Starting January 9, join Jason Scholder for Egg-Centric Yoga, which uses foam eggs to support you in a variety of yoga poses.
Thursday, 5:15 - 6:45 pm (new time)
Starting January 9, this 8-week Chakra Yoga series with Laura Stone is a Level 1 class that explores how the chakras effect the energetic body.
Thursday, 9 - 10:30 am
Starting January 15, this all-levels class with Danielle Goldstein is alignment based and focuses on the breath.
Wednesday, 9:45 - 11:15 am
Starting January 20, these all-levels classes with Letitia Walker combine Purna asana and meditation.
Monday, 3:45 - 5:15 pm
Thursday, 3:15 - 4:45 pm
Starting January 21, Beginning Iyengar Yoga with Lynn Patton is a 12-week introductory series.
Tuesday, 5:30 -7 pm
Click here for more information about all these classes.
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Neck & Shoulders 
With Nicole Kintz
Saturday January 25, 2 - 4 pm, $30
Join Nicole for this special 2-hour class designed to stabilize and mobilize the neck, shoulders, and upper back. These areas are problematic for many of us, especially if we work at computers. The remedy is simple – do more yoga!
You’ll learn basic yoga poses to create space and strength in the arms and shoulders. You’ll learn how to integrate the muscles in the upper back so that the shoulders have more freedom and less discomfort. Freedom in the back and shoulders creates freedom in the neck.
Click here to sign up for this class.
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Come Party at Our House!!
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Join the fun on Saturday, January 18, 2014, from 2-5 pm, at our Open House.
We are celebrating our new and expanded studio and our growing yoga community--and it just won't be a party without YOU! Get to know your fellow One Center students. Talk one-on-one to our extraordinary teachers. Get on a mat and enjoy the teacher-led demos every 30 minutes. Try the ropes wall and a variety of props. Sample healthy and yummy snacks and fresh-brewed tea. Take advantage of one-day-only discounts, including 20% off our 8, 12, and 20-class packages, and 10% off certain props, clothes, and accessories. Try your luck at the raffles; we're awarding 24 prizes throughout the day. Prizes include a 30 day unlimited class package, an 8-week series, a private class with Cindy, Danielle, Lillah, Lynn, Ryan, Kay, and Rachel, 1 free class, 25% off any workshop, a yoga mat, foam eggs, blankets, straps, books, back care DVD, toe sox, and more!
As is true in life as well as raffles, you must be PRESENT to win! So mark your calendar and please join us for an afternoon of play and learning.
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Asana of the Month: Pincha Mayurasana
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Pincha Mayurasana (forearm stand) is one of my favorite arm balances. It offers the challenge and exhilaration of an arm balance. But, unlike Adho Muhka Vrksasana (handstand), it's easier to balance because the entire forearm remains on the floor.
The challenge of Pincha Mayurasana is that it requires openness of the shoulders and chest: it’s a difficult pose to achieve if you are tight in those areas of your body. As a result, students often find their elbows splay out and their hands turn in to compensate for this tightness. Not surprisingly, the best way to prepare for this asana is to practice shoulder and chest-opening poses.
Pincha means feather and Mayura means peacock. This implies that the pose has an upright direction, like the tail feathers of the peacock, rather than the back being in a huge curve—which can cause pain or discomfort in the low back.
Should you have the opportunity to prepare for this pose with a partner, there is a wonderful assisted variation that can open you up deeply while providing tremendous support. It will also give you the opportunity to experience the correct alignment of the posture, if you are unable to get there on your own at this time.
Assisted Variation of Pincha Mayurasana
- Come onto your hands and knees on your mat with your feet against the wall. Replace your elbows on the floor where your hands previously were. Now your shoulders should be over your elbows and your hips over your knees (have your friend check). Press your hips back and up into a forearm downward facing dog.
 The assistant sits on the floor in front of your head and places his or her hands OR feet on your shoulder blades. Then, he or she uses light pressure to press your shoulders back over your elbows.- Slowly walk your feet up the wall until your legs are parallel to the floor. The assistant is still pressing your shoulders back into a long line, so that your hips are stacked over your shoulders and your shoulders are stacked over your elbows.
- You will feel the deep opening of your shoulders in a very supported and safe way. If you tend to be overly flexible in the low back, make sure to keep your spine long, to prevent your low back from being excessively curved.
Full Pincha Mayurasana
- Set up on your mat with your choice of props* with your fingertips all the way to the wall, forearms parallel to one another and shoulder-width apart.
- Tuck your toes under and press up onto your feet, with your hips up and your legs straight in a forearm downward facing dog position. Press your chest back towards your feet and keep maintaining a steady pressure down into your forearms and wrists. It may be appropriate to stay right here, if you experience your head coming forward toward the floor, and are unable to press your chest back.
- Lift one leg up behind you and bend the opposite leg in order to kick up to the wall. You may choose to take a few practice hops to “catch some air” under your foot and feel the experience of inverting in this pose. You may experience that the first several times coming up in this pose you use too much force and hit the wall hard. Sometimes it feels as though the wall spits you back out after you get up! Kicking up will get lighter and easier with time and practice. When your fingertips are at the appropriate distance from the wall, you will be able to bring your feet to the wall without putting too much curve into your low back.
- Press your heels into the wall and lengthen your torso up towards your feet. Look forward toward the floor in between your hands, being mindful to not allow that action of your head to drop you into a deep back curve.
- Make sure you practice kicking with one leg and then the other leg!!!
*Prop use
It's helpful to use a block turned the wide way between your hands and a strap around the upper arm just above the elbow. The strap should be shoulder distance in length. These are to prevent your hands from moving in and your elbows from moving out, and to keep your wrists, elbows, and shoulders in line with one another.
Prepared by Deirdre Smith-Gilmer
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Cindy's Thoughts: Learning All the Time
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I soak up information. This past weekend I attended a workshop with teacher and author, Richard Rosen, at Glowing Body in Knoxville, Tennessee. During the weekend, I reflected on how much I love to learn. I reveled in being a student as I took notes, stood on my head, twisted my body, and soaked up the teachings. A life-long learner, that’s me!
When I returned home, my husband presented me with a new phone. Actually I think it's called a device, because I can check email, text, take photos, surf the web, and generally make a nuisance of myself with it. The phone is actually a newer version of the one I have, so now I have to transfer information over from the old phone to the new phone.
I don’t know how to do that. Right away, I find frustration rising up in me because I have to learn something new. I begin the task at 8:00 PM…already tired…already not the best plan. My husband helps. This is a mixed blessing.
I won’t bore you with the details. Let it suffice to say that as of 1:31 PM on Monday, January 6, 2014, I still have not completed the task. I have been in and out of iTunes, Google, You Tube, and various help sites. Even though I tried to keep frustration from taking over, it seemed to move in to stay, leaving no room for learning.
Fortunately, the discomfort of frustration brought my attention back to center, and I began to remember that I love to learn. I recalled other times in my life when frustration made it hard to learn. Like when I struggled to master the clutch and stick shift in the 1968 VW bug, with Daddy patiently sitting in the passenger seat. I lived through that and learned because I wanted to drive that car.
I want to learn about the new device. So I start again with renewed interest, if not enthusiasm. I actually begin to enjoy the process, because that’s what it is--a process of learning something new. This process differs not a bit from learning to drive the VW or learning a new yoga pose. I apply the yogic principles of patience and compassion to myself. Gee, that helps! I didn’t learn to drive or to do dog pose in one day.
I know that I do not have to learn everything today. I cannot. Whatever I have learned and accomplished today is enough. I have begun the process. Finally, I put down the new device. I choose to stop this process so I can get on the mat to practice asana, because learning to stop is a process, too.
May your year be filled with the processes of learning and loving…and loving to learn.
Namaste,
Cindy
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"The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year.
It is that we should have a new soul."
-- G.K. Chesterton
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Throughout January, we are working on the self-guided 30-day retreat that is featured in Cheri Huber's Making a Change for Good. Feel free to get started today on this basic training in awareness practice and compassionate self-discipline. If you want to participate, read the book and start following the daily exercises. Our next book club meeting is Sunday, January 12, from 5:45 to 7 pm. We will also meet on January 19 and January 26 to discuss our progress. At the end of each meeting, we share a 15-minute meditation at the same time as The Glowing Body Yoga Studio yoga in Knoxville, TN, where Cindy teaches. The book club members there are also following the 30-day retreat. Please join in this rewarding and fun way to celebrate the New Year by learning how compassionate self-discipline is all about being present.
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"I'm encouraging you to find 5 minutes in your day that you're currently wasting and could devote to awareness practice, meditation, contemplation, to something that will lead you to the clear vision of who you are that you're yearning for."
--Cheri Huber,
Making a Change for Good
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Life Transformation & Yoga Teacher Training
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Do you want to become a yoga teacher? Are you already a teacher and want to deepen your instruction? Or are you a dedicated student who wants to enrich your yoga experience? Learn the wisdom of yoga as an authentic practice, healing art, and gift to your community. Join Lillah Schwartz and her teaching staff to study yoga alignment and action principles, the philosophy and spirit of yoga, applied anatomy and physiology, the language of teaching, and more.
For three decades, Lillah has helped people like you discover their potential, find their inner wisdom, and become excellent teachers and practitioners. You are invited to participate in the 100 Hour Life Transformation Training, the 200 Hour Teaching Fundamentals Training, or the 500 Hour Professional Yoga Therapy Training. Courses begin February 7, 2014, at One Center Yoga. For More Information and Registration, call 828.273.9401 or go to yogawithlillah.com
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2014 Workshops: Save the Dates!
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April 18 - 20, Gabriel Halpern
Aug 1 - 3, Matthew Sanford
Sept 5 - 7, Mary Obendorfer & Eddy Marks
Oct 3 - 5, Simon Marrocco
Nov 21 - 23, Roger Cole
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If snow is falling and you're not sure if classes will be held, call us at 828.225.1904. A dated outgoing message with class cancellations will be recorded. Or visit our Class Schedule online; cancellations will be posted. You can also check our home page at onecenteryoga.com for this information.
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Salad with Greens & Black-Eyed Peas
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 I'm from New England, but after living in Asheville for more than 20 years, I have adopted the Southern tradition of preparing recipes with greens and black-eyed peas on New Year's Day and throughout January.
These two foods are rumored to guarantee a prosperous year: the greens represent dollar bills and the peas, coins. I like to think of prosperous meaning rich in friends, and abundant in health and opportunity. Although a little more wealth wouldn't hurt!
Here's a simple and tasty salad that celebrates the clean taste of these ingredients. Feel free to adapt it to suit your wishes for prosperity.
You Will Need
1 cup of cooked black-eyed peas
1 apple, peeled and chopped
1 bunch collards, cleaned and chopped
1/2 cup toasted, slivered almonds
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbl balsamic vinegar
2 tbls olive oil
tamari to taste
What You Do
Sauté the collards and minced garlic in olive oil until the greens are just wilted. Cool to room temperature.
Arrange a portion of the greens on 4 plates. Top with a generous spoonful of black-eyed peas, some chopped apples, and the slivered almonds.
Drizzle balsamic vinegar and tamari over each portion.
--Presented by D. Morgenthal
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