Beginner's Yoga. New Series.
Sep 29-Oct 20 (Tuesday nights), or Oct 1-Oct 22 (Thursday nights).
Have you been considering taking a Yoga class but don't know what to expect? Are you curious but don't want to be the only new person in class? Maybe you tried a Yoga video but feel like you need something more? This four week intensive is just for you.
Pre-register today!
http://hamsa-yogashala.com/
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
International Day of Peace
Tomorrow .. Monday, September 21, is the International Day of peace.
The main website .. with a LIVESTREAM:
http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/
The wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_of_Peace
Culture of Peace Initiative:
http://www.cultureofpeace.org/
Peace Vigil:
http://www.idpvigil.com/
Hamsa Yogashala:
http://hamsa-yogashala.com/home
The main website .. with a LIVESTREAM:
http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/
The wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_of_Peace
Culture of Peace Initiative:
http://www.cultureofpeace.org/
Peace Vigil:
http://www.idpvigil.com/
Hamsa Yogashala:
http://hamsa-yogashala.com/home
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Schedule Change
Having worked with the present schedule for the past year, I have decided that a change may better reflect the needs of the students (based on feedback I have received). Here is what I have been working on:
MEDITATION
MON-SAT: 6:30AM
SUNRISE YOGA
MON-SAT: 7:15-8:15AM
GENTLE YOGA
MON, WED, FRI: 9-10AM
ALL LEVELS YOGA
MON, WED, FRI: 5-6:30PM, and 7-8:30pm
SAT: 9-10:30AM, and 4-5:30PM
BEGINNER’S YOGA
TUES & THR: 7-8:30PM, Registration Required
Mostly, what I have done is pushed the times back to better accomadate work schedules, allowing ample time to get to class (for example).
The notable changes are:
-Therapy Yoga (Healing Yoga) being offered twice a week (and using its Sanskrit word, 'chikitsa').
-Beginner's Yoga. This is an entry level class designed for those who are new to Yoga or want to return to their basic skills. It is by registration only because it has an instructional format.
-There is one more open or All Level (Hatha) class . An additional class time has been added! (Instead of seven, there are now eight). Plus, the time and dates make this class more flexible.
-Saturday now has THREE classes.
I appreciate your thoughts on this new schedule, so please do not hesitate offering ideas.
Of late, I have been very busy with marketing the Shala, and part of that success has contributed towards adapting the schedule. As to marketing, please vote for the Shala in the Best of Gwinnett:
http://www.gwinnettmagazine.com/bestofgwinnett/content.cfm?action=vote
I am proud of Hamsa Yogashala .. and as students, you should be as well. Come to classes, and invite your family and friends .. spread the word of how great Yoga is!
Doing Yoga is like karma .. you have to get some to give some!
Aum Peace!
Yogini Valarie Devi
MEDITATION
MON-SAT: 6:30AM
SUNRISE YOGA
MON-SAT: 7:15-8:15AM
GENTLE YOGA
MON, WED, FRI: 9-10AM
ALL LEVELS YOGA
MON, WED, FRI: 5-6:30PM, and 7-8:30pm
SAT: 9-10:30AM, and 4-5:30PM
BEGINNER’S YOGA
TUES & THR: 7-8:30PM, Registration Required
Mostly, what I have done is pushed the times back to better accomadate work schedules, allowing ample time to get to class (for example).
The notable changes are:
-Therapy Yoga (Healing Yoga) being offered twice a week (and using its Sanskrit word, 'chikitsa').
-Beginner's Yoga. This is an entry level class designed for those who are new to Yoga or want to return to their basic skills. It is by registration only because it has an instructional format.
-There is one more open or All Level (Hatha) class . An additional class time has been added! (Instead of seven, there are now eight). Plus, the time and dates make this class more flexible.
-Saturday now has THREE classes.
I appreciate your thoughts on this new schedule, so please do not hesitate offering ideas.
Of late, I have been very busy with marketing the Shala, and part of that success has contributed towards adapting the schedule. As to marketing, please vote for the Shala in the Best of Gwinnett:
http://www.gwinnettmagazine.com/bestofgwinnett/content.cfm?action=vote
I am proud of Hamsa Yogashala .. and as students, you should be as well. Come to classes, and invite your family and friends .. spread the word of how great Yoga is!
Doing Yoga is like karma .. you have to get some to give some!
Aum Peace!
Yogini Valarie Devi
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Amazing Grace
Infinite Wisdom, coming through me.
Amazing Grace, can you see the glory?
I feel the Grace within you .. within me.
These words should fill the book of our heart, so that in quite moments when we look back across the years of our life, we can say, "I am filled with grace for who I am now, in this moment. For who I have grown to be, now, in this moment. For who I am is a result of what I have done before."
With this loving thought, take a look in the mirror and honor your life and the lives of those you have touched. Remember too the dark moments and be kind to them as well. Find compassion for the dark moments and yourself while engulfed in that darkness. And think, "I am love, and I am worthy of loving myself, no matter what I have done."
This simple act brings forgiveness, because whatever you may think of yourself, applies to all others in the universe. So free yourself from guilt and remorse, and forgive yourself, and stop judging yourself, and remember to embrace yourself with compassion. For the darkest of deeds are those we commit upon ourselves.
Know this truth: You have always been loved, and you have always been honored, for how you have expressed yourself in all your lifetimes, has been an expression of Amazing Grace. Just as in the song, Amazing Grace.
Not the version that declares you to be a 'wretch', for we must free our soul from such judgment, but the version that reminds us that we are a divine soul residing in a physical body.
Feel free to send these words to someone you know. Do not delay .. send this message today .. do not put off tomorrow what you can easily do right now. Sending this message is an act of loving kindness - from yourself to another, even if you dont like the person you send it to .. send it anyway.
Do you want to push someones buttons? Then push their button of loving kindness!
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a soul like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.
T'was Grace that taught my heart to love,
And Grace, my love received.
How precious did that Grace appear, the hour I first received.
Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come.
T'was Grace that brought me safe so far, and Grace will lead me home.
Amazing Grace is good to me,
Grace my hope secures.
Grace will my shield and portion be, for Grace will ever endure.
When I've been here ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun.
I've that many days to sing the praise, of Grace when first received.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a soul like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Best of Gwinnett
VOTE! Hamsa Yoga Shala @ Best of Gwinnett.
Catagory: 'Health & Fitness', then 'Best Place to Workout'.
Hamsa Yoga Shala .. living, working and loving Gwinnett County since 2001!
http://www.gwinnettmagazine.com/bestofgwinnett/index.cfm?CFID=45332147&CFTOKEN=51729170
Catagory: 'Health & Fitness', then 'Best Place to Workout'.
Hamsa Yoga Shala .. living, working and loving Gwinnett County since 2001!
http://www.gwinnettmagazine.com/bestofgwinnett/index.cfm?CFID=45332147&CFTOKEN=51729170
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Health Care and Herbalists / Healers
Health Insurance: Disempowering for Patients, Harmful for Herbalists and Healers
By Jess Hardin
Yes, I am among the millions of unassured Americans. Unassured by industry claims, administration promises and congressional intentions when it comes to health legislation. No, I am not one of the privileged, able to slap down multiple plastic cards and receive the kind of A-1 care reserved for the well insured, looking down my nose at the less fortunate.
While our work and purpose includes healing others, my family and can’t get medical insurance even if we want it. We don’t qualify for existing state and federal health insurance because our land is considered an asset, and yet not anywhere near enough money comes in to pay the premiums on even the lousiest policy. It is a stretch for us to make small payments to a private subsidized clinic that serves our backwoods community, a wonderful doctor and staff who nonetheless lack the equipment to conduct many tests, and who have to refer their patients to the big-city hospital whenever the condition is serious or requiring surgery.
I have heard people talk about “catastrophic illness” involving medical bills that lead to bankruptcy and ruin, but in my case there will be no such ruinous bills … I simply will not be getting the treatment when needed.
As a technically impoverished healing school, you might think we would be among the first to champion a new system of universal care. Not!
The larger and more standardized a system is, the less personal, regional, flexible and adaptable it becomes. And as poorly managed as private enterprises of any kind can be, it is the official government run systems and programs that have the greatest potential for mismanagement and abuse. In the hands of bureaucrats, even something as seemingly benign as health care becomes a means for the observation, manipulation and control of a country’s citizens.
Of all the so-called solutions, insurance co-ops make the most sense to me, so that participation is strictly voluntary, and its members get to vote on who directs it. But frankly, even the very concept of insurance seems largely absurd to me, unnatural and objectionable.
To begin with, the majority of people with health insurance will pay far more in premiums during the course of their lifetimes, than they would have spent direct-paying doctors. If that weren’t the case, the insurance conglomerates would be losing money instead of making the billions and billions of dollars in profits that they do.
In addition, in an environment where there were no insurance companies, the costs of health care wouldn’t be nearly as high as they are now. Providers can charge the insurers more than they would individuals, leading to doctors ordering expensive and often unnecessary tests that they otherwise wouldn’t have.
A problem with the very concept of insurance itself, is that it tends to make people more dependent and less responsible. Kids sent out into the world with the insurance of a financial safety net tend to be more careless and cavalier than those teens and twenty-somethings who know they can’t count on their parents to pay for every mistake or bail them out of every jam. Similarly, people insured from childhood on have proven to increasingly focus on treatment after the fact, than they do on prevention.
Subconsciously if not consciously, folks may feel less need to concern themselves with the effects of the foods they eat or the exercise they miss, when the believe they can always turn to a doctor to treat the heart disease and adrenal burnout their lifestyle choices may have caused. For the same reason, the longtime insured are also less likely to ever learn how to treat themselves, even when dealing with simple conditions that are easy to both diagnose and affect. They’re less likely to pay attention to their own bodily signs, to experiment with changes in the way they eat, to become familiar with herbal and other natural remedies, to seek advice from an experienced relative or midwife, or to visit and support community herbalists and natural healers.
If that weren’t enough, I am at a gut level repulsed by the very way in which insurance works. All my life I have done what many thought was impossible, doing things differently than others, taking extreme risks, following a dream with little money and little common sense, but also little self doubt and even less restraint. In essence, I bet on myself again and again, bet my life and belongings, even my future. I was all the more careful and tried all the harder exactly because there was no backup, no fallback plan and no net, knowing that I had placed everything I am and own on “myself” in the “first”… “to win.”
It galls me even to be forced to pay car insurance we can’t afford every month, on a Jeep we drive less than ten miles to town and back, forced to bet our scarce funds on a game where I only get paid anything if I screw up and have an accident, or fail to notice some other driver screwing up in time to avoid the collision.
There is something seriously wrong about a government threatening us with jail unless we participate in some profit-producing game, especially one in which the only way for us to win is to lose! And now they want to force me to pay for a health care arrangement where I get fewer benefits the better that I take care of myself, where I have to get sick or do something unaware and hurt myself in order to get any payback, and where I only win the lottery big if I come down with something serious, chronic and largely incurable.
We might better place our bets on our selves, on our driving abilities and the human body’s natural inclination towards health. That way we’re more likely to pay attention to how aware we are being on the highway, and on how our bodies feel as well as how we are treating them.
It’s said that the worst thing that could happen this year is for the Congress to fail to pass on national health bill. It would indeed be tragic for some of us with no other way to get the high dollar, high-tech help. On the other hand, doing nothing in the halls of Congress is always better than doing the wrong thing. And it may prove that those without sanctioned insurance plans may be the most conscious, concerned and caring … the response-able, responsive ranks of the growing unassured.
-Jesse Wolf Hardin
codirector of the Animá Lifeways & Herbal School
-with Kiva Rose
www.animacenter.org
Feel free to share and post this piece.
By Jess Hardin
Yes, I am among the millions of unassured Americans. Unassured by industry claims, administration promises and congressional intentions when it comes to health legislation. No, I am not one of the privileged, able to slap down multiple plastic cards and receive the kind of A-1 care reserved for the well insured, looking down my nose at the less fortunate.
While our work and purpose includes healing others, my family and can’t get medical insurance even if we want it. We don’t qualify for existing state and federal health insurance because our land is considered an asset, and yet not anywhere near enough money comes in to pay the premiums on even the lousiest policy. It is a stretch for us to make small payments to a private subsidized clinic that serves our backwoods community, a wonderful doctor and staff who nonetheless lack the equipment to conduct many tests, and who have to refer their patients to the big-city hospital whenever the condition is serious or requiring surgery.
I have heard people talk about “catastrophic illness” involving medical bills that lead to bankruptcy and ruin, but in my case there will be no such ruinous bills … I simply will not be getting the treatment when needed.
As a technically impoverished healing school, you might think we would be among the first to champion a new system of universal care. Not!
The larger and more standardized a system is, the less personal, regional, flexible and adaptable it becomes. And as poorly managed as private enterprises of any kind can be, it is the official government run systems and programs that have the greatest potential for mismanagement and abuse. In the hands of bureaucrats, even something as seemingly benign as health care becomes a means for the observation, manipulation and control of a country’s citizens.
Of all the so-called solutions, insurance co-ops make the most sense to me, so that participation is strictly voluntary, and its members get to vote on who directs it. But frankly, even the very concept of insurance seems largely absurd to me, unnatural and objectionable.
To begin with, the majority of people with health insurance will pay far more in premiums during the course of their lifetimes, than they would have spent direct-paying doctors. If that weren’t the case, the insurance conglomerates would be losing money instead of making the billions and billions of dollars in profits that they do.
In addition, in an environment where there were no insurance companies, the costs of health care wouldn’t be nearly as high as they are now. Providers can charge the insurers more than they would individuals, leading to doctors ordering expensive and often unnecessary tests that they otherwise wouldn’t have.
A problem with the very concept of insurance itself, is that it tends to make people more dependent and less responsible. Kids sent out into the world with the insurance of a financial safety net tend to be more careless and cavalier than those teens and twenty-somethings who know they can’t count on their parents to pay for every mistake or bail them out of every jam. Similarly, people insured from childhood on have proven to increasingly focus on treatment after the fact, than they do on prevention.
Subconsciously if not consciously, folks may feel less need to concern themselves with the effects of the foods they eat or the exercise they miss, when the believe they can always turn to a doctor to treat the heart disease and adrenal burnout their lifestyle choices may have caused. For the same reason, the longtime insured are also less likely to ever learn how to treat themselves, even when dealing with simple conditions that are easy to both diagnose and affect. They’re less likely to pay attention to their own bodily signs, to experiment with changes in the way they eat, to become familiar with herbal and other natural remedies, to seek advice from an experienced relative or midwife, or to visit and support community herbalists and natural healers.
If that weren’t enough, I am at a gut level repulsed by the very way in which insurance works. All my life I have done what many thought was impossible, doing things differently than others, taking extreme risks, following a dream with little money and little common sense, but also little self doubt and even less restraint. In essence, I bet on myself again and again, bet my life and belongings, even my future. I was all the more careful and tried all the harder exactly because there was no backup, no fallback plan and no net, knowing that I had placed everything I am and own on “myself” in the “first”… “to win.”
It galls me even to be forced to pay car insurance we can’t afford every month, on a Jeep we drive less than ten miles to town and back, forced to bet our scarce funds on a game where I only get paid anything if I screw up and have an accident, or fail to notice some other driver screwing up in time to avoid the collision.
There is something seriously wrong about a government threatening us with jail unless we participate in some profit-producing game, especially one in which the only way for us to win is to lose! And now they want to force me to pay for a health care arrangement where I get fewer benefits the better that I take care of myself, where I have to get sick or do something unaware and hurt myself in order to get any payback, and where I only win the lottery big if I come down with something serious, chronic and largely incurable.
We might better place our bets on our selves, on our driving abilities and the human body’s natural inclination towards health. That way we’re more likely to pay attention to how aware we are being on the highway, and on how our bodies feel as well as how we are treating them.
It’s said that the worst thing that could happen this year is for the Congress to fail to pass on national health bill. It would indeed be tragic for some of us with no other way to get the high dollar, high-tech help. On the other hand, doing nothing in the halls of Congress is always better than doing the wrong thing. And it may prove that those without sanctioned insurance plans may be the most conscious, concerned and caring … the response-able, responsive ranks of the growing unassured.
-Jesse Wolf Hardin
codirector of the Animá Lifeways & Herbal School
-with Kiva Rose
www.animacenter.org
Feel free to share and post this piece.
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