September 19 2011
“Got a rocket in your pocket? Keep it cool, Boy, real cool.”
(fingers snapping)
It’s warm outside.
For we Pittas, make that hot. Not the time for the kind of yoga that throws gas on an already intense fire. Time to play it cool, boy, and girl, in your asana practice.
This calls for...the wisdom of Ayurveda in your yoga.
ParaYoga’s intelligent sequencing of forward bends, extended exhales, twists, and effortless awareness.
And if you’re thinking, That sounds like yoga for wimps, well, I promise you will find this week’s classes powerfully cool.
Cool.
(See Yoga Class Page for class schedule)
May 18 2011
How to Take the Edge Off
How to take the edge off, even challenging yoga? Same way you take the edge off the edgy feeling circumstances in life:
“I am not the do-er.” That is, “do” not-doing. Ease your awareness to “just being,” perceiving sensation, and all of those shifting feelings that unfold around you while you remind your inherent, still, steady, unchanging self…Purusha. It’s in everyone of us.
The pure, clear, centered center that never changes. That remains steady and calm no matter what swirls (or dive bombs) around you.
This is how to practice yoga. This is why to practice yoga. Catch a glimpse of your deeply steady self…come to my yoga classes this week. Tonight, Wednesday May 18, 5:30-7:00, or Thursday morning, 8:00-9:00. Meet yourself!
February 8, 2011
You Gotta Have Heart
This week leading to Love Day on the 14th we are focusing on the heart center. In ParaYoga we don’t “open the heart” so much via asana (backbends), but more so through the subtle practices. If you haven’t tasted (yes, tasted) Heart Kriyas (meditation illumined by visualization and pranayama), you owe this valentine to yourself. Your heart will smile to the tips of your toes. I promise. Check my class schedule, and I hope to see you. And your heart.
February 1, 2011
Pure Breath: The Key to a Polished Asana Practice
Swami Rama (and Patanjali) said that the breath should be smooth, refined, and regular. If it becomes jagged, gasping, or irregular due to exertion while practicing asana, the asana must be modified (typically by assuming a more conservative depth in the posture) so the breath may be pure. This week we focus on the development and refinement of the breath at the onset of the practices, with reminders throughout that the breath be the primary focus–that it determine how deeply we go into a pose, not the body.
Pure Breath is a three step process. Learn it with me this week. Carry it with you for life (and living).
Yoga Nidra on a Rainy Sunday in Sonoma
October 24, 9:30-10:30 a.m.
Yoga Community, Sonoma
707-935-8600
This Sunday’s Gentle Yoga & Meditation with Barbra Brady will be a Yoga Nidra (deep relaxation, or yogic “sleep”). We will include our Sankalpa, or resolve for something our soul deeply longs to achieve. When we set our intention during deep relaxation, it vastly increases the possibility of outcome, for it is our subconscious, not our conscious mind, that guides us to achieve our heart’s desire. I would love to have you come and nestle in for greatness!
October 5 2010
This week: anti-aggravation.
From an ayurvedic understanding, fall is an aggravating season. The shifts, changes, drying winds, and diminishing daylight hours all can lead to it. This week’s yoga–yes, it is yoga–homework is:
A practice for the week: When checking out at the supermarket, choose the longest line…*on purpose.* Alternately, choose the farthest away space in a parking lot even if you have a beater car. Enjoy the release of aggravation.
This week’s yoga focus is on the Basics of Kriya.
I just realized something. “Yoga focus” is redundant! *smile* But focus I shall, because that is a quality I see blooming in my students in our ParaYoga classes!
This week (June 7, 2010) we will be focusing on the basics of Kriya Yoga.
The excellent text, Yoga and Kriya: A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques by Swami Satyananda Saraswati introduces kriya this way:
Many people are unhappy in the world, dissatisfied and yet not sure what is lacking in their lives. The basic reason for this unhappiness is our attachment to the material plane of existence. Once we gain a glimpse of higher spheres of consciousness, then our unhappiness and discontent automatically fade away….a system is required which progressively leads a person to deeper states of relaxation, until concentration becomes the spontaneous activity of consciousness. This system is kriya yoga.
The place to start is alternate nostril breath, or nadi sodhana. This week’s classes will include this practice, and begin to build on its many variations of pranayama.
Get ready to let go of lack!
See you in class!
