Shambhala Mountain Center Blog

Last week a friend sent me a Wall Street Journal article by John Freeman entitled “Not So Fast,” an excerpt from his book The Tyranny of E-mail. Freeman’s article points out the bitter irony of today’s media: the faster we communicate, the less we understand; our incessant interconnectivity has actually done little to connect us.  Instead, as Freeman explains, social media has “isolated us from the people with whom we live” and has encouraged “flotillas of unnecessary jabbering, making it difficult to tell signal from noise.”  Living in a “constant state of digital jet lag,” he concludes, we have become largely unaware of our bodies and minds.

This article is a reminder of the need to slow down and remember what’s really important. Freeman sees the frantic speed at which we text, chat, and type as a way to stave off the specter of our own mortality, a temporary relief from the reality that our lives are finite. “Busyness,” he says, “numbs the pain of this awareness.” But both body-based practices and mindfulness disciplines teach us that in the heart of this pain is the possibility of freedom, the opportunity to face the fact of our impermanence, and to live our lives accordingly.

With society increasingly wired for instant communication and remote networking, it can be difficult to remember to slow down. At Shambhala Mountain Center we offer you refuge from the speediness of modern society. Our programs provide opportunities to transform busyness to mindfulness — a chance to rest and renew your mind, body, and spirit.

Consider this blog post a beautifully-wrapped paradox: delivered via its speedy efficient medium, it is an invitation to stop, turn the laptop off, take a breath, and rest — truly rest.

Best,

Brian Spielmann

Now more than ever, most of us could use an opportunity to regroup and recharge our batteries with a vacation but, we’d also like to do something good and healthful for ourselves.

A yoga retreat provides the perfect answer to both!

With destinations ranging from local to exotic, Shambhala Mountain Center is pleased to offer a variety of options for those seeking a yoga retreat.  The holistic approach to improving your mind and body is a pleasant departure from the intense-sounding ìboot campî fitness regimens.

Plan your own retreat on Shambhala Mountain Center’s 600 acres of native forests, gentle meadows and sweeping valleys.  From leisurely hiking to botanic gardens, massage sessions and healthful meals, a retreat at Shambhala is just what you need to renew and recharge.  Or, attend the program, “Living Yoga with Wendy Bramlett” Sept 11-13. It is offered in September 2009 and focuses on learning techniques to bolster your happiness during these challenging times.

Ready to begin planning your retreat?  And relaxing?  Learn more about all of the programs offered by Shambhala Mountain Center in beautiful northern Colorado.

Like most adults, our children live a life of stress. While they don’t have to worry about mortgages or finances they do have homework, peer pressure and over-scheduling to contend with. And like adults, these kids are turning to yoga to help them relax.

Kids’ yoga has numerous benefits. Regular practice can help kids develop better body awareness, self-control, flexibility and coordination. Yoga stretching and body alignment can create a better athlete while also improve listening skills.

In fact, Yoga has been shown to help the hyperactive and attention-deficit child. These children crave movement and sensory/motor stimulus. Yoga helps channel these impulses in a positive way. Yoga poses help instill calm, confidence and balance.

If done properly, yoga is a suitable alternative to tumbling and team sports for getting stressed-out, sedentary children socializing, exercising and building discipline.

This summer solstice come play with your family and celebrate with the community through yoga, meditation, storytelling, music and nature. Join senior certified Anusara Instructor Jeanie Manchester for early morning meditation and asana practice, while children participate in an interdisciplinary program with storyteller and children’s yoga expert Sydney Solis. Fun-packed evening programs round out the experience. Children ages 6 to 12 are welcome to participate in the program. Childcare is available through our Shotoku Children’s Center for children ages 3 to 5. Contact Shambhala Mountain Center to learn more.

Anusara. Ashtanga. Kripalu. Lîla. Hatha. The numerous styles of modern yoga can seem daunting to even experienced yoga students. While all styles of yoga stem from the same ancient practices developed 5,000 years ago in India, it’s good to do some research to decide which style and class level is right for you before jumping in to a class. If the class is described as beginning, intermediate, or advanced, it’s still best to find out the teacher’s background, for every teacher is different. I know more than one student who dropped into a yoga class, saw people twisting their bodies in ways that seemed unimaginable, and slinked out, returning only many years later when they realized yoga is not about being a Gumby, but rather about getting to know your body as it is and gradually gaining strength and flexibility both in class and in daily life.

If you’re young and physically fit, more vigorous styles like Bikram, Asthanga, and Power Yoga will better suite your higher energy. If you’re dealing with an injury or chronic illness or are in your later years, restorative classes or yoga therapy might be more appropriate. Yoga classes specifically for depression and anxiety have been developed by such renowned teachers as Amy Weintraub and Bo Forbes, and some styles, such as Kripalu and Anusara, were developed for transformation and spiritual awakening. If you’re a stickler for detail, Iyengar Yoga might appeal to you. You’ll find that all styles incorporate hatha yoga, or the physical poses we’re most familiar with, along with varying amounts of pranayama (breathing techniques), shavasana (relaxation) meditation, and perhaps yantra (symbols) and mantra (hand gestures).

The following is a brief description of a few yoga styles. When choosing a class, try to sample a few styles—and teachers—then settle into the one that feels right to you. As you grow and change, you might decide that another style would be more appropriate. Always listen to your body first, and never strain or struggle in a yoga class.

Anusara Yoga is an integrated approach which blends precise physical biomechanics and spiritual elements. It is both physically transformative and therapeutically effective. This upbeat practice creates an attitude of opening to grace, integrates awareness of the entire body, and involves practicing postures as an artistic expression of the heart.

Ashtanga Yoga is a fast-paced demanding practice involving a progressive series of postures synchronized with the breath. Designed to produce intense internal heat and profuse, purifying sweat, this practice detoxifies muscles and organs, and is great for building strength and flexibility.

Kripalu Yoga uses classical hatha yoga postures and breathing techniques to help students enter a state of “meditation in motion.” The practice includes three stages: postural alignment and breath; longer posture holding and meditation; and spontaneous posture flows. This practice serves as a catalyst for physical healing, psychological and emotional development, and spiritual awakening.

Integrative Yoga Therapeutics™ combines the classical elements of yoga—therapeutic vinyasa, restorative yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises—with the latest advances in mind-body medicine to address issues such as anxiety, insomnia, depression, chronic pain disorders, fertility, and more.

Lîla Yoga™, known as a “philosophy in motion,” combines creative sequencing of postures (vinyasas) and complimentary yoga postures (asanas) into powerful patterns of movement to warm the body, focus the mind, and awaken a deeper sense of presence. The practice focuses on the power of the mind, energy patterns, trusting the intuitive, and living with more agility and grace.

© 2009 Shambhala Mountain Center.

Lori Batcheller is Shambhala Mountain Center’s senior editor. A certified 500-hour Kripalu Yoga instructor, she teaches yoga classes in Boulder, Colorado, and Introduction to Kripalu Yoga at Shambhala Mountain Center.

While sitting in a yoga class, you’ll notice that there is a variety of body shapes around you. Sure, there is the slender, tall and lean person to your right. Then to your left is a woman with ample hips and thighs, and behind you is a man who is over six feet tall with long legs and a strong back. It’s then that you realize the most beautiful aspect of yoga – its acceptance of all body types.

With a variety of body types, we move through our poses differently from each other. Some of us get assistance from blocks or straps, while others bend ever so slightly rather than folding completely over. But, as you work through class you learn that each personal style can be correct based on what is comfortable for each individual body type. In fact, yoga happens when we practice asana with sthira-sukha, or steadiness and comfort, making for no perfect way any of the yoga postures “should” look.

How one looks, how one moves, one’s lifestyle, health, or how one performs the asanas has little to do with the true practice of yoga. Yoga is the process of learning to be aware of self and others, finding an authentic, natural way to move your body. Yoga is balance and flexibility; yoga is breath; yoga is connecting the breath to the movement; yoga is living in the present moment with mindfulness; yoga is increasing the flow of energy; yoga is stilling the myriad fluctuations of the mind and ultimately achieving bliss.

The beauty of yoga is that it accepts the physically fit, physically unfit, short, tall, fat, thin, flexible and inflexible. You’ll never hear a yoga instructor mention an ideal type of yoga practitioner, simply because it does not exist. No ideal shape, size, age or heath status will dictate who should or shouldn’t practice yoga. It doesn’t matter what you believe, what you have, or where you come from. Yoga in its purest state is an invitation to celebrate your own unique experience.

Experience one of the many yoga class and yoga retreat options at Shambhala Mountain Center. We offer instruction for all levels in our pristine and natural setting. Contact us today to learn more.