Sangati August 2009 Newsletter

Dear Friends of Sangati Yoga and Massage,

It has been a wonderfully full summer of yoga and massage. In these last weeks of summer, may we enjoy the warmth, humidity and sunny days to the fullest expression!

Team Sangati rode their bicycles in the “24 Hours of Booty” with Sarah, Justin and Jen Jordan. We raised nearly $1000 for cancer research. The party was lots of fun and we plan to expand the ride and the fun next year so mark it on your calendars!

Michele is offering Thai Massage for a low summer price of $60 for one hour. Thai Massage feels like someone is doing your yoga for you. Also, we offer 20% off for all new massage clients. Call Sangati to make an appointment.

Hold on to your hats! Sangati is on Facebook. Become a fan, start a discussion group and check out the pictures and upcoming events.

We have several fun workshops coming up. First, the NC Retreat, aka Summer Camp for Yogins, is going to be a beautiful, refreshing weekend of expanding our regional communities of North and South Carolina with each other. There is a beautiful synergy when we all come together, in larger numbers that re-inspires us all to our own individuals practices, paths and lives.

Check out these other awesome opportunities as well:

• Brooks and two life-coaches are teaming up for a 3-hour workshop called Facing Fear with Fierce Courage including, contemplation, journaling, and yoga on August 28, 5:30-8:30pm.
• Allison, Lindsay, and Michele are offering a Hip Opener workshop, including massage techniques and yoga poses, on Saturday, August 29, 1-3pm.
• Sangati is teaming up with the Karma Krew to host a book club on Sunday, August 30, 6:30-8pm. We will discuss “Three Cups of Tea” and take donations for Pennies for Peace, so bring all your loose change or a donation. Pennies for Peace is the author’s non-profit organization, established to help start and sustain new schools in regions of the world that could use our help.
• Sarah is teaching a Hip Opener workshop September 13th.

To sign up for any of our workshops, please come by the studio or send in payment and registration to secure your spot.

Fall is just around the corner and we are gearing up to have a full schedule of classes and other offerings. Come check us out! Our name Sangati means “endearing community”. . . and we are growing every month!

If you are a student who wants to know more about the multi-layered path of yoga, the 2009-2010 Anusara Yoga Immersion is perfect for you. Please feel free to email or call Sarah to talk more about the in-depth program including the alignment principles broken down, building the poses from basics through towards all the poses on the levels 1 and 2 syllabi, philosophy, breathing practices, anatomy, energy healing, meditation and more.

We are sending you all love and laughter, and thanks for being a part of our wonderful studio.

Traffic Signs

Yield, Stop, Merge, No Left Turn. Green, yellow, red lights. You
have to pay attention. Shakti, the Creative Power of the universe,
is always leading us. Are we paying attention? Are we blasting
through stop signs?

Are we pausing to wait for the light to turn green? We are free to
choose, but there are consequences if we don't follow the signs
a traffic ticket, or worse getting hurt or someone else getting hurt.
If we do follow the signs and welcome the pauses, we can flow with
Shakti effortlessly and masterfully.

April 2009 Newsletter

Embody Your Spirit This April.

What does "Ultimate Freedom" mean? In the yoga world you will get many different answers to this question. It is a spiritual question that all seekers may ask themselves. From the most modern yoga perspective, we are born free. Yet, we don't always experience ourselves as innately free. So, we practice and study ourselves to gain liberation. We also practice yoga to remember our innate freedom, svatantrya. When we recall our free nature, then we practice in light of our freedom, and we celebrate the spirit in the body-mind-heart each of us finds ourselves in. We celebrate the embodiment of the spirit in our poses together. When we come together, honoring the spirit embodied, gratitude abounds in our hearts. In gratitude for this opportunity to experience the divine in ourselves and others, we shine our deepest nature outwards, into the world in our own unique ways.

*John Friend* will be in North Carolina this month. Our community will have such a wonderful time together joining a greater community of the Carolinas. Though the deadlines have passed for the trainings, you can still fill out an application on www.anusara.com to see if there is any more room for the various events. We always have a wonderful time together whenever we get together for such a grand celebration of the spirit and embodiment through yoga, with each other. John Friend names his tour each year. This year, he calls his tour of the country andthe world, "Ultimate Freedom."

We have the first of a series of *massage-yoga workshops*, "Body is a Wonderland." It is for you and a friend or come by yourself and we will pair you up. Space is limited to only 16 students so sign up soon! Footloose is our first one:yoga and massage for the feet, April 25th.

Mark your calendars! In May, we will offer our first *Free week* ever! Here's how it works: Come to 3 free classes for the week of **May 1-7** if you *bring a NEW friend to yoga.* What better time to share something you love with a friend you care about. How can you help to make our world and Charlotte and your smaller circle of friends and family a brighter community? One of the best things we can do is practice yoga, being loving, appreciating what and who we have in our lives, getting stronger and more flexible in body and mind. Share our special community with the ones you love and new friends alike. New students can come with you or on their own. They (and you if you bring a new friend each time) can come up to 3 times during the week for FREE! Check our May calendar for new classes in May.

March rains....Spring *Gratitude*. What a wonderful March we had with such rich offerings from our Sangati teachers! Thanks to Kellie, Elizabeth, Brooks and Sarah for their heart-opening teachings at the Yoga Jam! Thanks to Kellie and Gary from Asana Activewear for putting on such a heart-filled and seamless event that they hosted. Check out their store for the best yoga clothes selection in the southeast, www.asanaactivewear.com. Allison and Kellie lit up new students in their Intro to Yoga workshop. Brooks set students' practices aflame in her workshop last Saturday. Congratulations to all who attended! Speaking of Spring, have you noticed our edible garden blooming at the side of the yoga studio? Check it out!

Spring Love, Sangati

March 2009 Newsletter

Happy March!

Welcome back to the swing of life after the holidays and January resolutions. Do you remember what your resolutions are? Each month, we can reassess our intentions and goals, spiritual and otherwise. Yoga takes us even deeper, as it offers us in every moment an opportunity to reflect, recognize and create anew.

When we engage our spiritual intentions, we live meaningful lives. If we find ourselves in a life-threatening situation, our will-to-be blazes, and all our energy is dedicated to the objective at hand: survival. For most of us, most of the time, our lives do not often require this sense of urgency, yet we may act as if it does. When someone asks how you are, is your response “surviving”, “making it through the day”, or “getting by”? If so, how do you make the leap from “getting by” to living? A better question is: How do you make the leap to living well? I mean “well” not as a cushy, catered existence but rather a continually cultivated skill set for living a full, rich life.

There is a sequence of steps to living a fulfilling life. The sequence is essentially:

1. Set your intention.
2. Align to your intention.
3. Create actions, words and thoughts in support of your intention.

This sequence comes from what we call the three A’s in Anusara Yoga. The 3 A’s are Attitude, Alignment and Action. Because the 3 A’s are universal, we can apply them to any venture, any intention in our lives. If you are going to set an intention and devote energy towards it, you will want to make it a good one. Won’t you? Being conscious, aware, and present allows us to live rather than to merely survive. Regularly practicing our awareness allows us to live well, as opposed to merely living.

How Obama is Like Krishna
November 8, 2008

I wrote this during election time, 2008...
I couldn’t stop thinking of the Bhagavad Gita all week. It is the focused and far-reaching gaze of our new President-elect. And that he embodies Krishna qualities in all he appears to be. It isn’t that I put all my hopes and dreams into the chosen one person to save the day. Instead, it is that finally there is a president meant to represent Americans who thinks issues through, and then eloquently and concisely states what he will do. He’s not a vessel I am pouring all my hopes into nor is he the savior that I am waiting for. I am relieved, proud, happy to know there is someone in the office who also hopes, dreams, who has the highest goals and values in mind and heart for our country. This is not just a tall glass of water to drink for being thirsty. This is a revolution in time of a great man beyond politics and potentially a truly great president. I am as excited about our future as a nation as I am about engaging in and expanding the light of consciousness in my heart and helping others recognize and come to know their light. I feel there is a leader that I align with as he leads from the shining light within. That’s more than Ahhhhh-of-a-quenched-thirst, it’s the sustaining nourishment our country yearns for now.

In the first chapter of The Bhagavad Gita, Krishna takes Arjuna, the feared archer and unslayable warrior to the middle of the battlefield upon his request. When Arjuna looks out to both sides of the field, he sees teachers, fathers, sons, and others. Arjuna immediately realizes the atrocity of war and slumps into his chariot seat in despair: the famed archer is paralyzed. Krishna admonishes Arjuna in the next chapter and tells him that great men do not despair. Upon my first reading of the Gita, this response utterly threw me. I had a visceral and conflicted inner dialogue. How can this be? Krishna, who is the Lord in this story--God--is actually telling a soldier to stand up and fight, to kill, to destroy life. I thought surely Krishna would tell Arjuna that he had evolved in this new understanding, that he saw now the pointlessness of war. But, no, “Whence this lifeless dejection, Arjuna? Be a man…” is the Lord’s first verbal response in this world famous story. Later I learned more about this scripture that inspires countless spiritual seekers from all paths. All diplomacy has been exhausted and the enemy is much like a terrorist faction. Krishna says that righteous men must overcome evil. They must never lose hope. Krishna is a visionary, instilling hope and confidence in the most capable of men, even in their deepest despair.

Barack Obama has instilled new hope in millions of people from all walks of life, all over the world. His poise and graceful eloquence is embodied in a tireless, steadfast and shining representation of president-elect. He is calm and collected even in the face of slander and threats on his life. Krishna teaches Arjuna that the spirit never dies. If Arjuna won’t stand for what is good and true in the world, who will? If there is a man with vision of goodness, the wherewithal to attempt and possibly achieve the vision, and the vigor and tenacity to carry it out, who else should lead us? The charisma to inspire others to stand up for goodness is a rare gift. In the end, Arjuna’s despair is quelled and he enters battle never having felt more purpose in fulfilling his dharma, his duty in this life. Arjuna is that great seeker who at the darkest place, in the deepest doubts, he is called out, admonished, called to rise, encouraged, loved by God. Krishna never gives up in guiding Arjuna back to his greatness and urges him to serve good. May Obama lead as intuitively and wisely as he orates and inspires us.

February 2009 Newsletter

Sangati, A Community of the Heart February 2009 Newsletter

Happy February! Welcome back to the swing of life after the holidays and January resolutions. Do you remember what your resolutions are? Each month, we can reassess our intentions and goals, spiritual and otherwise. Yoga takes us even deeper, as it offers us in every moment an opportunity to reflect, recognize and create anew. When we engage our spiritual intentions, we live meaningful lives.
If we find ourselves in a life-threatening situation, our will-to-be blazes, and all our energy is dedicated to the objective at hand: survival. For most of us, most of the time, our lives do not often require this sense of urgency, yet we may act as if it does. When someone asks how you are, is your response “surviving”, “making it through the day”, or “getting by”? If so, how do you make the leap from “getting by” to living? A better question is: How do you make the leap to living well? I mean “well” not as a cushy, catered existence but rather a continually cultivated skill set for living a full, rich life.
There is a sequence of steps to living a fulfilling life. The sequence is essentially:
1. Set your intention.
2. Align to your intention.
3. Create actions, words and thoughts in support of your intention.
This sequence comes from what we call the three A’s in Anusara Yoga. The 3 A’s are Attitude, Alignment and Action. Because the 3 A’s are universal, we can apply them to any venture, any intention in our lives. If you are going to set an intention and devote energy towards it, you will want to make it a good one. Won’t you?
Being conscious, aware, and present allows us to live rather than to merely survive. Regularly practicing our awareness allows us to live well, as opposed to merely living.

Join Sangati this February, align with your heart’s highest intentions.

February 25, 7:30-8:30 Aligning with Your Intention
February 21-22 Douglas Brooks is back again offering exquisite spiritual teachings.
February 19-22 Immerse yourself in yoga studies from the Shivasutras, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the Universal Principles of Alignment, loops and spirals, principles of the shoulders and hips, meditation instruction, the essential elements of Tantric philosophy. and more. The immersion is open to students of all levels of experience. The only requirements are to have an open mind and 30 hours of Anusara yoga studies.

Welcome to my blog.