING it feels near impossible. I mean, I’m just trying to touch my toes for God’s sake, is that asking so much?! And yet I know this mindset is not conducive to healing, so my prayer right now is to forgive myself for hurting myself, to hold patient space for recovery and restoration, and to look at my injured leg with love and compassion. 

If you’re not feeling particularly sour towards anything in your life right now but are still interested in doing some spring cleaning of the heart, another way to do a Passover/spring cleanse is to look at all the ways you “puff yourself up”. On the physical level during Passover we forgo any food that has risen (puffed up by way of fermentation), but on the spiritual level we can look at all the thoughts and behaviors that make us feel self-important, self-righteous, entitled, or justified in thinking of anyone else as “less than”.  Notice in what situations the puffery of ego and pride rear their ugly heads in your spirit.  (Side note about ego: the Tantra doesn’t teach us that we should be free of the ego. Your ego is important, it is what makes you who you are! But we do want to have a healthy ego - to take up just the right amount of space, not too much and not too little.) 

The word Yoga means to yoke, or more simply said, union.  The goal of our practice should be to bring us into deeper connection with our loved ones, our community, nature, and ultimately the Divine. What sour, rotten story or pattern is clogging up your mind and heart and keeping you from seeing the beauty in each moment?  How are you puffing yourself up and disconnecting to those around you? As we throw the windows open to welcome the spring air into our stale and musty homes, throw open the windows of your heart, let the breeze enter and blow the crumbs and dust from the dark corners. Let the fresh air clear out the sour and festering sources of worry and despair and welcome the liberation that comes with letting go.

Off the mat: To really make change you need to be willing to let go of the old to make space for the new. Incorporate a pranayama practice into your day as often as you can which is focused on a longer exhale. Imagine with each breath out that you can let go of anything inside that needs letting go of. It’s helpful to notice where in your body you experience a tightening or grasping, and imagine that you are bringing softness, openness and light to those areas as you release your exhale and with it all that needs releasing from your mind or heart. We did Viloma B in my classes this week, using a 3-part strategy for completely emptying out every bit of stale air from our lungs. Kapalabhati works well too, or Bhastrika for seasoned practitioners.

On the mat: In my classes and in my own practice I focused on deep twisting.  Twists are self-regulating and detoxifying poses.  They squeeze and wring us out, helping to release toxins from all the internal organs. It can be as basic as a seated or supine spinal twist, or as challenging and complex as Eka Pada Koundinyasana I or Baddha Parivritta Parsvakonasana.

Baddha Parivritta Parsvakonasana

Eka Pada Koundinyasana I