Thanks to all of you who donated to Anahata’s troop retreat for veterans returning home, we have been able to put together an incredible retreat which is happening this weekend.
The warriors will spend the weekend nestled in a rustic retreat in the rolling hills of western Virginia surrounded by farmland and forest. They will have opportunities for hiking, mountain biking, camping and free massage therapy. Yoga and meditation classes will be provided daily and organic nutritious meals will be a time for coming together and sharing. *Soldiers who attend the retreat will be warriors who have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI) and other war-related injuries.
This retreat will include trauma-sensitive yoga and yoga nidra which are two yoga-based methods currently being used by clinicians and the U.S. military to facilitate healing from war related illnesses. The practices will be lead by founder of There and Back Again, Sue Lynch, navy psychiatrist, Frances Stewart, yoga therapist Angela Cerkevich and marine fitness instructor Andrea Lucie, who specializes in integrating mindfulness practices into the Army and Navy/Marine Corps mental health community.
A big thanks to the incredible Anahata community that has made this possible.
warm oms, Team Grace
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 :).
Continue reading 'Lending a Hand'»
Events, Fundraising & Outreach, General
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Acupuncture, Adams Morgan Day Festival, Afro-Brazilian dance, afterschool program, Alexis Mitchell, Ana Abram, Angela Cerkevich, Angela Ingram, Borromeo Housing, Dawn Hennessey, DC Global Mala, Elementary School, Emilia Retta, Fall, flow yoga center, Global Mala, homeless women's shelter, International Fellowship Program, Jamie Larson, Layne Morrison, low-income neighborhoods, mental health, Meridian Hill Park, Michell Stanley, N Street Village, Nicole Mires, nutrition, October, Outreach, PTSD, reiki yoga, Riana Ackley, Sarah Walter, Scott Carson, September, seva, summer program, therapy, Troop Retreat, Veterans, Volunteer Opportunities, Wellness Committee, Yoga Nidra
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
As September 26th approaches, Anahata Grace just wanted to remind folks about the purpose of the
Global Mala. All across the globe people unite, joining yoga communities from every continent, school and approach to form a “mala around the earth” through collective practices based upon the
sacred cycle of 108. Along with yoga practitioners in more than 50 countries around the world, DC will once again come together for a day of dharma speakers, meditation, music, and a dedicated practice of 108
surya namaskar. This year, Anahata Grace is honored to be the DC Global Mala’s chosen non-profit recipient of proceeds earned and to be considered a valued organization committed to healing the planet and its inhabitants.
Please continue to check our
DC Global Mala page for up-to-date information and details as the come to fruition. We look forward to once again creating a worldwide garland of the human heart and affirm the power of unifying consciousness through sacred movement, breath, and intention.
Warm oms,
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.
Continue reading 'Why Non-Profits Need to Get on The Social Media Bus'»
General, Teacher Guest Blog
| Billboards, Blogging, Charity, Connection, Customer, Donor, Expand Your Brand, Facebook, Facebook Fan Page, Family, Greenpeace, Habitat for Humanity, Information, Inspiration, Invisible Children, Non-Profits, Online, Online Tool, Pet, Profile, Reader, Resources, Retweet, Richard Branson, Shelters, Social Media, Southwest, Starbucks, Think Apple, Twitter, Viral, Web Presence
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.
Continue reading 'DASH Wellness Center'»
DC Local Projects, General, Teacher Guest Blog
| anahata grace, at-risk populations, community-based, Cornerstone, District Alliance for Safe Housing, Domestic Violence, holistic, Inc. (DASH), Meditation, Michell Stanley, promote health, reiki, Social Change, Wellness, Wellness Committee, yoga therapy
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.
Continue reading 'Finding Grace with a Different Type of Audience'»
General
| Amidon Elementary, anahata grace, Elementary School, Feel Good Yogini, KidPower, lil omm, OM, Outreach Associate, Rajas, Sarah Walter, Sattvic, Tamas, Washington DC, www.feelgoodyogini.com, yoga
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.
Continue reading 'May I be Able to Help Heal You Today'»
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:
So come on out and celebrate the liberty this life has brought us.
Events, General
| anahata grace, caitlin uzzell, Community Class, donation class, Flow Donation Class, Fourth of July, Fuel Pilates, Independence Day, Independence Day Workshop, Karen Chan, Leslie Brenowitz, Liberty, Life, megan davis, Meridian Hill Park, Noelle Laing, Quiet Mind Studio, Stroga, Volunteer Potluck
What’s the one thing we just have to do every week? Why, host a class at Flow Yoga Center of course! We can’t get enough of this place and neither can this week’s 1:30 p.m. donation class teacher Dawn Hennessy.
As a child, Dawn was always fascinated by yoga and did an occasional shoulder stand and plow pose in her parent’s living room. In 2002, she began her yoga practice with Hatha and Kundalini and then discovered Jivamukti and Ashtanga along with an occasional Bikram class here and there. Dawn is now a dedicated Jivamukti and Ashtanga yogi and completed her 200 Hour Teacher Training at the District’s Flow Yoga Center in 2009.
This Saturday’s class is for level 1-2 full of asanas that can be modified depending on the student’s flexibility. Hopefully students will leave the class feeling both relaxed and energized.
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