Treat yourself to great yoga and meditation in Pittsburgh!

You can purchase a 10-class card for $100 at Yoga Matrika and take advantage of a wide range of classes from Body & Mind (meditation and pranayama) to Honey Flow (combination of yin stretches for connective tissue and yang vinyasa flow) to more strength and flexibility focused classes like Yoga 2/3 and Matrika Flow.  Take 10-classes over these first 3-months of spring and you will help your body adjust to the change in seasons and look your best in your spring and summer little things (uhmmm—you can’t hide your big butt under that coat forever!).  Pittsburgh–this is guaranteed to be the best $100 you’ve ever spent.

When you invest in a yoga and meditation program, you will learn skills that you can use every single day to prevent and release stress.  Basically, you are making an investment in happiness, joy and feeling your best.  Since yoga and meditation can be practiced anywhere and everywhere, this is the ultimate in portable exercise and wellness programs.  Take your yoga to the beach or lake this summer, to your hikes in the woods.  Use yoga to strengthen the muscles you use for your favorite outdoor sports like tennis and golf.  Whatever activities you enjoy, you’ll be able to do them with greater ease and focus if you add a yoga practice to your wellness repertoire.

Yoga Matrika offers such a wide range of classes in different styles and levels, that there truly is a practice available for everyone.  You may think that you aren’t a “yoga type,”  but I bet you are!  Yoga Matrika is a very comfortable and non-competitive neighborhood studio.  In a yoga class, you will stretch from head to toe, take your spine in twists and from side to side and build strength in your legs, core and arms.  The physical exercises are called asana or “poses” and while they may be unfamiliar to beginners, they are all very natural movements for the body.  As a matter of fact, if you watch a 6-month old move around on the floor, you will see them do lots of these poses!  So, the yoga is a part of your body’s history and it is just a matter of remembering more than it is learning something completely new.

I invite you to spring clean your body and mind at Yoga Matrika!  http://www.matrikawellnesscenter.com

While you are at it, call Cara for an appointment for your $40 introductory 1-hour massage or Greg for your $75 1-hour introductory Thai Yoga Massage or $40 introductory 1-hour Shiatsu massage.  DELICIOUS!

See you soon at the Mat!
Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, Director and Owner of Yoga Matrika and the Matrika Wellness Center in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  For yoga studio information: http://www.yogamatrika.com.  For wellness center programs: http://www.matrikawellnesscenter.com.  For workshops and series: http://www.advancedyogapittsburgh.com.

6520 Wilkins Avenue
(Closest intersection is Beechwood Blvd. and Wilkins Avenue)
Pittsburgh, PA 15217

What made me so angry?  On ABC’s “Good Morning America,”  Bart Stupak, apparently just one of a dozen House Democrats who feel this way, has indicated that he is willing to block healthcare reform if it includes provisions that will pay for abortions.  What exactly did I feel so angry about?  Well, I think there’s a LIST of things actually, but most important is–EXACTLY WHO DOES THIS GROUP OF TWELVE REPRESENT?  Not only do I personally not feel represented, I am not sure that the planet I live on is represented.  By this, I am not suggesting that House Representative Stupak is from a different planet, I’m afraid we’re both standing on earth.  I mean that my sense of reality is a completely different worldview than that of Representative Stupak and the team of twelve that he so bravely “represented” on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”  Our government is based on the idea that each and every citizen has a voice that they exercise by voting for a representative who, will then, in term, represent the whole to the best of their ability.  But, what happens to this system of government, to this Democracy, when the representatives are more concerned with representing themselves than their constituents.

What Representative Stupak said was, “Let’s face it.  I want to see healthcare.  But we’re not going to bypass the principles of belief that we feel strongly about.”  What exactly are those principles of belief?  For me, this post is not how I feel about abortion or the use of federal dollars for abortion.  This post is how I feel that someone must represent women, children and famillies and we need leaders who are big enough to say, “I don’t like it, but abortion is legal.  As I am most dedicated to a healthcare plan that promotes the health of ALL women, children and families equally, I will vote for a healthcare plan that provides all legal services to all citizens that are required for their health and well-being.” While I think that the fact that Representative Stupak is a considerate man with a strong sense of moral right is positive attribute in a leader, I think that the idea that a PUBLIC REPRESENTATIVE is more dedicated to his own beliefs than he is to the public health is deplorable.

Here is where my passion comes in.  I honestly believe that anyone who stands in the way of healthcare is standing in the way of something that can not be stopped.  Eventually, the public will “win.”  The United States, according to the CIA World Factbook, in terms of  infant mortality, is the 46th safest country to have a baby in.  What does Representative Stupak think about all the lives of infants lost due to sub-standard or non-existant prenatal care?  Does he care as much about these born and dead as he does about the imagined?  I don’t even want to get into maternal mortality rates in the United States….what about these lives?  Are the lives of women part of Representative Stupak’s belief system?

Here is the problem.  I am sure that Representative Stupak and his team of twelve would be more than happy to explain their story to me.  Their belief system would seem just as other-worldly as my way of thinking seems to them.  This is where the yoga comes in.  No, I will not pray with passion that something mean, like a lifetime of fortune cookies with no fortune, happen to these representatives.  I pray with my body through asana, through my meditations on compassion and through every interaction I have with every human I interact with.  I pray for the authenticity and power of my spirit and my message to reach my representatives, wherever they are!

If you represent me, you represent life.  You represent an ability to express compassion towards all living things, especially living beings that are suffering.  If you represent me, it means that you have more power than I do and that, as my representative, you will use this power to communicate the multitude of voices that you represent.  If you represent me, you represent a woman who has chosen to create and carry life—a mother.  You represent someone who understands in her bones that to conceive is an act of faith and that a mother makes choices for herself and for her conceived that every man should pray in thanks tonight that he does not ever have to make.  To all the REPRESENTATIVES—–please, start doing your job and stop stalling!  The future of our country depends on your ability to set aside the petty vocabulary of the present, so you can, in good faith, plan for the future health of our country.

I found these here:

http://www.learningpeace.com/pages/newsletter_18.html

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Calming Exercise: The Magic Box

Have your children close their eyes, breathe deeply, and think about a place they’ve been that made them feel happy, peaceful and safe. Say, It can be as close as your own backyard, or far away as a vacation spot. Make sure each child has a peaceful place to focus on. Share ideas. If someone can’t think of one, have that child focus on the beach this time. An image of their own may come later.

Ask your children to close their eyes or look down and bring their peaceful place fully into their imaginations. Say, Picture every detail and pretend you’re back there now. Ask, What do you see, feel, hear, and smell? Allow time for the children to envision, letting the images expand and grow.

After a few minutes, say, Open your eyes and open your hand. (Model this part).
Say, In your hand is a magic box, and invisible magic box. Open the lid, reach into your imagination, and take out your peaceful place. Shrink it down until it is very tiny. Now put your peaceful place into your magic box. Close the lid and put your magic box into your pocket, and if you don’t have a pocket, put it in your shirt. Your magic box will be with your forever, and you will be able to use it whenever you want from this day on. Whenever you feel upset, angry, frightened, or tense, all you’ll need to do is reach into your pocket, pull out your magic box, open the lid, take out your peaceful place and put it into your imagination. Then close your eyes, breathe deeply, and let your peaceful place fill your imagination completely.

Follow-up: Your children can draw, paint, or write about their peaceful places. Hang up whatever they create to remind them of the power of their imaginations, and the power they have within to calm themselves.

Have your children make a list of several peaceful places they might want to put into their magic box. That way they’ll have a choice of places to envision.
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Calming Exercise: The Beach
Close your eyes and take a nice slow deep breath in through the nose. Bring your breath all the way down into your stomach. Gently expand your stomach like a balloon as you breathe in. Slowly release the breath and let your stomach shrink. Now take another slow deep breath in, expand your stomach, and slowly release it. One more time: breathe slowly in, and slowly out.

Continue breathing slowly and deeply. With your eyes closed. Pretend your mind is a movie screen. Nothing is on it except for the color blue, light blue. Now the blue becomes a big, full sky on a summer day. The sky is filled with fluffy white clouds and a shining yellow sun. Beneath the sky is the beach.

Walk onto the beach and feel the sand under your feet. It is soft and warm between your toes. Look out toward the ocean. The waves are very calm. Watch them roll in and roll out, in and out. Each time a wave rolls back to sea it leaves a shiny imprint on the sand. Touch the cool, wet sand.

Now let water cover your feet. It feels cool and refreshing. Put your hands in the water and feel the droplets of a wave splash on your body. Now walk into the water and let a tiny wave lift you up. You are floating. Another wave comes along and lifts you higher. Your body moves with the gentle motion of the water. And as you float you feel each wave rolling under you,

lifting you up

and lowering you gently down.

The water feels warm and soothing.

The sun shines on your face and arms.

You hear the sounds of seagulls,

you smell the salty water.

You feel a deep sense of peace as you float on the waves.

Now return to the shore. Rest on the beach and let the breeze calm you even more. When you open your eyes you will be perfectly calm and relaxed. This feeling will stay with you throughout the rest of your day and will follow you into your dreams.

Reprinted from Hope and Healing: Peaceful Parenting in an Uncertain World by Naomi Drew, 2002
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Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, owner and director of the magnificent Matrika Yoga in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Located on the border of the Squirrel Hill and Point Breeze neighborhoods of the City of Pittsburgh, Yoga Matrika offers drop-in classes, comprehensive stress reduction programs, massage and professional level workshops and trainings.  http://www.yogamatrika.com and http://www.advancedyogapittsburgh.com

It’s not easy to meditate!  Everyone can do it, but we have a lot of fancy ideas about what it means to meditate and these expectations are what makes meditation difficult.  So many of my students tell me that they have a terrible time just sitting still and that they can’t stand the way their thoughts jump around or their feet fall asleep or……….this is why Yoga Matrika’s meditation practices include:

1-Gentle yoga and physical movements to open and calm the body to prepare for seated meditation

2-Breathing exercises to focus the mind and cleanse the energy channels in the body of anger, hatred and other un-productive energies that might interfere with meditation

3-We sit in calm abiding–sometimes with a focus on the breath, sometimes on sensation in the body and sometimes practicing a guided visualization or other meditation techniques

So many of us have become addicted to yoga as a physical practice that it can be a great challenge to dive into these deeper waters of exploration.  Students who require a gentle yoga practice will find that this class meets all their needs.  Students who are used to more physically challenging classes will find that they need to wrestle with their attachment to yoga being defined in a particular way and will notice that, over time, their more physically challenging practices become another expression of calm abiding rather than a battle between effort and ease.  There may seem to be an irony in the idea that in order to become more advanced you need to slow down, but only if you hold tight to a certain set of ideas about the relationship between hard work and getting good results.  Even more, you may see that holding a state of calm abiding may be the hardest yoga practice you’ve ever had!

In our practice at Yoga Matrika, we use a nine-part cleansing breath from Insight Yoga, but there are MANY versions on this similar theme.  In his book titled, How to See Yourself as You Really Are, His Holiness the Dalai Lama provides instructions that are very easy to follow.  This is a simple practice to add to the start of your day, the start of your yoga practice, before you pick your children up at daycare or before you go to bed–basically, anytime!  Use it when you need to clear your energy so that you can relate with ease and calm to the people and situation at hand.

A Special Breathing Practice (from pages 95-96)

Step 1:

Inhale deeply through the right nostril while putting pressure on the left nostril with your left thumb.  Then, release the left nostril and press your right nostril closed with your left middle finger, exhaling through the left nostril.  Do this THREE times.

Step 2:

Inhale deeply through the left nostril by continuing to press the right nostril closed with your left middle finger; then release the right nostril and press your left nostirl closed with your left thumb, exhaling through the right nostril.  Do this THREE times.

Step 3:

Relax both hands in your lap and inhale deeply through both nostrils and exhale deeply through both nostrils.  Do this THREE times.

Stay focused on your breath through all nine cleansing breaths.  Feel light, open and free of any negative thoughts or emotions that might interfere with your most altruistic motivations.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama
2006    How to See YOURSELF as You Really Are.  Translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins.  Atria Books: New York.

Live in or near Pittsburgh, try one of our gentle, yet very challenging STRETCH, BREATHE, MEDITATE classes and explore the mind.  http://www.matrikawellnesscenter.com

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, owner and director of http://www.yogamatrika.com in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15217.  Great yoga and meditation in the heart of some of Pittsburgh’s most beautiful residential neighborhoods.

The dedication of the book reads “It is over.”  which gives a strong hint to the reader that their experience with time is about to get shook-up and turned on its head.  How can it be over when the reader has just begun?

“But how can it be over before anything has started?  And can anything really start?  To start something     implies it will go on, will end.  That is the movement of time.  But is there truth in this sense of movement?  To start something is to step into time, and to step into time is to step out from reality into an   insubstantial world of images, of language.  Therefore, to start, to go on, to be over–may all be equally illusory. (3).”

I have been finding this radical approach to time to be helpful both in waiting out this month of record snow fall and in how I am viewing my academic pursuits.  It seems that there will never be an end to this snow and the challenges that it creates.  And, on most days, I am not sure that I can recall how I got on this academic wheel and I certainly don’t see an end in sight.  Yet, if there was never a beginning or an end to either this weather or my pursuit of a Ph.D, then I am free to just be here today—-looking out at the beautiful snowscape from my window and reading and writing and thinking.

In the Gesture of Awareness, the exploration is of the way that “physical sensations never depart from the nature of awareness.  The body is the main place of inquiry….  The body knows itself not as this sensation, or as that sensation, but as pure presence.” (11)  When yoga students are asked to become aware of sensation in the body, this is an incredibly challenging request and one that both instructors and students need to respect.  The first challenge is that, in so many cases, we are required to become numb to our bodily sensations or we have been taught that our bodies are shells for the more important things that we do as driven by our brains and the wants and needs that these brains create.  The second, and perhaps greater challenge is that it is so very hard to define precisely what “awareness” is.  How exactly does someone become aware of sensations in their body?  What is used to become aware—the brain, the mind?  And, what exactly is the mind anyway?  Where is it located and how do I use it in my sensation-seeking activities?

Genoud asks us if we are using meditation as a way to simply distract ourselves from life (27).  If so, then he questions the value of a practice that takes us away from life (27): “If meditation takes us away from life, what is the use of meditation? (27).”  Genoud asks if we can be open in our meditation, “Can we be open in our meditation–can we be open as we walk or touch another?  What does it mean to be open?”  (31).

Every page of this beautiful book is a gem and I highly recommend it to meditators, students of yoga, instructors of yoga and meditation and anyone who wishes to be inspired to see the body in a different way.  The ideas are profound, but presented in simple statements and phrases so that the reader can use this text for a lifetime of growth, peace and exploration of the body, soul and time.

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, owner and director of the Matrika Wellness Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania http://www.matrikawellnesscenter.com and the community-based yoga studio, Yoga Matrika, also in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania http://www.yogamatrika.com.

Find information about purchasing the book here:

http://www.wisdom-books.com/ProductDetail.asp?PID=16150

Another review is here:

http://www.wildmind.org/blogs/book-reviews/gesture-of-awareness-by-charles-genoud

This storm has brought tremendous strain, including financial strain, emotional strain and physical injuries to many adults, children, families and animals in our area.  There has been loss of life.

Please remain mindful when driving, be generous with one another and support your local small businesses as much as possible.  Be especially kind to the elderly and to young families who have been forced to find alternative childcare arrangements, lose work hours and spend way too much time with young children in confined spaces.

Stay safe and use any frustration or fears that you have as a direct connection to all living things that might be having these challenges.  We are all connected and these challenges are neither unique or permanent.

Yoga isn’t just what you do on your mat, it is also a way of living that calls on us to  honor our deep connection to all living things.   This snow will melt, but if we can use this opportunity to connect with humanity and offer generosity and care whenever possible, then the positive impact of this storm will last infinitely.

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk
Owner and Director of Yoga Matrika, an intimate, community-based yoga studio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylania.

http://www.matrikawellnesscenter.com

CIRCLES of STRENGTH
A Workshop for Women
Facilitated by Linda Meacci, RYT

February 20, 2010
2:00 to 4:00 pm
$25 in advance/$35 at the door

Does a fog of unworthiness shroud your spirit?  Does courage elude you when the going gets tough?  Do you see life as a timeline that is full of obligations and pressures? Do you struggle to be fully present in this moment?

This workshop, designed just for women, will guide you to:
*  Learn safe ways to build overall body strength
*  Integrate the dance of stability and freedom
*  Channel emotional energy in healthy ways
*  Increase self-confidence
*  Tap into your creative source
*  Appreciate the circular nature of life experiences on and off the mat

This well-balanced practice will blend the yin and the yang–flexibility and strength.  Proper alignment will be emphasized in strength poses such as Caturanga-Dandasana (half plank), and Vasisthasana (side plank) and also in flexibility poses such as Setu-Bandhasana (bridge) and Urdhva-Dhanarasana (wheel).  We will move through sun salutes and warrior postures with stira (steadiness) and sukham (ease).  Backbends will be explored with a focus on stability.  Hip openers will coax the emotional body to release.  We will quiet ourselves with a restorative Savasana.  Find what supports YOUR practice and frees your spirit.  Step into courage.  Bring what you discover into all circles of Life.

You see, that’s the problem with having an answer to everything—-you miss opportunities for reaching a greater understanding.  In this case, I was incredibly inspired by the clarity of this student’s practice and she taught me a lot about mindfulness.  So, thank you dear student, and hope you come back soon!

What I realised is that what I don’t know about mindfulness is a lot.  While there are so very many things that I hope that my Mindful Flow classes mean, the real mindfulness is in the interpretation.  I asked my student to choose an intention for her practice and to anchor that intention with awareness of the breath or awareness of sensation in the body.  As we moved through the Vajra Opening series, I made some slight adjustments and made requests of the student to move in different ways or experiment with various modifications. 

I was delighted to watch as this student’s mind literally moved from place to place in her body and she fully explored each asana.  Thanks to this student and her beautiful practice, I realised that it is possible to see mind.   A great gift to a yoga teacher on a snowy night after a long week of being indoors. 

I received a similar gift through my dear friend and colleague on the teaching team at Yoga Matrika, Kristie Lindblom.  She posted a beautiful entry in her blog about how she is personally experiencing this long week of a storm and nature enforced hibernation.  Again, a new lesson on mindfullness.  By staying present in the moment, Kristie rides out the storm, the cabin fever and the heavy nature of this weather.  Her mindfulness includes all of the wonderful things that are growing, changing, transforming and preparing for birth right under our very feet in this very moment.

Thank you dear student and Kristie for the lessons in mindfulness. 

When in Pittsburgh, study Mindful Flow with Sharon Rudyk at Yoga Matrika.  Don’t worry, when there hasn’t been a recent snowfall of over 20 inches, there’s normally more than one student! So, not everyone gets watched so closely.

Posted by Sharon Rudyk
Owner and Director of Yoga Matrika

http://www.matrikawellnesscenter.com
http://www.prenatalyogapittsburgh.com
http://www.yogamatrika.com

Check-out Kristie’s Blog entry here:

http://searchingforsattva.blogspot.com/