Recovery From Hurricane Irma and Maria
Our yoga teacher community was seriously impacted by the September 2017 Hurricanes that hit St. John. We lost both our main teaching locations of Concordia Eco Resort and the Virgin Island Agricultural Centers. Since September, we have been slowly rebuilding. We have some classes starting again and a new calendar will be posted soon. Please be patient. Namaste.
Saturday Summer Series Fun
Join Jen Endicott, 200hr RYT, at St John School of the Arts in Cruz Bay for an invigorating 90 minute LifePower Yoga class set to upbeat dance music. As the sunsets the lights will stay low bringing everyone deeper into their practice, your movement glows.
Saturday 9/17/16, 6:30-8pm
If it glows, wear it.✨
Shaman Meditation Class
Tuesdays at the Ag Center, 5:30 PM to 7 PM
Shaman Meditation Class – by Donation
Join Sandra Miller (PH.D. Candidate in Shamanism, Ordained Shaman Minister, and adept of The Lynn Andrews Mystery School since 1999) as she takes us on a guided tour of our inner selves.
Classes held Tuesdays, starting August 30th.
Find your power animals, your inner guides, and your teachers through storytelling, cards, and guided meditation. Make Spiritual Magic an everyday occurrence in your life.
We will discover and learn ways to help us remain centered and calm – a welcome tool in these chaotic times. Now is the time to learn the Shamanic teachings of The Sisterhood of The Shields
It is a great honor to share these teachings
You are a unique and special person
Celebrate your power
Celebrate your life
Celebrate you
Join the sacred feminine!
Sandra is also available for healing session by phone or in person. If you would like to deepen your journey, schedule a private session with Sandra.
About Sandra Miller’s teacher Lynn Andrews:
Lynn Andrews is the New York Times and internationally best-selling author of the Medicine Woman Series. She presents shamanic teachings in her four year program in her Mystery School. Lynn is initiated as a member of the Sisterhood of the Shields, 44 women who are healers from cultures as diverse as Panama, Guatemala, Australia, Nepal, North America and the Yucatan. She hosts annual live gatherings for shamanic healing and empowerment in Paradise Valley, Arizona, and Hawaii, and has led shamanic tours to Egypt, Peru, Alaska, Ireland and other sacred sites around the globe.
Summer/Fall Schedule
Please be aware of the reduced yoga schedule on St. John during the summer/early autumn. Many of the yoga teachers leave island during this time to recharge. We do have some yoga teachers staying around so please join them for yoga!!!
We will be back in full force come October & November. Namaste for now!
St. Croix Elemental Flow Retreat September 1-4, 2016
Join Rasamaya’s Shakti Tribe for a life-changing, playful immersion on the magic island of St. Croix. It’s a new moon, the perfect time for transformation and some serious soul-digging awesomeness. We are hosting an elemental flow conference with 4 days of meditation, intention-setting, fire ceremony, structure and flow yoga workshops, hula hoping and poi play integrated with yoga, dance party, Thai yoga massage are just to name a few.
CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION!!!
http://www.rasamaya.com/retreats/2016/9/1/st-croix-elemental-flow-retreat
It would be great to deepen our community connection by having St. John represented on St. Croix! Please share with your yoga and movement community.
SCHEDULE:
DAILY MORNING SCHEDULE | Thurs Sept 1 – Sunday Sept 4
615am – 7am: Elemental Flow Meditation | Katie
7am – 815am: Elemental Flow Yoga | Carrie
830am – 10am: Astrological Birth Chart Readings | Quinn
SPECIAL TOPICS & EVENTS
Thursday Sept 1
10am – 11am The Art of Play: Poi, Hooping & Flow | Kiki
1115am – 1215pm Anatomy + Deep Stretch: Upper Body | Carrie
New Moon Fire Ceremony (Location & Time TBD)
Friday Sept 2
10am – 11am Fire & Rewire: Using Restorative Poses to Create Affective Balance | Maura
11:15am – 12:15pm TBD | Katie
Friday: Fire show with Kiki & The Flaming Gypsies (Location & Time TBD)
Saturday Sept 3
10am – 11am The Art of Play: Poi, Hooping & Flow | Kiki
1115am – 1215pm Anatomy + Deep Stretch: Lower Body | Carrie
Saturday: Dance Party (Location & Time TBD)
Sunday Sept 4
10am – 11am Fire & Rewire: Using Restorative Poses to Create Effective Balance | Maura
1115am – 1215pm Thai Bodywork | Carrie
COST:$200
SIGN UP NOW
Includes: All Sessions, Fire Ceremony, Fire Dance Performance & Dance Party
Add on your astrological birth chart:
$45 must be scheduled in advance
Drop In $15 per session (please RSVP a spot by email)
Need help with lodging? We have room blocks reserved at four hotels. For more information email: kikiwanderlust@gmail.com
Do Yoga St. John Offers Hope to Cancer Patients
Do Yoga St. John recently participated with the St. John Brewers/Tap Room and the Little Pink House of Hope in a one day event at Ditleff Point house. Several breast cancer patients, in various stages of cancer, were hosted by Little Pink House of Hope for a week retreat on St. John. The Little Pink House of Hope creates hopeful experiences through fostering loving relationships in a non-judgmental environment.
So what does that mean in the words of Little Pink House of Hope:
Hopeful Experiences- to help foster family bonds through relaxed play and time away. We believe that individuals will have a chance to grow in their well being, relationships, nutrition, and spirit to help them in their cancer journey. We believe that at all stages of the cancer journey, it is not enough to survive, but rather to focus on thriving and celebrating life. We believe in having fun!!
Loving Relationships- to foster loving relationships by our words, actions, service, and connections. We believe that not only will families grow in love during our retreat weeks, but families will continue their Little Pink experience long after the retreats end.
Non-Judgmental Environment– to create an environment of acceptance among staff, volunstars, and participants. We believe that families come in all shapes and sizes. We do not discriminate based on race, sexual orientation, gender, disability, age, geographic location, or religion. Breast cancer affects everyone, and it is our mission to serve everyone who is on the journey. Cancer is the great equalizer- there is no room for judgment, only love and compassion.
You can see why Do Yoga St. John was eager to participate. Monika Aranha and Nancy Stromp spent the morning with the group. They shared in teaching the group a gentle yoga class and Monika ended the class with Yoga Nidra.
Both teachers were extremely inspired from the experience.
Yoga is a very powerful source of healing. Well established doctors and treatment centers recommend yoga for cancer patients. Here is what Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has on their website about Yoga for cancer patients.
Yoga improves quality of life in both newly diagnosed and long-term cancer survivors by reducing stress and fatigue, and improving sleep and mood.
Yoga is an ancient Indian philosophy that has been practiced for thousands of years. It involves regulated breathing, moving through various postures, and meditation to achieve physical and emotional health benefits. Yoga was shown to reduce symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, seizures, diabetes, migraine headaches, depression, and anxiety. It is also practiced for weight maintenance. Cancer survivors including those recently diagnosed report better sleep, less stress, and improved quality of life with the practice of yoga. It is now offered in many cancer hospitals around the country.
Cancer patients interested in beginning yoga should first ask their physicians, because certain cancer treatments can cause physical limitations. It is also important that proper techniques are learned from certified instructors who have experience working with cancer patients.
For more information about The Little Pink House of Hope, visit there website here.
Growth is Ageless
Growth – to arise as a natural development from an original happening, circumstance or source.
Purely from a standpoint of curiosity, I enrolled for an aerial yoga class. In the true spirit of yoga, I entered the room without expectation, and I exited the room with a new passion. But isn’t that the way we usually experience real growth – as a child, with genuine openness.
The room was flooded with bright natural light. Imagine buds of colorful flowers floating in a spring garden in the clouds. The buds were gentle, sensitive, flowing, unfolding pedals…soft to touch and to the eye.
At first, I sat inside the bud, bringing back countless memories of parks and playgrounds and my love for swings (also of my dad, his tender touch, pushing me to laughter in the air) – tearful emotions arose.
I absorbed deeper into the bud in Buddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose), the fabric melting around my entire being, floating without effort. I am surrounded by the color, comfort and confident in the strength of the silk, enclosed, not seeking the outside world. With simple movements, gentle swinging, changing into Dandasana (Staff Pose), folded in a series of buttery, warm folds.
With growth, comes new perspectives and new freedom. I move into Sarvangasana (Shoulder Stand), seeing the world, bottom up, in total peace and ease. The bud, like wings, is wrapped around me. I am suspended in both space and time, jealous of the life of a bat. This brings an awakening for the spine and bones – a lightness throughout the entire body.
Finally, Savasana, I am a cocoon, ready for the metamorphosis, caterpillar to butterfly. Relaxing in a cloud of color, without movement, barely breathing, I am transformed through openness, experience, growth.
Seeing myself in the mirror, the afterglow, smiling from a new place, like I was 7 years old again, yet joyous to be 57 years old, and still able to capture that brilliant light.
Thank you, Neila Starr of Launch Awareness Yoga Centre, Kennesaw, Georgia; you are a true teacher. Thank you, Jason, my husband, who is figuring out the structure and placement for my new aerial yoga equipment in our home. He is always making my dreams come true. St. John, soon come, I am looking at Aerial Yoga Teacher Training in Portland in September and will share this amazing passion with our island.
Eight Limb Yoga with Catherine
Eight Limbs Yoga
Are you ready for the whole yoga package?
Catherine’s new class, Eight Limbs Yoga, will take you beyond the poses through a fun and joyful introduction to the sutras, mantra, breath work and meditation. Classes begin with the sharing of a yoga wisdom – a sutra, yama or niyama. Five minutes of guided meditation and an hour of lineage asana (proven pose sequences) follow. Class ends with a mantra and an optional discussion of the teaching of the day.
We only need a clean, flat surface and willing bodies, minds and spirits to practice Eight Limbs. Though Zen-like in its minimalism, Eight Limbs classes are not austere. Instead, free of artificial distraction, your experience will be infused with joy, bliss, self-discovery and laughter. Not specifically targeted at the body, yoga’s happy byproduct can be weight loss, pain relief and long lasting fitness. The true aim of Eight Limbs Yoga is liberation for all beings through the practice of compassion and ultimately, your enlightenment.
The physical yoga practices are only the base of the mountain. Climb to the summit. The air is fine and the view is clear.
EIGHT LIMBS YOGA
with Catherine Turner
CYT 200, teaching since 2011, practicing since 1994
Blending Ashtanga Vinyasa, Jivamukti, Sivananda and other lineage sequencing
@ THE AG. CENTER IN CORAL BAY ON KINGS HILL RD. BETWEEN LOVE CITY MINI MARKET AND JOSEPHINE’S GREENS ON THE LEFT SIDE.
WEDNESDAYS – 7:30 TO 9 AM
THURSDAYS – 4 TO 5:15 PM
FRIDAYS – 9 TO 10:30 AM
$10 TO $15 SLIDING SCALE
Gentlemen’s Yoga
Gentlemen’s Yoga at the Ag.
Gentlemen’s Yoga began at the request of several Coral Bay men who wanted an approachable introduction to yoga designed for men’s needs. The class has steadily grown as the word spread that men attending the class are experiencing freedom from back pain, stress reduction and increased energy, flexibility and balance. If you are a man, and want to feel great, join Nancy at the Ag. Center on Mondays and Thursdays at 10:30 AM to experience the benefits for yourself.
Men of all ages are typically in greater need of specific kinds of flexibility training and a yoga practice to bring relief to areas including lower backs, shoulders, hamstrings and hips. This 75 minutes class of gentle Yoga and breathing techniques is designed for men of any age beginning or returning to Yoga and for those wanting a slower, gentler paced class.
Goals for the class include reducing discomfort and preventing injury. We will be focusing on stretching, building core strength and opening tight areas. The poses (or asanas) for stretching will focus on backs and legs. Building core will consists of abdominal poses, balancing and a touch of mat Pilates. Generally, opening tight areas for men brings into play asanas for shoulders, hips and other joints.
Overall strengthening will be a result of the entire yoga practice. We will use the human body weight as our tool to create a reasonably challenging class. In time, students will find increased energy, strengthen muscles and a new integrity to their core and back.
Come join Gentlemen’s Yoga for a mindfulness practice focusing on bringing everyday bodies of all sizes and shapes into simple poses to produce a healthier and more peaceful life.