Upcoming Events
March 25th 7:30pm-9:00
Experience a night of traditional Indian Dance,
food, music and
prayer.
Program includes:
Free Indian Food, Authentic Pooja (Prayer
ceremony and blessing),
Readings from the Mahabharata, Chanting, Indian classical dance
performance....and more
tickets are $20 suggested donation
New Classes
Spring into the Passion of Flamenco
Flamenco for Beginners with Celina Zambon
Mon 6pm-7:30
Vinyasa Yoga for Beginners with Anna Zorzou
Mon & Wed 1pm-2:30
Workshops
March 10-12
Awakening the Power of Yoga for Healing, Peace and Spiritual Revolution
Fri 7:15pm-9:30, Sat 7am-9am & 2:30pm-4:30, Sun 7am-9am & 12:30pm-3:30
$108
website: www.thaiyoga.com
email: thaiyoga108@yahoo.com
Spring Cleaning Jewelry Sale 25%-75% Off
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To make room for spring growth we are having a spring cleaning sale for our jewelry March 5-15th. Selected designs will be marked up to 75% off. If you've had your eye on one of our beautiful necklaces, bracelets, earrings or malas come see if it's on sale. Shakti's jewelry has been made with care and love and resonates with good vibes...from our heart to yours.
March Self-Healing
Tips
----Spring into a New State of Wellness
written by: Julie Festa, L.Ac.
March is here, and the calendar tells us that means Winter is handing over its mittens for the raincoat of Spring’s arrival. Although we have jasmine flowers and roses blooming all throughout the Winter here in Los Angeles, the way of nature tells us that Spring’s energy is an explosive burst not unlike a two-year-old’s temper tantrum in the weeks before she starts talking. After the introspective stillness of Winter’s influence, we awake into Spring replete with energy, ready to grow and change, eager to become and try new things. If not honored, this Spring energy will get stuck and become stagnant, leading to feelings of anger and frustration, becoming like a tree trying to grow inside a box. For nature, Spring is the birth of the new year that began its conception on the Winter Solstice. Winter becomes Spring officially on the Vernal equinox, which occurs this year on March 20th.
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Acupressure to harmonize with the seasonal transition:
In colder climates, Spring brings warmer temperatures and longer days that melt the snow and beckon people to spend more time outside. Just like the melting snow, the water that has been harbored deep within the roots of trees starts to flow again, upward and outward, nourishing the trunks and branches. The relationship of Water to Wood is what makes it possible for another whole year to begin with the bursting forth of tiny flower buds and bright green leaves. This describes the relationship in Chinese Medicine of the Water element to the Wood element. One of the ways this occurs in the body is in the Kidneys nourishing the Liver.
Kidney 1 is the Wood point on a Water meridian. Therefore, it can be helpful to work with this point when harmonizing the transition from Winter to Spring. The point’s name is Yong Quan, or Gushing Spring. It is located on the sole of the foot. To find it, stretch your leg, bend (or point) your foot, then curl your toes. Kidney 1 is in the depression created about 1/3 of the way down the midline of sole of your foot. Benefits of this point include treating insomnia, headache, dizziness, rage, stress, and heart pain, alleviating symptoms of menopause, subduing cough, easing constipation, warming cold feet, and rooting the energies of the body.
Workplace Suggestion: Kick off your shoes and massage the Kidney 1 point for 2 minutes on each foot to feel like the calm in the eye of the storm of another busy day at work. At Home: Try massaging Kidney 1 before bed to ensure a deep and nourishing sleep every night of the week.
Chinese Nutrition
Just like the tiny buds and leaves that burst through branches in the Spring, so does the Wood element in the body need the energy of sprouting to be healthy. By introducing sprouts into the diet in the weeks prior to the Spring equinox, we can strengthen the Wood element, tonify the Liver Qi, and ensure a healthy transition out of the sluggishness of Winter. Sprouts can be eaten all Spring long to harmonize, cleanse, and nourish the organ systems of Wood.
Suggestion: Go to your local farmer’s market
or health food store and find the section where the sprouts are. Look
at all those different options! See if you can sample different kinds
and find one, or several, that you really like. Add these little yummies
raw to salads, sandwiches, and burgers, or use them as a garnish instead
of parsley. You can also lightly steam them and add them in at the end
to any vegetable dish. A gentle caution – too much cold and raw
food will damage the digestion and weaken the Spleen. For those with
a weaker system, eat your sprouts lightly steamed until the bright heat
of Summer arrives.
BIO Julie Festa, L.Ac. is a licensed acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist who has a private practice at Shakti's Elements.
Simple
Monthly Home Practice
---Tree Pose
written by Psalm Isadora
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In the winter the trees lose their leaves, storing up energy for new
growth to come in the next season. In March we begin to see the trees
around us blooming with more leaves and flowers. It is time to begin
shaking off winter's contemplation for new creative expression. It is
a good time to make space in your home, your body, mind and emotions
for growth and change.
Begin by standing with your feet hips width apart. Lift your toes and
draw the energy up your legs so that even your skin feels charged. Press
your thighs back and roll your sacrum under, hips slightly forward.
Send energy down your legs, as if you are growing roots deeper and wider
into the earth. Feel your connection and stability on the earth. Bend
your right knee and take hold of your right foot with your right hand.
Place the sole of your right foot against your left leg, either against
the left calf muscle or the inner left thigh. Do not press the right
foot against your left knee. Find your balance as you keep rooting your
left foot into the ground, keep growing your roots deeper and deeper
into the earth. Bring your awareness to your breath, and feel a lightness
come to your body from the waist up. With each inhale, grow tall through
the spine. Raise your arms to the sky like branches. Stay in the pose
and meditate on how the different seasons affect the trees, on the constant
flow of loss and renewal. Meditate on how the trees create oxygen which
sustains our lives, the trees are our lungs outside our bodies. See
yourself interconnected and in harmony with the larger patterns of nature.
Now do tree on the opposite side.
Practitioner Spotlight
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This month we are spotlighting Psalm Isadora, who wrote this month's Simple Monthly Home Practice for us.
Psalm Isadora first discovered yoga 8 years ago, and from that first
encounter had a deep feeling that it would change her life. Her teaching
is rooted in the belief that it is important to share this
powerful and practical technology. She completed her teacher training
with Saul David Raye and continues to assist his classes. she also studies
with Master Nzazi Malonga.
She teaches Yoga Flow classes:
Mon, Wed & Fri 9am-10:30
Wed 7:30pm-9:00
All levels, by donation
Monthly Words of Wisdom:
"Have you ever noticed a tree standing naked against the sky,
how
beautiful it is? All its branches are outlined, and in its nakedness
there is a poem, there is a song. Every leaf is gone and it is waiting
for the spring. When the spring comes, it again fills the tree with
the music of many leaves, which in due season fall and are blown away.
And this is the way of life."
- Krishnamurti
717 Broadway
Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Phone: 310.576.2008