In This Edition: Message from Lynn Celebrate River Run with Special Morning Classes Remember to BREATHE! Viniyoga on Wednesdays Revolve Film and Music Festival

Dear Ones,

Imagine a spinning top. This is the image that Erich Shiffmann uses to open his great book, Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness.

If the top is aligned properly, it will appear to be still. In fact, the very center of the spinning top is still, and the movement is happening around that still point.

If the top is not aligned, it will veer wildly about. And, even if properly aligned, it will wander around when it starts to run out of energy.

When we’re not aligned, we’re easily thrown off balance. When we run out of steam — out of inspiration — we get tired.

That’s why we practice yoga: So that, regardless of what is happening around us — the mighty winds of March, the torrents of April, the wild flowering of May — there will be a place inside each of us that we can tap into for stillness, peace and quiet. And from that place of stillness, peace and quiet, we can source our inspiration.

It seems as if it’s hard to get people excited about peace. It’s so … peaceful.

But real peace is not boring. Real peace is unobstructed energy. Imagine that: All the energy you’ve ever wanted or needed to do all the things you want to do: care for your family, work productively, create endlessly.

I went to yoga camp a couple of weeks ago for a workshop with Erich Shiffmann and came back all fired up about improving my home practice and cultivating inner peace.

“I’ll take my ‘good’ mat home when I leave the studio,” I promised myself. “I’ll get up a ½-hour earlier and practice and meditate every day.”

Well, that resolution lasted about 5 minutes. Human beings are so peculiar. Why is so hard to do something that’s good for us — even if we enjoy doing it?

When I practice first thing in the morning, I feel so much better. After practice, I feel strong and light and focused. I’m nicer to other people. I’m nicer to me.

When I take the time to align with the divine, my practice — and by extension, my life — becomes easier. It flows with grace.

So let’s make a Living Resolution. Let’s take a little time every day to: 1) Align – to the promptings of our hearts, our bodies, the divine; 2) Unwind – relax; and 3) Shine - at home, at work, in the privacy of our practice.

We might be crazy spinning tops, engaged in our wild and abundant lives, but we can still find that stillness, peace and quiet within if we take time every day to Align, Unwind and Shine.

Lynn

Celebrate River Run with Special Morning Classes

9 a.m. Thursday , April 24 — Flow Yoga w/ Lynn Ellis

9 a.m. Friday, April 25 — Flow Yoga w/ Lynn Felder

Arts of Yoga welcomes River Run International Film Festival participants to Arts of Yoga with two morning yoga classes, in addition to all the regularly scheduled classes.

Remember to BREATHE!

Viniyoga
Wednesdays
9:00 to 10:15 a.m.
Arts of Yoga

The Viniyoga Approach to Yoga :

- works with your breath to calm and focus your mind.

- restores your energy.

- adapts to suit your body’s unique abilities and limitations.

- thoughtfully crafts yoga sequences to protect you from injury.

- teaches you how to practice at home.

This class is for beginners, as well as experienced students who wish to deepen their breathing. It is suitable for all levels of fitness. Sydney Hughes-McGee, RYT 500, has been teaching yoga for 12 years and recently graduated from the American Viniyoga Institute’s Advanced Yoga Teacher Training Program. Viniyoga emphasizes the thoughtful application of yoga’s many tools for increasing comfort in one’s body, improving concentration and memory, releasing habits of emotion and behavior, and finding joy within. Click here to see the flyer; contact Sydney at 336.777.1797 with questions.

Revolve Film and Music Festival

Shalini Chatterjee, a student at AOY, has founded an ongoing film festival. You'll like the films that Shalini brings in: Take a look.

The Revolve Film and Music Festival announces its May program: WONDERS ARE MANY: THE MAKING OF DR. ATOMIC, which will screen at the renowned Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, NC on May 8 at 5:30 p.m.

This film chronicles the making of "Dr. Atomic," a new work by the San Francisco Opera that dramatizes the dropping of the first A bomb in 1945. Acclaimed filmmaker Jon Else tracks the opera's progress over a year, with its theatrical ups and downs, while telling the parallel story of how nuclear weaponry was developed.

The screening will mark Revolve's debut in Greensboro. The festival has so far screened in Winston-Salem and Carrboro.

“Our audience gave this film rave reviews at its Winston-Salem premiere in March, so we jumped at the opportunity to show it in Greensboro, especially at the Weatherspoon,” said Festival Founder Shalini Chatterjee.

Tickets are available online, until 3 p.m. day of show from revolvefestival.com. Tickets prices are $8 in advance, $10 day of show, plus 2.5 % service fee.