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Dear Yogis and Friends,
I hope this finds you all happy and well.
Things are great here. I'm doing more doula work, which feels awesome. I love my Prenatal Yoga class at City Yoga and my Vinyasa Flow class at Yogis Anonymous.
This month in our newsletter, Green Columnist: Debra Silverman shares how a marriage shifted shifted her family's approach to Thanksgiving.
I talk about embracing the darkness as an opportunity for Svadhyaya, or Self Study.
Sunday Dec. 12th: Come to My Inversions Workshop at Yogis Anonymous! This is a class for those of you who love to invert, hate to invert, want to invert more safely, or just wonder, what is the big deal about all these inversions.
And if you can't catch me in person, you can now watch my some of myclasses archived, online, for free!
My next live feed is tomorrow Thursday, Nov. 18th, from 2:30pm - 3:55pm.
Blessings.
Live Happily!
Aria
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| Turn Your Fear Upside Down |
Inversions are a powerful part of our yoga practice.They benefit the immune and endocrine systems, regulate blood pressure and enhance thyroid function. However, many yogis dread inversions in a class setting because they don't know how to approach the poses properly, and they feel awkward when they fall. This workshop will move you past this resistance, teaching you to embrace inversions, to fall out of them safely and gracefully, and send you back to your practice not only confident in your technique, but eagerly looking forward to the next chance to be upside down. |
 Svadhyaya: Inner Investigation, Inner Inquiry |
 Svadhyaya:
Sva: Higher Self, Soul, the Atman
Dhya: Meditation (from Dhyana)
Ya: Activating Suffix Welcome to the darkest few weeks of the year. Every day, from now through the Winter Solstice, the days will keep shortening and the nights will keep increasing.
Oftentimes, this brings tremendous resistance into my life. I want the sun, the daytime, the light. Yet, what I crave is impossible. We can not always live in the blistering energy of the day. We need the intensity and depth of the night in order to recharge ourselves. Both light and darkness rely on each other in order to survive. This balance is what creates the interplay between Day and Night, the Sun and the Moon, Masculine and Feminine, Yin and Yang.
Certainly, the next few weeks will provide opportunity for a physical experience of darkness, for more time spent chilling by the proverbial fire. During this time, I encourage you to to enter into Svadhyaya, or the Study of the Self.
Svadhyaya means "actively meditating on or studying the nature of the Self". It is the fourth of the fifth Niyamas, or attitudes about ourselves.
Self Study can come from reading sacred texts, meditation, prayer, self-relfection or therapy. The opportunity to study oneself often emerges during times of stress, hardship or tension, as well as during times of vacation: being away from our regular life. Self Study is getting to know our selves better. What makes us tick? Where are we strong? Fearful? Joyful? Sad? In spending time with ourselves, we gradually feel more and more comfortable in our own skin, more aware of what makes us happy and what makes us stressed, more connected to the world around us.
On a deeper level, Self Study brings us to the realization that none of us are distinct units of energy, but rather, that we are all tied to each other and the world around us. It's one thing to study yoga, the physical postures, the breathing techniques, the history, the myths, the stories, even the language of yoga. It's another thing entirely to use yoga as a tool of Self Study. In doing so, we remember who we truly are: divine beings with the spark of Life.
Judith Hanson Lasater, PhD, a prominent scholar of yoga, describes Svadhyaya as "the deep acknowledgment of the oneness of Self with all that is. In other words, to practice svadhyaya is to begin to dissolve the illusion of separateness we feel from ourselves, those around us, and our world. To practice svadhyaya is to find God in the person standing in front of us at this very moment. "
For me, Self Study is brings about a deep connection to the entire world around me. Rocks, trees, leaves, the moon, the stars: they all come alive when I take time to study my inner workings. Most of the world's indigenous cultures already honor this connection: they believe that the sun, the moon, the earth, the rocks, the trees and the air are all expressions of and elements of Life. Biologists and physicists can now verify these ancient beliefs with science: there are fields of energy that connect us to everything around us. Even our organs have distinct fields of energy. In fact, the energy of the human heart is 5000 times greater than that of the human brain. Amazing, isn't it? If could but only see ourselves from an energetic perspective, we would see that we are always exchanging and sharing our energy with everything around us.
Self Study can help us realize that we are never alone, that there is a place deep inside of us that is connected to everyone and everything that ever lived.
Let's connect to that place over the next few weeks.
Sending You All Lots of Yoga Love,
Aria
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| Green Yoga Columnist Debra Silverman |
 Giving Thanks
Ten years ago, my sister married a Native American man and the Thanksgiving holiday became a lightning rod in my family.
My brother-in-law's refusal to attend our annual family dinner was a real shocker to most of us, and he's stayed steadfast in his decision. I think we had all forgotten that the holiday that's morphed into an excuse for families to get together, eat enormous quantities of food, play football (or watch it on TV), and catch up on gossip and politics is actually a holiday born out of a myth of cooperation between the white settlers from Europe and the Native American people they displaced.
Every year while my mother bemoans the fact that the family is not all together, I'm secretly thankful that the day has a teaching moment built into it. I have an opportunity to remind my children that there are at least two sides to every story and that they have an obligation to put the pieces together to create their own stories and traditions.
In our family, Thanksgiving is less about that mythic first harvest than it is about taking a moment to give thanks for the bounty in our lives. Before we dig in, each person -- from the youngest child to the oldest grandparent -- takes a turn letting us know what she or he is thankful for. The comments are silly, moving, scatological (thank you three-year-olds), and irreverent (thank you Grandpop). None are dull. And maybe this small moment brings us a little closer to each other.
As we kick-off the holiday season with Thanksgiving it's my greatest hope that we each transmit that feeling of bounty and gratitude into every aspect of our daily lives. Can we carry thanks giving with us by making small, kind gestures to the loved ones and strangers around us? Can we be kind to ourselves?
Here's where the green part comes in: Can we extend these gestures of kindness and thanks to mother earth as she sustains us?
I hope our answer to these questions is a life-affirming "Yes." Taking care of the earth, each other and ourselves is a supreme demonstration of gratitude. And it's sometimes supremely difficult to do.
It's so easy to get bogged down in the daily grind of our lives: work, laundry, traffic, grocery shopping, feeding the kids, packing lunches, and cleaning the house. Sometimes it's so difficult to see beyond the moment, even when the breezes have blown away all the haze and there is a perfectly clear view all the way to the mountains in the northeast and the ocean to the west. Can we stop, look and give thanks for this moment? Can we breathe the relatively fresh air and smile? Can we slow down just a bit?
Here are five ways of saying thank you to mother earth in this season of giving thanks:
· Kick the single-use water bottle habit by investing in a BPA-free reusable bottle.
· Pick up five pieces of trash next time you're out walking in your neighborhood, on a trail or at the beach.
· Take cloth bags with you to the market so when you're asked "paper or plastic?" you can say neither.
· Ride your bike instead of using your car.
· Take shorter showers.
Make your own list, breathe deeply, and show gratitude.
Debra Silverman is a mom, writer, environmentalist and film executive who lives in West L.A. with her husband and two lovely boys. |
| Structure & Flow is now LlVE and ONLINE |
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| Doula Services |
 My daughter, Kaia, was born at home, in the water. What I treasure the most about that experience is feeling safe, trusted, heard, and at peace the entire time. My experience has inspired me to extend that energy to others in their birth experience. I am now a trained doula, working on my certification with DONA. I am apprenticing with Elizabeth Bachner, LM, CPM, L.aC., DASC Midwife of the Year 2008, and owner of GracefulBirthing. |
| Prenatal Yoga at City Yoga |
Honor your pregnancy. Exercise your need for movement within a safe, FUN environment.
Each class includes stretches, standing postures, hip and shoulder openers, and a juicy meditation. Practice expanding energy through your breath, which will help you in labor and delivery |
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