Dear Sweet Yogis & Yoginis,
"Another fresh new year is here...
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!
This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest...
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!
I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!"
~William Arthur Ward
"The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul." ~G.K.Chesterton
Happy New Year everybody!
What a wonderful holiday season we enjoyed as a community this year. At OM SWEET OM YOGA we really know how to celebrate and share the love! Gail and Lisa gave two free classes to benefit Long Island Harvest on Christmas Day and New Years Day. Thank you to everyone who attended and for the donations. A good time was had by all and it was all for a good cause. We collected over 250 pounds of food!
It's also our seven year anniversary! The first two weeks of February we want to help you introduce Om Sweet Om to your friends and family, so when you bring a friend, they get a free class, and if they sign up for our new student special, both you and your friend receive $10 off your next series or auto-renew (must be purchased by April 15th).
More great news; Congratulations Yogis! Right now you belong to "THE BEST YOGA STUDIO on Long Island" (L.I. Press)! But we already knew that didn't we. And in gratitude to you, our sweet community we have planned a year chock full of opportunity for more growth and positive change. Please check out upcoming events and workshops for more information. Gaze to the featured events column on your right and feast your eyes. Do remember to sign up well in advance as many events sell out and all events and workshops are dependent upon enrollment to run. Looking forward to a great year together and to seeing you soon at Om Sweet Om Yoga.
Love and peace and more love,
 "Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle."
~Eric Zorn |
Asana of the Month
Vasisthasana/Side Plank Pose
|  The basic pose:
To enter this pose come from downward facing dog into plank pose. Place you right hand on the floor under your face and roll onto the outer edge of you right foot. Stack your left foot on top of your right foot and then the whole left side on top of the right side. Lengthen your tailbone down toward the pubic bone and knit the front ribs in and layer the low belly in finding balance as the core engages and the legs are active. Keep lifting the hips and using the legs so that not all of your weight is in the right hand, wrist, arm and shoulder. Lift your left arm up toward the sky. Allow the gaze to Take 5-10 breaths and then switch to other side.
Modifications: for those who feel too much weight in the bottom arm or feel unsteady you may step the top foot to the floor in front of the right knee. Press the left foot into the floor and lift the hips higher. This will redistribute and balance your weight more evenly. For people with wrist and elbow problems you may wish to try this on the forearm rather than the hand. And if that feels sketchy try taking the bottom knee to the floor.
For serious wrist and elbow and shoulder problems you may want to avoid this pose altogether.
Moving into the full expression of the pose from the basic pose press the sole of your right/bottom foot into the floor and lift the top/left leg and hold the big toe in yogi toe lock with your left hand. Extend the top leg toward the sky while lifting the hips and straightening the bottom leg. Gaze up to sky and breath.
Physical benefits: This pose strengthens the arms, belly and legs and improves balance. It requires great focus and concentration on proper alignment. Strengthens wrists.
Spiritual benefits: Vasistha means most excellent, best and richest. The pose is named after a great sage. Builds Stirha or steadiness and balance and focus. |
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Satsang with Lisa
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The New Year has begun and with it the opportunity for fresh starts and the strengthening of resolve and focus. Perhaps you have made resolutions, or maybe you are haunted by the ghosts of resolutions past and/or forgotten and therefore just don't want to go 'there'. I usually do make resolutions, but this year, well, I just haven't gotten 'there'...yet. Instead I have been looking back over the last year and decade of my life while asking what I would like to acknowledge myself for. Yes, like most of us there are things that were not done, projects unaccomplished, nascent dreams unrealized. All of those things not withstanding, there was in fact movement, slow and steady, resulting in progress and culminating ultimately in real change and real growth.
"Success has always been easy to measure. It is the distance between one's origins and one's final achievement." ~Michael Korda
Yoga practice is like that too! The days, weeks, months, years go by and we practice, and we practice, and we practice and it always seems the same and then one day we muster the courage and control to come up into a headstand away from the wall, or one day we face a fear and speak our truth out loud to someone we have struggled to share with, or one day we act with compassion when someone is really pressing on our buttons where before we would have lashed out. And in that instant we are changed, new and improved, different from whom we were.
"Everyone has inside him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is."
~ Anne Frank
Clearly the opportunity to recommit to awakening comes not just with the New Year but exists in every moment of our lives. Still, I enjoy the collective ritual of recommittment. And this year I resolve to remaining on this path of self-discovery and awakening. I invite you to join me.
"Ideas are the beginning of achievement"
~Bruce Lee
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Last Stop
| Please bear with us as we deal with some pipe issues in the bathrooms. We are currently working on the problem, and hope to be running all four toilets soon, in the meantime, we have at least one working toilet!
Dr Robyn Croutch and Dr Mike Schwartzstein are having a SPECIAL!
Did you know that the same nerves that control your back control your health and wellness? Back To Life is giving you an opportunity to get your spine and nervous system checked for $50 (reg $225). Right here at Om Sweet Om. 944-4469
"May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions!"~Joey Adams
"The journey is the reward" ~Chinese proverb |
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 | Click here to register for all events at Om Sweet Om
Om Sweet Om Yoga 200hr-Teacher Training begins
January 28th! Register here (Please note that this is the only weekend format training for 2011)
February 10th - 7:30 - 9:30 pm Partner yoga with Adams Dobbs. Back by popular demand and just in time for Valentines Day. Bring a partner or come solo and find one there! February 27th - 1:30-4:30pm Restorative Yoga workshop with Gail Grossman March 19th & 20th - 1:00-7:00 pm Leslie Kaminoff returns to
Om Sweet Om Yoga!
click here to register As a continuation of our 300-hour teacher training. Leslie will be teaching advanced anatomy.
If you will not be participating in our training and are an advanced practitioner or teacher looking to expand your knowledge base as it pertains to yoga anatomy you may participate as a workshop. If you missed part one, you will have an opportunity to make it up when Leslie returns next year.
Each 2-day module is $250. April 2nd Danny Arguetty Workshop Immersion April 15 Wade Imre Morrisette-Kirtan April 16th Wade Imre Morrisette workshop April 30th Tao Porchon Lynch 92 year old yoga master will share her vibrant practice and radiant light and wisdom with us. May 7th & 8th Sadie Nardini Workshop Immersion May 20th - 22nd Cora Wen Workshop Immersion Also...Kids Classes Winter/Spring Series begin January 31st Register here to save your child's spot!
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Pratyahara
Pratyahara is the fifth anga or limb of (ashtanga) the eight limbs of yoga. It means sense withdrawal or the focus of awareness inward and away from the senses (eyes/sight, ears/hearing, skin/touch, mouth and nose/taste and smell) and in toward the self. When one follows the awareness, using the breath, away from the senses and all of the stimulation and distractions of the outer world one discovers a quieter, still place inside. It is there that one finds the self beyond body and mind.
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Recipe of The Month
| Tofu and Vegetable Soup with
Cellophane Noodles
o For vegetable stock:
o 20 large dried black Chinese mushrooms (shiitake)
o 12 cups boiling-hot water
o 1 bunch cilantro
o 4 carrots, coarsely chopped
o 4 celery ribs, coarsely chopped
o 2 large leeks, (white and pale green parts only), coarsely chopped
o 1 (3-inch) piece ginger, chopped
o For soup:
o 3 ounces very thin bean thread noodles (3 small skeins; also known as cellophane, glass, or mung bean noodles)
o 1/4 cup soy sauce
o 2 tablespoons vegetarian oyster sauce
o 2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or dry Sherry
o 1 teaspoon sugar
o 1/2 teaspoon salt
o 1 (14- to 18-ounces) package soft tofu (not silken)
o 4 cups chopped Napa cabbage leaves
o 2 ounces snow peas, trimmed and halved, diagonally (1 1/2 cups)
o 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
DIRECTIONS:
Soak mushrooms in 10 cups boiling-hot water in a bowl, keeping them submerged with a small plate and turning mushrooms over occasionally, until softened and cool enough to handle, about 30 minutes. Squeeze excess liquid from caps back into bowl and reserve liquid, then cut out and reserve stems from mushrooms. Quarter caps.
Transfer mushroom liquid and stems into a 5-quart large heavy pot and bring to a boil. Trim cilantro sprigs from stems and reserve sprigs for garnish. Add stems to pot with remaining stock ingredients. Gently boil, covered, for 30 minutes, then drain through a fine mesh sieve into a large heatproof bowl, pressing down hard on solids. Discard solids and return broth to pot (you should have 8 cups broth).
Make soup:
Meanwhile, soak noodles in cold water to cover until softened, about 5 minutes, then drain in colander and transfer to a bowl. Coarsely cut into 3-inch lengths with scissors.
Stir in soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine, sugar, and salt to broth and season with salt to taste. Add mushroom caps and bring to a simmer.
Rinse and drain tofu, then cut into 3/4-inch cubes. Add cabbage and tofu to broth and simmer 10 minutes, gently stirring occasionally. Add noodles and peas and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Ladle soup into bowls and serve immediately.
Make ahead: Broth can be made 3 days ahead, chilled, covered or frozen up to 3 months.
Read more: http://www.kitchendaily.com/recipe/tofu-and-vegetable-soup-with-cellophane-noodles-151434/#ixzz1BG70aeFH |
Keep up to date with all the latest at Om Sweet Om!
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