Last fall 8 Limbs yoga teacher Jenny Hayo introduced me to “Insights at the Edge,” podcasts posted by Sounds True founder Tami Simon that interview visionary poets, teachers, artists, speakers, business owners (et al!) on their current edge and contribution to the world on the level of consciousness raising. I have tuned in as often as possible, often during runs in the Arboretum or walking up the hill to work. I have found this solitary physical activity while listening on earbuds to amazing information quite transformational. The podcasts are free and I want everyone to know about them!

My favorites have been Richard Freeman’s Living Yoga, Tara Brach’s Radical Acceptance, Ken Wilber’s Integral Transformation, David Whyte’s Being at the Frontier of Your Identity, and Peter Levine’s Healing Trauma. But I have honestly barely scratched the surface myself. Most all that I have even tried have been amazing. Tune in, let me know what YOU enjoy hearing about at annephyfe@8limbsyoga.com. You can get them through the Sounds True website or iTunes.

Sounds True’s slogan, “many voices, one journey” is by divine accident very similar to our new slogan at 8 Limbs: “many paths, follow yours.” We are both committed to sharing their diverse wealth of information that is available to assist practitioners in their practice. And we are both businesses that strive to succeed at what Sounds True contributor Patricia Aburdene calls Conscious Capitalism. We believe that putting those words together is not only possible, but essential for the sustainability of our economy, our planet, and our own lifeforce.

Thank you for being part of this conscious capitalism experiment. We will continue to do our best to be a wonderful place for you to practice yoga, and for our staff, a wonderful place to work. We value your support and your presence at 8 Limbs. Namaste.

Posted by: Anne Phyfe Palmer (from the May Newsletter)

A few years ago I found myself resting deeply in savasana at a yoga class in New Orleans while on vacation. As I drifted in relaxation a sound began to emanate from the front of the room. It quickly moved to fill the room with a low vibration. Every atom in my body and the air and objects around me seemed to also vibrate with the sound. It created a feeling of oneness that was quite profound.

After savasana I discovered that the sound came from a singing bowl played by the instructor. It opened my eyes to the power of sound. Since then I have also had the benefit of receiving a Gong Bath (gongs are played and you are literally bathed in sound) and a massage treatment with Acutonic tuning forks. Each time I am amazed at the depth of this work. It quickly takes you deep, to a primal place accessed through the power of vibration.

Megan Costello, our Capitol Hill manager and a sound-healer, will bring her knowledge of this power of sound through training in Acutonics to a Yoga, Sound & Meditation Workshop with MJ Daniels this Sunday, May 1st at 8 Limbs Phinney Ridge. Join them for a “tune-up”, combined with yoga and meditation, to bliss out and connect with the power of both sound and silence.

Posted by: Anne Phyfe Palmer

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna “Yoga is skill in action.” For the many of us who practice yoga asana, this may be experienced as the bringing of awareness into the actions of the physical body. While reconnecting the mind with the experience of the body is a great start, and a challenging accomplishment, it is only just the beginning. To truly deepen our experience of yoga and gracefully navigate our lives we must learn not only to be present in the moment, but how to move skillfully through the thoughts, emotions and attitudes that surface and block our dynamic energy and inhibit the realization of our potential.

In practical terms this means that rather then just being aware of our tendencies to become agitated, angry, nervous, anxious, over-excited, sad or blue we develop the tools to move these energies through us without getting thrown off our center, distracted, scattered or put down. Rather then simply reacting or responding to whatever life throws our way, we choose the quality of our experiences by what we bring to the moment – not what the moment brings to us.

There are many ways this can play out in our lives. For example, you might have a co-worker or family member who is often agitated and seems to have an uncanny ability to spread the irritation around, or maybe you know someone who is often negative and spending time with him or her pulls you down. It might be that your spouse or children are getting on your nerves or that every time you get in your car you feel an intense dislike for the drivers around you. These moments not only cause shifts in our emotional field, but they draw our energy and attention away from whatever it is we set out to do. Aside from trying to let go of these disturbances after the fact, there are simple but effective measures we can take to prevent ourselves from being thrown off center in the first place.

If you are at all curious how you can target or develop your home practice to balance your energy and remain steady through the whirl of life experiences and emotions, check out my Yoga & Mindfulness Workshop at Capitol Hill on Saturday morning, April 9th. We’ll be examining the 5 root causing of suffering according the Yoga Sutras, developing the Buddhist technique of Mindful Awareness to view our sufferings with neutrality and compassion and looking at the system of Ayurveda to assess which asana, pranayama and meditation techniques help us keep our cool when things get heated, which ones help us spark the fires of inspiration and energy when feeling low and how to prevent bouncing back and forth between the two.

Posted by: Jen Yaros

Yoga & Mindfulness for Emotional Balance
8 Limbs Capitol Hill
Saturday, April 9, 2011
10:00 – 12:30pm
$35 through April 4, $45 after

www.jenniferyaros.blogspot.com
www.jenniferyaros.com

It has been a week now since the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in Japan. I find myself reeling daily with the news of the devastation, loss of life, and potential for even more damage on the nuclear front, not to mention the simultaneous events in Libya. Wow, again? It feels like our earth has been dealing with one catastrophe after another. Manmade, natural, it hardly matters. We are interconnected and the wheels or karma are turning, seemingly faster and faster. It would be easy to find either numbness or compulsive attention to the newsfeed to avoid or process this reality, but living consciously asks us to step back and consider how we can best serve a situation with our given resources, be they energetic or monetary.

I have found that to be pulled down by tragedy is a response that is easy to move to but highly ineffectual. Like wallowing in S*(&$%, it serves no one. Instead, we can offer our deepest presence and a wish that those who are suffering become free and find joy again in their lives.

I learned the mantra Loka Samasta Sukhinoh Bhavantu from my first teacher Kathleen. The meaning I was taught and eventually passed on myself was “May all beings be happy and free.” This is so sweet and lovely that it can sometime feel to me a bit trite, as if “well duh” could be sarcastically added at the end.

I recently decided to dive a little deeper into this perfect package of a translation and learn the actual meaning of the words, thanks to Google and a Sanskrit dictionary.

Loka has many meanings, one of which is room, or place (location, anyone?). It also means humankind, folk, wide space, and earth. Samasta means combined, united, put (or thrown!) together. Sukha is joy, delight, comfort, or ease, and sukhinoh is one who is in that state. Bhavantu means they shall, and I believe relates to the word Bhavana, which I was taught is an attitude or an intention that you choose and direct one’s attention toward.

Ah, now the mantra has a little more traction for me, and I can offer it across the ocean with a deeper sincerity. YES, we all have the capacity for joy, for delight, for ease. YES, we are all united on this planet, for better or worse. YES, they shall become free and full of joy once again. YES, this is what I wish, what I hope for and I can offer my practice, my efforts, towards this wish.

Please join me for a special practice this Monday, March 21 at 7:15pm at 8 Limbs Capitol Hill. We will focus our practice twofold: sending both supportive energy and awareness to our neighbors in Japan and donations to Mercy Corps and their disaster relief efforts. No donations required to join us, just a willing and open heart. Should you choose, please bring cash or checks made out to Mercy Corps. 8 Limbs will donate all drop-in payments for class to Mercy Corps.

Posted by: Anne Phyfe Palmer

It’s the month of March and the winter funkies officially set in for me about two weeks ago. It started when I began to feel extremely tired, despite eating well and getting plenty of sleep. And my mood, usually somewhat upbeat, started to drag me down. And then my kids got sick, and my husband was busy with work, and I just had to carry on, cook the dinners, make the lunches, hit my to do list, and on, an on.

I am someone who really notices when I am out of whack, be it physically, mentally, or emotionally. My old habit is to look at what I need to do, to change, to get back to alignment. More yoga? Longer meditation? Less wine? More water? I want to fix myself, and get back to feeling more at ease in my skin. What this often translates in mind that is I need to be good, to do the right thing. The pressure builds and I end up feeling squeezed tight and stretched in all directions, all at once.

Last Wednesday morning, I tried a different approach (you guessed it, the other options weren’t working, and it was going on two weeks). Instead of trying to figure out what to do, I got curious about the source. “What’s under this spinning?” I asked my journal. And I sat with that. Something shifted, a little. And that morning I took a yoga class. Something in me said “go in that room before you go to the office.” As we wound down practice with a supine passive side stretch, the one where you move one leg and then the other over, and repeat, what lay beneath welled up, and tears started to stream down the side of my face, the way they do when you are lying on your back. Now these weren’t tears of sadness, or grief, or even tied to anything in particular. They were just the release of compression. I had finally become willing to allow what lay beneath to come to the surface.

After a few satisfying minutes of sobbing in an empty office, I returned to myself, to space, to openness, like I’d been cleansed by tears.

May you find your own way through the end of winter. To help you out, Melina has posted Late Winter Ayurvedic Tips on the Blog Post before this one.

And it’s Daylight Savings Time again. Don’t forget to set your clocks forward (spring ahead) one hour on March 13 (the birthday I share with 8 Limbs Managing Director Ashley Dahl, incidentally). Happy almost Spring!

Posted by: Anne Phyfe Palmer

Today is the day our nation celebrates an American hero named Martin Luther King, Jr. Declared in 1983, it is a day to acknowledge this great man and bring awareness to our own relationship to his legacy, a life dedicated to freedom for all beings.

Freedom is essentially the goal of yoga – freedom from physical and mental suffering, freedom from attachment, freedom from aversion. Moksha is the Sanskrit word for freedom from the cycles of life and death.

The opposite of freedom is bondage. We may be bound in our thought patterns, bound in our prejudice, bound by a bad back. Through yoga we are systematically releasing ourselves from the physical, mental, and energetic blocks and obstacles that keep us from our true nature, which is freedom and joy, and the realization that we are all one.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great Karma Yogi. He took action in the service of mankind. He wanted American to wake up, to be fully present, to witness the injustice and degradation that his brothers and sisters experienced, and change the system.

Today, can we spend time not only honoring this great warrior in the fight for human freedom, but working to further his cause? What is one thing you could do today to put energy towards human rights? How can you practice Karma Yoga, the yoga of selfless action?

Want to take yoga beyond the studio environment? Get involved with Street Yoga, dedicated to bringing yoga, mindful breathing, and compassionate communication to youth and families and their caregivers struggling with homelessness, poverty, abuse, addiction, trauma and behavioral challenges.

Passionate about whole foods and how they are can provide freedom from illness and mental disturbances? Check our Urban Farm Hub to learn how you can get involved in the effort to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to those with limited access.

Sick to death of the criminal justice system and how its corporate housing units are holding tanks rather than opportunities for transformation? Sign up to volunteer for Yoga Behind Bars, a wonderful local non-profit dedicated to bringing yoga meditation classes to incarcerated youth and adults in Washington State as well as those at risk of entering the criminal justice system.

There are, of course so many ways to help, but these are a few local, easy-to-access organizations that are working for freedom, every day.

Posted by: Anne Phyfe Palmer

At this time of year we are all hearing of all that has been in 2010, and all that is to come in 2011, as one year turns into the next. The “best” and “worst” and highs and lows are all recounted to help us navigate this transition from one calendar year to the next.

These weigh-ins from cultural temperature-takers offer us fodder for conversation, attempt to reflect the past, present, and future of our culture, and sometimes give us something to ponder. We might learn about the “best” scientific discovery that we had not heard about, or be reminded of a celebrity from our childhood who has passed on, alerting us to our own mortality.

This reflective presence in the media can also lend itself to deepen our self-reflection. What is really helpful for YOU to navigate from one season to the next, from one year, one decade to the next? What type of inventory will help you to see your life as it truly is, and set an intention for 2011 that raises your own bar of excellence and awareness?

For me, the past year has been an utter shift in changing life-long patterns that, despite all I have “achieved,” were holding me back from feeling satisfied. Practicing yoga for 16 years prepared me to be willing to make these changes, but the process essential to this transformation has been clarifying the standards of integrity that are most important to me and the life intentions that I wish to guide my choices in life.

I encourage you to take some time this weekend to remind yourself of what is truly important and interesting to you. Start by making a list of the top five people who inspire you and three qualities they posses.

Now make a list of everything that you would like to do, regardless of money, time, and energy.

When you have done both of these things, read on.

What you now have in your possession is a list of qualities that you see in other people, which can be called your standards of integrity. These are the qualities you possess in yourself that you have realized are inspiring to you, and can be called upon when you find yourself turning in a vrtti, or mind fluctuation to pull you out of this conditioned thinking into what is more interesting to you. A couple of the standard of integrity that I discovered through this exercise are: creative, generous, acknowledging, amazing intellect.

You also have the beginnings of a life of life intentions. From the list of what you would like to do in your life, and the your standards of integrity, create a list of intentions that you are willing to hold. Write “I am willing to be…” and finish the sentence until you feel complete. A couple of my own life intentions are: to be a clear, conscious communicator, to be at ease in the company of others, to be a participant in the global community, to be creating sustainable lifestyle in community.

Have fun with your transition, however you make it, and have a very Happy New Year.

Posted by: Anne Phyfe Palmer
Want to participate in a group practice to support your New Year’s transition? Join Megan at 8 Limbs Capitol Hill or Dawn at 8 Limbs Phinney for their New Year’s Day Practices.

Instead of writing about the holidays, how we get stressed during them, or what to buy for them, I want to call bring up a whole new topic: TIME. Instead of preparing for the holidays, or talking about the holidays, why not consider how we can be right here, right now.

If you asked me a year ago what I wanted for Christmas, my answer would have been “more time!” I was in the midst of opening a new yoga studio, my youngest daughter was going to two different preschools, and my husband was both working freelance and in school fulltime. My life was quite full.

How about you – busy? Want “more time” in your life?

Over the course of this last year, I have asked for and received help from several mentors on this very subject. It has been life changing.

My teacher Rod Stryker’s counsel was to watch how I framed my life as being “out” of time. He gave me a mantra to break the chains of this prison-making way of thinking. Merely committing to this mantra and watching this began to shift my thinking.

With the help of another mentor, Heidi Gates, I also began to attend more regularly to the creative desires that had been nagging at the back of my mind. I stopped saying to myself: “I can’t wait til I retire so that I can play piano, write a book, sing, and dance” and started to focus on how to bring those activities into my life sooner. As David Whyte says in the podcast I blogged about on November 22, when we attend to the things that our heart truly desires first, the to do list we work on after is like icing on the cake.

This month, notice how you talk about the holidays with others. Can you refrain from saying things like “I’m so busy” or “I have so much to do” or “yikes, so many things on my to do list!?”

When that type of “out of time” thinking starts up in your head (or your mouth), can you switch over to another idea such as “how fortunate I am to be so engaged” or “there is time to enjoy each moment of my life.” If how much you have to do is overwhelming you, take a few minutes to get crystal clear about what you truly must get done today. Focus on 1 to 3 things rather than glazing over at your long to do list. Then when you have done those three things, smile and enjoy your success.

This blog appeared in the December Newsletter. To receive our monthly newsletter click here.

Posted by: Anne Phyfe Palmer

Last week I spent a day with the poet David Whyte on Whidbey Island to learn about “Conversational Leadership” and see what that meant for me and for 8 Limbs. It was inspiring and affirming to spend time with leaders from all around the world talking about having the courageous conversations that can enliven and expand us as human beings in the workplace.

I encountered David through his poetry and prose over the past few years, but his Insights at the Edge podcast with Sounds True founder Tami Simon was what drew me in. I recommend it to everyone interested in being “At the Frontier of Your Identity”, the podcast title. Really all of the Insight at the Edge podcasts I have listened to have been amazing.
On the drive up, Ashley (8 Limbs Managing Director) and I listened to Whole Foods founder John Mackay talk about Conscious Capitalism on his Sounds True recording of the same name. I know that he has been controversial to some, but his focus on business as a vehicle for change and deeper purpose resonates with me and dovetailed well with David Whyte’s support of the workplace as an extension of our core beliefs as human beings.

Why I mention all of this is because I think that it is important that you know what is behind the scenes at 8 Limbs. We have always been a Business about Consciousness, but we also continue to evolve as a Conscious Business. Our newly realized deeper purpose is to “create sustainable lifestyle in community through yoga and conscious business practices.” This means we want everyone involved with 8 Limbs – staff, teachers, vendors, owner, landlords, and of course customers, to live sustainable lives. We want your health to thrive, your families to thrive, your businesses to thrive, your communities to thrive, and the planet to thrive. And we believe that this is possible.

One of the longstanding business practices that 8 Limbs holds dear is that of the Thanksgiving Benefit class. For over 10 years our Thanksgiving Day practices support non-profits chosen by the volunteer teachers. This year we are working with four local non-profits at our four locations. Look below for the schedule of Benefit Class. Help us support communities in need while connecting to your practice and your 8 Limbs community. This year our aim is to raise $2,500. You can help us to reach that goal!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by: Anne Phyfe Palmer, Director

THANKSGIVING BENEFIT CLASSES
Join us on Thanksgiving Morning at one of our neighborhood studios:
Capitol Hill: 10:00 – 11:30am with Jenny Hayo for Yoga Behind Bars
Phinney Ridge: 9:00 – 10:30am with Leisha Davis for Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Wedgwood: 9:30 – 11:00am with Dawn Jansen for Passages Northwest
West Seattle: 9:30 – 11:00am with Jen Yaros for The Hutch School (part of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)
Payment by cash or check to the non-profit of your choice. No credit cards. Sliding scale, suggested minimum donation $16.

It’s that time of year again where you put away those shorts and shades and start dragging out the wool and down. It’s also the time of year that we begin the journey inward. The kids go back to school, the days grow shorter, the temperature drops lower and the period of contemplation and self-study crests the horizon.

For many of us this can be a truly hectic and difficult time period, trying to get everything secured and into place before the deluge of the holidays hits and we’re plunged back into another 9 months of winter. In other words, there never was a better time to reaffirm and deepen your commitment to yoga. While a regular asana practice can help keep the immune system healthy and strong and a regular meditation practice can reduce stress and bring mental clarity, why not go back to the foundation of it all and begin a philosophical study of yoga this Fall?

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are a great way to begin this journey. Composed of a 196 aphorisms, the sutras lay out the path of yoga by examining what it means to be human and how you can create freedom from suffering through your practices. Which means that on the off chance that you’d like to make it gracefully through the holidays and navigate family, friends and co-workers with genuine warmth and compassion, this might just be the time for you to head back to school!

To guide your journey, I’ll be offering a once a month series on Yin and the Yoga Sutras. Each session we’ll practice asana in the passive style of Yin to deeply stretch the body and then explore the mind through a study of the 1st chapter of the Yoga Sutras.

If you’re at all curious about the system of yoga, please join us at 8 Limbs Capitol Hill for the next class on October 2 at 10:00 am. We’ll review the first 5 sutras to define yoga and move forward in the first chapter. Join us in this special study to focus the light for the years to come.

Posted by: Jen Yaros