Winter/Spring 2014

AT A GLANCE

CLASS SCHEDULE

HOME PRACTICE

YOGA THERAPY

INSPIRATION

"...a clear and peaceful mind is the ground for joyful living." Swami Rama

BEGINNING MEDITATION WITH K.O.

Thursdays, 

Jan 23, 30, Feb 6, and Feb 20

(4 weeks)

5:30-7:00 pm

Cost: $70

Learn how to begin a home mantra meditation practice.

Please see further description in body of this newsletter or on the website. 

Class size is limited to 10 so please pre-register.

Google Map link

SESSION
DISCOUNT

Refer a friend to the Yoga for Health class and, if they sign up, you will receive $20 toward your next class or private yoga session.

Share the beauty and breadth of yoga and, as always, I appreciate your continued support!

FEATURED

Gratitude, Contentment, Joy

As we move into the New Year, we tend to focus on change - change of the seasons as well as some form of resolution. What would it mean to spend more time feeling gratitude, contentment, and joy?

To me, gratitude is an active practice, something you both do and feel. What would it mean if we consistently thought of things for which we were grateful? What would it mean if we consistently felt a heart filled with gratitude? There are so many small and large things throughout every day for which to be grateful.

• Take a moment to think of two things right now for which you are grateful. It can be something simple like a small act of kindness directed to you, or it can be something more significant like your spouse. 
• For the next two weeks, pick different things throughout each day for which to actively feel grateful. Recommit to this after two weeks for a certain amount of time.

I've always thought of contentment as a state of mind where no matter what is happening outside ourselves, all is still well. Stress, loss, or illness, abundance, good fortune or health - what would it mean if we looked out into the world with eyes of contentment irrespective of what is happening outside us? What would it mean to cultivate our deepest inner levels of contentment where the mind is free from desires?

• Do some breathing or meditation and see if you can connect with that deep stillness inside you where the mind is tranquil.
• See if you can identify more with this than with the mind's fluctuations or desires. 

Joy has always seemed the hardest to achieve or define, but I think of it as super contentment, where you feel the deepest and fullest sense of contentment. The yogic teaching says that this is an innate part of us, albeit the most subtle. What would life be like if we were connected to this potential for unending joy that lies within us?

Kahlil Gibran says, "Work is love made visible." I feel such gratitude to all of my students for allowing me the opportunity to teach what I love.

Wishing you and yours a New Year filled with gratitude, contentment and joy!

Yours, in service,

KO

WHAT'S NEW

Schedule of Upcoming Classes

Good Space Yoga is very excited to welcome Ann Lapo to the teaching line-up. She will be offering a special once per month workshop called Yoga for Life. Please see listing below for more details.

We will also be offering the the redesigned periodic Meditation Group with K.O. and Amy's Restorative Yoga Workshops, as well as a new Beginning Meditation four week class.

Please go to Good Space Yoga for a description of the classes and workshops, as well as the full weekly class schedule.

To see the January - February class schedule, go to:

http://goodspaceyoga.com/classes-yoga.html

Yoga International has been filming some videos of me (more to come!) and I've added links below so you can practice along at home. Check my website in the future for more.

Become a fan on Facebook! I post links to articles of interest, inspirational quotes, updates about events, and notes about various experiences. 

http://www.facebook.com/goodspaceyoga

SPECIAL OFFERINGS:

Beginning Meditation with K.O.

Thursdays, January 23, 30, Feb 6, & 20 (4 weeks)

5:30-7:00 pm, Cost: $70

Learn how to begin a home meditation practice. Systematic methods for mantra meditation and stress reduction are covered each week. Many relaxation and concentration techniques, as well as gentle physical warm-ups, are explored to prepare the body and mind for sitting. Group discussion, lectures on lifestyle, and yoga philosophy are included. Class size limited to 10.

Yoga for Life Series Details: Discover - Explore - Connect with Ann Lapo

Mondays - 6:30-8:00pm,

Cost: $15 each or $50 for Jan-April series

Jan 27: Renew and Reflect: Cultivate your creative compass Feb 24: Gratitude and Greatness

Mar 24: Courage and Compassion

Apr 21: Silence, Simplicity, Sustainability 

Take time to do what you love. Make a deeper connection with yourself as we experience the yoga of life together -- You'll enjoy pose sequences, breathing awareness, meditation practices, discussion, poetry and music. These workshops are recommended for individuals with at least 6 weeks yoga experience and a curiosity about bringing yoga more fully into their daily life.

Meditation Group with K.O. - format change

Restorative Yoga with Amy Noren - note time change

Thursdays, Feb 13, March 13 and April 24, 6:45-8:00 pm 

Cost: $10 each

Restorative Yoga allows space to deeply relax, renewing health, wellness, and vitality. Holding fewer poses with many props creates a safe space to deeply release tention thereby enlivening every cell. No yoga experience is necessary, however, the ability to get up and down from the floor is helpful. Focus is on individual comfort. 

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS OF INTEREST:

Chakras and Your Health with Kathy Ornish

Himalayan Institutute, Honesdale, Pennsylvania

Friday - Sunday, February 28, 2014 - March 2, 2014

http://yogainternational.com/events/view/chakras-and-your-health

Five Dimensions, One Self: Exploring the Pancamaya Koshas with Kathy Ornish

Himalayan Institutute in Honesdale, Pennsylvania

Friday - Sunday, June 6 - 8, 2014 http://yogainternational.com/events/view/five-dimensions-one-self-exploreing-the-panchamaya-koshas

NEW ON-LINE VIDEOS AND AUDIOS OF K.O.
 

Asana and Pranayama for Anxiety and Concentration

Panchamaya Kosha: A Guided Meditation

Home Practice

Here's an intermediate balance practice to do at home. Remember to stay calm and focused and at ease while practicing balance poses - it's easy to hold the breath and lose focus in the midst of the challenge. Enjoy!

Remember, old practices, newsletters, and recipes can be found on my website's goodspaceyoga.com/homepractice webpage. Enjoy!

Balance Practice

Yoga Therapy

Special Offer: Sign-up for a 6-8 week class session and get your first yoga therapy session for $40/hr (regularly $80/hr).

What is Yoga Therapy?

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

Please see my Yoga Therapy webpage for more information.
 

Inspiration

by Michael Leunig

We give thanks for places of simplicity and peace.
Let us find such a place within ourselves.

We give thanks for places of refuge and beauty.
Let us find such places within ourselves.

We give thanks for places of nature's truth and freedom of joy, inspiration, and renewal, places where all creatures may find acceptance and belonging.

Let us search for these places in the world, in ourselves, and in others. 
Let us restore them. Let us strengthen and protect them and let us create them. 

May we mend this outer world according to the truth of our inner life, and may our hearts and souls be shaped and nourished by nature's eternal wisdom.