University of Pittsburgh Yoga
Yoga Matrika welcomes all University of Pittsburgh students and faculty to our yoga studio in Squirrel Hill. Just a hop, skip and a jump (with busses stopping less than a block away from the studio) from Oakland. We offer a special discount for new students: $10 for 10-classes (valid for 10-consecutive days). After this new student package has expired, we offer a $50 for 7-classes package for full-time students and a variety of economical memberships for adults who are not in school full time. Finally, our weekend classes, starting with Friday’s 5:30pm Happy Hour Yoga, are all by donation. We welcome everyone regardless of your ability to pay or touch your toes to all of our weekend classes!
Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, owner and director of Yoga Matrika, an intimate community-based studio on Wilkins Avenue on the border of the Squirrel Hill and Point Breeze neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. http://www.yogamatrika.com/
Spring Clean Body & Mind
All this great sun and the first little peek at some bulbs starting to rise from the earth here in Pittsburgh makes me think that it is time to refresh the elemental qualities of earth and air in my own body ecology. While I am sure that I have a significant bias, I’d like to offer what I think is both an economical plan and one that will offer wellness benefits for anyone who participates—-
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
Teaching Children Peace
When I was young, not sure how old, but definitely younger than 11 since my memory of this activity includes me in the bunkbed that I shared with my sister in a small room in an apartment in Brooklyn, my mother obtained a book of guided visualizations for children. This was probably my first experience with meditation and I still remember the very calm way I would enter sleep after one of those “stories.” I was searching for this book online and haven’t found it, but I did find the following two guided visualizations for children online. If anyone knows about a book of guided visualizations just for children, please feel free to comment on this post. ENJOY!
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
Welcome Julika!
WELCOME JULIKA LOMAS
Pittsburgh’s yoga community is fortunate to have a new yogini in town. Yoga Matrika is delighted to welcome Julika Lomas to our community specifically and to Pittsburgh in general. Julika Lomas will be offering a Core Challenge Vinyasa Flow class on Tuesdays from 8:15 to 9:30am and on Sundays from 7:30 to 8:45 pm. This will be our most physically challenging yoga class with an emphasis on building strength and toning the entire body. Enjoy this sweaty and intelligent vinyasa flow class with creative vinyasa series and an energetic flow that is sure to keep you joyful and restored–no matter how grey, icy or cold it may be outside!
Please come and try a class with Julika. Introduce yourself and get ready for a real treat of a class. She starts this Sunday, January 24th at 7:30pm. Bring your mat, water bottle and a towel and get ready to FLOW.
About Julika:
After an inspiring journey in various mind and body arts (e.g., fencing, progressive muscle relaxation and M.A. in psychology), I have started my vigorous yoga practice in 2008. Wonderful teachers like Gerhard Gessner, Jeanie Carlstead and Amanda McCarroll inspired my spiritual and physical growth in a beautiful San Diego studio. In 2009, I became a registered yoga teacher at Prana Yoga Center. The same year I experienced the beauty of my pregnant body in various asanas. Yoga is opening my heart for this world every day. My teaching is honoring styles such as Vinyasa flow and Anusara-inspired yoga. I believe in paying attention to details, such as enhancing a student’s pose with hands-on adjustments or paralleling breath and movement. In my classes, I will present students at all skill levels a rigorous and restoring yoga experience. Each class includes meditation and pranayama to frame the yoga practice into a holistic experience.
Posted by Sharon Rudyk
Owner of Yoga Matrika located in Point Breeze, Pittsburgh
6520 Wilkins Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
http://www.yogamatrika.com/