February 2010 Newsletter

I hope that everyone’s New Year has started as well as ours has! We are starting to line up a whole variety of workshops in the upcoming months. The one I am particularly excited about is getting the opportunity to invite my first yoga teacher, Kelly Jean Moore, to come an present her chakra workshop in late May. Stay tuned for more details.

Beginner 8-class Package – $48

Just starting your yoga practice? This is the special for you! For $48 you can take 8 beginner classes within an eight week period. Hurry though, this is a limited time special, and will disappear at the end of the month (2/28/2010).

Unlimited Morning Class Membership – $60/month

I’ve always found that for me, morning is the best time to practice yoga. To help encourage starting (or maintaining) a morning practice, Yoga Eight is offering a limited number of Morning-only memberships for $60/month. These memberships are for as many 7:00am classes that you can fit in your schedule during a month. You can sign-up for one online or visit us at the studio.

Six months of yoga for recently discharged veterans

When I was transitioning back to civilian life, I found the change both exhilarating (freedom from a defined schedule) and scary (no defined schedule). In these economic times, the transition is most likely a little rougher than usual. As a way to say thank you and offer a way handle stress during the transition back to civilian life, Yoga Eight is offering recently discharged veterans 6 months of free yoga. If you know anyone who could take advantage of this, please let them know and point them our way.

Unpredictable schedule changes

2010 is the year for new beginnings at Yoga Eight. As many of you already know, Akemi is pregnant and due March 18th. What this means is that there maybe some last minute substitutes/cancellations when things start to roll in March. I will keep the website information up to date, as well as the voice message on the phone, with any pertinent information.

Newsletter only special offer

In the spirit of valentines day, give someone special in your life the gift of yoga. From February 8th – February 14th get 30% off a 5 or 10 class card purchased for someone new to Yoga Eight.

Yoga term of the month

Back when I was doing my apprenticeship at It’s Yoga in San Francisco, I thought it would be fun to carve an OM (the symbol pictured here) out of a pumpkin. One of the women in my teacher training asked me what the symbol was, and I was a little surprised that she didn’t know. OM is the symbol of what is thought to be the primordial syllable of the universe. The symbol and syllable OM is sacred within Hinduism, but the usage of both the marking and sound extend beyond India. OM (also pronounce AUM), Amen from Christianity and Amin from Islam are thought to have derived from the same source.

I enjoy exploring the subtleties of the sound, breaking it into three parts: A (like Ahh), U (oo like in food), and M. The A part resonates in the chest, where the sound is created, the U part resonates in the throat where the sound is preserved, and the M part resonates on the lips, where the sound is destroyed. Thus the three parts represent the cycle of life, from birth to death.

I hope everyone enjoys a good February, and lets hope that the groundhog was right and that spring is right around the corner.

Namaste