When I first started to commit more fully to my yoga practice, I was enamored by challenging Vinyasa-style classes. I couldn’t imagine staying in a single posture for 5 plus minutes while exerting absolutely no physical energy.

At this point in my yoga life, I consider gentle and restorative yoga classes to be extra sweet treats I give myself as often as possible. I think Meredith May, a staff writer at the San Francisco Chronicle described restorative yoga beautifully when she said:

“The point is not to stretch but to relax, turn inward and stop thinking. Practitioners use props such as blocks, bolsters, pillows and blankets to build forts they can lean or lie on. Falling asleep is allowed.”

The American lifestyle rarely includes time for relaxation, which is something that offers incredible mental, physical, and emotional benefits. I understand that for many finding time to exercise is challenging enough, let alone time to relax and decompress. If that’s your situation right now, perhaps you might consider committing to just one mellow class per month. While it might not seem like a lot, this class might become something that you look forward to and something that helps reduce your headaches or ease your back pain.

For more information on restorative yoga, check out the article from the San Francisco Chronicle mentioned above by clicking on the link below. –Michelle Laxton

(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/18/DDDE1BDCLK.DTL)

The physical challenge of my yoga practice keeps me present. When my muscles are firing off and I’m working hard to balance or find a new degree of flexibility, my mind becomes more focused and the stresses of my day are nowhere to be found. While some yogis feel arms balances like side crow, and full inversions like handstand, take them out of their peaceful space, I find that they offer me a rarely achieved sense of grounding.

If you haven’t yet tried these advanced postures and believe that you have a mind best quieted through physical challenge, you may want to try a Hatha II or Vinyasa Flow II class. In these classes, your instructor will teach you, step-by-step, how to work into asanas like headstand and crow pose. While these poses might appear suitable only for gymnasts and Cirque du Soleil performers, they really just require a little bit of strength and a good bit of courage. If you put trust in yourself and in your teacher, and release your expectations, these poses are incredibly achievable.

The comments I love hearing most from students are: “I can’t believe I did that!”; and “That was the first time I was able to balance in X pose!” Yoga can offer us more peaceful minds and at the same time, it can provide us newfound confidence and a child-like playfulness. Balancing on your hands, flipping upside down, and even tumbling to the ground can be a whole lot of fun. — Michelle Laxton

Quickly the holidays arrived and quickly they flew by. We’ve entered into a new year and with this fresh start we’re offered an opportunity to consider our current lives and set intentions for the future.

Each year I set the same intention: to breath deeply. It’s something I don’t do enough and something that is tremendously beneficial to my health. Every time I turn on my cell phone, I see my opening message, “Breath deeply”, and I do just that. When I wake up in the morning and brush my teeth, I read “Breath deeply” on a note posted on my bathroom mirror and I do just that. As I see it, I take an absolute minimum of four deep breaths each day thanks to my intention and feel much better for it.

I am particularly fond of this intention because there is no option to fail. I succeed constantly by reading these little reminders and taking big belly breaths. My intention makes me feel good and is 100% positive. If you don’t have an intention this year maybe you’d like to take a few extra deep breaths each day or a few extra smiles. You’re success is guaranteed. –Michelle Laxton

In most classes we use the syllable OM to begin and end each class, but what does this actually mean, and why has this become a Yogic tradition?

As in most Eastern thought, an idea cannot merely be thought of; to truly be known it must be experienced as well.  Sanskrit is an experiencial language meaning that woven into the technology of the language is the actual physical, mental and emotional experience of that linguistic concept-symbol that is being uttered.  Unfortunatley for most modern humans our ability to sense the subtleties inherent within mystical practices and traditions such as sacred language, sound and geometry has become atrophied.  According to Hazrat Inayat Kahn, a Sufi teacher and mystic, once we have been made aware of our limitations of perception, this is where the opening to our true sense of knowledge can begin.

OM is a great place to start.

OM is broken down into four parts:

(HU) -A -U-Mmmm.

HU = Spirit;  A = The Infinite Energy / the Divine;  U = the transmission of the Infinite Energy; M = the containment / embodiment of the Infinite Energy.  The resonant mmmmm at the end is the resonant vibration and expression of the Infinite Energy within its embodiment.

A (Divine) > U (transmission) > M (embodiment)…..mmmm (expression, life, human).

The utterance of OM is a recognition of the embodiment of Infinite Energy that resides in each of us.  It is also the pure experience of the embodiment of this energy, and the mmmmm fills us and moves through us.  Don’t take my word for it, try and see .

It can be thought in this way:  The “A” is hot water; the “U” is the pouring of the water into a bottle; the “M” is the containment of the water within the bottle and putting the stopper on; the “mmmmm” is the feeling of heat emanating from the bottle.

Then if we were to hold this bottle, we could not say that it is the bottle that is hot, but the water within that is the source of the heat.

We can also experience this in our Yoga postures.  The “A” is the beginning, the setting of the foundation, The “U” is getting into the posture, the “M” is the full expression of the posture and the natural ending of it, and the “mmmmmm” is the blissful experience resonating in our body-mind shortly after coming out of the posture.

This finally brings us to our Human-ness.

“Hu”  = spirit;  “Man” = mind / consciousness (“manas” from sanskrit)

Human = Divine Consciousness; and expression of the Infinite Energy

Another way of looking at this is that human-ness is the way through which God knows itself.

By chanting OM or gazing at the sacred symbol we are acknowledging that we are indeed an embodiment of the Divine Light and Energy that both contains  and permeates all of existence.  We exist in OM and OM exists within us.

Hope this enlightens your New Year!

Peace and Love,

Joshua Graner