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New Student Information
Please arrive a few minutes early to your first class so you can get signed in and we can meet. Contact me by phone or email if it is your first time to the studio, or your first time in a yoga class, so I can answer any questions you may have. Here are a few suggestions to help orient you to the studio and your practice of yoga:
- Yoga is practiced in bare feet.
- Bring a sweater or sweatshirt, and some water to class.
- Wear clothing that is comfortable and allows freedom of movement.
- Please avoid the use of perfume.
- Turn off your cell phone or leave it on vibrate if you must have it on.
- If you should arrive late to class, enter quietly and sign in.
- The studio has sticky mats and eyebags for your practice; but feel free to
bring your own if you have one.
- Eat lightly a few hours before your class for your best comfort.
- “Where ever you are is the starting point.” And “All things in good time…”
Be where you are today, take time to listen to your body and treat it with respect. If you take your time to let things unfold, and you are consistent with your practice, you will see wonderful shifts in your body and mind. Your yoga practice goes with you into your daily life; the more you practice, the more you see its relevance to everything.
New Student Information Form - PDF 58k
If you're new to yoga...
Luckily, yoga is a practice that provides answers organically. In other words, you will start to understand its lessons in time if you stay with your practice of the postures. Here's how renowned Ashtanga yoga teacher David Swenson explains it:
"Yoga takes care of you if you stick with it. You start to sense what's right and
what's wrong, and then you follow a path of moral living because it feels right.
The answers are in the practice, and the practice never judges you."
So instead of feeling buried under all there is to learn, or worried about all the ways you'll need to change your life, relax into your practice and trust that the right answers will come when you're ready for them. It's that easy. |
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Yoga Terms and Phrases
Helpful definitions to orient you to the language you will hear in class.
Sanskrit is the scriptural language of ancient India and the language of yoga. (Sanskrit predates Latin and is also the mother language to all European languages: English, French, Italian, etc)
Yoga: from the Sanskrit root “yuj” meaning to yoke, join, unite together. Uniting the body, mind, and spirit with the universal Divine. The techniques of yoga are based on the collective experiences of many individuals over thousands of years. Yoga is a science and the third branch of the Ayurvedic Sciences (the other two which are Ayurvedic medicine, the Science of Life and Astronomy, study of the heavens). Yoga is not a religion and is not at odds with any religion. Yoga is a scientific method, a health maintenance system with reproducible results to achieve spiritual awareness. Advancement in yoga is a slow process but an extremely enjoyable one!
Hatha Yoga: (Ha – Tha ) (“th” as in Thomas) Ha – SUN tha – MOON Oppositional energies at work. Hatha Yoga is the yoga of physical well being. It is an umbrella term for many different styles of yoga, but it is the branch of yoga (and Third Limb – see below) that deals primarily with physical postures. The postures or “asanas” are designed to bring awareness to our bodies, mind, and breath, using movement and concentration to create harmony, balance, and relaxation in the body.
Asana: literally means “seat”; translated as pose or posture. The physical movements of yoga are designed to give us a “seat” or grounding in the changing circumstances of life.
Shanti means peace.
Namaste is an Indian greeting. It means literally "I bow to the divine in you."
Om/ AUM: is the sacred Sanskrit syllable that is said to contain the seed or the essence of universal consciousness. It is the sound of the Universe or of the Divine.
Chakra – means “wheel”. There are seven chakras is the body. These centers are whirling vortexes of energy and each corresponds to a color, to an emotion (positive and negative), and to a body system.
Pranayama (Prana: life force, Yama: control) Pranayama is the harnessing of energy through deliberate breath patterns.
Meditation: The fourth state of consciousness; neither sleeping, nor dreaming nor fully waking. Meditation is participatory observation. It is inherently experimental, and is essentially a practice of personal discovery. Mindfulness Meditation is learning to LIVE.
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