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May Day! May Day!

Sorry to sound alarmist, just trying to get your attention! It seems to be what the earth is trying to tell us this month. Wake up and bloom, flowers! Wake up and smell the flowers, people. Just wake up! There is much to celebrate in May.

In 1997, The Tibetan Children's Education Foundation built an education center and boarding hostel in Clement Town (in Northern India) for children of the exiled Tibetan community.

Namaste!
Spring is here and feels great as it invigorates our joints, hearts and minds. We begin to move out of hibernation to feel the sun on our skin. Relationships are renewed and it is a great time to set an intention or sankalpa for our practice as we move into the woody growth phase of spring.

At the end of February we left off with one foot in the door of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, one of the oldest surviving Hatha Yoga manuals. Hatha Yoga emerged sometime in the 9th or 10th centuries CE, strongly influenced by both Hindu Tantra and Indian alchemy. The Pradipika was written four or five hundred years later, though remnants of these ancient disciplines are still evident in this text and others like it.

By now, given yoga's broad popularity, many people know that the word yoga means to unite or yoke together. When one moves past the common notion that yoga is mostly about exercise, flexibility, and relaxation and begins to delve into the underlying philosophy of yoga, one begins to encounter conceptually and experientially what this business of unity is really about.

My wife, our two kids and I spent November and December in India. I had been once before, so this one was about exploring the mother land as a family. We went to museums in Delhi, took boat rides in Nainital, cable car and horse rides in Mussoorie, a jeep safari at Rajaji National Park, saw Agra Fort and, of course, the Taj Mahal. We also got to touch the spiritual heart of India: the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram in Kainchi, darshan with a Saint in Rishikesh, Arati at the Ganga.

Yogitoes has created a line of Skidless Mat Towels that helps support not only the practices of yogis using them, but supports charities around the world with a percentage of their proceeds. The Altruism Deity Skidless mats come in five colors, each with a specific deity and respective charity. The Kali Ma mat is black and supports the Meg Foundation, helping orphans in India.

Devika Gurung was one of my first yoga teachers. I met her while traveling to India to study Yoga. But Devika had just returned from India and opened a Yoga Centre in Pokhara, Nepal. I decided to spend 6 weeks with her helping her with her Yoga Centre and learning English and in exchange I lived with her like she lived in the Ashram in India. We practiced Jala Neti in the morning, meditation, asana twice a day, karma yoga, yoga nidra, and pranayama. It was an incredible experience and helped me on my path towards a daily yoga practice.

Spring is on the way! Breathing deeply feels like the right thing to do. Continuing to stay centered from the internal reflection of winter and beginning to feel the expansion of spring as the days stay lighter longer and the sun feels a little bit warmer each day.

February is National Heart Month and iHanuman would like to promote heart health through Yoga this month. The heart is a muscle and likes to be exercised. Invigorate your heart through standing poses, like Warrior 1 , 2, and 3 (Virabhadrasana I, II, III). Open your heart with backbends like Camel, Bridge and Wheel (Ustrasana, Setu Bandha, Urdhva Dhanurasana).