Summer 08 Workshop Descriptions May 30, 2008

Workshop Descriptions

As a Yoga Alliance Certified Teacher (RYT200) I have been teaching yoga for two years, priviledged to witness transformation on the faces and in the lives and bodies of students during a single class and over dedicated practice. Whatever brings you to your mat, yoga deepens your relationship to your body, opens space for recognizing your truths and expands your ability to embrace life. Yoga uses the lively tension created by opposing forces - for instance, legs going down, arms held aloft - to create balance and harmony. Similarly, I use both detailed, anatomically referenced alignment and flowing series of yoga pose to create space for exploration of body, mind and heart. I have practiced Ashtanga, Iyengar, Vinyasa and Anasura as well as Tai Chi and Chi Kung, and every class weaves together hatha yoga poses, breath awareness and meditation. I come to teaching yoga having taught Western Philosophy and while still practicing and teaching Paramedicine on the streets of Albuquerque. Yoga responds to the call to “Know Thyself” in a deeper, more integrative way than Academic Philosophy did for me, and balances the immediacy of responding to emergent events in others’ lives.

Strong Shoulders/Open Heart: (Sunday June 15th 2:30 - 4:30pm, $35 or $50 with Hip Hips!)

Between the scapula and sternum, in an open fretwork of graceful spine and curved bone, we house our spiritual core. Our hearts and lungs, and the energy centers associated with them, are our powerhouse for converting and distributing breath and energy, our most direct processor for the exchange of energy with our environment.

In this exchange, we refine the balance between strength and openness. Come and nurture strong, supple shoulders beginning with the graceful anatomy holding this joint together, experience a thorough warm up for the joint and body, explore a full range of motion for your body, as well as weight bearing for strength and suppleness, culminating in inversions where appropriate for a novel experience of how shoulder openness affects other body structures and followed by guided meditation. Modifications abound, and this class is appropriate for beginners.

Hip hips: (Sunday June 29th 2:30 - 4:30pm, $35 or $50 with Strong Shoulers/Open Heart!) So much motion and emotion originate in our hips, our powerhouse of strength from large muscles, connection to strong and delicate structures and feelings in the pelvic floor and home of elemental ties to the world as the seat of elimination and release of processed experience. The pelvis is the “Four Corners” of our bodies - where back meets front and upper meets lower. We will explore this intersection through muscular engagement and breathing in a series of poses unique for focusing energy and attention on the muscle and bone structures connecting upper and lower body. Learn what the pelvic floor is both in anatomical terms and experiential and investigate how the engagement of specific muscles affects the openness and suppleness of the hip joint in different directions. Walk away with new freedom and vigor!

Yoga for Every Body: Dissolving Obstacles to Practice through loving intention and attention: Sunday July 13th, 1-3:30 $35

Explore body image through breath, asana and meditation.
Explore habit through intent and observation, inviting organic transformation.

“Clear as a glass of water. Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till right action arises by itself?” ~Lao Tzu

Yoga is truly accessisble technology for transformation from the inside out, but often we are kept from this truth by our own images, ideas and habits. This class creates safe space and framework for looking frankly and kindly on how we imagine and relate to our bodies, useing poses, breath awareness, knowledge and meditation to create intention and energy for transformation. Rather than goal-mindedness, we’ll learn about the complex relationship between what we usually do and how we imagine what we could do to transform our relationship to this present moment.

After a brief series of sun salutations and guided meditation, we’ll explore how Body Image is shaped by habit, familliarity and environment - samskara - in the various layers of our being. We’ll work with accessing the first four coverings described in yoga philosophy - the koshas - the food or physical body, the energy or breath body, the knowledge body and the wisdom body - through sharing information, pranayam, asana practice and meditation in order to align the aspects of our being, trace samskara and set loving intentions like seeds - sankalpa - for authentic relationship in our bodies, setting a firm foundation for radiacal transformation.

Outdoor Yoga August, tbd
Outdoor Yoga Sept - tbd

Yoga Outdoors! Find new vistas of silence in open air practice and explore your practice under the sky. More than a change in venue, experience how your environment effects your mind, body and heart and cultivate witness consciousness in a whole different dimension. Wind and laughter will be our music, blades of grass sharpen our drishti, and when we open our hearts to the sky we’ll find a new quality of expansiveness. We’ll begin with pranayam and guided meditation, ground ourselves in vigourous flows and standing asana, play with the trees in upright and adho mukha vrkasana and finish with a group meditation after sivasana. Expand your limits, practice where the earth meets the sky! Bring your own mat, I’ll bring blocks, blankets and straps from the studio and we’ll have fruit and water to share.

Yoga Outdoors! (part deux) (September field trip)

Find new vistas of silence among the Ponderosas in the Jemez Mountains. More than a change in venue, change your sensory stimulation, alter your relation to space and find new embodied boundaries in meadows lined with trees under the sky. There will be time for solitary meditative walking after practice fueled by fresh air, contact with the earth, pranayam, and guided meditation. We’ll gather for group meditation to share the silence in the wind. Bring mat, water, snack and backpack. I’ll have blanket, block and strap for you to tuck away. After a short hike, we’ll establish our “yoga camp” for the day and find new vigor in old silence.

Music and Yoga April 22, 2008

Email buzz at our studio today focuses on the role of music in practice. What role does music play for you? How do you prefer classes - with, or without? And what kind? Kirtan? Electronica? Hip Hop?

The buzz began when I left a review copy of Cyndi Lee’s Om Yoga Mix 2, reviewed on my other blog, and emailed the other teachers.  I played it for my class last night, but thought it would be fun and interesting to get other teachers’ and students’ reactions for a final review.

The first response opened up a really deep and lovely question: What is the role of music if the point of practice is to go within, meditatively expressing asana, using concentration, focus and fosterinng pratyahara, or sense withdrawal?

Great question! My repsonse was that we are never really in outward silence, so it seems to me a question of awareness  what sounds we choose. Other responses included using vibration as a yogic path and a musician’s awareness.

What’s yours? How do you use - or abdure - sound in your own practice?  Leave a comment and let’s expand this discussion of sound, sense and union!

YogaEveryDay April 19, 2008

YogaEveryDay:

Love, Truth, Beauty: Here, Now

weekly newsletter: inspiration and tips for including bliss in your day, every day

“Why do you run towards that which you have never taken a step away from?” ~Dogen

New yoga class times - different locations!

Sunday evening at YogaNow! 6pm, stay after for Sangha, chanting and mediatiom (Sangha suggested donation of $10)

Starting 5/17: Saturday Morning Mixed Level class at YogaNow! 7:30

Starting 5/19: M-W-F Morning Mixed Level classes at Ripple Effect 7:00

Starting 5/30: Friday Slow Restorative at YogaNow! 4:15

Send me your yoga class wish list!

I’m adding classes and locations starting in late May. I already have some newly scheduled classes listed above, but I want to know about your dream class: time, place and format. Be as general or specific as you want!

off the mat:

Office Yoga: Shoulder stretch

I use this one against the ambulance, but it’s equally as easy with any wall or doorway.

Simply face the wall with one arm out, parallel to the floor, palm towards the surface.

Peel your opposite shoulder away by engaging your abs,

Begin to turn your entire torso by stepping your feet wide to a right angle to the wall.

Align your pelvis and ribcage, turning your feet only as far as you can open your shoulder.

Breath, Smile and Feel.

Take at last five deep breaths at your maximum edge before turning your attention to your other side.

Asana of the week: Shoulder Opener

Extend one of your arms straight up from the shoulder and bend it at the elbow, hand behind the head.

With your other hand, apply gentle pressure on the outside of your elbow toward your head.

To increase the stretch, hold a sandbag in the hand behind your head,

or improvise with a plastic bag full of canned goods (not too full!)

Stay for a minute or more, breathing, feeling your neck release all the way down between your shoulder blades.

To complete, bring the other hand up your back from the bottom, holding your weight or joining fingers after a minute or so.

This is the arm position for cow face pose. Feel the openness across the front of your chest - your heart -

and breathe expanding the back of your body.

Feel the unity created by the various oppositions in this luscious pose!

Pranayama of the week:

Alternate Nostril Breath: Find a comfortable seated position. Drop into your three part yogic breath.

Using your right hand, curl your pointer and middle finger into your palm, rest your thumb against your right nostril. Inhale through the left, close off the left nostril with your ring and little finger. Release the right nostril and exhale through it.

Rest for a moment before inhaling again through the right nostril, close it off with the thumb again for a moment before releasing the left nostril and exhaling. Pause a moment before inhaling through the left nostril again, beginning your next cycle.

Start with three cycles, rest in three part yogic breath and try a cycle of five if you feel like it.

Balances opposites, calms and energizes in concert.

A New Earth:Chapter 8

Eckhart Tolle’s newest book is called A New Earth. I have been asked to host one of the discussion groups for his ongoing web class in conjunction with Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club. You can find my official site at YogaEveryDay.Gather.com with articles and comments. You can write your own article and respond to others on this website as well as join the live discussions held Tuesdays on ANewEarth.Gather.com (you do have to be a member… it’s free to sign up). I’m leading discussion this coming Tuesday, April the 8th at 10am MDT and then again Tuesday , April the 22nd and 29th 5pm MDT.

Of course you can always check in on yogaeveryday. wordpress.com for my reflections on reading and daily practice or yogaguide.wordpress.com for class and practice guides.

My mission is to inspire and support you in your daily yoga practice. Relax! Remember, It’s all yoga: you’re always breathing. Sometimes you even know it! For questions, comments, to find out more about practices or ideas mentioned here or how you can get more yoga into your week, call me, Christine Stump, at 505-506-0136 or email me at yogaguides@gmail.com. Namaste.

Inspiring love, expressing truth, living beauty: elephant April 13, 2008

Inspiring love, expressing truth, living beauty: elephant

The elephant and the painting remind me of a sense of abiding I once felt with a biker - built a little like an elephant - with whom I had a “yoga-off” to determine who got the pool table next in a brewery in Fort Collins, CO. I believe we all played together after collapsing in laughter from Garundasana.

Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth, discussed weekly on Gather.com April 12, 2008

If you are reading this book - and who isn’t lately! and if you aren’t, why not? - you might be interested in joining in the live  and ongoing conversations over at anewearth.gather.com, sponsored by Oprah.com.

Here’s how it works: On Tuesdays, usually at 7pm EDT (check back here for updates!) ,a discussion leader posts some reflection and a question, then everyone who’s “there” comments on that original post. You can look at prior weeks’ discussions and add on as time goes.

Each week is a different chapter, this coming week -April 15th - will be Chapter 7. You can watch the webinar live the night before or download it, usually after noon EDT on Tuesday. These are powerful sessions live with Tolle & Oprah and readers who Skype in or email. One of my favorite parts of these sessions is the silent meditation at the beginning with Eckhart Tolle. Groundbreaking silence in the entertainment industry!

If you’re familiar with Tolle’s prior books, you’ll be pleased with this one. The writing is smoother, the organizaiton is intuitive and progressive, it is clear and a pleasure to read. A New Earth uses ideas and words found not just in his prior work but in philosophies East and West, and creates a powerfully coherent view of the beings we could become.

Come discuss your reactions, experiences, applications, changes, moments and creative response!

ps: I’ll be the discussion leader on April 22nd and 29th, come join me! You can see my reflections on the book at yogaeverday.gather.com - leave an article of your own!

Quotes for this Week’s Class April 7, 2008

Quotes for this Week’s Class

Sunday 6 April 08

“By sustained practice

of all the component parts of yoga,

the impurities dwindle away

and wisdom’s radiant light

shines forth

with discriminative knowledge.”

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali As interpreted by Mukunda Stiles

II.28

Component parts of yoga:Yamas (stopping what’s not good) & Niyamas (encouraging what is)

ahimsa - nonviolence

satya - truthfulness

asteya - freedom from stealing

bramacharya - respecting life energy

aparigraha - freedom from grasping

saucha - purity

samtosha - contentment

tapas - fierceness and discipline

svadyaya - self-study

ishvara pranidanani - surrender

read on a message board recently: “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito.”

Class additions:

MWF 7am

Saturday 2:30 - Inversions

Saturday 4 pm - Yin Yoga

Workshop: Gayetri Mantra 4/13 2-5

And New in May!

Christine teaches Slow Restorative at 4 on Friday and Mixed Level at 8 on Saturday!!!

ChristineFlyer April 7, 2008

215 Gold SW near Second and Gold in Downtown Albuquerque

Sunday Evening Yoga Class

6:00 - 7:15 pm

Mixed Level

with Christine

Start your week with vigor and relaxation,

crystallize your weekend calm and creativity,

balance your pivot point between work and play!

Come to yoga on Sunday evening from 6:00 to 7:15,

experience your body in creative play,

digest your experience organically from the inside out,

and allow your fierce beauty and gentle power to permeate your week!

$15 drop in ($13 first time)/$10student: packages available

Stay after for Sangha

[a gathering of like minds/bodies]

With meditation, chanting, discussion, chai and more!

suggested donation of $10/$5 for teachers

call Christine at 505/506-0136 for more info! See you there!

YogaEveryDay Newsletter Signup April 7, 2008

YogaEveryDay Newsletter Sign Up

leave your name and email address to receive weekly updates on classes

and tips on blissful living!

Relax… remember it’s all yoga!

Name Email address would you like more info on gourmet yoga camping?

Twists April 2, 2008

Twists - or revolved poses - in yoga are challenging on many levels. Requiring and understanding of the basic pose, they entice us to explore balance, integrate poles of consciousness or halves of the brain, wring out the viscera and cleanse the body. Perfect for Spring!

Twists will be included in all our upcoming classes (YogaNow, and coming soon! Ripple Effect… stay tuned

Try this sequence at home. It starts with a front facing pose - meaning your hips are parallel to the short edge of your mat. I find - after first departing from this dictum of my teacher’s finding my way back to it through my own experience - that grouping poses that emphasize internal rotation in both legs at once (like front facing poses)  and those that require dynamic inner & outer spiraling of the legs (like side facing poses, facing the long edge of the mat) helps to stabilize the sacrum.

With this in mind, start with Warrior I (Virabhadrasana I), then after at least five breaths, bring the arm that’s on the same side as the bent knee to waist, elongate the side bodies and twist the still raised opposite arm and side body until that side of the belly is against the inside of the opposite thigh, and fold the hands in prayer position - Revolved Side Angle Pose, or Parivrtta Parsvokonasana.

After at least five more breaths, extend the arms up and down and straighten the forward leg for Revolved Triangle, or Parivrtta Trikonasana.

Come back to center with straight legs and still in a forward bend for head to knee pose. If you want, move through Warrior III for a final balance challege, or simply move bring the legs together for Forward bend. Luxuriate in the release for at least five breaths, and slowly rise to Tadasana before completing the series on the opposite side.

Pictures to follow! Let me know how this sequence works for you… And see you on the mat!

Love, Truth, Beauty: Here, Now. That’s Yoga.

Root Chakra Class March 2, 2008

Muladhara. Root Chakra. Where it all begins, all ends. It’s about needs and families and roots and survival. It’s sound is “lam”.This is a playful rendition of its Sanskrit:

Class this week and next will focus on the root chakra. We’ll be using movment, breath, imagery and sound. It will be a hip opening extravaganza! Here’s my class plan (copies available on Sunday at 6pm class at YogaNow 215GoldSW in Albuquerque):