What is 40 Days To Personal Transformation?

We’re celebrating the New Year by offering a workshop series called 40 days to Personal Transformation. Kiara Boch leads this series from January 9th through February 20, 2012. Weekly meetings on Monday night (7:30pm to 9pm) anchor the program. Baron Baptist pioneered the 40 Days concept and we use his teachings combined with other influences to present our own unique version of the program.  Read on for answers to some common questions about 40 Days To Personal Transformation.

What is the 40 Days series?

Baron Baptist observed “Many of us are searching without knowing exactly what we are looking for. Some of us go on a diet to lose weight and try all kinds of programs and workshops to make ourselves feel better, or perhaps we throw ourselves into our work and seek wealth and status to fill the void, but underneath, an emotional emptiness remains. No matter how much we try to gloss over that yearning with temporary fixes, it is still there, whispering the truth: that what we need isn't another quick fix, but a rather a rebirth -- a whole-life revolution. “

40 days to Personal Transformation is a breakthrough program to radically change your body and awaken the sacred within your soul. A daily combination of asana practice, meditation, diet, journaling and personal reflection will cultivate a solid foundation from which students can live and grow.

Why is 40 days an important length of time?

“The number 40 holds tremendous spiritual significance in the realm of transformation.  Jesus wandered in the desert for forty days in order to experience purification and to come to a greater understanding of himself and his mission.  Moses and his people traveled through the desert for forty years before arriving home to the holy land.  Noah preserved the sacredness of life by sailing his ark for forty days and forty nights.  According to the Kabbalah, the ancient Jewish mystical text, it takes forty days to ingrain any new way of being into our system, and that is what we are aiming to do here: wipe out the old and welcome the new. In forty days, you can shift into a whole new way of living and being.”   -Baron Baptist

What goes on at the weekly meetings?

The weekly meetings are a time to gather, reflect and share. They are a valuable part of the program and you will find strength and encouragement from the support and connection of the participants.  Meetings consist of deep listening, speaking truthfully in an empowering manner, and discussion of weekly readings.

What am I signing up for?

Daily Yoga Practice: Six days of yoga per week (five days of active or vigorous level classes, one day of a gentle level class, and one day of rest). We encourage you to practice at Yoga Bhoga (unlimited yoga classes are included with the program), but you may supplement one home practice per week. For each week there is a theme for your physical practice that will help you build a strong and sustainable personal practice.

Daily Meditation Practice: You will begin to build a daily meditation practice over the 40 days beginning with just 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes at night. Each week we will build upon the tools of the previous week, adding a weekly focus and increasing the length of time slowly.

Observance of Dietary Intake: Each week we look at a specific area of food, and bring attention to our habits and attachments around that food. During the fourth week we will take a three-day cleanse to give your body a rest.

Personal Journaling: Each week there will be a short reading and journal questions from 40 Days to Personal Revolution and Peace is Every Step that will encourage inward self-explorative inquiries.

Weekly Community Meetings: Once a week the 40 days group meets and Kiara Boch leads group discussion of the weekly readings and journal questions. The weekly community meetings are the most beneficial part of the program. As the group moves and changes together, you will find strength and encouragement from the other participants sharing.

Ignite your 2012 with health, vitality! This is the time to let go of the past and create a new reality! Sign up for 40 days now! Early registration ends December 31st.

Acropy Portland

In mid October we had the pleasure of hosting  Jason and Chelsey of the Yogaslackers for a weekend workshop. A strong showing of Portland's AcroYoga community turned out to learn and practice the "Acropy Portland" flow which was fun and challenging. After six hours of practice the first day and five hours the second, we took a breath and started filming. This first video is a montage of the students performing the flow.  The second video is of Jason and Chelsey performing the same flow. This was a great workshop and with a super inspiring group of people!

 

Building An Altar For Shiva

For some time I thought the studio needed a proper altar table. After all, this is Shiva we're talking about, destroyer of the world and maybe one day your ego, and Shiva's current table was a far cry from godly. So like any sensible yogi, I went to the Ikea catalog and looked at tables, but it just seemed weird to buy an altar. Thinking about it more, I decided to build one myself, an altar that symbolized the practice of yoga in a deep and personal way. That's a tall order and I was thinking about this design off and on for about a year. I came upon the work of George Nakashima. George was among other things a graduate from the University of Washington, an architect, an early disciple of Sri Aurobindo, and a master of Japanese style woodworking.  Interestingly, it was George's dream to create seven "altars of peace" with one residing in each continent. The first of these tables were made from massive pairs of matched walnut for the table top. These tables bore George's signature style -- a split down the middle of the top that was joined by inlaid butterfly dovetails.

I found this design symbolic of our yoga practice. The split in the table represents the division between our individual ego and our true Self. The inlaid butterflies represent how our yoga dissolves this division over time. This division is ultimately an illusion, or maya. Maya has three qualities, or gunas, so I decided on three inlaid butterfly dovetails for the design.

Building furniture by hand requires mindfulness and patience. The first step is taking rough cut lumber and milling it to be flat and the right thickness. I use a combination of machines and my embarrassingly large hand plane collection to do this.

Table legs and rails are joined together to form stretchers. There are many options for this type of joinery. I used the classic mortise and tenon.  Using a marking gauge to cut very fine lines in the wood, I then use a chisel to cut a small groove along these lines.  These grooves let me be very accurate when cutting with a handsaw.  I cut wooden tenons with the saw and chisel out the mortises so the tenons fit inside them.

To connect the stretchers to the table top, I cut a sliding dovetail on the stretcher top. The tabletop floats on this joint allowing for seasonal expansion of the wood so the table will not rack or warp.  Fitting this joint requires patience.  You can always take more material off but it's not easy to put the wood back on!

Next I used the band-saw to cut three matched butterfly dovetails from a piece of rosewood. I carefully marked and chiseled out spaces for them in the table top.  After multiple test fits and careful paring, I used a rubber mallet to seat them.   A tight fit is important for such a visible joint, so I made sure to keep the blood pressure low as I worked.

Once all the pieces fit together, it's time for the one step that requires a certain amount of speed -- the glue up.  If you're too slow, the glue drys early with your parts misaligned.  Fortunately, the glue up goes off without incident.  Then it's time to scrape, plane, and sand the wood to perfect smoothness.  Any imperfection will be highlighted under the gloss of the finish.  Everything looks good and four coats of poly/oil finish later, I burnished the finish with fine steel wool and the table is done. Hopefully Shiva will find it suitable.

 

Yin Yoga

Yoga practices such as Hatha and Vinyasa focus on active movement of the body to stretch and strengthen muscles.  These practices provide great benefit as they increase our vitality and health.  Yin yoga, by comparison, applies healthy stress to joints and connective tissue.  Connective tissues (tendons, ligaments, and fascia) respond to long, steady, and moderate loads of stress by lengthening and growing stronger.  Yin postures focus on the joint and connective tissue in the low back, pelvis, and hips. The biggest difference in Yin from other yoga practices is the need to relax muscles around the area being stressed.  Engaging muscles around a joint often draws the joint together which creates stress on the muscles but not the connective tissue.  In Yin, you cannot "push harder."  To do so is counterproductive.  For more information on this concept, read this excellent article by Paul Grilley.

Yin Yoga is an all-level practice.  It is accessible as an entry-level practice and is also an excellent adjunct to an active Yoga practice.  Although not a complicated physical practice, it can be quite challenging due to the long duration of the poses.  For those with an established asana practice, yin postures provide space in which you can uncover subtle patterns of holding or clenching and then decide if they are helpful or necessary.  Insights into these patterns can lead to greater freedom and flexibility in your physical practice, and in your life.

In Yin Yoga we learn to dwell inside our bodies and minds with equanimity, as we practice a relaxed awareness of physical sensations and mental states in various poses and contemplations.  If you are looking for a practice that adds flexibility to the body and flexibility to the way you approach challenges in your life, come join the Yin side!

AcroYoga Circuit

Looking to polish your AcroYoga skills?  This circuit will get you in tip top shape.  Spend 30-60 seconds at each exercise and then switch.  Repeat the circuit two to three times and enjoy! Sun salutations Downdog push-ups Hula hoop Straddle Jumping Jacks Press walks-forwards and backwards Push-ups Hollow body with side tucks V-ups Switch kick handstands

Peeling Layers

At the end of April, the 40 Days to Personal Transformation program began at Yoga Bhoga.  This program follows the principals and laws Baron Baptiste presents in his book 40 Days to Personal Revolution. Through meditation, yoga, journaling, weekly meetings and diet changes the participants of the program move on a journey of self-exploration and self-awareness. By becoming more aware of oneself, we bring to the surface buried emotions, thoughts, habits of avoidance, and self-sabotage. Only by recognizing these behaviors are we then able to change our patterns and find a place of greater joy.B.K.S Iyengar said “Asanas penetrate deep into each layer of the body and ultimately into the consciousness itself.” In yoga classes, asana refers to the postures but asana literally means “seat.” In the 40 days program, we are asked to find a seat within ourselves and begin to observe who we are.  By sitting with ourselves, listening to our thoughts, witnessing our reactions to daily life, we allow our bodies and minds to feel both the positive and negative emotions within us.  As I begin to root down into my internal seat, mindful to the moments of my life, pleasant or not, I am little by little beginning to remove my layers, slowly exposing the consciousness I long ago hid from myself.  The idea of transformation is not about changing who I am or looking to become a new person but rather it is about removing what binds me to discover who I already am. In this program, a component to restoring mind, body, and spirit involves going through a 3-day cleanse that consists of eating only fruit. The first day I was surprised to find I was neither uncomfortable nor hunger. I felt good eating fruit salads and I discovered that the addition of mango slices made each meal a special treat. On the second day I woke up to a headache…and a fuzzy mouth. As the day progressed, I found myself craving almonds and thick chunks of sourdough bread with melted butter. I was mildly surprised that I did not crave more luxurious foods…or even full meals. More importantly, on the second day, I painstaking came to understand the weight loss I desired from this fruit cleanse is not from losing water weight but from the metaphorical shedding of emotional layers due to the lack of distraction brought on by comfort food, alcohol, and caffeine.

What was hard for me during this cleanse was the emotions it brought to the surface. Primarily, the urge to quit the fast – that it was too hard.  The desire to quit, to eat a piece of bread began to spread and I found myself angry at everything. Scared of my anger, I wanted to stuff my face to prove I was in control of the situation; to say “Screw it!” and eat cheese fries. I wanted to stop feeling so turbulent inside.  And suddenly I realized: I am a quitter. I tend to quit, sabotaging my own growth and potential when things become uncomfortable. In yoga, holding a pose my muscles may burn or emotions may bubble to the surface so I move in ways to stifle the emotions, to relieve the discomfort, in order leave my layer in place.  In love, for years, I would run away, lick my self-inflicted wounds rather than stay and lose control in a relationship with no guarantees. I quit in order to remain in control, to avoid failure, to avoid the unknown. In my kitchen, unable to eat and stuff out my emotions with food, I faced a choice: Do I continue the fruit cleanse and sit with my truth or literally eat my emotions away and continue avoiding the unknown within me?

Staying in the moment, I began to realize that the urgent need to escape back into my comfort zone, to not face my fears, stemmed from my own knowledge that I needed to rest during this week. I became angry that I did not have time to rest, that I did not have time for myself. I got mad at the fruit cleanse, the program, even my husband, and then I realized that I was blaming everyone else for my inability to say “no”. I stood there and asked myself “if I never say ‘no’, what is my ‘yes’ worth?”  In my aerial classes we are taught not to swing our bodies into a position because swinging only creates more swinging. When we swing our body, it moves to the opposite point from where we want it to be. Only by mindfully engaging muscles, can we shift our body and place it where it needs to be. Right now, my pendulum is swinging, constantly moving, and all I want to do is slow down. In order to slow down, I must stop. I must stop going full force, stop worrying about others, stop brewing anger, stop blaming others for my inability to rest, to renew, to move past being tired.  I must stop and begin to remove each layer, shedding old habits, resisting urges to flee and control what is not stable. I must stop, breathe, see where I am, greet who I am, and begin anew, mindful, aware, intentional and, yes, slightly scared, until stepping outside of boxes becomes natural.

Molly Lannon Kenny

It’s your chance to join Amy Armstrong and Leigh Drake to study with their teacher Molly Lannon Kenny in her upcoming workshops at Yoga Bhoga. Read on to learn about Amy and Leigh’s experience with Molly. What attracted you to study with Molly?

Leigh: Meeting Molly was different from anyone else I had met; she doesn’t just talk about meeting people where they are, she actually does it. Being present, not judging, examining the quality of action; these are integral to how Molly operates. Amy: Molly clearly demonstrates a commitment to being inclusive of all kinds of people. Samarya Center serves a community of people with incredibly diverse abilities and backgrounds, embracing, celebrating and supporting all of them.What was the most interesting thing you learned from Molly during your training?

Leigh: That I can’t truly be present with others unless I have the capacity to love them. And to love anyone, I have to love myself. And that I am worth loving. Amy: The most powerful lessons I’ve taken from Molly as a teacher are lessons I’ve learned about myself. Through classes and discussions as well as personal conversations, working with Molly has been profoundly healing and has helped me to celebrate my strengths, accept my flaws, and love myself in a more honest and complete way.

If you had to describe Molly in a single word, what would it be?

Leigh: Fierce Amy: Fierce

How have your studies with Molly affected your approach to teaching?

Leigh: That I have to get my ego out of the way so that I can teach. I do not identify as “A TEACHER”, I let my Self be present so that teaching can occur. Amy: I’m willing to take more risks, rather than always working where I’m comfortable. I spent a good part of my life terrified to make a mistake, always wanting to “do it right.” Now I’m more willing to be with uncertainty, and it’s quite liberating. Also, we are brought up in a tremendously judgmental culture, and most of us are a lot better at identifying what we dislike or what’s wrong about a person or situation. Working with Molly has given me a deeper awareness, as well as a whole lot of tools, to help me be the compassionate person I want to be.

Workshops start May 27th! See our workshop description for more information.

When Weather Gets You Down, Turn To Yoga

As the weather turns gray, rainy, and cold here in Portland, it’s easy to succumb to the call of a cozy blanket and a warm, comfy couch. Here are some things to keep you motivated and focused.

  • Make a Pledge – to a friend or even someone you see in class that you will come to class. You will feel more accountable knowing that someone is expecting to see you in class. Instead of curling up on the couch in your warm p.j.’s , you’ll find yourself suiting up in your best rain gear and heading out the door. Your body and mind will thank you.
  • Quiet the Mind – when the days get shorter and the cold rain sets in, anxiety and depression can creep its way in. Yoga helps you refocus and let go of negativity. Come into a class with heavy shoulders and walk out feeling light as a feather.
  • Smile and Laugh – this may seem silly, but when you smile, people smile back. Start a trend. Create a chain reaction and brighten everyone’s day. Give it a try. The results might surprise you!