Greetings and June Warmish Salutations!

I hope this finds you each so well and enjoying the summer heat.

This Sunday 2-5 pm we have our inversion workshop, hope you can attend to practice the sweet nectar of yoga, being upside down.

Upon my return from NYC (see the blog on awards and reviews for short videos of the award ceremonies for Vital Yoga) I had the pleasure of meeting a student of Vastu at the studio.  Vastu is ...

Vastu Shastra is the ancient Indian science of design and planning of structures. It’s based on the science of direction balancing energy and matter. Vastu (Vas + tu) is a Sanskrit word that means ‘to live’. Vastu is also termed as ‘Vastu energy’ that means living energy or life force. (http://www.knowyourvastu.com/)

and our yoga studio friend added that it's the sense of organizing your outer space and inner space.  And she had just been studying with Dr Lad who made a point more than once not to have deities facing south.  So with her help we've moved the studio around a bit to facilitate energies and flows within and without.  Let us know how it works for you, try keeping and open mind and heart as you practice and see what you think.

The lovely deities around the perimeters of the wall will be re-hung higher so that no one can kick them down.

Many blessings on all our heads,
namaste,
Meta.


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GREETINGS and Happy Memorial Day Holidays!

Special offering: 


Satyabhama, partner of Namadeva, Thomas Ashley-Farrand is in town for a short visit and wanted to make this offering to our community.



join us as sit in sacred sangha (group of like minded individuals)

Namaste,
Meta.





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Greetings from the Skies,


I'm writing this 30,000 feet high approximately over Arkansas on my way to NYC to attend the Book Expo America and to receive two awards for Vital Yoga: A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers.  I'm so honored and grateful that Vital Yoga is receiving recognition (Gold Medal Living Now Book Award and Next Generation Indie Book Award) because this will hopefully mean more people read the book and discover the magic of yoga.

Speaking of magic, thanks to my dear friends I have discovered an amazing cookbook, Lord Krishna's Cuisine, The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking.  I've been enjoying the whole process of learning new cooking techniques and enjoying the scrumptious and satisfying food. 


And then I learned about kaporas, you know if you go to Indian buffets, the sort of veggie tempora.  Turns out these are easy to make, very popular in India, AND they are mentioned in very ancient vedic texts, talk about food with history.

This yoga, this magic of yoga, has been around in so many ways in so many forms for literally thousands of years, and that includes food.

Here's another hit of mesmerizing magic, of the visual sort:
http://www.youtube.com/user/originoftheword

May we all be nourished, inside and out, heart, mind and body,
I hope to meet you on the mat on Sunday at 10 am.
with great love and even more gratitude,

Meta.

namaste, I bow to you
May All Beings Be Happy.



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Greetings and Windy Spring  Salutations!

No Time for Yoga?  Take Yoga Everywhere...even on a Sierra Club Volunteer Vacation...so first, How I Spent My Volunteer Vacation:
We can practice this on the mat by remaining very present and not automatically doing the pose the exact same way, maybe changing a physical prop we use (putting the block at a lower level for example)  or by doing the pose in a different way, perhaps more intensely, to see if we've been chicken wiring our poses and now it's timeto liberate.

We CAN take yoga off the mat and use the supportive and life-affirming principles of the practice to make everyday more beautiful and to allow us to feel more fully alive.

That's the idea of the next workshop, No Time for Yoga, Take Yoga Everywhere! 
In this workshop we will learn yoga off the mat "poses" to be done in a chair, while standing, while driving, as well as breathing practices for difficult situations, mediation practices that you can do during your day, and especially we'll get a chance to turn those irritating thoughts upside down through a  yoga practice of opposites.  Join us Sunday, April 25, 2-5 pm.  Materials provided to take home and a journal to carry with you to keep yoga in your pocket.


May all our days be filled with the joy and happiness that is at the core of our beings,
many blessings and much love,
Meta.


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Many bows, Namaste, to each of you,

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

or as my Irish Grandfather would say, May His Memory Be a Blessing:

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

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Greetings and March Salutations,

Hard to believe March 2010 is here along with some rain in our beloved desert and even a few spots of warming days.  Didn't we just welcome a new decade?

For YogaNow, March 1, 2010 marks the beginning of our tenth year together in downtown Albuquerque.  When I took the leap and open the studio doors on March 1, 2001, I had no idea what I was doing (and still most days don't) but I knew I had the vision and passion to somehow piece together a place where students of any ilk would be welcomed and feel safe and respected.  The mission statement written then, still speaks the vision:

Our mission is to create a welcoming and safe environment to learn and practice yoga in community.

We look for success, not just in terms of financial viability, but also in the quality of our services, the way we respect our students and teachers and the human spirit, and our overall commitment to the greater community.

We are dedicated to the belief that healing and transformation are possible for us all. Yoga is the ultimate playground – a place to explore our bodies, hearts and minds, to push and move our edges and especially, to have fun!

I am grateful to the teachers who facilitate classes at YogaNow, each bring their own vision and experienced truth to create an atmosphere of learning and love.  Thank you to the teachers and most especially thank you to YOU for coming to YogaNow month and after month, year after year, and then sometimes, taking time off and returning.

As you know the last few years I've been occupied with writing a book on yoga, an outgrowth of the YogaNow Teacher Training Apprentice Program called Vital Yoga:  A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers.  I created Prajna Publishing Company to allow me create the vision I held for this work: full of pictures and illustrations to make the teachings more accessible and informative and available to anyone who wants to learn more about yoga.  I've begun the process of promoting and selling the book; the kick off was the book signing/ workshop in January but if you missed that we have more scheduled in Albuquerque:

Please come if you can and spread the word if you are able.  I have a slide show and we do some yoga off the mat.  I also bring home made chai tea of course, the recipe from the book.

Last week I drove to Phoenix for a book signing at Changing Hands Bookstore and a webtv interview (The Author's Show http://theauthorsshow.com/).  Of course I went to a yoga class while I was in town and once again I was blown away by the generosity and warmth of yoga teachers...I took a class from Anne Marie at Yoga Nirvana in Tempe.  Not only was her class delightful and challenging but she was so warm and open.  When I asked for a good restaurant (fresh organic & vegetarian) she insisted on driving me there and showing me the spot, Pita Jungle, which in fact, was absolutely delicious.  She also clued me into a great local park Pagogo and even brought her husband to the book signing just a few hours later.  One of the many, myriad, and vast benefits of being a yogi, is being with other yogis, wherever you go.  Thank you, glorious world!

I took the scenic route on the way there and took the brief video and a pix:



Then on the way back I took the highway but did stop in Gallup just so I could see once again El Rancho, such a spot of the old west.  Here are few short videos of that:


May this spring of March renew you and bring joy to your heart. And may your travels bring you to YogaNow and your community who await you, with open arms.
namaste,
Meta.




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In yoga love starts at home with ourselves…unconditional loving inquiry into who we actually are, underneath the roles and external projections:  beneath the role of mother, father, sister, brother, friend, worker, doctor, teacher, lawyer, writer, singer, runner, swimmer, biker, citizen, clerk, bus driver, activist, healer, napper and on and on.  When we wander into the heart of our breath, the heart of our experience we begin to see the sweetness of our own experience. 

 

From as long ago as the ancient texts (the Rig-Vedas) perhaps as old as 4000 BCE, the heart rather than the head has been considered the true bridge between consciousness and the body.

 

The idea that we need to embark on some sort of ‘self-improvement’ plan is an inherent act of hostility toward ourselves.  We don’t need to improve ourselves, just uncover our essence, as the Yoga Sutras say, each our True Self, to embrace the wonder and majesty of our unique gifts.

 

Contemplating the swirling wheel of energy, the heart chakra, may help us connect to our sweet spot of the heart.  Here’s an excerpt from my book, Vital Yoga:  A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers:

 

 

The fourth chakra, Anahata, or the heart chakra, is located in the center of the body near the heart and associated with the seed syllable Yam, air, the sense of touch, and the color green. The heart chakra is about love and compassion for ourselves, then for others. To be “unstruck” doesn’t mean we don’t acknowledge the pain in our lives—perhaps anger and sad- ness from childhood or a divorce—but that in spite of it we can lovingly accept ourselves and feel compassion for others. As you chant Yam nine times, visualizing this chakra in green, ask yourself: Can I experience freedom unfettered by past pain? What prevents me from feeling love and compassion? Would forgiving myself and others be helpful in attaining love and peace?

 

 

I’ve made a heart chakra Valentine for each of you…each of the 12 petals of this fifth chakra are made with little pink hearts and the letter of the Sanskrit alphabet assigned to the petals has been written on each.  I offer this chakra Valentine to you with deep humility and love with the aspiration that each of us mine our own well of self-knowledge and loving kindness.

 

I also want to invite you all to a special Valentine class this Sunday, 10 -11:30 am.  We’ll focus on our own hearts and send that love out to all…and we’ll top it off with a sweet treat.

 

With love and chakra bows,

Namaste,

Meta.

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This past weekend a workshop of incredible power was experience at YogaNow on Sanskrit.  I’ve given a lot of thought as to what made it so and beyond the integrity and wisdom of the teacher, Jo Brill, and the openness and concentration of the students, the underlying reason was that the fundamental heart yoga was being practiced in the very learning and teaching.

 

•  watch your thoughts, as they distract you with negative judgments (and we listed them in great details, I can’t learn this, it’s too hard, I’ll sound bad, I’m a looser) and
• practice (abhyasa) focusing on the chosen point of concentration, which in this case the teacher provides, it could be visual or sound or ideas, and when the self-critical thoughts arise,
• detach (vairagya) from the thoughts that are not part of the practice and return to the chosen point of concentration. 

 

Actually this is the yoga we can practice in all our days:  We decide what we want to focus on and detach from the thoughts that get in the way of that focus.  What power this unleashes, what control we then cultivate.  It is really quite amazing, whether we are studying the Sanskrit alphabet, or working on a relationship, or driving a car on I-40.  We decide our focus and just continually bring ourselves back to what we have decided actually matters.  What serves us.

 

We practice this on the mat of course, and that is a mind-blowing way to connect our bodies, minds, emotions and spirits.  But please, let’s not forget, the mat is only a part of our lives, however big and wonderful it is.  It’s off the mat we can take these practices and find the peace we deserve, that is our birthright!

 

Many blessings on all our heads,

Much much gratitude to each of you for sharing this path and sustaining YogaNow

So we can call play together,

Meta.

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Ganesha Greetings for a Year with Auspicious Benefits:

As I write this I'm feeling the beauty of this perfect moment at the same time considering intention, sankalpa, for the new year, 2010.  I found the wall hanging to the left of the purveyor of yoga and remover of obstacles, Ganesha, at an Indian restaurant/store in southern Florida while on holiday.  I was delighted to learn new Sanskrit words in the top:

शुभ लाभ

pronounced shubha laabha and meaning wishes for auspicious benefits, or as the shopkeeper translated into American short hand,

Good Luck. 

He'd had the experience of a large sculpture of Ganesha appearing at his door step on the first day of his store opening many years ago.  He had no idea how it got there, but was moved with appreciation of the support.

As I considered and meditated on my personal intention for the year, I was given (in the same sort of way the shopkeeper was given Ganesha) a sloka from the second book of Yoga Sutra:

From self-study and reflection on sacred words (svadhyaya), one attains contact, communion, or concert with that underlying natural reality or force.

(svadhyayat ishta samprayogah)

My focus then will be this important act of self study so that I can remain in contact with this strong natural force or reality, as opposed to the externals that sometimes whip me around.  This verse will be my mantra for the year and I hope to be able to use this focus to see more clearly the True Self which is beyond the comings and goings of daily life and lives in the great ocean of true Bliss.  I hope to be able to more fully serve the world by cultivating increasing inner clarity.

I so look forward to meeting you on the mat, in cyberspace, in any loka (place) we may find ourselves,

with so many blessings,

and many many auspicious benefits.

शुभ लाभ

and much love,

Metaji.

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Free Calendar!
Please accept a free calendar from YogaNow, YogaWooHoo, and Vital Yoga to you and yours for 2010-2011!

Many blessings,
And may all your intentions (sankalpas) be visualized with a pure heart and joyous mind,
Meta.


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For Thanksgiving this year I had the pleasure of traveling to Mexico to celebrate with my mother who lives in San Miguel de Allende.  We also spent time in Guadalajara at the FIL (Feria Internacional Libros http://www.fil.com.mx/ingles/i_info/i_info_int.asp) the amazing international book fair at the Expo.  We received the great gift of attending a two hour interview with the writer Ray Bradbury who at 89 years old is a fireball of inspiration and poetic delivery.

His ideas struck at my heart as I sat with the jam-packed room of enthusiastic  Mexicans who I'd guess to be in their 20s and 30s and so full of admiration for the legendary writer.  Here are some of my notes, written madly that night as his ideas and spirit were vibrating in me:

• Find out right away what you love and then do it immediately.  Call anyone you know who doesn't support you in this and fire them, telling them, Ray Bradbury told me to fire you.
• Jump off the cliff and grow wings as you fall.
• First dream what you want and then do it.
• Don't go to college, it's too expensive, go to the library and read ten books a week to discover who you are.
• Make of list of ten things you love to do and then do them.
  
• Quantity is excellence, write everyday, not everything you write will be bad.

On this last point I'd like to change it for yogis:  Quantity is excellence, do yoga everyday and all will come (to paraphrase the great Sri K Pattabi Jois).

I also visited the Regional Museum and met the Mammoth of Catarina:

I was impressed with how our spines were alike...



It is hard for me to believe that we are in the last month of 2009 and the new year awaits.  I hope you will accept the gift of a YogaNow 2010/2011 calender.  If you aren't near the studio we'd be delighted to mail it to you, just email your address.

Remembering what we love, who we love and how much we have to give is at the heart of happiness because it brings us back to our innate enthusiasm that can sometimes be worn down by our daily duties and everyday challenges.  I recently read a commentary on the ShivaSutras where the author suggested viewing the world as dualistic but not in the traditional matter/spirit dictomy, rather as auspicious or inauspicious.  So when we experience something we either feel that immediate, ahhh, yes, perfect, or wait, no way, not.  I like this world view and have been trying it out.  I wish for you many auspicious moments and when the inauspicious ones come, simply turning away toward the light.

many blessings on all our heads,
namaste,
Meta.

--
ऊँ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः ।
सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चिद् दुःखभाग्भवेत ।।
May All Beings Be Blessed with Happiness & Good Health.
May All Beings See Goodness in Each Other & May Nobody Suffer in Pain or Sorrow.

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Greetings and Gratitude to you ALL,
We've been chanting for Happiness for All at YogaNow at the beginning and ending of my classes.  A student requested that we put the chant on the web to practice it at home...so, here it is above and here are the words:


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Greetings and November Salutations!

This time of year can be tricky...all those holidays and celebrations.  Did you know there is a yoga pose you can do on a FULL stomach that seriously aids digestion?

Yes, it's true, hero pose or virasana can be done after a big meal and you'll feel so much better and lighter.  Here's a free gift for November (and the holidays) that you can print out, the instructions for this pose:  http://www.yogawoohoo.com/DataStore/NovGiveaway.pdf

Cypresse has just written a blog on how to deal with difficult people which may also aid your happiness.

May all Beings Be Happy,
Sending you love and gratitude,
Meta.


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Taking a Breath While at Your Desk, at home, anywhere...yoga for us all, all the time....

I was driving along the I40 yesterday and saw a big sign that showed two lovely old fashioned coke bottles and said..."Open for Happiness"...and I thought, really? 

Is that the best the Coca-Cola company can do now?  Sell you on happiness through sugar and carbonation to say nothing of chemicals that may well increase risk of all kinds of things, like well, Alzheimers? (you can check this out http://http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/472867/can_drinking_too_much_soda_cause_alzheimers.html?cat=51)

I'm all for happiness, believe me, but in my experience, it doesn't come through soda, or buying things.  It comes through lots of things, including...yoga like the ones in the video from The Daily Buzz.  Easy, simple, shots of happiness during the day.

Open your throat for Happiness.  Open your Heart for Happiness.
Open for Happiness.  Through Yoga.

Many blessings,
Meta.
PS More on the Daily Buzz November 6,2009, Yoga and Asthma.


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with yoga researchers have seen: 

• 50% reduction in depression and a 12% increase in feelings of peace and meaning in women with breast cancer with yoga from .the journal Psycho-Oncology
  
• students helped with recovering strength and flexibility with yoga
• students helped with feeling whole not just "being" the disease

Gentle poses for those in treatment and recovery can help, try these poses, always following your breath and not going to pain:
 

All seated poses, easy to do at home:

1. Shoulder Wheel Pose
   1. following the breath, elbows bent, fingers on shoulders make circles with elbows, two directions
2. Upward Facing Arms Pose
   1. First without a prop, belt:  Arms forward, suck armpits back, then slowly begin to raise arms up, can go to “I Give Up” (arms to side bent like a cactus arm
   2. Second with a yoga belt, or scarf at home: Put the arms inside the belt and press against the belt to recreate resistance and build muscular strength in the arms and shoulders
3. Eagle Arms Pose
   1. Arms out to the side in “I Give Up”, but one elbow inside the other and gently lift up…side to side, then hug yourself, true healing comes from loving yourself from the inside out…then do the other side.

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No one can accuse us of taking ourselves too seriously… of course that is the WooHoo way.  That was all to apparent recently when we got some new students who came in to visit us for the first time.  After some prodding, our friends Joey and Stevo decided to make the most of a Free Yoga class and came in to see what yoga is all about.  It was fun to watch them discover the joy for the first time.  (Of course we got it all on video)  

 

We all had a good time and in the process they learned that Yoga is something they can do everywhere (another WooHoo mantra) and after the class they went out on the town to put that to practice, not exactly what we expected. 

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