Tag: sharon rudyk yoga

Why Seek Yoga Therapy?

November 9, 2012
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You might wonder what kind of things my clients seek out yoga therapy for……..

Whatever your issue, please call me for a confidential and no-obligation phone consultation: 412-855-5692.

Here are some of the reasons why people come to Sharon for yoga therapy:

  • Irritable bowl syndrome
  • Arthritis or joint pain
  • Chronic headaches
  • PMS, PCOS or Irregular menstrual cycles
  • Postpartum birth recovery issues
  • Creative challenges in art, career or relationship
  • Chronic fatigue syndrome
  • Life transitions (kids move away, kids move back, job loss, divorce, etc.)
  • Cancer diagnosis or living with cancer
  • Immune system issues
  • Anxiety, depression or fear
  • Diagnosis of a chronic health problem
  • Chronic low back pain
  • Pain or mobility issues in neck, jaw or shoulders
  • Hip and/or knee pain
  • Fear of attending a group yoga class/exercising in public
  • Couples who do yoga together to support a healthy relationship
  • Professionals with stress-related illnesses or want to avoid stress related illnesses

Yoga for Fertility

November 9, 2012
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Yoga Benefits that Optimize Fertility and Reproductive Health

  • stress relief
  • hormone balance
  • endocrine system support
  • increased circulation to reproductive organs
  • enhanced quality of sleep
  • decreased anxiety and fear

GROUP CLASSES in YOGA and MEDITATION

Yoga is a magnificent form of preparation for all creative activities and having a regular yoga practice is a beautiful way to support optimum fertility and reproductive health for men and women. Rather than think of yoga as one more thing you can do to help get pregnant or as an addition to any treatment you may be receiving for an “infertility” diagnosis, we believe that yoga should be something that you do for yourself. Enjoy!

Our classroom environment is kept to a comfortable temperature and we offer non-competitive classes that are ideal for women and men that are actively trying to conceive. All yoga and meditation classes on the schedule are excellent for supporting reproductive health.

YOGA for FERTILITY: 6-Week Series

Starting in January 2013, Sharon Rudyk will also be facilitating 12-week series called Yoga for Fertility. These classes are for women only and will be held on Mondays from 6:00-7:15 pm. Women who prefer to take a yoga class that only includes female students are welcome to join regardless of their interest in becoming pregnant. This is a wonderful and holistic class to support optimum health for women in all stages of life with an emphasis on yoga for creativity, for stress reduction and for joy! Great news if you find you are pregnant during the series! All of our yoga and breathing exercises are prenatal appropriate, so it is safe for you to finish the series.

PRIVATE SESSIONS

Sharon offers a variety of private session packages that might be of interest to students, male and female, that are opening their lives to the possibility of children. For a free phone consultation with Sharon regarding the right path for your specific needs and goals, please call (412) 855-5692.

Private Yoga with Sharon Rudyk

November 2, 2012
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In January 2013, I will be expanding my private yoga business in Pittsburgh.  Here is some information on why you might choose to take private sessions and how to get started.

What is a Private Session?  What are the Benefits?

Studying with Sharon is a holistic experience and you will be honored and kept safe as you explore movement, breath and mind.  Sharon does not offer large group classes and prefers to work with small groups or in private sessions.  Therefore, your experience with Sharon will be quite different than it might be at a large studio or gym where you get “lost in the crowd.”  This is a space for healing, personal transformation and the development of yoga-based skills that can be used throughout life to improve well-being and quality of life.

Private yoga sessions are scheduled at your convenience and Sharon will design your sessions based on your personal goals and what you would like to accomplish during each individual session.  For some students, they just find that due to their lifestyle or personality, they prefer private sessions.  For other students, they truly require private sessions due to an illness, mental or emotional condition, injury, disability or other physical, emotional or spiritual issues that demand individualized attention.  Whatever your reason for seeking private instruction, Sharon is delighted to work with you.

Studio Sessions

  • Studio sessions are all 50-minutes in length each and may be shared by up to two adults.
  • Please contact Sharon for payment plan options and to arrange for off-site or larger group sessions (412) 855-5692.
  • Obtain your FREE consultation and schedule your first private session by calling Sharon at (412) 855-5692.

Cost for Studio Sessions

Initial phone consultation: FREE

Single Session: $75

Four Session Package: $280 (save $20 over single session payments)

Eight Session Package: $550 (save $50 over single session payments)

Twelve Session Package: $825 (save $75 over single session payments-a whole FREE session!)

Cost for Phone/SKYPE Sessions

Single Session: $50 per 45-minutes

How many sessions do I need?

This is difficult to answer in a broad way as each student is different, but here are some general guidelines in terms of length of private study based on student goals.

New To Yoga Many students who are completely new to yoga find it helpful to take private sessions before practicing in a group environment.  Sharon finds that eight sessions, approximately one a week for two-months, is enough that most adults who are in relatively good shape find that they are confident enough to move forward practicing with a group.

Want to Design a Home Practice Many students want help designing a home practice that they can do on their own—-either at home, when traveling or to compliment classes and workshops that they like to take.  The length of time it takes to design an individualized home study program varries based on student experience level, personal goals and more.  But, in general, a student who has been taking yoga classes regularly for at least a year can learn a home practice sequence in about four-sessions.

My Lifestyle Requires Personal Sessions You may be a professional with so many meetings, responsibilities or be “on call” at all times or an artist or parent or care giver or someone who works “odd” shifts or maybe you are a grandparent who travels regularly to see your grandkids all over the world—-whatever your reason, it may be that you just can’t make it to group classes regularly.  That’s OK!  Schedule sessions at your convenience whenever you are able.

Experienced Student/Teacher Perhaps you are a yoga teacher who would like some one on one support for issues in teaching, alignment or for your own practice of more advanced poses, pranayama or meditation.  If you are working on a specific pose, a type of practice or just feel burned-out and need some new ideas to inject your practice with passion again, a private session might be just what you need!

Living with Chronic Pain, Illness, Stress or Anxiety If you are living with chronic pain (headaches, back/neck or shoulder pain, muscle or bone pain, pain from surgery or major injuries) or have a serious illness (cancer, chronic fatigue) or have severe stress and anxiety and are seeking to use yoga as part of your healing and wellness plan, then you will need to consult with Sharon about the best plan of action.  Many clients find that, with six to twelve months of regular sessions, they are not only in less pain and discomfort, but that they are able to practice on their own or in a group and experience the same benefit.  Working with a significant health issue is not a quick fix, but yoga has been documented to help alleviate many of these problems and does support other treatments that you may be receiving.  Sharon is NOT a doctor and it is important that you maintain your relationships with your doctors, take your medicine as prescribed and use yoga as a complementary practice.  If you are under the care of a doctor, it is important that you get their permission to start yoga.

Cancer Diagnosis, Compromised Immune System, Too Sick to Travel to the Studio? Sharon provides healing sessions and deep relaxation practices through SKYPE, over the phone or can sell you an interactive e-book or audio recording of practices that you can use at ANY time and in ANY place.  These sessions are not physically active and only require that you lie down in a comfortable place and have the means to actively listen to Sharon’s voice live over the phone (put me on speaker phone) or to a recording.

Yoga Studies with Sharon

May 17, 2012
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Yoga Studies with Sharon

Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, MA, E-RYT, R-PYT

Inquiries
Please send an e-mail to Sharon at: sharon@yogamatrika.com if you have any questions, wish to discuss the program or need information before you sign up. You can also call Sharon at 412-855-5692.

Tuition
This 6-month Yoga Studies program (September 10, 2012 through March 2013) is $1,200. Tuition is paid in monthly $100 payments for 12-months starting with the date of registration. Tuition is non-refundable and non-transferable and payments must be made regardless of your actual participation in scheduled classes and workshops.

Register Here
This is an intimate program with a maximum of ten participants for each cohort. The program starts in September of each year, but you are encouraged to register and save your space as soon as you decide to make a commitment to the 6-month program of yoga studies. Register by signing a program contract HERE.

6-Month Yoga Studies Program Tuition Includes

Classes

Up to two-classes per week with Sharon Rudyk. Options include:
Tuesday night 5:45 to 7:00 pm
Saturday morning: 9:00 to 10:15 am

Workshops

One two-hour special topics class per month with Sharon Rudyk per month. Each month, Sharon will offer at least two options, one evening and one weekend for a special topics workshop. Topics include: yoga philosophy, energy, pranayama, different yoga traditions, asana alignment and practice techniques and more. All the juicy stuff you don’t have time to explore in drop-in classes! One per month is included in your tuition, but you can always sign-up for more and pay for them a la carte.

Curriculum for the Yoga Studies Program

In 6-months of Yoga Studies with Sharon, you can expect to learn:

  • Learn Sanskrit names, alignment principles, cues and variations and modifications for 30-basic asanas
  • Read and discuss Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras
  • Learn about the central channel, movement of prana and the chakra energy centers
  • Explore the anatomy of breath and learn basic breath awareness, uijayi pranayama, kapalabhati, nine cleansing breaths and nadi shodhana
  • Use energetic awareness and breath in asana practice
  • Explore the relationship of the mind, skeletal system, organs and endocrine system in asana
  • Learn about Chinese meridian energy theory and Yin Yoga practices
  • Learn about therapeutic applications of yoga and yoga for seniors, yoga during pregnancy and to support common student complaints (hips, back, knees and shoulders)
  • Learn about Mantras, Chanting and the use of Sanskrit in yoga
  • Choose a kriya and mantra meditation to practice for 40-days
  • Explore your own practice, limitations and strengths with personalized direction and support
  • Learn common obstacles to home practice and examine different ways to overcome obstacles and make your yoga a part of every day
  • Learn how to make adjustments and modify asana so you can continue your practice through your life

Tuition Details

The Yoga Studies program requires a contract of agreement for 12-payments of $100 that will be automatically charged to your credit card once per month. You are obligated to maintain these payments regardless of your actual class attendance or participation in workshops and training sessions. There are no refunds for any reason and this program tuition is not transferable.

Yoga Studies for Teacher Training

If you wish to complete this program as a teacher training program, then you must complete, in addition to the Yoga Studies course:

  • 18-hours of anatomy training workshops with Mark Chandlee Taylor (Embodied Anatomy for Yoga Instructors I,II, III)
  • a minimum of three additional workshops of your choice at Yoga Matrika
  • take a total of 50 classes (25 must be with Sharon and 25 can be completed anywhere upon Sharon’s approval). The classes that are included in the Yoga Studies program count towards this total. Any other classes that you wish to take must be paid for separately.
  • complete a teaching skills/practicum training weekend (will be scheduled for March 2013)
  • complete an online course that includes significant writing assignments that require reading, observing and practice teaching (available in September 2012). This online course will cost $100.
  • teach a minimum of one practice class that is open to the public and observed by Sharon
  • a minimum of two private sessions with Sharon ($60 each)
We are a Registered Yoga School (RYS®) with Yoga Alliance and graduates of our 200-hour Teacher Training Program are eligible to register with Yoga Alliance as a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT®).

Readings Syllabus for Yoga Matrika’s Yoga Studies Course

A suggested reading list will be posted in July 2012 for the September 2012 cohort. Please note that if you are taking this Yoga Studies course for teacher training, you will be required to complete the readings and writing assignments as outlined in the online course.

What Can You Do with $100?

April 19, 2012
Posted by Sharon
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Right now, if you act before May 1, 2012, you can purchase a summer of UNLIMITED YOGA for $100.  Just for the sake of comparison, I thought you might want to consider all the things that you can buy for $100:

$100 of Unlimited Yoga in June, July and August

  • a strong, flexible and toned body
  • greater endurance and cardiovascular health
  • injury prevention
  • better sleep
  • studio is air conditioned so you get a break from the heat and humidity
  • less stress and related concerns (headaches, back problems, insomnia, high blood pressure, etc.)

Or, $100 will buy you:

  • almost 1 Bon Jovi concert ticket ($112 for the worst seat in the house)
  • one dinner for two at one of these select NY restaurants
  • most of a 10-class pass at Om Yoga in NYC ($140 on sale! Regularly $165.)
  • this lacquer gold fu dog is just $89.99
  • a John Hancock lego set ($99.85–in the gift ideas for women over 30—you know, a lego set….what every woman over 30 really wants but just doesn’t know how to ask for)
  • the wonderful world of Disney Trivia Game: 2 (at less than $80–this is a STEAL)
  • at least three-items at Whole Foods
  • this $79.50 first aid kit for your DOG

The choice is clear here.  $100 for an entire summer of unique, blissful yoga classes or—–most of a BonJovi ticket in the peanut gallery.  Seriously, what are you waiting for?  BUY HERE NOW

Day 3: Week One of 8-Weeks with Rodney Yee

April 17, 2012
Posted by Sharon
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In today’s practice I have discovered what two pregnancies have done to me.  Well, at least I think that is what is to blame.  Apparently, I no longer have any inner leg strength.  If you’ve never practiced tree pose, then you don’t know what I’m talking about.  But, if you’ve ever put the sole of your foot onto the inner thigh, you will recall (unless the last time you did tree pose was a LONG, LONG, long time ago…..) that you not only press with your foot into your thigh, but the inner thigh presses back into your foot.  This not only helps with balance, but it helps to maintain the strength and integrity of the standing leg.  Well, aparently, I no longer have any inner thigh strength at all.

In other words, my gracilis is nillis and my sartorius is nowhere to be found—burried under some, uhmm, “fatty deposits”………..

Makes me kind of wish that Rodney Yee were here to help me figure out how to find my inner thigh again.  OK, let’s be honest, I don’t kind of wish that Rodney Yee was here, I definitely wish that he was here.  But, in his absence, I hear the voices of my own wonderful teachers in my head and I am:

1) activating “root lock” aka. secret chakra action center or mula bandha

2) pressing my big toe into the earth

3) dropping my sitting bones and lifting my thigh bone to engage the thigh into the pelvis

and, of course…….

4) hanging on for dear life (I have this wonderful dresser at a perfect height in my living room.)

I just found this Real Simple article outlining some “easy” exercises I can do to strengthen my inner thighs—maybe when I’m done with 8-weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee I’ll start these exercises and let you know what happens. Or, maybe I should just make sure I get to Aleta’s Yoga Booty Ballet classes on Saturdays at Yoga Matrika!

Please feel free to join me in my 8-week program with Rodney Yee. You can share your own experience by leaving comments on this blog. It’s OK if you start on a different day or we get out of sync. This is going to be fun!

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, the fearless leader of Team Matrika. Are you in Pittsburgh, PA? Join us for a great class at Yoga Matrika in Squirrel Hill.

Prenatal Yoga Pittsburgh

February 14, 2011
Posted by Sharon
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MATRIKA PRENATAL YOGA & EXERCISE

Group Class:
Sundays from 12:15 to 1:15 pm at Mookshi Wellness Center
$5 for your first class

Private Classes:
Available at your convenience.  Schedule by calling Sharon (412) 855-5692.  FREE phone consultation for all expectant women.  Call to schedule yours today!

Matrika Prenatal is a practice available to women in all weeks of pregnancy and does not require any prior experience with yoga or meditation.  This unique combination of yoga, meditation, exercise and childbirth preparation supports expectant women through a healthy pregnancy, labor and birth preparation and beyond.  Gentle stretches and movements ease tension, improve circulation and help relieve common minor pregnancy complaints from insomnia to low back pain. Strengthening exercises and squatting help prepare the pelvic floor for labor and help mom maintain excellent cardiovascular health and endurance. We visualize birth, practice breathing and sounding techniques and discuss birth options including pain management through movement, breathing and sounding.  Of course, we also have a lot of fun and it’s always lovely to connect with other pregnant women in your community!

Benefits of Yoga and Meditation During Pregnancy

Physical

  • Gentle movements improve posture so that you carry baby correctly and prevent backache
  • Improved circulation mean less varicose veins, hemorrhoids and fluid retention
  • Relieve fatigue
  • Alleviate minor discomforts such as heartburn, pain in hip joints and ribs, muscle cramps and headaches
  • Strengthen the body and learn poses that you can use during labor for comfort
  • Learn pelvic floor exercises and other techniques for strengthening your body for birth
  • Stay toned and fit during pregnancy. Fit moms recover faster from birthing.

Emotional

  • Balance mood and learn to center body and mind
  • Connect deeply with your baby before they are born

Social

  • Meet other expectant mothers
  • Be a part of a supportive community
  • Have fun!

Spiritual

  • Take the time to be quiet during this pregnancy
  • Access your own strength
  • Become aware of your fears and learn to work with yourself, your baby and your care providers with confidence
  • Know yourself and be better equipped to communicate your needs and desires to your birth partner, care providers and family
  • Create a sacred and special time to relax, hope and dream

What to Expect in a Matrika Prenatal Class

We do not expect prenatal yoga students to have any experience with yoga. Our prenatal yoga classes are appropriate for women in all weeks of pregnancy. Although each instructor has their own style and may provide a different emphasis or tone to their class, all classes include some stretching and breathing exercises, some asana (yoga poses) that will tone and strengthen the body and relaxation. There is no wrong way to do yoga and the more often you practice, the more familiar you will become with the poses. As you become more familiar with the poses and exercises, then you can turn your focus inward. Although some poses may be challenging and you will feel the stretches as you create greater flexibility in your body, you should never feel pain in a yoga class. This is true in any yoga class and not just prenatal yoga! If you are ever uncomfortable or have questions, your instructor can help you modify a pose or answer any questions that you might have. Our classes are intimate and non-competitive so you can receive personalized attention from well-trained instructors.

Our classes are not just gentle yoga classes modified for pregnancy. Our prenatal programs are designed specifically for pregnancy and we use yoga to prepare for birth and for being a mother. Labor, birth and mothering a newborn are not easy tasks. The focus, strength and awareness that you learn in prenatal yoga classes will give you the skills you need to meet these tasks with confidence. We support one another and the entire Matrika community is here for you now and after you have your baby.

Holiday Yoga: A Prenatal Practice

December 19, 2010
Posted by Sharon
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Yoga Matrika is going to be offering a limited number of prenatal yoga classes during the holidays.  In case you don’t live in Pittsburgh and have found this practice online, Yoga Matrika offers prenatal yoga classes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The good news about this practice is that you can do it anywhere!

We all know that even a few stretches and relaxation exercises can make a huge difference in how we feel during pregnancy.  During the holidays, our diets and schedules change and this makes it even more important that we maintain our practice.  Here is a very short practice that is appropriate for pregnant women that you can do at home, if you are traveling or wherever you roam.  For all you Pittsburgh-based Matrika Mammas, I look forward to seeing you again in person for class in the new year!

Center & Breathe

First step, find a comfortable seat.  You do not have to be sitting on the floor and if you are at all swollen or feel any aches, it may be best for you to sit in a chair.  If you are seated in a chair, you want to just sit on the front edge of the chair (not leaning back and resting on the seat back) and make sure that your feet are firmly placed on the ground.  If this is uncomfortable due to the height of the chair, you can place support under your feet (yoga blocks, phone books, etc.).  Just make sure that you have balanced support under each side of the body.  From here, take one palm and rest it over your heart center and another hand over your belly.  Very gently start to take deep breaths.  Feel the front of your body rise with the in-breath and as you exhale, release the full breath and any tension you might be holding in your body.  You can do this for as long as you like, but even taking 5-10 deep breaths will help you feel much more centered and relaxed.

Relax Back and Hips

Come down onto your hands and knees and practice cat/cow.  Keep your neck relaxed and focus on the gentle forward and back sway of the pelvis.  You can do as few of these or as many of these as you like.  If you feel tight through the hips or have low back tension, you may also want to take your hips in circles.  It can be helpful to imagine that you have a paintbrush dangling from your navel and that you are making perfect circles on the floor beneath you.  Move as slowly or as quickly as feels right to you.

Energize the Body and Release Tension

Practice Warrior II pose on the right and left sides of the body.  Focus on opening your heart, relaxing the shoulders and keep your bent knee (the front knee) coming out directly over the ankle.  Use your inner thigh strength to deepen the stretch and keep your knee in a healthy position.  The back leg is straight and you are opening through the pelvis.  Gently tuck your sitting bones under you to lengthen the low back and release low back strain.  Breathe!

Relax the hips & Stretch the Back

Come into Cobbler’s Pose.  With the soles of your feet together, take deep breaths into the body.  If you are rounded through the low back, place a folded blanket, towel or pillow under your sitting bones.  You can sit here and breathe for as long as you like.  If you would like to stretch the back body, then allow yourself to round forward as far as you feel comfortable.  Keep your shoulders relaxed and breathe.

Deep Relaxation

It is very important to actively relax the body for a few minutes each and every day.  This is different from napping or sleeping.  Find a comfortable position for your body lying on the floor—-if it feels good, then it is safe.  Bring your awareness to your feet and actively and systematically relax your body from your toes to the crown of your head.  You may want to purchase a deep relaxation tape or download a Yoga Nidra from iTunes.  It can be helpful to choose some beautiful music or chanting that you enjoy and play that while you relax.

Enjoy the holidays and new year Matrika Mammas!  Check out our new Pregnancy and Postnatal website.  Please do not practice yoga if any of these exercises make you uncomfortable, cause pain or if your care provider has put you on bed rest or encouraged you to limit physical activity.  You should never feel pain in your yoga practice, pregnant or not, and these are not exercises you should “push through” or force yourself to do.  All of these suggested exercises should feel good and relieve tension and strain in your body.

This practice was designed with love by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, the owner of Yoga Matrika and director of all Matrika Prenatal programs.  Currently, our classes, workshops and Childbirth Education programs are mostly held in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Please feel free to contact Sharon directly with any questions (412) 855-5692.

Desire & Deserve

October 17, 2009
Posted by Sharon
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I was recently supervising my preschooler in the tub and, while he engaged in an imaginary battle between a Thomas the Tank Engine bath squirter and a Fisher Price fisherman, decided to pick up my shampoo bottle and read the text.  This text informed me that, by using this particular product, I would obtain results that would give me the hair that I both desired and deserved.

The desired part, I could identify with.  Of course, I desire healthy, shiny, full, fresh smelling and bouncy hair with appropriate fullness.  I certainly desire to protect my hair from anything that might cause damage.  This may be a whole lot of hope to place in dead skin cells, but I could not deny as I read the back of that bottle that, yes, I desired these things.  Admittedly, I also made my purchase with some hope that using this particular product would, in fact, help me obtain a head of hair that had just this list of delicious qualities.  For those of you who know me, I currently have a head of hair to rival Elvira—-it’s super long, grey at the temples and generally swept up in a casual way with a clip.  So, if I have desires for my hair, it’s both a whole lot of desire and a whole lot of hair to desire it with.

The deserved part, well, this seems problematic (at best!).  Exactly what kind of hair do I deserve and what have I done to deserve hair with these qualities?  I was immediately brought back to a Bill Crosby sketch where he made fun of folks who got drunk to the point of being physically ill at happy hours on Fridays because they had worked so hard that week that they deserved to get drunk. [Curious?  Need a good laugh? Check it out here:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYsko_tc3a0 ] After an immediate chuckle at this remembering, I started to think about the relationship between our yoga practice and what we desire and deserve.

In general, although we may not be honest with ourselves about the nature of our desire, we start taking yoga classes or start any specific class or practice with a certain goal or want or need that we would like to have satisfied.  We want to relieve stress, feel better, have more energy, look younger, be more fit, lose weight, make friends, be able to say that we too do yoga and fit in, lower our chances of heart disease, get pregnant or find some kind of blissful state.  These desires can be helpful in our practice when we acknowledge them with honesty (satya) and a certain level of willingness to release the desire long enough to focus on our breath and the practice at hand.  Perhaps our practice will show us that we have passions and desires that we were not aware of or not able to name.  In this sense, our practice can help illuminate certain truths about ourselves that may have been hidden.  This type of self-awareness is priceless and our practice, as it evolves, will reveal a revolving set of desires as well.

Thinking about the concept of deserve is at once very non-yogic and what yoga is all about.  It’s at the heart of so many philosophical debates about why bad things happen to good people.  Exactly what does anyone deserve and what role do we play in facilitating our own receipt of that just reward or just punishment.  In some ways, this is part of our exploration of satya (honesty) and ahimsa (non-violence).  When we are honest during our practices and create a flow of movement and breath that is steady and rhythmic that, in turn, steadies the mind, then we are also honoring our limits.  We are, one might say, getting the practice we deserve.  What happens when we fail to honor our limits?  The breath is short and our muscles are shaky and our footing is un-centered.  We feel weak, overwhelmed and our minds jump from one instruction to the next, one pose to the next, one shaky and aching shoulder/neck/thigh to the next.  In this case, one might also say that we are getting the practice we deserve.  On the other hand, we may just be re-enforcing the beliefs that we have about what we deserve that we carry with us on and off the mat.

I would like to suggest that you deserve a calm breath, ease through body and mind and a relationship with spirit that is both an inspiration and guide to act according to your highest ideals.  I desire this for you.  While you may desire a toned and lighter body, less stress, greater sex appeal or a sweaty romp through a familiar and anonymous flow—-you might get what you don’t deserve!  Injury, headaches, a racing heart, exhaustion, shallow breath and negative thoughts racing through your mind about how you would have been able to keep up if you were just a little younger, thinner, or more fabulous.  Desire is an intention that we can guide to a variety of opportunities and possibilities.  This week, in your practice, notice what you desire and see if you get what you deserve.

If all seems a great failure, I assure you that, apparently, bliss is available from an easily obtained bottle of shampoo straight off the shelf at Rite Aid—-for less than $4.00.  So, with a guarantee so close by and so economically obtained, what do you have to lose if you expand these concepts and take them onto your mat with you this week?  Before coming into a pose, honestly ask what it is that you desire from it.  When you come out of the pose, experience what it is that you deserve. Exhale.  You are beautiful!

 

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk
Owner and Director of Yoga Matrika in Pittsburgh, PA
https://www.yogamatrika.com/
http://www.sharonrudykyoga.info
http://www.prenatalyogapittsburgh.com

New Pittsburgh Yoga Web Resources

October 12, 2009
Posted by Sharon
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I’ve designed two online yoga resources:
One for prenatal and postnatal yoga, pilates and exercise classes in Pittsburgh
http://www.prenatalyogapittsburgh.com

Another just for my own yoga classes, workshops, trainings and private therapeutic yoga sessions:
http://www.sharonrudykyoga.info