B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga Center Minneapolis

B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga Center Minneapolis

BBC NEWS - Emmerdale star to take yoga break

Even British TV stars love yoga.

Bracknell, 40, who plays vet Zoe Tate, will leave in the autumn in a dramatic storyline to take nine months off.
'I am looking forward to spending some time with my family and having the opportunity to pursue other projects,' the mother-of-two said.
'I will also be finishing my teaching diploma in yoga which is something I am passionate about,' she added.

Link

Startribune: It's a stretch, but kids love yoga class

Minneapolis Startribune has an article about an elementary school teacher who teaches her kids yoga. From the article:

Jones is a health teacher at St. Paul's Battle Creek Middle School. At the end of every week, she transforms her classes into "Fit Fridays." Sometimes, the students walk. Sometimes they go to the gym. But every other week, Combs' kids delve into yoga. And it's not a stretch to say they enjoy their new twist on health.
"I like it," said Shavell Buckner, 12. "It's relaxing."
Added Use Urhieyovwe, 12, "It helps my body. I feel energized for the rest of the school day."

Link

about Page of Larry Schultz

Link. Check out his PDFs under the "Articles" section.
Update 9:40 PM: I read all four of these, and they are rich in philosophy and knowlege, they are PDFs worth saving.

Class notes 3/27/05, Beg. Ashtanga 2

Class observation: Creativity and humor in instructional design applied to yoga. This engages the class and produces light-heartedness.

T. was in good teaching form today, this last Ashtanga class of the quarter. She had gone on a trip and seen eagles nests the day before, this led to us doing something called eagle pose (Garudasana), which I call "lets pretend we're Kali and wrap our legs and arms around each other" pose. I'd done this one before and actually like it a lot, and found it was much easier to balance on one foot and get into the pose this time around. Continuing on the bird theme, then there was Crane (Bakasana), which is not easy at this point, and I could not hold it. We then moved into Pigeon, the easy one, not the one shown on the link, for a nice hip-opener. She noted Pigeon is not in Ashtanga Primary series, but it fit the bird theme, so there you go. Completing the set was Fish (Matsyasana), the teacher mentioned something about the back at this point and used the example of salmon swimming upstream. No tie-in to the bird theme was mentioned, so I volunteered that salmon is what eagles eat, thus completing the set. This was a great example of creativity and humor used in yoga instruction, most of it seemingly put together on the fly. I think that the entire bird theme will make these poses easier to remember.

Also of note:
Double Dip Chataranga: Lower into Chataranga, and after Up Dog move back into Plank and lower down, move directly into Down Dog from the lowered position.

Class notes 3/27/05, Beg. Ashtanga 2

An observation from class: Creativity and humor in instructional design applied to yoga. This engages the class and produces light-heartedness.

T. was in good teaching form today, this last Ashtanga class of the quarter. She had gone on a trip and seen eagles nests the day before, this led to us doing something called eagle pose (Garudasana), which I call "lets pretend we're Kali and wrap our legs and arms around each other" pose. I'd done this one before and actually like it a lot, and found it was much easier to balance on one foot and get into the pose this time around. Continuing on the bird theme, then there was Crane (Bakasana), which is not easy at this point, and I could not hold it. We then moved into Pigeon, the easy one, not the one shown on the link, for a nice hip-opener. She noted Pigeon is not in Ashtanga Primary series, but it fit the bird theme, so there you go. Completing the set was Fish (Matsyasana), the teacher mentioned something about the back at this point and used the example of salmon swimming upstream. No tie-in to the bird theme was mentioned, so I volunteered that salmon is what eagles eat, thus completing the set. This was a great example of creativity and humor used in yoga instruction, most of it seemingly put together on the fly. I think that the entire bird theme will make these poses easier to remember.

Also of note:
Double Dip Chataranga: Lower into Chataranga, and after Up Dog move back into Plank and lower down, move directly into Down Dog from the lowered position.

Class notes 3/21/05, Beg. Ashtanga 2

Teacher TB: In Utkatasana and other poses with the arms overhead, movement should be from the back muscles and not just the sholder muscles, almost as if you have wings.
Backbend is very hard for me to do, and is something I will have to work up to. Keep the elbows and knees together, be careful with the neck.
Headstand is getting easier to do, today we learned "Dolphin Push-ups" to build strength in the arms that we need in order to do headstand. Core strength is needed. I almost got up today and was vertical for a second and collapsed and rolled onto my back. My earlier observance that headstand is engenders a lot of mental processing still holds true.

Yoga Sutra explanations at YI magazine

Link

New spiritual documentary: Short Cut to Nirvana

Patrick let me know about a new film called Short Cut to Nirvana. My favorite part of the trailer is when the Dali Lama gets to play with a Sadhu's meditation drum, and then laughs.

Visit the film's website for all the details such as when it is playing in your neighborhood.

SYNOPSIS
The Kumbh Mela is the biggest gathering of people in the history of humanity – although few in the West have ever heard of it. More than 70 million pilgrims attend this extraordinary spiritual festival, which has been held every 12 years near Allahabad, India, for over two millennia. A vast tent city is established to accommodate the masses, and many of India’s greatest gurus and spiritual leaders set up camp to give discourses to their devotees. On certain auspicious days everyone takes a holy dip at the confluence of two actual rivers - the Ganges and Yamuna - and a mythical river, the Saraswati. On the main bathing day, more than 25 million people bathe in the sacred waters. This single act of faith is believed to cleanse the sins of a thousand lifetimes and secure release from the endless cycle of rebirth – literally a short cut to the state of purest bliss… nirvana.

Short Cut to Nirvana: Kumbh Mela takes us on
a voyage of discovery through this vivid and vibrant world,
accompanied by an irrepressible young Hindu monk,
Swami Krishnanand, and several Westerners, each on
their own spiritual quest. With Swamiji we encounter
some of the Kumbh Mela's wisest and most fascinating
characters, including an ascetic sadhu who has held
his arm in the air for over 20 years, another who sits
on a throne of nails, a Japanese devotee who is buried
in a pit for three days, and a guru who proposes that
Americans would do well to start meditating for three
hours each day. We also spend time in the company of
an honored guest, the Dalai Lama, as senior leaders of
Hinduism and Buddhism join together in an historic
moment of unity.

More than a simple account of the Kumbh Mela, this
film is a sensory experience of an ancient, grand
occasion, a swirl of color and motion, song and
cacophony, the sacred and the surreal -- spiritual
India exactly as anyone would hope to find it. And
from this ancient culture comes a powerful and
uplifting message of harmony, unity, and peace for all
humanity.

The learning cycle for a newbie

The information here is applicable to the process of learning yoga, and is from a currency trading web forum.

The learning cycle for a newbie trader
Hi folks.
Many of you don't know, but I used to be involved in training people in various things (not trading) and I thought I might share with you the journey that you take when beginning anything new. also if I show you my kind of writing style you might just buy my beginners forex book
This cycle is as true for trading as it is for learning to drive a car and consists of five components.
I'm going to take you through each stage so you can recognise exactly where you are in your trading journey.
Step One - Unconscious Incompetence.
Stage 2 - Conscious Incompetence
Stage 3 - The Eureka Moment
Stage 4 - Conscious Competence

Link

?

Is it just me, or does breathing feel different now? It seems like I have more of a conscious connection to the breath, even when I am not thinking about it. Something is definitely different after spending much time in class this past weekend when Rod Stryker was here.

Reading List

This is the gathering, yin part of the learning, it is also left brained, which I exel at, which when I get tired of reading, for some reason I want to do asana, the outward manifestation, yang part of the learning. (yin/yang are relative to each other, in this case, stillness/thought - action/doing)

That said, here is my reading list. 3/7/05, subject to revision.

Rod Stryker recommends - from his reading list:
RECOMMENDED SELECTIONS ON CLASSICAL AND HATHA YOGA:
01- THE HEART OF YOGA* by T. K. V. Desikachar (Classical Yoga)
02- HOW TO KNOW GOD* by Swami Prabhavanda and Christopher Isherwood (Classical Yoga)
Rod also recommends Satyananda Saraswati for more information on the energy sysems of the body. This was in response to a question about the similarities between some of the Light Body centers, the perineal bandha and the pearl in the heart. Light Body graduates will know what I mean by this.

From YCM reading list:
Light on Yoga and Light on Pranayama, Iyengar
Light on Pranayama, Iyengar
The Sutra of Patanjali, Intgeral Yoga
Ashtanga Yoga, David Swenson, which I already use as a reference for class
Anatomy of Hatha Yoga, Coulter

From Katherine:
Yin Yoga, Paul Grilley
Essence of yoga, Bernard Bouanchaud
Integral Yoga magazine

Ayurveda and Addiction Recovery

Nice article on the Ayurveda Holistic Center website about Ayurveda and how it can help in recovery from addictions by Swami Sadashiva Tirtha.

The uniqueness of Ayurveda is that it not only helps one remove the cause of addiction (i.e.,. anxiety can cause smoking), but it helps evaporate the toxins in the body so there is little to no discomfort from withdrawal symptoms. Ayurveda does not say, `stop the addicting activity', it says, `lets replace it with another- more constructive activity'. If a young child is holding our most precious glass vase, and we ask them to give it to us, they usually don't.

But if we trade them for a doll or a piece of candy they will do so. Taking from a person leaves them empty. Trading allows the person to still have something to hold onto.The main therapies that Ayurveda employs are, herbs, nutrition and spiritual counseling. Secondary approaches include aromatherapy,gem therapy, yoga, massage, and color therapy. Herbs produce the most dramatic effect.Simultaneously, spiritual life-counseling is employed to help the recoverer to find their inner self-worth.

Additionally, by revealing to the person their inner Divine nature, Ayurveda offers a method to overcome co-dependency. Co-dependency is having the mistaken idea that we need to rely on another person, drug or food for our support. Rediscovering one's inner Divine nature gives the recovering person a sense of inner quality, grace and fulfillment. As they begin to experience a sense of self-love, a habit of self or inner reliance develops.

We are all addicted on some level...
it is best to become addicted to God

Actually, everyone is addicted on some level, even if it is being dependent on the relative world instead of the eternal, Divine, non-changing world. The trick is to become addicted to the non-changing world or God. This is the only thing which remains constant because it is eternal.So it is better to see addiction and dependency more as a matter of refining or redirecting our addictive tendencies rather than stopping them.

Link to article.

The article which led me to the above is here.

Google Search: yoga near minneapolis

Google has a new search mode where you can type in a "what" and a "where" to find businesses within a city or location. Just for fun, I punched in "yoga" and "Minneapolis" to see what it came up with, as of 3-5-2005, Yoga Center Minneapolis was at the top of the list, and had 134 in-bound links, with a lot of duplicate links which condense down to two pages, and for the Meditation Center 99 in-bound links condensing down to six pages.

Google Search: yoga near minneapolis link.

Google Local start page.

From Searchblog.

Yoga Links, all YCM related

3 Bijas. The 3 Bijas are Kaja, Zoe, and Laurel. Never met them. Kaja and Zoe teach at YCM. "Bija" I am quite sure, in Sanskrit means "Seed Sound", so I wonder which one of them represents the muladhara chakra. :-p

Blue Moon Yoga Studio is in Rochester, MN, and

Catherine McBrideteaches in Rochester, MN at Blue Moon Yoga Studio. Catherine taught the Yin Yoga workshop at YCM in February at which I learned a lot about what it takes to stretch what we normally think of the unstrechable parts of ourselves, the tendons and ligaments. She also leads a fantastic vinyasa flow which was a nice challenge. Her perspective on this is that instead of warming up first, the Yin can come first so that the body can get streched out, in preparation for the vinyasa. The concept of Yin is one I am quite familliar with due to previous study of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The Chinese prounounce Yin as "yeen" and not "yin" with a short "i" sound.

Union with Divine is Jaina Portwood's new site that just opened, just the homepage so far, looking forward to seeing what happens in that space. Jaina and her husband taught the Raw Foods workshop that I attended in December, at which I received a taste of the possibilities of raw food. This subject deserves its own set of links.

3/1/05 Practice Notes - Utthita Trikonasana

When in Utthita Trikonasana, rotating the straight leg ever so slightly to the back of the body allows one to get deeper into the pose. This is something to experiment with and observe.