Fall is proving to be a busy time for Anahata.  Below is a list of upcoming events and opportunities for our Anahata Friends to add some more seva to your day.

• September 4th, please join us in the upper level of Meridian Hill park for a yoga class open to all (and taught by the lovely Emilia) followed by a potluck/picnic for Anahata volunteers and those that are interested in becoming volunteers. It’s a great way to spend some time getting to know like-minded wellness activists + have some time outside doing what we love – moving with breath. More details about our monthly potlucks can be found here: http://www.anahatainternational.org/index.php/news/volunteer-potluck/

• September 12th, Flow will have a table up at this year’s Adams Morgan Day Festival – a crazy time on 18th street with lots of people and opportunity to spread the word about the yoga studio + Flow’s outreach which includes Anahata! I will be there but need a number of volunteers to take 2 hour shifts to help chat with folks as they stop by the table. All help is appreciated :).

• September 26th, Global Mala! This year’s DC Global Mala is raising funds to support Anahata (yay!). Thanks to the generous donation of online tools provided by Salsa (thanks Trina!), we are even able to create individual sponsorship pages to help raise funds through the generosity of friends and family. If you are interested in doing this, please check out our website: http://www.anahatainternational.org/index.php/dc-global-mala/ We are also in need of volunteers to help run the event and would love to get you involved if you are interested in helping. And finally, please help us by promoting mala to your friends by either posting to your fbook with a link to the website or just reaching out to people via email with details.

• We’d also love to increase the number of people that “like” our fbook page. If you know someone who supports Anahata’s mission but does not know about our fbook presence, please recommend that they check us out (www.facebook.com/anahatagrace).

Below is a brief update on our current programs that we couldn’t do without your help:

• We just completed a 6 week summer program with elementary school aged kids in low-income neighborhoods in DC and are about to restart the afterschool yoga classes through the same program for this Fall!  (a big thanks to Alexis Mitchell, Dawn Hennessey, Scott Carson, Emilia Retta, and Sarah Walter!)

• We are creating a wellness room at a domestic violence shelter that will open it’s doors in October and will provide holistic services including acupuncture, reiki, yoga, yoga nidra, nutrition classes and lots more!  (A big thanks to our Wellness Committee: Michell Stanley, Nicole Mires, Ana Abram, Riana Ackley and Jamie Larson).

• We are working with a community center that provides therapy to people suffering from severe mental health disabilities to create a 6 week yoga for trauma survivors program.

• We are increasing the number of homeless teen moms that we teach yoga to at Borromeo Housing. (Big thanks to Layne Morrison)

• We are now running the yoga program along with providing Afro-Brazilian dance classes (yay Angela Ingram!) at N Street Village – a homeless women’s shelter.

• The Troop Retreat for veterans suffering from PTSD will be the weekend of September 10th.  (Nicely done Angela, Frances and Andrea).

• We are continuing to explore partnership options for this year’s International Fellowship program!

Please email me at findinggraceyoga@gmail.com if you are able to give some time to any of the above volunteer requests. I hope to see you on September 4th if not sooner!

Below is a brief update on our current programs that we simply could not do without the help of our Anahata supporters:

• We just completed a 6 week summer program with elementary school aged kids in low-income neighborhoods in DC and are about to restart the afterschool yoga classes through the same program for this Fall!
• We are creating a wellness room at a domestic violence shelter that will open it’s doors in October and will provide holistic services including acupuncture, reiki, yoga, yoga nidra, nutrition classes and lots more!
• We are working with a community center that provides therapy to people suffering from severe mental health disabilities to create a 6 week yoga for trauma survivors program.
• We are increasing the number of homeless teen moms that we teach yoga to at Borromeo Housing.
• We are now running the yoga program along with providing Afro-Brazilian dance classes at N Street Village – a homeless women’s shelter.
• The Troop Retreat for veterans suffering from PTSD will be the weekend of September 10th.
• We are continuing to explore partnership options for this year’s International Fellowship program!

peace & gratitude,

Team Grace

This week, Anahata Grace social media wizard Jeffrey Platts schools us on the importance of the viral world to the world of non-profits.

There are currently three big tools in social media.  Blogging, Twitter and Facebook.  All three are ways for you to expand and fine tune your brand, which I heard best defined as “what people feel when they think about your name.”  Think Apple, Greenpeace, Southwest, Habitat for Humanity, Richard Branson.  Each creates a certain feeling when you think of them.  This post will hopefully serve as a strong nudge to get you and your organization on the social media bus so you don’t have to chase it down later.

Blog

Website are just billboards.  They just sit there.  What you need today is a WEB PRESENCE.  Every organization and businesses has a website.  It’s a necessity.  It’s a starting point for people to get basic info on what you’re about.  It’s got your mission, contact info, staff profiles. But it’s not enough. It doesn’t give people a reason to KEEP COMING BACK to your site.  A blog, however DOES give them a reason.  A blog no longer means just a diary of random thoughts or a collection of political rants.  A blog is a way to easily publish new content to your site on a regular basis.

What kind of content?  It can be text, audio, video.  Whatever works best for your organization. Whatever it is, provide content that give something value to the customer/donor/reader.  What that “value” is will be determined by what your overall message is and what would be of most use to your readers.  If you’re a non-profit that works with animal shelters, you could give tips on how to get a good pet from a shelter.  Or showcase the story of one particular dog and its impact on the family that adopted it.  Or highlight the recent funding that a particular shelter just received.

Another bonus is that the more socially active your organization is online, the more your organization will show up in Google’s search rankings.  You also begin to build yourself up as an expert on the topic you write about as well as allows you to talk about topics that are important to your organization.  Over time, as your blog posts get shared and your interact with your readers via the comments, you start to build a community, people come to back your blog as a source of information, connection and inspiration.

Twitter
http://www.twitter.com

What is the hell is Twitter?  Why should I be on it?

Twitter is a way to micro-blog — share ideas, links, quotes in less than 140 characters, all of which are public.  Forget about telling everyone “I just had an awesome black bean burrito!”  Yes, people still do that, but no one gives a crap about your black bean burrito.  I’m talking about using Twitter as a way to spread the message about your non-profit AND connect with potential partners and donors.

You start by creating a profile and follow people that you like and want to see what they tweet.  Those followers’ tweets will then start to show up in your newsfeed.  Now start engaging in conversations with people and organizations, either through @ mentioning them or by retweeting (RT) their tweets.  A RT is when you like someone’s original tweet and want to pass it on to your own followers, while giving credit to the original tweeter.

You then start using Twitter to add value in some way.  Share cool links and news about your nonprofit’s subject area.  Post inspirational quotes.  Let everyone know about the cool fundraiser you’ve got coming up or the outreach program you’re starting.�

Imagine that you have an organization that provides clean drinking water solutions for poor urban neighborhoods in Latin America.  You post a tweet on our nonprofit’s new fundraising campaign.  Someone at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (http://twitter.com/gatesfoundation) sees your tweet, clicks on your profile to find out more and likes your cause.  They then RT your original tweet.  Your one tweet now will be seen by all 402,859 of their followers, giving you instant and wide reaching exposure from one click (tweet)!  Now imagine the power of the multiplied many times over as more people retweet your post.

I started with Twitter earlier this year as a way to connect with other bloggers, yogis and interesting people.  It took a while to get the hang of it, but I quickly picked it up and saw its power.  After only two months of blogging and tweeting I was getting guest blogging requests, a TV show pilot opportunity, promotional placement on other websites — all through interacting on Twitter.

Bottom line with Twitter is that you want to start connecting and developing friendships with people.  Retweet other peoples posts you find of value.  Recommend the people you follow to your followers.  Just be generous in the content you share, friendly in your interactions and add value in some way.

Facebook Fan Pages
http://www.facebook.com

A Facebook page is like a Twitter page but with a lot more flexibility and customization. You can add video, photos, contests, polls, discussion boards and more, all creating a little mini-website or blog within Facebook. And almost everyone is on Facebook now and the numbers keep growing (over 500 million).  If you already have a personal profile on Facebook, then you know how quickly ideas and messages can spread throughout your network of friends.

Facebook has the ability to go viral just as easily as Twitter.  Someone “likes” your fan page, meaning that they will then start to see your fan page’s updates in their news feed. When they see a post of yours that they like, they can click the thumbs up link or add a comment (which can be much longer than 140 characters on Facebook).  In either case, your post when then show up in their own news feed and in the news feed of their friends.  And the more friends and fans that comment, the more feeds it will show up in.  So you can see how creating interesting and useful content will help expose your organization to new audiences.

Resources, Not Solutions

Each of these tools are resources, not solutions.  It’s combination of all of the above AND traditional marketing strategies that will help move your organization forward.  And social media momentum takes time to build, but once it gets going it’s easy to maintain and you begin to have people PARTICIPATING in your brand, rather than just observing it.  And, like Gary Vaynerchuk says, make sure your service or product is KILLER.  The most kick-ass social media campaign in the world won’t compensate for a crap service.

Blog Examples
ONE: http://one.org/blog/
Nature Conservancy: http://blog.nature.org/
Charity Water: http://www.charitywater.org/blog/

Some examples of Twitter accounts
Jeffrey Platts: http://twitter.com/jeffreyplatts
Anahata Grace: http://twitter.com/anahatagrace
Tara Stiles: http://twitter.com/TaraStiles
Lunar Massage: http://twitter.com/joannafaye
Deepak Chopra: http://twitter.com/deepakchopra

Side by Side Comparisons of Twitter/Facebook Pages

Charity Water
http://twitter.com/charitywater
http://www.facebook.com/charitywater

Starbucks
http://twitter.com/starbucks
http://www.facebook.com/Starbucks

Invisible Children
http://twitter.com/invisible
http://www.facebook.com/invisiblechildren

Tips on how to use Twitter and Facebook Fan Pages
http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/
http://mashable.com/2009/03/30/successful-facebook-fan-page/
http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/facebook-pages-guide/

Best Online Tool for Using Twitter
http://www.hootsuite.com/

Great book on the power of social media to expand your brand
“Crushit” by Gary Vaynerchuk
http://www.amazon.com/Crush-Time-Cash-Your-Passion/dp/0061914177

Jeffrey Platts is passionate about helping people connect more authentically and follow their own groove, in life and in love. He shares soulful and practical observations on dating, life, spirituality, sex and relationships. Jeffrey mixes his own personal experiences and insights from his life as a yoga teacher, DJ and student of spirituality and personal growth.  Visit Jeffrey on Twitter or his blog.

This week, Anahta Grace volunteer and psychotherapist Michell Stanley announces the creation of our very first wellness center, to provide healing for those inhabiting the  District Alliance for Safe Housing, Inc. (DASH).

The mission of the District Alliance for Safe Housing, Inc. (DASH) is to ensure access to safe and sustainable refuge for victims of domestic violence through the development and management of safe housing and related services, while increasing the capacity of other community-based organizations to expand housing for victims throughout the District of Columbia.  As part of fulfilling this mission, DASH has honored Anahata Grace with the responsibility of facilitating wellness programming for the organization’s newest program, Cornerstone, which is scheduled to open this fall.  The Wellness room will offer a full schedule of yoga classes including acupuncture, reiki, yoga therapy, and meditation, all geared towards providing residents with wellness services from a holistic perspective.

Anahata’s mission is to holistic practices to promote health, healing and social change.  Yogatherapy and meditation, when combined, can facilitate emotional freedom, increase the body’s ability to heal itself, while enhancing coping mechanisms.  Interventions follow psychotherapy frameworks but encourage participants to feel, experience, sense, and intuit responses rather than simply talking or thinking about them.  Meditation has multiple benefits including a way to immediately facilitate a sense of calm.  It is from this perspective that the most genuine clarity and wisdom can be gained.  Wellness sessions at DASH assist participants by allowing them to experience a felt change in how they experience themselves and their environment while reinforcing the paths that lead to positive growth.

As an Anahata wellness provider my role is to work with a Wellness Committee in developing programs, curricula, and schedules that pull together the strengths and skills of our volunteers while assuring that the full-spectrum of specialities are maximized towards addressing the changing needs of our service populations.  Following the development stage, my role will be in training, implementing, in addition to standardizing approach modules that can used for other at-risk populations in the future.

This week, Anahata Grace would like to honor our Outreach Associate Sarah Walter.  Here, she talks a bit about her experience volunteering with our organization. 

When I moved to Washington DC in January this year I decided to take the career jump – transitioning from my background in social work, nonprofit management and adult education to putting my yoga teacher training to use full time. After teaching in the studio scene for a few months I began looking for other ways to combine my other aforementioned backgrounds with my passion for teaching yoga. Enter…Anahata Grace. In addition to working with Anahata as an Outreach Associate, I am also volunteering to teach a group of elementary school-aged young people through a KidPower summer enrichment program at Amidon Elementary school.

Three classes in, this has proved to be a great learning experience for me as a yoga teacher. The elementary school age is very interesting – they at the point of beginning to develop their full-blown adult egos but also able to slip into present consciousness very easily and able to focus on exactly what they are doing (as long as we don’t do it for too long!). For example, can you imagine in an average studio based adult yoga class, having each one of the students come up and teach the rest of the class a pose? This kept the students entertained for at least a solid 30 minutes last week with the excitement over which yoga pose they got to choose and coming up to the teacher’s mat to guide the class.

The other interesting thing that is illustrated in working with this age group is the visible physiological impacts of yoga – particularly the calming effects of a focus on pranayama, forward bends and relaxation. A few notable times – after some intense sessions of yoga freeze dance and yoga freeze tag, the excited, rajas energy of the group came bubbling up and overflowing. The rajas had clearly been over-stimulated and we needed to move to a more sattvic/tamas state. So what to do? Some yoga poses known to calm the body – child’s pose, seated forward bends, focus on slowing the breath – almost immediately the students shift into a much more sattvic, reflective state.

My favorite aspect of working with the elementary school students at Amidon is the power of their OMs. At the end of each class after savasana we chant three OMs as a group. The first class I felt such energy in their OMs that I hadn’t felt since OMing with my yoga kula in teacher training. And it keeps becoming even more impressive as the weeks continue. In fact I make a point of telling all of the students that even though our yoga practice is non-competitive, they are the best OMers I’ve ever had and they knock the socks off of most of the adults I’ve OMed with.

Sarah Walter is an Outreach Associate with Anahata Grace and teaches at lil omm. You can check out her blog, teaching schedule and learn more information at www.feelgoodyogini.com.

This week, Anahata Grace honors a survivor and example of the healing powers of yoga, in our volunteer Karen Chan.

Somewhere along the way in my studies of ballet and Buddhism, I took a detour.  I ran away from home as a teenager, found myself crashing around from place to place, and eventually got lost in a bartender’s world of free alcohol, pills, and my personal drug of choice, cocaine.  I stayed lost for years – numbing myself as much as possible only to wake up and start the cycle all over again.  The majority of my nights ended up with me vomiting, or on a bathroom floor, or desperately trying to take enough “downers” to come down from the unfathomable amounts of cocaine I had pumped into my body.

When I came to yoga about two and a half years ago, I was fifteen pounds underweight and the weakest, both mentally and physically, I had ever been.  I remember trying to open a window and not having enough strength in my entire body to lift it.  I had completely lost the ability to breathe through my nose.  My consciousness had been clouded with so many substances for so long that it was very hazy.  My first year and half of yoga was spent twice a week, in a level one class, just trying to get a feel for where my body and mind were at, and heal.

Then I went to a Jivamukti class.  In Jivamukti, I was asked to take the healing and good feelings I was experiencing through my yoga practice and try to use them to contribute in some positive way.  I felt, as many others who experience the benefits of yoga do, that I wanted to share the wonderful things that could happen through a yoga/meditation practice; more specifically, I wanted to share with people who struggle with the same issues I have faced.  With this intention, I took a teacher training in the hope that I could find places to volunteer teach.  The training was a huge challenge in itself – it was incredibly difficult to get up and speak in front of my peers. There were many points where I didn’t want to go back and thought of dropping out of the program, but my desire to share was stronger than my fear and eventually I completed the training. Volunteer opportunities opened up almost immediately in homeless shelters, addiction services programs, and donation classes.  And in that, I knew I was doing the right thing.

Last year I took a Thai yoga massage workshop, where the instructor stressed the importance of setting the intention to heal before beginning the massage.  “May your ailments become apparent to me today.  May I be able to help heal you today.”  This message resonated with me so strongly that it is now something I say in prayer every time before I teach.  Whether it be in a shelter, a studio, or a private client’s home – “May I be able to help you in some way today.”

Every person has his/her own inspiring story of how they came to yoga and the ways in which it has helped him/her, and in turn, helped the people around them.  One of my favorite things to do is hear others’ stories about their journey with yoga.  Though it’s been challenging (and at times embarrassing) to share my own story, my hope is that in doing so I will have in some way been of service to the many beautiful souls I have met along the way.

And that, for me, would be the ultimate benefit of my practice of yoga.

What a difference a yoga practice makes.

As part of the yoga community, Anahata Grace is fortunate enough to be surrounded by those who desire social change and hold themselves personally accountable to make an impact.  Leading by example is the District’s city-wide Citizen Effect 30 Day Yoga Challenge.    Spear-headed by Michael Hall of Mid City Yoga, funds raised through the 30 Day Yoga Challenge will support the construction of an orphanage in Cloetesville, South Africa.

Here’s the breakdown: Participants in the 30 Day Yoga Challenge will sign up online, set a challenge goal, create a web page/blog that features photos of the project, and displays a fundraising “thermometer” along with a link for online donations. Of course, challengers are encouraged to use social media to highlight their citizen activism, broadcast their cause on Facebook, Twitter, and email.  And while you’re consciously working that yogic karma for a good cause, the physical, mental, and emotional benefits to your being will naturally overflow.

Driven by the idea that anyone can make a real and significant impact, Citizen Effect aims to provide the every day Joe with the tools and networks necessary to work with communities around the world.  Echoing the same core values, Anahata International maintains the mission of offering yoga to post-conflict communities beyond our American borders in order to provide them with the ability to heal and spread wellness.  Through various projects to date, Citizen Effect has helped bring water, food, and housing to communities in impoverished countries across the globe.

So while this specific challenge helps to raise awareness about tremendous global causes, keep in mind those local communities in need.  Anahata Grace may just be the outlet you’re in search of to assist in spreading compassion and healing to those vulnerable communities found right in our backyard.

There are oh so many ways to celebrate the 4th – dancing, laughing, drinking, eating – all of which entail sharing pure joy with those around you.  Those of us at Anahata Grace would love for you to share in the festivities we have planned to heighten awareness of the complete gratitude we all share for this day of independence:

• If you’re already a part of the gang or plan on joining forces, come on over to Meridian Hill Park for our 3rd volunteer potluck.
• Starting July 3rd, our weekly Flow Donation Class will be taught by yours truly, Anahata Grace Executive Director Caitlin Uzzell.  Don’t miss the opportunity to begin this weekly journey wtih the gal whose life mission is to offer wellness to all.
• Join Noelle Laing for this Saturday’s Stroga community class in honor of Anahata Grace.
• To keep you going through the endless night of festivities, build up some heat with a Karen Chan Fuel Pilates class Sunday morning.
• Megan Davis will carve the way for total body and mind independence with her July 5th workshop at Flow Yoga Center.
• Before you get your groove on, share a practice that will calm the senses with Leslie Brenowitz during a July 4th morning Quiet Mind Studio donation class.

So come on out and celebrate the liberty this life has brought us.

Every week, Anahata Grace will honor our volunteer and staff experiences through a weekly blog.  This week, Finding Grace volunteer and dedicated yogini Shawn Parell will selflessly share with us her lifetime commitment to service.

“The fruit of love is service. Prayer in action is love, and love in action is service.” – Mother Teresa

I first learned about Anahata Grace (then just Anahata International) in the winter of 2007-2008. Like many of us at that time, I was inspired—and still am—by the story of a small band of karma yogis dedicated to promoting healing and social change in places that might seem geographically or contextually far away to most.  As one among many thousands of non-profit workers in our nation’s capital, an organizer of the DC Global Mala, and a teacher and longtime student of the yogic arts, I resonated with the simple sankalpa, or intention, to share that which has enriched my life so immeasurably with others in need. And I felt an instinct to help.

… Does this sound familiar to you?

As students of yoga and meditation, our every day practices guide us to observe chitta vritti, that ubiquitous scroll of thoughts, associations, and attachments that too often seems to drag us through life. As we learn over time to distinguish this incessant chatter of the mind from who we really are, we can begin to open to the benevolence and spaciousness of being that exists beneath and beyond the thinking mind; and, further still, we can tune into the deeper, more primal currents within us. We may experience these currents moving as sensations of wellbeing, or joy, or even fierce determination. They flow through the body as the circulatory breath of prana, our life force and vitality.  In a sense, this tuning in is the essence of an embodied yoga practice.  It is also the fundamental source from which the genuine instinct towards seva, or service offered in selflessness, can rise and expand outward towards those around us.

While we commonly translate seva as selfless service, the word is actually made up of two words from the Sanskrit tradition, “saha” and “eva.” Saha means “with that” and eva means “too;” so, in a literal sense, seva means “together with.” It describes those actions that seek elevation by way of mutual presence, understanding, and integration.  In this sense, Seva is equally a compassionate expression of the desire to uplift others and a practice of becoming present to ourselves as connected beings.

Of course, the unavoidable fact in such a practice is that this presence is fleeting. As soon as we think “no-thinking mind,” for example, we immediately find ourselves back in the shop of chitta vritti. Similarly, in the same instant that we become aware of our own selflessness, we are lured back into the realm of the self.  As Einstein once insightfully conceded, “nobody is able to achieve [freedom from the prison of selfishness] completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation.”  A true commitment to seva, then, is a turning, again and again, towards the liberating source of selfless, divine energy within us. Seva is an intention and a practice of love.

One opportunity for reflection here lies in asking – how do you trust and act on the instinct towards seva in your own life? From the wisdom of Rumi, a few words that have resonated through the centuries: “there are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” Maybe seva expresses in your daily rhythm as dropping into an Anahata Grace benefit yoga class, or pausing to sit with a lonely neighbor when you’re late to meet friends, or caring for others without expectation of reward (as the spoken word poet Andrea Gibson puts it: “saying ‘I love you’ to those who will never say it to us”), or going to work every day for an organization committed to elevating the lives of people you may never meet. Maybe your sense of seva begins close to home – with small acts of compassion towards yourself or a beloved.

In my own life, teaching yoga is a profoundly integrating commitment towards seva.  As a student and conduit of yoga’s passionate spirit, through the humbling journey of practice, and on the liberating path towards yoga, it is an opportunity to show up for others – and for myself – in compassion, trust, and dedication.  It is an intention, again and again and again, to show up as I am, to open to the spaciousness of being in any moment, and to hold space for others’ exploration, healing, and growth.

Like all practices, the practice of seva is really just to keep practicing. So – get inspired, get involved, share courageously of your self, and elevate the world around you.

Namaste ~