Although the daylight hours are a little shorter, they provide us with nice cool temperatures and bright blue skies, not to mention some wonderful sunsets. I highly recommend hitting your local beach for a morning or afternoon walk. I guess the biggest news this month is the discontinuance of my Kawana classes, and the adding of a couple more to the Mooloolaba schedule. All current students will have received warning of time changes, and if unsure, feel free to check the website or pick up a schedule at your next class.
With winter proving to be a formidable adversary, the morning classes are still pretty quiet. As the evening classes start to fill up, remember back when you could almost have a private class and extra focused attention? For those of you with the luxury of free time during the day, you may like to try an am or early afternoon class and gain the benefits of some personal tuition, helping iron out any bad habits.
Due to the popularity of the Vinyasa class, I have added three more to the schedule, including a new time slot at 1.30pm Friday. While the Vinyasa class is available for everyone, I recommend at least trying our regular classes a few times before embarking on this new challenge. The main difference is the inclusion of more upper body strength work, a little cardio and some sweat. Don't be shy, give it a try.
Also, a reminder about the Yoga Fest in Brisbane on Sunday June 29. I have some flyers in the studio, and for more info you can check www.yogafest.com.au. The schedule is now finalised, and there are heaps of different styles of classes to try. It will be a great day.
For those of you who aren't aware, Ecolife holds a complimentary spinal health workshop every Thursday at 6.30pm. Generally held by Dr Howard Cameron (I do an occasional guest appearance), these classes are an ideal opportunity to learn about all aspects of our wellbeing, with a different theory topic or practical session every week. I look forward to attending every week and can't rate them highly enough. If interested, let me know, or sign up next door with Vanessa or Jen, our awesome Chiro Assistants. If you haven't met Howard, or shared a yoga class with him yet, please feel free to pop in next door to say g'day to him. I guarantee that you will learn something new every time you chat with him. He also created the new CD's you have been listening to in your classes of late.
For the appointment books – Please note that the 6.30pm class on July 22nd has been cancelled due to a wellness seminar I will be presenting for Olympus financial members. Sorry for the inconvenience, maybe you can sneak out of work early for the 5pm class.
As for the format of this month’s newsletter, I decided to link some articles to the end of my text, for you to access at your own will. As my website builder only allows me to send plain text in newsletters (making it available to all email addresses), you will have to cut and paste the links into your browser to access the info. This will make my newsletter a little less daunting, so you don’t actually think you are about to read the entire Yoga Sutras each month!
For those of you wondering about the history and lineage of “The Barkan Method”, I have included a page from one of my former colleagues’ website. Tomasz and I worked together for a number of years in Florida, and he now runs a studio in Phuket, Thailand. Here is the link - http://www.tgoetel.com/HY03.html
Finally, getting back into our posture of the month series, let’s take a look at Garudasana, Eagle Pose. Rather than read about, just copy the following link into your browser to watch my teacher, Jimmy Barkan, give you the good oil, on this wonderful pose. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qK_Z5JY73s The main benefits of this posture include - the stretching and opening of all the joints in the body, development of balance and focus, leg strength, and also massaging the sexual organs. Some of you will notice that in the youtube video, only the basic Eagle posture is taught. This is because the added sequence of Bowing Eagle and Warrior III are reserved for more advanced sequences. So if you have had the experience, well done, your practice is reaching an advanced level.
As always, please feel free to drop me an email or stay for a chat after class to discuss anything that is on your mind. I love feedback and the chance to enhance our lovely yoga facility. With our new speakers, new smells, and the new mirrors being installed Thursday (26th), I can’t wait to share our next class together.
