Orly Jalowski

What is grounding?

For our purposes, grounding is an overall or localized experience of the thinking mind rendered lighter. In other words, the thoughts that fuel our day in general or any experience, specifically, become less “heavy” and overwhelming because the body has energetically plugged into the ground. Like a plug into a socket, a person becomes instantly aware of the relaxation response associated with living in relationship to gravity when she “grounds.” Grounding, in other words, is the baseline psycho-emotional experience of awareness. As thinking recedes, awareness rises, anything rising is coming up from below. In this case, the rising is awareness from the support of the earth.

Students of energy must practice feeling this actual, embodied experience in order to lay the groundwork (there’s no better word) for the release of dormant, acute, or recurring emotions associated with thoughts and stories that have too long dominated their consciousness. Without grounding work, the release of emotions cannot work. Emotions will move in second chakra (i.e., emotional/movement) work, but if they do not know the way out of the body, they will then circulate, confused, and continue causing as much pain and dis-ease (if not more) as when they lived in their unreleased state.

-excerpted from Kim Weeks’s notes for the Hands-On Energy Seminar.

Marma Therapy this Saturday

The branch of Ayurveda known as Marma Therapy bears the closest relationship to the physical practice of hatha yoga, and yields deep insights into how the asanas work on specific pressure or ‘marma’ points on the body to address specific therapeutic issues, resolve imbalances in the doshas at the root of those issues, and provide support for one’s specific constitution or ‘Prakrti.’

— Foundation in Ayurveda: Doug will give a brief and accessible overview of the nature of the doshas, how they function in our body according to our own individual constitution, and the kinds of therapeutic issues that arise from imbalances in the doshas that hatha yoga specifically addresses. We’ll of course look at how this process of ‘imbalance’ works, and what the process is by which we restore ‘balance.’

— Overview of Marma and the Specifics of Sequencing — the influence of classes of asanas upon the doshas through Marma: — we’ll look at the ‘big picture,’ organizing our understanding of the benefits of the various kinds of poses according to their effect upon the marma points stimulated by the poses — and in turn, the effect of that upon the doshas.

— Specifics: — Then we’ll get specific about a number of therapeutic issues, including those tied to breath and emotion, and provide some specifics about the poses, practices and sequencing that can be used to address them.

- Support Materials: Doug will be providing printed materials to maximize your experience of the training, as well as to use in following up on what you’ve learned, whether in your own practice or teaching.

We still have a handful of spots open for this workshop. Click here to read more about Doug and/or to register for the workshop.

Shoulders & Ribs – Deep, Clear, Intelligent

Saturday, May 9
2 – 7p

Sunday, May 10
8 – 10a
2 – 4p

The rib cage and shoulder girdle are often stretched into deeper and deeper imbalance even into forms of slight dislocation. This can be true for people who are extremely flexible, and also for people who are condidered restricted in the upper chest. JinSung will be teaching ways to strengthen and open the entire rib cage with the greatest degree of aligning and opening the shoulder joint. This will be great for people who don’t notice a challenge in the upper chest and those who consider themselves hopelessly stuck and unmoving.

JinSung has been teaching yoga and Taoist breathing for twenty years, nine of which he was a zen Buddhist monk. For six years JinSung was part of the core faculty at Piedmont Yoga Studio, and he now has his own studio in the East Bay, Oakland Yoga Studio. Studying for many years with California’s senior Iyengar teachers, he feels he owes his gratitude and inspiration to B.K.S. Iyengar. Today, JinSung is one of the leading teachers in the Bay Area. With a great eye and profound hands, he is creative in making seemingly esoteric aspects of Iyengar yoga approachable and effective in your body. He practices yoga to support a healthy environment and energy for meditation. Believing that Asana practice is a deep path that can help an infinite spectrum of people with different goals, JinSung loves to teach and share.

Saturday session: $75
Sunday morning session: $45
Sunday afternoon session: $45
Sunday morning and afternoon sessions: $75
Entire workshop: $150

Boundless in the Post Express

DC Yoga Week article in the Washington Post Express:

http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2009/04/practice_makes_perfect_dc_yoga_week.php

master asana class. now practice at home or on the road with boundless students and teacher trainees!

Hi everyone!  Many of you have been asking for advice on how to practice when you can’t make it to a class. Kristen is going to periodically post excerpts from her Sunday 12:30 master asana class.  Below are some instructions for select asanas from a recent class, accompanied by photos of your fellow boundless students!  Each class will be archived when a new one is posted, so you can always go back and find the class you really liked or that pose you really want to work on, anytime or anywhere. (well, anywhere you can get to www.boundlessyoga.com, that is!)

emily in krounchasana--grounding in the legs and lifting through the chest. way to go emily!

backbending over the block

andrea quieting the mind in baddha konasana

adam holding steady in half-handstand

doris lengthening the waist in adho mukha svanasana

finding and refining the alignment of sirsasana

kristen enjoying a free-standing handstand

erin helps andrea find her balance in handstand

tainted love

Have you ever seen yourself, even your physical self? Have you ever seen your face? Only in a mirror. Suppose I break the mirror, could you still see your face? No, but would you have lost it then? No. What you see in a mirror is the image, not the original.

If you look for your true nature in a distorted mirror you will see a crooked face. Is your face really crooked? What is the mirror in our case? Our minds. To see our true Self we must have clean, clear, calm minds. Some people keep the mirror clean and realize that they are beautiful. Others do not dust it well. Some break it; some bend it.

— from How to Know Yourself

      H.H. Swami Satchindananda

keep on learnin…till I reach the higher ground

“The goal of mankind is knowledge … Now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a person ‘knows’, should, in strict psychological language, be what she ‘discovers’ or ‘unveils’; what she ‘learns’ is really what she discovers by taking the cover off her own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.”

— Swami Vivekananda

new year’s eve all-night meditation, free

December 31 – January 1
9 p – 9 a

Dedicated to a Fluid and Peaceful Transition into the new year

Turn inward with us as the year turns!

the intention of this event is to focus our energies on:

During this time of transition, we can make it happen for ourselves and everyone we touch!

There will be periodic meditation instruction for new arrivals throughout the evening and, at midnight, chanting and a fire ceremony through which we will offer our vows and intentions for the New Year.

join us for 15 minutes or the whole night!

alignment series with jennifer karius, $199

september 20 – november 22
saturdays 12 – 115p

Join Jennifer for a thorough exploration of yoga asana through the teachings of living yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar.

In this structured 10-week course, you will get:

Through this course you will learn to:

The course provides the structure and consistency needed to deeply learn and apply the system of yoga asana in a comprehensive way.

recommended for people with 6 months to 1 year, or more of regular yoga practice. if unsure, please contact jennifer at jenkarius(at)gmail.com

We are extremely lucky to have Jennifer with us. She has been studying yoga within the Iyengar tradition for 19 years and has studied personally with Master Iyengar and his son and daughter. She has taught extensively in the netherlands and in San Francisco, including several years at the Iyengar Institute in Amsterdam. Read more about Jennifer.