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Invitation to the Gift of Yoga Practice

ByElizabeth

As I consider both what I want to change and what I am grateful for while we go through this time of imagination and possibility and grief and rage and creativity and patience and restraint and fierce need for engaged action, I realized that making offering is one of the holiday things I am still able to do that brings joy for the holiday season.

In that light, I invite you and others who might welcome starting a practice, strengthening their practice, and regardless, having an opportunity together consciously to support ourselves in body and mind, as well as spirit.

In that light, please join me and Suzanne Lynch for an all levels, all perspectives, all ages, light-hearted yoga and meditation practices on:

  • December 25 (X-mas Eve) from 4pm-5:30pm
  • December 31 (New Year’s Eve) from 4pm-5:30pm

To register, please visit: https://www.suzannelynchwellness.com/holiday-yoga-classes

Many thanks to Suzanne for gifting the extra administrative work to open her membership platform for these holiday practices.  BTW, it is super helpful to register early to make sure we can get all the Zoom link for the practice with a minimum of extra admin.

If you are moved to make a donation, please consider a local or national food bank.

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    The young woman sitting next to me on the train north from New York, who is impossibly tall and has lovely, strong features (i.e., is perfectly cast), is memorizing Lady Macbeth’s lines.

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    I note for those yogis (and other readers) who might find the idea of learning mantras alien or uncomfortable or apparently at odds with your own religious beliefs or practices, that studying the mantras does not require or make one a Hindu. I think of it as an invitation to understand and embody the highest archetypes and principles they invoke and represent and compatible with my other observances.

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

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    Spirituality and Politics Do Mix (but maybe not at the Thanksgiving meal)

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    Yesterday I received a rather negative email in response to my posting a suggestion on a list serve connected to a religious organization that people write to their elected officials about the health care bill pending in the Senate.  I sent the email because my contribution to this group is to serve as the designated liaison between a lobbying group that was established by the religious organization and the religious organization.  Once of month or so, I highlight issues that are the focus of the lobbying groups email campaigns.  The email took me to task for thinking that politics has any place in connection with spiritual practice and therefore the on-line discussion should never be about politics.  The person assured me that our political views were different, although I did not actually suggest what people should write; I only said that they should write.  I have been pondering this deeply as it is a topic I have thought about, taught about, and wrestled with deeply over the years, especially during the Presidential elections.

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    One of the reasons for discussion is to explore, to learn, to be challenged, to expand both knowledge and understanding.  That can be a hard process.  I certainly do not expect people to agree with each other at all times, but that is not the point of discussion. While I think this sort of discussion perfectly appropriate in the context of a spiritual discussion, it might be less welcome where what is being sought is an immediate sense of peace and harmony in the connection of a particular practice.  For example, if it is known that family and friends have strong disagreements about “political” issues, it might be disagreeable for digestion and the day to bring up the issues at the Thanksgiving dinner table.

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