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January 2012 * Surf Your Mat * Issue #73 * Mary Yoga ENews

Massaging the Mountain

This winter I honored my son's love of the slopes by learning downhill skiing, something that's always terrified me. After multiple quaking wipeouts, I began to feel in my body the instructors' cues for angling down the slopes as similar to the rhythmic weight shifting we do in Thai massage. Ah-h.

Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh enjoins us in walking meditation to feel that our every step massages the Earth. And so, gently yet firmly I rocked my weight right and left down the mountain into safety, massaging Mother Earth.

THICH NHAT HANH

 

Surfing the Soul

This past Saturday and Sunday, I flew on a midnight redeye to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, to join Adi Carter and two dozen adventurous yogis in "Redefining Balance," a yoga retreat that includes surf, AcroYoga, rock climbing, slackline.

While most of the group stays for a week, a few of us flew in for the weekend sampler and rocked it out on sand, line, rock and waves for two days, then flew home to our weekday life Sunday night, with gems of learning, sand, salt, and sunshine still sparkling like stars in our hearts and hair!

Maintaining a meditative mind in changing physical positions really defined my weekend's learning. Finding our core, our center of gravity, both literally and energetically, brings us to the exhilaration of balance: on the waves, on the slackline, on the rocks, with our partners.

Facing our demons externally is a fabulous way to access those lurking fears in our psyches. You may find that confronting an external fear makes your meditation practice more easeful. And, lovely reversal: you may well find that a persistent meditation practice makes your next confrontation with your physical fears that much more possible for you.

Tantra ~ Everything physical is also divine. Tanoti= Expansion; Trayati= Liberation; thus, tan+tra= Expansion + Liberation. Expand and liberate the soul outward to encompass the body and to meet the physical world.

ADI CARTER

 

Where Is Your Mat?

What and where is your yoga mat? Mine is rush hour subways. Motherhood. Marriage. Household bills. Teaching. Schedule juggling. Friendships. My body, its strengths and limitations. My mind, its strengths and limitations. My partners' bodies in partner work, and our communications.

Where our mat is where we meet our angels and demons, and do battle in order to make peace with them.

I love Erika Liem's piece "Basic Training" in Yoga Journal's Sept. 2011 "Diary" column. When she screams at her husband for their relocation, a choice they had both agreed to, she says: "At that moment, I realized I had fallen off the mat. I'd stopped living my yoga." She took action to combat her sense of loss and imbalance. Erika reached out to offer community yoga classes at the local base, and found connection and service ~ a hugely expanded "mat" on which to practice.

Whether it's your office, home, wheelchair that is your mat ~ if you are practicing, you will find yourself slipping and sliding and falling off several times a day. And, as we practice, our competence grows. We expand. We liberate. We have no hurry; what is the hurry? The end point is simply the end of this life's journey. Namaste ... enjoy.

REDEFINING BALANCE RETREAT

 

Valentine's Partner Yoga Workshop

Celebrate relationship through connecting with Yoga. Join Izzy VanHall and me on the afternoon of Saturday Feb. 11 in a sweet two hours' journey, 4-6pm, through partner stretches and partner poses that help you create more strength, balance, and openness in your body and heart. Finish with a guided partner Thai massage that you will in turn give and receive. Bring a loved one or dear friend, and celebrate Yoga!

2/11 WORKSHOP~PURE EAST

 

Restorative Teacher Training

First two weekends in March, come join me in my 25-hour module Restorative Teacher Training to prepare you to give yourself, clients, and classes, deeply healing Restorative Yoga.
For teachers, students, and other fitness and wellness professionals. Applicable for Yoga Alliance CEU continuing education credits or toward 500 hour RYT for those who earned their 200-hour RYT at Pure Yoga.

3/2-3/11 MOTHER MARY TRAINING

 

Teaching Schedule

Here is my current class schedule.

Pure Yoga East:
Mon 10:30 Slow Flow Meditation
Tues 12:30 Restorative
Thur 5:30 Vinyasa L1/2
Fri 5:30 Restorative

Pure Yoga West:
Thur 9:30 Vinyasa L2
Thur 11AM YinYang
Fri 10:30 Chakra Slow Flow

My website will always update my class schedule and any upcoming workshops, retreats, or trainings.

MY SCHEDULE PAGE

 

Photo Thanks & Privacy

Please feel free to Reply or Forward or Unsubscribe. Your email privacy is important to me and I do not share email lists.

Photo thanks this issue to: Wari.cat, Lila Donnolo, Adi Carter, Martha Stewart Whole Living, Blake Brody, Yogalitik, Africa Yoga Project, Michael Sivanataraj St. Cole, Dallas Theater Center, Yvette Rosales-Jain.

Om shanti! Happy auspicious Year of the Dragon!

MARY'S WEBSITE

In This Issue:

Massaging the Mountain
Surfing the Soul
Where Is Your Mat?
Valentine's Partner Yoga Workshop
Restorative Teacher Training
Teaching Schedule
Photo Thanks & Privacy
Whole Living Magazine
Blake Brody Shoes
Yogalitik
Empowerment & Peace
"Giant" in Dallas
AcroYoga Workshop


Whole Living Magazine

I'm a contributor to Martha Stewart's Whole Living Magazine! Check out the Jan/Feb issue on pages 60-62. The article "It Takes Two" shows six partner poses for strength, balance, and stretch, that anyone can do at home. Photographed with fellow yoga teacher Matt Giordano.

ONLINE ARTICLE

 

Blake Brody Shoes

These extremely cute in-studio shoes come in 7 styles and 2-4 color choices per design style. My black leather version of this pair, the Daryl, fit my wide toes very well, and I found it good to order the half size up rather than down, for my wide feet. They provide padding and great grip and slip on and off quickly when you need to access your toes.

BLAKE BRODY IN-STUDIO SHOES

 

Yogalitik

These cute yoga figure designs on tanks, t-shirts, and yoga bags are made by a yoga student who honors her love of her practice by creating these pieces. I received a cami top and leggings and while the leggings have gone missing in laundry, love the top! See Myles' website if you are interested in ordering an item or two for yourself or someone else!

YOGALITIK DESIGNS

 

Empowerment & Peace

For an inspiring book on yoga empowering youth in poverty-afflicted African villages, order a copy of "Portraits of Empowerment and Peace" ~ moving accounts by the local teachers of the Africa Yoga Project about their lives, their communities, and the challenges they face daily, in which Yoga plays a huge part in empowering them.

"This book will inspire you to be up to something big in your own life." Baron Baptiste

All proceeds from book sales help the Africa Yoga Project to expand their programs promoting unity, possibility, and non-violence.

PORTRAITS OF...

 

"Giant" in Dallas

The gent of the house is in cowboy regalia this month at the Dallas Theater Center in Texas, playing Polo, the head ranch hand on Jordan Benedict's sprawling ranch Reatta, in Edna Ferber's epic novel adapted to a stage musical by Michael John LaChiusa, with book by Sybille Pearson, directed by Michael Greif and co-produced by the Public Theater. May it strike oil as it prepares to head back East in the Fall of 2012.

"GIANT" THE MUSICAL

 

AcroYoga Workshop

Save the date! April 7th is the time for my next 3-hour Fundamentals of AcroYoga workshop! I love these; it was one of these, in November 2007, that first launched me into the joy ride of "partner yoga, acrobatics, and Thai massage" that is this fusion practice. Come April 7 to Yogaworks SoHo, and join Chris Loebsack and me in tasting the playfulness, trust, strength, and joy in yourself, when channeled into partner yoga playfulness with others!

No partner needed, no experience necessary. Register early for best price! Bring a hair scrunchie. Yes, you may bring a camera.

4/7 ACROYOGA "FUN"DAMENTALS WORKSHOP

Mary Aranas Yoga • http://web.me.com/maryaranas * 310 Lexington Ave. • NY, NY 10016
http://web.me.com/maryaranas
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