Community Yoga & Wellness Center

“Turn within. See the truth. Become the truth. Do not look to others for advice, what to do, how to live. Be a lamp unto yourself as the Buddha said. All the answers are within you.”

-- Robert Adams

BE STILL & KNOW: A Day of Mindful Practice
This Sunday, August 18 at 9:00 am - 3:30 pm < Partial attendance is okay.
Join us in silence. Deepen your practice. Experience the difference.
Open to practitioners of meditation, centering prayer, contemplation, and other silent practices, the day will include alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation.
We begin our practice together at 9:00 AM with the Opening Heart Council to set our intentions and practice deep listening and speaking from the Heart about our lives and practice.
We will break from about Noon until 1:00 PM for lunch. Bring a lunch (or eat out) if you intend to attend the full retreat.
This mindful retreat concludes with a brief Closing Heart Council Circle 3:00 - 3:30 PM to share our experiences of the day.
Beginners are welcome. Free and open to all. Donations appreciated but not required. Advance registration required via our website www.community-yoga.com or the MindBody app.
Questions? Contact facilitator Lance Smith ([email protected] or 847-502 6204)
Accessibility: Community Yoga & Wellness Center is a scent-free space located on the second floor studio, accessible by stairs.


Reposted from Lauri Poldre

Join us in celebrating Libby Volckening's birthday with some Heart Centered Kirtan at Community Yoga: Friday August 16 at 7:00 pm!! Heart Centered Kirtan offers a unique take on the tradition of kirtan, the call-and-response singing tradition of India. Come clear your mind, soothe your heart, and offer a namaste to Libby and her many contributions to our studio!
Everyone is welcome, including kids of all ages. $20 suggested donation: more or less, your presence is enough. Ten percent of proceeds will be offered to CISA!
If you can't be there in person, the link to the Facebook Live in in the comments below.

Revive your body with this refreshing and life restoring 'Apple Lime Smoothie with Ginger & Cardamom' that boasts a zing of lime and summer spices.

Get the recipe here via Joyful Belly Ayurveda website: https://www.joyfulbelly.com/Ayurveda/recipe/Apple-Lime-Smoothie-with-Ginger-Cardamom/733



Reposted from Joyful Belly Ayurveda

In these times of increased unrest, fear, and discomfort, the desire to protest, to occupy spaces to be both seen and heard is a natural human response. So is the impulse to retreat, withdraw, hide, and stick our heads in the sand to wait for the storm to blow over. What if we chose to protest by occupying our heart space instead? What if we harness the power of love and joy as fluid warriors to fuel our voices and lead us into action in the world?
If these questions pique your interest, consider joining Somanautiko's Megan Bathory-Peeler for Octopi Your Heart: Continuum Summer Camp for Grownups this Wednesday - Saturday, 9 - 11 am. Suggested tuition is $111* for this 5-class workshop. Please pay what your heart and personal circumstances allow.
Advance registration required. Contact Megan directly (email [email protected] or call/text 413.772.0078)
UNSURE? Register for the FREE MOVIE NIGHT on Tuesday August 13 at 5:30 pm to check it out before committing to the remaining four classes. After the film, there will be a brief introduction to Continuum. We'll use subtle movements, imagery, and simple sounds and follow our innate impulses and discover new things about ourselves and the world around us, inspired by the Octopus, Grand Master of fluid movement, strength, ingenuity, and adaptability.

Whole Body Moving. Whole Baby Moving. Parent & Infant Clinics with Megan Bathory-Peeler: This Saturday, August 10 at 1:30-3:30 pm.
Parents! Bring your baby, learn essential touch skills, and normalize newborn developmental movements to increase your confidence, support bonding, repair ruptures, decrease anxiety, establish trust, settle and soothe your little one.
Open to all caregivers – family & professional – who would like to gain more tools for caring for babies (and their parents). Pay from the Heart. Space is limited. Call Megan Bathory-Peeler to reserve a spot today! 413.772.0078. More info on her website here https://somanautiko.com/whole-body-moving-whole-baby-moving/
Accessibility: Community Yoga & Wellness Center is a scent-free space located on the second floor, accessible by stairs.
Questions? Contact [email protected] or 413-774-4700

The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.
-- Carolyn Myss



Reposted from Anima Mundi Apothecary

In addition to our regularly scheduled classes, we’ve got some special offerings coming up in August! Scroll down for more info.
And as always, appointments are available for private and semi-private sessions to UNLOCK your FASCIA with Louise Legouis Louise Legouis (Tuesdays & Thursdays 1:30 - 3:30 pm). Other times available upon request.
Whole Body Moving. Whole Baby Moving. ~ Parent & Infant Clinics .. with Megan Bathory-Peeler
> Saturday August 10 @ 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Octopi Your Heart ~ Continuum Summer Camp for Grown Ups.. with Megan Bathory-Peeler
> Free Film Screening & Intro: Tuesday August 13 @ 5:30 - 8:30 pm
> Camp: Wednesday - Saturday, August 14 - 17 @ 9 - 11 am
Heart Centered Kirtan (I)
> Friday August 16 @ 7:00 - 8:30 pm
Be Still & Know ~ A Day of Mindful Practice: Sun. August 18 @ 9 am-3:30 pm < Partial attendance OK! with Lance Smith
Shubalananda Kirtan
> Friday August 30 @ 7:30 - 9 pm
Advance registration required for all our offerings except kirtan.
To register for classes, workshops, unlock your fascia sessions, and tarot readings, visit our website www.community-yoga.com (links in bio)

Yoga is both a state of being and the practices that point us towards that state.

Reposted from Judith Hanson Lasater

Shubalananda Kirtan at Community Yoga: Saturday July 27 at 7:30 pm
By donation. All are welcome.
Shubalananda Saraswati is an American sadhu who has been devoutly traveling since 1995 to share his powerful blues rooted kirtan - an ancient call & response spiritual practice from India. His voice of deep bhava & his masterful musical skills allow Shubal to humbly offer his kirtan as a loving gift to his Guru, to his highest self & to the community around him.
When Shubal sings, his Guru's Shakti fills everyone in the room with a soulfully nourishing tangible energy. His true love of God, his deep wisdom, & the grace of his Guru create an environment of ecstatic transcendent vibrational healing, accessing the grounded stillness of enlightened consciousness.
So come share and co-create this harmoniously uplifting spirit while singing your true heart's song with Shubalananda Kirtan!
This Dakshina based Bhakti yogic practice is offered freely to the community, so all are welcome, but please leave a donation if you can 🙂 ❤
Accessibility: Community Yoga & Wellness Center is a scent-free space located on the second floor, accessible by stairs.
Questions? Call 413-774-4700 or [email protected]

#

Nurturing Yourself with Self-Compassion. 🪴

“Self-compassion goes beyond self-acceptance, it has an active element of caring, of wanting the best for yourself. It means saying to yourself, ‘I want to heal, to be happy, to be healthy,’ and knowing that sometimes requires you to make a change.”



Reposted from Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff, Ph.D.

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”

—Thich Nhat Hanh


🎨 .poldre on Instagram

Take a break from the hustle and bustle! Join us for Be Still & Know ~ A Day of Mindful Practice: Sun. July 21 @ 9 am-3:30 pm < Partial attendance OK! Open to practitioners of meditation, centering prayer, contemplation, and other silent practices, the day will include alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation. Free and open to all.
Donations appreciated by not required. Register in advance via our website www.community-yoga.com or with the MindBody app.
Accessibility: Community Yoga & Wellness Center is a scent-free space located on the second floor studio, accessible by stairs.
Questions? Contact facilitator Lance Smith ([email protected] or 847-502 6204)

Happy Sunday! 🌞

🎨 from

Thanks to Kalidasa Kirtan and Kaveri Dasi for blessing our space with your beautiful bhav! We look forward to seeing you again on September 13!

In addition to our usual schedule of classes, we have two very special events for you to check out this weekend!
Kālidāsa Kirtan feat. Kaveri Dasi - Friday July 12 @ 7:30 pm
Join world musician Kālidāsa for an evening of ecstatic, meditative call-and-response singing steeped in raga and roots music. Kalidasa Kirtans offer an inspiring blend of voice, harmonium, bamboo flutes, and percussion. $20 suggested donation. All are welcome!
Whole Body Moving. Whole Baby Moving. Parent & Infant Clinics with Megan Bathory-Peeler: This Saturday, July 13 at 1:30-3:30 pm.
Parents! Bring your baby, learn essential touch skills, and normalize newborn developmental movements to increase your confidence, support bonding, repair ruptures, decrease anxiety, establish trust, settle and soothe your little one. Open to all caregivers – family & professional – who would like to gain more tools for caring for babies (and their parents). Pay from the Heart. Space is limited. Call Megan Bathory-Peeler to reserve a spot today! 413.772.0078. More info on her website here: https://somanautiko.com/whole-body-moving-whole-baby-moving/ -content
Accessibility: Community Yoga & Wellness Center is a scent-free space located on the second floor, accessible by stairs.
Questions? Contact [email protected] or 413-774-4700

In addition to our regularly scheduled classes, we’ve got some special offerings coming up in July & August! Scroll down for more info.
And as always, appointments are available for private and semi-private sessions to UNLOCK your FASCIA with Louise Legouis (Tuesdays & Thursdays 1:30 - 3:30 pm) as well as TAROT READINGS with Myk Freedman (Wednesdays 8 - 10 pm). Other times available upon request.
Kālidāsa Kirtan feat. Kaveri Dasi - Friday July 12 @ 7:30 pm
Whole Body Moving. Whole Baby Moving. ~ Parent & Infant Clinics with Megan Bathory-Peeler
> Saturdays July 13 & August 10 @ 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Be Still & Know ~ A Day of Mindful Practice: Sun. July 21 @ 9 am-3:30 pm < Partial attendance OK! with Lance Smith

Shubalananda Kirtan (I): Saturday July 27 @ 7:30 - 9 pm
Octopi Your Heart ~ Continuum Summer Camp for Grown Ups
with Megan Bathory-Peeler
> Free Film Screening & Intro: Tuesday August 13 @ 5:30 - 8:30 pm
> Camp: Wednesday - Saturday, August 14 - 17 @ 9 - 11 am
Shubalananda Kirtan: Friday August 30 @ 7:30 - 9 pm
Advance registration required for all our offerings except kirtan.
To register for classes, workshops, unlock your fascia sessions, and tarot readings, visit our website www.community-yoga.com

Cast the roots down deep,
water your spirit regularly.

Image via

Reposted from

Shubalananda Kirtan at Community Yoga
Saturday June 29 at 7:30 pm
By donation. All are welcome.
Shubalananda Saraswati is an American sadhu who has been devoutly traveling since 1995 to share his powerful blues rooted kirtan - an ancient call & response spiritual practice from India. His voice of deep bhava & his masterful musical skills allow Shubal to humbly offer his kirtan as a loving gift to his Guru, to his highest self & to the community around him.
When Shubal sings, his Guru's Shakti fills everyone in the room with a soulfully nourishing tangible energy. His true love of God, his deep wisdom, & the grace of his Guru create an environment of ecstatic transcendent vibrational healing, accessing the grounded stillness of enlightened consciousness.
So come share and co-create this harmoniously uplifting spirit while singing your true heart's song with the Shubalananda friends and family kirtan band!
This Dakshina based Bhakti yogic practice is offered freely to the community, so all are welcome, but please leave a donation if you can 🙂 ❤
Accessibility: Community Yoga & Wellness Center is a scent-free space located on the second floor, accessible by stairs.
Questions? Call 413-774-4700 or [email protected]

#

I love when people say, “Don’t just practice asana. Remember all eight limbs!”

It’s a great reminder. But, there’s so much more than the eight limbs. Yoga is a very complex and varied tradition.

The eight limbs comes from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. In the Bhagavad Gita you find the four paths of yoga:

Bhakti Yoga—the path of devotion
Jnana Yoga—the path of wisdom
Raja Yoga—the path of meditation and ethics
Karma Yoga—the path of service

And there are many other sources for yoga philosophy. So what can we say about yoga?

Well all sources seem to agree that yoga is an inner spiritual practice. It’s an inside job.

So, if it’s an inside job, why do we get caught up in the way it looks?

[ID: green slide with white text, “Yoga is an inside job”]



Reposted from Jivana Heyman

LAST Restorative offering until Autumn! Shed the stress of the workweek and settle into the weekend with some Restorative Yoga with Barbara Polowy: Friday June 28 @ 5:30 - 7:00 PM. Join us for this special practice and restore yourself body, mind, and spirit.
Cost is $18. Class cards accepted. Advance registration required via our website www.community-yoga.com (link in bio) or MindBody.
⁠Accessibility: Community Yoga & Wellness Center is a scent-free space located on the second floor and accessible by stairs.
Questions? [email protected] or 413-774-4700

That inner glow when you know you’ve grown, handled things differently than your previous self, and leveled up ✨

Reposted from

Join Libby Volckening next Wednesday Juneteenth for a free pop up class: Yoga for Wellness: Wed. June 19 @ 10:30 - 11:30 am < Benefit for EmbraceRace
This holistic yoga practice is designed to enhance your health and well-being. We’ll use the tools of yoga to address common concerns such as lower back & neck pain, headaches, insomnia, and more! Free and open to all humans with any level of flexibility and/or yoga experience. Beginners welcome!
Donations in any amount gratefully accepted. 100% of donations will be sent to Embrace Race which supports parents, guardians, educators, and other caregivers working to raise children who are thoughtful, informed and brave about race so that U.S. multiracial democracy can thrive.
Advance registration requested via our website www.community-yoga.com or the MindBody app.
Accessibility: Community Yoga & Wellness Center is a scent-free space located on the second floor and accessible by stairs.
Questions? Contact [email protected] or 413-774-4700.
For more information about Libby, visit https://yogalibre.net/
For more information about Embrace Race, visit https://www.embracerace.org/

Discover meaningful ways to honor Juneteenth. Here are 6 ways white allies can observe this important day.

Learn more here: https://www.r2hub.org/library/juneteenth



Reposted from General Commission on Religion and Race for the United Methodist Church

"Yutori” (ゆとり) comes from the Japanese verb “yutoru” (ゆとる), which means “to be spacious” or “to have room.” It derives from the idea of creating space in one’s life.
We invite you to create space in your life this Sunday for Be Still & Know ~ A Day of Mindful Practice: Sun. June 16 @ 9 am-3:30 pm < Partial attendance OK! with facilitator Lance Smith
Open to practitioners of meditation, centering prayer, contemplation, and other silent practices, the day will include alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation.
Register in advance via our website www.community-yoga.com or with the MindBody app.
Accessibility: Community Yoga & Wellness Center is a scent-free space located on the second floor studio, accessible by stairs.
Questions? Contact facilitator Lance Smith ([email protected] or 847-502 6204)
About Lance Smith...
A peace and social change activist since college, Lance began meditating and doing yoga in 1969. Inspired by the lives and works of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, he believes that politics, like life itself, is fundamentally a spiritual process and that there are practices that can support one's commitment to being an active agent of peace in the world.
Over the decades Lance has practiced with a number of meditation teachers from various traditions, attending retreats with Ram Dass, Thich Nhat Hahn, Ganapati Swami, Stephan and Ondrea Levine, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Christopher Titmuss, Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, Roshi John Daido Loori, and others.
He practiced extensively with the Yoga Meditation Society of Madison WI, where he taught introductory and intermediate yoga classes. To deepen his practice, Lance participated in a one month silent retreat at IMS and spent six months as a resident of Zen Mountain Monastery.
According to Lance, "The practice of Meditation and Yoga isn't about escaping to some magic realm devoid of life's problems. It's about progressively opening your heart and clearing your mind enough to be fully present to all life in a helpful and peaceful way, to embody the values you believe in. I can't think of anything better to do."
Lance publishes an occasional blog "The MMM Courtesy Wake Up Call" available at https://www.mondaymorningmindfulness.net/
For more info, call/text 847-502-6204 or email [email protected].

In addition to our regularly scheduled classes, we’ve got some special offerings coming up in June & July! Scroll down for more info. And as always, appointments are available for private and semi-private sessions to UNLOCK your FASCIA with Louise Legouis (Tuesdays & Thursdays 1:30 - 3:30 pm) as well as TAROT READINGS with Myk Freedman (Wednesdays 8 - 10 pm). Other times available upon request.
Trauma Sensitive Yoga: 6-week series with Elena Mamatas, Somatic Trauma Healing, SEP, TSTSY-F, RYT-500.. Thursdays 10:30 - 11:30 am (June 6 – July 18)
Be Still & Know ~ A Day of Mindful Practice: Sun. June 16 @ 9 am-3:30 pm < Partial attendance OK!
Yoga for Wellness: Wed. June 19 @ 10:30 - 11:30 am < Benefit for Embrace Race with Libby Volckening
Restorative Yoga with Barbara Polowy: Friday June 28 @ 5:30 - 7:00 PM
Shubalananda Kirtan at Community Yoga & Wellness: Saturday June 29 @ 7:30 - 9 pm
Kālidāsa Kirtan: Friday July 12 @ 7:30 pm < Save the date!
Advance registration required for all our offerings except kirtan.
To register for classes, workshops, unlock your fascia sessions, and tarot readings, visit our website http://www.community-yoga.com

We are so fortunate that Elena Mamatas, Somatic Trauma Healing will be offering another 6-week session of Trauma Sensitive Yoga on Thursdays 10:30 - 11:30 am starting next Thursday June 6.
Trauma sensitive yoga is a thoughtfully curated practice where you are invited to move, breathe, and connect to your body while moving through a gentle mat-based yoga practice. Everything is always optional, and taking breaks, skipping things, and doing things your way is warmly welcome.
Although this practice is designed with trauma in mind, we don’t talk about trauma during these sessions. Rather, this space is all about exploring what it’s like to move, sense, and have agency over our bodies. You always get to be fully in control of your own practice (there are no hands on assists).
You do not need any previous yoga experience to take part, nor do you need to consider yourself flexible.
The specific modality we'll practice is called Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY). TCTSY is an evidence-based PTSD treatment designed especially for complex trauma.
Sliding scale cost: $90-120 for 6 weeks. Advance registration required. To register/for more info, visit: https://www.embodiedtraumahealing.org/greenfield-yoga-thursday
,
Accessibility: Community Yoga and Wellness Center is a scent-free space located on the second floor, accessible by stairs.
Questions about Community Yoga? Call 413-774-4700 or email info(at)community-yoga(dot)com