The interesting thing I noticed is that my blog post actually inspired a few 8 Limbs yoga instructors to recommit to a daily practice, so I am guessing a few of you took the challenge too! We’re not much of the cheerleading type of yoga studio, but we know how great it feels to make that commitment and follow through. So, hey, if you like, want to, you know, sort of, TRY IT!

Posted by: Anne Phyfe Palmer

I spent many weekends and vacations with family in the islands and beaches of the Gulf, including a recent trip to Florida (see photo of myself and Coco). It has been devastating enough to see how much of the coast was destroyed by Katrina; this oil spill is a sucker punch to areas that are already struggling.

It has helped me to focus my energy in a positive direction. Want to join me? Here’s what you can do:
1. Send your thoughts to the Gulf and the people affected AND the people trying to help staunch the leak and clean up the spill. They need our mental support. Try the Unconditional Meditation I learned from my teacher Rod Stryker. Brief instructions follow, full guided meditation can be found on “Meditations for Inner and Outer Peace”
2. Join us on Monday, May 17 for a Benefit Class. All cash or check drop-in payments (and any additional donations) for the 7:15 and 7:30 classes at all four 8 Limbs Yoga Centers will go directly to the Gulf Response Involvement Team (GRIT). Checks may be made out to GRIT. Class will still be available to members or class pass holders at no extra charge. Please spread the word and bring a friend.
3. Can’t make it? Send your positive thoughts whenever and whenever, but try and join us in spirit on Monday night, especially between 8:15 and 8:30, during meditation. You can make a donation at the GRIT website: http://lagulfresponse.org/aboutus.html

Unconditional Healing Meditation
Preparation: spend a few minutes with attention to your breath. Feel a wave of relaxation through your entire body. Bring your attention to your mouth. Withouth changing your expression, feel the feeling of a smile. Then go through the organs and limbs of your body and feel the feeling of a smile at each location. Feel an open radiant smile in your whole body; every cell is smiling. Now feel rose colored light throughout your being, purifying and cleansing.
Step 1: Bring awareness to the space behind your navel at the spine. Feel life giving energy and awareness move on the inhale up your spine, on the exhale let it spread and expand into the space above the brain, in the skull. Repeat for several minutes with the internal sound AU (ah ooo) on inhale, M on exhale. Then hold your attention a the top of the head, meditate on the infinite and the sound OM.
Step 2: Now move from the space behind your navel up the spine and exhale that awareness into the throat. Repeat with the sound shan (“shun”) on inhale, ti on exhale. After a few minutes, hold attention at the throat, and meditate on peace.
Step 3: You will now share your connection to peace by projecting it to someone else or a situation (ie the oil spill). Whether you wish to help another person or positively affect a situation, you will project unconditaional awarenesss from your third eye.
When you inhale feel consciousness rise up your spine from the navel to the 3rd eye or brain center. Exhale and project unconditional consciousness from the third eye to the heart of another or situation. Add the mantra OM on the inhale and Shanti on the exhale. Continue to repeat, flooding the person or situation with your awareness. Sense that the person or circumstance is absorbing your attention and is filled with unconditional peace. You are empowering this person or situation with the healing power of nature. What they choose to do with it is up to their free will.
Now relax the technique and meditate on the object of your offering. See them/it fully enlivened and connected to the eternal stream of peace. Silently share the spirit of OM Shanti, Universal Peace. Feel that you both bask in the presence of spirit.
Bring your attention back to the space between your eyebrows. Be aware of your own foundation of happiness in your life. Seal it within yourself.
Bring your attention back to your brain, feel it descend all the way down to the navel. Place both palms over the navel. Feel that a presence is moves out of your hands and is absorbed into the navel center and abdomen.
Feel steeped and anchored in a clear sense of centeredness. Open your eyes.
From “Meditations for Inner and Outer Peace” by Rod Stryker

Posted by: Anne Phyfe Palmer

Last month our Managing Director Ashley made a commitment take a yoga class every day for 30 days. It began after the Haramara Yoga Retreat with Melina. She felt so good after doing yoga and eating amazing food every day that she first scheduled several yoga classes per week into her work schedule. The process had a ripple effect on her life – the 30-day commitment was a natural next step (and now is on day 40!).

This gave me the idea to challenge our community – teachers, students, and staff – to practice meditation every day in May. That could mean 5 minutes of sitting and listening to sound, 10 minutes of watching your thoughts like waves rolling on and off the shore, 15 minutes of mantra, or 20 minutes of silence. Whatever gets you to the mat…just do it!

Meditation has had such a profound effect on my own life that I now crave it. My brain wants it, needs it, loves it. I call it “mental floss.” I started by using guided meditations by my teacher Rod Stryker. Every morning I’d put on the headphones and twenty minutes later it was like a new day had dawned.

We’ll call this challenge “M(ay) is for Meditation”, and see how it goes. If you start late, no worries. Miss a day? Just get back on track the next. We are posting free open meditation hours at all four studios. Check your individual studio or our blog for those days and times. Since May starts in two days, we’re giving you this heads up to get ready, get set…

Never meditated? Start with a simple 5-minute Ujjayi Meditation from Rod Stryker:
1. Take a comfortable seat (on blanket or bolster) with spine tall.
2. Begin with smooth ujjayi breathing.
3. Count to 5 as you inhale and 5 as you exhale, in other words, match your breath in to your breath out.
4. After doing this for at least one minute, without strain, begin to pause AFTER exhale for 5 counts. If this is too much, count faster or use a count of 4
5. Continue for a few minutes, then release the pause
6. Release the extended breath and bow your head to conclude the practice.

Another simple practice is to sit and listen to sound. Don’t follow or allow thoughts to gather around the sound, just practicing the art of listening. This is easier to do in the morning or after an asana practice, but it’s also OK if it’s hard! Just try it.

Like having someone tell you what/how to do it? Find a guided meditation. As I mentioned, Rod has guided meditations you can listen to. Ujjayi Meditation is one of the three practices on “Meditations for Inner and Outer Peace” and “Three Meditations to Live By” is just that, for me. It includes a Heart Empowering practice that is simple and wonderful. Check these and others out at the 8 Limbs Boutique.

Need some scientific evidence? Check out my June 10, 2009 blogpost on The Science of Yoga.
Take a leap and commit to this month of practice by writing a comment here or sharing it with a close friend. Keep checking this Blog (or subscribe) to hear from other teachers about their experiences with meditation. At the end of the month, send me an email about your experience and we’ll post selections to inspire others (just let usknow how much anonymity you want, initials, first name, full name, etc.).
Happy M(ay) is for Meditation!

Posted by: Anne Phyfe Palmer
P.S. To avoid problems in pranayama:
1. listen to the sound of your breath and create a long, subtle, smooth flow
2. don’t make your inhale longer than your exhale
3. don’t hold your breath after inhale longer than your exhale

Yaros searches for meaning by exploring the existence of the self according to Buddhist, Yogic and Taoist philosophies in this large-scale print installation. Inspired by her work as a yoga instructor and her study of classical eastern texts such as The Yoga Sutras, The Dhammapada and The Bhagavad Gita, Jen questions how letting go of the notion of the self and accepting all forms in life as fleeting and impermanent could lead to greater awareness, less conflict and potentially reduce suffering.

In addition to teaching yoga and creating art, Jen is a teaching assistant in the Print and Letterpress Departments at Pratt Fine Arts Center. She has a degree in Economics from the University of Washington and has worked in commercial photography and theatre lighting design. Jennifer works with a variety of media ranging from printmaking and book arts to fibers and most recently, sculpture.
 
Shift is a collaborative artist’s studio that opened in the fall of 2004 in the renovated Tashiro Kaplan Arts Complex. Shift was established as an artist-run space with the primary goal of supporting emergent, practicing, Northwest artists. For more information, visit www.shiftstudio.org.

Odissi has been reconstructed from existing traditions, the study of ancient texts like the Natya Shastra and from the study of temple sculptures. The Natya Shastra could be from 1500-3000 years old or even older according to some. It offers not only a general theory of aesthetics (often compared to Aristotle’s Poetics) it is also a detailed compendium of the technical details of the arts of dance, music, dramaturgy, costuming and all arts relating to the stage. It is often called the Fifth Veda. It describes performance as a kind of yoga or means of liberation (mokshya) for both performers and informed spectators.

This tradition of dance/music/theater/yoga has traditionally been open, unlike many other yogic traditions, to women, non-brahmins, and other “impure persons”. Though the state of Orissa is now largely Vashnaivite it was for many years a stronghold of tantrik Shiva/Shakti worship and there are a number of well-preserved temples from this period in Bhubaneswar, Puri, Konark and elsewhere. It was interesting to witness these temples with their many graphic sculptures not only depicting an acceptance of sexuality but celebrating its power in contrast to the pervasive shyness about sexuality in contemporary Indian society. It was a great gift to be learning the dance while living with a group dancers and feeling, at least momentarily, woven in to the spiritual fabric of their daily lives and practice. It seemed that many people had a practice with a strong spiritual focus or one which utilized dance and music as a means, but few people had a yoga practice which supported their physical well-being and complemented their other activities. So, I ended up being very much in demand as a yoga teacher – with students ranging from teenagers to a woman in her late 80’s. I was able to work in trade for room and board, dance study with teachers there, and a new silk costume! The overall experience was encouraging, invigorating and humbling. I can’t wait to go back in December!

Posted by: Douglas Ridings
Douglas will perform Odissi at 8 Limbs Capitol Hill on Saturday, May 15 prior to our scheduledd Kirtan with Gina Salá. He is also teaching in the 8 Limbs Yoga Immersion and will offer classes on Hindu Mythology and Home Practice.

“On tour, many of you kindly ask us how New Orleans is doing. I want to share with you that it is an incredibly joyful time here! Our beloved Saints won the Super Bowl last night! I’ve been a fan since I was a child growing up here and watching them lose year after year, yet still keeping the faith. We are still pinching ourselves! It’s especially meaningful for those of us who stayed after Katrina to rebuild amidst the chaos, uncertainty, and challenges. For people who may believe that sports is frivolous and has nothing to do with spirituality, practicality, or the real recovery of a city, I’d love for you to be here in New Orleans right now and just feel the energy in the community. It’s a feeling that just can’t be put into words or explained rationally.
After the game last night, strangers of all walks of life and all colors spilled out onto the streets to embrace each other, sing, dance, laugh and cry. I went downtown to the French Quarter with my friends and brothers to celebrate and bumped into Gwendolyn (member of Wild Lotus Band) dancing with her tambourine. We paraded through the streets singing “Who Dat!” and hugging and high-fiving the many revelers. It was Bhakti, with a black and gold twist, in full effect!
The deep soulful vibe and traditions of New Orleans are as strong as ever and complimented by a new and progressive spirit. Thanks to so many of you for helping right after Katrina and then sending your love and blessings in these years of recovery. New Orleans is coming back better than ever and feeling so proud to be a part of it!”

Amen!

Come share in the spirit of yoga, the deep musical tradition of New Orleans, and help me celebrate my birthday with the 8 Limbs community on Sunday, March 14. More info.

Posted by: Anne Phyfe Palmer

Friday, January 22, 2010
8 Limbs Phinney Ridge
6:30 – 7:30pm All Levels Hatha Yoga with Megan Costello
8 Limbs West Seattle
5:45 – 7:00pm All Levels Flow with Amelia Gailey

Drop-ins are $16, please bring cash or checks made out directly to Doctors without Borders.
Please spread the word.

Posted by: 8 Limbs

Action Against Hunger
Beyond Borders
Mercy Corps
Yele Haiti (Wyclef Jean’s Grassroots Organization) or Text Yele to 501 501 to donate $5 via your cellphone

Posted by: 8 Limbs

Posted by: 8 Limbs