Chair Yoga at BREATHE in Los Gatos

A scrumptious new studio is opening up in Los Gatos. BREATHE is a feast for the eyes and the talented staff offers a buffet for the body - all types, practices and lineages of yoga are there from which to choose. Yours truly will be joining the staff in February - teaching a chair yoga class each Thursday afternoon. This one hour class will combine all the integral elements of a yoga practice; breath work, stretching, strengthening, twists and some challenge followed by full-body seated pose relaxation. I will have a "sample" benefit class on January 1, 2011 at 3pm - so please come by, see the studio and try a Chair Yoga experience. Once you try it might be able to recommend a friend and loved one to the class in February. See you there!

Yoga and Recovery - 12 Steps and Yoga - Y12SR

Last Friday I held my first Y12SR class at Willow Glen Yoga. Yoga and 12 Step Recovery is a class that begins with a one hour topic / discussion all recovery meeting and concludes with a one hour yoga class. We were few this first time -but the meeting was awesome. Sometimes having a small group brings deep sharing and this was such a time. While we each got to share fully - kind of introducing ourselves to the group, we did have a shorter meeting which let to a longer practice. YAHOO! I was able to include some restorative poses at the end which were received with (quiet) enthusiasm. Of course this last section of relaxation is always more yummy when preceded by some warming strengthening stretching work; and it was. We brought "acceptance" in as our sankalpa. Acceptance of where we are on our recovery journeys, where we are in life with all its challenges, where we are in our physical bodies, and where we are on our spiritual paths. We spoke of it during the meeting, we experienced it during the active practice and we integrated it during final relaxation. What a wonderful class.
I look forward to the next two Fridays and hope we can continue after that. Come one come all!

If you want to practice a few sun salutations at home in between classes try this one page description of the sequence: Sun Salutations