BARBARA BORIS Yoga

A special mini YOGA SEQUENCE to do:  to celebrate the wind and water.

HURRICANE IRENE YOGA SEQUENCE
Wind, Water and Twist!

CHILD’S POSE
Grounding – for a long, long time with a bolster or pillow underneath your chest/ abdomen, especially if the wind is getting to your nervous system.

ADHO MUKHA SVANASANA
Downward facing dog and SHAKE all the water off like a dog!

UTTANASANA
Standing forward extension with head supported on a chair, again to chill you from the irritating winds.

SIRSASANA & ADHO MUKHA VRKSASANA
Headstand and handstand (technically downward facing tree pose!)
Turn everything upside down and look at the rain falling UP! Can you stay steadier than the trees blowing outside?

VRKSASANA
Tree pose, stay steady, even as the wind blows. Get ready for the twisting by first rotating the top of your bent leg from the inside out, and turning your chest in the opposite direction – make your tree as steady as a mountain (TADASANA mountain pose in your torso).

PARSVAKONASANA
Extended side angle pose. Practice the same rotation as in VRKSASANA. Except here be even MORE grounded on that back foot.

PARIVRTTA TRIKONASANA
Rotated triangle pose. Go for it! BE the hurricane. Twist!

PASCHIMOTTANASANA
East meets the west seated forward extension. Again, ground yourself. Head down on a bolster, stretch out the twisting and get L-O-W  to the ground…

SETU BANDHASANA
Bridge pose. It’s your bridge, build it any way you want, with blocks, bolsters, blankets or dropping over from Sarvangasana: but make it steady, so the wind doesn’t blow it down. Lift your chest and stay grounded in your feet.

SAVASANA
Corpse pose, with any kind of weight you can find – place it on your thighs, so you don’t “blow” or “float” away! Use as much as you can gather. Try for at least 50 pounds.

ENJOY! And please report back how stable you were in the 40+ m.p.h. winds.

Martha Stewart doing Iyengar Yoga in Grand Central Station in NYC last week. Great article! Thank you Wall Street Journal. Even Martha has been told to make her feet parallel at some time. There are videos. Take a look. Here’s the link:

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/10/19/for-one-day-new-york-was-martha-stewarts-yoga-mat/?mod=google_news_blog

I bet even Martha has been told to make her feet parallel at some point in her yoga practice. A big shout out to James Murphy of The Iyengar Institute of New York for leading the class.

Nice feet Martha!

ASANAS TO BE PRACTICED TO INCREASE YOUR IMMUNITY
RIMYI Pune October 2009
(H1N1 virus – Bird Flu Epidemic)

We will be practicing the MORNING SEQUENCE
tonight, 6 p.m. at Woodstock Yoga Center.
Don’t worry if you can’t hold the asanas this long.
We will work with what is possible for you and your ability.

Come on by and have your Weekly Yoga Flu Shot!

MORNING PRACTICE
Duration approx 1 hour

• Uttanasana             5 minutes
• Adho Mukha Svanasana    5 minutes
• Prasarita Padottonasana    3 minutes
• Sirsasana            10-15 minutes
• (5 minutes straight and 10 minutes sirsasana cycle)
• Viparita Danasana on your cot (!) [we'll use 2 chairs] with head down 5 minutes
• Sarvangasana        10 minutes
• Halasana            5 minutes
• Sarvangasana Cycle    5 minutes
• Setubandha Sarvangasana    5 minutes
• Viparita Karani        5 minutes
• Savasana with Viloma or Ujjayi pranayama 10 minutes

EVENING PRACTICE
Duration approx. 45 minutes

• Sirsasana             10 minutes
• Sarvangasana        10 minutes
• Halasana            5 minutes
• Setubandha Sarvangasana    10 minutes
• Savasana with Viloma or Ujjayi pranayama 10 minutes

“I sometimes tell my students that the practice they doing yoga class is not strictly speaking, yoga practice. The reason for this is that in class, although you are undoubtedly ‘doing’ and hopefully learning, you are listening to the teacher. The directing intelligence comes from the teacher and you follow the teacher to the best of your ability.

“At home, on the other hand, it is your own intelligence that is the master, and the progress that you make is yours and will be maintained. In addition, the will that you employ is yours. It is not derived from the power, the charisma, the strength or the fierceness of the teacher. It comes from you, and its effect profound.”

– B.K.S. Iyengar

Chronic Anxiety Sequence (Patricia Walden)
Print out and write your notes on how you practiced this tonight,
your results and insights.

Reflect on where you are in the moment, on all five koshas: physical, pranic, mental/emotional, root intelligence and bliss. Reflect on where you want to be after your yoga practice. Practice in such a way to achieve that goal. Not from an ego state or any mental ideations of what is “right.” Reflect at the end of practice if you achieved that goal, and what you would do differently next time. Keep notes. This is another aspect of Svadhyaya: self-study.

Loren Fishman’s work on Rotator Cuff Therapy using Yoga.
http://www.manhattanphysicalmedicine.com/rotatorcuffcure.html

NY Times article about it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/health/02brody.html

…This year, Dr. Fishman received a prize at the International Conference on Yoga for Health and Social Transformation for a paper he presented on a surprising yoga remedy for rotator cuff syndrome, a common shoulder injury that causes extreme pain when trying to raise one’s arm to shoulder height and higher. He described a modified form of a yoga headstand that does not require standing on the head and takes only 30 seconds to perform, and presented evidence that it could relieve shoulder pain in most patients, and that adding brief physical therapy could keep the problem from recurring…. - Jane Brody, NY Times

Yogis, I did a workshop with Dr. Loren Fishman on shoulder issues and also on osteoporosis last year. If you want to work with me on it, I’d be happy to oblige. Please give me a call. OM.

Iyengar Yoga in Woodstock with Kevin Gardiner
July 14-15, Saturday and Sunday, 2:00-6:30 p.m.
4 hours both days, with half hour chai break each day
$195

Sign up HERE!

THIS TWO DAY WORKSHOP will be for high Level I-II Iyengar Yoga Students. Those who regularly attend Iyengar yoga classes will get first priority, as we are limiting the attendance to 25, and we want to keep the level of teachings strong and inspiring. Participants are required to have a good command of Iyengar basics, be able to do sirsasana, handstand and be able to sustain unsupported urdhva dhanurasana with straight arms. If you are not a regular practicing Iyengar student, we can discuss whether this workshop will be appropriate for you.

Sunday’s classes will be based on Saturday’s. Students signing up for the whole weekend will have priority for available spaces. Only if space is available will you be able to register for a single day session ($100/day). Contact Barbara at Woodstock Yoga to be on the sign-up/waiting list for single day class. (more…)

My Journey Into Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar

Times of India

The 94-year-old iconic yogacharya B K S Iyengar walks down memory lane,
going right back to when he started.

I am neither a Sanskrit scholar nor a philosopher; am purely an ardent student of yoga, involved in sadhana for nearly 80 years, exploring its depth in order to gain and understand rightly the beauty and majesty of the vast ocean of yogic knowledge along with experiential wisdom. My uninterrupted sadhana has not only burnt all types of impediments and obstacles, it has also kindled the flame of wisdom within. (more…)

OM Yogis!
Is this just squiggles to you? By Sunday evening it won’t be!

Come attend the Sanskrit 101 Workshop at Woodstock Yoga.
This Workshop is designed specifically for the new Woodstock Yoga Teacher Trainees…
but you might be interested in coming too!

The workshop is THIS SUNDAY, February 26, 1:30-4:30 at:
WOODSTOCK YOGA CENTER
6 Deming Street , Woodstock
845 679-8700
Cost is $40.  (Woodstock Yoga Center teachers – $30)

SIGN UP BY CLICKING HERE!

Please shoot me an email (bxboris at yahoo dot com) so I know how many copies to make of the handouts. There will be LOTS of handouts!!!! Bring notebook, pens, paper, your glasses (!). This will be all reading/ chanting/ drawing/ writing.

Bring the following books: Light on Yoga, Light on the Yoga Sutras (both by BKS Iyengar), Yoga the Iyengar Way (Mehta), the Preliminary Course (Geeta Iyengar). Yoga Sutras & Preliminary Course available for purchase at Woodstock Yoga.

There will be asana breaks in between sections.

Here is a rough OUTLINE of what will be covered:

INTRO

• why Sanskrit is important and relevant to yoga practice
• aural tradition and the power of sound
• warm up voice exercises

OM

• chanting vs. singing
• why we chant OM in a yoga class
• The Mandukya Upanishad on the Four States of OM
• drawing OM
• chant OM 108 times

SANSKRIT ALPHABET

• scientific organization
• positions in the mouth
• aspirated consonants, long/short vowels, s’s
• transliterations/ common spellings
• practice chanting (mouth yoga!)

VOCABULARY

• common yoga words to know and their roots and meanings
• practice pronunciation

MANTRAS

• vedic vs. traditional vs. KD vs. new age
• Invocation to Patanjali
• lokah samastah sukhinoh bhavantu
• saha na vavutu
• asato ma sad gamaya

YOGA SUTRAS

• yogas chitta vritti nirodhaha
• stira sukham asanam

HOMEWORK

• Teacher Trainees will have homework
• As a guest to the Workshop you can elect to do it or not.
• If you want Yoga Alliance Credit towards your E-RYT status you must do the homework.

OM OM OM
AUM AUM AUM

(by Sunday you will understand the difference in spelling!)
See you there,
Barbara

Lots of snow on the grass, but the driveway isn’t bad.

CLASS IS ON!

OM
Who knows!?!?
Here is the latest from my FB pal Alex: He’s the man re: all weather issues…
I say COME! Drive carefully, and park carefully. If there is a huge snow event, I’ll let you know when I wake up where you can park.
But come on by!
more Back Bending!!!

Hudson Valley Weather

Important Update: (3 minutes ago… 7:57 p.m. Thursday)

Here’s the facts…. Temps are dropping quickly in response to clear skies. As you can see from the observations in the below post that we have temps ranging from 32-45 across the HV. When precip begins after midnight temps will also take another dip and if the info from the NWS in Albany serves true then the start of the precip may be quite heavy, this will cause a sharper drop in  temps and also quickly overcome any warm surfaces it is trying to accumulate on. Every hour that clear skies hold on across the HV temps will continue to drop, so its easy to figure that between all these factors most of the HV will get to 32 deg or lower be after midnight. Now to make this even more interesting both the NAM and HRRR which are good short range models are depicting 4-6 and even 8 inches of snow “see below post by Brent for HRRR” Now these models tend to be bullish with amounts at times but overall are accurate models. But we also have snow ratio’s to contend with, and with temps right around freezing they will be very low, resulting in a wet snow that will not pile up to quickly. This is going to be a now-casting event and I want to make sure you are all informed and aware of the wide range of possibilities that exist as this has become a bit of a challenging forecast. I have posted the forecast discussion from the NWS below. Stay tuned as me and everyone else continue to watch new data as it arrives and keep and eye on local observations to get a better handle on this situation. Again, this morning I posted 3-6 in the highest elevations and 1-2 in the valley, it’s the valley prediction, north of poughkeepsie that is in the biggest danger of being low at this point.

Twisting is one of the most powerful tools we have in yoga asana practice. Besides creating flexibility in the spine, the parivritta (twisting) action opens the nadis (energy channels) and deeply massages the organs. Twisting, bending and binding also detoxifies the system, bringing rejuvenation, clarity and balance into the body. This class through it’s intelligent Iyengar sequencing will create heat to challenge and clear out your body and nervous system for a deep long suppported savasana at the end that will leave you feeling pleasantly wrung out, fresh and restored to finish up the winter.

Saturday, February 18, 1:30-3:30
Woodstock Yoga Center
6 Deming Street
Woodstock, NY 12498
$40

845 679-8700