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Thursday, August 14, 2008

better health through yoga

while going through the messages in my e-mailbag, i found a notice from yoga groove studio about their upcoming yoga workshop for those dealing with cancer. since the yoga month 09.2008 festivities start this month in denver, what better time to highlight it as well as other upcoming health-focused workshops?

most of them are scheduled for this weekend, so if they're of interest to you, sign up now!

Moving Through Cancer Workshop
Yoga Groove Studio, North Hollywood
Sunday, Aug 17th, 2:00-4:00pm
Cost: $20 suggested donation


Join Jen Bloom for a very special healing workshop.
Believe it or not, come ready to laugh and find some bravery! This is a special 2 hour therapeutic yoga workshop for cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and health professionals. All levels of health and physical experience are welcome. In a safe, supportive and light-hearted atmosphere, we will explore yoga as perfect complimentary care to Western medicine.
Yoga is a holistic practice, exercising the body, breath, heart, and mind. Students learn strength, stamina, and flexibility of both their physical bodies and their souls. Anyone who has seen or experienced a chapter of cancer in her life knows it's a story that tests every facet of being. Yoga empowers the individual, allowing her to take action in her own healing process.
All levels yoga welcome, all levels health welcome.
Bring a yoga mat if you have one, water, and a journal and/or writing materials. Bring a friend or come alone.


Yoga for Scoliosis: Part 1
Yoga Works Center for Yoga, Los Angeles
August 15th-17th - Friday, 7:30-9:30pm, Sat and Sun, 1:30-5:30pm
Friday: $60, Sat or Sun: $90, Full Weekend: $225


Elise Miller is one of the nation's experts on Yoga & Scoliosis.
Elise presents her internationally acclaimed workshop on working with scoliosis. This workshop is designed to present information and experience in the ways Iyengar Yoga can be used to meet the challenges of scoliosis. We will include anatomical background on scoliosis, identify each participant's scoliosis, and discuss cause and effect as well as psychological consequences of scoliosis. Participants will learn optimal yoga postures for scoliosis as well as how to adapt specific yoga postures to their scoliosis. By combining the yoga postures with breathing
awareness, one can develop more structural alignment of the body and become more symmetrical and balanced. Through yoga, one can find the balance point that allows the scoliosis curve to coexist with gravity and activates the body's natural line.


The Wise Woman
Goda Yoga, Culver City
Saturday, August 16th 2:00-4:00pm
Cost: $40


Yoga's transformative power meets MENOPAUSE with Yoga Therapist, Felice Rhiannon. Find joy and liberation in a hot flash...Explore the rich and varied practices yoga provides to meet the challenges of menopause and create the sacred space for growth, transformation and joy.


Heal Your Back Within Your Yoga Practice with Sherry Brourman
Exhale Center for Sacred Movement, Venice
Saturday, Sept 27th 12:30-3:45pm
Cost: $40


When back pain occurs: Should you practice or would rest be more helpful. Which postures are healing, and which are troublesome? Is fear a factor and if so, how do you unravel that? Are there times when 'working through pain' is appropriate? How do you learn to feel the variance in your own 'edges', so that you know when to respectfully back away, modify a posture, or rest it out? How long should a back injury take to heal? What other movements or even yoga postures in your daily life, are 'unwittingly' contributing to your back pain? And lastly, can you actually feel, when your spine is being fully supported by your abdominal muscles, as you move through your asana practice?
This class is designed to answer all of the above questions, while also helping you to understand, feel and process all of the contributing factors. Our bodies are brilliant messaging systems, with all of our parts and layers, connected such that, there are no secrets. This means that a hip opposite to the side of a sore low back may be the cause, as we shift to accommodate. In this workshop you will learn how the messages are transported, so that you can apply them to your yoga practice and use them for your healing.


besides the special workshops listed above, many local yoga studios offer ongoing classes for those living with health issues. here are some of them:

Yoga Therapeutics with Lois Salcer
Lyfe Yoga Center, Hermosa Beach
Mondays, 8:45-10:00am


Taught by a Certified Yoga Therapist, this class applies simple yoga postures (asana), proper breathing techniques and meditation to help relieve symptoms associated with diabetes, asthma, digestive disorders, cardiovascular disease, stress or ailments relating to the muscular skeletal system. The class is designed for those who may not be able to participate in a regular yoga class, but wish to receive all the healing benefits of a yoga practice.

Beginners, Seniors, Special Needs with Amina Ann Rosen
Yoga at the Village, Glendale
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays 10:30-11:45am


Experience breath and movement as a personal work in progress toward health and well being. Excellent for beginners, seniors, those with chronic aches & pains, life threatening illness survivors, long and short term illnesses and conditions. You will learn modified poses that are safe & comfortable along with proper tension releasing breathing techniques.

Gentle Yoga with Therapeutics with Leslie Kazadi
Truyoga, Santa Monica
Mondays and Wednesdays 10:45am-12:15pm


This class is designed for students who want to move at a slower pace or who are returning from an injury. By honoring whatever limitations are present, students are guided to work intelligently with the therapeutic principles of symmetry and alignment to create a sense of freedom and stability in the body and cultivate an awareness of peace and joy in the heart.

Therapeutic Yoga with Bonnie Knight
Yoga World Studio, Long Beach
Mondays, 12:15-1:30pm


Therapeutic yoga is a carefully designed combination of gentle yoga, awareness exercises, restorative yoga poses, and breath work. These elements are integrated into a class that is suitable for people who are beginning to study yoga, recovering from an injury, who are working with a sustained spinal dysfunction, or anyone who feels they are just too tight to stretch.

11th Step
Yoga Groove Studio, North Hollywood
Tuesdays, 8:00-9:30pm


This special class is a yoga class and an AA meeting for those in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Donation only.

Yoga for HIV/AIDS with Jill Zepezauer
Yoga House, Pasadena
Wednesdays, 2:00-3:15pm


Adapted poses, gentle movement, meditation and breathing combine to support the immune system. (Free to those living with HIV/AIDS)

Therapeutic Yoga with Juli Loupe
TriYoga Center, Malibu
Wednesdays, 6:00pm


A safe, gentle practice for those with physical challenges

12-Step Yoga with Guru Darshan Singh
The Awareness Center, Pasadena
Thursdays, 9:00-10:30am


The word Yoga means Union: Union between you and your higher power; union between the finite and the infinite. This union serves as a backbone for a strong recovery. Whatever your addiction, this class will serve to help you through the technology of Kundalini Yoga and meditation. Led by Guru Darshan, this class includes readings from recovery literature, inspirational poetry, and meditations specifically for breaking addiction. This class is ninety-minutes long, and is open to all students, whether in a 12-step program or not.

Feldenkrais with Donna Eschelman
Dancing Shiva Yoga and Ayurveda, Los Angeles
Thursdays, 11:00am-12:00pm


This neuromuscular class for yoga students and teachers draws from the Feldenkrais and Bonefor Life methods to get better results faster, move more gracefully, and alleviate pain. You will be guided through a series of very small movements to teach the brain and the nervous system how to move in a more efficient way, and the results are immediately noticeable. Emphasis will be placed on how to integrate this work into your regular yoga practice.

Yoga for Challenging Conditions with Tatiana Urquiza
Yoga House, Pasadena
Thursdays, 11:00am-12:30pm


With a emphasis on adaptation, this class is designed to meet the special needs of those living with Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Fatigue, Cancer and other challenging conditions.

Yoga for Chronic Conditions
Mission Street Yoga, South Pasadena
Fridays, 10:30am-noon


Community Rate class

Yoga for Cancer Patients with Elizabeth St. Clair
Santa Monica Yoga, Santa Monica
Fridays, 2:20-3:20pm


Elizabeth St. Clair has taught traditional kundalini yoga at Santa Monica Yoga since 1996. Her classes are joyous – they empower the body, mind and spirit through asana, pranayama and meditation. She is a certified Relax and Renew Trainer and has trained in Yoga ASSIST for cancer patients at LMU where she is pursuing certification in yoga philosophy. Elizabeth is also deeply involved in using yoga to benefit those with Alzheimer’s and brain injuries.
This class is FREE to all.

Therapeutics with Hillary Rubin
City Yoga, West Hollywood
Fridays 6:00-7:30pm


End your week in Hillary's Therapeutics class at City Yoga. Turn your diagnosis, chronic pain or injury in a safe and healing environment. Taking time to pay attention to alignment with breath enlivens the body and helps heal from within. No matter your injury or state of fitness this class is for all levels. Bring your pain and get ready to embrace it and see this as a platform for wellness. You will learn poses you can do at home and exercises to continue and get out of pain to achieve wellness.

Yoga Therapeutics with Laura Vasquez
Inner Harmony Yoga, San Pedro
Saturdays, 11:00am-12:30pm


Bridging the gap between the physical and the mental: the messages passed continuously between our brain and our body. We will take a therapeutic approach working through various physical issues with the help of yoga postures, breath techniques, and specific stretching to unlock tension and promote health and well-being.

Yoga Therapeutics with Lynda McNamara
Silver Lake Yoga, Silverlake
Saturdays, noon-1:00pm


Nurture your body through supportive exploration exercises that awaken new patterns of release, balance, and integration; create awareness of your body’s structure and deepen your yoga practice.