Zoom class days have changed to Wednesdays and Sundays beginning Sunday 11/12. Zoom links available via email only. If you are interested in joining Contact me here!
Cha-cha-cha-changes
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Tags: jivamukti, jivamukti nyc, Jivamukti Yoga, jivamukti yoga nyc, live stream yoga, Yoga
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Paradise in the City! Half-Day Yoga Retreat at the Cloisters
RAIN DATE – RETREAT HAS BEEN MOVED TO 10/20 DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER!
There’s a bit of paradise right in New York City! Join me on Friday, October 20th for a mini-escape from everyday life at The Met Cloisters/Fort Tryon Park. This mini-retreat will include:
- Walking meditation
- Out-door yoga class
- Home-made vegan picnic lunch
- Guided tour of The Met Cloisters by medieval historian Lauren Mancia
Additional Details:
Date: Friday, October 20th, 2023 (This is the rain date)
Time: 10:00 am – 2:00 pm (this is an estimated end time)
Location: Fort Tryon Park/The Met Cloisters
Cost: $100.
You will need to bring your own yoga mat, and props if you want them – the Museum has a bag check.
How to get there: A Train to 190th St, Buses: M4, M98, M100, Bx7, or car (limited parking)
Spots are limited! Last sign up by Friday 10/13.
About Lauren Mancia:
In addition to being an avid yogi,Lauren Mancia is a professor of history and a scholar of the Western European Middle Ages, with specialties in medieval Christianity, the history of emotions, and medieval monasticism. She looks at what medieval Europeans left behind—art, writings, artifacts, institutions, etc. —in order to understand how they experienced their religion, and, thereby, how they understood themselves. In her research, Mancia focuses on the devotional culture of medieval monasteries in the 11th and 12th centuries.
She has published on her scholarly interests both in peer-reviewed academic journals and in publications for wider, more general audiences. She has recently contributed to a forthcoming volume on the use and misuse of the Middle Ages in the contemporary political landscape. She is also a regular lecturer at The Met Cloisters.
Fort Tryon Park: https://www.forttryonparktrust.org/visit-and-park-map/
The Met Cloisters: https://www.metmuseum.org/visit/plan-your-visit/met-cloisters
Categories: jivamukti, Travel, Workshops, Yoga, Yoga Class Schedule, yoga retreat
Tags: cloisters, half day retreat, jivamukti, Jivamukti Yoga, jivamukti yoga nyc, retreat nyc, the met, Yoga, yoga retreat
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Private Yoga Sessions Available
Practice yoga one-on-one in the comfort of your own home in person or on Zoom! Contact Me for more information or to sign up!
Current Teaching Schedule
Current teaching schedule is below! If you are looking for past actual blog entries/essays please scroll down!!
New Fall Schedule
Change is in the air!
The temperature is starting to change.
The leaves are starting to change.
The year just changed (Shana Tova 5781!)
Washington NEEDS to change (VOTE!!!)
And the yoga schedule is about to change…
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Through Friendliness, Kindness and Compassion, Strength Comes
We’ve been discussing in classes this month the pre-requisites for receiving the teachings of yoga, but really, as I’ve been saying, these are pre-requisites for just making our way through this world. The requirements we’ve discussed are LOVE, RESPECT, AND FRIENDSHIP.
Below are two sutras from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra chapter 3 – the chapter on powers – discussing friendship and love. We’ll discuss more this week 🙂
Speaking of friendship…a bunch of my friends from high school are supposedly coming to the 7 am class this Friday – you should all come too! One of my teachers, Lady Ruth, said this about 3.23, “Power comes, begins with, friendship. Do everything for your friends. Never underestimate the power of a friend.”
3.23 maitry-adiṣu balāni ॥23॥
Through friendliness, kindness and compassion, strength comes.
3.37 te samādhav-upasargāḥ-vyutthāne siddhayaḥ ॥37॥
By giving up the love of power, you attain the power of love.
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To Comprehend and Respect Another
COMPREHEND:
Latin root “com” = together in mind, “prehendere” = to grasp it, or pick it up
To comprehend something means to pick it up and be one with it. There is no other way to understand something.
RESPECT:
Latin Root “respectus”, from the verb “respicere” to look back at, regard. Consisting of “re” = back “specere” = look at or look back
Respect means to look again, to keep looking with increasingly sensitive eyes.
Respect only arises when we can take another look and realize the preciousness of what someone or something has to offer.
From Thich Nhat Hanh’s “The Heart of Understanding”:
“When we want to understand something, we cannot just stand outside and observe it. We have to enter deeply into it and be one with it in order to really understand. If we want to understand a person, we have to feel their feelings, suffer their sufferings, and enjoy their joy.
If we are concerned with peace and want to understand another country [or our own], we can’t just stand outside and observe. We have to be one with a citizen of that country in order to understand her feelings, perceptions, and mental formations. Any meaningful work for peace must follow the principal of non-duality, the principal of comprehension [and respect]. This is our peace practice” to comprehend, to be one with, in order to really understand.”
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Tags: comprehension, jivamukti focus of the month, Jivamukti Yoga, jivamutki, latin lesson, prerequisites, respect, Yoga, yoga at home, yoga online, zoom yoga
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The Dog Days of Summer
It’s the “Dog Days of Summer!” Ever wonder where that phrase came from?
From Homer’s Iliad:
Priam saw him first, with his old man’s eyes,
A single point of light on Troy’s dusty plain.
Sirius rises late in the dark, liquid sky
On summer nights, star of stars,
Orion’s Dog they call it, brightest
Of all, but an evil portent, bringing heat
And fevers to suffering humanity.
Achilles’ bronze gleamed like this as he ran
From Wikipedia:
The dog days or dog days of summer are the hot, sultry days of summer. They were historically the period following the heliacal rising of the star system Sirius, which Hellenistic astrology connected with heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck. They are now taken to be the hottest, most uncomfortable part of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
Sirius is by far the brightest proper star in the night sky, which caused ancient astronomers to take note of it around the world. In Egypt, its return to the night sky became known as a precursor to the annual flooding of the Nile and was worshipped as the goddess Sopdet. In Greece, it became known as the precursor of the unpleasantly hot phase of the summer. Greek poets even recorded the belief that the return of the bright star was responsible for bringing heat and fever with it; it was also associated with sudden thunderstorms.
See you on the Zoom mat!Love April
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New Summer Schedule and Avenues for Justice
After much consideration, I’ve decided to make some changes to the schedule for the summer. Monday 6 pm will now take place at 3:00 pm and Saturday 5 pm will only take place on rainy days.
What does this mean? Essentially Saturday night class will be on hold until the fall, but if the weather isn’t great, I’ll send out an email that day to see if there’s interest in a pop-up.
I know that sounds a bit strange, but I guess that’s one of the advantages of teaching on zoom! Unfortunately class size hasn’t warranted keeping it on the schedule – it’s summer and I have a feeling you guys would prefer some outdoor time after being cooped up inside for the last 3-plus months. New Schedule is below.
In Social Reform news…
On Friday I sat in on a live talk with Angel Rodriguez and Gamal Willis of the NYC organization Avenues for Justice, moderated by Jivamukti’s Jules Febre, who also happens to be one of AFJ’s success stories. A little bit about AFJ:
In 1979, Avenues for Justice reached into overcrowded Manhattan criminal courtrooms and found youths who might turn their lives around if they only had a second chance. We presented the courts with an idea: instead of sentencing young people to prison, judges could send them to AFJ for counseling, training, education and employment assistance. This simple tactic — keeping youths out of prison — has saved the lives of hundreds of young lives every year for four decades. At a time when the U.S. incarceration rate is the highest of any nation in the world and a cycle of arrests and imprisonment has become the norm within many low-income communities, AFJ has bucked the trend to become one of the most successful and cost-effective crime prevention programs in America. Read more here
One of their key initiatives right now is removing the NYPD from the school system. When I worked as a school counselor at Landmark High School I witnessed first hand the effect police officers had on the students, as well as physical altercations. They do not belong there. If you have been pushing for the defunding of the NYPD, think about volunteering or donating to AFJ.
AVENUE FOR JUSTICE’S GOALS
Keep kids out of prison – That’s how AFJ stops New York City crime. Our goals:
- Intervene to divert and reclaim young people from lives of crime.
2. Provide an overloaded court system a reliable alternative to incarceration.
3. Make New York City a safer place for everyone.
Keep Fighting the Good Fight
The fight against systemic racism will not end overnight. Some positive outcomes have emerged from the Black Lives Matter movement, but if anything that means we must keep going! There’s lifetimes of work to do.
I sat in on a panel discussion this weekend led by various global teachers from Jivamukti Yoga on the topic of Crisis and Community. From what I know this is going to be an on-going discussion, as it should be, and if you are interested the first discussion can be found on their FB page.
During the panel a resource on Talking About Race from the National Museum of African American History & Culture was brought up, which you can find here. The website is easy to navigate and breaks up topics based on if you are an educator, a parent/caregiver, or a person committed to equity.https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race?fbclid=IwAR21wMX945Vl7Hfk_ThEXXiQf9njfuETuIE815PXQnZ-LBegsHlDARJ53V8
april dechagas 