One of my most wonderful yoga instructors in New York, Cate Bruce-Low, does the most creative and beautiful activities with children and documents her most excellent recipees for cooking with children and ideas for keeping in touch with nature (even in the most urban of environments!). Check out her blog for some inspiration:
http://tribecayummymummy-cate.blogspot.com/2010/04/planting-spring-is-here.html
If you love the digeridoo and yoga, then these fabulous workshops being hosted by the Yoma Room later this month look unique and wonderful. The Yoma Room is a very supportive friend of Yoga Matrika and I hope you will consider a trip out there for these workshops. Check out the Yoma Room here: http://www.yomaroom.com
Friday, April 30th
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Journeying Through the Chakras
This lecture is designed to introduce the novice as well as the experienced healthy living seeker to concepts that include:
What is a Chakra? Location of Chakras?
What is a Meridian? What are the Dantiens?
How are the Chakra, Dantiens and Meridian systems similar?
How are Chakras, Dantiens and Meridians interconnected?
What are energetic stagnations? What are emotional stagnations?
How does the health of my energetic body effect the physical body?
What illnesses are rooted in particular chakras/organ energies?
General Q and A
Chakra Meditation:
Joseph has a collection of very unique didgeridoos that give him the ability to change the note or key of the instrument while he plays (slide didgeridoos) as well as a complete set of keyed Eucalyptus didgeridoos in each note of the chakra system. The ability to access the various notes of the chakra system enables him to provide a meditative journey that not only reconnects the mind with body but also allows an individual to journey and meditate within each Chakra.
Participants are encouraged to bring meditation oils of their preference.
Where: Yoma Room, 170 West Main Street, Saxonburg, PA 16056
Cost: $45.00
Please Pre-register with payment by
April 24: (724) 352-9454, www.YomaRoom.com
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Saturday, May 1st
9:30 am – 11:00 am
Yoga with the Didgeridoo ~ a Sound Healing Experience
Experience the Healing Sounds of Didgeridoo.
You will be guided through a flowing sequence of yoga postures and movements as Joseph will play the didgeridoo throughout the room and directly around you.
The gentle, organic progression of this class has a powerful yet meditative quality, which inspires you to explore more deeply your own experience in the moment.
Didgeridoo harmonics produce sound waves that affect the “whole” body, including your ethereal being. Coupled with Yoga with the Didgeridoo brings your body and mind to a state of deep relaxation, self-healing and personal consciousness.
Where: Yoma Room, 170 West Main Street, Saxonburg, PA 16056
Cost: $25.00
Please Pre-register with payment by April 24: (724) 352-9454, www.YomaRoom.com
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Saturday, May 1st
12:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Sound Therapy *Entrainments with Joseph Carringer
30 Minute Entrainment: This session provides an environment for the client to reach a deep
meditative state where they can reconnect with their own self-healing abilities. During this session
multiple different didgeridoos are played over the clients chakra system and there corresponding
meridian points to help clear stagnation.
1 Hour Entrainment: This session is recommended for clients clearing deep energetic stagnations
that have manifested in the forms of with PTSD, Chronic Fatigue Fibromyalgia, Cancer and other
related chronic illnesses. It can also be used for deep shamanic journeying and meditation.
*Entrainment — The process by which the powerful rhythmic vibrations of one object are projected upon
a second object with a similar frequency, thereby causing that object to vibrate in resonance with the first.
“The Healing Power of Sound”, Mitchell Gaynor, MD
Where: Yoma Room, 170 West Main Street, Saxonburg, PA 16056
Cost: 30 Minute Entrainment – $75.00, 1 Hour Entrainment – $150
Please Pre-register: (724) 352-9454, www.YomaRoom.com
Hey Pittsburgh! Don’t be afraid of a little rain……spring is here and all our little blooming friends need a sweet drink. Speaking of which, have you planned your garden for this year? Here are some of our favorite resources for dreaming of sweet tomatoes, bright wildflowers and local resources:
http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/
http://www.pittsburghgardenexperiment.org
http://www.wildseedfarms.com
http://www.urbangardenerpgh.com/
Healcrest Urban Community Farm is an established urban farm in Garfield now in its 4th year of production. The total land, which lies between Atlantic and Pacific Avenues, with the entrance at Hillcrest Street in Garfield Heights, equals 1.7 acres. With 4 established mixed vegetable/herb/fruit gardens, small, young orchard, community fire circle, rainwater collection systems and a pending greenhouse, Healcrest Farm is well on its way to being the strongest single-community local food and green resource in Pittsburgh.
http://www.healcrest.com/index.html
Gardener’s can stay in great shape for lots of kneeling, squatting and tending with yoga in Pittsburgh. Try gentle stretches that protect joints and strengthen your back, legs and arms. Yoga Matrika offers over 30-classes a week and we keep our studio comfortable with air conditioning in the summer.
Hope to see you soon at Yoga Matrika and I’m looking forward to seeing everything blooming in your yards very soon!
Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, Owner and Director of Yoga Matrika and Prenatal Yoga Pittsburgh.
This is VERY exciting! Our good friend and the creator of the most beautiful handmade notebooks that you see for sale at Yoga Matrika is now offering holistic health counseling services. Check it out:
Sustain Health and Wellness is run by Emily Levenson, LCSW, HHC.
Emily practices a holistic approach to nutrition, looking at how all areas of a person’s life are connected. Does stress at your job or in your relationship cause you to overeat? Does lack of sleep or low energy prevent you from exercising? As we work together, we look at how all parts of your life affect the whole.
Each person has their own nutritional needs, meaning that one dietary approach will not work for everyone. We look at your age, health, activity level, food sensitivities or allergies, and personal preferences to determine your dietary needs.
When making changes in diet, it is important to look at the other areas of your life. Everything is food; healthy relationships, a fulfilling career, regular physical activity and a spiritual practice are essential forms of nourishment. When these areas are balanced, what you eat becomes secondary.
http://advancedyogapittsburgh.com/WomensWellness.html
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Excess weight gain has become a phenomenon in today’s age, when lifestyles have become sedentary, and food more liberal with extra calories. Today our children prefer T.V. over their friends and play, merely a reflection of their parents who also somewhere prefer T.V. over socializing or even over spending time with their children (if they spend some time surely some running around will help burn some calories). These are only a few factors, which have resulted in increasing amount of people with the problem of excess weight or obesity. Stress, wrong food habits (i.e. irregular timings for food, unhealthy (junk) food), lack of exercise, thyroid problem etc. could be some of the reasons resulting in weight gain. To lose weight, it is important to do so, not just by doing diets, or exercise programs, which are too tedious, which may yield results but which do not keep you that way. Sometimes after sudden loss of weight the skin sags making one feel worse. The best approach is to lose weight gradually and for good. Yoga offers a good solution to this problem. Yoga tones the body in a uniformed manner, unlike any ” weight loss program” which claims to decrease your butts by this much inches and waist by this much, leading to side effects. Yoga can be practiced at any age to keep the body supple. A plan to reduce weight naturally is: |
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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—-
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: https://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
BILINGUAL YOGA CLASS SERIES As a teaching assistant at the University of Pittsburgh and as an adjunct lecturer in the CUNY system of higher education in New York, I have always expressed to my students that it is of great importance that they learn how to channel their passions and passionate feelings into intelligent and coherent text. Actually, I have tried to impress upon them that it is imperative for their future and for my future that they express their authentic selves in the world. I have always been honored by the honesty and profound insight and intelligence of my students (yes, including you two—Giggle Twins!). But, today, I read something that made me so angry that I am having a difficult time behaving in accordance with this sound advice. Actually, I’m starting to doubt that a quiet and complacent attempt to express with “intelligent passion” isn’t what has brought us to this terrible place to begin with!
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.
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. https://www.yogamatrika.com/ and http://www.advancedyogapittsburgh.com
I have recently become acquainted with the most fascinating and inspiring book, Gesture of Awareness: A Radical Approach to Time, Space, and Movement. The book is authored by Charles Genoud (2006) and published by Wisdom Publications.
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 https://www.yogamatrika.com/.
Find information about purchasing the book here:
http://www.wisdom-books.com/ProductDetail.asp?PID=16150
Another review is here:
