Also In this issue

 Upcoming Offerings

 Home Practice

 Inspiration

Upcoming

Opportunities

Please click on title for more details.

Out of town workshop with K.O.

Yoga Sutras as part of Sangha Yoga Teacher Training

Meditation Group

with K.O. or guest

Second Thursday of the month 6-7pm

Yoga Therapy

What is Yoga Therapy:

Yoga Therapy adapts and applies Yoga techniques and practice to help individuals who are facing physical or emotional challenges, or who want to expand their yoga/spiritual practice. It offers personalized practices that empower the individual to progress toward greater health by reducing symptoms, restoring balance, and facilitating healing on all levels of your being. My hope is to inspire and empower you toward greater clarity and healing.

Special Offer:

Sign-up for a 6-8 week class session and get your first  yoga therapy session for a reduced price of $80 (regularly $120)

More information about Yoga Therapy

Winter, 2017

Feature with Kathy Ornish

Pain versus Suffering

Do you want to suffer less and have more happiness and contentment in your life? The word duhkha is a common word in Yoga and Buddhist philosophy - it translates as suffering. Most of us think that pain and suffering are synonymous, but what if I told you that one was actually optional?

Pain might be the experience of grief, sadness, anger and any other emotion or perhaps a physical experience of pain, but none of these are suffering. Pain is actually separate from suffering - we experience the physical or emotional pain of an event when it happens, but it is our RESPONSE to that pain, and our ongoing RELATIONSHIP with that pain, that leads to our optional suffering.

A common experience is when a parent/spouse/child - someone with whom you have an ongoing, intimate relationship - has done something in the past that has hurt you or made you angry. When it happens again in the present, instead of your current reaction being related to this single occurrence, it gets tied to all past events and emotions as well, leading to pain plus suffering. Then, there can even be anticipatory emotions about what might be coming - suffering for something that hasn't even occurred! A less charged example is that you stub your toe hard and it really hurts! That's pain. Now, though, you can't exercise until it heals and you love and need your exercise; you're very upset about this. That's suffering.

Being free from suffering does not mean you are working toward not feeling, toward a somehow emotionless life; this is a misunderstanding. We experience and become a witness to our emotions, but we are NOT our emotions. They are discrete experiences, right here, right now. It's not a denial of emotional pain, but a shift in perspective - it is what it is, as people now say, and nothing more.

It's our attachment to what is pleasant, our aversion to unpleasantness, and our linking of experiences together that causes the suffering - the wanting and the pushing away. Allow the pain/emotion to rise, experience it, be a present witness to it, try not to identify with it, and then, be mindful to not feed it or let it get tied to anything other than this present moment. It takes practice, and acceptance is key! Hopefully, over time, this will help you create a different relationship with your pain.

What's New

Schedule of Upcoming Offerings

WEEKLY CLASSES:

The January - February class session will begin January 9/10. Begin the New Year off right by joining a class!

To see the schedule of classes at Good Space Yoga, please go to:

http://goodspaceyoga.com/kathy-ornish-yoga-classes

SPECIAL CLASSES at GSY:

Second Thursday Monthly Meditation Group with K.O. or Guest

Jan 12 | Feb 9 | March 9 | April 13
6:00-7:00 pm, Cost: $5 each

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS at GSY:

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS OFFSITE WITH K.O. 
 

Yoga Sutra Study and Practice

with Kathy Ornish

Sunday - Monday, May 14-15, 2017

as part of the Sangha Yoga 500 Hr Teacher Training
Morning lecture and practices are available for drop-ins

Kalamazoo, MI

For more information:

http://www.sanghayoga.com/ryt500

Yoga Therapy for Stress and Anxiety: Overcoming the Causes of Our Suffering with Kathy Ornish
Saturday, November 4, 10:00-5:00 and
Sunday, November 5, 9:00-4:00

Michigan Yoga Association
Transformations In Kalamazoo, MI
http://www.myaweb.org/workshops.html

 

HOME PRACTICE

This handwritten practice uses an integrated combination of asana and breath adaptation to prepare for seated pranayama.

Throughout the practice there is an emphasis, while using Inhale or Retention, on lifting the chest, drawing the shoulders down and shoulder blades together or expanding the ribs, depending on the posture. Then you will be ready to experience the pranayama which will work you up to a two-part inhale. Enjoy!

Practice to Mobilize Upper Back and Ribs with Segmented Inhale Pranayama

INSPIRATION

Practicing the Dharma in Uncertain Times 
by Jack Kornfield

When times are uncertain, difficult, fearful, full of change,
they become the perfect place to deepen the practice of awakening.

After viewing the elections...whatever your point of view,
Take time to quiet the mind and tend to the heart.
Then go out and look at the sky.

Remember vastness, there are seasons to all things,
gain and loss, praise and blame, expansion and contraction.
Learn from the trees.
Practice equanimity and steadiness.

Remember the timeless Dharma amidst it all.
Think of the best of human goodness.
Let yourself become the beacon of integrity, with your thoughts, words and deeds.
Integrity in speech and action, virtue and non harming bring blessings.

Remember the Noble Truths, no matter the politics or the season:
Greed, hatred and ignorance cause suffering. Let them go.
Love, generosity and wisdom bring the end of suffering. Foster them.

Remember the Buddha's council,
"Hatred never ends by hatred but by love alone is healed."

This is the ancient and eternal law.

The human heart has freedom in itself to choose love, dignity and respect.
In every circumstance, embody respect and cultivate compassion for all.

Let yourself become a beacon of Dharma.
Amidst the changes, shine with courage and trust.
Love people and

This is your world. Plant seeds of goodness and water them everywhere.

Then blessings will grow for yourself and for all.