Special Therapeutic Workshop
One Day Only – Saturday, March 31, 2012 
9:00 am – 12:00 pm– $39

Mandalas are moments captured, mirrors to our path, a place to add color and form to our inner dance.

Experience a fusion of creativity, quiet self-exploration, relaxation and movement as we discover how a mandala provides insight, healing and form to our inner dance. Our pilgrimage will include an hour of drawing and interpretation of your personal mandala, a hour-plus yoga practice and a relaxing meditative Yoga Nidra to deepen your awareness of dancing around the mandala. 

We offer you a private setting to uncover the mandala in you. Led by Jenny Clark – 200HR PYT, Therapeutic Yoga Instructor and CMT. This one-day only workshop is $39.  All materials are  included and we encourage you to bring a snack. This program is limited to ten participants and an RSVP and pre-payment are required.  Send your request through our contact page and we will hold your space and send you the details. 

NamasteWorks Yoga + Wellness, 5860 S. Curtice St., Littleton, CO 80120.  We are not a walk-in studio, we operate as a private center for our clients.  All classes require a RSVP. www.namasteworksyoga.com - A Place to Discover Yoga as a Healing Art.

A hummingbird performs its aerial dance
Its vibrating wings sing and soothe me internally
Spellbound, I breathe in
Awakened to the present moment, I breathe out

Morning Gatha provided by NamasteWorks Yoga + Wellness

Enhancing Mood with Mudras, Movement and Meditation – One Day Only
June 11, 8:30-10:30 am, $19.

Explore your primal nature in this two hour blended yoga class. We will go on a journey through free form movement of the body blending yoga, somatics and ballet, finding and moving the breath with mudras and dropping into a deep meditative state with Yoga Nidra – all in an effort to enhance mood, release stress and find joy! Taught by Nancy Levenson of NamasteWorks Yoga + Wellness. 5860 S. Curtice Street, Littleton. RSVP required, no drops in, class limited to ten. To Register send an email via the contact form or call 303.725.1434.

 Nancy specializes in yoga therapy for depression and respiratory ailments.

One of my favorite scenes in City Slickers, starring Billy Crystal, is when he returns from his yahoo adventure and greets his wife at the airport. He holds up his index finger to his mouth and says, “Look what I found” as he exuberantly displays a wide smile. If you saw the movie, you know he had just had a mid-life birthday, felt trapped in his career and seemed unhappy in his life. He sets out on an adventure in search of a magic elixir to curb his depression and what he finds is a smile.

Imagine that –something as simple as a smile can change one’s emotions and reignite joy inside the body. Physiologically, a smile helps to increase endorphins, a brain chemical sent through the nervous system. These endorphins act as a barrier to stress and pain and increase a state of euphoria.

In my therapeutic practice, I have many clients who come to me no longer smiling. Whether its bodily pain, physical stress or emotional drains, the loss of a smile can have a tremendous impact on one’s health.

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Remember the last time you were up close, personal and intimate with the Earth? It may have been when you were a child. Daydreaming, starring up at the world and sky above you or lying on the belly taking a bugs-eye view of the world. Remember the sensations you felt? How the Earth seemed to cradle and nurture and in some ways heal and comfort whatever ailed you.

In Savasana, corpse pose, one lies mindfully on the Earth, tuning into quiet simplicity, inviting the feet to fall outward, the arms to rest by the side of the body, palms facing upward, and fully releasing one’s body into the pull of Earth’s gravity.

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By this time of year, many of us are missing the warmth and energy of the sun. This guided meditation is an invitation to bring the sun inside of you.

Allow an image of the sun to rise into your awareness. Give this sun whatever color feels pleasing to you. Sense its presence suspended just above your mat, just above you….warming the space all around you.

Invite the nurturing, glowing rays of the sun inside you now. Allow them to brighten your every thought. Soothe your inner breath. Soften and warm every muscle, joint and bone…allowing every part of you to be bathed in a soothing radiance.

As you breathe in, breathe in the essence of the sun……And as you breathe out, bathe internally in this loving energy.

Feel as if you are carrying the sun deep inside your heart now. With every out-breath, warmth spreads throughout your body…pulsating, through every organ, tissue and limb. Spend some time just experiencing this sensation…allowing the heat to radiate from inside you.

As you breathe in, breathe in the essence of the sun……And as you breathe out, bathe internally in this loving energy.

Connect with your own inner sun now, this pure light within you. Imagine sending light tendrils out from your heart, to someone near you, in this space, at this time. Send this person loving-kindness and loving energy, so that they too, bathe in the glow of the sun.

As you breathe in, breathe in the essence of the sun……And as you breathe out, bathe internally in this loving energy.

Now bask in the silence of your own internal sun. (Pause)

Slowly let go of the image of the sun now. But, know that it is there to light your way any time you chose.

Draw on the sun’s power to awaken you. Feel the vital life force emanating throughout you. Slowly begin to wiggle your fingers and toes. Do whatever you need to become twice as awake and, when you are ready, bring yourself back to the present moment.

Close the meditation with the following Sankalpa:  I invite the image of the sun to lift my spirit, soothe my heart and liberate my mind– Namaste

©NamasteWorks Yoga + Wellness, LLC, http://www.namasteworksyoga.com, by: Nancy Levenson

A hand mudra is simply a gesture, symbol or seal used to circulate energy, activate an influence in a certain area of the body and help us to connect with our overall physical well-being.

Merudanda Mudra is an excellent mudra series that will enhance the awareness experience as the breath is directed to various parts of the body. As you guide your clients through this mudra sequence, invite them to notice the quality and characteristics of the breath. Encourage them to find the starting point of the breath; that place inside where they feel the breath originate in the body. As you move through the sequence encourage them to continually notice if the breath has arrived in a new place.

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Imagine yourself standing on the Earth’s surface. In this image you view yourself from out in space, looking back upon the Earth. There is nothing but you and the Earth. You are on a lush emerald green lawn and the sky is a soft powder blue. It’s a crystal clear day without a cloud in the sky, allowing you to see, unobstructed, into the vastness.

You are standing barefoot with wide toes and you invite the cool grass to move between each toe, like chilled noodles working their way down your throat on a hot summers’ day. You are completely relaxed, tranquil and at peace.

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The purpose of this meditation is to free the joints and send yourself kind messages about your body.

Relax the body in a position that is comfortable for you. Feel the body just as it is now. Give yourself the gift of release, create no effort, force nothing and let the body just go.

Focus on the breath, make no changes to the breath just allow the body to breathe itself. Bring the breath and the body together moment by moment by following the breath with the minds’ eye. Feel your whole body breathing, the whole body alive. Give your mind permission to stay open and awake.

Imagine that you are walking through a beautiful estate garden. You see a path ahead and begin your journey. The path is covered with moss and you are barefoot. Squeeze the toes and imagine that you can feel the softness and coolness of the moss underfoot. Then release the toes and continue to walk down the path. With each step that you take, you open and close the toes and feel the moss rise up between the toes cooling them. Your knees and hips glide effortless as you softly walk making your way further down the path.

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One of the challenges we face as we age is our ability to control and maintain our body’s position as it moves through space. Our ankles or knees may have weakened or our sedentary lifestyles may have caused us to lose touch with our feet and legs.

Utilizing a yoga labyrinth is a great tool for both senior yoga clients and the instructor. Guiding clients in walking meditation through a yoga labyrinth will bring awareness of their balance, body, and breath. With this early assessment, both the client and the instructor have a baseline to work from in improving balance and movement. By bringing the yoga labyrinth back into the classroom often, clients can check in frequently with their progress.

So how do you bring a yoga labyrinth into the senior yoga classroom?

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