YOGA CLASSES

PLEASE VISIT: https://www.facebook.com/TreeflowerYogaAndSound FOR DETAILS!

CLASSES ARE EVERY MONDAY NIGHT at 6:30PM!
NAMAXE YOGA - 554 Bloomfield Avenue, Bloomfield, NJ

Come as you are, we provide the rest.
All bodies welcome!  Beginners welcome!

"YOGA FOR ALL, WE ALL ARE ONE!"

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“Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos —
the trees, the clouds, everything.” -Thich Nhat Hanh

 YOGI'S CHOICE: DO WHAT IS AVAILABLE TO YOU.

Yoga has been the most insightful, inspirational, caring, and supportive teacher that I have ever known.  Asking me to look past my ego, honor my limits, and do what is available to my body on a day to day basis, I have learned more about my psychological, emotional, and physical self than I had ever dreamed possible.

• I have learned about patience when unable to reach my toes or stand on my head.
• I have learned about integrity by making each pose perfectly aligned even if I am unable to reach its fullest expression.
• I have learned about love, acceptance, and respect by honoring my limits, understanding what my body needs, and not pushing myself beyond my means.
• I have learned about commitment through setting the intention to practice on a daily basis and following through with that each and every morning.
• I have learned about trust when kicking up into a handstand for the first time blindly and knowing that the wall will catch me from flipping over.
• I have learned about control as I lower myself slowly in every chaturanga as I gracefully hover over the floor before pushing up into upward facing dog.
• I have learned about support by feeling the mat beneath my body as I relaxed out of boat pose and let my cheek gently rest against its cushion.
• I have learned about balance as I pushed my foot into my leg and my leg into my foot with equal force to create stability while standing or swaying in tree pose.
• I have learned about peace through meditation as I watched thoughts pass in front of me, acknowledging them but not engaging in them.
• I have learned about living through practicing mindfulness and focusing on the breath to remain present.

The most important lesson that yoga has taught me is that "this is my yoga."  I have a choice in the matter and I should shape my practice around making myself more complete.  I learned that you can change your life at any time and start anew... and all it takes is one intention (called sankalpah) to do so.  And this is why on January 2, 2012 amid a deep meditation, I began to cry.  I had lost touch with the present moment for far too long, lingered in the past, and began to stumble along the way.  After that class, I sat there in my car, crying my eyes out in the relief that can only come with a true epiphany and asked myself what it was that I wanted... what would truly make me happy.  I wanted to have a life that meant something to me... so, drawing up all my strength and courage, I set my sankalpah for the year: "PeaceQuest - to be more Me."  I then reexamined my life, values, and the path on which I was headed... and began to shift into the life of my dreams.  I wanted to live more, love more, be present and experience.  I wanted to start paying attention.  No more dwelling, struggling, and fighting toward goals that I was not even sure were mine.  I kept the motto of forward bending in my head... "Moving forward, out of the past and into the present."  From that point forward, life was going to be my yoga.


Let me leave you here with something to think about:

Once upon a time, after a physically and mentally challenging yoga class, the instructor told everyone to roll onto our backs and hug our knees into the chest.  As we rolled from side to side to release the tension from our low back and prepare for savasana and meditation, it was her words that struck me like none other before.  "Hug your knees into your chest.  Give yourself a good hug... and realize that all the love you could ever need is right there in your arms.  You have all the love you need right inside yourself and you don't need anything else."  They were so beautifully and perfectly true and I think of them in every situation and circumstance that life provides.  I hope that you can, too.

"Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu"
"May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all."

 

NEW YOGA BLOG IN THE WORKS! - MOVING MEDITATION YOGA