September

Well it's been a beautiful and busy summer at the studio and for me personally. I've neglected this poor blog in the face of workshops, trainings, vacations, weddings and puppies. But here I am, ready to write again!

On this first day of September I'm feeling like there's a new beginning ahead. But before we get to that, I'd like to recap some of the events and points of interest from this summer. Sort of like those September school projects we all remember; "What I did this summer".

1. Our big project this summer was finding great new teachers and planning a rocking Fall Schedule. With that new schedule starting next Tuesday (Sept. 7) I think we've accomplished our goal. Shakti Yoga Studio now has eight amazing yoga teachers and two reception rockstars on staff to serve you and teach you and help you along your yoga journey. Along with these great new teachers comes exciting new class offerings like Yin Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Power Flow Yoga, Detox Flow Yoga and more. Plus a full schedule of Hatha Yoga classes. To see Teacher Bios click here. And to find out more about the Fall Schedule read the Class Descriptions or view the Schedule (use the arrows above the schedule to get to the correct dates - new schedule starts Sept. 7)

2. Bobby and I took a little time for a fun photo shoot with the amazing Maurice Fitzgerald. You'll see these photos in our ads this Fall and who knows where else! We just love them.





3. Training, training, training, a yogis work is never done! In July I spent a week in Toronto with Robin Golt, training in the Anusara method. I'll be back again in October to finish up the "immersion" and get ready for the "teacher training" portion after which, I'll be able to bring Anusara-Inspired Yoga to our Studio. In October, Bobby is embarking on a 500-hour, professional level teacher training in India, returning to the ashram where she originally studied. We'll miss her while she's gone, but we know that when she gets back she'll have so much to share!

4. During the last weekend of August Mike Munro from Therapeutic Approach Yoga Studio in Halifax taught a Yoga Anatomy and Assists workshop here in St. John's. Twelve yoga teachers from across the province gathered at our studio to study and practice with Mike. It was an enlightening experience of bones and muscles and hands on adjusting. Thanks so much to Mike and his awesome skeleton!

Gratitude and Watermelons

Life is full of experiences that compel us to pause for thought. They can be a pleasure to embrace or a challenge to bear, however sometimes it is hard to decide which category they fall into. Last night at the end of a sticky 35 degree day I stumbled into one of the latter moments and discovered that this classification is not so very important as there is wisdom to be found in both kinds of experiences.

After a day spent in the heat of the sun I opened up the refrigerator and was reminded of the huge watermelon I had bought the day before. I gleefully hoisted it out of the refrigerator and commenced making the most wonderful mess of watermelon bits and juice all over the kitchen table. After chopping out a huge pile of half circle slices I sat down in the midst of it all and bit into the middle of one of them. As I was enjoying the sweet, cool, juicy fruit my brother walked into the room and saw me happily crunching, juice running down my chin and smiled at the scene. I suddenly felt bad because my little brother is recovering from a stroke in his brain stem that leaves him unable to swallow. While he is very fortunate that every other part of him is still functioning he is no longer able to eat food.

Watching me eat he was met once again with the constant craving for real food taste and texture. After a few moments of watching he decided to sit and “eat” with me. He placed small pieces of the fruit in his mouth and just enjoyed the flavour and texture, unable to let the fruit go any farther than his taste buds. What ensued was a watermelon experience of taste and texture exploration. Covered in the fruit’s sticky juice we laughed and discussed in great detail the taste, texture and all of the other glorious aspects encompassed in the eating of a watermelon at the end of that hot summer day. We talked about the smell, the crunching sound it makes when you bite in, the way it seems to cool your body and mind by taking over every single sense whether or not you swallow.

As I sat enjoying my watermelon I realized that until this moment in time I had no idea how to really enjoy a watermelon, no idea how to appropriately appreciate the gift of being able to eat a watermelon, and I was simultaneously awed and humbled by the courage and strength of my little brother’s spirit .

The next morning, with this memory fresh in my mind, I took the rest of that watermelon out of the refrigerator with the respect and reverence it deserved. I did not boil the kettle or look for a newspaper to read. Instead I simply prepared my watermelon to be eaten. I listened carefully as the watermelon crisply parted under my knife, smelled the aroma that was released, felt the juice drip on my hands, and looked carefully at the deep red fruit before biting in. I proceeded to experience the moment as it deserved to be experienced with awareness and gratitude to all of those in the long line of planting, nourishing, harvesting, and transporting this fruit to me and most of all to my brave and inspiring little brother who taught me how a watermelon should be eaten.

Written by Bobby Bessey, B.Sc.,RYT, Doula CD (DONA)

Yin Yoga @ Shakti Yoga Studio

This weekend we're welcoming yoga teacher Stephanie Guitar to our Studio and to St. John's for the first time! Stephanie is a teacher and studio owner in Fredericton who has trained with Paul Grilley, the instructor that brought much of the Yin Yoga method to the United States. From Friday to Sunday Stephanie will be facilitating a Yin Yoga immersion that will help students learn a new method and deepen their practice and will enable yoga teachers to incorporate Yin Yoga classes in their teaching.

Yin Yoga is quite a departure from the more "yang" styles of yoga many of us are used to. Yoga Journal describes the difference:

Yin can be described as stable, immobile, feminine, passive, cold, and downward moving. Yang is depicted as changing, mobile, masculine, active, hot, and upward moving. In nature, a mountain could be described as yin; the ocean, as yang. Within the body, the relatively stiff connective tissue (tendons, ligaments, fascia) is yin, while the pliant and mobile muscles and blood are yang. Applied to yoga, a passive practice is yin, whereas most of today's hatha yoga practices are yang: They actively engage the muscles and build heat in the body.

Long holds in passive postures can be quite a challenge for people used to a more yang approach. The slowness and the quietness makes the mind race, while the lack of aesthetic importance in the postures make our egos a little bored. But if you can move through these feelings rather than fight against them Yin Yoga could offer great rewards. Again, from Yoga Journal:

"'Landing in this practice helps you take up residence in the body without a need for it to perform' ... When you stop striving and tune in to what's happening, you begin to truly feel the sensations in your body and mind as they arise. Once you accept that you will feel many things during a Yin practice—discomfort, boredom, anxiety—and learn to stay with the chorus of thoughts and feelings, your relationship to them will begin to change. You will learn that you have the inner strength to stay in situations you previously thought you couldn't handle. You will see the impermanent nature of thoughts and feelings as you watch them arise and then pass on their own. And when you stop resisting what's happening around you, you'll gain a sense of liberation and trust in life."

Once this immersion is complete, you can look forward to Yin Yoga at Shakti Yoga Studio. We'll likely offer this style in the Fall. Until then, you can explore the series of postures Yoga Journal presents in their article Soothe Yourself.

Namaste
Meaghan

Enjoying Silence

Recently a student thanked me for class and shared her love of the "silent moments" during our practice. She reflected that those moments of quiet are a rarity in our busy lives, something that I'm sure we can all appreciate.

Early in my years of yoga study, I too came to appreciate silence. At first, the intentional pauses during class would seem jarring, and the long-held silence of savasana was very near torture. The busyness of my mind seemed louder than any music or voice. It seemed that when the calm sound of the teacher's voice ceased, the real noise took over...what was up with that?

But slowly I got used to that silence. And funny enough, the noise in my everyday life, which I'm sure I had never even noticed before, suddenly became so obvious! The music blaring from the car radio, the chitchatting in the university cafeteria, the tv playing in the background even though nobody was watching. Where had all this noise come from? Surely I would have noticed this before!

During one especially significant moment I was speeding down the highway rushing to yoga class. As my mind raced "I'm late, I should have left earlier, I'll interrupt everyone" loud music blared from the radio. I hardly noticed. As I kept up this speedy inner dialogue my whole body tensed and my foot pressed more firmly on the gas pedal. Until suddenly I noticed the noise and turned the radio off. With that, my breath slowed, the car slowed and my mind switched to a more mindful, appreciative inner dialogue: "I'm going to yoga, I'm going to nourish my mind and body, it's ok if I'm a few minutes late, I'll enter quietly and everyone will understand".

Since then I've been very mindful of the effect sound has on our well being. Sounds of all sorts have their time and place. Loud isn't always bad, sometimes loud music is just what the soul needs! But the key is to choose how sound will be a part of your life rather than always having it in the background and just never noticing. If I want to listen to music in the car, I do. But sometimes I don't want to and so I turn it off and enjoy the silence. Sometimes I like to play music when I practice or teach yoga, but sometimes my well being or that of my students is better served without music.

Yoga teacher and writer Georg Feurstein says "it is in silence and as silence that we discover our authentic identity, the Self". Ultimately integrating moments of silence into your life will lead you to stillness, which is the ultimate goal of yoga. Here are a few easy ways to experiment with quiet:

- the next time there is a moment of silence during a yoga class, or even a longer silence as in savasana, notice your reaction to it. Don't judge your reaction or label it as "bad", just notice. This will help you understand your existing relationship to quiet. From that place of understanding you can begin to accept the silence. Use your breath as a point of meditation and follow the inhale and the exhale, letting thoughts go as you breathe.

- when you find yourself having a conversation with a friend or family member notice other sounds in the space. Is there music? Is the television on? Maybe you even notice the sound of a fan or a computer humming. If these are sounds you can control, turn them off and notice the change in your attention level during the conversation.

- take 10, 15, 30 or even 60 minutes out of your day and commit to the practice of mauna, or silence (not speaking). The beginning or end of your day, or beginning or end of your yoga class is a good time to practice mauna. Notice the effect that not speaking has on you and those around you. At first you may feel silly or anti social, but as you continue to practice, you and the people around you will come to appreciate the positive effects of silence (even in small doses!)

- turn off the stereo, car radio, television and/or any other electronic device that creates sound when it is not actively being used and enjoyed.

- before you fall asleep at night and before you get up in the morning take a few moments of silence to observe the natural noises during these inherently quiet times. Maybe you can hear birds in the morning or the sound of the wind. In the nighttime perhaps there's music coming from a home nearby or the sound of dogs barking. Acquaint yourself with these natural sounds and enjoy them for what they are. These are noises that already exist around you. When you speak, play music, or turn on the hairdryer these new sounds are being layered on top of the natural noises to create the everyday hum of life!

In silence and stillness,
Meaghan

Beginner's Blog

There's a new blogger over at Yoga Journal and already I'm loving her posts. She's fairly new to yoga and will be blogging about her experiences as a beginner. So far her posts are funny ("I don't know a hootkatassana from a pranayama") and genuinely reflective of the concerns beginners have when they start taking yoga classes. My favorite line: "What if I'm dying half way through the class, and I have to spend 45 minutes in Child's Pose? What if my pants won't stay up and my shirt won't stay down?"

If you're new to yoga (or can remember a time when you were new to yoga!) you'll enjoy Kristin's insight. And maybe you'll take solace in the fact that other people also worry about their feet/stamina/clothing/flexibility, etc., etc!

About Anusara Yoga

Thanks to Anusara Yoga on Facebook for alerting me to this lovely clip of writer KB and Anusara-Inspired Yoga Teacher Mindy Willis discussing the practice of Anusara.

Online Bhagavad Gita Discussion Series

This weekend I learned from YogaDork that frequent blog commenter and poster Bob Weisenberg has started an online Bhagavad Gita discussion series. Excitement! I rushed out to Chapters to buy the only copy they had (the version being used is the translation by Stephen Mitchell).

If you're not familiar with the Bhagavad Gita, it is one of the main texts in the yoga philosophy system. It is also widely acknowledged as one of the world's most important literary and spiritual works. Weisenberg, in his Gita Discussion #1 post, says "The Bhagavad Gita is one of the “big three” ancient Yoga texts, along with the Upanishads and the Yoga Sutra. The Yoga Sutra gets 95% of the attention, but it is quite incomplete without the other two. The three together are nothing short of astounding."

Gita Introduction

The Gita is one part of the Indian Epic the Mahabharata. In total, the Mahabharata, which is a very long poem, is longer than the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. Book Six of the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, takes place on a battlefield at the beginning of an epic war. The good and virtuous clan or army is led by Arjuna, the hero of the Gita.

At the outset, Arjuna is driven on chariot to the space between the two armies where he surveys the situation. In that moment he is overwhelmed by what is about to happen - the imminent death of his friends, teachers and cousins that stand on both sides of the field - and so, he drops his weapon and refuses to fight.

At this point his chariot driver Krishna (who, as it turns out, is God incarnate) begins his teaching about "life and deathlessness, duty, nonattachment, the Self, love, spiritual practice, and the inconceivable depths of reality" (as Mitchell's introduction explains).

The Gita is a beautiful story that teaches the path of yoga (and specifically Karma yoga, the yoga of service). It is an epic poem that shows us the way to one essential truth - the peace and wisdom we seek already exists within us. Through Krishna's monologue we become more aware of this truth.

Online Discussion

If this sounds like something you're interested in exploring, Weisenberg's online discussion will be a great place to start. Already there is a wonderful mix of people taking part - some are brand new to the Gita while others are well versed in its teachings. Together, we'll all be creating an amazing dialogue which will help each of us in our personal Gita study.

The discussion will take place on Elephant Journal. Check out the first discussion post and reading assignment. You can also join the Facebook group to get discussion updates by email.

Getting the book in St. John's may be a challenge. I picked up the last copy at Chapters, but you can check the other bookstores. Also check The Bookery on Signal Hill as they often have hard-to-get titles. I'll do some calling around and update everyone about where to find it. (*UPDATE* there are no copies at either Coles location or at Chapters. The Bookery is closed on Monday's so I'll try them tomorrow).

Here are the online links for the title: Amazon and Chapters. An order from one of these sites won't take long to arrive and you can still follow along in the online discussion until then (the blog posts will remain online, so even if you're reading at a different pace you'll still be able to participate).

While you wait for your copy to arrive I'm happy to lend mine out overnight (the reading assignments are short) to anyone that would like to keep up. Just let me know and we can swap at the studio.

If you plan to take part, leave a comment here. While the big discussion that Weisenberg is initiating will be very beneficial, it's also nice to connect to a local community of people taking part in this type of study!

Namaste
Meaghan