Dear Good Life Yogi:

It’s holiday time and this year I wanted to offer you a gift of a practice.  At the end of this note, you will find a holiday practice intended to harness and enjoy the sentiments of this special season.  Joy.  Peace.  Love.  This triad is your birthright.  Celebrate them on the mat over the next weeks.

If you’ve never tried a home practice, please just trust yourself.  You’ve done these poses many times.  When you practice at home, you may be by yourself, but you are never alone.  Connect in to your heart and you will find me and your mat mates all around you. Tap into their strengths; tap into their humor their support.  Feel their smiles, see their own challenges and celebrate the season together – in the heart. 

Also here is a meditation intended to offer the brightest light of yourself to your loved ones.  Give the gift of your full presence.  Enjoy both offerings.

You are the reason there is Good Life Yoga.  Your dedication, your spirit, your thirst for learning and your joy in the journey are the hallmarks of a great yoga community.  Together you uplift and support one another – whether that’s in assisting your mat mate with their backbend – or offering them a well intentioned hug and deep wisdom from your own life experience.  May my gift to you brighten your day and lighten your heart.   Joy. Peace and Love.  It’s all Good.

Many bright blessings for an amazing year ahead,

Amber Huttner, Owner

Good Life Yoga

Click on this link:

Holiday-Practice-2009

Ishvara Pranidhana – Devotion to the Light

The Winter Solstice is occurs on December 21 at 11:47 am CST.  Right before lunch on this day, take time to turn inside and honor the Light in your heart.  Surrender to its goodness and beauty and know it as love, peace and joy.

The last Niyama is this devotional practice of honoring and glorifying the One who lives as you in your heart.  Our Anusara yoga practice is at its very essence a practice of Ishvara Pranidhana.  How many times have you heard, “Align with the Divine”?  Stepping up and into the flow of the divine is a keystone of Anusara’s philosophy.  We remember our goodness, we celebrate our beauty; we choose to surrender any notion that we are not this amazing, exceptional spirit living as a human.  We give up holding on to our doubts and misconceptions.  We choose alignment with this ultimate supreme consciousness.  And consequently, we serve from the highest good of ourselves.  From this dedication and devotion, love, peace and joy naturally arise.  Light unfolds, beauty and goodness ensue.  Why wouldn’t we want to cultivate more of that?

Step on the mat this busy short week and dedicate your practice to serving the highest good of yourself.   Think how the world will shine.

Brahmacharya – Moderation

The fourth of the Yamas, Brahmacharya was originally described as celibacy.  Back in the day, only young men were instructed in the practices of yoga and the idea was to harness their sexual energy and dedicate it solely to the practice.  This is not practical today.  And had it really worked, we wouldn’t be here!

Tantra yogis consider Brahmacharya as an observance of moderation and integrity– staying focused on the middle ground and cultivating quality relationships of all types.  Tantra yogis do not deny or hold back sexual energy, but rather look to offer it with integrity.  We practice building trustworthy and quality relationships with our selves and others.  Practicing Brahmacharya cultivates peace and contentment not anxiety and distress.   

On the mat we practice Brahmacharya by consistently looking for a balance – a place in the middle where we are attentive, focused and satisfied that what we are doing is serving the whole.   Integrity in a pose speaks to the quality and depth of fullness.  We don’t pretend our bodies can do a pose they really can’t.  We stay focused on building quality not excess that does not serve the whole.

Off the mat, we are met and currently challenged in the season of excess with offerings of food, late evenings, and more demands    Practice Brahmacharya this season and stay focused on integrity and moderation.  Challenge your relationships, your participations, your food, drink and expectations to the scrutiny of Brahmacharya. Together we will stay focused on the quality of the season and not its excesses.

Expect some balance poses and the opportunity to stay connected when moving from one pose to another.  Look for some formal breathwork as well. 

 Svadhyaya:  The Study of the Self

The fourth of the Niyamas (observances), Svadhyaya challenges us to look deeply into the nature of our self.  Imagine looking into a mirror and clearly seeing everything about yourself.  You’ll notice that you’ll need a lot of compassion.  When we don’t take along compassion, we are blocked from truly seeing the beauty and goodness of our Self.  So, let go, as best you can; refrain from judgment and stay in an observation mode.  This is our intention, or attitude; to stay open and free from self-limiting patterns.

Secondly, in order to identify everything you see in the mirror, you have to know where it’s all at.  You literally, have to collect yourself; set it in a way where you can clearly observe.  This is alignment.  We move all of our parts in such a way that they are accounted for.  On the mat, we practice ‘seeing’ from inside where all of our physical parts are. 

Thirdly, we accept there will be moments of deep clarity and moments of deep obscurity.   In this one breath I understand, in the next, not so much.  We study the Self to lengthen the time of clarity.  But we accept there is a pulsation to the level and quality of our understanding. This is to be expected.  You are after all, a limitless being who has chosen to reside in a limited reality within a limited physical self.  So, you literally know everything and have limited yourself to knowing only so much right now.  How much fun is that?  Complete fun and confounding.   Svadhyaya, the study of the Self, is an on-going, passionate art of recognition.  We find joy in knowing and joy in not knowing.  I know where my feet are, now what was I just thinking?  I know what I was thinking, but where are my feet again?  Wow, there’s humor here.  I am totally amazing, funny and at times I have no idea what’s going on but I do  know this:  it’s all Good.  At Good Life Yoga this week we joyfully practice the art of alignment and observation.  Get set to find your feet, and then to lose them again….:)