Seattle Yoga Arts - June 2017
Practice as Practice
If you're around yoga people for any length of time, you're going to hear the word "practice" coming up often. More experienced practitioners speak of their "practice" in almost reverential tones. But what is practice? As San Francisco yoga teacher Judith Lasater says, practice is doing what we don't know how to do.
Image Credit: Laurie Pace
If we regard yoga as a practice, as a process of uncovering what we don't know, we will see that this attitude creates the opportunity for energy, curiosity and joy in our ex-perience of yoga. I encourage my students to develop a sense of listening instead of improving, being curious instead of correcting.  Just like the piano player who becomes immersed in music, or the person who begins to dream in the foreign language they're trying to learn,  we can become so engaged in our practice that we can forgo our small, critical selves.  

The word mindfulness has been co-opted recently, but that is what I am describing. Perhaps we call it presence. And presence permits us to perceive our senses directly without analysis, interpretation, or comparisons. When attention is fresh and immediate, a whole new inner way to sense our bodies can arise.

It is tempting to measure and compare ourselves, not just in yoga, but in every aspect of our lives. Learning to be whole-hearted about our yoga practice can lead us to wholehearted-ness in our lives. And life, of course, is another deep "practice" that none of us really know how to do!

~ Denise
UPCOMING WORKSHOPS AND SERIES
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Congratulations!
300-Hour 
Teacher Training Graduates
Last November Michelle Peterson became the first graduate of SYA's 300-hour Advanced Teacher Training Program! A long-time SYA student, Michelle completed her studies with remarkable focus and dedication. She shares her considerable gifts with students at 
Aspiration Community Yoga , her in-home yoga studio based in Renton.
Beth Award completed her 300-hour training in April! A longtime SYA instructor (8+ years!), Beth can be found teaching her increasingly popular Yoga & Deep Tissue Hybrid classes, her Intro to Yoga series and leading training workshops.

Congratulations to both of you from the entire SYA Community.  We are so proud of you!
Upcoming Events
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Class News!
Bianca's class  Trauma Sensitive Yoga  begins 
Thursday, June 22nd
5:30 - 6:45pm.
Nicole's Restorative Yoga class will become
1/2 Gentle and 1/2 Restorative Yoga for the summer starting on Wednesday, June 7
7:45 - 9:00pm.
Coming SOON!!
SYA online Classes
We keep promising online classes and we're not kidding!  Stay tuned for announcement coming soon!!
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