With Gratitude We Practice
Join me this Thursday morning on Thanksgiving Day at 9:00 am -10:15 am for a special Thanksgiving Yoga Class. This class is to support The Food Bank of Hudson Valley. You can make a charitable donation below for taking this class. Try to have a small candle ready at the beginning of class where you will be able to see the flame. All are welcome!
DONATION HERE
This class is a perfect time to join your friends and family in a sacred practice of mindfulness and gratitude. We say the words “thank you “ so often that it becomes automatic…maybe like how many times we have done the cat/cow sequence on the mat. Do you always feel your spine when you move? Do you always mean “thank you” when you say it? The English words THANK YOU stem from the Latin word “tongere” which means to think of thoughtfulness. Loosely translated you can say the first forms of the English THANK YOU might have meant, “ I’ll remember what you did for me. “ Do you remember what your practice does for you and how it affects you towards interacting with others ?
During this time of a global pandemic, social inequities, political divisiveness, and all of the stressors that come with that, Yoga can help us to be mindful of what we can see, feel and know to be happening in our inner and outer landscapes through the lens of awareness (not the foggy lens of mental mind chatter, distraction, and projection. )
YOGA is coming from that place of presence in all that we think, say, and do for ourselves and others.
Yoga gives us this opportunity to shine the light inward even towards the shadows of self-doubts, attachments, aversions, and fears so we can see them clearer as learning tools for change and self-growth. Yoga gives us permission to be with our entire range of thoughts, emotions, and feelings helping us navigate how to respond with gratitude even when seeing and being with obstacles that are out of our control. We learn to use these darker or shaded lessons as tools to grow from-to be ok with- the constant range and change of emotions, managing what we can, and accepting what we cannot. Not to mention the power of surrender - The practice of Ishvara Pranidhana.
As the season gets darker and the harvest is brought inside, we light our fire within with gratitude for the little things, especially during these times. See if you can be OK with being inward and grateful. The Sadhana practice helps keep our sparks lit and fuels the light towards gratitude for these simple everyday inner experiences starting with our breath. Because we are simply here and that is enough. You are enough. Share your gratitude with yourself in a gratitude journal or send a handwritten love note to someone thanking them for being in your life.
With gratitude, we can flow to meet ourselves and others with grace by our sides.
Thank you …
“you are a masterpiece “ xo Dani
A PLACE ON EARTH by Gwen Frostic
A little green shoot that has risen from the earth
Now free to ascend
Within the realm of its kind To whatever beauty it may attain.
It BREATHES … as all living things must
It DRINKS, as all living things must do
It EATS, as all living things must do
It must rest
And above it must change to grow
For if it ceases to grow
It shall cease to live
Everything about the plant has meaning
The shape of its leaves
Their position on its stem
The color and the fragrance of its blossoms
All things are constantly working together to produce a healthy life
The way it uses its salts and waters in the inside
How it detects the direction and source of the sun
And adjusts to it
How it weathers all storms …
And produces flowers, which will assure its eternity
Each unto itself must grow
It must must rise to heights in the open field
It must resist the winds-and yet yield to them
And it must stand again
After the winds have passed
HOLIDAY VACATION SCHEDULE
There will be no yoga classes on ZOOM
for Dani Locastro
Dec 24- Jan 2