2012 NamasteWorks Free Yoga in the Park
Civic Green Park – Highlands Ranch – May 30-Aug. 18

Meet our newest instructor, Arianna Shannon

Arianna has been finding inspiration as a yoga student since 2004, and completed her 200 HR Integrative Yoga Therapy teacher training with Nancy Levenson at NamasteWorks Yoga + Wellness in 2011. She has a passion for yoga as a spiritual practice and as a direct channel for connecting with our divine mother earth.  Arianna will be supporting the lead instructors in the practice this year, getting her mat wet if you will,  before stepping out front in the future.  Please welcome her to our teaching staff.

Free Yoga in the Park opens its fourth season in Highlands Ranch on May 30.  Classes run every Wednesday and Saturday from 8:15-9:15 am, excluding June 19.  Click on our full schedule for all the details and we hope to see you out at Civic Green Park, located next to the Highlands Ranch Library for opening day.

Not the outdoor type – come join us indoors at NamasteWorks Yoga + Wellness, 5860 S. Curtice St., Littleton, CO 80120. We are not a walk-in studio, and offer private group classes, individual sessions and workshops for our clients. All classes require a RSVP. www.namasteworksyoga.com – A Place to Discover Yoga as a Healing Art.

by:  Nancy Levenson, 500 E-RYT, 1,000 PYT,  Professional Yoga Therapist

This week our clients leaned into themselves, developing a connection with Maitri, (Sanskrit: an unconditional friendship and love of oneself).  It’s easy to forget that self love and friendship is our starting point to exploring and expanding ourselves out into the world. It is through our own awareness of noticing and celebrating our positive self, qualities, skills, and way of being, that can embrace others with the same self love and unconditional friendship. Like carrying around two spheres, one inside ourselves and one outside ourselves, we learn how to find the center where the two spheres merge into one.

In our yoga therapy center, we work with clients to allow all of our desires, emotions and fears to unfold and open like the Lotus flower.  We delve deep inside the Manomaya Kosha, discovering lessons that we’ve learned and have yet to learn.  We develop a deep understanding of how our lessons become spiritual awakenings on our path to embracing our self and ultimately embracing a world with open arms and compassion. Can you sit with your own self in Maitri?  Take the time to explore this five minute meditation into self.

Maitri Meditation

Can you sit in the company of self?
Drop into your inner silence
Peel away the layers of your being
And see that gem that lies deep within

Can you meditate with self?
Open to your own heart, your own emotions
Touch the very essence of your soul
And step away from all that was, to be fully present now

Can you dive deep inside?
Explore the unconditional love of the one you sit with now
Accept compassion and friendship
And all of your experiences as they arise

Open yourself up to the bliss of self
What pierces your heart with love, fear, joy, sadness?
What is calling you from deep inside?
And how can you best serve you

Enter the crucible of Maitri
The unconditional friendship with oneself
Sit in silence, just allow, and just listen
You may discover a beautiful being has been with you all along

©NamasteWorks Yoga + Wellness, 5860 S. Curtice St., Littleton, CO 80120. We are not a walk-in studio, and offer private group classes, individual sessions and workshops for our clients. Also offering 200HR Integrative Yoga Therapy Teacher Training and Free Yoga in the Park – Highlands Ranch.  All classes require a RSVP. www.namasteworksyoga.com – A Place to Discover Yoga as a Healing Art.

by:  Nancy Levenson, 500 E-RYT, 1,000 PYT,  Professional Yoga Therapist

After five years of instructing yoga at Colorado’s largest retirement community, Wind Crest, I rolled up the last mat, tucked away the last chair, stacked the last block and shut the door.  I leave behind a joy filled journey and legacy of guiding seniors in their 70’s, 80’s and 90’s through chair yoga, floor yoga, movement classes, breathing exercises, meditation and private sessions.

At a time, when yoga teachers were training to deliver the next best intense practice, I was off studying geriatrics, the senior body, somatic movement, restorative yoga and deepening my immersion in servicing a community that had not been really considered viable for the yoga business. It’s a door I knocked on, a door that opened and a journey I will never forget.

The door that opened for me at Wind Crest went way beyond yoga; it was a life enriching experience, one filled with many stories, fond memories, lots of laughter, some sadness when we lost people we loved and always filled with new friends and personal growth.  Each week brought new challenges, new learning experiences and new opportunities for me to grow a market that had never considered yoga before and for me to personally grow.

Each time one door closes another door opens.  I closed this door to move forward and focus on my own therapeutic wellness center, NamasteWorks Yoga + Wellness, located in Old Town Littleton.   Even though I opened this door a year and a half ago, I felt a need to nourish this experience, to explore what lies ahead with more veracity, and to peer deeper and see if there is another door even beyond this one. Our journey in life takes us through a series of doors, we just need to ready when they open and acknowledge when the time has come and they need to close.

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.

Pull out those summer mats, or those beautiful bare feet; throw on some yoga gear, sweat pants, shorts or whatever suits you for the summer and come join us down at Civic Green Park for the start of the 2012 Free Yoga in the Park. Yes, it’s back and opening day is just a few weeks away, Wednesday May 30. Many of you spent the fall and winter indoors with us at NamasteWorks Yoga and we thank you and welcome you to join us outside again. Each practice will be held from 8:15-9:15 am every Wednesday and Saturday morning, with only a few exclusions – Download our 2012 schedule for full details

Eight instructors are back to guide you including Jenny, Sue, Jena, Barbara, Renee, Nancy and two new instructors, Troy and Arianna. We also have a special family day set aside, July 4th – all kids welcome on this day only. So, come meet us all on the mat – this is one summer event you do not want to miss. A great way to introduce new friends to yoga, integrate your body, mind and spirit and connect deeply with the Earth. Join us for opening day and bring all your friends!

Free Yoga in the Park is sponsored by NamasteWorks Yoga + Wellness and the Highlands Ranch Metro District.

NamasteWorks Yoga + Welness is a therapeutic wellness center located in downtown Littleton, offering private sessions, therapeutic sessions for disabilities, diseases and disorders, workshops, retreats, therapeutic teacher training,  and seven weekly evening classes of breath with movement and a beginner’s series for those just dipping their toes into yoga. We strive to support optimal wellness for all our clients on their journey to health or maintaining their well-being. We are truely a place to Discover Yoga As a Healing Art.

Download our 2012 schedule

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 client sent me this you tube video today which is a powerful testement to the practice of yoga as a healing art.  As a yoga therapist working one on one with clients, nothing is more rewarding than seeing a transformation like this.  My doors are open to anyone, in any condition seeking an opportunity to step on the path to reconnecting with their true self.

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.

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

There are three positive words that can help you anytime you are feeling disconnected, “Find Your Center.”  When you say or think these three words, you are immediately drawn back to your inner self, toward your own vibrant energy.  For centuries, Mandalas have been used to draw us back to center.  Mandala means circle or center and everything in life has a spiral or mandala inside, from the smallest atom to our own solar system.

Mandalas are designed bring us inner focus and peace, to help us slow down, release stress, tap into our innate healing power and inspire wisdom in our life.  Carl Jung asserted that Mandalas are a key to personal transformation – they represent an archetype of wholeness. 

Take a symbolic journey inside yourself and unlock your own center in our upcoming workshop series, Dancing Around the Mandala.   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, an 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.

The first step in caring for the body is to practice being it, having moment to moment awareness, awareness of the breath, sensations, feelings and thoughts.  Can you even remember the last time you stepped mindfully into your physical body? Each day we are given an opportunity to honor this temple through the simple practice of awareness. 

As you open your eyes in the morning, are you aware of what you first see or do you jump into action, or chose to close them again and retreat under the covers.  There is no right or wrong, just an opportunity to notice that each brings a different quality to the body and an opportunity for us to take our first morning sip of awareness.  Awareness is one of the most powerful tools we have for our optimal health.  Allow your morning awareness to permeate you the same way a warm shower awakens all the senses.  Step into your body and allow the inner experience to awaken and inform the outer experience.  When you find yourself hunched over, achy, crying in pain as you step forth into the day, have you identified, examined and contemplated what inner sensations, emotions, feelings, or thoughts have guided your body to respond in this manner?  This is the body’s way of giving you an opportunity to step into the present moment and gain a sense of where you are simply through body awareness.

Consider doing you own body scan each morning before you even rise.  Imagine a search light floating through you from the crown of the head to the tips of the toes.  Follow this scan consciously taking note of sensations or areas that feel especially open and spacious or those that might feel more closed and tight. When you begin to move the joints, do you notice they move with ease or are they rigid and almost immobile?  Or maybe a certain part of the body is calling out to you…..”Here I am, notice me.” 

Allow yourself to shift your morning mindset from areas of pain and resistance to those areas of comfort and pleasure. Hold onto these points and make them the focus of your awareness.  When you learn to listen to the messages of the body a shift occurs and you innately begin the healing process.    And who knows, you may find yourself waking up to a whole new body.

Consider enhancing your body awareness with a breath with movement practice utilizing mudras, pranayama, pranavayus and meditation.  Our therapeutic center’s mantra is – A Place to Discover Yoga as a Healing Art.

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 and private sessions require an RSVP. www.namasteworksyoga.com – A Place to Discover Yoga as a Healing Art.

In the opening scene of the Kite Runner, we witness two friends taking command of nature’s air as they fly their kites through the village, out into the open landscape and into a vast competition, where each participant has learned how to master the wind, allowing them to fly their kites in an amazing chorography and dance.  As two of the kites appear to collide, we gasp, hold our breath, blocking our own inner winds, only to witness the kite master’s precision in creating a shift and find the kite flying a new rhythm, a new current.

We too have the ability to ride the winds of our prana vayus.  Within the body, prana is divided into different forms each with its own function and location.  These different energy currents are called vayus, inner winds, or energy movement.  According to Ayurvedic philosophy there are ten vayus that perform ten functions, five major and five minor.  The five major prana vayus are Udana (circular movement of prana), Prana (upward movement of prana), Samana (horizontal movement of prana), Apana (downward movement of prana) and Vyana (all pervasive movement).  Each of us has these internal currents of energy that flow within us and when we feel out of control, tapping into the prana vayus and shifting our inner winds, can bring us back to optimal health.

In our therapeutic yoga, the prana vayus play an important role in assisting our client’s journey to a balanced state of body, mind and spirit.  Each vayu travels it own channel and is intimately linked with a system of our body, an element, and one or more chakras.  When a vayu is out of balance, that system of the body tends to also be imbalanced.  And, when imbalance occurs, we invite all sorts of disorders and dis-eases to emerge.  We can also rely on one vayu too much in our daily living which is the case with stress induced disorders.  When one vayu becomes prominent over all others, both hyper and hypo conditions of our physical body can occur.

At NamasteWorks Yoga + Wellness our approach is to help clients bring awareness to their vayus, find imbalances and then choose the appropriate Langhana and Brahmana tools, of pranayama, asana, meditation, and mudra to allow the client, just like the kite, to soar once again, unobstructed and untangled.  Interested in your own prana vayu assessment?  We would be happy to help you understand how to soar unobstructed.

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 and private sessions require a RSVP. www.namasteworksyoga.com – A Place to Discover Yoga as a Healing Art.

Have you stepped into that confusing phase in your life…..peri, pre, or post menopause?
Is your strategy just sweating the whole thing out?
Are you confused by all the messages you hear from friends, the media and your doctor? 

We invite you to take part in our wellness workshop this Saturday, Feb. 4 from 9:30 am-12:30 pm, Navigate the Natural Journey of Meno-Pause.  In this workshop you will be empowered through knowledge and awareness of body, mind and spirit, experience a yoga practice to cool your central nervous system, learn soothing breathing techniques and participate in creative expression.  Drawing from her background in Therapeutic Yoga, Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture and Menopause, Troy Krebs aims to offer you a morning filled with natural approaches to support you during this transition period.

We offer you a private setting to navigate the natural journey of meno-pause. This one-day only workshop is $39 and we still have a few spaces left.   Feel free to call us at 303.725.1434 to reserve a space or send a request via our contact page at www.namasteworksyoga.com. 

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 an RSVP. www.namasteworksyoga.com - A Place to Discover Yoga as a Healing Art.

Let’s start first with an exploration of this question.  Since yesterday, you’ve probably taken twenty thousand inhales and twenty thousand exhales.  How present were you to any of those breaths?  Did you notice the natural rhythm of your inhale and exhale and the rise or fall of the belly or chest?  Or, hone in on an awareness of one being longer or shorter than the other?  Perhaps you sensed the texture, the length of the breath, or how the breath moved about your own being?  Or maybe your awareness was focused on where the breath began its journey and where it ended inside you?  If not, maybe you want to take a moment now and just be with your own breath. What you will discover is that we all have our own innate breathing pattern, some good, some not so good.

In our therapeutic practice, we aim to help clients learn that there is NO one way to breathe in yoga.  But, there are ways to breathe optimally to enhance our overall health.  Each breath we draw upon infuses our inner being with a lush gift of prana and learning how to honor that gift in how and where we move the breath are all equally important.  In our Breath with Movement sessions, we guide our clients to move their physical body to their own innate breathing, not group movement, but individual movement.  When we allow our body to be guided by the breath, we step into a beautiful flow, a meditative movement that fuels and energies us as well as dispels the body of no longer needed toxins, stress, and dis-ease.

And the way we breathe changes from moment to moment, and practice to practice.  Our trained therapeutic instructors guide you to flow your movement to your breath to enhance all systems of your body.  Using the concept of Langhana or Brahmana breathing, tied to mudras that support,  and yoga movement that awakens,  you will discover that there is no one way to breathe in yoga, but a rainbow of strategies to maintain optimal health.

Private therapy for the respiratory system is also available and guided by Nancy Levenson, PYT-1000.  She will work with you to improve conditions of Asthma, COPD, Anxiety and other taxing disorders to the respiratory system.

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.