“Come, embark on a transformational journey into the practical and esoteric lifeways of the Andean Altomisayoqs. A path noted by expansion, challenge, patience, fulfillment and spiritual comprehension
beyond the entrapments of personal trauma and drama; human suffering.
Participants will learn the tradition’s heart-based wisdom from Jeffrey Wium, one of its few active members. In addition to his Altomisayoq training, Jeffrey’s western upbringing enables him to effectively bridge ancient and modern culture by ‘walking between worlds’ on a day-to-day basis and communicating in an easily accessible language to serve culturally diverse audiences and clientele.
Join us in Stouffville, Ontario to awaken what is already yours and reweave a holistic consciousness largely forgotten by industrialized culture.”
ONE-DAY PROGRAM FOR HEALTH PRACTITIONERS, STUDENTS & TEACHERS
THURSDAY, 9 DECEMBER 2010
(Learning to integrate conscious principles to elevate your work and reduce personal impacts) Time: 9:00 ~ 16:00 hrs.
Fee: $150 US (Advance registration and payment required) Please bring your lunch and any needed snacks.
18 McCowan Lane, Stouffville, Ontario L4A 7X5
For more information please contact Karen Dermody [email protected] Telephone 905 642 2600
For continuing programs & Andean Pilgrimage go to theheartofthematter.eu
Yoga Source’s Teachers’ Training is one of the region’s newest and most prominent courses, recognized for its non-dogmatic approach and spirited method. This unique teacher training programme draws on a range of teachings and yogic traditions to encourage students and aspiring teachers to find their own voice and inspiration in this evolving practice.
In this course, students explore a practical and theoretical syllabus that covers not only asanas but meditation, anatomy, nutrition, philosophy, ethics, and various teaching methods and techniques. The teachers’ training is structured to give prospective yoga teachers a solid grounding in the various postures and practices of hatha yoga as well as basic insight into some of the major eastern sources of yoga knowledge and their modern significance. Students will develop basic insight into the anatomy, physiology and movement potential of the human body and as students are expected to teach and be students simultaneously, strength and insight is developed throughout the programme.
Yoga Source’s Teacher Training is a comprehensive training programme for students who have been practising yoga for at least 2 years and who wish to become teachers. This course is also open for students who simply wish to deepen their practice and learn more about themselves as yogis or yoginis. Each weekend is a progressive, integrating practice over the course of eight months to a year. The training is an ongoing conversation and students develop lasting relationships within the yoga community and are able to take advantage of a small and consistent teaching staff.
This course was introduced in 2008 and is registered with the Yoga Alliance at the 200-hour level. Fees are kept as low as possible but do remain consistent with being able to offer teaching from the region’s best specialists in their respective fields.
We are proud of our graduates, and many have gone on to teach or open their own studios.
Meditation
Meditation is being credited with having many benefits – reducing stress and anxiety, increasing concentration and creativity, improving self-regulation, achieving enlightenment…
Meditating with a group helps us deepen our personal practices, whatever our reason for meditating may be.Suitable for beginners. Non-denominational. Chairs and bolsters available.
Starts: Sunday, September 12 from 9-9:45am
Payment by donation to various local charities.
Want to "Relax" like a cat.
“I came to Yoga Source to heal a chronic pain condition that no other medical treatment had successfully corrected. 40 days and 800 downward dogs later, I’m thrilled to say that the pain has subsided – and my life has changed for the better. Yoga is the ultimate tune-up for your body. My thanks to the fabulous Yoga Source instructors and Theresa Gagnon for helping me achieve my goals and find my balance. The universe provides!”
Before starting to take yoga classes, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with some of the things a regular practice can do for you. You’ll hear lots of claims from lots of people: from those who just feel better physically, mentally and/or emotionally when they do yoga, to those who say they’ve been cured of specific problems from back pain to cancer. But what can you expect?
At its most basic level, hatha yoga is a physical practice that concentrates on maintaining and deepening the breath while flexing, extending and rotating the musculoskeletal system through a series of mindful exercises. These exercises are recognized as a safe and effective means of:
1) Increasing flexibility and ease of motion
Although a student may feel that a particular asana or yoga pose works on just one or two joints and/or muscle groups, the practice involves the entire body and its benefits are eventually felt throughout.
2) Improving cardiac and respiratory function
Yoga creates an awareness of breath and breathing and allows the student to deepen the breath and gradually increase lung capacity without straining. A regular practice can increase circulation, reduce the resting heart rate and improve aerobic capacity (VO2 Max).
3) Reducing stress and physical tension
Yoga is a recognized means of invoking the so-called relaxation response, “ a physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to stress… and the opposite of the fight or flight response.” A regular practice calms the nervous system and creates an awareness of the build-up of tension and an ability to consciously release it.
4) Promoting health
There are a lot of scientific studies whose results show that practicing yoga can lead to improvements in key indicators of health including body weight, coordination, reaction time, memory, blood pressure and levels of chemicals in the body such as blood sugar, cortisol, adrenaline and serotonin.
5) Detoxifying
By gently stretching and twisting the musculoskeletal system yoga massages all the internal organs thus increasing the circulation of blood and lymph and helping to flush toxins from the body.
Yoga students report that practicing regularly has helped them in a lot of other ways too including:
• More restful sleep
• Improved balance
• Increased self-esteem
• A sharper mind
• A reduced need for prescription and over-the-counter drugs
• Generally improved quality of life
• A new spiritual awareness
Have you ever considered shaving your head bald???? At 56 years of age, working in a professional world, I did it …. because I could.
Shaving your head is the breeziest feeling ever. And it really simplifies life BUT the simple shaving of one’s head brings forth a myriad of feelings.
- it feels both really normal and really weird
- really silly and really brave
- so important and so trivial
- insecure and secure, knowing who I am and not having a clue who I am
- joyous and teary
- beautiful and not so much
I feel honored to have done this. It has humbled me. To feel what it is like to look different than the people around me and be looked at like there is something wrong. This is humbling and I will never look at someone who is different with the same eyes again. Here is what I have learned …. so far ….
- Life (and hair) changes fast. Don’t get hung up on the moment. Live the moment and it will surely change.
- Escape judging of others by just seeing them for who they are regardless of how they look.
- If you feel concern for someone, don’t beat around the bush, just as directly “Are you OK”.
Would I do it again, oh yes, in a heart beat.
Faye Blondin
After a three year lapse in my practice, I returned to yoga on November 25th. My goal was to attend class 4 or 5 times a week and find some serenity and strength. Little did I know that five weeks later I would begin The Challenge.
On January 2nd I went in for my 10am class and was asked if I was doing The Challenge. I had a solid list of reasons why I couldn’t: childcare, schedules and life in general. Once in the class, Theresa asks who’s doing the challenge and says “you’re doing it right, Emily?”, to which I replied “I think you just talked me into it”.
So the 40 days began…and I have found myself at weekend classes I have never attended before. I have enjoyed the diverse teaching styles of three new instructors in five days. Each day another posture that was a challenge or impossible the day before becomes easier to do. My goal at the end of 40 days isn’t to take a break or relish in my fabulous 1 year membership. At the end of 40 days I will be able to do a headstand: the most overwhelming and challenging posture I have encountered to date.
Each day a new section of my body speaks to me. From my back to my legs to my abs…to those intercostal muscles just below the collar bone. Today is only Day 6 and I have never felt stronger, happier or more alive. I can only imagine what Day 40 will hold!
It’s that time of year again when we dredge up the resolutions – usually the same ones we’ve been making for years – and try all over again to lose the extra pounds, quit smoking, exercise more, etc. If you signed on to a pledge like this at the stroke of midnight on December 31, I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that you’ve either fallen off the wagon by now or will do so very soon, and then you’ll have to go through it all over again next year. They’re all worthy goals and succeeding at just one of them would make you feel great but why is it that we have to keep repeating them like an endless Groundhog Day sequel? Perhaps there’s an alternative…
The first of the eight limbs of Classical Yoga consists of five Yamas, or ethical precepts, and the first of these is ahimsa, non-harming or non-violence. It came as a revelation to me a few years ago when a beloved yoga teacher pointed out that we should practise ahimsa towards ourselves as well as to others. That was in the context of the asanas (physical postures) and gave me the permission I needed to set my own limits and stop hurting myself in class as I struggled to make my body conform. It was a great relief and my yoga practice improved significantly because of it. Since then, I’ve extended the philosophy of ahimsa to other areas of my life and this year it occurred to me that it might apply to the New Year’s Resolution conundrum.
The resolutions we make don’t usually spring from a positive source but are reflections of our negative perceptions of ourselves. Perhaps that’s why they’re so hard to keep. When we make them we hope – albeit subconsciously – that if we’re thinner, look better, don’t smoke or whatever, our lives will be magically transformed, but deep down inside we know that’s not true. Then when the resolutions are broken and our good intentions fall by the wayside we feel even worse about ourselves than we did before and we probably pig out or have another cigarette as a result!
This year I’m trying a different approach. Rather than resolving to change the things I don’t like about myself, something that’s always ended up being harmful in the past, I’ve resolved to be less critical of myself. If I can do that I’ll be practising ahimsa towards myself and I think I might find that I don’t need the things I usually make resolutions about: the guilty chocolate binge or the extra glass of red wine I knew I didn’t want when I asked for it. I hope that by learning to accept and like myself as I am I’ll be stronger, more confident and more able to help myself and other people.
So how about it? It’s not too late to modify your resolution to recognize the positive things about you rather than concentrating on the negative. Why not try choosing ahmisa for yourself and post a comment to let me know how it works?
