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JOIN OUR LIST
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MORE YOGA FOR LESS DOLLARS
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Re new your pass before it expires and receive free classes! Ask the studio staff for details!This promotion means you'll receive complimentary passes or have your pass extended if you renew it before it expires. No exceptions. - 10 X pass - one extra class for yourself or a friend
- 20 X pass - two extra classes for yourself or a friend
- One Month pass - an extra week for yourself- non transferable
- Six months pass - 2 extra weeks for yourself- non transferable
- One year pass - one extra month for yourself- non transferable
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POSE OF THE MONTH
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SETU BANDHA SARVANGASANA OR
"LITTLE BRIDGE"
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Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose) is a wonderful pose to strengthen your back and stretch the whole front of the body. It also stretches the back of the neck, which prepares you for Shoulderstand. Start on your back with your legs bent, feet on the floor and heels close to your buttocks. With your arms at your side, bend your arms to 90 degrees, your hands facing the ceiling. Lift your pelvis off the floor and roll your shoulders under by rocking slightly from side to side. Interlace your hands and, keeping the arms straight and the wrists pressing down, roll the shoulders under more and lift the trunk higher. Finally, hold a strap stretched around the front of your shins, or hold your ankles. The pose stretches the abdominals, pectorals, and intercostals and is good to do at least three to five times a week. If you're new to Bridge, or if you have a stiff back or chest or an injured lower back or neck, start with a modified version. Lift your tailbone and roll up only until you make a straight line from shoulder to hip to knee. Stay at that level until you are ready to move to the more intense version.  Modified Setu Bandha Sarvangasana Photo: Yoga Journal
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PROUD SUPPORTERS
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Yoga
Studio South is a proud supporter of Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter.
Money raised through Friday Karma Classes at Wellington Square and
other special events enabled us to send them a significant donation over the holiday season.Visit Their Web Site
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YOGA HEAVEN IN MEXICO
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FEBRUARY 28TH TO MARCH 7TH
WITH MARGOT KITCHEN
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 This retreat being run by Margot Kitchen at La Isla in Tepoztlan, about an hour outside Mexico City, is a low key week with plenty of time for yoga and some afternoons for exploring. It is aimed yoga students whose partners have been afraid to come because . . .it's yoga! There is golf and tennis available - and shopping of course! Tepoztlán, about 1,700 meters (5,500 ft) above sea level, is well known for being a spiritual center where energy and mysticism converge. It is a peaceful town of legends and deep cultural roots that has been appreciated by writers, poets, artists and musicians over many decades and centuries. La Isla itself is a lovely retreat centre. The staff is very accommodating and the food is delicious. It will be partly vegetarian, but Margot plans to serve fish and chicken as well. To get more details click here to email Margot |
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NEW TEACHER TRAINING INTAKE
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 Great Start for 2009-10 group!
Co-director Valery Petrich and I are excited to welcome our new Teacher Training group for 2009 - 2010.
What a fantastic group this year, enthusiastic and eager to learn.
We meet approximately every second Friday through the year. They will graduate in about 18 months, becoming confident and professional yoga teachers. As usual, many people joined the program to deepen their personal experience of yoga and acquire life long skills as well as to become certified teachers.
To find out more about the program click here.
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Greetings!
Like Obama, I like my Blackberry. I received a Bluetooth for Christmas and a GPS for my birthday. Still, I often struggle between the conflict in  mainstream values and the teachings of Yoga and yogis like Eckhart Tolle. Between multi-tasking and the quiet mind, between busyness and silence, between a world in conflict and the knowledge that our deepest needs are all the same - for deep and lasting personal peace. A recent article in the journal, Science, heightened my concerns with research showing our exposure to the Internet, to video games and other visual media is weakening our skills in critical thinking and analysis - let alone allowing quiet minds. Patricia Greenfield, who wrote the article, said reading for pleasure - which enhances thinking, imagination, induction, reflection and vocabulary - has declined, although visual skills have improved. The visual media is not going away, but we can balance our lives with yoga, which calls for concentration, meditation and greater awareness of the body we live in. Which is why more and more people are turning to it as one-stop shopping for health and balance. If you want to look at the news release about Greenfield's work click here. If you want to let me know what you think please email me here. I hope you enjoy this newsletter and please let me have your ideas for next month! Namaste,  
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Students of the Month
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Paul and Sheila Chow
Retired dentist Paul Chow and his wife, Sheila, first started coming to yoga about 10 years ago at the former Yoga Centre on 12 Avenue SW., where many of us in Calgary began our yoga journeys. But it wasn't until a few years ago, when Paul retired, that they started coming four or five times a week to Yoga Studio South.
Like many dentists, Paul, noticed that leaning over patients all day was ruining his posture and he realized that Iyengar Yoga was the best remedy. Besides, he and Sheila love to do ballroom dancing, and yoga helps with their balance, control, body awareness and concentration, Sheila says. "It helps me relax and focus."
For Paul, the additional benefits he sees are core strength and overall health. "When I was sick with the flu it would last a couple of weeks. Now it is gone in a few days and I don't get sick so often anymore," he says.
It has helped Paul with the transition from work to retirement. "Now, if we don't do yoga each day, we feel something is missing," Paul says.
Congratulations to Paul and Sheila for setting an example for us all.
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Teacher of the Month
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Tom King
"Yoga has changed my life"
It is a pleasure to step into any of Tom King's classes and experience his dedication and enthusiasm for his teaching.
He began the three-times-a-week early morning classes at Wellington Square in September and has built up a solid core of early risers, who speak keenly of his teaching.
"Tom is great," says one student evaluation. "Tom has a human approach to teaching," says another.
Many students who regularly come to morning classes have found that they now get up spontaneously earlier in the morning. They tell Tom that the morning class gives them a boost throughout the day since their body and mind is fully awake by the time they get to work. After the first few classes, they become accustomed to the shift in time and their daily routine adjusts accordingly. "For myself, I enjoy teaching the earlier morning classes as the classes are smaller and the students are just starting the day so everyone is still fresh and rested from night."
"Iyengar Yoga has fundamentally changed the way that I live my life and I have a boundless respect and appreciation for B.K.S. Iyengar and the gift that he has given to the world and to me," he says. "Following his method, my teachers have shown me how to align my body and my emotions, how to move in specific ways to improve my posture, and how to breathe with more awareness."
"Teaching Iyengar yoga is a way to share with others, to pass on my own limited understanding of its profound wisdom.
"When I first started yoga, I noticed that my body was improving, I was a little more flexible and my daily activities flowed more smoothly. Later, I noticed that I was calmer and that I had better attention and less fatigue during my day."
Congratulations Tom. You are an inspiration!
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Does Iyengar Yoga Really Work?
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Cheryl's Experience
One of the questions that may cross your mind from time to time is: Is Iyengar Yoga really that amazing as a therapy for injuries and health problems?
So it is always nice to hear another anecdote about the miracle of Iyengar Yoga. One of my private students with knee problems sent me this email out of the blue recently.
"Since my private sessions a couple of months ago, I actually hadn't been spending too much time working on my knee. I finally got really motivated when
A student with knee problems
doing a therapeutic hero pose
my husband took our kids skiing a couple of weeks ago, and I couldn't join them. Since then I've been working on some of the postures you recommended, and my range of motion has been improving very steadily. It's actually quite remarkable; I can do lotus once again, and bakasana is no problem. I'm going to continue working at it, and hopefully I'll be hitting the slopes and will be back into a more regular practice before I know it." - Cheryl
Some other links to research on the benefits of Iyengar Yoga:
and for further research results: click here
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UPCOMING WORKSHOP WITH MARGOT KITCHEN
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Backbends for everyone from beginners to intermediates
Coming this Saturday 1-4 pm at Wellington Square is another exciting workshop with inspiring senior Iyengar teacher Margot Kitchen!
Her last workshop in January on inversions was a huge success with more than 35 people participating.
This one is a progressive workshop covering beginner to intermediate backbends including preparatory stages, modifications and precautions for all teachers and students. This is the second workshop in a series of three. The next, on May 2, features Forward Bends and Twists.To register click here or call 403 228 5808
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OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU - EMPOWER YOUR BEST
At
Yoga Studio South we are working hard to Empower Your Best in Yoga. Our
warm, friendly studios are staffed by encouraging, supportive
teachers who will safely guide you through small classes designed for
every level and expectation -- gently empowering you to become the best
possible version of yourself.This is the true gift of yoga -- and when
you experience it, you'll
feel better and shine more brightly than you ever have.
Rob Walker
Yoga Studio South |
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