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April
Blossoms and Bunnies April 2012 |
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| Shakti News! | |
Online Payment
Now Available! Skip the line-up at the front desk and pick up your passes online
Torbay Road
Click here for full Torbay Rd Schedule
Teacher Training
Intro to Teaching Restorative Yoga
Sat, May 12th, 2:30-5:30pm
$60 +tax, Pre-reg Req
Click here for details
Pre-Registered Sessions
Yoga 101 New Time!
Tues 8:30-9:30 (4 weeks)
April 3-24th, $60+tax
6am Power Flow Yoga
Wed 6am-7am (8 Weeks)
Apr 4th-May 23rd, $112+tax
Chair Yoga
Tues 10:00-11:00am (5 weeks) $60+tax, Registration Ongoing
Mom & Baby Yoga
Wed, 2:00-3:15pm (6 weeks)
Mar 7th-Apr 11th, $72+tax/pair
HypnoBirthing
Sun, 10am-12:30pm (5 weeks)
Starting June 3
$300+tax/couple, incl. classes, text & CD
Mount Pearl
Click here for full Mount Pearl Schedule.
New Class!
Gentle Yoga
Tuesdays at 5:30pm
Workshop
Restorative Yoga Workshop
Sat April 21st, 3:30-5:30pm
$45 +tax, Pre-Reg Req
Class Cancellation
Hatha Flow on Fridays at 10am will break for the spring and summer.
200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training
The Shakti Yoga Studio Yoga Teacher Training is a Yoga Alliance registered 200 hour Program. Click here for details on our 2013 Session.
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Dear Yogis and Yoginis | |
Welcome to March and, dare I say Spring? Yes I do. Even with a little more snow we all know that the crocuses are somewhere beneath all the yellow grass just waiting for the perfect moment to bloom. The renewal that Easter signals for us is just around the corner and this month's newsletter is full of great tips to shake off the snow and do some internal spring cleaning in preparation for all that is to come. Check out our fasting article complete with a traditional yogic rice and lentil recipe that gently cleanses the body and mind. Plus we are embracing all things green. You will tingle with excitement just reading this month's juicing recipes. They are guaranteed to put some Spring in your step (pun intended). Have a Happy Easter and a wonderful March yogis. |
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Easter Closures! | |
 Both studios will be closed on Good Friday (April 6th) and Easter Sunday (April 8th). But no worries, our regular schedule continues for the rest of the weekend and all of Easter week so you will still be able to get your Easter yoga fix!
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Hellos and Good-byes | |
 Hellos: This month we are excited to introduce yoga teacher & physiotherapist Andrea Hann to the Mount Pearl schedule. She will be teaching a Gentle yoga class on Tuesdays at 5:30pm. She specializes in working with students with low bone density, chronic pain and arthritis. Her gentle yoga class will be suitable for students with these issues as well as for any yogi interested in breathing deeply and gently opening the body with awareness. Click here to learn more about Andrea.
Also new to the schedule is Natasha Hunt who will be teaching a 5:30pm Hatha Flow Mixed Level class on Mondays at Torbay Road (Previously Heart Flow). Her bio will be posted on the website in the very near future.
Good Byes: With much gratitude for their teachings and for sharing their beautiful yogic presence with us since last year, we are saying good-bye to Claire, who is going back to school in Nova Scotia and Kathy who is moving on to become a full time mom. We are sending love, best wishes and many thanks to both of them. |
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Energy Exchange: May to August Session | |
 Shakti Yoga Studio's energy exchange program ensures that our yoga classes are accessible to dedicated students regardless of their financial situation. Participants in this program work one 2 hour cleaning shift at the studio once a week (at the same time each week) in exchange for unlimited free classes.
This is not a volunteer position. We are searching for reliable workers who can demonstrate diligence and attention to detail. If you have a strong work ethic and love yoga this might be the program for you.
We also have some projects in the works that would require someone knowledgeble in the areas of graphic arts, film or painting/drawing. Let us know if you fit this description and are interested in exchanging these services for yoga.
Applications are currently being accepted for the Spring/Summer Energy Exchange program that runs May - August 2012. Please send your cover letter and resume to bobby@shaktiyogastudio.ca to be considered for the upcoming session. |
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Restorative Yoga Workshop | |
You owe it to yourself to check out our upcoming restorative yoga workshop which is open to all levels of practice.
Cheryl Fenk will skillfully teach techniques to release deeply held tensions in extended, supported postures using bolsters, blankets and blocks. Participants will experience how mantra (sound), pranayama (breath work) and meditation can be used to further relaxation. You will leave with a deeper understanding of the theory and benefits of a regular restorative practice and lots of creative ideas for incorporating a home practice into your life. Click here to register and pay online.
Date: Saturday, April 21, 2012, Time: 2:30-5:30 p.m. Location: Mount Pearl Price: $45+hst
If you are a yoga teacher you may also be intersted in Cheryl's Intro to Teaching Restorative Yoga coming up in May. Click here for details |
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Inspired: Finding your Edge |
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Corie in Dancer Pose on Signal Hill. Taken by friend Stephanie Robinson. |
This month's inspired submission was written by Corie Harnett, writer, dancer, arts educator and yogini. She wanted to share what her yoga practice means to her:
For me, it's about making friends with the unknown. Arriving at your own personal edge and breathing into it, and the possibility that something might just lay beyond it. Only after full surrender to it might you discover that your edge isn't where you thought it was. I love riding that wave of exhilaration that rolls in on the heels of discovering fluidity where there was once only a rock-solid wall of limit. You experience a brand new you and it broadens your vision of who you really are, and what is possible in this life. The smallest shift, whether in your physical experience, or whether merely in your perspective of it, allows you to see your whole world anew.
But you can't push your edge.
You just have to be there, in a pure state of let go, fully immersed in your experience of right now, tuning in to each next moment as each next moment arrives. Only then will a shift become apparent, when from out of the stillness, your awareness falls upon a space where there was no space before. By being so purely present in this way, you are participating in an act of creation, from moment to moment, as it is unfolding. For this reason, to me, participating in yoga is participating in art, and by way of yoga I am reminded that my body is art and that life itself is art.
Corie performs and teaches dance in St. John's. Email her at corie_harnett@yahoo.ca if you are intersted in Salsa lessons with a fun and inspiring dance teacher.
If you are a student of yoga and would like to share an inspiring moment, favourite pose, yoga travel experience or anything else related to living your yoga you can send your piece (one to three paragraphs) to bobby@shaktiyogastudio.ca |
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Yogis Supporting New Moms in Need | |
 If you have been to any of Kathy Moultons's classes in the past few months you are probably aware that she is soon to be a new mom. In realizing first hand the cost associated with having a new baby Kathy has been inspired to finish her teaching at Shakti by teaching a by-donation class, with all proceeds going to a community organization that supports moms-to-be who are struggling to make ends meet. The class will be held at the Mount Pearl studio on Mon April 9th from 7:00-8:15pm. Cost is by donation (suggested minimum $10-cash only) or bring an item that would be useful to a new mom, sleepers, diapers, etc.
Mark your calendar and get out to support a wonderful cause as well as take this opportunity to say good-bye to Kathy!
Class Suitable for all levels. |
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Shakti Teacher Highlight: Beth Kelly |
 I have been practicing yoga for almost four years. I was hooked after my first class and I knew that yoga would be part of my life forever. The overall sense of well-being that I felt was amazing, and I immediately realized the value of a dedicated practice, both on and off my mat. I decided to become a Certified Teacher because I wanted to share with others some of the benefits that yoga has offered to me, most notably patience and calm, far beyond the physical benefits. I would leave classes feeling a strong sense of joy and contentment and I thought, wow, maybe I can help other people to feel this way too! I travelled to Vancouver, BC and attended Prana Yoga Teacher College for 200 hours of intensive training under the guidance of Shakti Mhi. The experience was enlightening and proved to be more than I could have imagined. I have also completed Pre-and Post-natal Teacher training, as well and Radiant Child Yoga Teacher Training, and have since completed many workshops and seminars on yoga-related topics.
My life experiences, as well as my students, inspire me to teach. I believe that yoga is in everything we do
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Beth, pictured here with her baby boy Roland |
and is seen through how we deal with everyday stresses, from juggling all of our everyday roles to how we react to being stuck in traffic or spilling flax seeds all over the floor (happened to me recently!). I encourage my students to call on their yoga in any and every situation, whether you need to step away and reassess, or simply take a deep breath and find stillness.
With the recent birth of my son, Roland, I have many more opportunities to practice patience, compassion and, above all, love - all very integral parts of a yoga practice!
Yoga is an ongoing journey of self-discovery and an adventure in exploring all that life has to offer. My goal is to have people leave my classes feeling calm, inspired, and at peace with themselves, and to seek goodness in everyone and everything while living a happy, balanced, and peaceful life.
I opened Ebb & Flow Boutique (www.ebbandflowboutique.com) in May 2010. We just recently moved to our new home at 166 Water Street so be sure to come say HI! The store offers yoga, lifestyle and active wear items and it is my hope that it will provide guidance and inspiration for you to live your yoga. Namaste.
Beth teaches Hatha Flow 1 classes at Shakti Torbay Road on Monday and Thursday nights at 7pm. Drop by for one of her classes and congratulate her on becoming a new mom as you breathe, stretch and strengthen. |
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Coming soon! Yoga for Desk Dwellers & Yoga Therapeutics | |
 Save the dates for these exciting yoga workshops coming up in June. More details to be provided as we get closer to the dates.
Lower Body Therapeutics 7-10pm, Thurs, Jun 21 (Mount Pearl)
Upper Body Therapeutics 7-10pm, Mon, June 25 (Mount Pearl)
Yoga for Desk Dwellers 3-6pm, Sat, June 23 (Torbay Road)
All workshops will be instructed by Jordan Nardone, a bodywork practitioner and yoga instructor based in Montreal. Cost for each workshop is $55 +tax, click here here to learn more or to register for the therapeutics workshops and here for the Yoga for Desk Dwellers workshop. |
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Fasting to Cleanse and Energize | |
 As Spring approaches fasting can be a great way to cleanse and reconnect. The logic of fasting is that while food does give us energy it also requires an extremely large amount of energy to digest. Overeating and snacking in between meals leaves our bodies with very little time to rest and cleanse. Fasting provides this rest and in doing so allows for the activation the body's own healing and detoxification mechanisms. Philippus Paracelsus, a 14th century physician and one of the three fathers of Western medicine said that fasting was the greatest remedy-- the physician within.
Fasting has been used to treat conditions such as allergies, skin conditions, arthritis and digestive disorders of all kinds. Other commonly cited benefits of fasting include, mental clarity, increased energy levels, and the disruption of unhealthy eating, emotional, mental patterns. Eating habits are some of our most engrained patterns. Breaking up this powerful pattern often opens us up to looking at other aspects of our lives as well, encouraging us to develop the skills of svadhyaya (self-study) and satya (honesty). Fasting is an opportunity to discover why we overeat, or eat unhealthy foods at all, or why we do so more often when overtired or stressed out. Maybe we are eating to cover up something that is easier to ignore than address. Fasting also allows us time to clean the slate so that we can once again hear our bodies' inner cues, to know when we are truly hungry and to notice when an unhealthy food makes us feel sluggish or agitated. For years we have been eating when meal time comes and emptying our plates, hungry or not, simply because we have always been told to do so. Fasting helps us retrain ourselves to understand our body's signals.
 There are many types of fasts and you might be happy to learn that you can get the benefits of fasting without completely stopping your food intake. Juice and fruit fasts are common ways to flush the body by eating easily digestible nutrition that still maintains an environment in which healing can occur. Fasts can be for whole days or just the first or last half of a day (such as not eating past 6pm in the evening)
 For the winter months a brown rice fast is grounding and warming. Ayurveda, the traditional medicine of India, has a dish called kitchari that often includes rice. It is nourishing, easily digested and cleansing in nature. It is the first food recommended to follow other types of fasts or can be a fast in itself. It is a wonderfully flexible dish that can be eaten in its most basic form or with the addition of your favourite vegetables. This can be the last meal of your day, or the only food you eat for a day or two.
Fasting can come with some temporary detox symptoms such as, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, body odor, body aches, and other flu-like symptoms. This is less likely for the more gentle versions of fasting diets described here because the body is cleansing at a slower rate. If you drink caffeinated beverages wean yourself off a few days before your cleanse to avoid the withdrawal headache. Break your fast slowly, easing back into regular foods with more clarity, making better food choices.
Even if you are not fasting most of us can take a step back and look at our portion size. Even eating too much of nutritious food overwhelms the body. Here is a nice quote from an Egyptian pyramid inscription, 3800, B.C "Humans live on one-quarter of what they eat; on the other three-quarters lives their doctor." My ashram teaches that we should half fill our stomach with food, one quarter should remain for fluid and the final quarter to remain empty to provide room for processing. Eat with conscious attention, chewing carefully, talking less, sitting rather than eating on the run to help with portion control as well.
The fasts talked about in this article are gentle, short term and appropriate for most, however if you have any medical conditions, are pregnant or nursing then fasting may not be a good choice for you right now. Talk to your doctor before beginning any type of fast if you are in doubt.
"Let food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be food." Hippocrates
Kitchari recipe
The Ayurvedic Institute
Ingredients
1 cup Basmati Rice
2 cups Mung Dal (split yellow)
7 cups (approx.) Water
a bit of Salt
2 Tbs. Ghee (or butter)
3 tsp. Mustard Seeds
2 tsp. Cumin Seeds or Powder
2 tsp. Turmeric Powder
2 tsp. Coriander Powder
2 tsp. Fennel Powder
1 pinch Asafoetida (Hing)
1 pinch of ginger
Vegetables such as zucchini, asparagus or sweet potato are also nice additions.
Wash rice and dal. Sauté the seeds in the ghee/butter until they pop. Then add the other spices. Add the mung dal and salt. Sauté for 1 or 2 minutes. Add boiling water, bring to boil, then simmer for 30 minutes or until the dal is about 2/3 cooked.
Cut vegetables into smallish pieces. Add rice and vegetables. Stir to mix, adding extra water if required. Bring back to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is fully cooked. Aim to have minimal water remaining, leaving the lid on the pot to allow any excess to slowly be absorbed.
If doing this clease for more than one day, eat a spoonful of psyllium husks or seeds with water OR oat bran OR drink prune juice once daily. (away from you kitchari meal) |
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Yoga Detox with Cate Stillman | |
 Know you want to detox... but afraid you won't find the fit for you? Cate Stillman designed a detox for Yoga People! Next course: April 1-21. Another one starting May 1-21. Sign up here: http://www.yogahealer.com/186-10.html .
This program comes highly recommend by one of our Heart Flow teachers, Robin Penney. |
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Spring Cleanse Juicer Recipes
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 Not only do fresh juices cleanse the system but they are also an easy way to add healthy fruit and vegetables to your diet. Here are a few cleansing and rejuvenating juices to spring you into Spring.
This first juice recipe is the super easy, vitamin packed glass of nourishment that Meaghan's baby girl has been craving for the past few weeks.
Meaghan's Juicy Green Recipe
Ingredients:
3 kale leaves
One big romaine leaf (can do more of both if you like)
One peeled orange
1 cup of frozen mango
A splash of water (maybe 1/2 cup or enough to get the consistency you like).
Mix all ingredients in a juicer and enjoy!
The next two recipes come from Elizabeth Peyton-Jones Eat Yourself Young book. They are full of detoxifying, anti-inflammatory, antioxident filled, hormone balancing ingredients.
Detoxifying Beet & Root Veg Burst
Ingredients:
1 small Turnip
1 large peeled beetroot
1 peeled parsnip
2 large peeled carrots
5 radishes
1 organic lemon 1/4 tsp tumeric
Mix all ingredients in a juicer and enjoy!
Creamy Avacado Dream
Ingredients:
1 celery stick
1 lemon
Handful of parsley
6 kale leaves
1/2 avacado
1 sprig of chopped oregano
Juice the celery, lemon, parsley and kale first and then mix in a blender with avacado and oregano. Enjoy!
Finally, if these recipes have ingited a excitement for all things green click here to go to our January 2011 newsletter for Kale chips, salad and smoothie recipes.
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Storm Closure Policy | |
 Hopefully this is the last month that we will even need to be posting this policy but in the event that we have to cancel a class due to inclement weather a message will be left on our voicemail at least one hour before class start time. Whenever possible we will also post a note in the News section on our website.
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| Studio Etiquette : Scent Free and Silent | |
Because some of your fellow yoga students have strong sensitivities to scents, Shakti Yoga Studios are scent free. Please be mindful of not wearing colognes, perfumes or other strongly-scented personal-care products when coming to class, so that everyone is able to enjoy their yoga experience in comfort and good health.
 We would also like to request that you be mindful of noise inside the yoga room. You may have noticed that many students take the time before class to unwind, release their day and practice meditative contemplation. When speaking with others inside the practice space, please be aware and respectful of those who are choosing to spend this time in silence by  keeping your voice low, and avoid making any unnecessary noises.
We also request that you leave your cell phones outside the practice room as even texting can be distracting for your fellow classmates.
Thank you for understanding,
Namaste |
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Have a wonderful April!
Shakti Yoga Studio
745-YOGA (9642)
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