It has became an annual tradition for us to start the New Year GIVING with a day of free classes.  Our volunteers are offering their time and loving energy to help you start your New Year with Yoga!!!  The gift of giving on New Year’s Day is our belief that giving brings back much joy and fulfillment.  We would like to finish 2014 with good intentions, and start 2015 with our best wishes.

New Years Day:  FREE CLASSES
9:00am – 10:00am Vinyasa by Cindy
10:15am – 11:15am Aerial by Pik Chu
11:30am – 12:30am Yin & Breath by Lisa
12:45pm – 1:45pm Ashtanga Inspired Flow by Louis

Register for the classes here.

During my high tech days I had one high level manager who always reminded us “Remember your roots.  Remember who you are and where you came from” each time we left to represent our company.  That statement is the reason why we offer both Traditional Yoga and Aerial Yoga.  Without the Traditional Yoga classes our Aerial classes wouldn’t be the same.  Keeping Traditional classes reminds us of our roots, which is Yoga.  Without these classes our students may view us differently, more acrobatic perhaps.  TYS® Aerial Yoga is simply Yoga using a very powerful prop to deepen, to strengthen, to ground and to release.  By keeping it Yoga, we are honoring our roots, remembering where we came from and sharing our love for Yoga.

Our studio is called The Yoga Studio because we offer Yoga, otherwise we would have called ourselves The Aerial Studio.

One of the most simple but profound lessons I learned from my high-tech days was a lesson learned from a very high level manager at HP.  I asked him one day how he could so easily understand a complex situation and break it down into simple and easy to understand terms.  He smiled and said “It is always easier to understand something when you map it back to things that you already understand.”  That sounded simple and I understood.  I still remember what he said and use it in my life everyday.

The more I read to my young daughter Bo the more I enjoy the simple stories but profound messages in children’s books.  You can take a complex subject and break it up into simple terms, and you can take a simple message, like in children’s books, and map it back to our complex life.  There are many wonderful children’s books, there is one in particular I would like to share with you today:

You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.  And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
– Oh, the Places You’ll Go!  by Dr. Seuss

Last month we duplicated an experiment at home, based on a documentary we saw about water.  A lot of new research supports the idea that water has memory. It can retain an “imprint” of energies to which it has been exposed to, such as music, words or even the energy of a person. I am interested in this topic since our bodies contain more than 50% water.  This experiment involves 3 bowls of water and rice. Our initial goal was, for the next 30 days Bo, my 7 year old daughter, would say to each bowl:

the first bowl of rice/water “You are disgusting”,
the second bowl “thank you”,
then …
She will completely ignore the third bowl.

She takes the bowl away to speak to it, just in case the other two bowls decide to eavesdrop.

We had to terminate the experiment early, here is what we found and why we ended it short:
In just two days, the “Thank you” bowl started to fermentate.

In just 5 days the “disgusting” bowl started to smell while the “Ignored” bowl also started to fermentate

In 18 days …

• the “Thank you” bowl smelled like baked bread,
• the “Ignored” bowl had a faint smell of baked bread along with a sharp smell of something else, and
• the “Disgusting” bowl had a rotting smell that permeated throughout the house.  A yellow and black ring was formed around the water.
• we decided to terminate the project, because it was hard to deliver the negative words to “Disgusting” when you can clearly see the impact, and Bo was having a hard time holding her breath as she said “Disgusting”.

We know that negative words and energy are destructive, but to see the physical transformation was truly an eye opening experience.  It made it so real for us on how love is such a gift and negativity is so unnecessary.  The impact of people growing up or being in an abusive environment is traumatic and can have long lasting effects.  It is good to remember that …

It doesn’t take much to be kind,
love is a real gift,
forgiveness is priceless, and
attract more positive energy with your own positive energy.

This summer brought a lot of changes to us.  We welcome some new and wonderful teachers while having to say “see you later” to some of our beloved teachers.  Nikki went on maternity leave in May, and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on June 30th.  Candace has been preparing for her move to Germany for the last two years, and in mid August it will finally become a reality.  Please come say “see you later” before Candace takes off.  Her family lives here so I know we will see her again.  Kathy will be moving to San Diego this weekend, and tomorrow is her last Restorative class with us!!!  The Restorative class will be moved to Sunday at 6:30pm starting in Aug.  I already miss seeing Mary on Friday noon after my class, scheduling sometimes has a way of taking us in different directions.

I am very sentimental, saying Goodbye to people I care about is not easy, so I prefer to say “see you later”.  In my heart I know that is the case.

If someone asked you to name one hundred things in the room that were red, you might start noticing all the little bits of red around you: a lanyard for a convention badge, a DVD box, red binding for a book, the label on a bottle of Tylenol, or the lettering on a textbook. But if you hadn’t been asked to, would you have looked for them, or even noticed them at all? Chances are, you wouldn’t have.

By changing your focus, you can do a lot to alter your perception of what is happening around you. Having a good day – and being happy! – aren’t just about having good relationships with the people around you or successfully finishing a project at work, but also about the attitude that you carry with you. Seeing the silver linings in your day is something that serves you: like a filter, you’re opening yourself up to seeing more of the goodness and positivity that fills your life.

Several weeks ago, I was asked to temporarily move to the graveyard shift at work due to lack of coverage – a change that later became permanent. Though there are some obvious downsides to working odd hours, I determined instead to look for the silver linings: taking yoga classes during the day, being able to fit swimming at the gym into my daily routine, and presenting myself as a positive and hard-working individual in my professional sphere. (Plus, I avoid the commuter traffic, and I can actually make it to the bank on a weekday!)

There will be bad days and changes in your life that are maddening, frustrating, and don’t seem much like anything except the worst possible outcome; but, can changing the lens that you look at your life with help you to see the good in what seems to be a bad situation?

Much Love and Respect,
Yvonne Law

We all have our reasons in why we do Yoga.  What initially brought us to our mat can be a doctor’s order, a Groupon deal or even a friend.  Regardless of how we find ourselves in the class room we continue to practice due to reasons of our own.  I think it is important to know why we are doing something, since making it a conscious thought will help trigger the necessary alignment of our mind, body and spirit.  I have students who tell me they come to class to de-stress, but yet I see them stress over not being able to do a certain pose, or feeling intimated by comparing their own practice with the neighboring Yogis.  “Why do you do Yoga” seems like a simple question, but it goes deep into who we are and what our priorities are.  Our Yoga practice will begin to transform once we align our actions with our intentions.  The answer to the question “why do you do Yoga” is pretty simple for me.  I looked for answers when I discovered I have Rheumatoid Arthritis.  I tried chemo drugs, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, surgery, cortisone and many more.  I found Yoga to be one medicine with absolutely no negative side effects and many positive benefits, and I like that a lot.  I try not to go to my mat for a certain pose or to look a certain way, I strive to go to my mat for good overall health.  So what brings you to your mat?

Happy New Year to you and your family!  A friend and I were chatting on New Year’s Day, she asked why is it that I never offer a 30 Day Yoga Challenge.  The answer was simple, I don’t believe in it.  I don’t believe in being challenged to go to a Yoga class.  I do Yoga because I value the practice.  No one has to make me go, I want to go.  Matter of fact, I don’t want to miss it because I feel so good after doing Yoga, I can see and feel the transformation.  Yoga is a life style practiced and enjoyed all year round, and not just for 30 days.  I have seen people cry trying to make it through 30 consecutive days of Yoga.  I have seen people completing the 30 days and not wanting to practice Yoga for awhile because they burned out.  I believe in offering the best Yoga, then watching the practice slowly change lives … permanently. domain owner into subdomains .