News & Events : February 2010

February at the Studio
February brings the ultimate dive into yoga. The Total Yoga Immersion - 23 Day 230 hour Intensive Teacher Training Program begins on February 11. There are still a hand full of spots left. If you can work it in to your situation, it will be a great way to start off the year and the rest of your life. Read what others, who did just that, have to say about how it changed their life.

Lots of workshops this month! There is still some room in the following.

• February 13: Seasonal Flow with Shala Worsley
• February 14 : Kundalini Workshop with Sierra Hollister
• February 19-21 : Classical Yoga with Chandra Om
• February 26-28 : Bryan Kest Power Yoga Weekend Workshop

Though don't wait to sign up, as almost everything has been sold out by event time lately. Chandra Om and Bryan Kest only have a few spots left.

February 19-2, Stephanie Keach will be in the Charlotte, NC area teaching four workshops on Yin and Yang Yoga, Rocket Ashtanga, Yoga Adjustments and Restorative Yoga at Balance Wellness Center, Concord, NC.

Stephanie will also be in Spartanburg, SC on February 6 teaching a Master Class at YOGAlicious.

Monthly Features
The Pose of the month is Eagle Pose or Garudasana.

Lia Pardy is our Teacher of the month.

This month's article is on Awakening the Heart.

World Class Instructors
We're exciting to bring some huge names to AYC this year. World class instruction continues to come to our studio. We'll have all the details and registration up shortly.

• Chandra Om
• Bryan Kest
• Tim Miller
• Doug Keller
  
• Rod Stryker
  
• Phoenix Rising
• Cora Wen
• Paulie Zink
• Leslie Kaminoff
• Andrey Lappa
• Heather Tiddens
• Doug Swenson
• Coming 2011
• Gary Kraftsow
• Amy Weintraub
• David Swenson

And don't forget about our locals. Shala and Sierra both have workshops this month. We've recently added workshops with Joe Taft April 3 and May 8, Mado Hesselink June 13 and Anna Ferguson May 9th and June 19.

Shala's Maya Tulum Spring Break is coming up in April. Don't wait to get your travel plans lined up. Sooner is cheaper.

How to Help Haiti

You might like to eat caviar, you might like to eat bread,
You may be sleeping on the floor, sleeping in a king-sized bed
But you're gonna have to serve somebody,
yes indeed You're gonna have to serve somebody
-Bob Dylan

When faced with catastrophe happening to others, there is often the twin responses of either anguish or avoidance of the situation out of fear of anguish. There is another option however, helping out and celebrating others doing so.

Drop off your old mats. We are accepting yoga mat donations at our studio for Haitian survivors. We've got 25 so far. A local hospital will deliver them. Park Ridge Hospital is joining the cause to provide much needed aid to the people of Port-au-Prince and the nation of Haiti, and is asking the community to join them in supporting the relief effort. With a severe shortage of shelter, thousands of Haitians are left to sleep on the cold concrete of parking lots, roadways and the overcrowded hallways of the few hospitals still standing, as they wait for treatment. “After speaking with our sister hospital in Port-au-Prince (Hopital Adventiste d'Haiti), it became very clear what we needed to do,” said Park Ridge Hospital vice president, Jason Wells. “One of the greatest needs expressed by a representative I contacted today is for any type of sleeping mats – yoga mats, roll-up camping mats or other blow-up air beds - for the thousands of survivors sleeping on the cold, hard ground in whatever space they can find.” More info>

What other Asheville locals are doing to help. and more here.

Text the word "Haiti" to 90999 to send a $10 donation to the Red Cross through an effort backed by the U.S. State Department. Funds will go to support American Red Cross Relief Efforts.

Blissful Dance
I was in Joe Taft's Anusara class today at our studio and he brought up the concept of Ananda Tandava - the dance of bliss, the dance between complimentary opposites. Others call it change and see it as the root of suffering. In this tradition though, it is seen as the dance (pulse) between masculine and feminine. On the mat it can be felt as contracting and expanding, and the in and out breath. I see it as the natural flow of life. It came across as a great way to look at change. Rather than attempting to not have attachment or aversion to change, I could focus on the dance of life. As in, how can I go with what is? How can I play with it, dance it, celebrate it? It's going to go on without my approval or not, so why not aim to fully join in the dance?

I reflected on how our studio is a dance. There are cycles of growth and contraction. I am happy to report that class size is coming back down again after the bulging of January. We've not had to turn anyone away from a full class this week, much to my relief. Some of the prime time classes are still a bit full, but not overflowing. And nowhere near big city standards (read sardines). I've recently expanded my repertoire of classes and teachers I generally take from. There is more room in the off prime time classes. It's been a positive experience for me to open up to something different. There are little things that I take away from a new teacher or a different class style that I can then incorporate into my usual practice. In any event, I wanted to let those that took issue with the crowds, know that class size is contracting again in the dance of our studio. By mid February things should be back to typical levels.
-Blessings, Sunny Keach

Yoga Works! and the Feedback Loop
We see a lot of smiling faces at our studio. We've also heard a lot lately about how good yoga has been for someone. We've heard "yoga has changed my life" numerous times recently. Our conclusion is Yoga Works! We feel blessed to be able to offer it to our community.

We have a suggestion box at the studio. The bulk of the notes this month have been either grumbles about class size or like the one above, gratitude for the 30 days for $30 special. We value both kinds of feedback and will continue to do our best to serve all concerned. The following note touched us.

I want to thank you for offering the $30/30 special. I would have never been able to afford a membership otherwise this time of year. I am committing to 6x/week and it's already changing my self-esteem and helping reduce anxiety and my body feels great! I know it's a generous effort on the part of you, the owners, and all the teachers, but I hope you know what a life changing gift you have offered to me and so many others! (Also my B-day is in Feb. and my family gift is money towards a full-price membership for a month!) Hopefully our universe will keep on delivering! I have found it does!
Thank you, Thank you and Blessings, Laurie 1/19/10

We welcome any and all feedback. It is our goal to be the best yoga studio we can be. We would love to have you as regulars at our studio. If there is anything we can do to help insure that, we'd appreciate knowing what it is. Send all comments to sunny@youryoga.com

Stephanie Keach is Hitting the Road Again
After taking some time off, Stephanie has started to accept invitations to teach at other studios again. Visit her workshops page to see when she will be in Spartanburg, Charlotte, Utah, Carrboro, Chattanooga, Nashville, Charleston, Atlanta, Savannah and Maya Tulum Mexico.

Jivamukti Comes to Asheville
Please join us in welcoming Michael Johnson and his wife Stephanie to Asheville. He will be teaching Jivamukti Yoga classes at our studio, with his wife assisting. Check out HOT Jivamukti Yoga on Mondays 7:15-8:45 PM and Fridays at 1:30-3:00 PM.

Jivamukti, which means living liberated, is a yoga method created by Sharon Gannon and David Life that guides our body and soul to spiritual freedom, physical strength, peace of mind, better health, and self-realization--the ultimate goal of any practice. Here are the five tenets of this unique method:

• Ahimsa - a non-violent, compassionate lifestyle that emphasizes ethical vegetarianism and animal rights
• Bhakti - acknowledgment that God-realization is the goal of all yoga practices
• Meditation - connecting to that eternal unchanging reality within
• Nada Yoga - the development of a sound body and mind through deep listening
• Scripture - study of the ancient yogic teachings, including Sanskrit chanting

Michael Johnson ERYT-500 is a certified Jivamukti instructor who has studied directly with Sharon and David in New York as well as with their Teacher Sri K. Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, India. He has been a full-time yoga teacher in the Detroit area since 2001. He continues to study Yoga and Buddhism with Geshe Michael Roach, Lama Christie McNally, Lama Sumati Marut, Kimberley Theresa and his Angelic wife, Stephanie Johnson.

Yoga Challenge Completion
Congratulations to those that have completed the yoga challenge. If you've made the straight 30 days of yoga classes and want to collect on the goods, just let the sign-in person know when you are at the studio next. Give Sunny and Caitlin a couple of days to verify your attendance and we will update your series card to include a free week of yoga classes. We will also note on it that you are eligible for 10% off your next series purchase, a free T-shirt and complementary guest passes. Feel free to contact Sunny at sunny@youryoga.com with any questions.

Blessings, hope to see you at the center,
Sunny and Stephanie Keach

Awakening the Heart

"In the dew of little things, the heart finds its morning and is refreshed." ~ Kahlil Gibran

An open and loving heart is one of the most dynamic aspects of the human experience. It is a part of life that encompasses the whole spectrum of emotions and happenings - joy, pain, growth, challenge, support, silliness. On our human journey, listening to our heart can very rewarding and very challenging at the same time. Most likely you've heard a yoga teacher say in class, "It's all about love, people!" So what does an "awakened heart" actually mean?

There is a word, bodhichitta, which is a Sanskrit word describing the state of a boddhisattva, or an enlightened being who, out of compassion, forgoes nirvana in order to save others. Chitta means "mind" and also "heart" or "attitude." Bodhi means "awake," "enlightened," or "completely open." Sometimes the completely open heart and mind of bodhichitta is called the soft spot, a place as vulnerable and tender as an open wound. It is equated, in part, with our ability to love. Even the cruelest people have this soft spot. Even the most vicious animals love their offspring. As Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche put it, "Everybody loves something, even if it's only tortillas." * It's also about compassion - how we feel and relate to the pain of others.

This state of opening to your heart is a lifelong process. In many ways, it is the work of this life - do you open your heart to the world, to life - or do you shut down and harden? Yoga asana, meditation, pranayama - all the eight limbs of yoga are tools to open us up to the greater universe. An example of how asana allows you to open your heart, other than the physical opening of the chest area, is that it softens you -literally and figuratively. You soften the muscles and your hardened attitudes by heating the muscles, allowing them to open, and having those experiences where you are defeated in achieving a particular shape. Maybe you can't get your arms together in Gomukhasana (Cow's Head Pose). Maybe that pose is not achievable for you at this time - yoga asks you, how do you deal with that? Another challenge might be meditation - how do you get on your mat every day? Do you get on the mat with expectations, judgments - or can you just be there, accepting and loving what is in that very moment?

Another great real life example of an awakened heart is dealing with conflict in partnership - whether it be a business or personal one. When your partner comes to you with a problem, how do you react? Can you be open, soft and yet strong? What does that look like? Can you deal with it like you deal with a yoga class - present until the end? Breathing every moment, with focus and determination and most of all, kindness? No one has all the answers to love. And we are all human. But being present on your mat, day in and day out, can give you the skills to make love and an open heart a process of learning and growth that can be truly a work of art.

Give an open heart meditation a try this month. Here is one from the Dalai Lama, from his book How to Expand Love, and it is a simple way of changing the way you think about others. He asks that you think about all beings having been your mother (or whomever filled that role for you) at one time in the existence of the universe. He suggests starting slow, by thinking about all of your family members having been that loving, giving and nurturing caretaker for you at some point. Whether or not they have actually done this is not relevant right now, but you are just investigating how that makes you feel. It can bring up feelings of deep compassion for those around you. Try it on the most unlikely people, like someone who is making you particularly upset right now. Visualize that person as your mother or mother figure, extending the same feelings of kindness, loving care and understanding you give to her. And just notice. You might feel a softening inside, like something is melting and letting go. Take a deep breath and move on with your day and just see how that may change the energy around you and what that might bring.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. -Antoine de Saint Exupéry
* From article by Pema Chodron,
--
Anna Ferguson : Yoga Instructor, Writer and Artist ~ ushasyoga.com

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