Imagine practicing yoga surrounded by the delicate beauty of spring—wildflowers nodding gently in the breeze, the scent of fresh herbs and tea leaves in the air. This is the magic of the Tea House, where nature and mindfulness intertwine to create a space for deep connection. We invite you to embrace the season’s rising energy in our April yoga series.
Meditation is not a linear journey. It’s not about achieving a specific state or reaching a final destination. Instead, it’s a variable practice that shifts and evolves. This fluidity makes meditation an opportunity for exploration rather than a pursuit of perfection. It invites us to let go of binary perspectives such as good or bad, right or wrong, failure or success.
Do you feel like meditation just isn’t for you? You’re not alone. Meditation is often seen as a gateway to calm, clarity, and balance. But the truth is, sitting in silence can feel anything but peaceful. It’s important to understand that meditation isn’t about achieving peacefulness. It’s about learning to focus on a single thought, noticing distractions, and gently guiding your attention back.
As the calendar turns and the new year approaches, it’s easy to get swept up in the tide of resolutions and the pressure to “start fresh.” We draft lists of goals and set rigid expectations, believing that January 1st marks the start of a perfect, linear path toward self-improvement. But what if we approached the new year differently? What if, instead of rigid resolutions, we embraced curiosity, intention, and a willingness to ease into this next chapter with grace?
The sacrum, often overlooked, plays a vital role in both spinal health and overall movement. It's not just a single bone but a fusion of five vertebrae that occurs as we age, usually completing the process in our 20s. Despite this fusion, the sacrum is part of a dynamic system that requires awareness and movement to stay healthy.
The news lately has been filled with tragic stories describing marginalized groups facing himsa (violence or harm). When we see injustice we might be compelled to react. However, when we react rather than respond, we might not act with ahimsa, non-harm in thought, word and deed towards all. Joan Halifax, PhD from Upaya Zen Center suggests we have G.R.A.C.E. Roshi Joan created this model for bringing compassion into interactions with others.
We need tools to reduce the intense negative emotions and return to a state of calm to promote clarity of what is true. What’s an easy tool to use? Slow Breathing with an Extended Exhale. For the month of June, you can practice slow extended exhalation using this Guided Extended Exhalation in our video library for free
Technology is changing our lives. We have the world at our fingertips. But the tool that helps keep us connected has a profound effect on our spine. Maybe you have images of humans evolving to slouch over a computer or perhaps you notice that you are looking down more often. Our beloved technology is affecting how we hold our neck and in response our spine health. The new norm of checking phones and tablets promotes us to spend more time with our shoulders hunched, neck flexed, head forward and chest withdrawn, a position that is sometimes called tech neck.
May is mental health awareness month. It is a time to actively engage in conversations about our struggles and triumphs related to mental health. According to NAMI, the national movement has sought to raise awareness about mental health, fight stigma, provide support, educate the public and advocate for policies that support people with mental illness and their families.
There is some evidence that yoga may be helpful in reducing depressive symptoms. But yoga is not a cure. Yoga offers tools that supports your mental health because it promotes a lifestyle aligned to the four major dimensions of recovery.
As I was putting away mats and chairs after Jacob’s Optimizing Your Movement Workshop, I noticed a new sensation in my left hip. The awareness of new muscle fatigue made me laugh. During the workshop we spent focused time experiencing slow body movements connected to how the spine moves. This awakened stabilizing muscles of my hips and brought more awareness of how I avoid specific positions of my hips.
As humans, we interact with the world through our senses. The information we “sense” cues us about the external environment. Thus, we communicate with our environment. We can communicate with plants with all our senses to experience a plant meditation. Any gardener or lover of the outdoors will agree that nature communicates to us through the senses, can have a calming impact on the body, mind, and heart, and allows us to enter into a state of simple presence. We can understand this as a yogic experience.
Yoga is a practice. You might be practicing your balance, flexibility, strength or perhaps it is mindfulness. Yoga is not a single practice. The more you practice yoga, the more you recognize the universality in life.
Harmonizing your mind, implies that you learn how you think. You explore how you interact with the world and yourself and how those interactions shape your emotions. In yoga terms, you cultivate Yama. Yama is narrowly translated as ethical guidelines or restraints. In reality, they are a set of universal practices that are fundamental habits of the mind. The 5 principles are a means to be aware of the instinctive patterns of the mind and to move them towards compassion.
Whether we know it or not, we interact with plants on a daily basis. From the food that we eat, to the air that we breathe, to the beautiful blooms along the road, plants permeate our lives and, if we are open to it, our hearts. We can work with plants to cultivate a connection with the natural world and improve our overall wellness in body, mind, heart, and spirit. In this class series, we will bridge the connection between yoga and herbal medicine, two healing modalities rooted in ancient wisdom.
The Feldenkrais Method is a system that uses a series of movements to guide the practitioner to use body sensation and perceptual feedback. In this method one gains a better awareness between comfort (favorable or easy) and unfavorable (painful or straining) positions. This focused practice teaches how movement patterns develop and how to retrain your movement patterns to avoid discomfort.
Dogwood Studios is excited to be able to offer a Feldenkrais Workshop April 30th with Guest Teacher Jacob Tyson (PT, DPT). The workshop will teach you about the method and how it can help you Optimize Your Yoga Practice.
Dogwood Studios is excited to announce that we are moving into our new home! We are joining the wonderful yoga collaborative at Yoga Shala to offer Dogwood’s Mindful Movement and Yoga classes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 10am to 11:15am. Fridays we will also offer our hybrid Meditation Class at 11:30am to 12:30pm.
