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Welcome to the premiere edition of Conference Connection.
Each issue will feature exclusive discounts, teacher interviews, yoga insight, upcoming events, and much more.
How are we doing? If you have a suggestion or comment regarding one of our conferences or this newsletter,
please let us know at feedback@yogajournal.com.
We greatly value your input.
Namaste,
The Yoga Journal Conference Team
Elana Maggal, Conference Director
Renee LaRose, Conference Manager
Jenny Bangert, Conference Coordinator
Attend the Estes Park Conference for Free!
With our new Refer-a-Friend program, you'll get a $50 rebate for each person you refer to the Estes Park Conference.
There are no gimmicks or hard-to-follow rules, except you must register for the conference and then refer your friends,
and the total rebate cannot exceed the cost of your tuition.
Do you have a friend who's new to yoga? This year at Estes Park, we've created a special Beginners' Conference to give a solid foundation on which to build a yoga practice.
In this carefully crafted series of courses,
beginners will experience flowing movement, yoga physiology and philosophy, and relaxing meditation.
Online Message Boards
Want to stay connected with fellow conference attendees?
Looking for a roommate? Yoga Journal is pleased to announce that each conference will now have an online message board exclusively for conference attendees.
Share a Story
Do you have a fun or interesting story you'd like to share with other conference alumni? Email it to us at yoga_stories@yogajournal.com.
If we use your story, we'll send you one
of the new Yoga Journal's Yoga Step-by-Step videos (VHS or DVD).
Editor's note: This is the first in our series of random teacher spotlights. Beryl has quickly become one of Yoga Journal's most popular teachers. She'll be at Estes Park this year teaching
Beyond Power Yoga: 8 Levels of Practice for Body and Soul (all-day intensive);
What Is This Thing Called Yoga?;
Lean into It: Balancing Sukha and Sthira;
Moving Past Alignment;
and Flow with Focus: Dhyana in Action
Beryl has been teaching Ashtanga Yoga for nearly 30 years. Before she found yoga, Beryl says she was wandering lost in the desert!
After graduating from Syracuse University
with a degree in philosophy and comparative religion,
she worked as a waitress at a prominent New York City club while studying acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Beryl worked as an actress in New York City but soon found that she was being called west, to California.
Although she didn't land her big break in the movies, she did take her first yoga class in 1971. She then spent several years on the West Coast working as a biofeedback researcher and studying the physiology of meditation.
In 1980, she moved back to New York City and was introduced to the practice of Ashtanga Yoga.
Beryl began teaching Ashtanga to a handful of ahead-of-their-time runners in 1981 at the prestigious New York Road Runners Club.
She became the wellness director of the club and continued to grow the yoga program.
Together with her husband, Thom—a world-class runner—they pioneered the introduction of yoga to the traditional athletic community.
Through the 80's, Beryl and Thom were virtually the only teachers of Ashtanga on the East Coast.
In the late 1980s, she coined the term "power yoga" as a way for Western minds to relate to Ashtanga Yoga.
She also became the founder/director of The Hard & Soft Astanga Yoga Institute in New York while remaining the wellness director of the New York Road Runners Club.
Her books Power Yoga and Beyond Power Yoga, and her videos have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. She currently writes the Asana column for Yoga Journal.
"I have always told my students that I'm going to press up into Handstand from Bakasana (Crane Pose) on the beach in Hawaii when I'm 60 years old. I haven't made it there yet, but I'm moving in that direction."
"What started me in asana? I was searching for God.
"When I was younger and newer to Ashtanga Yoga, the asana was very
important. It's a strong practice, and I took a lot of pride in it. I was
definitely arrogant about the fact that I did a strong practice and other
people did softer yoga. To give you an idea of how deep in the cloud cover
of avidya (ignorance) I was, I used to call "other, softer" forms of yoga
"sleeping yoga." I meant it to be "funny", but you know it was still
subtle arrogance—and not so subtle at that. But, thank God, if you do
practice consistently, without a break, with passion, you do get a little
wiser and more compassionate as you age. It's encouraging. You also learn
that even proficiency at asana is impermanent. If you have your entire
sense of self built around your asana practice, it can be quite a shock when
you get injured, ill, or old, all of which we will all experience. I now
practice having equal respect for the various authentic schools of yoga."
"The best teachers are the best students. They know the asanas, they know
their particular form, but they practice finding the balance between sukha
(soft, comfortable) and sthira (hard, steady). Too much sthira, and people
get too tight, too rigid about their particular practice. Their cup is
filled to overflowing and they argue endlessly about what is "right." Too
much sukha, on the other hand, and people become too sloppy with no
boundaries or discipline. They wander around from teacher to teacher,
shopping, essentially, like at the Mall, looking for entertainment. It
takes both sthira and sukha, just as Patanjali tried to tell us."
If you miss Beryl at Estes Park, be sure to catch her at our San Francisco Conference in January 2005. You can also find out more about
her and her studio online at www.power-yoga.com.
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Special Discount
Get a FREE bottle of a Spectrum Organics product of your choice (up to a $15 value!)
To request a free coupon for your choice of good-tasting Spectrum
Organic products, please visit the "Contact Us" section at
spectrumorganic.com.
Be sure to mention Yoga Journal and the conference you attended.
This offer is for Conference Alumni only.
We're proud to have Spectrum Organics as a 2004 Estes Park Conference sponsor.
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Save the Dates
Colorado Conference
Estes Park, Colorado
Sept. 27 - Oct. 3, 2004
Registration now open
Early Bird Ends July 12, 2004!
San Francisco Conference
Hyatt Regency San Francisco
Jan. 14 - 17, 2005
Registration opens Aug. 2004
Lake Geneva Conference
Grand Geneva Resort & Spa
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
May 13 - 16, 2005
Registration opens Dec. 2004
10th Annual YJ Conference
Colorado Conference
Estes Park, Colorado
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2005
Registration opens Apr. 2005
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