Happy National Day of Loving, Loving-Kindness, Sincere and Abiding Love toward Ourselves and then Others…

Yes it’s Valentine’s Day and we get to choose how we perceive it, choose our perspective, as always. We can be cynical and say it’s just a commercial hijacking of love and romance, or we could be riding solo right now and feel we are left out, or we could sneer at those who are so stupidly trying that thing called love again…and then there is the yogic approach:

We get to choose what we think and how we frame our lives and our minds. May I suggest that we do as Hafiz counsels:

Cast All Your Votes for Dancing

I know the voice of depression
Still calls to you.

I know those habits that can ruin your life
Still send their invitations.

But you are with the Friend now
And look so much stronger.

You can stay that way
And even bloom!

Keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From your prayers and work and music
And from your companions’ beautiful laugher.

Keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From the sacred hands and glance of your Beloved
And, my dear,
From the most insignificant movements
Of your own holy body.

Learn to recognize the counterfeits coins
That may buy you just a moment of pleasure,
But then drag you for days
Like a broken man
Behind a farting camel.

You are with the Friend now.
Learn what actions of yours delight
What actions of yours bring freedom
And Love.

Whenever you say God’s name, dear pilgrim,
My ears wish my head was missing
So they could finally kiss each other
And applaud all your nourishing wisdom!

O keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From your prayers and work and music
And from your companions’ beautiful laugher.

And from the most insignificant movements
Of your own holy body.

Now, sweet one,
Be wise.
Cast all your votes for Dancing!

And it’s no surprise that the manifestation of Shiva as yogi is the DANCING royal icon, dancing with yoga, Nataraj.

Join me on the mat and cast all your votes for dancing, on the Love day and all days.

BTW we now have locations for all five classes I teach, both evening classes in Nob Hill. April 2012 will begin a very local community time for YogaNow on the Move.

Sending hugs, smiles and lots of votes for Love,

Meta.

 

Top of the February morning to you,

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the second month of the new year, can you believe January is already behind us? Ah, time, that most precious of commodities.

The good news: Our TWO YogaNow teachers are back from India and eager to share their learnings and growth. Please join Mike at Ashtanga tomorrow, this Saturday at 11 am. And Aparna this morning at 9:30 am. We are so lucky to have teachers dedicated to their own transformation so that they can teach from a place of their own experienced wisdom, prajna.  Tonight’s Friday 5:45 pm class is cancelled just for today.

Here is an inspiring link of Walking the Talk for safety:

Yoga is a path to connection, first to ourselves, then each other, and then, the entire planet. As a speaker says in the video, This whole world is so precious.

Sending love and prayers for peace and safety for us all,

namaste,
Meta.

Greetings and Happy Chinese New Year!

Today, Monday, January 23, marks the beginning of the Year of the Water Dragon, a New Moon and the 4709th Chinese year.  The Year of the Dragon is one of the most revered years of the Chinese New Year calendar. The Manila Bulletin cites that the Dragon is sometimes called a “karmic sign.” The Dragon is larger than life and its appearance means that big things are to come. The Year of the Dragon is a flowing river, not a stagnant lake, so things happen quickly earlier in the year. The Dragon marks progression, perseverance and auspiciousness. It may also bring about unpredictable events. For us, another opportunity to begin again, consider our choices and our aspirations. At the 5:45 pm class tonight we’ll be doing some dragons of our own! (sourc for this info)

I came across another post and found it helpful and inspiring -Top Five Regrets of the Dying and hope you do too. I’m working on number four in this post to you.

Looks like we’ll be able to continue noon classes at Keshet Dance with Mikiala at Keshet Dance. And the gong events are coming in February and March.

This week I’ll be teaching 5:45 pm classes Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so join me on the mat if you can and may we all join in our desire for happiness for all beings.

Happy New Year!

namaste,
Meta.

Good morning Yogi Friends and Family,
Top  of the crescent moon. First just some fun and goofy tips for you Good Ideas and Tips, like

Newspaper Weeds-Away Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go,cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic, they will not get through wet newspapers.

And then maybe you all knew this already, but I’ve lived in this Great State of Enchantment for almost two decades and didn’t know the meaning of the ubiquitous Zia symbol. A friend forwarded this to me. Zia symbol has four lines in each direction meaning:

• The compass (north, south, east, and west)
• The seasons of the year (spring, summer, autumn and winter)
• The periods of each day (morning, noon, evening and night
• The stages of life (childhood, youth, middle years and elderhood
• The sacred aspects one must develop (a strong body, a clear mind, a pure spirit, and a devotion to the well-being of others)

GREAT GONG NEWS! Two Gong Events coming up, in February Sat Guru will be presenting Kundalini Yoga and Gong Journey, Feb 23, here’s the info.

And then in March, to Gong Out the studio, Richard Rudis brings us his  GONG BATH, March 26. Gonging All Around, Vibrations Abound.

Our friend Shira Greenberg of Keshet Dance calls April the beginning of the Bedouin phase of YogaNow (the Bedouin are nomadic people who inhabit the middle east and north Africia, bedouin means desert dweller).  I will teach the Sunday 10 am class and Tue/Thurs 930 am classes at Keshet Dance, just 3 blocks from the current studio, and with abundant and free parking. Wednesday 545 pm classes will be at The Healing Gate in Nob Hill. Updates for classes are here.

The next phase of the YogaNow Teacher Training & Personal Enrichment will be a Retreat mode at Ghost Ranch in Northern New Mexico. We will host two ten day sessions, the first in October 2012, the second March 2013. Ghost Ranch with its stunning beauty in land, sky and surrounding environs (like Ojo Caliente Hot Springs) is the perfect place for yoga transformational teachings. Watch for details.

And now Vital Yoga: A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers, will be available at Whole Foods!

I hope you are all enjoying every phase of the  moon and your phases of life, every direction of the zia symbol and mostly, diving into your own luscious heart with yoga. Join me tonight on the mat for the 545 pm class, let’s vibrate together.

namaste and love,

Meta.

 

Greetings and a Happy Full Moonish to you,

First some inspiring news from Edible Gardens: Public Garden Feeds 200,000 People Each Month  This kind of news can open our minds to healthy and fun community expansions.

Perhaps you saw the article in the New York Times Magazine called How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body.  I’ve been sent the article by friends and family far and wide. The article is chocked full of scary stories of serious injuries attributed to yoga. I thought one salient point was this

‘Asana is not a panacea or a cure-all. In fact, if you do it with ego or obsession, you’ll end up causing problems.’

Anytime we move away from our true bodily sensations and breath and move toward performance or competitiveness, we are putting ourselves in a precarious position.

But even more unsettling to me was the article’s implicit definition of yoga as poses, as if that is all yoga is! Why that is like thinking…that a canned pea is the same as a freshly harvest pea from a pod. I mean, seriously, what would we be missing if our only experience of vegetables was from cans? This may seem a silly metaphor but I am always trying to shed light on the true bounty, the riches, the absolute sensuous delight of all of yoga. This emphasis on rigid rules for yoga poses with absolutes (in the article luminous yogis are quoted giving strict alignment rules) just seems to me to forget a rule taught me by my primary teacher, Betheyla,

No pose is more important than the person.

Finally what about the ulitmate purpose of yoga, happiness, peace of mind, equanimity. I’ll sign off with a sweet quote from Ramana Maharishi:

Thank you for bringing your hands to YogaNow. I’ll be subbing for Mike at 5:45 on Tuesday (that’s today!) and will be teaching every Wednesday at 5:45 pm. I hope you can join me and each other at YogaNow.

with love and affection,
namaste,
Meta.

PS The title of this blog, is from the yoga text, The Yoga Sutras, by Patanjali. Among other brilliance he lays out an eight path model for yoga, of which poses is one, that’s one of eight.

 

Greetings and New Year Salutations!

I hope your holiday celebrations were joyous and you are invigorated for this moment, now. I spent the New Year at a most spectacular spot, Esalen in Big Sur, California. I attended a silent meditation retreat but honestly went AWOL at some point because I just couldn’t be in a room with my eyes closed when that was ocean calling. Nature is meditation and inspiring, at least for me.

One of the strong reminders I received at Esalen was my love of yoga & teaching. I took a yoga class every morning and it was great to be a student, for sure. And yet, I missed you all at YogaNow. Locations for the classes continuing in April are emerging and they will be announced soon. In the meantime, meet me on the mat, there’s yoga morning, noon and night at YogaNow.

What we focus on increases, we learn in yoga. So here is some good news from the Good News Network: The Surprisingly Upbeat State of the World.

Enjoy your choices.  Sending love and hoping to meet you very soon on the mat!

namaste,

Meta.

 

Greetings and Happy New Year,

First let me offer you a small gift of a visual delight: Underwater Astonishments

I hope this auspicious year, 2012, is the beginning, a new beginning, of a fabulous period of growth and fruition for you. To that end, you might consider what your intention or sankalpa might be for this beginning. Yoga teaches us to use discrimination, viveka, to understand and discern the root of past suffering and happiness and to look with a cool eye toward the truth of our lives. Then, based on this clarity, we begin to envision what our next direction, our aspiration might be. Next is the practice of doing the work, be it poses, breathing, meditation, job, family, whatever, and release attachment to outcome. That’s the yogic formula and you might just want to drink the champagne of intention, practice and detachment this year (or sankalpa, abhyasa, viagraghybham). 

I’ll be on a short silent retreat this year for the beginning of the new year, at a beautiful spot, Esalen. As you know, this is a year of change for YogaNow, and me, so I felt that a slight pause before jumping into the year would be correct. I’ll return on January 5th and happily, voluntarily, joyfully teach at YogaNow until March 31st, and then at various locations around town. I have already found some beautiful spots but if you have a spot let me know, too, please!

The schedule has ungone some necessary changes, please be sure to check it out. For example, I’ll be teaching Monday and Wednesday at 545 pm and there isn’t currently a Thursday night class (though a class may begin there shortly). We have two YogaNow teachers who are traveling in India in January, Aparna and Mike. Aren’t we lucky to have such committed and sincere teachers? So we have subs for Aparna’s morning classes, Cypresse and Lori. For Mike’s classes, Mikiala is teaching the noon ones and we, Meta and Mikiala, will share teaching the Tuesday 545 pm class. The Saturday Ashtanga class will be on a hiatus until Mike returns in February.  Okay, so that’s a lot of information, so you can definitely check the web: Class Schedule.

And now for some inspiration, check out this link of another Ted talk: Amy Purdy:Living Beyond Limits
with so much love and looking forward to meeting on the mat!

Happy New Year! Meta.

Greetings and Warm Salutations,

This time of year you may be beginning to feel the holiday stress of planning, giving, going, doing. The perfect antidote? YOGA of course – why not start the weekend with Joe’s fabulous Friday 6-7:30 pm class or the weekend classes of Saturday Flowing with Cypresse and Ashtanga-ing with Mike, and then Mixing it Up with Meta on Sunday. And no parking hassles – free parking thanks to the city of Albuquerque.

Here’s a story that moved me to tears of gratitude and connection, so I offer it to you:We Will Always Remember You

So many ways to say thank you. I couldn’t resist playing with Google Translate for a sampling of thanks from around the world at the bottom of this missive.

Have a splendoriferous Thursday, take a deep breath, smile, give yourself a hug and try some yoga now…no, now…today, classes at morning, noon and night,

with great love and affection,
Meta.

Gratitude, Arigato, Merci, Gracias, धन्यवाद, Danke, grazie, obrigado, спасибо,cảm ơn bạn, teşekkür ederim, ขอบคุณ, நன்றி, tak, köszönöm, di ou mèsi, 감사합니다, शुक्रिया, dankie

آپ کا شکریہ, شكرا תודה

YogaNow News

Dearest and Most Cherished Yogis of YogaNow,

After over ten successful and exuberant years of yoga and community, YogaNow will close its doors at 215 Gold on April 1, 2012. I am ever grateful to you all for supporting the studio, each other, the teachers and me. I have enjoyed and cherished our time in practice and outside of practice.

To quote His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, I happily, voluntarily, proudly end it. The studio that is, but not our relationship. Even though we won’t have the same beautiful ceiling and space, I look forward to expanding our connection. I want very much to continue to create community, and I am seeking ways to do that, other than having a full time rented studio. I am looking forward to serving you, the student, without the day-to-day responsibilities of running a studio business.

I plan to continue to teach locally at a minimum on Sundays at 10 am and Mondays at 5:45 pm and daytime Gentle class beginning immediately in April. I’m looking for a space to rent by the hour for a few weekly classes. There are lovely spaces to rent that I know of and if you are aware of any, please let me know.

Do you have ideas for how to continue to stay connected? Please be part of the transition to the next phase. I invite you to co-create our world together.

My dharma has shifted to other yogic adventures and teachings. I plan to spend more time promoting the new edition of Vital Yoga: A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers. And importantly, I believe I must work to help support those who suffer from asthma. When I developed asthma over 23 years ago I was stunned to find that the prognosis was for a changed life of endless medications and depleted vitality.  It was through yoga and an entire yogic approach to asthma that has nurtured me to robust health and happiness. I feel directed, even compelled, to help others who want to find another way to deal with asthma, a way that includes all aspects of life and healing. I know I didn’t just get better just for my own benefit; I healed so that I could help others as well. If you have any connections to reach out to those who work with asthma, please let me know.

Once again, I need to say, thank you, thank you, thank you. Please continue to take classes at the studio until the end of March, and please continue to take classes in our new spaces. The other teachers will be posting where they will be teaching in April so that you can follow your favorites.

Thank you to all the teachers of YogaNow, past and present, you have offered your heart and soul in the service of yoga and I know we are all grateful to you.

The details: No refunds on bundles, you have 4 months to use the bundles. Or at the end of March you may be able convert classes to purchase used yoga props.

So much gratitude to you, to all the teachers of YogaNow past and present, and most especially to yoga for all that it offers,

Deep bows and many blessings,
Meta.