April Showers

Bring May Flowers

April, 2011
Fundraising at Bikram Yoga El Cajon
Smile Train Fundraiser/April 5, 2011
Turn a Frown Upside Down
  
Making a charitable donation this year seems more difficult  with all the tragic events taking place in our world.  We have decided to continue our fundraising efforts with Smile Train because a simple inexpensive procedure such as cleft lip and palate surgery really does make a change one smile at a time. 

 

Please join student Maggie Anderson and teacher Ann Marie Coppin as they complete their 100 day Bikram Yoga Challenge with Three (3) classes in one day, (9 a.m., 11 a.m. & 4:30 p.m. ) on  April 5, 2011. We have invited a guest teacher to teach the 4:30 p.m. class. April 5 is also AnnMarie's 40th Birthday.  Can you believe it? 

 

SmileTrain is an organziation that is dedicated to creating smiles. There are millions of children with cleft lips and palates who have little to no prospect of ever being helped.  Their parents are so poor, they could never afford surgery. So they wait and they hope and they pray that someday, someone will come along and help them.  You could be that someone. 

 

It costs as little as $250 to give a child not just a new smile, but a new life. 

                                                                                         

Last year, Bikram El Cajon raised approximately $6,000 for Smile Train with marathon classes.  Last Spring, Laura Lee Wadsworth completed 6 classes in one day and, in the fall, Dave Schutz completed 3 classes in one day.  

 

Sign up on the Smile Train Wall to donate any dollar amount per class for Maggie Anderson's Challenge.  

 

The photo above is of Gabriel (Age 6) of Brazil.  To find out more information about Smile Train, and see Gabriel's before and after photo,  you can visit Smile Train's website at www.smiletrain.com. 

 

Christ Church Bikram Yoga Rebuild Fundraising

Thank you to everyone who participated in our donation class to help raise funds to rebuild the Christ Church Bikram Yoga School effected by the New Zealand earthquake. We raised $342.00.

Your generosity is always appreciated. 

Posture of the Month

Standing Head To Knee

 Benefits:

Helps develop and improve concentration,patience, determination, endurance, self-control and mental strength.

Tightens and strengthens abdominal muscles, thigh, hamstring, and leg muscles.

Strengthens tendons.

Improves flexibility of the sciatic nerves.

Strengthens deltoids, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, scapula, biceps, triceps, and works muscles of the back.

When you touch your forehead to your knee:

Squeezing and flushing of internal organs and glands: Gall bladder, pancreas, spleen, uterus, ovaries, digestive system, kidneys, thyroid, and parathyroid.

Good for diabetes (balances blood sugar)

Improves metabolism. 

TIPS:

Keeping the standing leg tight and locked is the most important thing, even if that is all you can do. The concept of "Straightening" the leg is incomplete, it must be locked.

Remember this posture is a process. That's what's important, not the outcome.

Also remember: The posture is never the object when practicing yoga-the body is the object.

Move step- by- step, building the complete and correct form slowly and sequentially.

If you keep losing the balance, it is because you are not keeping your gaze fixed.

Relax, be patient with yourself, and give your honest effort each day.

Your body is strong. It is the mind that is weak.

This posture is a diagnostic tool that shows your level of focus and determination, both to you and your teacher. It instantly reveals how much concentration power you have developed.

 

BYEC Book of the Month

 

April's book of the Month is The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo.  "Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. The Alchemist is such a book. The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist. The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams." Excerpt from www.googleproducts.com.

 

Because of the Easter holiday, the book club meeting will be on April 17, at 1:30 p.m.  Hope to see you there. 
  
May's book of the month is Dave's pick, Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. 
Studio Etiquette

 

Please place your shoes neatly inside the cubby holes under the shoe bench at the reception area.  These shoe benches were custom made by Doug K with you specifically in mind.   
  

Yoga Etiquette Recap

1.  Don't leave the room to take showers during class.
2.  Place your mat on the line so that your mat is in the middle of the line.
3.  Be on time.
4.  If you leave the room, please leave and enter silently.
5.  Keep up the good work.