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Happy New Year!
December 29, 2009
 
starMessage from Karen
Dear friends,
 
I wish for your highest and best good, now and in the new year.  With our combined commitment to peace and well being for all beings everywhere, we can change the course of history. 
 
In this newsletter, I've included links for meditative and mindful practices that you can do alone and in community.  I personally have committed to the Winter Feast for the Soul.  Please join me.  We may have some weekly group meditations in Preston, CT if there's interest in that. 
 
Resolve to be a loving presence to all you encounter.  Resolve to pay attention, to yourself and to the one you're with.  Resolve to reflect rather than react.  Resolve not to let fear grow.  Resolve to dissolve fear through reflection and lovingkindness.  The Buddha taught that all beings want the same thing - happiness.
 
Peace, love and happiness to you, Karen
 
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. --Mahatma Gandhi
 
Thought for the Day

The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on the brow
of the flower,
and retell it in words and in touch,
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing.
-- Galway Kinnell

Winter Yoga Classes

Register now!  Classes begin next week, January 4th.
 
New!  Slow Flow Kripalu Yoga on Mondays at 7:00 p.m. at Ledyard Center School
Click here for class schedule

A Story: One Person Makes a Difference

This story is a direct quote from the book "Lovingkindness:  The Revolutionary Art of Happiness" by Sharon Salzberg
 
"Ashoka was an emperor in northern India about two hundred and fifty years after the time of the Buddha.  In the early years of his reign, this powerful emperor was bloodthirsty and greedy for the expansion of his empire.  He was also a very unhappy man.  One day, after a particularly terrible battle that he had launched in order to acquire more territory, he walked on the battlefield amid an appalling spectacle of corpses of men and animals strewn everywhere, already rotting in the sun and being devoured by carrion-eating birds.  Ashoka was aghast at the carnage he had caused.
 
Just then a Buddhist monk came walking across the battlefield.  The monk did not say a word, but his being was radiant with peace and happiness.  Seeing that monk, Ashoka thought, "Why is it that I, having everything in the world, feel so miserable?  Whereas this monk has nothing in the world apart from the robes he wears and the bowl he carries, yet he looks so serene and happy in this terrible place."
 
Ashoka made a momentous decision on that battlefield.  He pursued the monk and asked him, "Are you happy?  If so, how did this come to be?"  In response, the monk who had nothing introduced the emperor who had everything to the Buddha's teachings.  As a consequence of this chance encounter, Ashoka devoted himself to the practice and study of Buddhism and changed the entire nature of his reign.  He stopped waging imperialistic wars.  He no longer allowed people to go hungry.  He transformed himself from a tyrant into one of history's most respected rulers, acclaimed for thousands of years after as just and benevolent.
 
Ashoka's own son and daughter carried Buddism from India to Sri Lanka.  The teachings took root there and from India and Sri Lanka spread to Burma and Thailand and throughout the world.  Our access to these teachings today, so many centuries and cultural transitions later, is a direct result of Ashoka's transformation.  The radiance of that one Buddhist monk is still affecting the world today.  One person's serenity changed the course of history, and delivered to us the Buddhist path to happiness."
 
May I be free from fear
May I have mental happiness
May I have physical happiness
May I have ease of well-being.
 
May you be free from fear
May you have mental happiness
May you have physical happiness
May you have ease of well-being.
 
May all beings be free from fear
May all beings have mental happiness
May all beings have physical happiness
May all beings have ease of well-being.

An Invitation to Winter Feast for the Soul

What nine months does for the embryo
Forty early mornings will do
For your growing awareness.
--Rumi
 
Beginning January 15, 2010, people around the world will join their intentions for personal and planetary peace.  They will commit to 40 minutes of spiritual practice each day for 40 days.  We invite you to join us in this extraordinary experience.
 
The mission of A Winter Feast for the Soul is to support individuals around the world in making a commitment to daily spiritual practice for forty days. A life grounded in daily practice is one that knows inner peace. It is that peace which translates into peace throughout our lives and ultimately to peace and healing for our planet.
 
We know that it only takes a few committed individuals to change the world. We are here to do that. Please join us this coming winter for
A Winter Feast for the Soul
a 40-day worldwide spiritual practice period
for people of all faiths everywhere.
January 15 – February 23, 2010

Click here for information, tools and support

Must Have Books

  • A Year With Rumi daily readings by Coleman Barks
  • Lovingkindness:  The Revolutionary Art of Happiness by Sharon Salzberg
  • Yoga Teacher's Toolbox by Joseph and Lilian LePage (not just for teachers)



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Check out this Mindfully Yours blog
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http://mindfullyyours.blogtoolkit.com/

 
This Wednesday, December 30th: An Invitation from Jen Yost, Certified Professional Coach
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Make 2010 Your Best Year Ever!
 
On this fun and exciting free call, you’ll discover 5 Keys to Making 2010 Your Best Year ever including how to: 
  • Bring more JOY into your life
  • Reduce stress and increase TRUE relaxation
  • Sleep better
  • Get clear about what you want most
  • Commit to action to live your best life in 2010!
Join me for this fun, exciting and powerful call on Wednesday, December 30th at 8:00pm EST.
 
To register and get the free call-in number, send an email saying “I’m in” to jenyostcoaching@gmail.com.
 
Don't miss this chance to start off the New Year in an amazing way…..join me on this free call and Make 2010 Your Best Year Ever!
 
Warmly,
 
Jen Yost
Certified Professional Coach
Kripalu Yoga Instructor

 
Contact
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Karen O'Donnell Clarke
860.204.0797
www.yogahealsus.com

 
Yoga Heals Us LLC • 129 Rose Hill Road • Ledyard • CT • 06339

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