The Heart of the Holiday
Tranquil joys and radiant hearts
November, 2009 - Issue 2
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| Holiday Gift Ideas |
In addition to our great selection of Halfmoon mats, straps, blocks, bags and neti pots we have some exciting new items on order that we are expecting to receive  before Christmas. For those of you looking to tell the world how much you love your Yoga we have great fitting American Apparel T-Shirts coming soon. And finally, we are getting a shipment of kid sized yoga mats with yoga pose illustrations, so little yogis can play and practice with you, or on their own. | |
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| Dear Yogis and Yoginis |
 The excitement of the holiday season is upon us. The most wonderful part of it all being the generosity and good-will that this time of year brings out in every one of us. We are excited to be planning lots of fun holiday events at the studio to foster community, find calm amidst the seasonal excitement and maybe even fill the stocking of that special yogi in your life. In this months newsletter along with studio news we have an article on spreading random acts of Christmas cheer as well as some simple and heath boosting cranberry recipes. Enjoy and have a wonderful Holiday.
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| Holiday Class Schedule |
 There will be a limited holiday schedule of classes from Christmas Eve to the new year. Check out the details on the back of the regular schedule pamphlet or at www.shaktiyogastudio.ca |
Upcoming Workshops
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The January Yoga Cleanse workshop and the February Sun Salutation workshop is for anyone interested in deepening their practice and starting their new year feeling great. Also look forward to a Yoga Birthing Workshop later in the new year.
Let us know if there is an aspect of your yoga practice that you would like to deepen or learn more about. It might become the topic of a future workshop.
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| Karma Yoga on Friday Night |
 The friday night 5:30pm Flow classes will be Karma Classes for the month of December. This means that they will be by donation only (minimum donation of $5). You can save your class passes to use at a later date. Memberships will be extended a day. All proceeds will be used to purchase items that improve the quality of life for families in developing countries. The charity we have chosen for this year is World Vision. We have a catalogue of gifts at the studio that you can look at to see how we will together help to tranform the lives of people who do not experience the comfort and safety we are so fortunate to enjoy here in Canada. You can add your donation to a pool from which we will buy a group gift or you can let us know if you would like to donate a specific amount to purchase a particular gift item from the catalogue on your behalf. Here is the web address to the World Vision catalogue of gifts to give you an idea of how little it takes to make a huge difference in the lives of individuals, families and whole communities. www.worldvision.ca
Why call these classes Karma Classes? Karma Yoga focuses on performing an action without thought of personal gain an d the results help to improve the welfare of the world.
The word Karma is derived from the Sanskrit meaning 'to do'. In its most basic sense karma simply means action, and yoga translates to union. Thus Karma Yoga literally translates into the path of union through action. It is described as a way of acting and thinking by which we develop a sense of connection with the world around us without consideration of our own desires.Karma Yoga is an
intrinsic part of many types of yoga and is in itself a whole school of yoga. |
Heating up the New Year
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Get ready to sweat out your holiday indulgences. Shakti Yoga Studio will be adding a hot Hatha yoga class to the schedule on Sunday mornings from 10:00-11:15am in January.
What are the benefits of adding a hot yoga class to my regular practice?
Fitting a weekly hot class into your regular practice will give your body a chance to detoxify as your skin (your body's largest elimination organ) sweats out the toxins you take in over the week from pollution, processed foods, etc. The extra dilation of the capillaries in the heat also boosts blood flow to the tissues, muscles, and glands, improving circulation and helping your body more effectively remove waste products.
The heat is also a great tonic for your immune system. Occasionally raising your body temperature boosts your body's immunity to germs by improving T- cell functioning (your body does this naturally when you are ill by raising your body temperature to fight infection).
The heat also makes your muscles and connective tissue more elastic, allowing you to safely sink deeper into postures and to improve injury resolution. In most parts of your life your body has to function in room temperature, however, adding an occasional hot class to your regular practice sometimes allows you to make breakthroughs by releasing and opening tight areas. You can then bring this progress into your regular practice and utilize these gains so that they can flow into every aspect of your daily life.
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| Random Gifts of Kindness |
A few years ago, as I was on my way back home from an extended period of yoga study in India I came across an old newspaper article in an airport on a psychology topic that I had studied during my university years. It reminded me of the professor who instructed these courses, a beautiful soul who truly knew how to fuel the creative fires of a student. I realized that while I had known he was a great teacher all those years ago, I had not been mature enough to truly internalize the enormity of the gift that he was passing on to every student that he touched and inspired. Fresh from being immersed in several months of traditional yoga studies, which puts a great amount of emphasis on the debt we owe to each and every teacher in our lives, I felt that this was no random event but something of great meaning. I cut out the article, wrote a heartfelt thanks of an intensity that only someone who had been baring their soul for months on end in an Indian ashram would write. I looked up his name in the phone book, Googled his area code and in less than a few hours the letter was on its way to his home. As being back in the West began to sink in I started to feel a little embarrassed about the intensity of the letter I had written, however I soon forgot about it.
A couple of years later when a yoga teacher was speaking of the sense of gratitude we owe our teachers I was reminded of this letter and described what I had done with some embarrassment still intact. Coincidentally, another student in this class was the daughter-in-law of the professor I had written. Despite my not having said his name, upon hearing my story she exclaimed "so that was you!". She immediately recognized the letter from my description and said that he had received this letter at a particularly difficult time in his life. I was moved to learn that this random, 15-years-late, letter of thanks had come to him at a time when he really needed it. This reminded me of how the
smallest gestures of kindness and recognition are often of more value to the receiver than we will ever know.
As a result of this and other experiences I have slowly come to believe that everyone we cross paths with in this lifetime is there for a reason. Maybe it is so they can enrich our lives or maybe this is our opportunity to enrich their life experience. These interactions are gifts that we are able to give with little or no cost and do not necessarily require us to go far out of our way to do them. Inspired by this memory I compiled a list of free or not-so-expensive gifts that we could do this holiday season to spread the spirit of Christmas. If you think of any other great ideas add them to our blog and do your part to spread a wave of Christmas kindness throughout our city.
1. Write a letter of thanks to someone who has touched your life.
2. Give someone an IOU for baby sitting or some other helpful action that you can provide.
3. Put money in an almost empty meter.
4. Pay for the items of the person behind you in a drive through.
5. Save that parking space next to the mall entrance for someone else.
6. Scrape the ice off the car next to yours or shovel someones driveway.
7. Choose not to pass on any gossip you hear for the rest of the week... the season?
8. Forgive someone.
9. Make a casserole for someone who has a new baby or lives alone.
10. Donate clothes and toys.
11. Pick up some litter.
The possibilities are endless. Act on every single thought of generosity. Try to do one a day from now until Christmas. By then it might be so natural you will be able to effortlessly bring this new habit into the new year.
(The above story is a true incident in the life of myself, Bobby Bessey)
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Cranberries With or Without the Turkey
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The holiday season is a great time to share some cranberry recipes,
as well as a little health information that might have you incorporating these
tart health boosters into the rest of your year. These bright red
berries are mainly used to add a little zest to the Christmas turkey but they
also pack a powerful health punch.
Aside from the great taste, one of
the most exciting reasons to eat lots of cranberries is that they have
anti-aging effects as
a result of the antioxidants that they have in
abundance. Antioxidants help us by
neutralizing free radicals. The body produces free radicals through normal cell function, exposure
to the sun's ultraviolet radiation, tobacco smoke, pollution, etc. It is
thought that many of the effects of aging are caused by the damage caused by
free radicals so eating foods high in antioxidants is one way to avoid these
effects. One particular anti-oxidant found in cranberries, flavonoids, has been shown
to decrease the risk of atherosclerosis which makes this a heart friendly berry
as well.
The
many anti-bacterial properties of this berry have made it an effective natural
remedy for remedy for bladder, urinary tract and other related infections as
well as inhibiting the bacterial growth that causes plaque, cavities and
even stomach ulcers. Other studies have suggested that compounds in this berry are anti-carcinogenic making it a
potential cancer fighting food. The list of health benefits seems to be endless
and if this doesn't make you want to eat cranberries then the following recipes
will.
For those of you who are natives of
Newfoundland
you might be familiar with the cranberry's close relative the partridge berry.
This berry has many of the same health benefits as the cranberry and also
makes yummy tart pies, jam, jelly and
even wine. If you have any of these
local treats in your freezer you can use these instead of cranberries and add
some local flair to your holiday meal.
Basic Cranberry sauce
1 cup sugar 1 cup water 1 (12 oz pkg fresh cranberries)
In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar
with the water and bring to a boil. Add the cranberries and reduce the heat to
a simmer. Cook until the cranberries have burst and the sauce thickens
slightly, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside
to cool completely (the sauce will thicken more as it cools). This makes about
2 3/4 cups cranberry sauce (Reduce sugar if you like a tart sauce and/or use cane sugar which is less refined. You can also add apples for sweetness and reduce the sugar accordingly)
Cranberry Apple Chutney
You can spice up this holiday sauce sauce to make some yummy chutney to go with all your Indian treats, like samosas. I just add some red wine vinegar, 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, a dash of ground cloves and sometimes sauteed onion bits to get that yummy chutney flavour. As above, you can decrease sugar by adding some apples to sweeten the sauce.
Dessert Ideas for Left Over Cranberry Sauce
Fold left over sauce into a slightly softened tub of frozen yogurt to add zest to that dessert or
make a festive parfait by layering cranberry sauce, fresh whipped cream, fresh berries and crumbled up ginger snaps (the health food aisle ginger snaps are the best!).
Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce
Ingredients:
12 oz fresh cranberries Zest of one lemon
1/2 cup pomegranate arils 3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/2 cup light brown sugar 1/4 cup of water
1 cup pomegranate juice
Place the cranberries, pomegranate arils, water, juices, sugar, and zest in a
medium saucepan and stirring occasionally, cook for 20 minutes over medium
high heat to reduce and thicken. Remove from heat. Serve hot or cold.
We have not made this ourselves but are told that the pomegranate seeds stay whole and soften just enough to add a nice texture. We just could not help but include a recipe combining a fruit that is every bit as healthy as cranberries (deserving of it's own article actually). We will both be trying this out ourselves this year.
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We are wishing you wonderful holiday full of love and happiness. Thank you for supporting the studio
in 2009, we look forward to spending the next year with you,
practicing together as a community.
Happy holidays everyone!
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Bobby and Meaghan
www.shaktiyogastudio.ca
info@shaktiyogastudio.ca
722-YOGA (9642)
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