golden om yoga

Mudras

2010-11-02T09:40:00.000-07:00

Mudras [mud:’ra] – Sanskrit meaning ‘seal’

- Spiritual gesture and energetic seal
- Found in Hinduism and Buddhism
- In Yoga, it is used with Pranamaya or breathing techniques to stimulate different parts of the body to affect the flow of prana

Five Element Theory, in relation to hand :

o Thumb Fire (nourishes the energy of the other fingers, absorbs excess energy and restores balance)

o Index Air (heart chakra, large intestine, and deep meridian of the stomach are associated with this finger, air element represents thoughts)

o Middle Ether (throat chakra, circulation meridian and deep meridian of gall bladder)

o Ring Earth ( root chakra, deep meridian of the liver, rules the pelvic floor, gives stamina, staying power and power to be assertive)

o Little Water (second chakra, energy center of sexuality, interpersonal relations

Jnana Mudra (mudra of knowledge)
- done by touching the tips of the thumb and the index together, forming a circle, and the hand is held with the palm inward toward the heart
- symbolizes unification of individual soul with the world soul
- clears the mind, promotes memory and concentration

Anjali Mudra - (AHN-jah-lee MOO-dra) ( mudra of offering)

- Place both hands in front of heart chakra, with small space between palms
- Coordinates right/left side of brain, brings forth silence balance and peace
- Namaste ( the divinity in me greets the divinity in you)
- Poses : Mountain, Prayer, Tree

Hirschi, Gerturd; Mudras: Yoga in the Hands; 2000

yoga brunch this sunday!

2009-09-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

The class starts at 11am followed by food at 12:30pm. We hope to see you there!

Next yoga brunch will be Sunday, Sept 27th from 11 - 1:30pm.
Bring a vegetarian dish or beverages and class/meal are free, or pay $15 for both.

Date:
Sunday, September 27, 2009

Time:
11:00am - 1:30pm

Location:
Golden Om Yoga
778 Lafayette Ave
Brooklyn, NY

Phone:
7186049291
Email:
goldenom@gmail.com

yoga brunch this sunday!

2009-08-28T06:58:00.000-07:00

Our monthly Yoga brunch is going strong. The class starts at 11am followed by food at 12:30pm. Last month it was great to have all of the potluck contributions. We hope to see you there!

Next yoga brunch will be Sunday, August 30th from 11 - 1:30pm.
Bring a vegetarian dish or beverages and class/meal are free, or pay $15 for both.

Questions/requests? Email us:
goldenom@gmail.com
or call
718 604 9291

Rushing into action, you fail.

2009-08-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion, you ruin what was almost ripe.
Therefore the Master takes action by letting things take their course.

Lao Tzu

This is what we are referring to when talking about a breath-centered yoga practice. Often a yoga instructor's cadence becomes, "inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale..." until it becomes ambient sound and our ears habituate as we no longer pay attention. And at any given point you will hear the instruction: "coordinate the movement with the breath."
Yadi yadi. Yada yada.
It's plenty easy for your mind to convince you and your body to do a lot of things. The converse is true too-- you may convince yourself that you have no control and you are possessed by your body by addiction or greed or whatever other deadly sin you might think up. These two things are true (and not just because I'm trying to promote the concept of non-duality either).

Try this: cat/cow vinyasa
inhale, cow
exhale, cat

Fair enough. Now breathe normally. Let the cow happen as the breath comes. As though the transition is in fact a function of the breathing mechanism. It is.

We are being breathed. The atmospheric pressure outside of the lungs and the pressure within the lungs is what causes the diaphragm to move up and down. Respiration is an autonomic function. You do it while you sleep.

And cat comes because you exhale. Bring your mind into your breath. The song is the breath and your movement is the dance. Freedom within choreography. Moving and breathing in a yoga practice is a celebration of being alive and capable--
bringing your mind into your experience
and being there
with yourself
the whole time
to witness,
to act,
and give thanks
just for that.

Now, try this:cat/cow vinyasa
(do this simultaneously)
inhale=cow
exhale = cat
(let the postures and transitions become synonymous with the word "breathe")

The movement is fluid and the breath is like a river...always flowing.... Sometimes it settles
as in a lake
and the breath suspends
and the mind stops.

If we try to force our bodies to do things without first giving ourselves space to breathe, we will never be able to live in a place of ease and stability. If we fight against the currents around us, we end up defeating ourselves. If we try to hold on to all of our possessions, they will possess us. If we strain, we restrain. If we take shortcuts, we don't understand where we are.

Practicing restraint in yoga is not about denial, it is about transformation. There is no need to bottle up. To be frozen in our emotion. Become a Master by moving with the energies that nourish you. Support yourself without gripping. Trust yourself. Use self-authority by receiving guidance from all that you are and can be. Pain and pleasure follow the same rules of nature--they each will come and go. Inhale. Exhale. Birth. Death. And the spaces in between. Before and after. Let's take more time and find more space and live a little now and then.

vibrational vinyasa

2009-08-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

Sunday evening on August 23rd, Golden Om will host a special vigorous yoga class led by Lia Hall with musician and sound healer, AJ Block. With Tyler Sussman, AJ co-founded the Didge Project which is a didgeridoo awareness movement.

"The didgeridoo is an incredible instrument that can be used in music, meditation and healing. Meditation, in its many forms, is one of the keys to restoration of harmony. Through meditation we can improve our ability to listen to our mind, body, and spirit, identify our desires, passions, and motivations and choose a life of health and happiness. The vibrations of the didgeridoo facilitate meditation, helping us to get into states that can be otherwise difficult to enter."

$17 before 8/20 $20 after

Date:
Sunday, August 23, 2009

Time:
5:30pm - 6:45pm

Location:
Golden Om Yoga
778 Lafayette Ave
Brooklyn, NY
11221

718 604 9291
goldenom@gmail.com

yog in the park

2009-08-17T15:08:00.001-07:00

Join us on Saturday, August 22nd for a donation-based outdoor class taught by Golden Om instructor, Tina Paul.

We will meet on the corner of Tompkins and Lafayette at 10:45am. Class will run from 11am - 12:15pm. Bring a beach towel and a bottle of water.

In the instance of rain, we'll hold the practice at Golden Om.
778 Lafayette Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11221.

Suggested donation is $10.

email us if you have any questions.

Date:
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Time:
11:00am - 12:15pm
Location:
Herbert Von King Park
Streets:
Greene, Marcy, Lafayette, Tompkins avenues
Brooklyn, NY

cycling for yogis

2009-08-17T14:42:00.001-07:00

It only took under an hour and a half to arrive at Fort Tilden Beach from Golden OM. We even took a little scenic detour with no cars threatening and a little glimpse of nature. We got to the beach early enough to beat the swarms and immerse ourselves in that fantastic Atlantic. No matter how dirty you think it is, the ocean definitely has healing and cleansing capabilities. That may have been what inspired our impromptu partner yoga session--experimenting with postures never attempted before!
Next time we'll leave a little later. I think some were Sunday brunchin' since most people showed up later in the afternoon. Stay tuned...we're taking this trip again. And let us know if you have other dream destinations.

yoga for cyclists ride to ft tilden beach

2009-08-14T08:27:00.001-07:00

Come ride to Fort Tilden Beach with us! We'll meet at Golden Om at 10 am this Sunday, August 16th.

Bring snacks, refreshments, and your swimsuit for the journey.

We'll finish the ride at Om in time for the "Yoga for Cyclists" class at 4pm to stretch your legs and shake the sand out of your hair (outside please).

If you're interested, email us and we'll send you a link to the route.

The Yoga for Cyclist class is every Sunday from 4 - 5pm and is $5 the first time and $10 after.

Ride on!

Thai Yoga Massage Workshop

2009-08-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

Amanda Miller, Golden OM's good friend, massage therapist, performance artist, and writer guided us through an excellent two-hour Thai Yoga Massage Workshop. It all began with a fun round of "brain gym" waking up our hand-eye coordination and circulation. After a brief history and explanation, we dove right into the practice. Amanda demonstrated a sample sequence on yours truly (happy to be made an example). Each set of partners went through the sequence step-by-step learning the techniques such as palm presses. We worked on the whole body and everyone left feeling brand new. Let's do it again!

Thoughts on Freedom

2009-08-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

***

A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.
--Jiddu Krishnamurti

***

Take someone who doesn't keep score, who's not looking to be richer, or afraid of losing, who has not the slightest interest even in his own personality: He's free.
--Rumi

***

On Freedom
Kahlil Gibran

At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,
Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.
Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.
And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfilment.

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,
But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?
In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.

And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?
If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.
You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.
And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.
For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride?
And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.
And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.

Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.
These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.
And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.
And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.

***

WE HAVE NOT COME TO TAKE PRISONERS

We have not come here to take prisoners,
But to surrender ever more deeply
To freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world
To hold ourselves hostage from love.

Run my dear,
From anything
That may not strengthen
Your precious budding wings.

Run like hell my dear,
From anyone likely
To put a sharp knife
Into the sacred, tender vision
Of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend
Those aspects of obedience
That stand outside of our house
And shout to our reason
"O please, O please,
Come out and play."

For we have not come here to take prisoners
Or to confine our wondrous spirits,

But to experience ever and ever more deeply
Our divine courage, freedom and
Light!

~ Hafiz ~

***
Is Your Town Nineveh?

Why so desolate?
And why multiply
in phantasmagoria about fishes,
what disgusts you? Could
not all personal upheaval in
the name of freedom, be tabood?

Is it Nineveh
and are you Jonah
in the sweltering east wind of your wishes?
I, myself have stood
there by the aquarium, looking
at the Statue of Liberty.

--Marianne Moore

Élévation
Au-dessus des étangs, au-dessus des vallées,
Des montagnes, des bois, des nuages, des mers,
Par delà le soleil, par delà les éthers,
Par delà les confins des sphères étoilées,
Mon esprit, tu te meus avec agilité,
Et, comme un bon nageur qui se pâme dans l'onde,
Tu sillonnes gaiement l'immensité profonde
Avec une indicible et mâle volupté.
Envole-toi bien loin de ces miasmes morbides;
Va te purifier dans l'air supérieur,
Et bois, comme une pure et divine liqueur,
Le feu clair qui remplit les espaces limpides.
Derrière les ennuis et les vastes chagrins
Qui chargent de leur poids l'existence brumeuse,
Heureux celui qui peut d'une aile vigoureuse
S'élancer vers les champs lumineux et sereins;
Celui dont les pensers, comme des alouettes,
Vers les cieux le matin prennent un libre essor,
— Qui plane sur la vie, et comprend sans effort
Le langage des fleurs et des choses muettes!
— Charles Baudelaire

Sound Meditation - Time for a Tune Up

2009-07-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

MacKenzie Pause is one of our gifted in-house instructors. She will conduct a Sound Meditation class for Sunday, July 26th from 7:30 - 9pm.

Join us for a journey through the chakras with mantra, guided meditation and restorative yoga poses. In an extended sivasana, relax to the beautiful, ethereal sounds of quartz crystal singing bowls while receiving a personal "tune up" to clear negative and blocked energies through pressure points and meridians. Let the sound vibrations clear the clutter and leave with a mellow mind and body.

MacKenzie's background in music led her to experiment with Nada (sound) yoga. Attending various workshops for Sound Therapy inspires her to integrate the healing capabilities of music and yoga.

We have limited space, so to ensure your spot you can register.

Rates:
$17
Drop-in rate is $20

yoga brunch

2009-07-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

Our first "Yoga Brunch" was such a success that we are making it a monthy happening. With the help of Golden Om friends, Chris Barsch and Cira Lara, we had vegan, raw, local and seasonally prepared dishes that were delicious! Nothing like a healthy meal to top a Sunday morning asana session.

This month "Yoga Brunch" will be potluck style. Either, you prepare (store-bought cookies don't count) and bring a dish for a free class and meal, or come take class and eat for $15!

Ingredients must include: love, zest, and creativity!
Save the meat for the outdoor cookout please.

Sunday, July 26th from 11am - 2pm.
rsvp to goldenom@gmail.com