Archive for November, 2009
Newsletter – December 2009 and January 2010
Resolve to Laugh Like a Pro in 2010: Certified Laughter Yoga Leader Training! January 23 and 24, 2010. 1 -6 p.m. Saturday and 10- 6 p.m. on Sunday. Certified Laughter Yoga Leader Training at UCSF’s Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Divisadero Street, San Francisco. The weekend-long training internationally-honored certification training is $295 and open to all. 12 CEUs for RNs and Mental Health Professionals. More details on my website’s LY Leader Training page.
Laugh More in 2010: Tuesday Series starts up again in January Laughter Yoga at the Kenwood Depot, the antique train station on Warm Springs Road off Highway 12 in Kenwood, southeast of Santa Rosa. January 5, 12, 19, 26, February 2. Five Tuesday sessions at 5:30 p.m. for $60. If you cannot attend a session, send a friend for a dose of New Year Joy in your place. Bring your own mat, blanket and pillow. I will provide the crystal bowls, rockin’ music and group laughter workout and solo laughter time on the mat.
Please contact me to RSVP. 707.765.9035. Mail Check to P.O. Box 296. Petaluma. CA.94953.
TGIF Laughter Yoga Club: Joyful Stress Relief! at Bodyworks Yoga Studio. Petaluma. 7 – 8 p.m. Third Friday of Every Month. January 15 and February 19th. Donation. $10.
Below you see two videos of Jay Barone and Stacey Jenkins, who regularly attend Friday Evening Laughter Yoga for their stress relief at Bodyworks Yoga Studio.
FREE: Arm Chair and Wheelchair Laughter Yoga Club hosted by Merrill Gardens. 10 – 11 a.m. First and Third Tuesday of Every Month. December 1 and 15. January 5 and 19. Open to adults of all ages.
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Research Underway for Next Year’s : Women’s Mexico Retreat with Carmela.
While in Mexico this December, I will be conducting some serious research for my Women’s Yoga and Art Retreat, 2010. It’s tough work. But gals, I am dedicated. With my local contacts in the area, hostessing skills and group retreat experience, I am planning a creative, nurturing and fun yoga getaway to suit your budget and nourish your creative spirit. Let me know if you are interested!
Alaska Airlines still has non-stop flights to Puerta Vallarta and then it is a 30 mile ride north up to Sayulita, a charming fishing-surfing village loved by Northern Californians. With only about 3,000 full-time residents Sayulita is blessed with lots of good yoga, good food and good waves.
I will be teaching Joyful Laughter Yoga at Om Yoga Studio in Sayulita, Mexico under their huge open air palapa. www.YogaSayulita.com
Dianne Neuman, a former hospice volunteer with me in Sonoma County, Abstract Painter, Workshop Facilitator and Owner of Arte de Sayulita Gallery is also on my retreat agenda. http://www.artedesayulita.com/ I always enjoy painting with Dianne! Color and abstract art boost my spirit almost as much as yoga.
My trip to the PV area would not be complete without a visit down to Boca de Tomatlan, a little fishing village south of Puerta Vallarta, for a few days of boating and snorkeling with my dear friend Leo, who lives year-round in the village and owns a boat. I hope to sign him on as our Salty Sea Captain for you gals who might like a boat ride on your retreat with me next year.
I am delighted that my trip will not include any appointments with my fabulous Puerta Vallarta Dentist. In the past, I have paid for most of my Mexico holiday with what I saved on having crowns done at his modern dental practice in downtown Puerta Vallarta. But no more cracked crowns, TMD issues, clenching or grinding for me! I am a poster gal for Laughter Yoga as a cure for all of those ailments which affect about 80% of Americans. Last month I did a LY Session with 68 dentists at a California Dental Association Meeting and just last week , I did a fun Laughter Yoga Session for the staff of Dorothy Slattery, DDS, in Mill Valley. Dentists understand the value of Laughter Yoga.
Perhaps you might be interested in a creative Women’s Yoga Retreat in Mexico:2010 with me next year? Dental work and herbal infused local tequila are optional.
The symbolism of the lotus flower is extremely important in yoga. The lotus flower is a gorgeous blossom with a circle of petals that floats on the water’s surface. The lotus’s roots, however, are extremely long and deep in the mud. The sludge and the mud provide the nutrients to help the lotus grow and achieve its beauty. To yogis and yoginis, the lotus represents human life.Sometimes the ”holiday cheer” all around us can feel like an unwelcome imposition at best, and a doomed set-up for failure at worst. I don’t mean to sound like a downer all stuck in the muck this holiday season, but my many years as a counselor, hospice worker and holiday renegade inform my awareness of the shadow side of this season of lights.
The holidays can be very painful for those of us grieving the loss of loved ones. It can also be a sad time if we are feeling disconnected from our spiritual, religious, family or holiday celebrations of yesteryear longing for ’the way we were.’
We may yearn for the sparkle of ‘comfort and joy’, but get lost in the shadows of grief, sadness or disappointment.
The good news this holiday season is that joy is not reliant on anything. It is a choice. Happiness is fickle. Joy is a choice. Laughter is a choice. You don’t need a reason.
No matter what your holiday season is serving up, choose joy. Even if it is fleeting, and you cannot maintain it throughout your wait in line at the post office, put a smile on your face and choose joy. Choose to gift yourself with joy.
Experience the amazing benefits of laughter by practicing Laughter Yoga Solo! No jokes needed. No one else need be involved for you to laugh alone and feel your blood pressure go down as your endorophin level soars. Remember, with Laughter Yoga, you laugh for no reason and you feel better automatically. So why care what your neighbors think? Or those folks stuck in traffic with you? Practice extended laughter, for at least a minute, and reduce your stress while enhancing your joy. Need a little help getting into it? Visit this site every month for a tip on how to integrate Laughter Yoga into your daily life.
My recent Yin Yoga Teacher Training with the delightfully skilled and saucy Erin Fleming, Director of Pilates and Yoga at BayClub Marin, served as a beautiful seasonally-appropriate reminder of the concept of relativity involved in the Taoist traditions of yin and yan. The word yin literally means “the shady side of the mountain”, while yan means “the sunny side of the mountain.” Our bodies, our emotions, our thoughts and our spiritual selves — not to mention the entire universe — are always in a state of balance or imbalance moving between the forces of yin and yan.
Despite the fact that this is indeed the Yin Season with increasing darkness and wetness accompanied by nature’s call to move more slowly and go within, we are surrounded by a flurry of holiday demands. I suggest that you try balancing the yan of Santa’s HO HO HO Laughter with a dose of internally generated, gentle Joyful Yin Within Laughter this time of year.
Gigglin’ Yin Within: Pretend you are wearing a Blue Tooth. That way, you will not be concerned if others think you are crazy for giggling deeply and chatting with yourself. Or, you may pull out your cell phone, so you can enjoy an imaginary conversation with your deeper self that elicits a juicy smile and a gurgling giggle just intended for you.
I am talking about a giggle that bubbles up from the deep yin waters of the dark crystal caves within your belly and lungs and sends a pink flush to your cheeks and lights to your eyes . Gigglin’ Yin Within puts a naughty smile on your lips and ripples a nice internal massage throughout your body.
Practice this Gigglin’ Yin Within while driving, doing yoga, standing in line, at your computer, when cooking and chopping, wrapping gifts, at parties and especially at family dinners.
You might even dedicate a Gigglin’ Yin Within to the First Day of Winter, The Winter Solstice on December 21st and then take a well-deserved nap.
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