And the winner is...

City Pages annual BEST OF issue came out yesterday, and the St. Paul Yoga Center was named "best yoga." It isn't technically in Minneapolis or 612, but I have to give props where props are due. I like that City Pages gave the studio kudos for being a welcoming environment for all types to genuinely deepen their yoga practice. The St. Paul Yoga Center offers a variety of class types (Iyengar, pre-natal, Vinyasa, yoga philosophy, pranayama, etc.) and hosts many interesting workshops. I encourage you to check it out... the first class is free.

Yoga happy hours

There is nothing like a great Friday afternoon yoga class to end the work week and ease into your weekend. Mark your calendars - here are a few options around town:

1st Friday of every month

• TaraNa: 6:00pm (but arrive by 5:30 to get a mat spot) - 90-minute Vinyasa class followed by socializing and libations. These classes are taught by Jessie and Jeffery, both great teachers and fun people.
  

2nd Friday of every month

• Yoga Studio of Plymouth: 5:30-7:30pm - each month is focused on a theme. May is about partner stretching and June has a chakra focus.
  

Every Friday

• Yoga Center of Minneapolis - downtown studio: 5:45-6:45pm- a fun Vinyasa class for all levels. "Celebration Yoga" features upbeat music and tasty treats and beverages after class.
• Yoga Center of Minneapolis - Saint Louis Park studio: 6:30-7:45pm- an all levels yoga class taught by one of my favorite teachers in town, Ryan Kelly. The class features soft lighting and music to slip you into a deep sense of peace and relaxation.
• Yoga House: 4:30-6:00pm- Sydney Holly (another fav teacher of mine) leads the class through a vigorous 90 minutes of Vinyasa practice. This class will make you sweat but you'll feel great by the end.
• One Yoga: 5:30-6:50pm - in this class you will stretch you spine and unwind your mind with friends, tunes, and flow. This Vinyasa class is deeply rooted in the traditions of Ashtanga Yoga.
• CorePower - 8:00-9:00pm - Uptown studio: move through a gentler, all levels Vinyasa flow class with great music and the glow of candlelight.

Remember to register: Amy Ippoliti (Anusara)

REMINDER: April 25-27- Begin with Intention Yoga / Clouds in Water Zen Center
Amy Ippoliti: is a certified Anusara Yoga teacher who has traveled extensively with Anusara founder, John Friend, apprenticing with him on his national tours. She has also studied closely with Tantric scholar, Dr. Douglas Brooks. She leads Anusara Yoga retreats, immersions, workshops, and teacher trainings internationally. According to the website, she is known for her radically affirming teaching style and dynamism, offering her life experience with the potent Universal Principles of Alignment, elegant tantric yoga philosophy, and therapeutics that embody Anusara Yoga.

Yoga playlists

Every month Yoga Journal asks a prominent yoga teacher to share their favorite music for practicing yoga and publishes it in the back of the magazine. I just discovered that these playlists are also posted on the web, making it oh so easy to link right into ITunes or OMstream to purchase the recommended tunes. Here are a few playlists that looked really good:

• Shiva Rea (Yoga Trance Dance)
  
• David Life (Jivamukti Yoga)
• Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa (some serious Kundalini action)

Meditation is hard work

The power of meditation

Last week a friend and I attended a wonderful lecture at the University of Minnesota by Matthieu Ricard, a French born Buddhist monk, scientist, author, and the Dali Lama’s French translator. Ricard’s talk focused on his latest research and book about achieving genuine happiness. It is Ricard’s contention that happiness is not related to external circumstances; rather it is a product of our minds and perceptions. Therefore, to cultivate and improve our state of happiness we can utilize deliberate mind training techniques such as mindfulness meditation. And he has the brain scans and scientific research to prove it works!

According to Ricard, scientific studies have shown that human beings each have a baseline of happiness that they come back to throughout their lives, despite the external circumstances. One example is the fact that for people above the poverty line, studies have shown that more money actually does NOT buy more happiness. In another study, this time of paraplegics, levels of happiness one year after their accidents were actually the same as pre-injury levels even through right after their accidents many had suicidal thoughts. The pursuit of genuine happiness is therefore achieved not by changing external circumstances (bigger house, nicer car, better job, better spouse), but by training the mind to perceive those circumstances differently and ultimately raising the happiness baseline that we all come back to. Ricard shared a number of scientific studies that show that utilization of mindfulness meditation techniques (as practiced by Buddhist monks in Tibet) can actually shift our happiness baseline. This focused type of meditation can alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety, promote body healing, and ultimately raise our overall happiness levels. The trick is that you must “practice” these mind training techniques in a sustained fashion --- like learning to play the piano.

After hearing this powerful message and the seeing all the fancy graphs and MRI scans Ricard brought to prove it, I am recommending that we all read his book Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill, and we start a serious meditation practice. There are a wealth of resources in Twin Cities to get you started. I listed a few below but I am not endorsing any, just giving us all a place to start. Let me know where you learned to meditate. I would love to include it here.

Common Ground Meditation Center (3400 East 26th Street, Minneapolis): an independent center founded on the teachings of the Buddha and dedicated to the practice of mindfulness. This center follows in the spirit of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Northern California. The center is hosting an introduction to mindfulness meditation on May 4 as well as many other ongoing programs.

Shambhala Center of Minneapolis (2931 Grand Street NE, Minneapolis): part of an international community of 165 meditation centers founded by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation master. Shambhala Buddhism incorporates the teachings of the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, with the Shambhala vision of living an uplifted life, fully engaged with the world. The center welcomes newcomers every Monday night in addition to their regular services and programming.

Yoga Center of Minnesota (Saint Louis Park and DT Minneapolis): Tara Cindy Sherman and Tanya Boigenzahn each offer meditation classes through the Yoga Center. These classes will touch on the benefits of meditation, a variety of techniques to help calm the mind, instruction on how to breathe properly and help relax the nervous system, and discussion of how to integrate a meditation practice into your life.

And here are some other resources I found online:

• Rivers' Way
  
• University of Minnesota - Center for Spirituality and Healing
• Seeds of Mindfulness
• Compassionate Ocean Sangha (at Three Smooth Stones)

Back to it

The past few weeks for me have been really stressful (job issues, house drama, etc.) and I have lost my yoga way. I know that these are the times that yoga can be most helpful, but instead I have retreated to repeats of Law and Order, avoided my yoga mat, and totally disengaged from my spirit. (And that by the way, is why I have not been blogging – felt a bit disingenuous.) So I am using this blog entry as a public declaration that I will return to my path…because it sure feels crappy when I leave. Included below is a little anti-anxiety / heart opening asana sequence I’ve designed for myself in order to reconnect with my spirit and get me back into the world. Join me.

(1) Easy pose / meditation with index and thumb touching (Jnana Mudra) and palms facing down to calm the mind – 5 minutes

(2) Cat / cow pose (Marjaryasana / Bitilasana)

(3) Extended puppy pose (Uttana Shishosana)

(4) Staff pose (Dandasana)

(5) Head to knee forward bend (Janu Sirsasana) - right and left side

(6) Bridge pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)

(7) Happy baby pose (Ananda Balasana)

(8) Camel pose (Ustrasana)

(9) Child’s pose with arms extended forward (Balasana)

(10) Bound angle pose (Baddha Konasana)

(11) Half pigeon pose (Ardha Kapotasana) – right and left side

(12) Supine twists – right and left side

(13) Corpse pose (Savasana) – restorative version with bolster, blankets, and eye pillow – 20 minutes

(14) Easy pose with salutation seal / hands at heart center (Anjali Mudra)

Namaste.