It’s official.  I signed the lease today! Finally we have a home for our growing yoga community! There is a lot of work to be done before doors open. Evolve Yoga and Wellness will be opening soon in the Wildewood Shopping Center right next to Bay Books. Click here to register for free yoga classes and to sign up to receive information about Grand Opening, classes, workshops, teacher trainings and special events. Jai and Namaste!

Here is the reading list for the 200-Hour Interdisciplinary Yoga Teacher Training.  It’s such a great yoga library that I thought I should share this list with everyone interested in taking their yoga practice to a deeper level. Each one of these books has an incredible wealth of insights and information about the yoga inquiry and the mind-body connection.

Required Reading
	Self-Awakening Yoga: The Expansion of Consciousness through the Body’s Own Wisdom - Don Stapleton, PhD
Recommended Reading
	Anatomy of Hatha Yoga: A Manual for Students, Teachers, and Practitioners - David H. Coulter
	Anatomy of Movement (Revised Edition) - Blandine Calais-Germain
	Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing - Carol Myss
	Somatics: Reawakening The Mind’s Control Of Movement, Flexibility, And Health - Thomas Hanna
	The Breathing Book: Vitality & Good Health Through Essential Breath Work - Donna Farhi
	The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice - T. K. V. Desikachar
	B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health - B.K.S. Iyengar
	Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing - Timothy McCall, MD
	30 Essential Yoga Poses: For Beginning Students and Their Teachers - Judith Lasater, PhD

with Steven Weiss, MS, DC, RYT
Saturday September 25, 2010
10 AM – 5 PM, $140

Join us for a fun and experiential, hands-on workshop as we explore the basic anatomical principles that are the foundation of yoga and structural alignment. When we follow the anatomical design of the body, our poses and postures are safe, re-vitalizing and make yoga practice a therapeutic experience. This workshop will help determine what is and what is not proper alignment, and will help create confidence and clarity in understanding why. Experienced yoga practitioners, yoga teachers, body workers and physical therapists will appreciate the workshop as we learn a simple, easy-to-use approach to yoga therapy and assists, based upon anatomy and principles of alignment.

What is Yoga Therapy?

Yoga therapy is an innovative and natural approach that addresses structural alignment issues and the rehabilitation of injuries and chronic painful conditions. It is appropriate for everyone, from yoga students who experience discomfort or limitations in certain poses to anyone who has an on-going chronic condition that restricts their ability to move and exercise effectively. In addition this workshop is an opportunity for everyone to learn and increase awareness to the subtleties of safe and efficient movement and body mechanics.

Steven Weiss, MS, DC, RYT has more than 30 years of experience as a holistic chiropractor and nutritionist, yoga student and teacher. As a life-long athletic, Steven has been a marathon runner and also an instructor in classes in long distance running. Over the past seventeen years, Dr. Weiss has served as the resident chiropractor and nutritionist for the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York. Dr. Weiss also serves as a post-graduate instructor with New York Chiropractic College, offering the ChiroYoga™ Seminars, a continuing education program that explores yoga-based biomechanics and therapeutics. Steven teaches for yoga studios and teacher trainings on the topics of anatomy, alignment, and therapeutics. His teaching is strongly influenced by his background in structural bodywork, bringing a unique, hands-on approach to his workshops. He is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. His yoga training has been extensive in many traditions, studying with teachers in India and throughout the United States. Dr. Weiss practices in Sarasota, Florida, USA. He practices Align By Design Yoga Therapy, an alignment-based approach that is strongly influenced by his bodywork skills and experience as a chiropractor. More information can be found at www.AlignByDesignYoga.com.

Offered by Align By Design Yoga and Ann Hunt Yoga
6 CEUs available

There will be a 1 hour lunch break. Workshop will be held in Lexington Park, Maryland. For more information contact Ann directly.

What a great opportunity to share our yoga and support the local community.  Thank you wonderful yogis for sharing your awesome energy on this beautiful day and for your generous contributions to Leah’s House, a shelter for women and children.

I’m finally back online after a catastrophic outage with my web hosting provider. Several servers crashed and all data was corrupted. They tried in vain for some time to restore the data from backups but there was too much data corruption so we finally had to recreate the site from scratch. After all that I’m very happy to be back online.

Pune is a big, bustling and very polluted city. It’s filled wilh lots of cars, buses and rickshaws. And one of the things I have learned here is that traffic rules simply to do not apply. I have both observered and experienced some crazy driving! I have been in rickshaws driving on the opposite side of the road and going the wrong way down one way streets. And who knows what the speed limit is? Plus it is not uncommon to get into a rickshaw and give the address only to be driven around in circles to run up the meter or for that matter not even arriving at the correct destination (which did happen).

But in spite of all that I have had a wonderful experience here. Upon recommendation of a good friend I came here to study yoga with a very special teacher. His name is Dharmavir and is a true gem!  He had been a teacher at the Iyengar Institute years ago and left to do his own thing. He is warm and wise, creative and inspiring. I have had the opportunty to really focus on my own yoga and have learned so much about working with props i.e. the wall, ropes, bolsters, blocks and so much more. He clearly has a loyal following of local Indian students and as well teaches in Germany. It has truly been a privilege to study with him. In addition he has given me fun rides around Pune on the back of his motor bike as well as has introduced me to wonderful south Indian cuisine.

Pune is also well know as the home of Osho International Meditation Resort (previously referred to as an ashram). I spent the past week-end inside the gates experiencing some of the many styles of meditation offered inspired by Osho himself. I tried everything from Dynamic meditation to Kundalini meditation as well did a silent meditation in what previously was Osho’s home. And interestingly in the entrance to this particular meditation space is one of his remaining Rolls Royces. Osho is an interesting and beautiful place with numerous gardens, pathways, ponds and pyramid shaped buildings. Hygiene and cleanliness are very important and without a doubt this was the cleaness place I have been in India. In order to participate one has to take a mandatory HIV test and then purchase a maroon robe. All participants (during the day) wear maroon as it’s said it helps maintain the energy field. This place draws people from all over the world. I met people from India, Pakistan, England, France, Italy, Israel, Czeck Republic to name a few.

As I write this I am sitting outside the German Bakery, a common gathering spot for many westerners as well as Osho participants. I believe that each place I have visited in India has had a German Bakery. It’s been refreshing to have the opportunity here to eat a fresh salad, the first in almost a month.

So now I have made arrangements for transport to the airport on Wednesday. Hard to believe that this month of travel I have dreamed about is coming to an end. I have had so many incredible experiences and will carry so many memories home with me. I look forward to sharing more of my adventures with you. Om Shanti.

India is truly a place that can over whelm the senses. And Varanasi is no exception. Rather it is a place that turns up the volume times ten. The sights of daily life and ritual along the Ganga, the sound of temple bells, honking horns, the smell of the burning fires of the ghats, cows, goats and the masala chai. Varanasi is know as the city of lights and said to be the oldest living city in the world. It is the holiest of cities for the Hindus and is an important place of pilgrimage. A powerful spirtual element is felt everywhere from the numerous temples to the daily life along the ghats (steps) that line the Ganga.

The Ganga is reveared as the Mother and the Hindus deeply believe that the Ganga cares, nurtures, protects and provides for them. As well if one is cremated and ashes are put in the river then she will attain moksha or liberation of her soul from her body. In Varanasi, just as in Haridwar and Rishikesh there is a colorful aarti to the river drawing locals as well as tourists. Early morning is special time along the river.

My first morning I was up at 4:30 to take a boat ride down the river. It’s quite common to see numerous large wooden boats ferrying tourists past the 84 ghats, witnessing morning puja to the river. As well many people come to bathe believeing that a bath in the holy river is a blessing. And just in case you are wondering, no I did not bathe in the Ganges. The river, especially in Varanasi is extremely polluted. Most likely I would have gotten quite ill or a skin infection as I have heard happen to others not accustomed to the water.

Visiting the burning ghats was a very surreal experience. Standing on the periphery observing this completely natural ritual was amazing. I learned that the men of the family of the deceased person chant while carrying the body to the river for one last bath. The body is wrapped in white cloth and placed atop the wood. Depending on who has died determines who in the family lights the body from dried grass lit from the eternal flame. This person is dressed in white and must have their head shaved prior. The fires burn for 2 1/2 to 3 hours after which the remains are taken to the river.

My experience in Varanasi was full. I was taken to the temples and palaces, shops where essential oils and silk are made, visited Sarnath where the Buddha gave his first teachings, awakened by chanting and bells and hassled by peddlers and beggars. I walked and walked and walked, just taking it all in. It is a place that is hard to be alone and any sense of personal space is lost. That said it is remarkable. It is a place that words really do not give justice. I hope the pictures I will have to share help capture the feeling. So now I am in the busy city of Pune, 3 hours south of Mumbai, after 2 flights and a full day of travel. My time up north really immersed me into the spritual life and daily ritual of so many of the Hindus. I am here for the next week and will focus on studying yoga with a very special teacher named Dharmavir. More to follow. Namaste

Since leving Delhi I spent 2 days in the town of Haridwar. Haridwar is a very significant pilgrimage site for Hindus. It just so happened that there was an important festival occuring during my time there. That said the town was very crowded with people heading to bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges and participate in the sunset aarit/ceremony along the river. What an incredible site and experience. Chanting and blessings by Hindu priests fill the air. Bathing in the river or tossing water over oneself is part of the ritual as is the passing of fire in a chalice like dish. And westerners are welome to participate then asked for a healthy donation afterwards. I got the sense that Haridwar is not a common destination for westerners as I very often found myself the only one in the busy and crowded streets. Interestingly the first people I’ve met on this journey from the US happened to be from Waashington, DC. What a small world!

Now I am in Rishikesh which will be home for the next 6 days. I am staying in a very large ashram right on the edge of Ganges. This is home to a large Indian community as well as to hundreds of orphaned boys. Here too a beautiful sunset aarti is performed every evening. Typical of these ceremonies is to see flower filled leaf boats floating down the river with a candle lit. These ceremonies are beautiful and filled with so much heart and devotion.

So upon my arrival here in Rishikesh I took a long walk from where I am staying just south of the Ram Jhula suspension bridge along the 2 km path to the north end at the Laxman Jhula bridge. Knowing that Rishikesh is known these days as the “home of yoga” I was searching out places to study. Interestingly the teachers that have been recommended to me are not in town right now. So with that in mind I thought I’d try the yoga offered at the ashram. I arose at 5 am eager for my first yoga class in India. As I approached the yoga hall an older Indian woman who was just leaving after morning prayers turned to me and said “no yoga”. To my disappointment I returned to my room with my yoga mat. I decided I’d take a walk in search of a cup of tea. What I found was magical and moving. As the sun rose I was witness to the locals performing their morning pujas/rituals. At the many temples people were lighting candles and incense. They were bathing the dieties and offering them prasad/food. As well there were many in deep meditation and practicing pranayama. This is what I really came here for. Yes, it would wonderful to find an inspiring yoga teacher. But I am realizing that this journey is not so much about practicing asana but witnessing and learning how a yogic life is fully experienced. It is such a gift to get a glimpse into this culture filled with such faith and devotion.