The way Demand.Film works, the show only screens if enough tickets are sold so please reserve your tickets well ahead of time so that we can all enjoy this experience together.
See you there!
**IMPORTANT UPDATE**
Andrew and the other kind folks at Demand.Film have created a special coupon code that gets us 10% off the ticket price!
It can be used individually, so we can each purchase our own tickets. Please use coupon code "Tara10" to get the discount!
According to the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, there are 72 000 channels in the body through which life energy flows. They intersect at hubs referred to as chakras, meaning "wheels". These chakras are knots which prevent the rising of Kundalini.
Tibetan Buddhist practitioners of Yoga have their own unique interpretation of this system of subtle channels which you can read about here, here and here.
Geshe Michael describes the history of this series and the life of Lady Niguma here.
Known in English as "the splits" Hanumanasana requires considerable flexibility in the legs and back.
It is a posture that demands your complete physical attention and yet may only become an asana when you bring more to it than mere physical effort.
Hanuman is a popular character in Hindu mythology. In the epic Ramayana, it is Hanuman the monkey who locates the kidnapped princess Sita and leaps across the ocean between the southern tip of India and the island of Lanka to deliver a message of encouragement and hope along with her husband's ring.
Similarly, on the mat, the posture that mimics Hanuman's giant leap demands patience, persistence, steady breathing, truthfulness and positive intention.
"To start the journey, I needed firm intention." Hanuman said. "To make the leap I needed strength and courage. To overcome the obstacles along the way, I needed flexibility and cunning. To find you, I needed perseverance. To speak with you and win your trust, I needed patience and discrimination. Through Lord Rama's grace, I found all these qualities within myself, and was able to complete this journey." Quote from "Hanuman's Great Leap"
You can learn more about the mythology behind Hanumanasana here.
If you would like to experience this exhilarating posture for yourself, please check out this blog post first, for some great tips and warm ups.
Join me at Yoga Within this Saturday from 1-4pm for a fragrant journey through the chakras honoring the earth element with asanas and aromatherapy!
Incense, spices, herbs and flowers have all been used since ancient times to maintain physical health, elevate the mind, and connect to divine essence.
Uplift and ground your energy through relaxing yoga postures and your sense of smell. Practice beautiful "scent-ering" rituals, sample an all-natural "body incense", learn how essential oils can enhance your yoga and meditation practice, and more!
Inversions are perhaps the most seductive, the most dramatic, and the most intimidating of all the Yoga asanas.
Ask someone to turn their body upside down, and you will often see an array of emotions like doubt, fear and aversion arise.
Surprisingly, in difficult times, these postures can help us to shift and regain perspective, to literally get back on our feet.
Of course, extreme inversions are not for every body!
If you have a neck or eye problem, high blood pressure, heart problems etc. that make it difficult or dangerous to put your head below the level of your heart for extended periods or even for a few moments, please heed your own inner wisdom and the advice of your health professional.
That said, there are inversions to suit students of all levels of strength and experience.
When in doubt, and especially in times of physical, mental or emotional distress, choose an easy, comfortable posture and see how it feels before attempting more a challenging version.
And here are just a few of the benefits of inverted Yoga poses:
1) Inverted asanas give your heart a rest as gravity helps to return venous blood to the heart.
2) They bring a rich supply of nutrients to the brain, spine and nervous system, rejuvenating the whole body.
3) They improve memory, focus, concentration, intellectual capacity and sharpen the senses.
4) They relieve physical and mental lethargy and sluggishness.
5) They can help transform sexual energy into spiritual Shakti.
6) Improve circulation, relieve varicose veins and swollen legs.
7) Boost your mood by nourishing poise, balance and confidence.
According the Yoga Tatwa Upanishad, Shirshasana, the Headstand, known as the "King of Asanas" can even help you conquer time! So the next time your world is feeling topsy turvy, try turning your body upside down. Things might just look alright again!
Rose, Candice's Garden Tour, Raja Yoga Summer Camp, 2013
"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."
- Rumi, Sufi Mystic
The Heart Centre, or Anahata Chakra, is the main portal through which we relate to and accept ourselves and the world. It is also considered the main knot in our energetic bodies.
Here are a few simple suggestions for opening the heart:
- Volunteer! Karma Yoga or helping others, feels good for everyone and breaks down perceived barriers between "us" and "them".
- Sing! Bhakti Yoga, chanting, singing, dancing, ceremony, arts, crafts and cultivating an connection with the Divine are wonderful ways to release and express pent-up emotions.
- Practice Yoga! Hatha Yoga moves prana or energy, and shifts feelings of stagnation or contraction. Energetic vinyasas like Surya Namaskar are great for strengthening the physical heart, and backward bends like Bhujangasana (Cobra), Dhanurasana (Bow), and Chakrasana (Wheel) are considered excellent "heart openers".
- Breathe! Connecting with your breath is calming for the mind and the nervous system.
- Stop and smell the roses! Roses have an exceptionally high vibrational frequency. Even if you don't have a bottle of precious rose essential oil at home, you can visit your favorite Middle-Eastern grocer and buy some rose water to use instead of commercial facial toner, spread rose jam on your toast, and infuse dried rose petals in your tea. Or take a trip to your local florist or greenhouse and bury your nose in the most fragrant blossom you can find!
For more inspiration about the Anahata Chakra and more suggestions for exploring your heart, check out this lovely post on the Free People blog.
Tradition says that Shiva is the Adi-Guru or first teacher of Hatha Yoga.
Wanna hear the story of how yoga first came to human beings?
Shiva's first student was Parvati, the Mother of the World and his beloved consort. She was saddened by the suffering of human beings. Out of compassion, Shiva shared these teachings with her.
Some stories say they went to a small island or a remote riverbank or a deserted beach. Others claim they had a beautiful bubble lair at the bottom of the ocean.
As Shiva spoke, a fish (Matsya in Sanskrit) overheard. Shiva turned the fish into a Siddha, or realized being who became known as Matsyendranath or the Lord of the Fishes.
Others say that Matsyendranath was swallowed by a fish when he was just a boy. The fish happened to be resting near the divine couple as they were discussing the secret wisdom of yoga. From within the belly of the fish, Matsyendranath overheard. He practiced what he learned with vigor and determination. When he escaped from the fish belly twelve years later, became a fully realized master and a liberated soul.
Either way, Matsyendranath became the second teacher of yoga, the one who brought it to humanity. He is revered by Hindus and Buddhists alike as a Guru in both paramparas, or lineages of yoga.
As the first human guru was known for meditating in a particular asana, the position became known as Matsyendrasana, or the Seated Spinal Twist, one of the few postures described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.
Ardha Matsyendrasana, or the Half Spinal Twist is one of the twelve basic postures in a traditional Sivananda yoga class. It has numerous benefits for the abdominal organs and the spine, and helps to rouse latent spiritual energy.
Some versions claim that Parvati fell asleep and missed the whole teaching. Perhaps this is a metaphor for the human condition. The yogis say we spend most of our lives unaware of our own potential and therefore unable to fulfill it.
Or perhaps it is a reference to Kundalini Shakti, the spiritual force that lies dormant or "asleep" in the Muladhara chakra at the base of the spine waiting to be channeled upward.
However you interpret this mighty fish tale, it highlights the power of yoga to transform.
For the very first time, Intermediate Hatha Yoga classes continue all through the summer at Yoga for Today in Sherwood Park, Alberta, on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings!
Sunday Mornings: Untangle "knots" and stimulate the flow of prana with intervals of asana and vinyasa. Balance the chakras as you strengthen and relax.
I hate to admit it, but these photos have been hanging around in my files since Autumn of 2008.
My Mom took them for a project that never quite saw the light of day.
Although I could have posted them here long ago, I didn't.
Why not?
Downward Dog Pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Well, frankly, I didn't like the way I looked so I didn't want anyone to see them.
In fact, I didn't want to have to look at them myself.
But yesterday I came across some inspiration - a community of curvy yoginis who practice with passion and ahimsa, look awesome and aren't afraid to show it!
Anna Guest-Jelley of Curvy Yoga in Nashville is gathering photos for her gallery as a loving response to the lack of representation we curvy girls (and big guys for that matter) get in yoga magazines and marketing.
Reading her body-positive posts and the feedback from her readers inspired me to send a few for her to choose from.
I came home on Sunday to discover my neighbors in my yard with machinery "stealing" my Saskatoons! It turns out they were making pies to sell at the local diner to raise money for homeless seniors downtown.
The very next day as I was out walking, another neighbor offered me bowls and bowls full of berries from her bush. Big wheel keep on turnin', karma keep on burnin'!
For me, Saskatoons = Summer. Since my childhood I remember scouting for wild berries each year and struggling with bowl and bent tree limb, or just picking and eating right off the branch. I've always loved the sweet taste of the berries, warm in the sunshine, unwashed and unprocessed but they are equally delicious in jams and pies, on french toast and cereal.
No doubt in addition to their Karma Yoga, my neighbors were picking for the same reasons I do, to share the sweetness of nature's candy in the brutally short northern growing season. But these precious prairie treats also have an esteemed history as a staple food for the native population and pioneers in this area because of their outstanding nutritional value and versatility.
Modern nutritionists call them a "superfruit", they are so loaded with antioxidants that they are even better for us than blueberries!
In the Yoga Sutras, the author Patanjali mentions very little about the asanas or poses which we are so familiar with in Yoga today. What he does say, is this:
Sthirasukhamasanam (Yoga Sutra 2:46), or in other words, the poses should be sthira (steady) and sukha. Now most often this word sukha is translated as comfortable, so that the translation usually comes out something like, "The postures should be steady and comfortable".
But I'd like to add a little to that definition of asana, on the topic of sweetness.
"According to Monier-Williams (1964), the etymology of sukha is "said to be su ["good"] + kha ["aperture"] and to mean originally 'having a good axle-hole'...." Thus, for instance, in the Rig Vedasukha denotes "running swiftly or easily" (applied, e.g., to chariots). Sukha is juxtaposed with duḥkha (Sanskrit; Pali: dukkha; often translated as "suffering"), the elimination of which is the raison d'être of early Buddhism.[3][4]|" from Wikipedia
In other words, there should be an element of a "good ride" inherent in the asana.
But also, etymologically speaking, some say there is a connection between the Sanskrit word sukha, and our modern words sucre (French), Zucker (German) and sugar (English)!
To me, this suggests that the definition of asana by Patanjali must include this element of sweetness. It seems to imply a joy or succulence in the stillness of the posture.
I won't deny, I had some pretty choice non-Yogic thoughts about the position I found myself in when I saw my neighbors raiding my stash... but it reminded me that nearly every position we find ourselves in is akward... at first. If instead of reacting to our discomfort, we can be still with the akwardness, we often find it shifts and we are able to identify with the sweetness or ease in the posture or in the situation instead.
In this situation, what could be sweeter than neighbors who care about and act for the sukha; for the comfort, ease and enjoyment, the "good-ride" of others?
I will end this post with a beautiful Sanskrit mantra which includes this same sweet word:
Loka samasta sukhino bhavantu. "May all beings be happy. May all worlds attain peace and harmony."
Or from this perspective, "May all your worlds be as sweet as warm ripe Saskatoons."
