Lowell Massachusetts

A new cycle

Which way do you run to
Are you coming out or in
When one cycle goes around
Another one begin, begin, begin

This song by Trevor Hall is my “ear worm” right now, because it speaks of change and its cyclical nature. As surely as the seasons, we will pass this way again. A little over two weeks ago we observed the cross–quarter day between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox (Imbolc). We’re more than halfway to astronomical spring. The moon, after having been full on Presidents’ Day, is waxing to fullness.

The most external reason for that has to do starting a new regular class at what is for me a new studio. While I have been subbing since my second shoulder surgery in March 2015, this will be the first time I’ll be on a studio schedule. I’m pleased to report that beginning tonight (Thursdays), at 5:30 PM, I’ll be teaching a class at Discover the Wonders Yoga in Dracut, MA. Dracut is an old–school town full of farmland and hard–working people, right next to the historically industrial town of Lowell. A beautiful community has grown up in that studio. Right down the street there is a conscious café expanding its offerings of fresh, local, organic products. Beyond there is much fertile farmland, some of it being leased to small nonprofits. The people of Dracut are not only hardworking, but politically savvy and well–connected. It’s a very interesting place to find so close to a major city in the northeast corner of a northeastern state.

And I start with a trifecta! As it is school vacation week, I also get to sub at the same time tomorrow night, and at the primo slot on Saturday at 9:30.

It’s a wonderful new beginning that evokes an openness to experience I am already feeling in the rest of my life.

Like my Facebook page in the right sidebar to mark your calendar for events, and be sure to sign up for my e-mail list as well. I’m very happy to be on this journey with you!

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Staff Pose: Dandasana Seated Yoga Poses

Dandāsana (staff pose)

This is the pose in which I landed when I slipped on snow and fell on Monday, February 3. A trip to the ER kept me from teaching class at Sangha Yoga Collective that night. I am happy to report nothing broken. I will need to rehabilitate my right shoulder some: my laptop bag had driven my right arm into the shoulder socket, causing some pain, weakness and limited range of motion. But this will not keep me from teaching my regularly scheduled classes, or the Free/By Donation Community Class on Sunday, February 16. I hope to see you then, and/or at my regularly scheduled class!

Staff Pose is a basic and simple stabilizing pose that is the foundation for all seated asanas and has several benefits:

via Staff Pose: Dandasana Seated Yoga Poses.

FREE Community Yoga – Autumnal Equinox at Sangha

Sunset at the autumnal equinox

Sunset at the autumnal equinox
21 September 2008
geograph.org.uk
sylvia duckworth

Please join us at Sangha Yoga Collective Sunday, September 22 at 4 pm for a Free Community Class. I’ll be observing the Autumnal Equinox, and gratefully accepting donations to the Merrimack Valley Food Bank.

The Autumnal Equinox marks the beginning of the fall season, and is marked by equal amounts of daylight and night. In this class, we’ll explore the concept of equipoise in balance poses. Balance poses are an excellent way to explore the concept of balanced action, in this case between some of the Universal Principles of Alignment.

On the following day, Monday, September 23, in my regular 6 pm Aligned Flow class at Sangha, I’ll continue this Equinox theme by exploring the virtue of equanimity, what the yogis call upekśa.

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Fall Open House at Sangha Yoga Collective in Lowell, MA

Autumn trees

I’ll be offering some free yoga at Sangha Yoga Collective’s Fall Open House on Sunday. Come join us!

fall open house
sunday, september 15
11:00 – 5:00pm

come meet our teachers and learn about all we have to offer……

  • enjoy some refreshments and FREE yoga & meditation classes all day
  • special pricing on our collective card ~ just $100 for 10 classes
  •  special pricing on our upcoming sessions of classes

schedule of free classes

11:30am – 12:00pm     all-levels ashtanga w/ isla glaister

12:15pm – 12:45pm     slow flow yoga  w/ linda moran

1:00pm –  1:30 pm     all-levels kripalu w/ marie marchand

1:45pm –  2:15pm     TBA

2:30pm –  3:00pm    aligned flow yoga w/ richard hudak

3:15pm –  3:45pm     introduction to meditation w/ lisa tiernan

4:00pm –  4:30pm     restorative flow yoga  w/ lena yakubowski

via holiday open house.

Fill out the form below to receive occasional updates about my yoga teaching schedule:

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Aligned Flow at Sangha Yoga Collective

Greetings, Friends!I’m excited to share with you that I am starting a regular class at Sangha Yoga Collective on Market Street in Lowell.

In April, I completed my 200 hours of teacher training with Sara Davidson Flanders, a former Certified Anusara instructor. I got to know Sara over the course of a year in regular workshops she would give at Majestic Yoga Studio in Cambridge. I decided to start my 100 hour Anusara immersions with her in January 2012, and continued my teacher training with her in October of that year. Sara is sweet but fiery, demanding much of my āsana practice, and the practice of teaching.

Even as I was completing my training, with Sara’s encouragement I began in March to offer community classes at Sangha. I’ve gotten to know some of you through those classes. I feel such a sense of peace and refuge at Sangha that I felt right at home at the front of the room.

What I most would like to share at this time are Anusara’s Universal Principles of Alignment. Along with an uplifting philosophy, and the value of kula or community, the UPAs are one of the three jewels of Anusara. Even though the Anusara style is in transition, many of us still believe in these aspects of its teaching methodology. Marc St. Pierre continues to emphasize the alignment and philosophy in his teaching, as doSianna Sherman and Amy Ipolitti, with whom I have taken workshops in the past year.

My six-week series will focus on the five Universal Principles of Alignment, Open to Grace (7/9),Muscular Energy (7/16), Inner Spiral (7/23), Outer Spiral (7/30) and Organic Energy (8/6). We’ll tie these all together in a potpourri class on the last day of the series (8/13). These principles work to some degree in every pose and in every practice. They also apply “beyond the mat,” to our practice in the world.

Although I am offering the series as a whole for $72, feel free to drop in for $15 per class. I’m also honoring the studio’s practice of offering the “first class free” and a student discount of $10.

Please feel free to forward this e-mail to friends who might be interested, even if you are unable to join us. Also stay tuned for news about a regular class I will be offering at Sangha in the fall.

Summer is often thought of as a “slow yoga time,” and not a time to start something new. But the support, expansiveness, and other affordances of the season (like tee shirts and shorts) make it a perfect time. Besides, who doesn’t love a summer morning in a garden level sanctuary?