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Entries in yoga (3)

Tuesday
25Aug2009

The Pure Heart of Yoga

DateTuesday, August 25, 2009 at 11:38AM

Creative Healing Arts (soon to be home to my second office!) is kicking off their fall schedule with:

click image to orderAn Evening with Bob Butera, PhD, the author of:

"The Pure Heart of Yoga: Ten Essential Steps for Personal Transformation"

Wednesday, September 16th, from 7- 9pm

at Creative Healing Arts 1568 McDaniel Drive, West Chester, PA 19380


Seminar is $40 plus a signed copy of the book

 

Introductory Seminar Features:

  • Personal Intention
  • Attitude
  • Archetypal Patterns
  • Posture
  • Bio-energetic Awareness
  • Mental Focus
  • Energy Centers
  • Locks and Seals
  • Psychological Blocks
  • Emotional Transformation


For more information or to register, please contact createandheal@yahoo.com


Robert Butera, M.Div., Ph.D., is the publisher of Yoga Living Magazine and the director of The Yoga Life Institute in Devon, PA. He trains Yoga teachers, leads seminars and writes books on yoga. His programs and books emphasize individual education about health, emotional, social and spiritual growth as they relate to Yoga's comprehensive psychology. Bob is certified to teach yoga through The Yoga Institute of Mumbai in Bombay, India, and has a PhD in Yoga from The California Institute of Integral Studies. He has studied yoga, meditation and personal growth for over the span of 20 years in Japan, Taiwan, India.

AuthorGina Loree' Marks | CommentPost a Comment | | | Print ArticlePrint Article
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Tuesday
19May2009

Hot Buttered Epiphanies

DateTuesday, May 19, 2009 at 09:15PM

For the record, not my term.

This is Havi Brooks' description of what can be produced by her Shiva Nata non-sucky yoga practice.

I adore Havi. More about that later.

But even though I have been following her blog for the better part of a year, I never clicked on the little box depicting a multi-armed woman graphic. Not until about a month ago... just because I ran out of other interesting things to do on my computer (no offense Havi.) It was then I read the descrip of what this Dance of Shiva stuff was all about. And watched the video demo.

Oh. My. How utterly weird. And wacky. And yet I had to watch it again. And again. When I went to my husband's family reunion that weekend, I had to show them the video. And they were like, wow, how weird. But we couldn't look away.

Shelved it for the time being until I read a review about it on a new-found twitter friend's blog. This being in the midst of  a previous post's funkiness. The time was right, it would seem, to try something new.

Maybe a testament to the power of this thing, that I got some epiphanies hitting me before the package has even been delivered.. or maybe a culmination of a number of other things I've been working with. No matter. Funk be gone for the time being and that's a good thing.

In the meantime, Havi has delivered a super-secret download of prep info while I wait for the dvd's to arrive. In addition to once again confirming that I believe Havi to be my alter-ego, I got so giddy just reading the description of what this wacky arm and leg flailing practice can do for the brain, that I burst out laughing. And cried a little. Because what Havi specializes in is destuckification. Meaning helping us silly humans break free of the patterns that keep us from creating our big Thing. Sound familiar? You simply must read about this process for yourself as she explains it a heck of a lot better than the job I've been trying to do to anyone who'd stand still.


I'm excited, okay? I can't wait to make an arm-and-leg-flailing ass out of myself, which as you will read, is the whole point of the thing.

Pass the butter.

AuthorGina Loree' Marks | Comment6 Comments | | | Print ArticlePrint Article
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Tuesday
24Feb2009

Breathing Through Resistance

DateTuesday, February 24, 2009 at 08:06AM

In disciplines such as yoga and Makka-Ho, which require stretching, we are often guided to breathe into the places of resistance, tension and tightness. This is a gentler and more respectful means of meeting our limitations and bringing in patience without forcing the stretch, which can cause damage.

The other day, for no apparent reason other than that I was stretching at the time, I was thinking about this wisdom for use in regular life.

Having a moment to step outside the perspective of what was right in front of me, and looking at my life from a broader place, I could see areas that were open and spacious and flowing freely, and other areas that were stuck ... maybe even triggering discomfort when I thought about them.

But I knew from already testing this, that pushing against those areas only created more pain, more contraction and discomfort, and that 'doing' anything, or at least doing the things that I could only see possible in that moment, was not helpful.

So, I thought about approaching a stuck place like a difficult stretch. Just breathing into it. Accepting it as it is for now ... not necessarily letting it go, but when my mind would settle on it again throughout the day, as it always would, just breathe into it and let go of the irresistible need to push against it.

Somehow seeing a stuck problem as a tight hamstring helped lessen the magnitude and urgency of the situation, and reminded me that it's just something I have to work on slowly and with forgiveness to myself for getting into that state.

Are there areas of your life that you can reinterpret as tightness? Perhaps you can try stretching as you think about the stuck places, while you make the associations, and play with the difference between trying to push against the resistance, or just relaxing and breathing into it.

In the next post, I'll share an interesting way of gaining more flexibility by tapping into the proprioceptive system.

 

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AuthorGina Loree' Marks | Comment4 Comments | | | Print ArticlePrint Article
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