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 Long Island Yoga Association
SATSANG |
| Volume 15 Issue 1 |
Winter 2010 | |
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LIYA Officers
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President
Laura Inserra
Vice President
Nancy Owens
Treasurer
Jeff Logan
Recording Secretary
Robin Shores
Directors
Roxana Lucero
Gail Scamoni
Elayne Seligman
Ann Slattery
Marie Wooley
President Emeritus
Marianne Mitsinikos
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CLICK HERE FOR
DECEMBER 5TH WORKSHOP WITH LAUREN SCHUMACHER
"AUM IS WHERE THE HEART IS"
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2010 Schedule
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January 9
Theresa Shay
TriYoga
February 6
Andrei Ram Om
Dharma Yoga
April 10
Ravi & Anna Singh Kundalini Yoga
April 30- May 2
Retreat
Rebecca Lerner- Iyengar
June 12
Gayla Marie-Styles
Partner Yoga
July/August No workshops
September 11 Joanne Cesiro
November 13 Jennifer Brillant
December 4 To Be Announced
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| Greetings!
As our 21st year of serving the Long Island yoga community comes to an end, and our focus turns to the future, many questions arise regarding our role on Long Island. The current format of monthly workshops, although unique and cutting edge when originally formed, has become the standard practice for many yoga studios. LIYA needs to take the lead again and establish itself as a leader in "promoting yoga and networking the yoga community", as set forth by our founding members. The possibilities for growth and change for LIYA are wide open, but requires planning and vision.
Therefore, the board has voted to establish a Planning Committee which will be empowered to investigate the many possible directions LIYA could take in the future to better serve the growing Long Island yoga community. This committee will focus on programming for the future, while the current board will maintain the high standards of our monthly workshop schedule. The members who were not selected for the board in this recent election, have been asked to step up and join this committee. Seriously interested members are also welcomed to join. Please attend this Saturday's meeting at 8 a.m. for more details on the Planning Committee.
Of the seventeen members who ran for the board this past month, the nine selected to serve on the board are as follows: Celeste
Crockett, Laura Inserra, Jeff Logan, Te Logan, Roxana Lucero, Gail
Scamoni, Ann Slattery, Robin Shores and Marie Wooley. Congratulations and welcome to Celeste and Te, as our new board members. Officers will be selected at the upcoming December 5th meeting at 8 a.m. prior to the Holiday Workshop with Lauren Schumacher. A workshop of asana and kirtan is such a wonderful way to celebrate this season together. Hope to see you all there.
Many blessing for a joyous and healthy holiday season.
Namaste,
Laura Inserra
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Member Spotlight from
November Workshop with Leslie Kaminoff
 
 
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Shout-outs to members:
Special Thanks to Nancy Owens for her many years of serving on the LIYA Board - you will be missed!
Special Happy Birthday Wishes to Grace Welsh as she celebrates her 85th birthday and an inspiration to all yoginis!
Special Get Well Wishes to Flo Meyers, looking forward to seeing you at our December workshop!
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LIYA Health Column
by Rosemary Barnitz
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Practices to Enhance Immunity
There are many things we can do to enhance our immunity during this winter season which is known for colds and flu. Asana
(Done in a restorative manner (held for several minutes each) with props)
Supported Bridge
Reclined Bound Angle
Reclined Hero
Child Pose
Shoulder Stand
Plow
Fish
Legs up the wall
Pose of Relaxation
Breath work
Alternate nostril breath
Ujjayi
Viloma
Affirmations
My body and mind are strong and well
Wellness is mine
I choose to live fully
All is well
The universe supports me
Aromatherapy
Lavender, rosewood, bergamot, fir or lime
Diet/Nutrition
Eat
plenty of fresh organically grown fruits (blueberry, cranberry and raspberry),
vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots,
yams, sweet potatoes, radishes), immune enhancing mushrooms (shiitake,
nokidake, maitake and oyster, and herbs (oregano, cilantro, rosemary,
sage, peppermint, ginger, garlic, tumeric, chives, onions.
Avoid sugar, dairy, alcohol, coffee, deep fried and fatty foods
Meditation
Meditate to reduce stress. Stress is an 'immunity killer'.
Visualization
Imagine
yourself feeling strong and contented in pleasant surroundings. Use
your imagination to set a scene for yourself that has these qualities.
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LIYA-brary Corner
By Betty Phillip
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Anusara Yoga Instructor Desiree Rumbaugh puts her deep understanding of therapeutic yoga  to great use in the informative and enjoyable DVD, Yoga to the Rescue for Back Pain. She cautions us at the beginning to check with a physician before doing any of these exercises. This one hour yoga class demonstrates numerous poses which may relieve or prevent upper and lower back pain. The class ends with a deep relaxation. Desiree is assisted by another yogi who demonstrates modifications for those individuals who are challenged by the form of the asana demonstrated by Rumbaugh. She provides very precise instructions and demonstrates how incorrect standing positions create and compound back issues. She advises us on how to incorporate blocks or blankets for further support when modifications alone are not enough. Desiree's tone is warm and encouraging. She advises us that bad posture, having taken decades to develop, may take weeks or months to correct. The instructions throughout this session are punctuated with helpful tips and encouraging words such as "Reclaim your flexibility" and "Let go of stress, let go of anxiety, soften, breathe." She explains the purpose of the poses in non-technical language. In addition to her suggestions to prevent common mistakes when doing these postures, she goes a step further by demonstrating both the right and wrong way to do a number of the postures. This feature is useful for those of us who may be unsure if we are practicing an asana correctly. The score used in the DVD is gentle Indian music which induces a relaxed state for this practice. Men may be interested in this DVD as the other demonstrator in the class is male. This DVD would be a great addition to anyone's yoga library. |
LEARNING THE SANSKRIT NAMES OF THE POSTURES
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CAN YOU MATCH THESE NAMES TO THE ILLUSTRATIONS?? : Baddha Konasana Bakasana Adho Mukha Vrksasana Urdhva Dhanurasana Dhanurasana Urdhva Mukha Svanasana Adho Mukha Svanasana Urdhva Mukha Svanasanasana III Virabhadrasana II Ardha Chandrasana Utthita Trikonasana Utkatasana Tadasana
   
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Yogi's Kitchen
By Robin Shores
HOMEMADE GRANOLA
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3 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking)
2 cups oat bran
2 cups wheat flakes
1 cup toasted wheat germ
1 cup rye flakes
1 cup soy flour
1 cup non-fat dry powdered milk
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped cashews (unsalted)
1 cup shredded coconut
½ cup canola oil
½ cup honey
½ cup molasses
¼ dark corn syrup
2 Tbsp. Vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Nutmeg
2 cups raisins
1 ½ cups chopped dates
Heat oven 275 degrees. Stir first ten ingredients ( up to the oil) in a large bowl. In a small pot, warm the oil, honey, molasses and corn syrup. Remove from heat, add vanilla. Pour over the grains. Mix with hands till moistened. Squeezing and mixing well. Spread granola only ¼ inch thick on a cookie sheet and bake 20-30 minutes. Let cool and then store in ziploc bags, cannisters, mason jars etc.
This recipe makes several batches. Great to give out as holiday gifts.
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In a Word...Dhyana (Part 4 of 4)
By Gail Scamoni |
In the three previous articles, the benefits, goals, and time-tested techniques of meditation were briefly explained. As we travel the ancient path from self to Self, the royal art and science of Yoga provides us with descriptions and prescriptions for every stage of our journey.
To conclude this four-part series on mediation, I have shared quotes from the yoga tradition that hopefully will inspire your meditation practice or inspire you to begin one.
It is simply that as a practicing yogi, I have to declare the truth; you cannot meditate from a starting point of stress, or bodily infirmity. Meditation is the Olympic final for yoga. You cannot turn up half fit. All the preceding stages of yoga have served to train you up to tip-top condition.
-B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life
Meditation must permeate life. Then problems of life will cease to distract the mind in mediation.
-Pandit Usharbudh Arya, Superconscious Meditation
Your body, and not any edifice built by human hands, is your living temple. Enter the inner silence and worship there. Send rays of devotion in solemn procession up the aisle of the spine from your heart to the high altar in the forehead, the seat of superconscious ecstasy.
-J. Donald Walters (Swami Kriyananda), Do it NOW!
Do not try. Trying and struggling to achieve a level of meditation always brings the opposite results. Meditation is the silent part of prayer, where words cease, and a feeling comes.
-Pandit Usharbudh Arya, SuperConscious Meditation
In meditation, you sometimes expect to experience foolish things--you want to see lights and colors. If you meditate with such ideas, you will never really meditate. Meditation means gently fathoming all the levels of yourself, one level after another. Be honest at least with yourself. Don't care what others say about practice--keep your mind focused on your goal.
-Swami Rama, The Art of Joyful Living
Thought is not the way to the new. Only meditation opens the door to that which is everlastingly new. Meditation is not a trick of thought. It is the seeing of the futility of thought and the ways of the intellect. Intellect...is a fragmentary perception of the whole, and meditation is the seeing of the whole. Intellect can operate only in the field of the known and that is why life becomes a monotonous routine from which we try to escape through revolts and revolutions--merely to fall back once again into another field of the known. This change is no change at all, as it is the product of thought which is always old. Meditation is the flight from the known. There is only one freedom: it is, from the known. And, beauty and love lie in this freedom.
-Jiddu Krishnamurti, Five Conversations
Meditation is the eye that sees the Truth, the heart that feels the Truth, and the soul that realizes the Truth.
-Sri Chimnoy, Yoga and the Spiritual Life
Although we cannot really stop the process of I-making, we can disengage a certain part of ourselves from it and observe it. And when we learn to observe our thought patterns, we find that the conscious mind begins to change. A different sense of ahamkara comes into being--a different sense of "I" is watching, witnessing, dispassionately observing. Just as there are various levels of consciousness, so are there differing varieties of I-ness, and now we realize that in addition to the "I" who is being the typical me, there is another "I" who is watching all.
-Rudolph M. Ballentine, Uncovering the Unconscious
Meditation is bringing the complex mind to a state of simplicity and innocence but without ignorance. Meditation comes when ego is vanquished. As the seventh petal of yoga, it can be reached by progressing through all other stages of yoga practice. But the eighth petal, samadhi, comes as the fruit of meditation. It arrives by the Grace of God and cannot be forced. Samadhi is the state in which the aspirant becomes one with the object of meditation, the Supreme Soul pervading the universe, where there is a feeling of unutterable joy and peace.
-B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life
When the goal of life is attained, one achieves the reparation of all wrongs, the healing of all wounds, the righting of all failures, the sweetening of all sufferings, the relaxation of all strivings, the harmonizing of all strife, the unraveling of all enigmas, and the real and full meaning of all life--past, present, and future.
-Meher Baba, Life at Its Best
The first thing necessary for Yoga is concentration of purpose. You have so many aims, so many purposes, that you are frittering away your little stock of energy in the attempt to accomplish them all. You are pursuing so many objects not because they are pleasant or profitable in themselves, but because you have neither found out the highest good of your life nor have you trained your will to realize it.
-Sri Ananada Acharya, Yoga of Conquest
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SATSANG
Satsang is a quarterly newsletter for distribution to the members of the Long Island Yoga Association. The articles published in Satsang reflect the views of the authors and not necessarily of LIYA. However, the Board of Directors reserves the right to make final decisions regarding inclusion of submissions to Satsang. Letters to the editor, articles for publication, comments and suggestions are welcomed. Address correspondence to:
LIYA: SATSANG
Nancy Owens, Editor Gail Scamoni, Assistant Editor
PO BOX 657, Northport, NY 11768
Or email: nowens@optonline.net
E-mail the association at: Longislandyogaassociation@yahoo.com
Visit our website at: www.longislandyogaassociation.org
Call us at: 631-261-1777
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