Stay up-to-date on the latest from Asheville Yoga Center with our blog! Meet our teachers and hear them share more about their lives and yoga practice. Read tips on how to integrate yoga more deeply into your life off the mat. Learn more about inspirational teacher training programs, and discover new ways to deepen your practice!
Harmonizing Yoga and Ayurveda: Navigating Kapha Balance in Spring By: Shala Worsley According to Ayurveda, Kapha Dosha is naturally high during the transition from Winter to Spring, especially when the weather is cool and damp. Kapha dosha is one of the three fundamental energies in Ayurveda, representing stability, strength, and
Harmonizing Yoga and Ayurveda: Navigating Kapha Balance in Spring By: Shala Worsley According to Ayurveda, Kapha Dosha is naturally high during the transition from Winter
The Guru mantra is an ashtang mantra, meaning it has 8 parts. These 8
parts catalyze the kundalini energy to initiate through your own effort and
devotion. The first part of the mantra – Guru Guru Wahe Guru – projects
the mind to the Infinite, the source of knowledge and ecstasy. The second
part, Guru Ram Das Guru – signals “the wisdom that comes when we
serve the infinite”.
To me, it’s more about sharing yoga than teaching. When I began walking this path of yoga, it never crossed my mind to teach because I had enough work to do on myself. I began to fully focus on my Sadhana (my own practice). Through this process, practicing every morning and afternoon at some beach, park, plaza or outdoor space, people started approaching me out of curiosity and asked me to share with them. That’s how it all began, organically and this is how it still feels and will always feel. Even though in times of being a father and a husband, I need to make a living to support my family, I still consider it an exchange of energy. From the most profoundness of my heart, I share this path of yoga that carves and transforms my life infinitely.
The first yoga class that really captivated me was a power flow style with Sarah Powers. I was young – still in college, and a dedicated runner and climber at the time. Yoga was poetry for the body. In my attempts to find a class / teacher similar to Sarah, I stumbled into Ahimsa Ashram in Washington, DC and found kundalini yoga- which felt like
rocket fuel to me. Some 30 years later, I am still enchanted with kundalini and the
incredible power of the practice to transform. And, I still love flowing vinyasa andmany other styles. I think of myself as a “yoga universalist” – I love all the
lineages and paths deeply but kundalini is the maha (great) practice of my heart,
the one that I do every day, no matter what.
We can practice ahimsa or non-violence with others, mother Earth, and also ourselves. When we notice thoughts of judgment or criticism, there’s an opportunity to return to the breath, witness those thoughts and emotions, and allow them to flower. This momentary gap enables us to choose how we respond – ahimsa lives in our breath, that dynamic and divine pulsation of inhalation and exhalation that we share with all living beings.
We can practice ahimsa or non-violence with others, mother Earth, and also ourselves. When we notice thoughts of judgment or criticism, there’s an opportunity to return to the breath, witness those thoughts and emotions, and allow them to flower. This momentary gap enables us to choose how we respond – ahimsa lives in our breath, that dynamic and divine pulsation of inhalation and exhalation that we share with all living beings.
Did you know that Ada Limón, the extraordinary 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, loves yoga? And yet, in a recent On Being podcast, she laughed while sharing the following:
When I lived in New York City, my two best friends, I would always try to get them to go to yoga with me. And they would say, “I don’t want to go to yoga.” And I was like, “Why?” And they said, “I just don’t want anyone telling me when to breathe.”
I know, right?! Breathe in—do this. Breathe out—do that. Enough already!
– Mary Oliver
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