The original name for Crow is Patient Crane – Baka Dhyanasana – a pose which strengthens confidence and heightens internal awareness. It is a grounding posture that requires balance of body and steadiness of mind.
In a state of concentration (dhyana) we reveal a courage within that empowers us to fly. It is the natural courage of all things to live purely, wholly, and freely. Doubt will bring us down, faith will lift us higher.
Believe in yourself. Om.
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Scorpion Pose – Vrischikasana – awakens the Ajna Chakra, or third-eye.
Ajna means “command” and it is the point through which in a meditative state the practitioner receives commands or guidance from the Guru, the higher self. It is the bridge or doorway between the mental and psychic dimensions.
When Ajna is awakened, the mind becomes steady and strong, qualities which this asana requires on the physical level.
Open your mind and allow strength to flow through you.
Om.
OUTERMOST YOGA is dedicated to empowering mindful lifestyles by promoting and advancing yoga + wellness activities and practitioners in Provincetown and on the Outer Cape.
Our community offers a wide variety of yoga classes, workshops and retreats.
For more information about our programming, to host a workshop or event of your own, or to customize your own yoga + wellness holiday while visiting the beautiful Outer Cape, please write to us at outermostyoga@gmail.com.
apple.news/Ah_EibCvyTKSynSL1zGjsRQ
Great and timely article in the Times about being mindful of the company you keep.
“Friends can exert a measurable and ongoing influence on your health behaviors in a way that a diet never can.”
Feeling unhealthy? Check your social life, not just your fridge. Spend less time with the friends who keep you rooted in unhealthy behaviors and cultivate the influence of people whose energy and optimism keep you moving in a brighter direction.
Could be as simple as going to a public yoga class a few times a week. 😉
(Provincetown yogis Tim and Stefan feeling bright on the water during the annual Blessing of the Fleet)
I grew up in a world where forgiving others for their faults and failures was wrong. If someone hurt you in any way, you held it against them. You wished them harm. You withheld mercy and compassion because you wanted them to feel your pain. You believed in a “God of Retribution” and expected others to get theirs.
It has taken me 14 years to right this incorrect way of seeing the world. Once I turned 18, I left home to seek new worlds. It has taken every one of those 14 years – through university, moving to the West Coast, moving back to the East Coast, my parent’s divorce, the end of my one and only long-term relationship, my younger brother’s untimely death, and a series of starts and stops in my personal and professional lives, including no less than 30 separate jobs and 16 different addresses – to see the light.
Whether it’s having had your heart broken or a fight with someone you know, in order to truly forgive others for their trespasses, you must recognize three truths:
1. Nobody else can ever be responsible for your feelings. They should respect them, of course, as we all should respect each others’ feelings, but you ultimately are responsible for your own healing and any inner aftermath. What this requires is a set of practices that help you fend off negative energy that seeks to break into you and rob you of joy. This requires a deep self-love. Not narcissism, but self-respect and motivation and an adherence to a regimen of activities that keep your blood flowing, endorphins pumping, and life moving forward at your own pace and by your own rules. Yoga is an example of teaching the body-mind how to remain calm when faced with an intense situation, on and off the mat. Meditation is also a great tool. Enjoying the company of good people, enjoying the silent company of nature, having a creative outlet. When you have a practice that keeps you grounded in your self, then it is harder for others to break in and set off your alarms.
2. When you forgive someone, you relieve yourself of a burden and give it back to whomever caused you harm. If you truly committed no wrong or have already owned up to your own actions in the situation, then rest assured that the weight of the situation is no longer yours to bear. You have taken ownership of your own feelings and actions. The rest is up to the other person, but have no expectations that they will ever come around. Have faith in the best of all possible worlds, but don’t try to change someone else’s mind. Change your own – that is peace. Know that you have experienced the burden and that it no longer belongs to you. In most cases, people come around. And if not, then what goes around comes around anyway and we all have our lessons repeated to us until we learn them.
3. Why that person caused you harm is most likely not really about you but about that person’s own relationship to himself. Most people project their own issues onto others around them. There may have been a real reason from which the discord has sprung, but if that person has chosen to ostracize you instead of resolve the situation or is heavy-handedly playing the victim without revealing all the truth to their audience, then you have to understand that that is the way that person operates in his or her world and that that has pretty much nothing to do with you. You don’t need to fight against the grain of someone else’s behavioral patterns. Have patience, instead, because eventually the storm passes. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” Jesus said, as his belongings were ransacked. Most people are blind to their own behaviors, and blinder still to how they affect others. It may seem or feel personal, but it’s probably not. That person just needs attention. Don’t feed them with yours.
These three truths about forgiveness empower you to remain strong in the face of darkness, which always precedes dawn. A Course in Miracles teaches us that “only love is real” – so when you find yourself confronted by something that is not love, know that it has no power over you. Love saves the day. Love is courage. Love weathers the storm. The American bison does not flee or hide from a prairie storm – it turns and walks through it, head on, because it is the quickest way through it. Be the bison. Have a heart as big as a bison. True strength is within. Om.
Stefan Piscitelli is the creator of Outermost Yoga.
We’re excited to be adding two ASHTANGA SERIES classes to our schedule!
Robert will be leading as you explore and practice THE foundations of what is commonly called vinyasa yoga. This is a great opportunity for beginners who aspire to step confidently into a typical flow class.
MONDAYS at 10a & FRIDAYS at 830a
$10 drop-in, cash only
Limited mats available, it’s always suggested to acquire your own
494 Commercial St above the Schoolhouse Gallery
www.captainsdaughters.com/events/2018/4/7/workshop-tarot-basics-major-arcana
Workshop: Tarot Basics – Major Arcana
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
6:00 PM 7:00 PM
Have you been curious about Tarot but not sure where to begin? We are welcoming NOLA TAROT by JP for a very special three-part Tarot Basics Course.
In part one, NOLA TAROT will delve into the Major Arcana. The one hour workshop will include an overview of the symbolic, mythical and philosophical journey through the 22 Major Arcana tarot cards.
The Major Arcana cards hold specific energies and messages which can lead us to a deeper understanding of ourselves and our present situations.
No experience needed…Open your mind, draw a card, and have fun on your journey!
Bring a tarot deck (or purchase one in advance at The Captain’s Daughters) and journal to organize your thoughts.
RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED AND CLASS SIZE IS EXTREMELY LIMITED. REGISTER TO ATTEND HERE
Hello friends –
OUTERMOST YOGA and its community of amazing yogis and wellness practitioners welcomes you back to the Outer Cape for another season!
We’ve all had some great adventures over the past few months. Some of us, like Tim, gave retreats in beautiful locations like Hawaii; others spent weeks meditating in silence. Stefan studied Thai Yoga Massage in an ashram with the founder of the Sunshine School and Network, Kam Thye Chow. Others went to Thailand to learn and eat. A few of us even completed our first ever teacher training. Some stayed put and deepened their practice.
Combined, our community has thousands of hours of experience ranging across many styles and backgrounds of holistic, healing practices. The best part is that we made all the effort to learn and grow so that we could be of service to you!
Please review our comprehensive Class Schedule, which includes all yoga and fitness classes from Ptown to Eastham. For recommendations on where to eat or get a massage, check out Our Places. Get to know some of us under Our People.
Please review our Retreat Schedule and let your friends and guests know that we are offering seven amazing, healing, restorative, energizing retreats in Provincetown between June and October.
We are offering a $10 drop-in class all season long at 494 Commercial Street, above the Schoolhouse Gallery – M/W/F 1230-130p and SAT 10-11a.
You can also find us on instagram: @outermostyoga
We are truly looking forward to being at your service.
May your season be beautiful, bountiful, and blessed.
OM
The Team at Outermost Yoga
Spring has sprung, if reluctantly, and we are ready to celebrate.
Thank you for your continued practice, presence and support.
To study Yoga is to live a life of inquiry. Curiosity springs forth in our bodies, minds and hearts when we continue to walk together down the winding road of Yoga. Join us in our insatiable thirst for fresh approaches to ancient practices.
Below you’ll find information on upcoming workshops and events. Any and all are welcome to shed winter this weekend on April 8th with Susannah, reset during spring fever with Patty on April 28th, and join one big weekend of celebrating community. This is not to be missed. Read on to find our about our Locals Weekend Open House on May 12th, a treat for you!
An important note regarding our class rates:
Our Open House on May 12th will be the conclusion of our weekday Community Classes. From May 14th on, we will return to our normal class rates of $17/drop in or $18/drop in + rental mat. Our famed Local Summer Special will be back – $200 for 20 classes. This package is for sale *in studio* on the weekend of our Open House only.
Please be sure to bookmark our events page on our website to keep yourself in the loop regularly.
SPRING CLEAN
with Susannah van der Wende
Sunday, April 8th 11:30 – 1:30
Time to excavate the winter with this special two hour class from Susannah. Step forward from hibernation into fresh growth and new opportunity by releasing stagnant energy through a mindful detoxifying yoga practice. Susannah will lead you through a nourishing mix of meditation, breath work, invigorating twists, and grounding yin to purify your body and smooth your transition into Spring.
$25
Be sure to pre-register, this workshop fills up quick!
Yin Yoga & Thai Touch
with Patty Murray
Saturday, April 28th 2 – 4:30
Join us for this special two hour + Yin yoga class with Patty Murray. Yin postures will be held for several minutes as Patty’s therapeutic touch of Thai massage accesses the deep layers of the body’s connective tissue and increases joint mobility. Because of the popularity of this workshop, we have lengthened it so everyone receives the benefits.
$25 in advance, $30 walk-in. Limited spots available.
Deepest gratitude for your presence here.
From our hearts to yours:
may you be happy,
may you be free,
may you be at ease.
GLOW Yoga | 3 MainStreet Mercantile, Ste 12, N Eastham, MA 02642
The day that Siva stood still…
Something wonderful about the yogic tradition is its plethora of celebrations. It seems that every week there is a party for any one of the avatars. One of the most important of these is Maha Sivaratri. Celebrated annually, Maha Sivaratri is – according to tradition – when the northern hemisphere of the planet is positioned in such a way that there is a natural upsurge of energy in human beings. It’s a really good time to push toward one’s spiritual peak. To ensure success, the celebration includes chanting the names of Siva and staying awake all night long.
After many millennia in meditation, Siva, in his stillness, became one with Mount Kailash. In the practices of yoga, including asana and meditation, stillness is a crucial component to cultivate. It permits the practitioner to experience oneness not only with his or her own body and mind but also with all of the cosmos.
Sivaratri occurs on the darkest day of the month. We usually correlate darkness with evil, yet it was out of darkness that the entire cosmos was born. The word Siva literally means “that which is not”. Shakti, “that which is” – existence and creation – is all around us. Yet if you take a closer look at the world, we can observe that the majority of existence is emptiness — an unbounded emptiness rife with the potential for creation and out of which creation arises. This is the all-pervading divinity that all religious cultures describe.
Light, then, is not primal. Darkness is. And that is wonderful! Because we are natural manifestations of the divine. We are the light that is born from the potent darkness. And when we can connect to that pervading emptiness, that “dark energy” of the cosmos, we not only connect to the true source of our being, but we connect to all beings everywhere.
May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and each contribute to that happiness and freedom for all. Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu.
Image credit: @jimmynataraj
