Valentine’s day sent some love to the women of DASH, the District Alliance for Safe Housing, Inc., in the opening of the Cornerstone Wellness Room.   Brought to you by Anahata Grace and funded by Verizon,  services offered in this room will include acupuncture, acupressure, Thai massage, yoga therapy, cooking classes, and other wellness programs for women who have been victims of domestic violence.  There to partake in the ribbon cutting ceremony was acupuncturist Nicole Mires, who shares with us a bit from her first day offering what wellness her hands are able to provide.

I had a great time yesterday.  Anticipation on my way to the house… worrying if the women would like me, if they’d like the treatments, and if we could really make a difference here.  I worked as a behavioral health counselor while I was in grad school, but that experience was years ago and miles away, and not a very positive one.  I wondered if the women would look at me as a privileged middle class white girl with no experience of need or pain.  I wondered if they would accept their treatments without me telling them “you can trust me, because I’ve seen the bottom”.  I shuffled through these thoughts and insecurities and then I realized with a pang that my ego was running away with me.  This isn’t about me.  This isn’t about me being able to tell my friends and family, with my chin held high, that I was doing something selfless for someone else.  This isn’t about my experience or my ego or my expensive shoes.  I’m a conduit.  The treatment works.  The healing is in them, as they have probably already figured out.  I’m just a conduit, and whatever I think I might be able to add to their healing is stubble and hay, burned away by their own curative fire.
So I got up to the room.  Stowed away some props, swept the floor, opened the windows to let in the fresh air, and rearranged the flower pots.  I set up two mats and turned around to absorb the view.  It’s a good space.  Clean and humble.  A young woman walked in dressed in her bathrobe, with bright eyes and a huge smile.  “I didn’t know you’d be here today, what are you doing?”  “Acupuncture.  You want to try?”  She didn’t hesitate.

She was the only one who showed up, which was one more than I thought would come that day.  I placed the needles in her ears and did reiki on her, since there was no one else to care for.  She liked it.  She said that she felt better.  I told her I would be back in two weeks, and I would like to see her again since the first treatment is always a little odd, since you don’t know what to expect.

I hope two women come in next time.

Sick of the same old new year’s scene and the feeling you wake up with the morning after? Connect with the intention of new beginnings and community in this sacred and celebratory evening.

Purify through a vigorous asana practice, release through deep yoga nidra, and reconnect with your spirit through sacred silence – come ring in the New Year with Jivamutki.

Celebrate and Elevate
New Year’s Eve 2010 with Agi Glowacki and Justin Blazejewski

Date: Fri 12/31/2010
Time: 9:00 PM – Midnight
Flow Yoga Center, Washington DC

Purify through a vigorous asana practice, release through deep yoga nidra, and reconnect with your spirit through sacred silence.

9-10:30pm – Special Jivamukti class with Agi Glowacki
10:30-11:30pm – Yoga Nidra practice with Justin Blazejewski
11:30-midnight – Mauna (sacred silence), with traditional Puja ceremony and meditation
Midnight – Sparkling cider toast!

REGISTER HERE.

Proceeds from this event will benefit the important work that Anahata Grace is doing in bring healing to soldiers. Specifically the money will go towards the next “Troop Retreat” for veterans where, at no cost to the veterans, a team of trauma therapists spend 3 days helping them heal from the trauma experienced in war.

Saturday, November 6th is our monthly potluck in the park!  This month, the lovely Shawn Parell will be teaching the yoga class starting at 11am on the upper level of Meridian Hill Park.  The class is open to anyone who would like to start their day with some flowing yoga under the trees, then stay for a special meeting lead by Michell Stanley focused on Anahata’s Wellness Room in a domestic violence shelter in NE DC.  She will have details about the schedule, volunteer opportunities and answer questions you may have.  Please join and bring friends – more details can be found here.Volunteer opportunities: if you’d like to learn more about one of the opportunities below, please email findinggraceyoga@gmail.com.

• Want to teach yoga at a homeless women’s shelter?  We are looking for volunteer/certified yoga teachers for a weekly class on Mondays at 10am at N Street Village.
• Want to assist or teach yoga to kids in elementary schools in low-income neighborhoods in DC?  After the holiday school break, we will have new 6 week classes starting with our partner KidPower.
• Would you like to assist a monthly yoga class for young moms living in affordable housing?  This class is once a month on Thursdays in Arlington Virginia.Want your yoga practice to support Anahata?  Below are the upcoming donation classes and workshops for November.  If  you are an active volunteer, please feel free to drop in to any of the classes without donating dollars.

Wednesday, November 3rd, Ricky Tran will be hosting a workshop at the Georgetown Lululemon to support Anahata. 

Saturday donation classes at Flow have been revamped.  We are now teaching a 45 minute community meditation class at 9:30am every Saturday.  This class is a great way to start your weekend with grounded balance cultivated through a little yin yoga, restorative poses and seated meditation.  For the month of November, we will have guest teachers that bring a high level of expertise to this class.  Angela Cerkevich is teaching this Saturday, Manisha Tare on Nov 6th and Sierra Weaver on Nov 13th. 

Upcoming trainings:

Anahata is excited to announce that Off the Mat and Into the World’s Leadership Training is coming to DC!  It will be brought to you by Flow Yoga Center and Anahata Grace.  It is an incredible 5 day intensive to help find your inner leader/dharma through yoga and group exercises with the powerful Seane Corne, Hala Khouri, and Suzanne Sterling.  Tickets can be purchased here.

We are also working with the Trauma Center in Boston to bring to DC a 3 day training on how to use yoga for those that have survived trauma.  This training will be at the beginning of April and more details will be released soon.  As active volunteers, you will receive a discounted rate on the tickets.

As always, thank you for your ongoing support. 

om shanti,

team grace

This week, yoga teacher, musician and writer Holly Meyers blogs about living yoga in everyday life, and the impact of taking your practice off the mat and into the world around you.

“Trauma is a fact of life.  So is resilience.”  – Hala Khouri, Off The Mat Into The World Co-Creator

In 1993, I was emotionally, physically and spiritually bottoming out – again.  In my 28 years of life, I’d experienced enough unaddressed trauma to leave me without possibility for healing or growth.  I’d “lost my way,” my life was a mess and I felt empty inside.

A friend suggested yoga, and I’ve been “on the mat” ever since.

At first, my practice was selfish.  Yoga’s initial “ahhh” brought immense relief and I started to feel better.  Then came the intense transformation from being guided by teachers who embraced and passed on yoga’s comprehensive design for living.  Self-examination and change are not always gentle processes.  Surrendering, I fell back into the arms of supportive yogis and others devoted to healing.  Years down the line, teachers started to suggest carrying the benefits of yoga into the world.  Having gained so much from this precious practice, I knew I wanted to give back however possible.  The seeds of Seva (selfless service) were planted.

Today, I try to take yoga off the mat and into my everyday world, every day of my life.

Coming from a background of trauma, I must practice yoga and other community-based activities that encourage self-inquiry and spiritual living.  This is my responsibility to the world around me.  Because without these regular activities, I would be heading right back to that 1993 bottom. I would be stuck in old stories, limits and pain.  So, I practice.  And I aim to offer my healthiest self to those around me.  At times, the facts of my past can be tough to admit.  Who wants to expose her/his dark side?  Through admitting these realities, however, have I found infinite tools for addressing them.  Sharing truthfully, identifying my patterns, gaining counsel, and passing on these solutions all bring a profound shift from darkness to light.

This is the kind of honesty, self-inquiry, community and action that Off The Mat Into The World (OTM) encourages, facilitates and supports.  In addition to their global fund raising and youth empowerment initiatives, OTM co-creators Seane Corn, Hala Khouri and Suzanne Sterling lead a 5-day workshop “Intensive” – a yoga-based transformational process that yields a sustainable, reinforced and proactive life purpose.

During OTM’s Intensive last June, I met 40 amazing yogis, teachers and “activists” (i.e. cause-inspired, nonprofit and social workers) devoted to looking at themselves in order to serve others.

To begin our week together, we practiced deep self-inquiry through Chakra Vinyasa sequences, Yoga Nidra, Somatic Therapy exercises, group sharing and more.  We learned how to hold space for, listen to and support each other.  We discovered that after unearthing what breaks our heart, exploring trauma triggers, exposing false beliefs and identifying chronic pain, we could strengthen and align our healthy selves with a true Seva purpose vs. being triggered by others’ traumas.

Mid-week, we moved from self- to other-focus with discussion and practice of collaboration, consensus process, non-violent communication and power models (i.e. inclusion, shared power and empowerment vs. having power over or being under power).  In our assumptions exercise we honestly exposed limited perceptions of each other; and in our “Circle of Truth,” we humbly learned how to expand our understanding of all.

To wrap up the workshop, OTM staff Kerri Kelly and Claire Williams introduced the Yoga In Action initiatives, focusing on activating our newly-fortified purpose and mission statements within our local yoga communities.  I felt lucky to live in the amazingly proactive city of DC, where “yoga activism” is energized and thriving.

For me personally, three moments from the Intensive stand out:

*        An emotional breakthrough during Seane’s Chakra Asana practice liberated me from years of paralyzing resentment, and enabled me to forgive and move on in a major area of my life.

*         In Suzanne’s “What Breaks Your Heart” sharing circle, I discovered my inner resources (Pranayama and eye contact) for speaking my truth (“What breaks my heart is the pain of the child who knows no other way than pain.”) from a place of clarity and conviction instead of imbalanced emotion.

*         And the moment Hala said, “Imagine going through challenges without suffering,” I exhaled profoundly, knowing that I never had to “bottom out” again – nor did I have to “burn out” from my Seva efforts.

Most importantly, I created a list of 13 goals toward widening my yoga-in-action circle in DC and beyond.  The list included a range of intentions, such as “Be a yogi,” “Keep up with self-care and connection,” “Continue consistently developing your blog,” and “Plug in with those already doing this work in DC, i.e. Anahata Grace.”  As of today, I have completed or am active in 10 out of 13 of those intentions.

I have not done this alone.  OTM continues to invest in my development as a yoga teacher, community organizer and Seva devotee through periodic conference calls with my Intensive teammates and other OTM community leaders.  They have empowered me as an OTM ambassador, and I have started to incubate their Yoga In Action initiatives here in DC.

If you would like to connect about yogis, teachers and activists tapping into Off The Mat Into The World’s resources for sustainable Seva in our city, contact me via the Yoga In Action DC Facebook page.  I look forward to sharing!  OM Shanti.

*   *   *

Holly Meyers writes about the eight limbs and promotes yoga events at UrbanYogaDen.wordpress.com.  As an Off The Mat Into The World ambassador, she lead the September Yoga In Action DC Facebook campaign.

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.

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.

Every week, Anahata Grace will honor our volunteer and staff teacher experiences through a weekly blog.  This week, Jamie Boese, co-founder of WelcomeOmDC, will chat about the importance of a website dedicated to yogis and other wellness-minded folks in the District in establishing networks among these inspiring communities.

Back in the Fall, during my teacher training at Flow Yoga Center, I had a random conversation with a friend over brightly colored hoodies at lululemon athletica Logan Circle. The gist of this conversation was “why is there no central place to go for yoga information in DC?” and “OMG, there are so many amazing local business owners and role models in our fitness community – why don’t we talk about them more?” And WelcomeOmDC was born in that moment.

WelcomeOmDC is a website hub dedicated to yogis, runners, athletes, and the wellness-minded of Washington, DC. We are a resource and online community.We provide information on events, classes, workshops, inspiring organizations (like Anahata Grace) and yoga and fitness leaders in the District. We highlight and support the infrastructure of the flourishing yoga, fitness & wellness communities and the business owners and practitioners who sustain them.

And we have fun.

So enough about us, here’s where you come in.

We are always looking for events, workshops, classes, and people to feature. We love cross-pollinating our subject areas (yoga for runners, swimming for yogis, outdoor sports, indoor sports, yoga philosophy, volunteer opportunities, eating right, etc.), with guest posts written by regular DC residents who have interest and expertise in these areas.

During the month of May, we are collecting Yoga Off the Mat submissions. We want to feature how you bring your yoga practice off the mat in any way that works for your own life. If you’re interested Read more about this opportunity and then email us a guest post at welcomeomdc@gmail.com.

You can also get involved with WelcomeOmDC by liking us on Facebook (facebook.com/welcomeomdc), following us on Twitter (@welcomeomdc), and/or adding http://www.welcomeomdc.com to your RSS feed burner.

We want to be of service to DC’s yogi’s, athletes and wellness-minded. This city has much to offer and its time we talked about it! So Welcome Om, DC. We sweat the District.

This Saturday, May 22nd kicks it all off  with yogi Jeffrey Platts who will lead a 90 minute class for all levels of students to enjoy.  The class will include a centering, warm-up, energizing asanas, cool down and a final relaxation — all aimed at cultivating mindfulness and intention. Students can look forward to a fun class designed to stretch, strengthen and balance the body, supported by a soundtrack of funky, soulful and uplifting rhythms.  Come sweat and move for a great cause!

A few more notes about your teacher: Jeffrey Platts is passionate about helping people follow their own groove. He received his 200 hour Registered Yoga Teacher certification from Flow Yoga Center. Students can look forward to a fun class designed to stretch, strengthen and balance the body, all while cultivating mindfulness and intention.  Jeffrey reminds his students that yoga practice is really about honoring your own path and listening to your own heart and body.  Jeffrey is committed to making yoga accessible by blending other philosophies and teachings, sharing the lesson of Swami Satchidananda: “Truth is one. Paths are many.” He also integrates his many years of DJ experience to infuse each class with a mix of funky, soulful and uplifting rhythms.  Off the mat, Jeffrey loves exploring philosophy, writing, DJing, blogging about dating/relationships, and salsa dancing.  http://www.jeffreyplatts.com