Journeying Toward Wholeness

Aug 2017

Greetings Yoga and T'ai Chi Students and Lovers of Breema and The Painting Journal!

I will be teaching this Tuesday August 8th, and out of town Wednesday August 9th through August 19th, resuming classes on Tuesday August 22nd!


Yesterday there was a surge of energy at the prison in Unit 6 (RMSI), and an overflow of men coming to yoga class at the gym. A total surprise to me. Two of the regular students did the entire class on the cement gym floor, using shirts and socks under the knees, and expressing no complaints, as we had run out of yoga mats. This was the first time for doing yoga asanas for the new men, and amazing to see how they moved into focused breathing in the three Warrior poses. I wished I had been able to photograph this entire group of men balancing and with full energy in Warrior lll! It is rare in any class to see the back leg up with each yogi. From meditation, to Self-Breema, floor and standing poses, it was an especially focused and high energy class, with absolute stillness in Savasana. The class needs 4 more yoga mats. If you have a mat you are not using and could contribute, please do. Also, if you are inclined to bring a new one, that would be great also! Thanks ahead of time to you folks who have already supported this class in the past.


The men have just completed the four weeks of the third Niyama, Tapas(self-discipline). The following is from The Yamas&Niyamas by Deborah Adele


Tapas is so much about the choices we make.

We can choose to strengthen our inner depth rather than

medicate and run, and can find ourselves in a land of new possibility.

Much like those turbulent years, where life has the awesome job of

moving us from childhood to adulthood, the promise of a crisis is that

it will pick us up and deposit us on the other shore of something. Will we

trust this process or will we hide from it?

Each moment is an opportunity to make a clear choice of right action. Quite

often the choices that prepare us for the fire are options that vote against

immediate satisfaction and pleasure. When we listen to our inner voice and

surrender to staying present to the unknown, the unpleasant, and often to

the grief and pain, we are preparing ourselves to benefit from

and be blessed by Tapas.”

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We are what we repeatedly do, Aristotle said.

Excellence....is not an act but a habit.”


Full Sturgeon moon” is Monday August 7th. August 8th we will be doingRestorative Yoga in the classes. Please bring a bolster if you have one.


T'ai Chi teacher Larry Lee is feeling a good deal better at Richland, and will be moving into “Assisted Living” on the 3rd floor. He said he was asked to teach a T'ai Chi class there, and maybe has even started. He likes visitors.


I am available for Breema Treatments excepting the time out of town. The mind can become too much of a master over the needs of the body, and when harmonized through a Breema treatment, restoration and new vitality arise from somewhere deep within. Mondays, Tuesday afternoons and Friday are open for Breema Treatments, and I'm also available to come to your home if need be. Please call to make your appointment...615-498-4090. “Being is Unity with All”


Adyashanti will share his teaching through a DVD at Green Hills Librarythis Sunday August 6th 2:30-4:30pm. All welcome.


Well Being Retreat Center in Tazewell TN is offering “The Other Side Of Forgiveness” August 11-13 guided by Kelly Genna Hugh. For more information and registration contact Don Oakley at don@WellBeingCC.orgDon Oakley is speaking at “Meaningful Life Center” in Knoxville TN 10-11:30August 4th on “Unlocking The Gateless Gate.”


Gray Bear Lodge has their Fall Retreat offerings onwww.GRAYBEAR.ORG. Included I the offering is Amy Barnes's Bhakti Retreat October 27-29.


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Wishing you all well during this last stretch of summer, as I head to Williamstown MA for a Yoga workshop, and through New England to be with old friends and family.


Namaste,

Julie

www.JulieRussell.org


Every man is a builder of a temple,

called his body, to a god he worships,

after a style purely his own, nor can he

get off by hammering marble instead.

We are all sculptors and painters, and

our material is our own flesh and blood

and bones.” Henry David Thoreau

 

 


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