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Happy 2006 and welcome to the January edition of Conference Connection.
This month we're featuring an article by one of our upcoming San Francisco Conference presenters, Scott Blossom, on New Year's Resolutions.
He delves into his own personal resolutions and how his work with cancer patients affected and changed his life. We also have exclusive discounts from our conference sponsors, and a tasty New Year's recipe.
And, here's the inside scoop on what's coming up in the March edition of Yoga Journal:
We're celebrating National Heart Health Month with an exclusive partnership with Dr. Dean Ornish to help raise awareness about heart disease in women. Look for it on newsstands February 21!
Happy New Year,
The Yoga Journal Conference Team
Elana Maggal, Conference Director
Renee LaRose, Conference Manager
Casey Ruby, Conference Coordinator
Heidi Hill, Conference Sponsorship Associate
San Francisco Conference
Only one week until our San Francisco Conference! The conference is almost sold out, so if you're planning on going, make sure you register in the next few days.
You can still register online, or onsite at the Hyatt Embarcadero beginning at 4:00pm on Thursday, January 12.
Saturday day passes are sold out, but there are still a handful available for Sunday.
And there's still space available in some Friday and Monday All-Day Intensives.
There's also space available in our newly added one-day Beginners' Conference on Monday, January 16th. This one-day event is perfect for your friends who are new to yoga.
Even if you're not attending our San Francisco conference, stop in and shop at our extensive Yoga Marketplace SF for the latest in yoga clothing, jewelry, props and more.
There are also limited tickets available, for non-conference attendees, for our Saturday night
event - Yoga Trance Dance with Shiva Rea and DJ Dragonfly on January 14, 2006 @ 8:00pm, for $20.
Click here for more information on the conference, including a faculty list and registration information.
The San Francisco message board is still open for ride sharing and room sharing options.
Boston Conference
Our Boston Conference is only three months away -- April 7-10, 2006 -- in the heart of downtown Boston at the Sheraton Boston. The Continuing Education for Teachers 3-day conference is already almost sold out so if you're a teacher, make sure you register for this soon.
Click here for more information on the conference.
This year, we've teamed up with Be Present to bring you the official "Be Inspired" 2006 San Francisco Conference t-shirt.
Pick one up while you're at the conference and Be Inspired!
Conference t-shirts (shown here) will be on sale at the Yoga Journal booth at the San Francisco Conference for $20.
Vitality-Boosting Golden Dal
Start the new year with this healthy dish. Dal is easy to digest and filled with protein, vitamins, fiber, and lots of flavor.
Click here for the recipe.
by Scott Blossom
Editor's Note: Scott will be teaching at the 2006 Yoga Journal San Francisco Conference.
Click here to see his classes.
As the embers of the old year cool and darken, and the sun is its most distant, we reach instinctively for a light, or, more beautifully, an angel of light. An angel of light to renew hope, to guide and focus us, inspire and purify us. One of the names of this angel is Resolution.
The angel perches brightly, sometimes atop a Christmas tree, waiting to be called. As we exchange gifts imbued with our love for each other the angel whispers something sweet and wise inside our hearts. When we listen the angel offers us the gift of his or her graces: Wings to fly to the ones we love or have neglected. Courage to speak truth.
Power to stop smoking, Will to keep the house cleaner. This is the same angel we find in the niyamas of the yoga tradition: Resolve to maintain a purity, to appreciate things as they are, to make a more earnest effort, to know ourselves, to surrender to Divine Will--we enter an ancient practice and tradition of resolutions.
Why make a resolution? To perfect ourselves? To be "good?"
We resolve to find and found, re-find or refine the light that is the gift we give and receive in many ways every year. The yoga tradition leads us to ideas of purity, contentment, intense effort, self-reflection, and surrender to Divine Will. It also leads us to the story of Prince Siddhartha, the soon-to-be Buddha, who resolved not to rise from the base of the Bodhi Tree until he had awakened to reality in its ultimate sense.
Assailed by demons and temptresses, hunger and doubt, the Buddha stays true to his simple resolution not to leave his meditative seat at the base of the tree. Upon awakening, the world bursts into flower; reality fills with freedom and transcendent peace.
This is ironic: freedom from self-imposed limitation, focus, discipline, flowers from dark night. This is the tradition and practice of making resolutions in which we allow light to manifest in ways it may not without proper preparations, attitude, work, sensitivity, and devotion.
Bravely we enter resolutions, disillusioned or distracted we abandon them. Rumi's angel answers us:
Whoever you are! Wanderer, worshipper, Lover of leaving
This is not a caravan of despair
It does not matter if you've broken your vow, your resolution
A thousand times, still
And yet again
Come!
It is a caravan not of despair, but of heart and light, lead by angels and all those who have gone before, that we join, each year, in our resolutions to love anew, love in sickness and in health, love through joy, love through loving ourselves, love without doubt.
It is a destination of beauty that is ours to which to arrive to each breath, each day, continually in our resolve.
About ten years ago I made a resolution to share yoga with cancer patients. Over time this work generated an organization that shares yoga and other forms of complementary medicine with patients facing life threatening illness and their caregivers in Santa Barbara, CA and most recently in New York City.
Staying true to this resolution has brought me profound rewards and daunting challenges but most of all it has inspired trust,
awe, and a sense of humor for the mysterious ways that Spirit moves within and without. My resolution has taken on a life of its own--it is no longer "mine." This process has changed me in ways that I never could have conceived of when I started.
In his book the Yoga Rahasy, Krishnamacarya describes hatha yoga as a form of devotional or bhakti yoga.
This echoes the core teaching of the last niyama, Ishvara pranidahana or "surrender to Divine Will." For me personally this has proven to be the
mahavratta or great vow of all the niyamas. Ishvara can be more literally translated as meaning "Divine gift or boon" and is none other than the sound OM.
Ishvara is our personal Angel of Light whose gift inspires us to resolve and whose companionship is essential to undergoing the transformations it engenders. Nowadays I start each day by humbly praying for guidance because I have learned over and over that what guides me in the right direction is a force that transcends my notions of what is right for me.
I still have to show up for work but I am conscious that all of it can be seen as an offering and surrender.
The Angel of Niyama shines and sings with every OM and takes flight when we offer her the wings of our own hearts.
~
Scott lives in Berkeley, CA with his wife Chandra and their 5 year
old daughter Tara. Among other things, lately they have been enjoying
experimental pumpkin pie recipes, singing songs, and downhill
skateboarding. Scott would like to thank them, Dr. Robert
Svoboda, and his twin brother Michael for their poetic responses to his
unofficial survey about resolutions. Michael got so excited that he
collaborated with him on the writing of the essay.
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Sayta Jewelry - Satya Foundation
Satya Foundation is dedicated to promoting opportunities for children to have an experience of yoga and healthy living through need-based scholarships.
All proceeds from the sale of the two sided OM-Peace Necklace go to the Satya Foundation. For more information or to purchase this necklace visit us online at
www.satyajewelry.com.
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Hyde - SAVE 10%
Hyde - clothing for yoga and for living - is proud to be a sponsor of the 2006 San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference.
Email your name and email address to grace@yogahyde.com and receive a coupon for 10% off any item at our booth at the San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference.
For more information, please visit www.yogahyde.com.
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Save the Dates
San Francisco Conference
Hyatt Regency
Jan. 13 - 16, 2006
One Week Left!
Boston Conference
Sheraton Boston
April 7 - 10, 2006
Registration Now Open
11th Annual Yoga Journal
Colorado Conference
Estes Park, CO
Sept. 25 - Oct. 1, 2006
Registration Opens May '06
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