Recent Updates

Upcoming Events

Feel free to join us for any and all of these public events coming up.

• Karma Day at the Yoga Shala, Portland, June 29, 2008. Get out of the heat this Sunday and take your whole family to the super-fun, family-friendly Karma Yoga Day at Yoga Shala of Portland. Enjoy an adult’s yoga class taught by the Shala’s best teachers, while your children enjoy a kids yoga class or arts activities in other studios. Please come at 6:00 for a potluck, a sing-a-long with SaraTone and a Raffle drawing with awesome prizes: yoga, spa and wellness packages and restaurant gift certificates. Benefit yourself while benefiting SY with your contribution!
• Being Yoga Conference, New York City, October 10-12, Mark Lilly and Katie Arrants will be offering two workshops on yoga and service. This event is sponsored by the Omega Institute. They now have conference details and registration information available.
• Moving Through Trauma with Love and Stillness -- How Yoga Can Help You Release Past Hurts (and Get On with Living Fully Right Now) with Mark Lilly, Lisa Mae Osborn and Diana Hulet. This workshop is for adults who are enduring any of the effects of any form of trauma, whether recent or old, psychic or physical, spiritual or emotional. Use yoga, chanting, and meditation as tools to move through old patterns. Visit theBhaktishop for more details.. All proceeds go to benefit Street Yoga.

Happenings

• Yoga + Joyful Living. Look for an article about Street Yoga in the September/October issue of popular magazine Yoga + Joyful Living!
• Yoga Thearapy Training. During the last weekend of May, Street Yoga and the Yoga Shala of Portland sponsored a Integrated Movement Therapy (IMT) training . The training was offered by Molly Lannon Kenny a nationally recognized innovator in the yoga based therapy field, and one of the founders of the Samarya Center of Seattle. Students learned about how Integrated Yoga Therapy, which utilizes yoga’s philosophical, physical, and spiritual framework, can benefit people with chronic pain, depression, stroke, MS, Parkinson's, traumatic brain injury and anxiety. We learned the importance of treating individuals as unique cases and structuring therapy according to the client’s special interests, challenges and needs and to not identify people by their diagnosis. This is in line with Patanjali’s belief that “All avoidable pain comes from identifying with something outside one Self” (2.17).
• Family Night Night At Nara. On May 23rd, Star Street Yoga Volunteers, TJ and Lauren, taught a Street Yoga Workshop during Family night at NARA (Native American Rehabilitation Association) outpatient treatment center. Most people were excited, as well as a bit nervous, to try yoga. There were babies and grandparents, and everyone in between. What a blessing to be present with so many people really wanting to connect and do yoga together. We were able to touch upon our connection with spirit, with our bodies, with nature and the elements, with each other, and our families. Some sun breaths and seated meditation began our practice to warm and bring awareness to our breathing. We played a few yoga games, which brought laughter, playful noises, and overall lightheartedness. The class size fluctuated throughout the hour or so, with everyone returning back for the ending relaxation and closing circle. Savasana, as usual, was many peoples' favorite part of the class. Tension seemed to melt off everyone's faces and bodies, as they relaxed more deeply and received lavender temple massages, and joyfully took a few moments of silent appreciation. One of the girls at NARA this evening has been participating in Street Yoga classes for the past three years! She attends CTS (the Community Transitional School) and was proud to practice with her family, especially her mom. It was a beautiful sight to witness this single mother, in recovery from addiction, with her three children, connecting with the strength and peace of trees and her own roots and enjoy a momentary ease from everyday stress. We ended in a circle, with three Oms, the first one for personal and individual healing; the second for family, all present and those not; and the third one we sent out to the greater family and community. This was a special evening overall, and a powerful way to end our practice together. NARA's motto is “Without the family circle, there will be no future.” This message rings true locally, globally, and with the mission of Street Yoga.