Tuesday, January 29, 2013

No Place Like Ohm

by Rebecca Denk
Seattle Yoga Arts Teacher

We open and close each yoga practice by chanting the sound Ohm and following with an invocation in sanscrit. When I began teaching, I could always gauge how nervous I was by the shakiness in leading the Ohm - the vibrato in my voice a dead give-away to the butterflies in my chest.

Now that I’m a more confident teacher, singing the opening Ohm and invocation is less shaky but still daunting. I’m a much less confident singer than yogini. With Seattle Yoga Arts’ new Santi Mantra, I’ve been a late adopter. What if my sound is flat?  How do I get all those sanscrit syllables out clearly? If I can’t easily pronounce the invocation, how can I possibly lead it? Just like a challenging asana pose, the keys are dedication and practice.

Whenever I teach, the opening and closing Ohm are important in creating sacred space for all and for setting the tone, both environmentally and vibration-ally. Have you tried just jumping into a class without first centering and chanting? Perhaps you were late for class or took yoga at the gym? For me, it feels off somehow. I’m dedicated to setting apart my yoga practice from the rest of my day, and chanting helps create this shift.

I’ve been attending classes at SYA and singing the Santi Mantra with fellow teachers, just to practice. Other teachers have loaded the recording onto their iPod to help with memorizing (you can find it on the home page of the website). I find myself humming the invocation as I’m waiting in line or driving. That 4th line continues to present a challenge – but I’m working on it! 
 
Recently I asked a class of enthusiastic chanters why they enjoy Ohm. One student shared that it was her connection to the more spiritual side of yoga. Another agreed that it’s just not yoga without Ohm-ing. A third appreciated the chance to synch with the full group of yoga practitioners as class begins.  I often think of an orchestra warming up when I listen to a full class chanting. (And have you noticed in the closing Ohm often all are in tune?) 

Whether you are a confident mantra singer or quietly humming to yourself, you are actively contributing to the energy and tone of our yoga practice. I’m always so grateful to have strong voices sing out in class, especially when I’ve gone flat. And I promise to begin introducing the Santi Mantra to my classes on February 1. If all else fails, set a deadline….

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Radical Self-Love

A Path of Radical Self-Love
by Angi Donovan
Seattle Yoga Arts Teacher

Ever since I can remember I have felt a subtle weight of self doubt on my heart pulling and tethering back the richness of my soul. Along the way and indirectly I was told that there was a wrong and a right way to be and that the inherent me needed a filter. There were parts of me that I should love and parts of me that I shouldn’t. Sometimes this filter has been thick and sometimes thin yet for the most part it has always been there, a net just between my face’s surface and the deep everything of who I am.

I do not believe I am alone in this. It seems that most of humanity itself, culture to culture, has been living in agreement that we should limit what we show to the world, an unsaid yet abided by list of acceptable and unacceptable human expressions. Yet is it possible that it is the covered-up ways of being that bring us closest together and the most feared that teach us the deepest ways of love and compassion?

I have seen this discussion opening up more and more and our hidden selves, now heart-clinchingly bare, living right alongside the unquestionable beauty of our soul’s veracity. There has never been a better time to stand for and live into our truth. We have nothing to lose from freeing our souls and everything to gain. I feel clearly now all the way into my bones that it is EVERY piece of the whole that creates the brilliance and vitality of life!

This January 2013 I invite you into a wildly honest conversation about opening to the truth of our hearts without reservation so that we may begin to know the power of being exactly who we are. Let us dive deep into the courageous act of radical ALL-inclusive self-love and with each moment, may we come to know more and more the gifts of the raw and unspoken!

From the belly of my untethering soul I offer you these classes:
Source Yoga North Tacoma: Tues./Thurs. 9:30am Basic Flow & Wed. 9:30am Refine & Align; Source Yoga UP: Wednesdays 7pm Relax & Restore; and Seattle Yoga Arts: Sundays 8:30am Essentials and 10:15am Deepening.

See you there!!!
Love and Light,
Angi