Posts Tagged ‘Event’

The Butterfly Effect

October 25th, 2010 levis25

Did you know that the wings of a butterfly flapping in Bali have an effect on the Gulf Coast tornados in North America? This incredible cause-and-effect is the inspiration behind yoga teacher Twee Merrigan’s international Butterfly Effect Tour.

After the gulf coast oil spill, Merrigan wanted to raise money and awareness about the cause. With the help of other yogis and activists, she created the Butterfly Effect Tour, traveling around the world teaching dynamic vinyasa flow workshops — and donating the proceeds to clean up the gulf. The tour, which included stops in Bali, Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York, raised more than $3,000 for the gulf and other charities in just one month.

But Merrigan wants more than just an event that comes and goes. So she’s incorporating Butterfly Effect classes into her workshops and events around the world. Here, students have an open forum to talk about ways they can positively change the world, while raising money for local and global charities.

“It’s not just a response to a clean up or an earthquake or a tsunami,” says Merrigan, who has been living and teaching on the road for the past three years. “But it’s on-going awareness and action to continue the yoga in our ‘matless’ world.”

Her next stops include Bali and Sydney.

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Get Playful at the First-Ever Acroyoga Festival!

October 11th, 2010 kate

Remember that proverb about all work and no play?

Finding that balance between work and play, rest and activity, is one of the great challenges of modern life. But those limber acroyogis want to inject some play into your life with their AcroYoga Festival, which is coming to the Bay Area from October 8-11 at Historic Sweet’s Ballroom in Oakland, CA.

Billed as the first-ever AcroYoga Festival and the biggest in the world, the four-day festival will draw over 250 students, 40 AcroYoga teachers, and 10 master teachers from yoga, acrobatics and Thai massage.

There’s something for everyone, including different styles of acrobatics, yoga, and Thai massage for all levels. The first day is all-day intensives, and the rest of the weekend is dedicated to short workshops and events like Bollywood Carnival Jam, Ecstatic Dance, and a kirtan with Jai Uttal, MC Yogi, and the Mayapuris.

If you don’t catch the festival, you can head to its next destinations, including Spain, New York, Boston, Mexico and Costa Rica.

For more information, visit acroyogafestival.com.

We want to know:
How do you bring more playfulness into your life?

Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

Read the whole story on:http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/

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Divine Celebration

September 21st, 2010 wynona

bhakti.JPGBy Shannon Skillern

Bhakti, the Sanskrit word for devotion or connection to God, can be an intimidating concept even for experienced yoga practitioners–if not for its religious associations, for its scriptural context within the ancient mythology of the Bhagavad Gita. If its namesake event, Bhakti Fest, a four-day celebration of around-the-clock kirtan, yoga, and the healing arts in Joshua Tree, California last weekend was any indicator, Bhakti is experiencing a modern-day renaissance.

Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, Sean Johnson, and Dave Stringer were among the musical headliners while Saul David Raye, Seane Corn, Krishna Kaur, and Dana Flynn led back-to-back yoga classes in tents and halls across festival grounds. Ram Dass made a video appearance and workshop content ranged from Ayurveda to yoga psychology and the symbolism of Hindu and Tibetan deities.

The festival is certainly visionary in its mission to create a sacred space and vibrant community. The desert setting, a sort of surrealistic playground reminiscent of Burning Man, fostered a palpable air of magic as attendees of all ages from as far as Australia and Ukraine sang, danced, and constructed impromptu altars in celebration of the present moment.

Bhakti Fest also featured an impressive array of raw and vegan culinary offerings and a healing sanctuary that appealed to my newest of new age desires. I felt my former analytical constructions of Bhakti dissolve to the sound of a drumbeat after a transformative session of subtle-body healing, lecture on the Mayan calendar and an hour or so of ecstatic trance dance with the festival’s Ombassador Shiva Rea. As Radhanath Swami explained in a Sunday address, “Bhakti makes no sense to the intellect, but perfect sense to the heart.”

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Give Love! Join a Nationwide Yoga Aid Challenge

September 13th, 2010 wynona

The folks at the Australian-based YogaAid have dreamed up a large-scale nationwide yoga event on September 18th and 19th to coincide with National Yoga Month.

The two-hour yoga classes around the country will be taught by 12 local yoga teachers to benefit charity. While the biggest events are being held in Chicago, New York, Miami, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco, organizers say that more than 20 others will happen around the country.

Participating in a Yoga Aid Challenge is easy: Log on to www.yogaaid.com and click the red button for the United States Yoga Challenge. Here, you can register to create a profile page.Then people can visit your page and donate–all online.

The idea is that students raise money for charity in advance of the free class. (Many well-meaning charity events actually lose money, because the cost of putting on an event eats into the profits.) YogaAid’s model is funding the event so that all of the money raised goes directly to the chosen charities: Off the Mat, Into the World, Africa Yoga Project, 4OneWorld, and Yoga for Youth.

Beyond raising money, the organizers hope that the event will have a ripple effect, sparking the desire in each student to serve in their community.

Karma Yoga (the yoga of service) is one of yoga’s eight limbs. How do you find ways to serve in your family or community? Let us know.

And to get you in the giving mood, Yoga Aid and MC Yogi have paired up to create the tune, “Give Love.” Download the MP3 for free by going to yogaaid.com and clicking on the blue box at the bottom right hand corner.

Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

Read the whole story on:http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/

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Don’t Mess with Texas’ Yogis

August 25th, 2010 kate

cowboys.jpg
The Cowboys’ football stadium was over run with 400 yogis this weekend. Saluting the sun and lunging their hearts out to help raise money for breast cancer, these yogis raised more than $10,000 and showed the country what yoga can do. Don’t mess with yogis, y’all.

As Nerissa Knight reports from CBS 11:

While the Dallas Cowboys were preparing to meet the Chargers in San Diego on Saturday night, hundreds of women converged on Cowboys Stadium in Arlington to heal their bodies and minds, and they did it all for a great cause.

It was the largest yoga class in Texas. And tickets to the event raised more than $14,000 to help in the fight against breast cancer.



“It’s a great feeling to be here and help raise money,” said Dawn Dixon, who participated in the class. “I’m a survivor myself and I know what it feels like.

“While coach Wade Phillips leads the Cowboys, yoga instructor Wade Morisette (brother of recording artist Alanis Morisette) led a group of about 400 people, mostly women, in the house that Jerry built.

The football stadium was the perfect place for them to practice yoga and help others, thanks to the Dallas County and Greater Fort Worth affiliates of Susan G. Komen For the Cure and Indigo Yoga.


“I’m a breast cancer survivor and I feel great to be here,” said class participant Lisa Prescher. “I feel like it’s a personal accomplishment, and I’d like to share it with others.

“More and more women are using the ‘downward facing dog’ to take a bite out of breast cancer, and attain emotional and spiritual strength. “Breast cancer is really running through our population right now,” said yoga instructor Brooke Hinkle, who was at the Saturday class.

“Yoga is a very powerful practice. It will not only strengthen the immune system, but strengthen the whole body.”

“It was a great time and a great practice,” said class participant Melissa Sexton. “It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.” The group plans to hold a similar event on Sunday at the Fort Worth Zoo. Tickets are $35 each.

Read the whole story on:http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/

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