We had a hot, hot, hot Vinyasa class tonight at Empower Yoga Studio in North Beverly- hot and steamy, hot vinyasa sequences and students who were hot to try new things with an open heart and mind.
We also had a new sound track tonight. Those of you who loved the A Capella music in savasana, it was Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap. Here’s the link. Imogen Heap Hide and Seek
Thanks to the Empower community for tonight’s great class and the warm (hot?) welcome.
I was at a lacrosse game this weekend and bumped into a dear friend I haven’t seen in awhile. She said, “I’d love to take a class with you but the yurt sounds so weird!” I laughed and then thought, “Hmm, do people think the yurt is weird?” Now that we’re well into our second year at the yurt, maybe I should clarify some things about how fabulous it is to do yoga in this particular structure.
Let’s admit it. Yurt is a funny word. What exactly is a yurt? A yurt is a round, tent-like structure indigenous to the nomadic peoples of Mongolia. Mongolian weather is pretty extreme so yurts are built to be very cozy out in the middle of the wilderness, regardless of hail, wind and cold. Doing yoga in a round room is particularly wonderful. Our yurt is super deluxe. It has very high ceilings and you can hear the birdsong very clearly inside because the walls are canvas. It has wood supports, a gorgeous wooden floor, a glass oculus in the ceiling (great for watching overpassing hawks) and an incredibly hot, efficient heating system. It is totally off-grid and green, supplied by solar panels. It sits at the top of a meadow on Moraine Farm, on the edge of a lovely woods and is sunny with lovely views of both fields and forest. The grounds of Moraine Farm were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who also designed NYC’s Central Park and Boston’s Emerald Necklace. Beautiful, yes. Weird? Not so much.
Are we doing weird yoga up there? Uh uh. We’re doing vinyasa, heavily influenced by my teachers Baron Baptiste, Dharma Mittra and David Magone. We meditate and breathe and do power yoga at each session. Now that the weather is lovely, we are meditating outside prior to class. There is sweat involved, some long holds for challenge and a full range of experiences for both new yogis and seasoned ones. Whether you are trying to figure out down dog or are dying to nail handstand in the middle of the room, we are pretty much bringing it at the yurt.
So, come along. With gratitude, we acknowledge the women who have subscribed to the program in full, making our sessions possible and making the drop in option available. You can still sign up for the remaining 6 sessions for $105 or you can drop in for $20. As always, our yoga benefits Project Adventure and its programs for youth at risk.
If great yoga in a fabulous venue for an incredible cause is weird, then we’re weird, baby!
See you Wednesday at the top of the meadow.
Raw Beginners Yoga Workshop with Kat Mansfield
Saturday, May 17th from 1:00 – 3:00 PM
Can’t do yoga, huh? But every one you know is after you to get started, right?
Wanted to try but kind of wary about starting? Sure that you’re too Type A to manage the being-serene thing? A little nervous about all those twisty, bendy, yoga pros with the tight tights you’ve seen in class? Worried about an old injury flaring up when some crazy teacher asks you to stand on one leg with your ankle behind your neck?
No worries. This workshop is for you.
Here’s a basics workshop developed expressly for the Raw Beginner. This class focuses on the fundamentals that prepare your body for any class-safely and with humor. Join Kat at UnionStudio Yoga and learn the basics of a yoga practice in a supportive environment designed for every willing student.
1.
Understand, I am always trying to figure out
what the soul is,
and where hidden,
and what shape
and so, last week,
when I found on the beach
the ear bone
of a pilot whale that may have died
hundreds of years ago, I thought
maybe I was close
to discovering something
for the ear bone
2.
is the portion that lasts longest
in any of us, man or whale; shaped
like a squat spoon
with a pink scoop where
once, in the lively swimmer’s head,
it joined its two sisters
in the house of hearing,
it was only
two inches long
and thought: the soul
might be like this
so hard, so necessary
3.
yet almost nothing.
Beside me
the gray sea
was opening and shutting its wave-doors,
unfolding over and over
its time-ridiculing roar;
I looked but I couldn’t see anything
through its dark-knit glare;
yet don’t we all know, the golden sand
is there at the bottom,
though our eyes have never seen it,
nor can our hands ever catch it
4.
lest we would sift it down
into fractions, and facts
certainties
and what the soul is, also
I believe I will never quite know.
Though I play at the edges of knowing,
truly I know
our part is not knowing,
but looking, and touching, and loving,
which is the way I walked on,
softly,
through the pale-pink morning light.
from Why I Wake Early (2004)
Goblin Feet
by J.R.R. Tolkien
I am off down the road
Where the fairy laterns glowed
And the little pretty flitter-mice are flying
A slender band of gray
It runs creepily away
And the hedges and the grasses are a-sighing.
The air is full of wings,
And of blundery beetle-things
That warn you with their whirring and their humming.
O! I hear the tiny horns
Of enchanted leprechauns
And the padded feet of many gnomes a-coming!
O! the lights! O! the gleams! O! the little twinkly sounds!
O! the rustle of their noiseless little robes!
O! the echo of their feet-of their happy little feet!
O! the swinging lamps in the starlit globes.
I must follow in their train
Down the crooked fairy lane
Where the coney-rabbits long ago have gone,
And where silvery they sing
In a moving moonlit ring
All a twinkle with the jewels they have on.
They are fading round the turn
Where the glowworms palely burn
And the echo of their padding feet is dying!
O! it’s knocking at my heart-
Let me go! O! let me start!
For the little magic hours are all a-flying.
O! the warmth! O! the hum! O! the colors in the dark!
O! the gauzy wings of golden honey-flies!
O! the music of their feet-of their dancing goblin feet!
O! the magic O! the sorrow when it dies.
The Naming of Cats
by T.S. Eliot
The naming of cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m mad as a hatter
When I tell you a cat must have three
different names.
First of all, there’s the name
that the family use daily,
Such as Victor, or Jonathan,
George or Bill Bailey–
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names
if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen,
some for the dames;
Such as Plato, Admetus,
Electra, Demeter–
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you,
a cat needs a name that’s particular,
A name that is peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he
keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers,
or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind,
I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quazo or Coripat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellyrum–
Names that never belong
to more than one cat.
But above and beyond
there’s still one name left over,
And that is the name that you will never guess;
The name
that no human research can discover–
But The Cat Himself Knows,
and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought,
of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.
Let’s be honest. Spring is taking its sweet time about getting down to it. In the meantime, everyone I know is coming down with spring colds and feeling a bit miserable. Here is something to help. Boiron makes a great product called Coldcalm, a homeopathic remedy that really knocks your basic sniffles, sore throat, sneezing, wheezing crappy spring cold right out. Combine it with the use of a Neti Pot (yes, I know, you’re all still resisting this but won’t this most recent nasty head cold and sinus infection convert you at last?) and you’ll be in pretty good shape. It has no side effects. As always, this is a friendly recommendation and should not replace or supersede professional medical care.
If you live on the North Shore, you can buy Coldcalm at Wild Oats in Beverly Farms, A New Leaf on Cabot in Beverly or at any Whole Foods. It is also available on line.
Gesundheit!
One of the reasons we do yoga is to our ignite awareness– of ourselves, our practice and our world.
This Saturday, we have an opportunity to turn our awareness to hunger on the North Shore. Yes, it is true. People on the North Shore are hungry. They are making choices between heat and food. And, not surprisingly, our Essex County neighbors are not hungry just at Christmas, a season of heavy donation, but have needs year ’round. Below is a quote from a recent article in the Hamilton Wenham Chronicle:
”It’s not like people are lazy and not doing things,” she said. ”When your rent goes up $150 in a month and you have four children, you just can’t make it.”The Acord Food Pantry in Hamilton has seen an almost 30 percent jump in the number of families requesting groceries, according to director Mark Carleo.”We’re expecting it to get a lot worse,” said Carleo, who now spends his Friday nights and weekends struggling to replenish the pantry shelves. ”We’re starving. ‘Bare shelves’ is not a figure of speech here.”
We have an opportunity to turn the light of awareness toward hunger on the North Shore and do something about it. This Saturday, please join the North Shore yoga community in a Family Yoga Mela (Sanskrit for gathering or festival) to benefit Acord Food Pantry in Hamilton. The Mela is free to the public and 100% of the donations will go to benefit Acord. Here are the details:
Yoga Mela Community Yoga Gathering to benefit Accord Food Pantry
Saturday, March 22, 2008 12:30-2PM at the Hamilton Wenham Recreational Center (behind the Ham/Wen Reg. Library)
Here’s a link for Directions to the HW Recreation Center.
Below are links for more awareness about food pantries and hunger in the Commonwealth and Essex County.
See you at the Family Yoga Mela. Bring your friends, family, kids over 10, beginners, advanced practitioners, everyone. What could be better than yoga and food for the hungry?
http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/news-cms/news/?dept=1368&id=41828
http://www.acordfoodpantry.org/Home%20Page%20New.html
http://www.wickedlocal.com/hamilton/archive/x805318633
With both joy and regret, I am leaving my position as yoga instructor at clubXcel (Hamilton, MA) in mid-March. A former secondary school educator and long-time advocate for children, I have been building models for teaching in schools and for non-profits which benefit children, particularly children at risk. Happily, the seeds I planted some years ago have taken root and I will be moving my teaching practice into these educational and not-for-profit institutions, partnering to provide yoga instruction, awareness and funding while they provide space and support. I am very excited at the prospect of doing karma yoga while doing hatha yoga and I think you will love doing your yoga for others as well as for yourself.
I will continue to teach locally on the North Shore, in tax-deductible classes open to the public, to benefit organizations like Project Adventure and Acord Food Pantry in Hamilton. I will also be teaching a number of workshops for Raw Beginners, Yoga for Equestrians and Partner Yoga in April and beyond. These fun classes will be held in Beverly and Andover and are also open to everyone.
I leave ClubXcel with gratitude for the opportunity the club has provided me to connect with so many wonderful students. I send my thanks and love to the entire clubXcel community and hope to see all of you on the mat around the North Shore through the spring and summer to come.
Winter? What winter? Nothing is more beautiful than the snowy fields around the yurt and the blue expanse of Wenham Lake turned into vast whiteness. Take luscious, warm yoga classes at the top of the beautiful meadow at Moraine Farm and kick away the winter blues.
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Class Schedule
Come along and benefit Youth at Risk in Essex County.
Directions and Information:
Yoga in the Yurt is a joint venture between Project Adventure and KatMansfield.com to support programs for youth at risk in Essex County. Register for seasonal series or drop in for individual classes. Drop in, please make checks for $15 payable to Project Adventure. 50% of your yoga tuition is tax deductible. Please bring your own mat, water, block if you have one, cozy socks and a sweatshirt for meditation.
FROM ROUTE 128 NORTH (FROM ALL POINTS):
Take 128 North to exit 20A, which is Route 1A, North toward Hamilton. Take the first LEFT onto CONANT Street (just after the Country Curtains plaza). At the next light, turn RIGHT onto CABOT Street, which is also Route 97. Moraine Farm is on the right after the cemetery. Please take the first entrance and DRIVE SLOWLY WHILE ON CAMPUS. Follow the signs to the Conference Center (straight ahead ),GO PAST THE SIGNS FOR THE YURT! Pass the Conference Center and keep driving past the large trees and Conference Center parking. You will come into a big field. Please park on the left. In the top left hand corner of the field lot, you will find the path to the yurt. Walk up the path (please do not drive; it is harmful to the terrain) and find the yurt at the top of the meadow. If you follow signs to the Yurt, please be advised you do so at your own risk and will need a 4-wheel drive vehicle, particularly during the wet season.
Valentine’s Day. It can make even the most optimistic romantic groan out loud. There’s the same old/same old. Guilt-inducing chocolates and disappointing dinners out. Tawdry red roses and canned Hallmark sentiments. Worst of all: the day completely forgotten and a ghastly last minute trip to CVS in a vain attempt to rescue the moment. Is there anything new, fun and fabulous to do with your Loved One on the most romantic night of the year?
Yes. There is.
Be Mine: Partner Yoga. Take your yoga practice to a new level. Introduce yoga to someone you love. Join Kat on Friday, February 15th at UnionStudio Yoga in Andover for a special Valentine’s Day Yoga class.
Be Mine: Partner Yoga is dedicated to raising loving awareness in those closest to us by exploring yoga postures through partner work. Partnering allows experienced practitioners to get deeper in a pose and novices to begin to learn the possibilities of yoga practice. Learning to assist and be assisted in poses creates trust, compassion and a depth of knowing in the practical aspects of yoga. Above all, Be Mine: Partner Yoga is fun, laughter being an essential ingredient in any partnership.
This class is ideal for partners where one is an experienced yoga practitioner and the other a beginner. It is also just right for experienced yogis who want to deepen their practice by learning how to give and receive assists in poses.
See you at Unionstudio Yoga for a sweet, healthful and heartfelt Valentine treat.
