Upcoming         Teachings
BROOKLYN: SHAMBHALA YOGA & DANCE 718-622-9956 NEW ADDRESS 367 St. Mark's Avenue @Grand Ave. contact@shambhalayogadance.com Visit Shambhala's website for full schedule of events	Visit Shambhala Yoga & Dance Website TUESDAY BEGINNERS CLASSES Weekly 5:30-6:45 PM  MEDITATION at 5PM  Come a Little Early!   NEW 3-4 pm:  CHAIR YOGA FOR WOMEN Mondays YOGA FOR EVERY BODY  (men too!) Wednesdays  by donation $5-$8 - be prompt!
Out of Town/Other Places Gilboa, NY (Schoharie County) Contact Sarah for information	Weekend Retreats- Check Back For Spring/Summer Dates! Friday 5 pm -Sunday 2 pm Yoga, Meals, Meditation, Accommodations Family style,  Nature Walks, Star Gazing! Community Service possible in local towns
Tai Chi For Arthritis 1-hour sessions Dr. Paul Lam's Sung Style Tai Chi	contact Sarah to schedule a series

open to the possibilities Back Road Farmhouse Yoga Retreats offer morning and evening yoga sessions, sitting and walking meditation experiences, nutritious fresh vegetable-centric meals and total immersion in country life. Setting aside the obligations and pressures of daily life even for a three-day weekend brings awareness and openness to the possibilities when you return to your routines. Special sessions can be scheduled, and interests accommodated. Free time includes possbilities for hikes, bike rides, antiquing, music making and more. Other activities vary from sunset walks, exploring waterfalls, star gazing and games of croquet! Accommodations are family style, limited to 6 participants. Contact Sarah directly to express interest in a spring or summer retreat or to schedule your own retreat with Sarah at Back Road Yoga. Click to Contact sarah@yogainsideout.org Click to Visit Sarah's Blog: Seeing Inside Out

Contact Sarah for fees and availability Individual sessions  small group classes Tailored workshops and courses On the Mat: Being Yourself It is no surprise that sitting on a yoga mat can be much more than a physical experience. Discovering that your neck is stiff, or that one hip is crankier than the other is one way of getting to know yourself with more honesty and attention than usual, but something else happens too. The stillness we allow on the mat in order to pay attention to that hip is often uncomfortable in and of itself. In that space, with attention focused on breathing, we begin to see ourselves in vast and discrete ways simultaneously. All the efforting to adjust the hips, the stream of judgments about the tensions in the breath, the constant remembering to release the seemingly continuous tightening of the neck muscles and the realization that attention has wandered yet again to the person next to us... provides an unfiltered experience of our own being. So much energy goes into making ourselves over, wishing we were different than we are, covering, editing or erasing parts of ourselves we don't like or can't figure out. This way of operating creates layers and patterns, puts some of our most authentic qualities and understandings out of reach, and makes it hard to connect deeply and honestly to other people. So often even in intimate relationships there is a sense of not being known, or of disbelief when it comes to accepting appreciation or love. If we can not see and accept ourselves, we cannot believe anyone else can know or love that self either. Often our self acceptance is with reservations and exclusionary clauses that we have come to consider part of the self. There is something uncanny, magical and simple about training our attention on the breath. When we soften our physical effort around the breath, we set aside some of the basic resistance to being who we are. Not concerned with what our faces are doing, letting go of preconceived ideas of what that hip can or cannot do, we can approach our own inhaling and exhaling with curiosity. We develop more acute observational skills as we discover things about its texture or length, seeing the variety of efforts we make to control or direct it, and accepting quite basically that it is just what it is and that the breath, as itself, can be trusted. Trusting the breath is a profound step towards accepting oneself and finding a safe space, in some ways a very sacred space, in which to explore just being. We find that there is no need to judge our breathing. Letting that idea permeate us for even a moment makes space to let go of judging ourselves generally. Curiosity about the breath leads to a genuine awakening of curiosity about the self: exactly how is this rib cage situated around the inhale, moving on the exhale, releasing and empowering a sense of being. Centering attention, maintaining focus without judging, directly nurtures a sense of well-being. It is remarkable to discover that we, along with every other living being, are breathing and being in each moment. We make space for ourselves on the mat and this space goes with us off the mat. If we open to finding ourselves as we are - breathing, being, curious and whole - we have the ultimate freedom to accept ourselves (and others) as worthy of happiness in all its forms. Without judgment and with awareness, we no longer need to manipulate ourselves into being worthy, we find that we are naturally worthy of being.

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