Sandra Pleasants and Jennifer Elliott at Yoga Source in Richmond, VA. Since then I have completed over 100 hours of continuing education with world-renowned Yogins and have been influenced by all of them. - Tim Miller - Ashtanga Yoga - Encinitas, CA - Sarah Powers - Yin Yoga and Buddhism - Marin, CA - Mukunda Stiles - Structural Yoga Therapy - Boulder, CO - Judith Hansen Lasater - Restorative Yoga and Iyengar Yoga - San Francisco, CA - Paul Grilley - Anatomy of Hatha Yoga and Yin Yoga - Ashland, OR - Roger Cole - Iyengar Yoga - San Diego, CA - John Schumacher - Iyengar Yoga - Bethesda, MD - Richard Rosen - Iyengar Yoga - Oakland, CA - Betsey Downing - Anusara Yoga - Sarasota, FL As Yoga is an eight - limbed path, I am also a beginning student of Ayurveda, Sanskrit, and Meditation and enjoy sharing these elements in my classes. Sara lives and teaches in Central Virginia. She is a co-founder of the Monkeyclaus Production Studio, Bluewall Multimedia Software and the Ihanuman Yoga Community. Also check out Mamacitta! ]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=2210 en-us Sun, 26 Nov 2006 20:49:38 EST Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:32:27 EDT Sun, 26 Nov 2006 20:49:38 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Bluewallllc.com Content Management System peter@bluewallllc.com, sara@bluewallllc.com 180 mamacitta, sara pope, yoga, thai massage, wise earth, ayurveda saraji saraji http://www.ihanuman.com/pdsFiles/sara_ji.jpg http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=9557 Below is an article published by the Guerney Times in Australia and highlights her work with the Nepali Women's Yoga Project. The Nepali Women's Yoga Project is dedicated to addressing the socio-economic problems and discriminations facing many of the women in Pokhara, Nepal. The Project targets destitute women who have often been abused by their husbands, family or others, or have been thrown out of their homes, harassed by employers, raped, sold into prostitution and victimised by society.

DEVIKA GURUNG is a woman on a mission.
This independent Nepalese lady not only runs her own yoga centre, but is hoping to improve the lives of thousands of people. She wants to empower her nation’s women to stand on their own two feet and, through founding the Nepali Women’s Yoga Project, she is doing just that.
Devika, 31, was born in Jomson, a rural village in the mountainous Annapurna region. One of six children, she was forced to leave school at 15.‘I started working on a construction site at the airport, carrying stones in a basket,’ she told me.She stuck it out for two months and earned 160 rupees a day, just over £1.
‘I would see students in their dresses going to school and it made me realise I could do more,’ she said.
Devika did manual work in an orchard, made carpets and worked as a housekeeper, during which she learnt English, before joining her brother, a monk, at the Buddhist Meditation Centre in Pokhara, Nepal, where she worked as a receptionist.She was 18 and it was there that she met two Australian yoga teachers who took her under their wing –this chance meeting was to change her life.

‘I didn’t know what yoga was or what its benefits were at the beginning,’ said Devika.For the following three months, she was taught hatha yoga twice a day, every day.
Although she said it was hard work, she was hooked and spent the following four months studying the form at The Natural Health and Yoga Centre in Kathmandu. Although hatha originated in Nepal, it became more widely recognised as coming from India, because that country produced a series of high profile teachers.
By the end of the year, and with the financial help of a friend and her Dutch godparents, Devika had established her own base, The Nepali Yoga Centre, at Lakeside Pokhara.

The centre is a member of the Yoga, Nature Cure and Alternative Medical Council in Nepal and has since featured in the Lonely Planet guide to the country.

‘It was very difficult when I started running the yoga centre. Sometimes I didn’t have enough money to pay the rent or even buy food. It was quite challenging, but I was determined to make a success of it.

I didn’t see any alternative. I had to be strong because nobody else was going to help me,’ she said.
There were moments of self-doubt but they were fleeting and the centre was about to receive an international boost. An Australian tourist travelling through the area wrote about Devika’s centre for Lonely Planet.
‘Slowly, over the following three years, things have got better and now, at last, we are able to pay the rent,’ said Devika.

In 1997, she returned to the centre in Kathmandu and obtained diplomas in hatha yoga therapy, Ayurvedic massage and health food management. She had been supporting her family but when her own health took a turn for the worse in 1999, everything changed.

‘I had to have a big operation and at that time I lost all the money I had earned. I was expecting to get help from my family but it never came,’ said Devika. Doctors advised her to not practice yoga for a year after the operation but, with the prospect of no money coming in, she started training just three months after surgery.‘It was very dangerous but I had no support, I had to do it,’ she said. It was a turning point in Devika’s life.

‘After that I realized that I needed to do something for myself, not always giving to others,’ she said. While the centre is now doing well financially, Devika always remembers the times when things were more difficult. ‘I really appreciate things now. And I know if my parents had helped me, I wouldn’t be where I am today.’

In 2001, Devika traveled to India and undertook a further hatha yoga instructor’s course at the Indian Yoga Institute. For the past 12 years, she has spent the high tourist season teaching twice-daily hatha yoga classes and residential courses at the Nepali centre. Out of season, Devika, a practicing Tibetan Buddhist, heads to the McLeod Ganj in India to further her training.

Recently she has refocused her sights on a project close to her heart. She has set up The Nepali Women’s Yoga Project which is designed to help destitute women in Pokhara to become self-sufficient by providing them with a home, as well as training and skills in holistic therapies and handicrafts.

The project targets those who have been abused by their husband, family or others, or have been thrown out of their home, harassed by employers, raped, sold into prostitution and victimised by society.

It was through the Lonely Planet guide that local woman Emma Despres found Devika and the centre. Emma attended one of her classes in May when she was in the area doing charity work. They met again by chance at a yoga centre in India the following month and immediately hit it off.

‘We share a mutual passion for yoga, holistic therapies and Tibetan Buddhism, together with a mutual vision for helping to empower destitute women in Pokhara,’ explained Emma.

‘One day we were talking about what we could do for the women of Nepal – it was a place that had become very close to my heart.’

She and brother Ross, both qualified Yoga Alliance-registered teachers, run Beinspired, a yoga program, in Guernsey. She said Nepalese women really were treated as the lowest of the low.

‘They work physically very hard but are also expected to look after the family,’ said Emma.

Traditionally, one person works to support the entire family and this can mean moving away and sending money home.

Emma said that a lot of people in the country saw the West as the golden ticket, but that did not always prove to be the case.

‘Nepal is the fourth-poorest country in the world. Life is very difficult there. Charity work wasn’t effective. I wanted to do something which was going to empower them with a skill which would earn them money,’ said Emma.

Back in Guernsey, she decided to bring Devika to the island. She would teach hatha yoga over a weekend, with all the proceeds going to the project. But it was not going to be that easy.

‘It’s very unusual for people from Nepal to be granted visas. I had to provide a lot of information, down to a photograph of the room she would be staying in and pictures of us together.

‘It was also a big risk for Devika because if the application had been rejected, it would have been a black mark in her passport,’ said Emma.

Thankfully the hard work paid off and Devika was granted a visa.
Almost 60 people signed up to take advantage of her fund-raising courses.

Devika lives in a big trekking area and in high season it is full of tourists.

Through the project, she wants to train women in massage and eventually reiki and yoga. They can then offer these services to visitors.

She is also hoping volunteers will come to the area and teach the women English.

‘I want them to be able to tell their stories: what their life was like before and what they are doing now,’ said Devika.

The project is about restoring their self-belief.

‘These people need to appreciate themselves and what they can do.

We needed to help these women to help themselves,’ she said.

In the short term, money donated to the project will not only go towards training but helping women in financial despair.

The project could fund a child’s school fees or pay for clothes or food for women who have been abandoned with their children and left with nothing.

Devika believes strongly in karma – that life is 25% luck and 75% fate.

She sees yoga as a union with the Divine and with our inner-self.

‘Yoga brings us harmony and balance. It helps us to develop our creativity and live a fulfilled life,’ said Devika.

* For more information about Beinspired, containing local yoga class details, and further details about the Nepali Women’s Yoga Project, go to www.beinspiredby.co.uk.]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=9557 ihanuman, yoga, nepal, nepali women's yoga project, inspiration, devika gurung, beinspired, australia, Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:32:38 EDT http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=6956 February 15 and 16 at the Charlottesville Municipal Arts Center

Friday February 15: Exploration of the Shoulder

The shoulder is not only an important joint in the body, but it is also an important symbol of our strength and our ability to succeed in the world. We will explore the basic principles of the "rotator cuff" through a presentation of basic anatomy and kinesiology of the shoulder. Then we will experience and practice poses that open and strengthen the shoulder joint. The afternoon builds on the morning but with an emphasis on a quiet practice and restorative poses that release the shoulder.

10:30-1:00pm Principles, moving & strengthening with awareness & fun
2:30 - 5:00Pm: Quiet practices including restoratives

Saturday February 16: Relax and Renew: Theory and Practice of Restorative Yoga

Restorative Yoga poses are special poses using blankets and bolsters to help us relax and rest deeply and completely. During deep relaxation all the organ systems of the body are allowed to rest, often reducing blood pressure, boosting immune function as well as improvement in digestion, ellimination, and the reduction of muscle tension and generalized fatigue. We will come to understand restorative yoga through theoretical discussion and experiential practice.

9:30am-12:00pm: Theory and Practice
1:30-4:30pm: Practice

For more information contact Evalyn Bishop at evalynbishop@comcast.net or 434.882-2631

For more information on Judith Lasater visit her website at www.judithlasater.com]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=6956 ihanuman, judith lasater, restorative yoga, shoulder, evalyn bishop, charlottesville municipal arts center Mon, 21 Jan 2008 10:17:18 EST http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=5238
From the Iyengar Association fo the United States:
You are invited to join the Iyengar Community in the United States in our grandest, most glorious celebration ever!

A MALA FOR THE GURU
This Mala, or garland, is our offering
of love and affection, respect and memory
in honor of the 90th Birthday
of Sri B.K.S. Iyengar, our beloved Guruji.


The ideas and the inspirations of Iyengar Yoga practitioners and teachers from across the United States will make up this Mala. Special Classes or Workshops, Potluck Dinners, Community Karma Yoga, Birthday Events--all these and more can be part of the garland (you may even want to incorporate a little Malasana!).

Get together with your local group of practitioners and teachers--your studio--your community--your Institute or Association.

Think--Talk--Review ideas from past fundraisers and events.

Consider ways we can:
Celebrate our heritage and our Teacher while drawing more people into the benefits and bliss of Iyengar Yoga.
Reaffirm our strength in practice and dedication.
Bolster our links across cities, states and the nation

Consider, too, that approximately $150,000 remains to be raised to meet our US Commitment to fund Gurujis ongoing projects in Bellur.

Your community's celebration can include fundraising to benefit this most important project, so close to Guruji's heart and to our own.

EMAIL YOUR IDEAS BY JANUARY 31st. to Richard Jonas, Vice President and Outreach Chair, rrjny@rcn.com or Pat Musburger, Regional Support Chair, pmusburger@comcast.net.]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=5238 ihanuman, iyengar yoga, bks iyengar, iynaus, 90th birthday, iyengar yoga mala, malasana Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:53:16 EST http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=3963
The festival marks the victory of good over evil, and uplifting of spiritual darkness. Symbolically it marks the homecoming of goodwill and faith after an absence, as suggested by the story of Ramayana.

Traditionally a Lakshmi Puja (or offering of worship) is given in honor of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and Ganesha, the God of auspicious beginnings are worshipped across Hindu homes.

There are two legends that associate the worship of Goddess Lakshmi on this day. According to first one, on this day, Goddess Lakshmi emerged from Kshira Sagar, the Ocean of Milk, during the great churning of the oceans, Samudra manthan. The second legend relates to the Vamana avatar of Vishnu, the incarnation he took to kill the demon king Bali, thereafter it was on this day, that Vishnu came back to his abode, the Vaikuntha, so those who worship Lakshmi (Vishnu's consort) on this day, get the benefit of her benevolent mood, and are blessed with mental, physical and material well-being.

So take the opportunity to give thanks for the prosperity and abundance in your own life as well as send well wishes that prosperity be a part of the lives of others.

To learn more about diwali, visit Diwali.

Thank you to Wikipedia for providing the resource for this post.]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=3963 ihanuman, yoga, diwali, rama, lakshmi, ganesha, deepavali Fri, 09 Nov 2007 19:30:10 EST http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=3730 a large global event will take place, centered in Los Angeles, with the intention of spreading peace around the world like a mala or garland.

The number 108 is a sacred number in Buddhism and Hinduism. It is the number of the infinite. Many spiritual teachers invite you to chant a mantra 108 times with the idea that after 108 times it is ingrained in you and will have its beneficial effect. So if 108 sun salutations seems daunting, make it your intention to do 108 sun salutations over the next 3 days or over the next week. Other practices you can engage in are 108 minutes of yoga, including asana, pranayama, meditation or kriya. Chant the name of your God 108 times. Say your favorite prayer 108 times. Engage in 108 minutes of karma yoga or selfless service.

These activities are meant to connect you with the Divine. This consciousness takes our mind off of our own personal struggles and brings awareness to the global picture. The bigger picture. What is 108 minutes or 108 days out of the course of your life? You might be surprised when you take the focus off of yourself and put your intention towards something bigger, how much better you might feel. Try it!

For more information on the Global Mala Project, visit www.globalmala.org.

For more information on the power of positive intention visit the Circle of Life. ]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=3730 ihanuman, yoga, service, 108, mantra, chant, autumnal equinox, yom kippur, un international day of peace Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:44:07 EDT http://www.ihanuman.com/pdsFiles/thaimassage.jpg thaimassage.jpg ]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=3461 Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:50:10 EDT http://www.ihanuman.com/pdsFiles/thaimassage_hands.jpg thaimassage_hands.jpg ]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=3459 Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:50:10 EDT http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=2846 http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=2846 Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:48:32 EST http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=2844
Santosha is one of the niyamas or eight limbs of yoga. In sanskrit, it is loosely translated as "contentment". Valentine's Day offers us a chance to practice contentment with ourselves no matter who we are with or how many valentines we receive or don't receive. It is an opportunity to be thankful for who we are and all of the many gifts we already possess. It is a day to send love to ourselves, to our friends and family, and to all of those who are suffering much more than we could ever imagine.

Practice Santosha by finding a quiet space and doing some restorative poses like Baddha Konasana (Butterfly Pose) folded forward with your head resting on a blanket or pillow. Before dinner, lay in Savasana (corpse pose) with your head resting on a pillow and cover yourself with a blanket. Breathe deeply as you rest your body and your mind for 5-30 minutes. Before going to bed, practice Loving-Kindness Meditation by sitting quietly sending love first to yourself, then to your friends and family, then to those who you know who have caused you pain and then to those who you may not know but are suffering in the world.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.

May we all be at peace. ]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=2844 Wed, 14 Feb 2007 15:20:51 EST http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=2726 Google Web Albums and my personal webblog. I hope that you will visit and enjoy the unfolding. ]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=2726 Tue, 16 Jan 2007 11:28:18 EST http://www.ihanuman.com/pdsFiles/studio_nepal_big.jpg studio_nepal_big.jpg ]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=2384 Sat, 02 Dec 2006 17:50:04 EST http://www.ihanuman.com/pdsFiles/sara_camel.jpg sara_camel.jpg ]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=2382 Sat, 02 Dec 2006 17:45:05 EST http://www.ihanuman.com/pdsFiles/sara_camel.png sara_camel.png ]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=2380 Sat, 02 Dec 2006 17:43:59 EST http://www.ihanuman.com/pdsFiles/sara_restorative_crop.jpg sara_restorative_crop.jpg ]]> http://www.ihanuman.com/index.php?pageId=2378 Sat, 02 Dec 2006 17:11:20 EST