September 2015 focus and class schedule

Posted on August 27, 2015 by 4yoga

As we move toward the Autumnal Equinox in September, we enter the dark half of the year. You may notice the impact of this transition by waking up in darkness and squeezing in outdoor activities at the end of the day as darkness encroaches. This is the natural cycle of our physical environment. If we were in tune with this cycle, we would feel OK with reducing productivity to reflect, relax, and rejuvenate. However, through technological “progress,” we have managed to control our environments to optimize production year-round. This creates tension between what the animal being of our bodies is perceiving and what our culture tells us we need to do to survive (the work ethic). Notice this as resistance to the encroaching darkness. Yet, every day we need to sleep in darkness. We need darkness.

How can we bridge this “split” between living in our culture and the natural world? First, acknowledge that it exists and accept your resistance. It is time to embrace the yin half of the yearly cycle; receptivity, coolness, darkness, and quietness. Consider attending a yin class as well as incorporating these qualities into the rest of your activities as best you can. Surrender to the natural flow of expansion and contraction, the inhale and the exhale, the darkness and the light.

September updates:

  • New early-morning class (5:30 a.m. on Wednesdays). Those of you who are early risers and would like to enjoy a yoga practice before work will have an opportunity to do so beginning on Wednesday, September 9, when Chie launches 4yoga’s first 5:30 a.m. class! We have added this class by special request, and we appreciate Chie’s willingness to teach it. Because of the early hour, we will be using the back door for access to the building: you may wish to park in the city parking lot behind the square and walk to the rear door (look for the blue building). Press the button to buzz the intercom into the studio, and Chie will let you in.
  • Labor Day mixed-level class at 9 a.m. Chie will also be teaching this month’s holiday class, on Monday, September 7 (Labor Day), at 9 a.m. Please join us for a mixed-level practice suitable for all.
  • Talk/meditation session. Juanita continues to offer this special session in September, and it will take place on Friday, September 18, at 6:45 p.m. As always, there is no charge for this session, which provides a way to learn about and discuss meditation and experience a short meditation.
  • Friday Gentle class. For the fall WKU semester, Angie will consistently teach the Friday 9:30 a.m. Gentle class while other instructors rotate teaching the Thursday 9:30 a.m. Gentle class. Kathie continues to offer the Tuesday 9:30 a.m. Gentle class, providing three opportunities for a morning Gentle practice each week.
  • 4yoga’s 4th anniversary. We are happy to announce that 4yoga will mark its 4th anniversary on Sunday, September 27! Although no official celebration is planned at this time, you can informally celebrate by attending any of that Sunday’s classes (9 a.m. Basics with Carly, 4 p.m. Basics with Chie, and 5:45 p.m. Restorative with Susan P.). We look forward to continuing to serve our community by providing accessible and affordable yoga classes to Bowling Green.

For a full list of September classes, please see the calendar page or a hard copy available at The Pots Place.

Teacher introduction: We are pleased to welcome one new teacher more regularly in September, Susan Webb. Susan began a regular yoga practice at the Yoga Center in Bowling Green in 2000 and discovered that yoga provided a rich introduction into body awareness and body-mind connections. She finished her RYT 200-hour program with Don’t Worry Be Happy Yoga in Spring 2015 and enjoys sharing what has been such a positive practice in her life with others. Having recently retired from teaching art at the elementary school and college level, Susan appreciates having a new area of teaching to explore. Come join Susan for some of the Thursday 4 p.m. Basics classes this month.

Accessing studio after class has begun: Remember that even if you are running late when the gallery downstairs is closed, you can still join us for class. If the front door is locked, come to the back door of The Pots Place (look for the blue building) and ring the buzzer. The teacher will then unlock the door remotely for you to enter through the pottery studio.

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“Feast on your life”: Derek Walcott’s “Love After Love”

Posted on July 30, 2015 by 4yoga

To conclude the Gentle class this morning, Angie shared a poem by Derek Walcott, “Love After Love.”  Because some students asked for a copy, we are also posting it for anyone else who may enjoy it.

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

For another experience of the poem, check out this video performance, with Kim Rosen speaking and Jami Sieber accompanying her on cello.

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August 2015 focus and class schedule

Posted on July 29, 2015 by 4yoga

August brings us to the hot sultry days of summer and the anticipation of school starting up again. Change. Amping up. There is always an emotional response to change, especially when it is a change that directly impacts our lives. Resistance often comes first, then perhaps enthusiasm or fear. An understanding of the power and purpose of our emotions as explained by the yoga teachings is worth contemplating.

Swami Rama, an adept from the Himalayan Masters tradition of yoga, explains that emotion, or bhava, is a powerful force that is a source of knowledge for us. The stream of bhava is like a river in a flood: “It rushes like a beloved running toward her lover who does not care about obstacles and is not afraid of being caught or trapped. In the stream of bhava, one does not have an enjoyable experience of the path, for he is suddenly transported. He reaches the summit without the experience of the path” (Perennial Paychology of the Bhagavad Gita).

If we can manage to not be overwhelmed by our emotions, we can heed their guidance to raise our consciousness to a higher dimension and to embrace the change we need to make. That is the trick, staying calm while riding the raging river. Our yoga practice of focusing on the breath and body ground us in the present moment, providing respite from fast-forwarding into the future out of fear. Make time and space for yourself to practice and listen to the wisdom of emotion.

August updates:

  • All class types and times remain the same.
  • Welcome back to Kathie Downs, who will return to the 9:30 a.m. Gentle class on Tuesdays and some Fridays.
  • Welcome back to Alice Simpson, who will teach the 4 p.m. Basics class on Thursday, August 27.
  • Ongoing thanks to Juanita Rodriguez, who will offer this month’s informal talk and meditation session on Friday, August 14, immediately following the Yin class. Whether you have been curious about meditation or already have a meditation practice and would like to discuss meditation with others, please join Juanita for this session.

For a full list of August classes, please see the online calendar or pick up a hard copy (available at The Pots Place, 428 East Main Street—on Fountain Square in downtown Bowling Green, Kentucky).

Accessing studio after class has begun: Remember that even if you are running late when the gallery downstairs is closed, you can still join us for class. If the front door is locked, come to the back door of The Pots Place (look for the blue building) and ring the buzzer. The teacher will then unlock the door remotely for you to enter through the pottery studio.

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Yoga Buzz at Acme in downtown Nashville

Posted on July 24, 2015 by 4yoga

During a recent teacher-training workshop at Sanctuary for Yoga, Angie participated in a yoga class at a cool venue, on the rooftop at Acme Feed & Seed in downtown Nashville.  WSMV did a story on the classes, which are offered on Fridays at 4 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 10 a.m.  If you find yourself downtown on a weekend, you may want to try out a yoga practice with this view!

Acme_yoga_2015-07-10

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Eri and Chie teach visiting Mexican scholars

Posted on July 16, 2015 by 4yoga

On June 26, 2015, Eri Golden and Chie Tanaka taught a special yoga class to participants in the Proyecta 100,000 program hosted by WKU and and ESLI.  Their students also included other faculty, staff, and students who worked with that month-long program.

Proyecta 100,000 is designed by the Mexican government to support the studies of Mexican students in the United States, and Dr. Alison Youngblood brought the program to WKU and had the idea to include a yoga class during its closing-night celebration. Eri and Chie volunteered to team-teach that class, which was held in Tate Page Hall on campus and drew approximately 15 participants, including the program’s 7 engineering scholars from Mexico.

Eri notes that she offered to teach the class because, as someone for whom English is a second language, she felt a connection to the participants; she also wanted to share the “power of yoga” with them and to remind students that they need to engage in physical activities as well as mental ones in order to remain healthy.  Teaching the class as a team allowed Eri and Chie to give more individual attention to each student.

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Manifesting Grace through Gratitude: free 21-day online meditation program

Posted on July 15, 2015 by 4yoga

During Tuesday’s Gentle class, Susan Polk discussed some of the brain benefits of yoga and meditation and mentioned an online meditation program presented by Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey.  This program, Manifesting Grace through Gratitude, is available on Chopra’s website; registration is free and easy, and participants access a 20-minute audio meditation, centering thought, and mantra each day.  There is also the option to reflect on your experience in a private online journal.

Although the program began on Monday (July 13), there is still time to join and participate.  If you have been looking for a way to begin or support to continue your meditation practice, you may find this program’s flexibility meets your needs.

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Yoga’s benefits to your brain (from Psychology Today blog)

Posted on July 13, 2015 by 4yoga

During a recent (July 3) Yin class, Angie shared excerpts from this post on the Psychology Today website.  Written by Marlynn H. Wei, a yogi who is also a psychiatrist, the piece is titled “Why Does Anyone Do Yoga, Anyway?”  While it mentions the physical benefits of yoga, the post primarily summarizes recent neuroscience research on the mental benefits, including this information:

A new, May 2015 study published in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain to show that yoga protects the brain from the decline in gray matter brain volume as we age. People with more yoga experience had brain volumes on par with much younger people….This finding has also been true in brain imaging studies of people who meditate. In other words, yoga could protect your brain from shrinking as you get older.

Even more interesting, the protection of this gray matter brain volume is mostly in the left hemisphere, the side of your brain associated with positive emotions and experiences and parasympathetic nervous system activity—your “rest and digest” relaxation system. Emotions like joy and happiness have exclusively more activity in the left hemisphere of the brain on positive emission tomography (PET) brain scans.

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Benefits of Yoga & Meditation: Women-in-Charge Luncheon with Susan Polk on Tues., 7/28

Posted on July 9, 2015 by 4yoga

You already know that your yoga practice makes you feel better, but do you know some of the reasons why it does?  Join your fellow yogis and urge your friends you’ve been encouraging to start yoga to attend The Medical Center’s upcoming Women-in-Charge Luncheon on the Benefits of Yoga and Meditation. Susan Polk will present scientific research that confirms what we already feel in our bodies and minds–yoga makes us feel good and improves our health and quality of life.

As an extra reward for attendees, Susan will be giving away door prizes for individual Thai Yoga Therapy sessions, yoga and meditation classes, and individual yoga therapy sessions!

The luncheon takes place on Tuesday, July 28, 2015, from 12–1 p.m. at The Medical Center Auditorium, and the cost is $8 per person.  To join Susan for this event, be sure to register in advance.  Registration is accepted either online (at TheMedicalCenter.org, or follow this direct link for the event) or through the mail (look for the form on the back cover of the WellNews publication).

For questions or for more information about the luncheon series, call 270-745-1010 or 800-624-2318.

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Mindfulness, yoga, and athletes

Posted on July 6, 2015 by 4yoga

In the last few weeks, several news outlets have run stories about the ways that mindfulness can assist athletes.  On Point featured an interview with George Mumford, author of The Mindful Athlete:  Secrets to Pure Performance, that highlighted his work with NBA players and the benefits of mindfulness training to professional athletes.  And The Washington Post reported on a study about basketball players at George Mason University participating in a “mindfulness-based intervention” that included a regular Hatha yoga practice.

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4th of July weekend: 6 opportunities to practice

Posted on July 2, 2015 by 4yoga

If you will spend your holiday weekend in Bowling Green, we invite you to practice with us for any of these 6 classes:

  • Friday, 7/3:  9:30 a.m. Gentle with Susan P.
  • Friday, 7/3:  5:30 p.m. Yin with Angie
  • Saturday, 7/4:  9:00 a.m. Basics with Richard
  • Sunday, 7/5:  9:00 a.m. Basics with Carly (new class!)
  • Sunday, 7/5:  4:00 p.m. Basics with Susan P.
  • Sunday, 7/5:  5:45 p.m. Restorative with Susan P. (returning class!)

As always, if you have any questions about our classes, drop us an email (4yoga.me@gmail.com) or send us a message on Facebook.

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