The Yoga Lodge on Whidbey Island Newsletter
August/September, 2010

Namaste!

Welcome to the third issue of The Yoga Lodge on Whidbey Island Newsletter!

In this issue:

• Sadhana – Home Practice Suggestions
• Ayurvedic Tips and Seasonal Recipes
• Announcements
    ◊ Fall Classes with Doug McKenna & Kate Casey
    ◊ Level II - III Class with Wendy – Thursdays, 9:30 – 11:00 a.m.
• B&B - Individual Retreats and Private Yoga Training Sessions are Hot this Summer!
• Upcoming Yoga Retreats - Check out our new offering scheduled for November and January, 2011 – Yoga Lifestyle Weekend Retreats!
• Are you interested or know someone who is interested in serving meals during our weekend retreats? We will cover the cost of your food handler’s license. Please call or e-mail the lodge.
• Poem

It’s been a full and lively spring and summer at the lodge. I was thrilled to offer two weekend retreats that included meditation, asana, Ayurvedic education, and PeerSpirit Circle process and was inspired by the enthusiasm, sincerity, and generosity of the participants. I’m also excited about beginning formal Ayurvedic study with Kumudini Shoba on Whidbey. As many of you know, I have a passion for this study and I look forward to sharing what I learn.

Thank you to Suzanne Foise, who inspired a group of women to join her regular private yoga training sessions. Since it’s become a small class, I will open it to all interested yogis as a Level I - II group class on Thursdays at 9:30 a.m. If you are interested and this doesn’t fit your schedule, please e-mail me with your preferred time of day.

The garden has received extra doses of loving care and is more spectacular and abundant than ever before. The new culinary herb garden is sprinkled with varied colors, textures, and patterns including chocolate mint, curry, and purple sage. The patterns of the flowers, herbs, and vegetables are orderly and exquisite as they unravel with splendor from their deep and potent core.

I am intrigued by the repetitive patterns everywhere in nature and the profundity of repetition in our sadhana (practice). Sri Swami Sivananda defines sadhana as spiritual movement consciously systematized. Whether we sit in meditation and chant a mantra (sacred words or divine sounds invested with the power to protect, purify, and transform the individual who repeats them), regularly walk the same path in the woods or within a labyrinth, listen to a drum beat, gaze at a yantra (a pure geometric configuration composed of basic primal shapes and colors), or move through our asana sequence, we engage in an energetic rhythm of sound, vision, color, or movement that through its pattern or repetition calls us or leads us into a more potent and subtle experience of what it means to be fully alive.

The repetition both draws us to the central most radiating source, the infinite reserve of collective energy, the supremely creative nucleus, like the central most point of a yantra, a spider’s web, the sun, or the still point of the breath or depths of our heart then it leads us out through a sequentially expanding radiating energy that generates all forms. The repetition is powerful. It creates a friction or tapas(the heat generated by spiritual practice) which clarifies or reveals that which was previously hidden, like sanding wood until its finest grain emerges, or sculpting so that all that remains is the true essence of what is in the moment. The form gives us access to the formless. May this summer offer you a regular invitation to participate in this divine pattern.

HOME PRACTICE - SADHANA

Allow summer to inspire play in your yoga practice. Warm up with movements that feel good and are ways your body wants to move intuitively. For a change, meditate outside, seated or as a walking meditation. Practice Moon Salutations, Camel, and Boat Pose on your deck or on a level grassy area. Take asana breaks while gardening, stretching your arms from Mountain Pose along side your ears into Crescent Pose and bowing into Standing Forward Bend. Bend your knees and rise up into Chair Pose and then cross your arms and legs into Eagle Pose. Turn from side to side in Tree Pose and experiment with closing your eyes for a brief moment. After hiking or biking do a few Lunges, Triangle Pose, Bound Angle Pose and Legs up the Wall Pose.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Class Offerings in September!

Doug McKenna’s Fall Sessions
Level I, Tuesdays 6 – 7:30 p.m.
September 21 - October 26
6 weeks $72

November 2 - December 14
(No class November 23)
6 weeks $72

Level II Wednesday, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
September 22 - October 27
6 weeks $72

November 3 - December 15
(No class November 24)
6 weeks $72

Kate Casey’s Gentle Class
continues 1st and 3rd Wednesdays
September 1 - December 15

Wendy Dion will resume a Level II – III Class,
Thursdays, 9:30 – 11:00 a.m.
September 23 – October 28
5 weeks $60

November 4 – December 16
(No class November 25)
6 weeks $72

BED & BREAKFAST

The lodge has hosted more guests returning for individual renewal retreats than ever before this Spring and Summer. Many have included private yoga training to assist in designing an individualized home practice or to deepen their current practice. It’s essential to take regular breaks from a hectic schedule. Others have marked a special occasion like a birthday, wedding day or anniversary by staying at the Lodge and enjoying a special small group yoga class with friends and/or family members. Giving yourself space to pause and learning how to optimize your particular nature while spending time outside, are valuable gifts anytime of the year.

In response to the number of people seeking time away from regular responsibilities and interested in applying the full spectrum of yoga in their daily lives, we’ve added Yoga Lifestyle Retreats to our calendar. See below or visit the Retreat Listing for more information.

AYURVEDIC TIPS FOR SUMMER & AUTUMN

Since the seasons aren’t determined by the calendar and we are at the juncture between two seasons, I’ve included tips for both seasons. Note: These tips are based upon general Ayurvedic principals and are not a substitute for an individualized program of health that takes into account each person’s unique constitution.

• Summer is hot, bright, and sharp, the season of pitta ( the principle of fire and the energy of heating and metabolism), so it is a time to keep cool, particularly for those who are primarily pitta dominant. Coconut oil is calming, cooling, and soothing for the skin. Rub 5-6 ounces of coconut or sunflower oil on your body as part of your morning routine. Before going to sleep rub some coconut oil on your scalp and the soles of your feet for a cooling effect.
• Wear cotton or silk, as those fabrics are light and allow the skin to breathe.
• Watermelon, pears, plums, apples, and limes are all cooling.
• For a light meal, try steaming vegetables and serving them over basmati rice with a little ghee and grated coconut. Vegetables for salads are abundant and can be eaten more in summer than at any other time. Salads are cooling, but best eaten at lunch.
• This is a season of generalized low energy, so it may be helpful to take a short nap in the daytime.
• Wear sunglasses outdoors, swim in a cool lake or pool and avoid strenuous exercise. If you are accustomed to vigorous exercise, do it early in the morning or at the coolest part of the day.

Autumn is dry, light, windy, and rough. All these qualities provoke vata dosha (the air principle and energy of movement). The tips for autumn revolve around pacifying vata.

• If you can, wake up early, around 5 a.m. There is an extraordinary silence and peace this time of day when the air is calm and the birds are not yet awake.
• In your asana practice, rather than Moon Salutations, switch to Sun Salutations, Backbends, and Spinal Twists.
• Sesame oil is warming and heavy. In the morning, rub 6-9 ounes all over your body before taking a warm shower or bath.
• Make sure to have breakfast. Try oatmeal, cream of rice or wheat, tapioca, or any grain to help settle vata. Salads are not recommended but instead soups and stews.
• Be sure to stay warm. Dress warmly indoors and out and cover your head on windy days.
• Very active, vigorous exercise should be avoided, especially by individuals with vata constitution.
• Drinking a cup of warm milk (any type) at bedtime induces sound natural sleep. Add a pinch of ginger, cardamom and nutmeg. These herbs are warming and soothing.

From The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies, Vasant Lad, B.A.M.S., M.A.Sc.

SEASONAL RECIPES

Fresh Corn & Sweet Potato Soup
(from Moosewood Restaurant’s Low-Fat Favorites)

• 1 cup finely chopped onions
• 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 1 small fresh chile, seeded and minced (omit if you don’t want spicy)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 3 cups Basic Vegetable Stock
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 medium sweet potato, diced (about 2 cups)
  (my preference is a mixture of sweet and regular potatoes)
• ½ red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 3 cups fresh corn cut from the cob
• salt to taste

• lime wedges
• finely chopped cilantro leaves

In a covered soup pot, simmer the onions, garlic, chile, and salt in 1 cup of the vegetable stock for about 10 minutes, or until the onions are soft. In a small bowl, make a paste with the cumin and a tablespoonful of the stock, stir it into the pot, and simmer for another 1-2 minutes. Add the sweet potatoes and the remaining stock and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the sweet potatoes soften. Add the bell pepper and corn and simmer, covered, for another 10 minutes, or until all of the vegetables are tender.

Puree about half of the soup in a blender or food processor and return it to the pot. The soup will be creamy and thick. Add salt to taste and gently reheat on low heat. If desired, serve with lime wedges and top with cilantro.

Serves 4 – 6
Total Time: 50 minutes
Save & print this recipe (pdf)

Baked Beets and Shallots
(from Moosewood Restaurant’s Low-Fat Favorites)

Baking beets concentrates the flavor and sweetness.

• 6 – 10 small – medium beets
• ½ lb. shallots or 3 medium onions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Wash the beets and trim the stems and tails (use the greens in stir fry or to garnish the beets). Peel the shallots. Place the beets and shallots or quartered onion on a large sheet of aluminum foil and fold the edges together to seal tightly. Bake for about 1 hour, or until the beets are tender and easily pierced with a knife.

Remove the packet from the oven and set it aside to cool. When the beets are cool enough to handle, rub them to remove the skin, then cut them into chunks or wedges. Place the beets and shallots in a serving bowl. Drizzle with olive oil or ghee, fresh lemon and herbs to taste. For a different flavor, mix 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar with 1 tablespoon of oil or ghee and herbs and drizzle over the beets. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves 6
Save & print this recipe (pdf)

UPCOMING RETREATS

Moving into the Sacred
with Laura Humpf
Friday, Sept 17 - Sunday, Sept 19, 2010
Click here for more info

Full Moon Yoga Retreat
with Emily Iverson
Friday, October 22 - Sunday, October 24, 2010
Click here for more info.

Yoga Lifestyle Retreats
with Wendy Dion
Friday, November 5 – Sunday, November 7 or
Fiday, January 14 – Sunday, January 16
Click here for more info

POEM

I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one’s being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes, in some area, an athlete of God.

Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired …

… Then there is the cultivation of the being. It is through this that the legends of the soul’s journey are re-told with all their gaiety and their tragedy and the bitterness and sweetness of living. It is at this point that the sweep of life catches up the mere personality of the performer and while the individual (the undivided one) becomes greater, the personal becomes less personal. And there is grace. I mean the grace resulting from faith: faith in life, in love, in people and in the act of dancing. All this is necessary to any performance in life which is magnetic, powerful, rich in meaning.

---- Martha Graham