By Karon Shovers, Certified Anusara Teacher, ERYT 500
I often hear that Restorative Yoga is a luxury activity, similar to getting a facial or 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 can help prevent stiffness, back pain and feeling over-stressed. What is the truth about Restorative yoga?
Restorative yoga compliments and magnifies the benefits of our asana (posture) practice and all types of movement. It helps us unlock the secret to going slow, paying attention and sitting still. When you practice intentional rest, you will discover more energy for your family, work, creativity and more vigorous exercise.
According to Roger Cole, a 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.
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 an added bonus, 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. Most importantly, Restorative Yoga is conscious relaxation and a valuable tonic to many mental and physical ailments.
Rest is radical magic. Come try out a Restorative class and add this important practice weekly or twice weekly to your schedule. You won't regret it.
Chaya and I spent much of last week at Samudra Shakti, the first gathering of licensed Anusara
teachers in the USA since 2012. There were more than 75 licensed teachers in
attendance, from all over the country and a few from Mexico. There were
teachers, like Chaya, who have been with the method its beginning, and there
were teachers who just became licensed in the last year or 2, and everything in
between. The gathering had the flavor of the true meaning of the word
Samudra, which has its roots in the Rgveda, and means “gathering together of
waters (oceans)”, or “convergence”, or “a body of water that rivers flow into”.
Chaya and I at the YMCA of the Rockies, where Samudra Shakti was held
Although I
tried not to, I went in with lots of expectations, but my aha moment was the simple
realization that we can choose to be awakened anytime we attune to the present
moment and allow ourselves to fully immerse in it. The philosophy that gives
life to Anusara Yoga has been around for 3000 years and is still around because
it is beautiful, life-affirming, and helps to create meaning and purpose in a
world that becomes more complicated by the day. Much of the retreat for me was
just a reminder of that core teaching; that the individual, the universe, and
the Absolute are one single continuous reality whose nature is consciousness
and bliss.When we open to that
reality, we step into the ever-flowing river of our lives with awareness and
openness and say yes to every emotion and experience, knowing that any of them
can have the capacity for a revelation. When I let go of expectations and just
listened, there was so much wisdom to be absorbed.
Anusara has
come far from its guru-centric tendencies and has stepped fully and gloriously
into its new manifestation as a teacher-led school. 35 teachers, including
Chaya, presented classes, workshops, meditations, chants, Q and A sessions, and
Open Space forums where ideas could be shared. Each teacher’s voice was
powerful and skillful. We
talked, we meditated, we sang, we chanted, we hiked, we made s’mores, and we
“did yoga” in every sense of the word. Everyone who wanted to have a voice had
one, which created a collective, diverse, and yet unified bigger voice. Anusara
Yoga has become the sum of its parts and greater, with over 1000 licensed
teachers worldwide and growing every day, including 3 teachers who were given
their full Certification at the retreat, one of whom was our beloved Adolfo.
Madhuri
Martin, one of the event coordinators created this beautiful intention for our
gathering and the future of our school: “We are only as awakened as the company
we keep. Shiva as a singular totality is entirely concealed in the diversity
and plurality of being. As we make the paradigm-shift to an entirely
teacher-run and teacher-held global yoga community, we recognize that we are
only as realized as we are a connected collective. Samudra Shakti acknowledges
that the seat of the teacher must move around the room, must continually shift,
to those who take up their own gifts, who show cultivation and whose
self-empowerment invites the seat of the community.”
I am so
proud to be a member of this organization, and so grateful to those who have
kept it going since 2012. I am grateful for the method’s powerful teachings,
once-again-strong community, and capacity to transform lives, including my own.
I am grateful to all the teachers that made beautiful offerings at our
gathering. I am grateful to those, including Chaya and I, working to make
Anusara more inclusive and more available to everyone. I am grateful to Chaya
for encouraging me to attend and be part of it. And I am most
grateful for the affirmation I received by just being there and being a heard
voice in the collective.
Estes Park
is a bowl-shaped valley surrounded entirely by the Rocky Mountains. It felt to
me like many rivers from all over the USA flowed into the chalice of that bowl for
4 days last week and converged in a beautiful ocean of learning, questioning,
conversation, and shared love, all while holding ourselves and each other to
our highest in speech, practice, and interaction. I am reminded of the words of
Rumi:
“You and I
have spoken all these words, but for the way we have to go, words are no
preparation. I have one small drop of knowing in my soul.
Let it
dissolve in your ocean.
A mountain
keeps an echo deep inside. That's how I hold your voice.”
To my fellow
Anusara teachers and students, thank you for the drops of knowing. I hold all
your voices still echoing in my heart. www.shreeyoga.com for more information on Anusara Yoga, classes and trainings.
Chaya leading the Hari Om chant, I'm on backup with John Seelye, Tiffany Wood and Carmel Calcagno, and Jaye Martin brilliant on clarinet
My son calls
these my grasshopper glasses. When I first started wearing them it was
challenging to have a conversation with someone because they spent the whole
time looking at themselves, fixing their hair or smiling at weirdly
inappropriate times in the conversation. Now I am used to it and I kinda
like it. Because this is what I strive for as a yoga teacher, to be the one who
holds up the mirror so you can see who you really are, beneath skin and muscle
and bone. In weekly yoga classes we get a glimpse of what the inner landscape
of our beings looks like, but there is only so deep we can go in a 60-90 minute
session. The Anusara yoga immersion is the opportunity to widen the view of the
magnificent vista of our innermost existence. If weekly classes are sporadic or
even regular dates, the Immersion is a committed relationship.
Truth be told, I
like teaching my weekly classes, but I love teaching Immersions! Webster’s
dictionary defines Immersion as: complete involvement in some activity or
interest; orabsorption,
concentration, engrossment, enthrallment, awareness, consciousness, raptness,
contemplation, meditation, rumination. The Anusara Immersion is a
systematic, comprehensive approach to engage with all the facets of yoga
practice, including a robust syllabus of asana (postures), pranayama (breath
work), Tantric philosophy (the philosophical system that Anusara yoga is built
upon), anatomy, and meditative practices.We use a template collaboratively created over many years by many
wonderful and wise teachers so that topics and poses covered build on each
other and flow in a cohesive and intelligent way, with enough time to integrate
the material thoughtfully and mindfully.
Perhaps the most treasured
thing that comes out of these Immersions is the sacred community that develops
among the participants. The group becomes a safe and nurturing space to come
together with like-minded people and have meaningful dialogue and experience in
a way that I think many of us are starved for in our current culture. This doesn’t mean
that we all agree on everything, but a mutual respect arises that allows for
everyone to integrate the concepts we study together in their own life in the
way that makes sense for each individual personally. Many precious and lifelong
friendships arise from Immersion groups.
Yoga scripture
teaches us that, yes, we are our hair and our bodies and all that makes us
beautiful on the outside, but that we are so much deeper and so much more than
any label we put on ourselves, or role that we play in our personal and
professional lives. The Anusara Immersion is a chance for a long,
delicious pause to look deeper than our skin and our habits, to the ever-present
light that is the nature of our existence, as far from us as our daily busy
lives can push it away, and yet as close as our own breath. Or maybe you
just want to learn how to do baby grasshopper pose, and that’s okay too.
Immersion I at
Shree yoga starts September 22nd. More info here. Early bird
discount ends August 7th.
If you’d like to
meet Rachel in person and hear more about the program, information sessions
will be held:
Wednesday August
7 8:30 – 9:00 am
Sunday, August 18
6:30 -7:00 pm
Wednesday
September 11 5:30 – 6:00 pm
Text or call
Rachel to RSVP for any session, or with inquiries, questions, concerns, or to
enroll today at 914.980.5879. Register now and join the lovely group already taking
shape to become engrossed, absorbed, enthralled, and enraptured. Make 2019 your
best year ever through the deep and transformational practice of yoga.
When my daughter was a baby, she slept poorly, nursed frequently and
cried mightily from repeated ear aches. I was exhausted.Beyond exhausted.I was doing a poor job at everything and felt
emotionally thin as a sheet.
I went on a weekend retreat to an ashram, or spiritual community.I was able to withdraw from my exhaustion and
stress.I chanted.I meditated. I practiced yoga.I spent time in nature. I retreated from all
that was causing me stress – just for 2 days.I went through the profound and transformative process of withdrawal into my Self.
I was refreshed and renewed by the retreat, and able to step back into
motherhood with more joy, fortitude and patience.
I offer a similar retreat to you.Whatever it is that is stressing you or making you feel emotionally thin:
a newborn, a job, care taking, teenagers or a loss, or simply the desire to get
away from it all, come for the weekend of August 2-4 to Ananda Ashram in
Monroe, NY, and join me in the process of moving back into your Self.
Registration is open.Space is
limited and filling fast.Details are here.
The weekend of April 5-7 I was privileged to co-lead “Journey to the
Heart of Anusara” retreat.57 students participated at beautiful Kripalu
Center for Yoga and Wellness in Stockbridge, MA.It was a wonderful experience all round. Here's a short video peek into the retreat:
Retreat is an opportunity to step away from the normal day
to day of life and dedicate time and energy to experiencing deeper connection
with oneself and with others.We
journeyed to the heart through inspiring stories, deep slow asana, meditation
and my favorite, Kirtan, or devotional chanting which is a fast track in.
One of the things that made Journey to the Heart of Anusara
Yoga Retreat so special was having four certified Anusara teachers working together:
myself, Tiffany Wood, John Seelye, and Jackie Prete. That meant that when one
of us was teaching, the other three were assisting. We were able to give
participants a lot of personal attention during classes. It was wonderful for
me to have the opportunity to focus solely on adjusting, enhancing, and
supporting the students without having to teach at the same time. Working as a
group of teachers was an inspiring experience for me and I look forward to
repeating it.Join us at Kripalu in
2020!Dates to be decided.
I left the retreat feeling refreshed and reinvigorated both as a person, a yoga practitioner and as a yoga teacher and studio owner. Working as team we share ideas, insights and techniques to enhance ourselves as Aunusara Yoga teachers.
I’m offering a sweet summer weekend retreat
at Ananda Ashram in Monroe in August.
Click here for details. Early
bird discount through May 1.
“I love Susan’s Strengthen and Stretch class - it’s a great
workout and fun. I highly recommend it.” ~ Bea
I created a new class for Shree a
few months ago called Strengthen and Stretch. I wanted to take all of
the great aspects from a normal yoga class but add more specific toning, strengthening and stretching aspects.
I added movements to give mobility to the joints and to help
strengthen our muscles, heart and mind. Gentle larger movements are
done to lubricate the joints, warm the body up and slightly elevate our heart
rate. We use body weight resistance and resistance bands to
strengthen and tone muscles in our legs, hips, chest, arms, shoulders and core
(similar to movements done in physical therapy). There are options
to every exercise to accommodate all fitness levels. The toning is
followed by slow deep stretching allowing our bodies and minds to release
tension, relax, soften and expand.
The class is slightly more intense than a yoga class with the added benefits of
strengthening and toning being worth the extra exertion. The mind has
a chance to slow down during the stretching portion and the seated meditation
and Shavasana feels heavenly after all the hard work. People leave class
feeling awake, energized and fulfilled from our practice ready to approach the
rest of the day.
Strengthen and Stretch takes place Wednesdays 12:15 -1:30 pm
weekly. Suitable for beginners and those
wishing to increase muscle strength and flexibility. No reservations needed.
Special
offer! Strengthen and Stretch class on Wednesday, March 27 at 12:15 pm is
only $10. See you there!
In India, there is no river more sacred than the
Ganges. She gives life to millions and
receives their cremated remains at the end.
She is considered not just a river, but literally a Goddess, Ma Ganga,
who is prayed to, honored with lights and flowers, and from whom blessings are
received.
I asked my husband and daughter during their visit to
Varanasi, a city on the banks of the sacred river, to say a prayer of blessing
for all the students and friends of Shree Yoga.At sunrise on January 23rd, a blessing was said for you
all.Candles and flowers are offered and
there is a magic in connecting so deeply to nature and the life giving force of
our rivers, oceans, mountains and valleys.Know that you have been blessed.If you have a moment, sit silently now and
open yourself to fully experience the beauty of countless blessings that are
pouring out to you all the time.This is
the meaning of “Shree” – a vast abundance of beauty and a perspective on life
that looks for the blessings amidst all that is.
