Yoga Day out at Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Namaste Everyone, Om Namah Sivaya

So here is our next visit to Sri Aurobindo Ashram: Thankot.  Escape the city for a full day of yoga activities outlined as below and relax in the green environment of the Ashram.  The Ashram is home to about 200 children and adults who live there in a peaceful sanctuary, where they can learn and grow without the worries of life that they would have normally have faced.  The children would have had to have lived in very difficult situations if they had not been taken in, so come and meet them and their beautiful smiles! 

Saturday 9th March

8.30am dept from Pranamaya Yoga Studio; Moksh Patan

9.15am arrive and herbal tea

9.45am Pranayama class with Nicky.  Enjoy the energizing and cleansing benefits of breathing properly

10.15am 5 min break

10.20am Asana class with Nicky.  Enjoy full relaxation, Suryia Namaskar to work through every muscle of the body and ground yourself bringing courage to our daily life, and a set of postures to open up your 7 main energy centres within the body leaving you transformed into a fresh new you!

12.00pm Lunch, fully organic vegetarian lunch.  Time to visit the Ashram shop and order any organic vegetables, milk and yoghurt.  The Ashram has its own fully organic farm with about 40 cows that are also fed fully organically and their produce is delicious!

1.15pm Cultural performance of classical Indian Dance, performed by the children of the Ashram

2.00pm break

2.15pm Talk with Ramchandra the director of the Ashram on who was Sri Arubindo, the Mother and their teachings, and about the Ashram here at Thankot and what they are doing there.

3.00pm herbal tea break

3.15pm Yoga Nidra with Nicky.  Learn the art of throwing off the burdens to sleep with awareness and completely relax every part of you; physically, emotionally and mentally.  Mostly the activities we take up to relax are just diversions from the senses, this way full relaxation and rejuvenation is achieved which is vital for humanities well being.

4.15pm Snack and time to collect any veg, milk and yoghurt that you have ordered

4.45pm dept for Kathmandu

All water will be provided, the cost for the day will be RPS2500 of which RPS1500 goes directly to the Ashram to support the good work that they are doing.

If you could bring your own yoga mat it would be appreciated and please wear appropriate clothing for the Ashram environment, knees and shoulders covered.

For bookings please email info@pranamaya-yoga.com

For now have a wonderful day

OM Shanti OM

mangala/nicky 

World YOga DaY

Join us this Sunday 24^th Feb at 6pm for a beautiful 2 hour yoga session at Pranamaya Yoga Centre; Moksh, Patan, to celebrate yoga and join the world wide yoga practice for human rights. 

World yoga day will dedicate its efforts to support FIAN Nepal, a section of FIAN International, the class is by donation and all monies are donated to help support this organisations work which includes right to food violation cases in Nepal and worldwide.  Today there are 870 million people suffering from hunger and malnutrition.  Surly today this shouldn’t be happening.  FIAN envisions a world free from hunger, in which every person fully enjoys human rights in dignity, particularly the right to adequate food.  FIAN urges all people to support this event by joining the participating yoga centres and contribute to this good cause.  So come and Join myself, Nerine and Marion for a two hour session including healing mantra, flow of asanas and finishing with a beautiful session of yoga nidra, the art of complete relaxation.  Your contributions will be greatly received and appreciated.

Looking forward to seeing you all there, do something worthwhile this Sunday,

OM OM Shanti OM

Mangala/Nicky

How to overcome our anger, fear and anxieties.

Have you noticed that each time you practice your yoga that you feel different, sometimes asanas come easily and sometimes not, sometimes we seem to be able to balance for eternity and other days we shake and wobble all over the place.  This is largely due to our emotions and state of mind, there are deffinate links between our physical performance and our emotional state. 

Swami visnudevananda says ‘ Love, hatred, anger, fear, greed, envy and jealousy are emotions of the mind.  All evil qualities proceed from anger and therefore Yoga students are advised to control anger, and then all other evil qualities will then vanish by themselves.  Moreover, emotions affect the endocrine glands, which are governed by the nervous system, and cause disorders in the normal functions of the internal organs.’

In fact anxiety can be the most damaging of emotions causing ulcers, depression can lead to constipation and the stomach being unable to digest food creating high toxin levels in the body, and anger high blood pressure, higher cholesterol and heart problems.  Fear brings knots in the stomach increasing acidity and disorders to the nervous system.  Swami Sivananda says; ‘Eradication of evil qualities within you is just like dusting away the dirt on the mirror.  When the dust is removed you can see the beauty of your face in the mirror.  When the evil qualities are eradicated you can see the beauty of your self in your heart.’

This week somebody made me angry an emotion I have to say I don’t think I felt for a while and it was a strange feeling, they had no intention of making me angry and probably are quite unaware of it, but my body felt tight, I lost sleep and mentally had to really watch myself.  In fact I thank them for allowing me to feel this again and to be able to watch my emotions and learn how to handle them.  We can really tell how far we are in our practice when we can see how well or not we handle a situation, but it is always good to know what to do to help, how we can overcome these lower emotions and turn them into positive ones.  Here are some excersisies and postures that will help to release anger and bring peace;

1. Sit in childs pose, bring the bottom back onto your heels and upper body resting on your thighs, make contact with the mat with your forehead and allow yourself to feel a gentle pressure at your third eye centre (point between the eyebrows.)  The arms are beside the body, palms face up next to your feet.  Breath deeply, breathing into your rib cage, filling the front and back ribs, have an awareness of your breath and allow the tension to release from you with every exhalation, stay there for as long as you need to.
2. Sit in vajrasana (sitting back on your heels) with your spine straight.  Close your eyes and allow any anger to be within you, tense your body and let that anger rise so we can get rid of it.  Remain angry as you clench your fists and start punching forward one arm at a time using your breath as furiously as you like.  Allow the anger energy to be consumed by your punching, use the breath to help you.  Once finished lower your arms and relax still sitting on your heels, let the breath become smooth and calm, bring a soft expression on your face and allow the body to relax. Breath into your heart and feel a complete sense of release, feeling love and affection start to flow.

So remember that these lower emotions can have a detrimental effect on your body not only your mental state but also of those around you.  It is through our practice that we can become more and more in control and what a lovely feeling when something happens that normally would have made you angry but now doesn’t touch you any more and peace remains.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the mat for some anger management!

Om Lokha Somasta Sukhino Bhavantu

May all living beings find balance and harmony

Om Shanti

Mangala/nicky