Namaste New Year, New You 2014

View as Web Page	Subscribe	Send to a Friend	Preferences

New Year, New You
January 2014

Thought for the day

Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
--Wu Men (Hui-k'ai)

In this issue:

Winter Class Schedule

Advanced Training for Yoga Teachers

Contact

Namaste from Karen

Dear one,

The word “yoga” comes from the root word “yuj” which means to yoke in the context of spiritual union. Yoga means spiritual union with divine consciousness as well as the path to spiritual union. As a student of yoga and a yoga teacher, I am continually in awe of the many ways that yoga has transformed my life. Yoga provides a framework and a context for how I perceive the world. Just as in any profession, there are experts and novices. I will always think of myself as a novice student of yoga because the field is so rich and layered that the more I learn the more I realize that we are all the same. We all want the same things - to be happy, to know love, to get what we want, to avoid what we don’t want, to leave a legacy, to have meaning in our lives, to not be forgotten.

I recently read this quote, “There are times when it becomes impossible for me to teach. No matter where I look I see only God, wearing so many masks, playing in so many forms. Who is the teacher then? Who is to be taught?” When I am at my best, I see God looking at me through your eyes. And in that moment, I feel so full of love. That is yoga. That is the meaning of “Namaste.”

Namaste means “I bow to you - I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells. I honor the place in you which is of love, light, peace and joy. When you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me, We Are One.”

Blessings for a year of peace, harmony, health, and well-being for all beings everywhere.
Namaste, Karen

p.s. Click the link to read the first edition of "Nourishing the Body" newsletter. And please renew your "preferences." You'll see that the newsletters description have changed to better reflect the content I have planned for this year.

Intention for 2014

The body is constantly renewing itself. In fact, the body you’re living with now has totally transformed itself since this time last year.

The mind is also constantly renewing itself. Through the senses, we form impressions of the world around us; ideas, relationships, events, things. Even though my eyes can’t see the world beyond these four walls, my mind creates a panoramic view based on stored impressions. In Yoga, these impressions inform the vrittis, modifications of the mind. And since all the senses feed impressions into my brain, the impressions have multi-sensory qualities.

Remember a soft touch against your skin…now, a rough touch. Even the qualities of touch are experienced in multiple ways – pressure, temperature, sharp, tender, and so on. Remember a pleasant smell…now, an unpleasant smell. Again, many varieties of smell – faint, burning, sweet, and so on. Remember a pleasant sound…unpleasant sound. Remember a pleasant image…unpleasant image. You get the idea. Not only does the mind take in and store impressions but it also categorizes them for efficient retrieval. One of the efficiencies to this system is association. There’s even a description for this, “neurons that fire together, wire together,” creating stronger connections and faster processing.

Impressions that get a lot of attention, such as things you worry about, grow stronger in your awareness. As a result, your mind will create thought patterns that it will automatically go to when it’s bored, anxious, stressed, or triggered by random associations. This probably happens a lot because you’ve developed strong sensory connections with other sense impressions.

For example, say you’re concerned about your health. Everything reminds you of your concern. You see something on TV or in a magazine and you’re reminded. Someone asks how you’re doing or tells you about themselves or someone else and you’re reminded of your concern. In fact, with constant attention, your concern is never far from your mind.

We all do this. To some extent or other, we obsess on something that we want (raga) or avoid something we don’t want (dvesha). This is the mental disturbance that Yoga is all about. The second sutra of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras 1.2 is “Yoga chitta vritti nirodhah,” Yoga is the control (nirodhah, regulation, channeling, mastery, integration, coordination, stilling, quieting, setting aside) of the modifications (gross and subtle thought patterns) of the mind field. (yogash chitta vritti nirodhah)

yoga = of yoga, union; literally, to yoke, from the root yuj, which means to join; same as the absorption in samadhi
chitta = of the consciousness of the mind-field
vritti = operations, activities, fluctuations, modifications, changes, or various forms of the mind-field
nirodhah = control, regulation, channeling, mastery, integration, coordination, understanding, stilling, quieting, setting aside of
source: www.swamij.com

The Yoga Sutras describe five patterns of thought:

Right knowledge - pramana
- There are three ways of gaining right knowledge: perception, inference, and testimony from others who have knowledge.
Wrong knowledge - viparyaya
- Wrong knowledge comes from wrong perception, thinking that things are different from what they really are.
Imagination - vikalpa
- Imagination has expression for something that doesn’t exist.
Sleep - nidra
- Deep sleep is characterized by the absence of other thought patterns.
Memory – smriti

Memory is recalling a previous impression.

In the Patanjali Yoga tradition, these thought patterns are controlled through practice (abhyasa) and non-attachment (vairagya).

So, how is that done? The practice of Yoga offers a systematic multi-sensory approach to bringing peace and harmony back into our lives. When we do our practice or sadhana we create the right conditions for the body to balance itself and return the body mind to its inherent good health and true nature.

Because the mind is prone to patterns of thinking, creating intention can cultivate the habit of mindfulness that facilitates ease and well-being.

If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things,

This is the best season of your life!

How do you want to be in the New Year that begins tomorrow? What is your heart’s deepest longing? Write it down. Meditate on it. Focus on the positive. To do this, it may be useful to practice pratipaksha bhavana, cultivate the opposite of what you don’t want. You don’t want to be sad, practice being joyful. You don’t want to be stressed, act in ways that relieve stress. If you always do things a certain way, what’s its opposite? Sometimes we have to look at what we don’t want to find what we do want. Instead of focusing on the negative, which the mind is naturally inclined to do, focus on its opposite. A very wise friend shared this with me when I was in the throes of deep suffering and it works. I am healthy, happy and whole…and you are too.

Wishing you a healthy, harmonious and peaceful New Year.

Om shanti, Karen

p.s Start your New Year practice with us tomorrow. And confirm your resolve on Sunday with Yoga Nidra at Blissworks.

January Events