July 2010 Newsletter

Happy Birthday Yoga Eight!

It’s been one year since Yoga Eight first opened its doors. Our first scheduled class was on Monday July 6th of 2009. It’s been an exciting year, and this next year for Yoga Eight continues to look bright.

Temporary Class Cancellations

The following classes are cancelled:

July 9th Friday 8:45am & 12:00pm

July 12th Monday 8:45am & 12:00pm

July 13th Tuesday 12:00pm

as well the 8:45am & 12:00am Monday, Wednesday and Friday classes between July 26th and August 6th.

We apologize for any inconvenience. For those who have unlimited memberships and come to the morning classes, we will be extending the duration of the memberships to compensate for the class cancellations.

In addition to these class cancellations, I am planning to take a workshop on the first weekend of August, so please refer to the website schedule in August to ensure that the class you are going to is being held that week.

Summer Membership Special

There is still another week to take advantage of the two month Summer Membership Special. Two months of yoga for $180 ($150 for those qualifying for a discount). This summer membershi is available until July 15th.

Weekend Only Special

Out of town for the week or just to busy to come to class during the weekdays? We are offering a limited number of weekend only specials for people just like this. For $30 a month come to unlimited weekend classes, but remember there are only a limited number of these specials available.

Intro to Yoga Workshop

The next Intro to Yoga Workshop is this Saturday, July 10th from 1:00pm-2:30pm. This workshop is open to all students, even if you have taken a class (or 10) already. It’s a chance to break things down and move through the practice a little slower getting back to the fundamentals. The next Intro Workshop will be August 14th 2010. The workshop is free, and no prior registration is required, just stop on by at 1:00pm.

Sanskrit Term of the Month

Sandhi

Sandhi is the Sanskrit term for joining. Sandhi isn’t a really a philosophical term, but rather a grammatical one. For years I knew individual Sanskrit terms, for this example paschima (western) and uttana (intense) which would combine in yoga pose names such as paschimottanasana (western intense pose(this is our basic forward fold)). But if you notice the a+u=o. I knew that this was occurring in yoga pose names, but never really knew why. As some of you know, I am studying sanskrit this summer (hence the some morning class cancellations), and have learned that there is a process behind the vowel combinations. This is sandhi. Sandhi is present in all languages, but is only written in Sanskrit. In English, when you say gimme (give + me) you are performing a sort of sandhi. Since Sanskrit has historically been a spoken language, the sandhi performed during speech was transferred to paper when written. Hence, when two words are spoken one after the other, the ending and beginning sounds are joined together. Try saying paschima and uttanasana quickly together, and you will start to hear the sounds merge together to form paschimottanasana.

Closing Thoughts

I would like to thank Becca, our sub teacher for covering the majority of the 8:45am and noon classes that I am unable to teach. I am excited by the opportunity to study sanskrit, so I can continue to learn about the roots of yoga and be able to bring a little more of the history and culture behind yoga to you.