Practice for the Week of May 28-June 3

For the past two weeks, we have been practicing bhavana, the cultivation of positive and uplifting attitudes.

Through yoga we learn to cultivate positive feelings, even when we feel downhearted, discouraged, or frustrated.

Doug Keller writes:

"Hatha yoga poses call forth feeling: they give voice to noble feelings through movement, disposition of muscle, breath and bone. Backbends evoke exuberance; standing poses express strength and daring; forward bends counsel quietude and patience. Each pose is like a gesture of a yogic attitude; each pose reaches deeply into the heart and pulls up greatness, leaving you feeling cleansed and uplifted - not just physically but on a deeper, more emotional level than you would think physical exercise could reach. Each posture brings forth an experience of an inner yogic feeling and restores you from the wear and tear of life."

Douglas Keller, “Like Breath and Heartbeat,” Darshan Magazine 127-128 (1997): 15.

Our practice for this week is to develop awareness of the ways in which yoga asanas and breathing cultivate our feelings.

Doug Keller teaches yoga classes and trainings in the Washington, D.C. area at the Health Advantage Yoga Center in Herndon, Virginia and at Willow Street Yoga in Takoma Park, Maryland, as well as at other locations in the U.S. and Europe. Doug will be teaching a weekend workshop at the Holiday Manor studio August 10-11.

Click here for more information and how to register.