First Street Yoga - Newberg, Oregon

In many ways, this summarizes the goals of yoga: a still mind in the middle of an active life, a quiet breath in the midst of effort.

Join us this Sunday for the Centering for Balance and Coordination Workshop (see the workshop page for details). By strengthening our identification with the center of our being, we learn to observe and participate in the wild changing world without being thrown off balance. This workshop will help students identify their physical center and learn strengthening exercises to help hold this center while allowing free, strong movement of the rest of the body. This workshop is appropriate for all levels, but it will be best for students in reasonably good physical condition. The sequences will be targeted toward students who enjoy sports that require dynamic physical balance like horseback riding, skiing and surfing. To register, call to save a spot or simply register the afternoon of the workshop.

We hear sound through our ears, but we experience its vibrations through every cell of our body. The ancient yogis believed that sound could be used to heal the body and to focus the mind, and they developed Sanskrit as a tool to access and direct these benefits.

We still have some space in the Sanskrit workshop, so consider joining us for a fun and active weekend exploring this powerful practice. We’ll meet Saturday and Sunday, 10-5 each day. If you’re interested, please email or call 503-554-5485.

Come learn to read and chant in Sanskrit! Saturday and Sunday, April 16-17, Kathryn Payne, a teacher with the American Sanskrit Institute, will teach us to recognize and pronounce the sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet. You’ll be able to read the original yoga sutras and pronounce the ancient chants with confidence.

Sanskrit, meaning refined speech, is the ritual language of yoga (and Buddhism and Hinduism). I’ve come to know it through my studies of Patanjali’s yoga sutras, and I appreciate the exotic vocabulary. Ahimsa, for example, has come to mean something more than non-violence. For me, it is a non-ordinary word which represents a non-ordinary ideal of harmlessness. The deep concepts of Patanjali’s sutras are served by a special vocabulary that can gain meaning as practice and understanding deepens.

Sound is also a healing tool. I’m not aware of studies on the healing benefits of sound, but there is no question that when we chant every cell in our body vibrates in tune with that sound. The tradition of yoga uses the sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet as seed sounds to open and balance the chakras, or energy centers, of the body. On a more superficial level, chanting exercises the lungs and vocal chords. Sanskrit chants have long been used as tools for meditation and devotion.

To learn more, see the workshop page. If you’re interested, please sign up right away! We need to have enough people to make this worth the trip for Kathryn. I anticipate students from out of the area, so it is also a wonderful opportunity to meet other yogis and make some new friends. I hope you’ll join me.

Jane

Join us for forward bends this Sunday, March 6 1-4!

This workshop will emphasize physical engagement. Minimal anatomy instruction and  explanation will help to keep you focused on you as we use these important postures to take a journey of the self.

Our itinerary will begin with the big outer muscles like the hamstrings and spinal muscles. As you gently penetrate the resistance of the outer body (anamaya kosa), you will begin to discover the energetic body (pranamaya kosa). Long holds and gentle breath work in the asanas will help calm and organize the nervous system and begin to bring clarity to the mental body (manomaya kosa). If you’ve never done 3 hours of forward bends before, you might find yourself in brand new territory!

This workshop is appropriate for students who have been practicing alignment based yoga for at least six months. For more information, see the workshop page.

June 13-14
Sunset Yoga Center

Felicity’s classes always give food for thought. In addition to her knowledgeable teaching of asana, she treats the more subtle aspects of yoga with depth and clarity. This workshop will explore the pranavayus, the energy systems that move prana as we practice asana.