Yoga for Body and Mind

09/12/2018

This past spring, Yoga for Body and Mind, in conjunction with Club Fit, Briarcliff, certified another class of wonderful yoga teachers! Some are already teaching and all report their practice has been significantly deepened. This makes my heart sing!

PLEASE TAKE NOTE!!! OUR NEXT TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM BEGINS IN NOVEMBER! IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE CONTACT ME THROUGH THIS SITE, OR CONTACT CLUB FIT! MORE INFO TO FOLLOW.

11/18/2017

This year's yoga teacher training at Club Fit got off to a great start in October with seven beautiful and enthusiastic yogis. We just completed our second (of eight!) monthly training weekends last week-end, studying asana, methodology, philosophy and, this month, especially, anatomy with Lauri Nemetz. Here are the yogis re-assembling the human spine from individual vertebrae:

07/12/2017

DEEPEN YOUR YOGA PRACTICE! Yoga for Body and Mind, in conjunction with Club Fit, Briarcliff, is once again offering a nine-month yoga teacher training program, beginning in mid-September. We meet one week-end a month and study seminal yoga philosophical texts, anatomy, teaching methodology, and we practice, practice, practice! Your understanding and experience of yoga is transformed.

Information session at Club Fit on July 27, 7:00. Please come!

06/25/2017

Wonderful yoga mala event yesterday to benefit Liberation Prison Yoga's work at the Bedford Hills Women's Correctional Facility! Congratulations and great thanks to the yogis who attended and completed 108 sun salutations. Now summer can REALLY begin! Thanks to my fellow teachers, Claudia Teacher, Adrienne Eppner, Beth Howard for helping to lead the practice and to Club Fit for the space and assistance. And, we were so pleased to be joined by Anneke Lukas and Yale Stone of Liberation Prison Yoga! Here are some pix of the mala:

06/13/2017

Dear Yogis! Less than two weeks to the official start of summer and also to the Solstice Sun Salutation fundraiser to benefit the yoga and meditation program at the Bedford Hills Women's Correctional Facility. Please join us on June 24 at Club Fit Briarcliff (584 North State Road) from 1:30 to 3:30 for an invigorating practice, but, of course, at your own energy and experience level! (suggested donation, $45.)

Give in the spirit of the Bhagavad Gita: selfless action and caring for others. Every penny goes to provide potentially lifesaving yoga and meditation to the incarcerated yogis.

We are sponsoring this event in conjunction with Liberation Prison Yoga, Yoga Teachers Association of Hudson Valley and Club Fit.

Yoga for Body and Mind is a member of the Give Back Yoga Foundation. https://givebackyoga.org

06/05/2017

More thank-yous! The yoga teacher training program just completed was a group effort! I am much indebted to my Club Fit yoga colleagues, Claudia Teacher, Lauri Nemetz, Liza Forster, and Beth Howard for lending their experience and insight to enrich the practice and knowledge of our trainees! They enjoyed spending time with you and had fun.

Appreciation goes especially to colleague Kathryn Ward, who assisted a number of times in working through our asana analysis and practice teaching.

Also a great, special thanks to my personal yoga legacy, Erik Kocho, who spent time with us (especially on sun salutations), and Sasha Kocho-Williams (of Ashtanga Yoga Preseli, her studio in Wales, U.K.) who brought the rigors of the ashtanga practice to our eclectic program! (You can follow Erik's other occupation at his website, blackcreekpermaculture.com and Sasha's yoga activities on her website, ashtangayogapreseli.epageuk.com)

Finally, thanks go to Karen Cornetz and other staff at Club Fit for taking care of logistics!

Nothing happens without the effort of all (or, at least it doesn't happen NEARLY as well!)

06/05/2017

Most touching and revealing of how much the teacher trainees got in touch with their compassionate side: yesterday they made, as a group, the FIRST CONTRIBUTION TO THE SUMMER SOLSTICE FUND RAISER FOR THE BEDFORD HILLS WOMEN'S CORRECTIONAL FACILITY YOGA AND MEDITATION PROGRAM! THANK YOU, YOGIS! You absolutely got the deeper meaning of this wonderful practice.

06/05/2017

The second teacher training program carried out by Yoga for Body and Mind in conjunction with Club Fit has just concluded! And here are the twelve wonderful yogis who participated. All have transformed their practice in one way or another and they have created during this time a sangha that nurtured them all during the past year!

CONGRATULATIONS!!! SO MUCH HARD WORK, AND SO MUCH YOGA TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN YOUR LIVES!

05/25/2017

June is almost here and with it Summer Solstice! Join us in greeting the summer and raising funds for the yoga program at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility! Here's more info.

05/11/2017

We honor the spirit of GIVING BACK the yoga practice and knowledge that we have received and benefited from over the years, passing it along to those who may need it most, underserved populations. So, YOGA FOR BODY AND MIND, together with the Yoga Teachers Association of the Hudson Valley and Club Fit, is sponsoring a SOLSTICE SUN SALUTATION PRACTICE fund raiser to benefit the YOGA AND MEDITATION PROGRAM at the Bedford Hills Women's Correctional Facility. This special practice will take place on Saturday, June 24, at Club Fit, Briarcliff, 1:30 - 3:30. Suggested donation is $45 (check to Liberation Prison Yoga.)

This is a great way to ensure that yoga, which has given us so much, goes and helps those who need it perhaps more than the rest of us. Liberation Prison Yoga, a non-profit organization, provides these programs to the incarcerated.

LET'S HELP THEM DO THIS IMPORTANT WORK!

04/04/2017

As many of my students know, our son, Erik, is an accomplished yogi and an organic farmer, to boot. He has a day job with Cornell Cooperative Extension and a small farm in the mid-Hudson Valley.

And, true to the concepts of seva (service) and the Bhagavad Gita's central idea of selfless action, last year he donated nearly 2000 pounds of produce to the underserved, soup kitchens and shelters, through a gleaning program in conjunction with the Extension. This year he wants to donate at least 10,000 pounds. He needs equipment to do this and has initiated a KICKSTARTER campaign for this purpose. Please consider donating to assist him in his efforts to provide the best food possible for those who don't have good access to such food.

In the words of the Buddhist sage, Shantideva, "All the joy the world has ever known has come from wishing happiness for others." Erik is not only wishing happiness for others, but trying to make it a reality through his farming.

THE KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN EXPIRES APRIL 21ST!!! Please consider contributing. Look at the link below -- you might get a seed packet, a seedling, a pruning workshop, or even a potluck dinner and farm tour!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/186698392/community-shared-produce-donation

Help us purchase equipment and labor that will allow us to provide ecologically grown food for distribution to food banks!

03/20/2017

Please check out Sasha's post below. Many of my students know my yoga-teacher daughter (and have practiced with her!) In the spirit of vernal equinox, she completed 108 sun salutations today, which is especially critical in Wales, where she lives, because the sun is so seldom in evidence! I expect the balance of 2017 to be considerably sunnier due to her strenuous efforts. Check out her studio page, Ashtanga Yoga Preseli.