Hello friends and Yogis,
Can you believe it is almost April?? I don’t know why time is flying by so quickly, but I’m really trying to keep up. This morning I peeked at the calendar on my iPad and started to become a little anxious. My schedule is just about planned out through June of NEXT YEAR and I am busy like Whoa. When I say planned out, it doesn’t mean that I have no room for spontaneity or changes, more accurately is that I have obligations each month from now until the end of time June, 2012. Professionally we have Yoga Retreats, Workshops, 200 hr Yoga Teacher Trainings, as well as personal stuff like weddings, vacations with Kaleo, visiting him on tour, and I am starting my E-YRT 500 this year! So… Whew. It’s a practice in and off itself to be able to keep balance in my world and of course remember to breathe. But it’s a nice reminder to not just schedule and teach Yoga but to Live It. Each and every day.
This brings me to our theme of the studio this month:
Astheya – Generosity
“Abiding in generosity and honesty, material and spiritual prosperity is bestowed.”
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as translated by Nischala Joy Devi
Astheya is often translated as non-stealing or avoiding taking something that hasn’t been freely given to you. This can mean taking someone’s time, or taking more than your share of what’s offered. But I like to cultivate the positive. So I love Nischala Joy Devi’s interpretation of Astheya in her book, The Secret Power of Yoga:
“the great virtue of Astheya in the Yoga Sutras is typically translated as ‘non-stealing.’ Upon hearing this the mind cannot help but focus on ‘stealing’-exactly what we have been told not to do! For an opposite effect to take place, the word or words must be reinterpreted from “what not to do” into what TO do. Astheya, then, could easily understood in positive terms such as ‘honesty, generosity, or integrity.”
Here in North County we have a well-loved yoga teacher, Summer Autio, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 Ovarian Cancer four years ago and continues her journey for life still today. My studio is teaming up with other North County studios to hold fundraising classes for Summer’s Hope. For the month of April, studios and teachers will be holding donation-based classes and other fundraising events, with 100% of the proceeds going directly to Summer. Even with medical insurance, the cost of her Chemo and medical care is outrageous. Please take a moment to check out her website and if you are in San Diego county, try to make it to some of the classes for Summer’s Hope!
