Gentle Yoga
Welcome to Thursday's Blissful Gentle Yoga class offered by Catherine! Our class runs each week, from 1:10-2pm. No experience with either yoga or meditation is necessary. Catherine uses many comfy props to offer poses and guidance that are accessible to most bodies and minds. Glowing candles light the room as Catherine guides the class gently into deep calmness with yoga poses (asanas) to lengthen muscles and ease body fatigue. In this class, there are no worries, no competition, just longer, leaner bodies and relaxed minds. Simply follow Catherine's story as she leads you into a place of bliss, allowing
The winter solstice and associated practices
Today is the shortest day of the year, which means the longest night. The winter solstice is a time of darkness, where we must work to encourage the Sun back to his Mother, the Sky. We also welcome the light back into our lives and our practice. Make a wish this evening. Pray for light and love for the coming year. Help the Sun's feathered friends, by putting out birdseed for the winter birds. Wood, acorns, bayberry, mugwort and oak leaves are especially blessed at this time. In studio, we burned mugwort as a sacred and healing plant whose
The Oak Moon and your practice
The December full moon, that is closest to the winter solstice, is called the Oak Moon. The oak leaf has long represented the male aspect. It is a full, cold, bright moon, to dream of renewal and rebirth, a timely reminder for us to slow down, breathe a little deeper, be a little more present. The oak tree represents the natural flow between the material and spiritual worlds; its trunk and branches grow and stretch toward our sky while the roots dig deeply into the hidden places of the underworld. Settled into winter now, we become aware of the
The Wisdom of Winter and the Yield to the Spring Equinox
The Wisdom of Winter and the Yield to the Spring Equinox In the depths of winter, the earth rests, lying dormant awaiting the warmth and nutrients required for growth. Each seed hidden in the earth stores within itself the potential for a whole new world. There are many of us who have experienced a similar dormant period over the past few months. Winter is a time when we can be silent and still, and access our inner wisdom. We try to tap into the resources stored within us to fully bloom again when the conditions are right. In spring,
Love is Unlimited in Experience
The Vedas- (Vedic Sanskrit scriptures originating from ancient India) tell us that there are three kinds of love in this world. Where you take and do not give back in return. This type of 'love' is selfish and empty, with no regard for the other person on the other end of this so called love. Where you give and take. It's based on conditions, meaning it never can be truly stable. Unfortunately, it depends on likes and dislikes, yesses or nos, dos and donts. On one hand if the other person in the relationship satisfies you and acts how
Revel in What the Universe Has to Offer You
Everyone is responsible for the thoughts that they think, for the space that they choose to mentally inhabit. We all have to own where it is that we are. And what we choose to hold as our object of attention, also falls under that responsibility. When your thoughts are aligned with who you are, you can't help but inspire the same kind of centeredness in other people. We walk into a yoga class with the intent to focus, meditate and be aware- but let's be honest, we don't know what poses we're walking into or always how to master
Flux & Flow
Yoga is to still the fluctuations of the mind. But what is it that makes the mind fluctuate exactly? I don't have all the answers but I can tell you, I for one spend a lot of time being unfocused, flustered and scatter-brained. It's near impossible to stay concentrated in our 21st century world. We're bombarded by distractions on a constant loop, over-stimulated and overwhelmed. It becomes almost normal to feel drained of energy and inefficient when we don't work against these worldly distractions. Yoga helps bring us back to that inner focus and remain grounded. Yoga practice brings
‘The Secret of Change’
Does meditation actually work? I've asked myself this question multiple times before actually taking an interest in it, myself. It's a practice that sparks a lot of intrigue, but the purpose of it can be fuzzy. The whole point of meditation is to be AWARE of our emotions and mind instead of just experiencing them. I think everyone can vouch for the fact that our inner voice is sometimes a pain in the ass. It's also incredibly intuitive and reveals to us our hidden feelings and what our true ethical standpoint is. "Meta" translates to beyond, thinking about thinking, or
A Little Yoga 101
History Yoga began as a physical practice that involved stretching and strengthening each and every muscle in the body, so that one would be able to sustain a seated position of meditation for as long as possible. Way back when, the yogis were men who lived in caves-and no, I'm not kidding. Their way of life was quite profound actually, and that quality is something that many 21st century yogis have lost, as we've Westernized the practice to some degree (obviously this varies from studio to studio). These men gave up all worldly possessions to focus all of their
Sundays Over @ The Yoga Lounge
10am: Alignment-Based Yoga with Susan Tomorrow Susan will be leading this class and employing the use of chairs. Some people view props as almost a way of cheating, but it really is just a way to allow yourself to dig deeper into a pose than you could without the prop. Chairs help us to maintain balance so that we can better focus on aligning the body properly. The aim of any asana is to align the body, and strengthen that alignment so that we can sustain it within our every day lives. The chair's role in all of this