Cardio Yoga
I am absolutely delighted to announce that Aleta Howard will be joining the Yoga Community and offering her unique YBB (Yoga Booty Ballet) classes starting February 2nd and through the spring. What is YBB? On the schedule, we are calling it Cardio Yoga. If you think that “yoga” means traditional asana, then you might feel that YBB is more of an exercise class and wonder what it is doing on a yoga studio schedule.
Well, first of all, YBB combines some elements of Hatha yoga that will be recognizable to yogis who do have experience with more traditional yoga classes that are based on asana. Second, YBB includes yoga kriya from the Kundalini tradition and the creation and support of a personal intention is an important part of each and every class. Third, what is yoga? While this is a deeper issue that would require both a lifetime of examination and certainly a much more respectful examination than I can offer here, I would like to suggest that expressing the body with joy, opening and strengthening the heart and learning to hold an intention through an activity are most certainly yoga. It may not be what you have come to expect, but it might be just what you need!
Here is the official description of Yoga Booty Ballet from the creators of this style:
Yoga Booty Ballet is a fun, sexy and spirited workout that will leave you feeling refreshed and inspired. Work your body, engage your mind and lighten your spirit as you practice this East-meets-West amalgam of meditation, cardiovascular dance, ballet, Kundalini and hatha yoga.The results are immediate and long term. Students consistently complete class feeling better about themselves than when they arrive.
The meditation element serves to focus busy minds as well as awaken dull ones. The dance portion improves cardiovascular endurance, promoting weight loss and improved body composition. The ballet section increases strength and agility, building muscle and bone density. The yoga sections promote flexibility, balance and inner wellness. Classes are fun and easy to follow, designed to draw out individual self-expression in a comfortable, non-competitive environment.Various dance styles explored include jazz, hip hop, burlesque, Latin, Bollywood, go-go, and more.
Really, try one of these classes, at least once. For those readers who know me, you know that I am both directionally challenged and learning patterns of body movements is difficult for me. The first time I tried Aleta’s class, I was really nervous because I was truly afraid that I would get lost and not be able to fully participate. About 10-minutes into class I was having the time of my life. I was smiling and moving and sweating and truly enjoying the music and the joyful movements. Was I going right sometimes while everyone else went left? Yes, but, the truth is that it just didn’t matter. Aleta does not even suggest that there is a right or wrong way to do anything and she provides enthusiastic support for participating in this class in whatever way you are able. Once I released the pressure I was putting on myself through my own ego, this is when I started having fun.
Yoga Matrika provides a non-competitive and intimate environment where you can feel safe trying something new. If I didn’t think that Aleta was wonderful or that these classes weren’t a fabulous addition to our current offerings, then I wouldn’t be putting them on the schedule. Especially if you are looking for a class that will help with weight loss or weight management or you need to combine your yoga with your cardio workouts, then you are going to love this class.
When can you try our new Cardio Yoga classes with Aleta?
Friday Night Yoga Dance Parties
Friday, January 27
7:00-8:15 pm
Friday, February 24
7:00-8:15 pm
Friday, March 23
7:00-8:15 pm
Thursday nights, Starting February 2, 2012
5:30 to 6:45 pm
Saturday afternoons, Starting March 3, 2012
12:00 to 1:15 pm
Classes are $15 to drop-in or you can use your current class package. Packages are 4-classes for $50 or 8-classes for $80. We also offer a discounted student package of 5-classes for $35. Please enroll online to save your space. These special classes are going to be very popular and you don’t want to miss out!
Posted by Sharon Rudyk, Director of Yoga Matrika, an intimate space for yoga and healing work in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. Come join us!
What is Restorative Yoga?
Restorative yoga is a practice that brings the energy of the body into balance, releases deeply held tension and calms the nervous system. In this yoga practice, there are gentle movements, breathing exercises and physical poses that are held for five-minutes or longer with the support of blankets, pillows and other props. These longer held poses allow the body to release into the pose with support so there is no physical strain or effort. In this way, the practitioner receives the full benefit of the pose without creating any additional stress in the body or on the nervous system.
This type of practice is counter-intuitive to adults who have come to think that more effort, more work, more sweat and more pain means more and better results. One of the greatest challenges of restorative yoga is accepting the fact that doing less brings the most significant transformation in the body and mind. This is not a gentle, wimpy or easy practice! Restorative yoga is a gentle unfolding of the damage we do to our bodies each and every day through emotional stress, through our repetitive actions and by ignoring the signs of exhaustion, un-ease and chronic pain. Athletes will find that restorative yoga is the most excellent compliment to their activity as it eases the joints and can help heal chronic and minor injuries that would otherwise prevent a quick return to a favorite sport or activity. If you tend to enjoy a more athletic yoga practice, such as Ashtanga Vinyasa or power flow practices, then restorative yoga can help deepen your practice. Yogis of all styles will find that their endurance and strength actually improves through a regular practice of restorative yoga.
At Yoga Matrika, our restorative yoga classes are a combination of mindfulness meditation, healing movement and stretching. No experience with yoga or meditation in any tradition or style is required. Beginners are always welcome to this safe, supportive and non-competitive environment. This is a practice that is equally as wonderful for students with injuries or chronic illness as it is for the healthiest and most robust athlete. The “results” of a regular practice can’t be predicted, but they will be positive and significant. It may be that you have had shoulder pain for most of your adult life and, after two months of restorative yoga practices, you find that your pain is diminished and your range of motion increased. Or, you may genuinely believe that you are a very balanced person without pain, but slowly realize that, with a regular restorative yoga practice, that you lose your temper less often and feel more compassionate towards others—-you might just find that you are happier!
We provide all of the equipment that you need for your practice, but encourage all students in all classes to bring their own yoga mat. We have mats for you to use if you need one, but mats are really a personal use item. Try not to practice yoga on a full stomach, but it is fine to have a small snack (banana and yogurt, a bowl of cereal, etc.) an hour or so before practice if you are very hungry. Wear comfortable, stretchy clothing in layers so that you can wear less when you are moving and put on a layer or two when you are going to relax into a pose for a longer period of time. You may want to bring a water bottle with you.
Join us at 6:00pm on Mondays, starting January 10, 2011, at Yoga Matrika for this unique yoga practice for all levels. Your instructor is Sharon Fennimore Rudyk. If you have questions about this practice or would like more information, please call Sharon directly at (412) 855-5692 or see our New Student FAQ.
This post was written by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, the owner and director of Yoga Matrika, an intimate, community-based yoga studio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: http://www.yogamatrika.com/. For information on prenatal and postnatal programs, please see: http://www.matrikaprenatal.com.
Yoga and Hope
In the March 2010 issue of ODE Magazine, there is a thought provoking article, Great Expectations: How hope therapy can help banish mild mood disorders and boost happiness, by Catherine Ryan. Among the many things that I started to think about was the way that yoga promotes hope.
What precisely is hope? Hope is a subtle sensation and state of being, sometimes an emotion, that provides a vague sense that something other than what “is” can be possible. It provides the foundation for every change, every decision and every transition that we find ourselves on the other side of. Without hope, the capacity to love, to move, to grow or to change is stifled and the great shadow of fear and doubt can overwhelm us. Hope is sometimes confused as faith, but although these both require one another, they are quite different. In order to act on hope, one must have faith in the potentially positive outcome of one’s actions. In order to have faith, there must be a song of hope in one’s heart or the faith grows hard like the stone of dogma.
The kind of hope that provides a boost to happiness is based on the idea that change happens. Those of us who practice yoga regularly are able to experience this on our mats in every practice. As we move through asana (poses) or pranayama (breathing), it is impossible not to notice that each breath is different, each moment of holding an asana or transition between the asana creates different sensation. Some of these sensations and changes in the breath are not welcome! But, we become uniquely aware through a practice that nothing is the same. If you have not practiced yoga before, this may sound terrifying. But, if you practice regularly, you are nodding your head and perhaps even smiling as you acknowledge the profound sense of liberation that this type of awareness creates. None of us are stuck. Not only do we have the capacity to change, but change is our natural state of being.
According to the psychologists who provided the data for the ODE article, “Hope, as defined by psychologists, is the belief that you have the skills and energy to make your dreams a reality (Ryan 2010: 53).” They suggest that our current emotional state is often determined by our expectations for the future (Ryan 2010: 53). In general, the idea is that hopeful people are happier (53). If this is the case, then one of the best ways that we can cultivate happiness is to cultivate hope. Research also seems to indicate that building high expectations doesn’t set you up for a harder fall (Ryan 2010:54). In fact, high-hopers seem uniquely prepared to bounce back after a fall due to their ability to quickly evaluate a situation and make changes (54). Yoga can play a role here too. What we learn in our practice on the mat is that when we feel something “not quite right” we take a moment to breathe into it. If things don’t change, then sometimes all we need is a soft blanket under our hip, or a block under our hand and, voila!, it feels just right. What we realize is that it isn’t that we aren’t doing a pose “right” or “wrong,” but rather that a simple modification can create an “ah ha!” moment out of an “uh-oh.”
Yoga also helps us learn how to set specific and achievable goals. Apparently, for adults who do not have high-hopes, one of the first steps of hope therapy is to learn how to set a specific and achievable goal (Ryan 2010: 54). In open level yoga classes, some students can do some amazing things with balance, with their strength, with their energy and some students struggle to just sit on their mat or lie still in savasana—yet they are all doing yoga. When we first start out, we realize immediately that, while yoga shouldn’t be goal oriented, we can determine the types of goals that are and are not achievable. It would not be realistic to think that we could come into an advanced balancing pose if we struggle to maintain balance in Warrior I, but it is not unrealistic to think that we can become more aware of our balance and the position of our feet in relationship to the earth. We also find that great happiness and the complete benefit of the practice is available to us no matter what the poses look like. After class, the person who could do a handstand in the middle of the room—feels great. The person who did child’s pose for most of the class—feels great. A regular yoga practice shows us that there is great benefit in simply being present. If that isn’t hope, then I don’t know what is.
REFERENCES
Ryan, Catherine
Great Expectations: How hope therapy can help banish mild mood disorders and boost happiness. IN Ode Magazine, March 2010, pages 53-54.
Written and posted by Sharon Rudyk, Owner and Director of Yoga Matrika located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Cabin Fever & Yoga in Pittsburgh
There was one very brave student at tonight’s class. She was new to Yoga Matrika and was curious about what the class title, Mindful Yoga, really meant. I prattled on about Vajra Yoga and not making a distinction between asana practice and meditation and how we create a moving meditation through our practice……….but during our practice together, I started to question the whole thing entirely.
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/
Special Topics Series w/Anna Gilbert
Special Topics Series with Anna Gilbert
10/14, 10/28, 11/11, 12/9
Wednesdays from 7:15 pm to 8:15 pm
$34 for the series of 4-workshops or $12 to drop-in
10/14 From Kitty Cat to Wagging Dog: Exploring the Spine in Asana
10/28 Is Your Triangle a Rectangle? Explore the Side Body in Asana
11/11 Are you Ready to Rumble? Explore Alignment in Warrior Pose
12/9 Let’s Twist! Explore spirals in seated and standing Asana
More information on topics and to register here:
http://dharmatribeonline.com/matrika/index.php?tab=event_detail&event_id=1704&class_type=session
Posted by Sharon Rudyk, Director of Yoga Matrika in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
http://www.yogamatrika.com/
Make a Poem of your Flesh
“This is what you should do: love the earth and the sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men…re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss what insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem.”
WALT WHITMAN
Whitman suggests here what every yogi knows–the choices we make with our mind are reflected in our bodies. This is beauty. You know when you are in the room with beauty. Thinking back on all the beauties you have been around you know that it isn’t the type of beauty that Cover Girl is selling that sticks with you. The beauty that you see in others is their poem and the memory of it is a song that vibrates through your own body poem.
As we move through various asana (yoga poses), we have an opportunity to try on different characters and ways of moving and being in the world. One minute a warrior, then next a dog—only to transform with just one breath into a pigeon and end up a cheeky little monkey. Through this experiment, we find that we can listen to the poem of our body. Sometimes, the poem rides the rhythm of the breath. Other times, it is our grunts and the sounds of our effort. Crow or cow face, there is no yogi in history that does not come up against some darkness. Sometimes, the poem of our bodies in practice is a ballad uncomfortably narrated by cellular memories we have not before dared to expose. Sometime, the poem of our bodies is like going out for dessert at midnight. Delicious.
Here is a simple way to listen to your body and get in touch with the poem of your flesh:
Lie down on your back somewhere comfortable. Before you lie down, take off your shoes and socks, watch and release your hair from any clips or bands. Place one hand over your heart and the other hand over your navel. Feel the rise of your body as you take an in breath. Feel your navel drop down towards your spine as you exhale. Do this for as long as you like. The mind will wander, but you don’t need to follow it. As soon as you notice that your attention has drifted away from feeling the breath move through the body, you just return to watching your next in breath.
When you feel ready, bring your awareness to the soles of your feet. As you inhale, feel the energy of the breath enter through your feet. Relax the space between your toes, ankles and the bones in your feet. Feel the connection of your palm to your heart and your palm to your navel center. There was once a time when you received all of your information about the world and all that sustained you through your navel. Allow this breath moving through your feet and palms to remind you of your origins, your roots.
Inhale a deep breath as you release your hands and bring your arms up over your head. STRETCH and reach through your arms and hands as you point your toes. Hug your knees in to your chest and rock from side to side.
Come up to sit for a moment. See how you feel. If your flesh was a poem now, what would it be?
Keep up with the poetry Pittsburgh yogis!
Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk
Director, Yoga Matrika in Pittsburgh, PA
http://www.yogamatrika.com/