Greetings and Sunny Salutations!

Tomorrow’s date is unusual, 11.11.11, and there are many opinions about what that repeating date might mean to each of us and the world. There is a festival of music on the banks of the Ganges River in India 11.11.11 India and some predictions are fear-based, of course. My favorite attitude comes from an article in Tamasthu to “Keep Smiling”

There’s nothing better in this world than to know that you have made someone happy. People seldom notice old clothes if you wear a smile! We often tend to miss simple pleasures in this roller-coaster ride called life. We are often burdened with so much responsibility and stress in day-to-day life that we forget to stop and smell the flowers.

• The joyous expression on a mother’s face when she sees her child take his first step independently.
• A child who finds himself riding a bicycle for the first time without trainer wheels.
• Or simply smile at a stranger… it’s probably the only sunshine he will be seeing in the day!

Turn your frown up-side down. It costs nothing and gives more light.

And then there is the special elixir of gratitude, which in just two weeks we celebrate as a nation and family. YogaNow offers a yoga class at 10 am on Thanksgiving, to start your holiday with yoga and community, you might even bring your visiting relatives. Here’s a sweetly nourishing Tedx Talk on Gratitude, sent to me from wonderful YogaNow yogi, Lauri Dickinson: Gratitude Louie Schwartzberg

Hope to meet you on the mat and see you smiling. Many blessings all around,

Namaste,

Meta.

Greetings and November Salutations!

I’m on my way to a book signing/ workshop in Indianapolis at the Ann Katz Book Festival where the second edition of Vital Yoga: A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers has just arrived from the printers. Thank you all for your support and for our work together which is the basis of Vital Yoga.

And now, a video that makes me so happy that I weep, for many reasons, just one is watching Bella and Tara:

Another is the clarity of mind and integrity of the workers of the Tennessee Elephant Sanctuary.

The holidays are here (I know because there is a radio station that now plays Christmas carols 24/7) and it is a terrific time to invite yoga into your life in a more consistent way, so that you stay connected to you True Self, even if the world whirls other ideas. So, please do consider our special Holiday Yoga Bundle, just $9/class, to be taken in November and December.

AND remember that you have another invitation: yoga on Thanksgiving, Christmas And New Year’s Day at 10 am. Yoga with yourself, yoga with community, yoga with love.

Signing off with words from Alice Walker:

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons.

They were not made for humans any more than

black people were made for whites or women for men.”

From my heart to yours,
Namaste,

Meta.

(IF THIS IS TOO SMALL TO READ ON EMAIL, CLICK THE LINK AND READ IT ON THE WEB, PLEASE!)

Greetings and Late October Salutations,

another holiday view, that's tofuturkey, right?

I hope this finds you all keeping warm and enjoying the fall colors and even, some rain, JAI!

I am so grateful to you all for practicing together at YogaNow. I can see even more clearly (since eye surgery) how beautiful yoga is and how beautiful the YogaNow community is. Over the years I’ve noticed how stressful the ‘holiday’ months are and how much yoga helps, and yet, it’s just the time when we can’t find the space for yoga. Ironic, just when we need it most, we can’t fit it in.

So this year, YogaNow is offering a special gift:  Holiday Yoga Help.  A holiday bundle of 15 classes for just $9/class (what a bargain!) that is valid only for November and December. That means about 2 classes a week, and what a gift that would be for ourselves. These new bundles will be available beginning November 1st.

This Friday there is a movie screening (Albuquerque premier!) of Yogawoman at our sister studio, Albuquerque Ashtanga Yoga Shala, join us there.

And of course we have 10 am class on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day, a nourishing way to start the holidays.

May your days be full of beauty and your mind at peace with whatever comes your way,

with love,

Meta.

Dear YogaNow friends and family,

As I write this post a storm is brewing out the window and of course, we hope for rain. This is the first day of the Jewish New Year, 5772, so to all those of the Jewish tribe, Happy New Year! To everyone, Happy New Moon. The new moon, the new year, always new beginnings are open to us. And I find the Bhagavad Gita reassuring:

~ On this path effort never goes to waste, and there is no failure. Even a little effort toward spiritual awareness will protect you from the greatest fear. ~

Please join Elise Espat for the Introduction to Mysore Ashtanga Yoga this Saturday, Oct 1, 2-4 pm

Elise Espat

http://www.vitalyogathebook.com/workshops-and-retreats/workshops/…there will be a short video viewing, explanation and discussion, breathing practice and everything you need to know to begin Mysore. This is a workshop for everyone!

Note too that the Tuesday morning class is now 9:30 am, along with every other morning class.

As the seasons change you may want to consider a season cleanse, called panchakarma. This is a wonderful way to honor your body and the change in the air. Here is a web site with more information on panchakarma: http://www.ayurveda.com/panchakarma/index.html.

May I suggest a simple panchakarma, perhaps three days: a monodiet of kitchuri (many recipes for this including in Vital Yoga: A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers, p. 210-11); warm oil self massage daily; extra sleep; restorative yoga at home, for example, legs up the wall.

You are also invited to Friday at the Movies, an event co-hosted with the Albuquerque Ashtanga Shala, Friday, October 28, 2011, 7:30pm.  Join us for a screening of the new film “Yoga Woman”. View trailer here.

May your transitions be easy and your choices for attention nourishing,

with love and gratitude,
Meta.

Greetings and September Salutations,

Mythical adventures…lately I’ve been reading Carolyn Myss’ Defy Gravity (ironically it recently fell to the floor) and currently her chapter on Connecting with  Meaning and Purpose. Her description of how our struggles in life can be experienced as a mythical adventures or profound rituals with obstacles viewed as, say, trolls on a bridge, and complexities as navigating labrynths with vines and wild animals. I then thought of my current challenge as just such a mythical story and suddenly, the process was clear, the challenge interesting and my whole perspective shifted. I recommend it!

Class notes – beginning in October all morning classes will begin at 9:30 am, meaning the experimental time of 9 am on Tuesday is over and we’ll return to 9:30 am Gentle on Tuesdays (and Thursdays as always).  Happily we have a new Wednesday 9:30 class with Joe and Allegra Wolff. Here Joe addresses the question who can practice Ashtanga:

This Saturday, September 17, 1-2:30 pm
is the Asthma and Yoga class. Please spread the word to anyone you know who experiences shortness of breath or lung challenges. This is a regularly priced class designed to provide ongoing help.

On Saturday, October 1, 2011, 2- 4pm
we are hosting Elise Espat for a workshop introducing Mysore Ashtanga yoga. If you’ve never done heard of Mysore (or you have and think it sounds strangely painful), this workshop is for you. Here’s Elise on yoga:

Join her at the opening of her new shala (studio) in Nob Hill:

Barefoot Ball & Benefit Party / The Shala Open House & Reception
7-9pm Friday, September 23, 2011
Yes, classes started September 6th, but the eve of the Autumnal Equinox is a way better date for celebrating. Come see the space, enjoy some veggie nosh, meet some fab people, get some goodies — all for a good cause. We’ll be raising funds to help support Odanadi’s current project. Committed to rescuing and rehabilitating trafficked women and children in India, let’s help them build a new boys’ home!

Many blessings all around, May Mythical Adventures abound,
with love and gratitude,

Meta.

Greetings and End of August Salutations,

I hope you are all enjoying the weather and happily not hurricanes and tornadoes. I read this morning that this was the hottest August on record and I hope you have been staying cool and using yoga as a tool for calmness of mind and spirit. If not, it’s never too late to come to a yoga class, yoga is always there for you!

Chilling in the shade

We will have one 10 am class on Labor Day, all weekend classes happen. You might just want to begin the national holiday in community in yoga.

There is still time to join our next YogaNow Personal Enrichment and Teacher Training Apprentice Program which beings October 2.  This dive into yoga is a gift to yourself to uncover your own truth and beauty. You certainly don’t have to want to be a yoga teacher but you do have to be willing to learn and grow with yoga. We won’t be offering the training again in October 2012 so if you are considering, this may be your time now!

We are welcoming two new teachers, Joe and Allegra Wolf. They will be teaching classes already on the schedule and also adding a Wednesday morning Ashtanga Vinayasa for all levels – beginner and seasoned practitioner.

Our Friday evening class is changing times – will be a new time 6-7:30 pm beginning Sept 9. It is now called Happy Hour Vinyasana and here is the description:

Happy Hour Vinyasana

A great way to unwind from the week before starting your weekend. This class is designed to give you a strong foundation in fun, while being both safe and effective. This is a fluid vinyasana class, using elements of the Ashtanga approach, but resequenced to lend a sense of playfulness and accessibility for everyone. We explore the dynamic synergy between effort and letting go. You will leave feeling refreshed, energized, and relaxed, with the night still young. So come and join us in this breathing, moving, and feeling mediation.

May the new month be sweet and your moments be now,

with love,

Meta.

Greetings and August Salutations to you!

The beauty of New Mexico at sunset

I hope this finds you all well and diving into your moments.

YogaNow is pleased to offer a free class this week, Wednesday, August 24, 7:30-9 pm to meet new to Albuquerque and YogaNow teachers, Allegra and Joe Wolff.  They will team teach this 90 minute yoga class. Here’s a bit about them:

Joe and Allegra moved to Albuquerque from San Francisco this summer to enjoy the simplicities of mountains, the southwest and spend more time with family.

Allegra has been practicing Ashtanga yoga on and off since 2004 but was first introduced to Kundalini yoga in 2002. She finds it is important to establish a variety in her personal asana practice from day to day and so the yoga she teaches is a playful combination of ashtanga-vinyasa influenced poses ranging from the gentle and subtle to the challenging intensity of more rigorous poses.

THIS Saturday is the Yoga for Asthma class, 1-2:30 pm, please come if you have any respiratory distress and want to work with your breath!

Also join Cypresse and Friends on Sunday:

Flash Mob Yoga
You’re Invited!
August 28, 2011
Albuquerque Art Museum, 2000 Mountain NW 
(across from Tiguex Park)
Arrive 1:50 to wander around out front, acting interested in the art installations….at 2pm, we begin with 2 sun salutes, into our own flow of poses before ending promptly at 2:10. Optional to go to Old Town Plaza afterward and have a drink.
Come with sunscreen, your creativity and your drishti!

Flash Mob Yoga is sweeping the country, here’s an article about one in nyc http://www.yogadork.com/news/mega-yoga-flash-mob-planned-for-nycs-grand-central-station-august-24th/

and a pix

many blessings all around,
many opportunities to practice yoga!

namaste,

Meta.

Greetings and August Salutations to you all,

Cloud shadows from the plane window...if all we see are the shadows, how much of the clouds do we miss?

I’ve been traveling and happy to be home. I had the opportunity to speak in a symposium at the Academy of Management on applying yoga philosophical principles to a business. I was delighted to meet the other presenters including an Indian professor of entrepreneurial management who uses an ancient text by Kautilya, written 2-3 centuries BCE, call the Arthashastra, discussing wealth and acting ethically. Amazing to me how the ancient times have so much in common with today.

From a Sanskrit scholar, Jo Brill, I caught the link with Mick Jagger singing Sanskrit: http://www.yogadork.com/news/listen-mick-jagger-sings-in-sanskrit-with-new-supergroup/  If there was any doubt about the penetration of yoga into all corners of popular culture, surely this link will erase it.

THIS Saturday, join Jimmy Cardinale, Ashtanga teacher extraordinaire for an introduction to Ashtanga yoga: http://www.vitalyogathebook.com/workshops-and-retreats/workshops/ This is an excellent opportunity to learn about this ancient challenging and therapeutic yoga practice.

Just because I’ve been out of town, don’t think for a minute the hens in my backyard haven’t been busy. I will bring eggs to buy (by donation) to the Thursday 5:45 pm class. I don’t know if you like eggs, but I do know that these eggs are from hens who live quite a spacious and active life, in addition to being loved.  Meet you on the mat.

have a great week, thank you for all you are and bring to the world,

namaste,

Meta.

Dear Yogis,

Happy August, can you believe it? And it’s actually beginning to rain, in a way that includes wetness, at least in my hood. Hope you are finding some moisture relief, too.

Dharma on look out over sunflowers. Dharma on the job.

Lately there has been some good science news on the yoga/health front: Check out the article from the New York Times saying, in part, that yoga actually increased bone density for people with osteoporosis and its precursor, osteopenia: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/health/02brody.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Of course another point the research emphasized is that “compliance with yoga exercises was poor. But the 11 patients who did 10 minutes of yoga daily for two years increased bone density in their hips and spines while seven patients who served as controls continued to lose bone.”  As always it is the actually practicing that makes a difference. YogaNow yogis who have taken the Yoga Challenge have also experience the tremendous effects of committed practice and many of you experience yoga body/mind/heart joy over years of community at YogaNow, thank you!

Just for a smile, I was grinning ear to ear when my daughter sent me this, with the note…instead of sunscreen, have a glass of red wine! http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20086913-10391704.html  So long sunscreen, hello red wine. I’m in.

Please join me at  5:45 pm tonight for yoga. Can’t promise red wine, but there may be a treat nonetheless, beyond the yoga!

Many blessings all around,
Namaste,

Meta.

Greetings and Salutations,

A dear friend sent me this link about the Buddha:

How the Buddha Solved His Marketing Problem

And I found it inspiring, even just re-hearing the story of the Buddha’s life. Haven’t we all gone from one extreme to another – searching for the right action but really being thrown side to side? Eventually we come back to center, finding the way that sustains us and allows us to find balance, not too much, not too little, just right as the porridge story goes.

We are taught in yoga through the ancient texts that moderation is the key (Yoga Sutras, brahmacharya, for example, and in the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 6). In my younger days I would have thought this was not just the middle way but the boring way – give me extremes or give me death, I might have proclaimed. But these days, I find the middle way, moderation, much more satisfying and alluring, not at all boring.

I invite you all to today’s Thursday 5:45 pm class that I’m teaching — we’ll find challenges and the middle way — in asanas and in community. Please join us!

"Thinner Than Ever" - This back page of Adbusters won't leave me soon (that's an iPad being handed down)...even if I did read it while camping at Heron Lake.

Also we are now offering a monthly Yoga for Asthma class, the first is this Saturday 1-2:30 pm. Please let any of your friends and family who may suffer from respiratory problems know about it. They are very welcome.

May your days be filled with the delicious knowing of your own unique beauty,

namaste

Meta.