What I Learn in Yoga Every Monday Night Changes My Life!
I hope that you will enjoy reading “lessons from Monday Night Yoga“. I have learned so much over the past 7-8 years at The Shanti Yoga Center, and it doesn’t matter how many times I hear the same thing over and over, the lesson continues to grow and broaden. 
This week we discussed about our personal growth and how when we are on the verge of big growth in our lives, it can feel really uncomfortable and confining. This confinement is the threshold for our own personal growth.
It is said that according to The Polynesians, the world began when their creator Taaora woke up to find himself growing inside a shell. He stretched and broke the shell and the earth was created. He continued to grow until he found himself inside another shell that he had to break through and the moon was created. He kept growing until he had to break through another shell and the stars were created.
We each grow in this life by breaking through successive shells. We come to a point in our growth where we find ourselves confined, we feel like we have no room and that we must break through our own shell in order to be born anew.
Life becomes a living of who we are until that form of self can no longer hold us. Each form serves its purpose for a time until we grow and they no longer serve us.
Quote: “From the beginning,
the key to renewal has been shedding,
the casting off of old skin.” Read more
Monday Night Yoga
Every Monday night I go to a yoga class called Yin Yoga Meditation. When I return from the class, I feel that I am changed: I have a special sense of peace, ease and balance in my body. There are a few reasons why I think this class is special.
First of all, Yin-style yoga is different than most other yoga classes. It’s not a movement, “flow” or “Hatha” style of class; it is very quiet, with long pose-holds of about five minutes. Typically, the poses that are done are on the floor such as child’s pose, pigeon pose, forward folds, etc. The Shanti Yoga studio in Vancouver, WA describes yin as: “Taught as an embodied meditation practice, this class offers students a different kind of practice from the more active style of Hatha classes. Here the challenge arises from exploring longer seated holds of up to 5 minutes in the Yin style/Taoist Yoga tradition, deeply stretching and nourishing all connective tissue while steadying the mind through a variety of pranayama practices. Patience is acquired as we practice stilling the restless mind through passive holding, concentration, and meditation in a very quiet but gently challenging and deeply nourishing setting” (www.shantiforeveryone.com).
Another reason my class is special is because of what I learn every evening. What I walk away with changes the way I move through the world, and on this particular tonight, I thought to myself, “wouldn’t it be nice to share this with our community here, so that you, too can have something to consider about how you might want to be in the world.” Read more
Truth, Consciousness, & Bliss…
Welcome to our very first Dharma discussion. I am calling it a discussion, because what I share on this day will merely be the planting of seeds of thought for you to ponder.
My hope is that all of you who read this will have additional thoughts to share so that we can all gain a greater collective wisdom and insight.
Most of what I will share here will be derived from my own Yoga practice. I am incredibly fortunate to receive my yoga training at, what I consider, the best yoga studio on the planet…I am a little biased, but believe it to be true. If you are ever fortunate enough to be in Portland, OR or more specifically Vancouver, WA, please visit my dear friend Yvonne Edes yoga studio call The Shanti Yoga Studio. You can visit her beautiful website at www.shantiforeveryone.com. For those of you who may not know, Shanti is Sanskrit for Peace… I will occasionally be using some Sanskrit terms, but I will always translate them to the best of my ability.
Most importantly, I hope that what I share with you will serve as a great source of inspiration. I hope that it will help you move through your day a little easier and help you open up to the possibility that everything that you need already resides within. I am very much looking forward to some “juicy” discussion… Namaste.
