First Street Yoga - Newberg, Oregon

The advancement of technology has made everything  faster, and much in life is easier than it used to be. However, as technology increases,  more demands are put upon us; communications are made with the expectation of immediate response, and decisions are made as quick as you can hit the send button. This new speed of life, especially around the holidays, puts stress levels at an all time high.

Join Alison on Sunday, Dec. 4^th from 1-4 for Yoga for Stress Relief: an active and restorative workshop. Using yoga philosophy to guide us, we will spend the 1^st half of the workshop practicing actively to relieve built up tension stored in the body. In the 2^nd half, we will practice restoratives to unwind the body and calm the mind.

You will learn new ways to cope with stress and leave feeling relaxed and refreshed.

To save a spot in the workshop 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.

There’s still room in the Salute to the Sun Workshop

Saturday June 26 9-12

$40  with Jane Carlsen

Sun Salute (surya namaskarasana) is a classic asana sequence of moving outward and moving inward.

Traditionally, this vigorous sequence is practiced in the morning to align the individual’s energy to the primal energy of the sun.

Focusing movement, breath, and intention, surya namaskar becomes a meditation, a prayer, that helps us coordinate our outward get it done energy with our inward give it meaning energy.

For more information, see the workshops 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.