Michele's August Yoga Newsletter

Hello all,

Summer is coming to an end and school will be starting soon. Hope this finds everyone relaxed and rested from busy summer vacations, heat, and schedules, ready to renew your commitment to your yoga practice. Please enjoy this August newsletter with articles on Living Your Yoga... Beyond Preconceived Notions and External Appearances, Focus on the Pose: Meditation, and Kids Corner featuring highlights from this summers kids camps.

See you on the mat,
Blessings and peace

Michele’s Yoga Post
Living your yoga… on and off the mat
AUGUST, 2011

Michele’s Appearances:

NEW CLASSES:

Sun. 5:30 (60 min.)
DC Fitness, White House
ROCK YOUR ASANA
Yoga poses to funky, hip, and happening music. Be prepared to sweat, swoon, and swivel your stress away!
*Begins the end of August

Tues. 7:15 (75 min.)
My Hot Yoga Place
HOT YOGA
*Resumes in August, stay tuned









COMING SOON:
• Kids yoga coming to Steadfast and True Yoga in Nashville…
www.steadfastandtrueyoga.com

• Kids yoga coming to 1st United Methodist Church in Hendersonville
merrilee.wineinger@hfumc.org


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Current YOGA teaching schedule:


Mon/Fri 6:00 am (60 min.)
My Hot Yoga Place, Hendersonville HOT YOGA
www.myhotyogaplace.com

Mon. 6:15 pm (75 min.)
DC Fitness, White House HOT CORE
www.dcfitnesscenter.com


T/Th 9:00 am (60 min)
First UMC in Hendersonville
Room 250
Level 1 and Therapeutic Yoga
*Resumes August 16

Wed. 7:00 pm (60 min.)
(2x month, ck on line)
DC Fitness, White House
HOT YOGA
www.dcfitnesscenter.com






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Living Your Yoga… Beyond Preconceived Notions and External Appearances
“By letting go of our fears and negativity, and learning to see the best in ourselves and others, we can provide a powerful impetus for positive change. It is through this ability to go beyond preconceived notions and external appearances that we can transform our lives and those of our children.” ~Sonia Sumar

I have been studying yoga as a therapeutic approach toward helping people reach their fullest potential. Recently I came across this quote from Sonia Sumar’s book, Yoga for the Special Child. It supports what I have come to understand as people’s ability to limit their own potential for healing. Somehow we have developed a concept of yoga that includes only the bendy, flexible and fit individuals when in fact the true potential of yoga includes all bodies in whatever form they present themselves.

It is our own concepts and thoughts that limit us from reaching our fullest potential as embodied beings. Yes the body can serve as a vehicle for growth, positive change, and healing in whatever form the body shows up. I am fascinated with those that venture into a yoga class exposing their limitations; their extra weight, their arthritic bones, their contracted joints. Those that are courageous enough to show up despite any preconceived notion, limitation, or fear are the those that will reach beyond the bodily experience of yoga, what I like to consider the surface level experience in a yoga class, and delve deeper into the subtler, more energetic layers of the body; those places that hold the emotions, and the very spirit of the practicing yogi.

These layers are what promote therapeutic healing to the practicing yogi. Through repetition, commitment, and faith one shows up to the mat, taking in not only the bodily experiences but those discoveries that lie deeper. Moving into the crevices of fear and negativity to discover what lies there is part of the process of discovery. Only through the experience of these less desirable emotional states and physical limitations does one discover a path toward healing through getting rid of our preconceived notions of health and wellness by moving energy around within. In this way transformation truly occurs.




Focus on the Pose: MEDITATION… Here’s how:
Commit to this meditation 4 times a week for the month of August.
Commit to 10 minutes, set a timer with a soft alarm. Move to a quite space, minimizing distractions. Begin in easy sit either on the floor or in a chair with your spine erect and if in a chair your feet firmly planted on the floor. Closing your eyes may make it easier to go inside. Take several deep cleansing breaths – drawing breath into the belly, the side ribs, and the collarbones/heart. Feel the energy of the breath moving up and down the spine. When your mind is quiet begin the following prayer. Say in your mind with each breath the following prayer taught by the Buddha:
Inhale: The thought manifests as the word,
Exhale: The word manifests as the deed,
Inhale: The deed develops into habit,
Exhale: And habit hardens into character.
Inhale: So watch the thought and its ways with care Exhale: Silence
Repeat several times in the 10 minutes. Then when you are feeling peaceful, sit in silence a few minutes absorbing the power of the words in a fully energized body. Take one last deep cleansing breath raising your hands over your head and bringing them together in prayer. Draw the hands down the midline to rest at the heart center. End your meditation with Namaste (bowing to the divine spirit present in and around you).

KIDS CORNER:

This summer’s kid’s camps were a huge success at both the Down’s Syndrome Association as well at the 1st UMC in Hendersonville. Kids came together to learn about the systems of the body (skeletal, and muscular systems in particular), nutritional awareness and of course lots of yoga. The kids got to learn individual asanas such as Warrior, Rock, Frog, etc. as well as partner poses and yoga games.

There has been interest in Hendersonville of having an ongoing yoga class for kids. Once plans are finalized a class will begin at the 1st UMC in Hendersonville as well as Steadfast and True in Nashville.