Sedona Yoga Festival 2019

We all know someone who has been directly, or indirectly, impacted by addictions or alcoholism. As people, we have an innate need to bond and connect with one another. When we cannot do that, when we cannot connect to each other because of our circumstance, we’ve been traumatized, beaten down by life, mental unwellness, marginalization, whatever the cause may be, when we cannot connect with each other we will connect with something, anything, that gives us some sense of relief. And today, that isn’t limited to drugs and alcohol. We turn to shopping, gambling, sex, pornography, gaming, eating disorders, social media, whatever it is, to give us some sort of connection. And to complicate things, people 18 to 25 are reporting that they are incredibly lonely, despite their facebook friends and twitter followers. So where does Yoga Recovery come in? Yoga Recovery explores the heart and science of yoga, meditation and physical activity in recovery (yes, there are volumes of studies that validate yoga and meditation in recovery!) In this “workshop” flow we will see how our asana practice connects us to our physical self. This is the foundation to allow us to go deeper through meditation, to connect with our inner self, our true self, the Divine within. Our ability to really tap into our true self is essential if we are to connect, bond and love one another. . Together we will flow, we will meditate and we will connect with one another in a deeply powerful way. Participants will leave our practice feeling rooted, connected to oneself and to others, and deeply aware of the power of love within. This is a sampling of the 100 hour Yoga Recovery course that has been approved by Yoga Alliance for Continuing Education credits.

Our experience of life now is ….. well, let me say, “challenging.” We are in the throes of a changing time. It is a time of questioning the meanings and purposes of our lives and the roles we have taken on to survive and thrive. We are seeing the qualities of limitation and separation that are inherent to the underlying belief structure of our present paradigm. And we are beginning to understand and accept that the attitudes and behaviors arising from these beliefs are destroying the earth, our outer environment, and our lives, our inner environment. We cannot continue to seek our meaning, purpose, value, and identity in this paradigm. We must find different beliefs; new meanings, new purposes, new roles. I think all of us have been praying, asking for guidance and help as we seek a new way of being. As it says in Mathew, “Ask, and it shall be given you …, Knock; and it shall be opened unto you.” I believe that it is by design that the practices of Yoga and Qi Gong have come into our present experiences. For these, in their essence, are practices in consciousness. It is in consciousness that we are aware of our beliefs and choose the beliefs we hold as our truth. These beliefs form our reality; they become our experiences of life! Though our practice begins in the vibrational; the physical, energetic, emotional, and mental levels of our being, it quickly reveals that we are also consciousness. We then become aware of the mystical interface between our consciousness and vibrational existence. The practice leads us deeper within where we learn to navigate this interface. Along the way, we are given the keys and principles that guide us to, and help us face, our internal unknown ----- help us to be present at this interface without contraction, judgement, a need to control, or expectation of outcome. Our open presence or surrender before this inner “altar” is our invitation to God. This is our communion; this is how we become a living path of transformational change. Pantanjali, in his Yoga Sutras, wrote, “Yoga is the neutralization of the alternating (vibrating) waves in consciousness.” One thing that I think is obvious to all of us is that we are here to experience this world. But I believe we were not meant to be trapped here. Our consciousness, the very essence of Who We Are, does not come from our experiences of the world, it comes from something that we cannot know through the vibrational i.e. mind, emotion, energy, and matter (the alternating waves). It is only to the extent that we seek and, therefore, attach our identity and our personal value to our experiences of this world that we become entrapped within it. Both Yoga and Qi Gong Practice are teaching us how to experience vibrational existence (Creation and our bodies) while knowing that we (our true identity and value) do not come from these experiences. We are learning to experience this world, to experience everything that it has to offer, without getting entrapped and limited by our experiences.

Malas and Mantras Experience 45 minutes of breathing meditation using your mala beads with Rana Nader, learn how to use your mala beads, why there are 108 beads, what is the right mantra for you and how to engage your mala beads with your yoga and meditation practice.