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    Signs Around Town

    Not just rubber surfaces, but muscles, bones, and ligaments. Please don’t wear heels or if you feel you must, then only while sitting, reclining, or attending costume parties. By choosing not to wear high heels, You will stave off not only much pain and suffering, but also potential surgeries and their attendant environmental, social, and personal financial costs.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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    September Newsletter (web version of e-newsletter)

    Dear  Friends,

    Even in this hot, dry week, three weeks before the formal start of autumn, the harbingers of seasonal change are coming.  When I sit to meditate in the morning, it is still not quite light out, the scent of the leaves starting to change is evident when the wind blows, apples and winter squash are gradually replacing the summer fruits at the fresh farm market.

    Fall tends to be a busy time of year for us as a culture, and my calendar is chock full with work, workshops, plans to visit friends and family, volunteer work, and the offerings of our great city, but it is always important to take time to pause and enjoy the sweetness of being.  It is just when things are at their busiest, that it is most important to carve out the time for some yoga.  I’ll be doing lotsof my own study and practice to make more joyous offerings for you.

    William Penn House on Tuesday nights continues to be a welcome haven for regulars of all levels and more occasional visitors.  Drop in and join us any time.  More info on my website at www.rosegardenyoga.com.

    My Willow Street classes of the Fall session start on Saturday, September 25th — flow (level 2+) at 8:45 am and gentle/therapeutics at noon in Takoma Park.  It is always great to register for the full session to help get the benefits of the regularity of class every week, but drop ins are always welcome.

    If you have been curious about the gentle/therapeutics class or have friends you want to introduce to the class, please join me at noon on Saturday, September 18th, when the class is offered as part of Willow Street’s free class week.  More information about free class week and the regular session and workshops are available on-line at www.willowstreetyoga.com.

    Mark your calendars for upcoming workshops:  Hanumanasana:  Nemesis No More, Saturday, October 16th and Thanksgiving Day Fundraiser for Oxfam, both at Willow Street Yoga, Takoma Park.

    Hope to see you soon in person and virtually with the blog (it’s now way easier to subscribe to the blog; just a few clicks from the home page) and on Facebook.  As always, feel free to email me with any questions, comments, or just to connect.

    Peace and light,

    Elizabeth

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    How Not to Wreck Your Body

    The New York Times just published a lengthy article on “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body.”  The response of one of my fellow certified Anusara yoga instructors was “duh!”  This conversation greets me as I am about to offer a free gentle and therapeutic yoga class at Willow Street Yoga to invite new and continuing students to discover the power of the Anusara alignment principles to heal and transform challenges of embodiment.  If I were not highly confident in the power of Anusara yoga to heal when practiced mindfully, I might be worried that the article would keep away potential students.  Instead, I welcome the “news” as a way to broaden the invitation to discovery.

    As I have blogged about before, at an intensive, John Friend once compared advanced asana to digitalis–depending on dosage and circumstances of the individual digitalis is at once the deadliest plant in the garden and one of the most powerful medications to heal the heart.  We don’t read much about digitalis in the news, but we are constantly bombarded with contradictory news flashes about the health risks and benefits of lots of things — coffee, red wine, vitamins, running, anything that has been either held out as either a cure all or an evil that is ubiquitously practiced or imbibed.  Why?  I think it is because we in this society are hungry for panaceas, for effortless solutions, for the latest thing, for something to save us from emptiness and ill health, without actually having to work at it.  It is newsworthy that yoga bears risks precisely because we (the general societal we) wanted it to be a perfect solution without actually requiring any change how we live the rest of our lives (including diet, exercise, relationship to others) and to bring to yoga the mindfulness, determination, and steadiness that it requires to bring the peace, harmony, and healing it offers.

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