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With May Upon Us....
Comox Valley is a blanket of beautiful flowers blooming in an array of lovely colours. This thought along with all of your ideas, has inspired us to plan another fantastic month of change, opportunity and fun at Bikram Yoga Comox Valley. Yes...we yogis like to stretch but we like to keep life exciting too!
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Silent Candle Lit Yoga
Class
This is one class that you seem to ask for every month. So we have decided again to put on two silent candle lit classes. The first is on
Saturday the 14th at 8:
30am and the other on
Wednesday
the 25th at 7:00pm.
To take this class, you must have 10 Bikram yoga classes under your belt. This is a truly beautiful class, full of positive energy and connected-ness with yourself and your yogi friends.
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Feel Good/Beach Body 40 Day Challenge.....
1. I have a Body
2. I like the beach
It's yoga challenge time!! But now it's time to get serious. We don't plan on doing a 30 day challenge. This is major. In fact, we have never done this before......We plan on torturing you for 40 consecutive days! We know it's hard.
26 postures, 2 breathing exercises, 90 min only, 6.25 percent of your day. No choice, No excuse.
Dedicating 90 minutes out of your day purely for your health, your well being and let's be real...Who doesn't want to fit into their swimsuit with a little more confidence this year? Have we tempted you with our amazing line of speedos and rhinestone embellished yoga wear?! We are going to help you achieve your goal of being the best you, you can be.....fit from the inside out!
This challenge begins on Monday, May 16th.
One more thing to inspire. If you complete the challenge, your name will automatically be entered into a draw to win a
one year Free Bikram Yoga Comox Valley Membership!
This has a value of over
$1,000.00!
Whoever hits the halfway point on time, will get a
free Bikram Yoga Comox Valley T-Shirt
, plus we think it would be a great night to get together at Gladstone Brewery to celebrate (details on this in the next newsletter.)Yes...Yoga and beer do go well together. Just not before class. Plus Gladstone Brewery pizza is amazing! No matter what, you will receive one of our certificates
commemorating
your accomplishment of awesomeness. We however, already know your awesome!!
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Social Saturday
What? We had no idea you yogis were such social beings. All that dedication to silence in the hot room and then look out! We put on a social day and you don't stop talking. We love it! Join us on
Saturday May 7th,
for
fruit, tea and coffee at the studio after the 8:30 am class. Please
feel free to bring a treat to share.
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Flip Flopping Classes
Again
We know. You're freaking out that we are going to cut your favorite classes! Seriously yogis! Not our fault you
weren't
showing up to the Friday 7:00pm trial class!! Not to worry though as we are going to give you another chance, albeit the complete opposite.
We are going to TRIAL a 6:00am class on Wednesday mornings, for the months of July and August. Yeah!! This is another great oppourtunity to get your yoga done before the sun is too high in the sky and most people are even awake!!
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Mothers Day!!!
We know how much you love your Mothers. We love our Mom's too!! So for Mothers day week
(Sunday
the 8th to Saturday the 14th,)
bring your mom for free! They do so much for us and they have helped you become
the amazing yogis that we know you are. So we want to meet them and help celebrate them with you. Get
20 percent
off any item of
clothing
on
Mothers Day only
.
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Flower Petal Blooming
Contest
What the heck?! Why not? It's May. Flower Month. Be inspired and take a picture of your most beautiful or creative flower petal blooming (do not tell us you don't know what posture that is!) Its half moon, silly! You can send us lovely pictures of your garden but honestly........only yogis blooming will get a prize. Someone needs to tell this cat....form over depth!!
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Doing Yoga Down Through the Age
s
History
Yoga has been around for millennia: "the development of yoga can be traced back over 5,000 years ago, but some researchers think that yoga may be up to 10,000 years old."1
It is believed that yoga started in the ancient Samskrithi culture of Bharata, (India).
The
origin of; "the word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit 'Yuj' which essentially means to join or unite. The union referred to is that of the individual or the self-uniting with Cosmic Consciousness or the Universal Spirit."2
If you're interested, check out the
Yoga Sutras of Patanjalii,
one of the ancient Indian gets that is often cited
as the basis of the philosophy behind yoga. There are eight limbs of yoga, made up of 195 sutras that focus on gaining mastery over the mind and emotions in order to grow
spiritually.
Mind-Body
There is mounting medical evidence (MRI's and other) confirming what was known long ago, that practicing yoga has numerous health benefits. This includes but is not limited to: increased strength, balance, and circulation, better
immunity, breathing and posture and reduced stress, anxiety, improved mood and greater self- awareness.
The remainder of this post takes an abbreviated look at the part of the mind known as ego. If you have a curious "mind" and want to know more about the ego and self realization there is an abundance of information about this subject online.
Some Background
An article on Psychcentral.com advises that: though the term 'ego' is commonly used to describe one who boasts, is arrogant, treats others with scorn, lacks empathy, and the like, the concept of ego is neutral in itself.
The word 'ego' is a Greek word for "I", meaning the core sense of self, a distinct and unique expression of personhood, albeit one that paradoxically exists in connection or in relation to life and others."3
Our ego by this definition then, is necessary and when at rest, neutral. It's also capable of misbehaving though, as described in the following paragraph!
Doing Yoga or Ego?
A post in the Elephant Journal comments: "when ego mind is the performer of postures, our mind is actively engaged in self-criticism, comparing our performance with others, and judging ourself and others. Our mind is agitated and engaged in internal conflict even as our body is engaged in performing postures. As a result of constant internal conflict, our mind is restless. Whenever we are mentally agitated, restless, emotionally reactive to whatever we are facing at any given moment, we are engaged in the posture of ego.
"4
Learning how to transcend or calm a "restless mind" in class is an invaluable life skill that is transferable outside the hot room.
I'm open to the possibility of "self-uniting with Cosmic Consciousness or the Universal Spirit" but also pleased to be doing yoga and not ego on a more consistent basis.
It does however require showing up, practice and some sweat!
Brian L
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Richard was Inspired..
and now he has taken Bikram yoga to a new level. He has these hot, furry, feathered little chicks practicing Bikram Yoga in a room heated to 40 degrees.
Can anyone do Bikram Yoga you ask?
Apparently so!
On a more serious note, with the beautiful Spring upon us and Summer soon to follow, Richard will
no longer
be teaching
meditation
classes. So as of now, MEDITATION CLASS IS CANCELLED until next Fall. We will keep you posted.
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Richard Fairbanks
Describing yoga is a little bit like describing a mango. You can hear about it, see pictures or read about it. Only when you taste it, and immerse yourself in the experience of its sweet juicy fragrant stickiness do you really begin to know mangoes in a new way.
For me, yoga gets sweeter and juicer the more I immerse myself in it's delightful fragrance. One of the great exponents of the science of yoga, Patanjalii said "The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is yoga". My aim and intention in the practice of yoga is to bring harmony to my entire being through calm focused deliberate awareness. Now that's a fun worthy adventure! Health benefits are certainly found in consistent practice but yoga has so much more to offer.
We are a lot more than our physical bodies but if the body is not healthy, less is possible.
May you all find sweetness in your practice.
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Day Care
S
tephanie Howells (one of our former front deskies) is a wonderful daycare provider who has offered to look after your little ones while you take class. The cost is $5.00 per child and it is best to call her and book in advance. Her availability is limited and changes weekly.
Contact Stephanie at Bumblebee Childminding...(250)702-6036. If its your first time, feel free to call her and ask for a tour of her facility.
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Keeping it Green
Lots of curiosity about Sandy's green, sludge drink. Curiosity, jokes, etc. Well this is what it is.....
Kale, spinach, grapefruit, orange, spirulina, and wheatgrass powder, ICE. Blended, not stirred or shaken.
Yes....it tastes better then it looks. No....its not as good as a latte. But yes, it is an amazing way to jumpstart your day. If you have some great, green drink recipes, please share them with us. Keeping it GREEEN!!!
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Wonderful Charities
We were honoured this month to be able to donate yoga memberships (10 class & 1 month unlimited memberships) to a couple of organizations for fundraising auctions. One organization, The Canadian Cancer Society through their
"Relay for Life" events, raise money to support cancer research, prevention and support services.
The other "Help Fill a Dream Foundation" helps children under 19, who have life threatening conditions to receive hope and happiness, by realizing a dream come true. We are grateful to be able to give to these two charities.
Also, we recently replaced our rental mats with nice, new, shiny mats from Manduka. We gave our old mats to one of our fellow yogis, Don (Monty) Montgomery, to take to his yoga facility in Nicaragua to be used by the local kids. Good on ya Don! You can check it out by clicking here.
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Suggestion Box
1. Bike Racks, Please?
Done. Another Fantastic Yogi inspired idea. Iain will install it next week.
2. I would like to see more of my favourite teacher
We base our schedule on the availability that the teachers give, the number of classes available and by seniority. All of our teachers are loved, and we are blessed to have them. We are also full of gratitude for the number of teachers we have and the varied talent, knowledge, guidance, love and support that they give. Each and every one of them are the reason we have the beautiful loving Bikram yoga community we have.
3. Could we please have a 7:00am class on Sunday?
We aren't against adding classes but due to popular demand, we are already TRIALING a 6:00am class on Wednesdays next month. We also have the 2 extra classes on Monday and Wednesday at 12:00pm. You yogi's sure like to revamp the schedule a lot! That being said, we could look at the idea of a 7:00am class on Sundays in the future. That being the distant future. We can only afford to put on so many classes and its a very difficult thing to take classes away from you once we've added a class!
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