New Tresler

Tim Bruns demonstrating the benefits of the Tresler on Kelly Cooper

You thought you had seen it all with Iyengar props at The Yoga Studios! But until now an important prop has been missing. It is variously called a tresler, a horse, or to those who have been to the Iyengar institute in Pune, India, a "Pune Pony." The new addition at Wellington Square can be used for adapting a variety of poses and restorative poses to get deeper into the asana, get support, more opening and other benefits. The photo shows teacher Tim Bruns - who built the tresler, adjusting fellow teacher Kelly Cooper in Uttitha Trikonasana.

Yoga Pose

Extended Side Angle Pose

Benefits:

• Enhances lung capacity
• Tones the muscles of the heart
• Relieves sciatic and arthritic pain
• Improves digestion
• Reduces fat on the waist and hips

Stand in Tadasana. Inhale and step or jump your feet wide apart, arms stretched sideways at shoulder level, palms down. Turn your left foot in slightly to the right and your right foot out to the right 90 degrees. As you rotate your right leg, focus on turning out your thigh. This reduces pressure on the right knee. Bend your right knee until your thigh and calf form a right angle and your right thigh is parallel to the floor. Make sure the right shin is perpendicular, with the knee directly over the ankle. Stretch the calf muscle up. Take one or two breaths. Exhale and stretch your right arm and the entire trunk to the right. Then, bring the arm down to the floor or to a wooden block. Stretch the left arm over the head, palm face down and upper arm over the left ear. Extend the hips, waist and chest as much as you can to the right, bringing the whole right side of the trunk forward and taking the left side back. Keep the head in line with the spine and take it slightly back. Turn your head and look up. Stretch every part of your body, focusing especially on the spine. Feel a single, continuous stretch from the left outer ankle to the fingertips of the left hand. Stay for 20 to 30 seconds, breathing evenly. To come out of the pose, inhale and lift your right hand from the floor or wooden block. Bring your arms to your sides and straighten your right leg. Turn both feet so they face forward. Repeat the posture on the left side. Then exhale back to Tadasana.

An asana is not a posture that you assume mechanically. It involves a thoughtful process at the end of which a balance is achieved between movement and resistance. The final posture of Uttita Parsvakonasana exemplifies this perfect balance between movement and resistance.

      by Rob Walker, Director

To some of us yoga is just a form of physical exercise. For others it’s a spiritual discipline or about meditation. Whatever your preconceptions, you will learn from Deepak Chopra’s teachings, that yoga is all of these things and more. Tonight, Dr. Chopra will deal with the meaning of existence and the nature of reality. Addressing these big questions is as much a part of Iyengar Yoga as the physical practice of yoga offered through hatha yoga classes. At The Yoga Studio our classes are based on the teachings of BKS Iyengar who taught yoga postures in the context of life’s greater purpose.

Like Dr. Chopra, BKS Iyengar has written a commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Patanjali, who lived about 2000 years ago, is known as the “father” of yoga. As the first written record about yoga, the Yoga Sutras teaches us how we can transform ourselves by gaining mastery over the mind and emotions, thus overcoming obstacles to our spiritual evolution. According to Patanjali, transformation is achieved through the eight “limbs” of yoga: Yamas and Niyamas (ethical disciplines and observances), Asanas (the physical postures), Pranayama (breathing exercises), Pratyhara (withdrawal of the senses), Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (absorption in the true self).

Patanjali says that asana (posture) “is perfect firmness of body, steadiness of intelligence, and benevolence of spirit.” Mr. Iyengar says in his latest book Light on Life, “there can be no realization of . . . divine bliss without the support of the soul’s incarnate vehicle, the food-and-water-fed body from bone to brain.” Alignment in Iyengar yoga means not only physical alignment but also the alignment of the physical body with the emotional, mental and spiritual bodies.

And, at a more basic level, Mr. Iyengar has shown that the physical postures can not only maintain our overall mental and physical health but under the supervision of a qualified teacher, they can treat health problems from back ache to high blood pressure, and from asthma to osteoporosis. So whatever your state of health or fitness, you can continue the yoga journey traveled this evening at one of the four Yoga Studios in Calgary.

Holistic Yoga: Seeing Life as Relationship

Life is relationship; relationship is life – for each one of us. This truth holds the secret of a wonderful opportunity for harmonizing all of our life with a single approach.

Our immediate concern may be the stress of busyness, the longing for depth and the sacred, the suffering of loneliness, disappointment, and conflict at home, work or elsewhere. Whatever it is, traditional holistic Yoga can be this single approach – as a special kind of attention to relationship.

We can activate in ourselves the Seer or 'See-er' of Patanjali's Yoga-Sutra. In the spirit of yama, niyama, and karma-yoga, investigating as seer the conflictual dynamics of all our fields of relationship, we free ourselves from the confusion of the isolated "little me". In this way suffering becomes the doorway to peace in our life.

Please see website for upcoming Yoga of Relationship workshops offered by Foster Walker and Barbara Wiebe.

DHYANA (Meditation)

Iyengar Teacher Training Program

Iyengar Yoga teachers Rob Walker and Margot Kitchen are excited to have launched for the first time in Calgary an Iyengar Yoga Teacher Training Program at The Yoga Studio at Wellington Square. Kicking off last January, it meets the rigorous standards set down by world Yoga Master BKS Iyengar. The eight trainees who enrolled in the first year all have the required minimum three years of classes with a certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher. The program will take them through a challenging training to eventually certify as internationally-recognized teachers. And it will put them on a path that can continue with lifelong upgrading of their skills and the opportunity to train with the Iyengar family in Pune, India.

Teacher Training Program

10th Anniversary Celebration

      by Catherine Townley

Val Petrich and Fr. Joe Pereira

On September 22nd, The Yoga Studio of Calgary celebrated ten very successful years of operation with an evening of celebration at The Boris Roubakine Recital Hall. The event also recognized the 25th anniversary of The Kripa Foundation, the largest non-governmental health organization in India. Today, more than 30 rehabilitation centres treat people suffering from chemical dependency and HIV/AIDS.

Kripa (a Sanskrit word for ‘grace’) was founded in 1981 by Catholic priest Fr. Joe Pereira. A long time student and friend of BKS Iyengar, Fr. Joe incorporated Iyengar’s yoga therapy as one of its healing treatments. Other methods include the 12 steps of AA, meditation and prayer, and some western based psychological therapies.

Val Petrich, director of Kripa West Charity, the Canadian arm supporting the work of Fr. Joe in India, organized the evening to coincide with his annual visit to the North Studio, where he led his ever-popular restorative yoga weekend workshop.

More than 150 guests enjoyed slide shows highlighting the studio’s 10 year history. Fr. Joe shared his work with a presentation of Kripa’s successful healing work in India.

All proceeds were donated to the Kripa Foundation.

Yoga Student Profile

Sherry Carson is a mother of 2, a hairsylist and founder of Hardcore Hair products. She was referred to the Yoga Studio South by another student with the hope that Iyengar Yoga could help releive some of the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis, a challenge she has lived with for a number of years.

Q. What keeps you coming to The Yoga Studio?

A. I have always been a busy mom, focused on my family. Coming to the Yoga Studio gives me an opportunity to focus on myself, not in a selfish way but so that I can be more productive in the rest of my life. Yoga makes me feel rejuvenated. It’s petrol for the soul!

Q. How have your yoga classes affected your life outside the studio?

A. The greatest benefit I can see is that yoga has helped me to quiet my mind. I’m more in tune with me.

Q. What is your greatest yoga challenge?

A. The numbness in my body beccause of MS. I have certain physical limitations.

Sherry Carson

Q. Name someone, living or dead that you would like to share a meal with?

A. Jesus

Q. What are some words you live by?

A. Be educated and tell the truth.

The Secret and the Promise of Yoga

For those of us involved in yoga, the popular movie, The Secret, poses an interesting challenge. Is a life centred upon 'attracting what I most want' consistent with yoga? I mean traditional yoga as a complete way of living, where the deepest needs of our shared humanity are addressed – as first described by the 'father' of classical yoga, Patanjali, in his Yoga-Sutra.

The essence of The Secret is that learning how to attract what one wants is the good life. Traditional yoga tells a different story. Patanjali teaches that happiness depends upon our deep realization that each of us is the basic energy of Life itself, the intelligent (Seer) energy of the Whole. Suffering arises because we have been taught to think we are separate entities, split off as 'you', 'me', and 'them'. Taken together, all the practices of yoga are for healing this painful illusion of 'self'.

Concentrating on images for getting what 'I' want strengthens the problematic 'me' that yoga aims to dissolve. Therefore, the aim of The Secret is inconsistent with yoga, and a choice confronts yoga enthusiasts. If I value sustained happiness, or satchitananda, through yoga, I must learn to relinquish the 'me' who thinks in terms of the temporary pleasure in getting what 'I' want.

Details of the movie: The Secret can be found at http://www.thesecret.tv/.

Contributions to this Newsletter

To contribute to this newsletter, ask questions or comment contact: Margaret Perko c/o yogasouth@yogastudiocalgary.com.