As a yoga teacher and writer, I enjoy reading yoga blogs and web sites. The Daily Cup of Yoga is one of my favorite yoga web sites to visit. The Daily Cup of Yoga includes tips, tools, wisdom on yoga, books,and technology. The site has several posts about yoga apps you can use with your smartphone. I love how Brian, the founder of The Daily Cup of Yoga, keeps the book section updated with great resources. Like him, I am a yoga book lover! Click here to visit the site.
One of the things I love to do is watch yoga-inspired films. This year, I fell in love with filmmaker Suzanne Bryant’s YOGA IS documentary. It tells the story of her yoga adventures in India and the power of the practice in her life. The film begins with Bryant sharing how she thought she had it all until her mother died of cancer. As she grieved her mother’s transition, she turned to yoga as a healing tool and was led to India to study Ayurveda and yoga with Indian teachers. Upon her return to the United States, she began to explore what yoga means to people in the West. She used YOGA IS to document her findings. Click here to learn more about Bryant and her amazing journey and film.
In honor of National Women’s Health Week (May 12-18), I am celebrating the many contributions women yoga teachers make to women’s health and wellness. Sariane Leigh, a Washington, D.C.-based yoga teacher, health activist, blogger, writer, and wellness instructor uses her Anacostia Yogi web site, blog, podcasts, classes, and workshops to promote health awareness and yoga for women and individuals recovering from trauma-related experiences such as HIV/AIDS diagnosis, conflicts, natural disasters, poverty, and institutional racism. Leigh’s healing approach marries Hatha and Kemetic yoga principles to the psycho-social healing tradition from African-American women’s spirituality.
During an afternoon tea meetup at Teaism in February, my digital sister and fellow yoga teacher Julia Coney, founder of AllAboutThePretty.net, suggested I read The Way of the Happy Woman: Living the Best Year of Your Life by Sara Avant Stover. I am so glad Julia made the recommendation because Stover’s book, e-newsletters, and web site have become a lifeline for me as I deepen my yoga practice and commitment to greater health. The Way of the Happy Woman offers easy and natural self-care practices including yoga and meditation that help women minimize their stress, become aligned with their natural cycles, and honor the four seasons of spring, summer, fall and winter. I adore and have incorporated the yin and yang yoga practices for the spring season. They have helped me nurture my spirit, heart, mind, and body with greater care. Click here to learn more about Stover and her amazing work.
What books do you use to deepen your yoga practice?
Happy February! Happy Black History Month! Happy Heart Health Month! Happy Love Day/Month! Happy #YogaMonday!
It’s a lot of happy going on today! Why? I am very excited about sharing reflections and resources that celebrate my yoga passion, practice, and services as a yoga teacher on Mondays. This month, I’m sharing yoga reflections and resources that promote an open and healthy heart on my blog and social media platforms (search #YogaMonday on Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter for my yoga goodies).
Do you practice yoga?
What are your favorite poses?
How does yoga make you feel?
What kind of music do you like to listen to while practicing yoga?
Love Is Space by Deva Premal
One of the things I love to doin my personal yoga practice and in my sessions with clients is chant mantras. Mantras are words or phrases that create energy-based sounds when they are repeated over and over again during meditation and yoga. Devi Premal has a beautiful collection of mantras I use to open my heart. Her Love Is Space DVD is one of my favorites.
I fell in love with her rendition of Om Mani Padme Hum which means “Hail, the jewel in the lotus.” Click here to listen to it. I use the mantra to open my heart to the practice of compassion. I love to chant it before I do several rounds of cat and cow yoga poses (great heart openers). Yoga Journal has some great instructions on how to do the poses: cat pose and cow pose. Many of my clients enjoy using the online resources too.
Here are some of heart-related quotes I am using this month as reminders to keep an open heart and practice compassion as I move through my life.
“Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.” Oprah Winfrey
“A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love.” Mother Teresa
“Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.” Braveheart
“Follow your heart, but be quiet for a while first. Ask questions, then feel the answer. Learn to trust your heart.” Author Unknown
Click here to read Renita Weems’ post with 21 quotes to open your heart on BeliefNet.
Mudras is one of my favorite yoga books
Did you know you could practice yoga with your hands? This kind of yoga is called mudras. They are hand gestures and seals that can help improve flexibility and coordination in your fingers and hands. When you use them with breathing exercises, they can stimulate an opening to your lungs and heart and open your joints and relieve tension in your head, neck, and shoulders. They can also help cultivate a specific state of mind during your yoga and meditation practice. I use them in my yoga practice and sessions with clients. The lotus mudra is one I use to open my heart.
Ananda practicing the lotus mudra
Click here to watch my video on the lotus mudra. For more information, check out Yoga Journal’s article on mudras. Enjoy!
OM #YogaMonday OM!
PS: If you would like to read about my yoga journey, check out my memoir That Which Awakens Me on Amazon.com. It is available on Kindle
My debut novel Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One features a main character who works as a yoga teacher in Washington, D.C. Click here to visit the Love’s Troubadours’ Pinterest board which contains some great information about the novel. You can purchase it on Amazon.com.
Join me and my Kind and Gentle Yoga Meet Up Group for Sunday morning yoga from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m on June 24, July 29, August 26, September 9, October 14, and November 4 in Malcolm X/Meridian Hill Park located at 16th Street and Florida Avenue, NW Streets in Washington, DC. The U Street Metro on the Green Line is the closest subway stop. To stay updated on the class schedule, please click here to join the Meet Up Group (free to join). You can also find information about the classes on BarackObama.com’s event listiings.
The yoga class will take place by the reflecting pool (with ducks and flowers) and waterfall located near the Malcolm X/Meridian Hill Park entrance at 16th Street and Florida Avenue (at the bottom of the hill).
Photo Credit: BarackObama.com
The yoga class is offered free of charge with an invitation for class members to make a donation to President Barack H. Obama’s successful 2012 re-election campaign online through the donation button on BarackObama.com: https://contribute.barackobama.com/donation/index.html. You can also make a donation offline by giving me your donation before or after the class. I will submit all yoga class donations online as a part of my OBAMA 2012 campaign fundraising efforts.
It’s been a few weeks since I last posted. Why? Digital Sisterhood Month! 31 days of celebrating women online and the connections they make, conversations they have, communities they build, causes they support, collaborative partnerships they establish, and commerce they engage in with women they meet online and offline. Visit the Digital Sisterhood Network web site to learn more.
This month my heart belongs to Haiti because I want to honor the resiliency of the Haitian people who experienced a devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010. Last year I taught an online yoga class for Yoga Day USA that was dedicated to the people of Haiti. At the beginning of the class, I asked viewers to donate money to Doctors Without Borders to support their work in Haiti. Click here to watch the video.
This year I am serving as an ambassador for the Heart of Haiti campaign, a Macy’s partnership that was created to provide sustainable income to Haitian artisans impacted by the January earthquake. Read my November 29th post to learn more. Also, listen to the following December episodes of Digital Sisterhood Radio that mention my work with the Heart of Haiti campaign:
December 20th show featuring ‘Digital Native’ Lauren Thomas, founder of Digital Aftershock: I discussed how I met Lauren Thomas, former Digital Coordinator of Everywhere, at the Heart of Haiti booth during Blogalicious 2010 and had a powerful conversation that convinced me to sign up for the campaign. I also shared how I interviewed Lauren about the Heart of Haiti campaign with my cell phone for my Cinchcast audio blog at Blogalicious.
Water Carriers by Dr. Lois Mailou Jones, Haiti 1985 - acrylic, 25 ¼ x 19 ¾ in.
I almost forgot to mention that I organized a Digital Sisterhood Month field trip for DC area women in social media to visit the National Museum of Women in the Arts on December 3 to see the “Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color” exhibit. During her lifetime, Dr. Jones (born November 3, 1905 – died June 9, 1998), a Howard University art professor (one of my favorite artists), created a body of artwork that was inspired by Haiti and her marriage to Haitian artist Louis Vergniaud Pierre-Noel. One of my greatest treats was showing the women who attended the museum field trip some of my favorite Haitian-inspired paintings created by Dr. Jones. Check out the amazing “Water Carriers” painting on the left side of the blog post.
What do you think?
I LOVE IT and HAITI!
Drop by my blog this week and next week for more posts about my passion for Haiti and work with the Heart of Haiti campaign!
September 11th was a pretty special day for me this year. I spent the entire day at a wellness workshop sponsored by Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts at Allen AME Church in Washington, DC. During the workshop, I taught a short kind and gentle yoga class for African American DC residents. I also had a chance to connect with Howard University Hospital’s Cancer Center representative. We had a great time talking about the work of Smith Farm artists-in-residence at Howard University Hospital. By the way, I worked as artist-in-residence at Howard Hospital from 2003 to 2009. Great times! Click here to see more photos from my adventures at the wellness workshop.
National Yoga Month 2010 has been a blast. I taught a kind and gentle yoga class series on September 11, 18, and 25 at Allen AME Church in Washington, DC. The yoga classes were a part of the Healthy U Program for African American DC residents. Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts sponsored the event with Allen AME Church and Union Temple Church. Click here to see more photos from the Healthy U Program.
By the way, I also work as a Smith Farm artist-in-residence at the National Navy Medical Center in Maryland. Visit www.smithfarm.com.
Ananda Leeke 