new connection where you can tune in and grow i'm your host vicky thompson you may be familiar with new connection magazine for conscious living which has been enjoyed by readers in the pacific northwest for more than seventeen years now excited to bring new connection to life in your home on new connection we welcome authors practitioners and visionaries to share new ideas for alternative health spirituality and personal growth today i'd like to welcome to new connection di glass or heard who's a director of anon to portland and laurie chadwick who's the director of anon do yoga portland this spiritual community practices the teachings of yoga master hansei yoga nonda they offer a non do yoga and meditation classes for inner peace and higher awareness dive i welcome to new connection thank you vicky is very nice to be here well i'm glad to have you on the show to talk about nanda yoga yoga by many different people and the yoga practices that you have at the end and a community really inspired peace can you share with us what is his yoga practice about yoga let's start with that because yoga actually the word means you know union with with our soul with spirit and the qualities of spirit are the things that were always seeking love and joy peace call me wisdom even power yoga postures and fact all yoga practice is the set of tools that we use to re experience who in fact we are at a infinite level so the yoga postures are designed to help the body get in tune with spirit and the other postures are nandi yoga encompasses the asanas or postures breathing practices and affirmations all tuned toward taking us deep inside into that reservoir of spirit and then as we get in touch with that it allows us and sets us up to be able to go deep into meditation far more easily that's what i love about your community is the affirmations and the meditations and taking it deeper so it's you're working your body and then you're also working on a spiritual level absolutely  you know if you start to study yoga very deeply you discover that there's absolutely nothing that isn't spiritual at the farthest level of spirituality all form disappears but we have to start where we are and so the tools of yoga give us a chance to start you know to the degree that we're caught in our bodies gives us something to do with our bodies that takes us into the experience  e the ultimate will be in stillness that we actually completely feel the power of who we are but the tension stress anxiety fear depression terror turning thoughts all kinds of things create a sense of separation we lose the peace we lose the joy who lose and so by beginning to work with our bodies and opening and all of you again this is one of the core precepts of all of yoga is that you start right where you are in fact one yoga posture master was talking about the fact that he envied his students that were newer because where you start to feel the increased sense of wholeness is at your own cutting edge your own point of stiffness if you relax into the place where you're tense the very act of opening  relaxing gives you the sensation of expansion in who you are and he said his new students could reach that point so much more easily than he could so which isn't to say that we don't want to go deeper into them but even the slightest practice of any of these will give you fabulous results just incredible experience of yourself and the possibilities of your own in south and nanda community you practice hatha yoga can you explain what that is it can you means union and so into in order to get really completely engaged in the experience of ourselves  spiritually everything has to come along so there are aspects of yoga that address health and well being there are aspects that address psychology in the mind there are aspects that address diet hot that yoga is the series of practices that  helps the body stay fit and limber and healthy and vital throughout the course of the days and there are throughout life so hot that means sun moon laurie will be demonstrating postures and a little bit one of the things that you'll see if you take yoga postures classes were tuned into the miss you're always balancing so if you bend to the left you always been to the right if you go and forward you bend backward you try and balance everything so a hot sun moon this talk is talking about that balance of energies inside wonderful well we've touched a little bit on some of the benefits of yoga taking yourself to that cutting edge and healing yourself move forward what are some are of the other beneficial aspects of yoga it relieves tension it oxygenates the blood which if you do any studying of health you discover is  one of the most powerful things for health and vitality it keeps the body limber and active and dynamic a few moments of yoga postures there are there are yoga postures for relaxation there are dynamic poses that really exercise different parts of the body but it brings everything into a balance and with a nod to yoga what you'll see is that we we go into a pose we engage  as well as the body by affirmation and then we come back into the center and allow the energy to rise up to the point between the eyebrows the point of divine contact if you will so it's always about up lifting not only healing the body but also of lifting the consciousness and helping a person have a really deep and powerful experience of their own joy their own inner light that's beautiful well today we have laurie from and on to portland and she's going to demonstrate some poses for us and so the first pose that we're going to do is circle and i'm an american lurie to come on forward and show us how a circle of joy works so well bring the hands to the heart center bringing in as we enter lace the fingers breathing out as we extend through the hands opening up between the shoulder blades breathing in as we lift overhead lengthening breathing as we bring the hands down behind us once more  like but these are these are increasingly athletic or increasingly physical so we want to make sure that everyone who's watching understands that if you have any physical limitations for where you're getting  medical counseling or advice if you've had any hip replacement osteoporosis high blood pressure if you're pregnant any of those kinds of things that you are in touch with your physician prior to doing any of the particular posterous if you're going to a yoga studio or an anon do yoga studio make sure that you inform the instructor of the conditions that you have so they can modify any of the poses so all the poses you'll see today and you're welcome to participate but you'll see them only in the form this designed for people who have general good health who have any conditions make sure that you make sure that you get the modifications you get and that's great advice ok so the next pose that we'd like laurie to demonstrate for us is the as we gently sweep over to the left lengthening through the fingertips extending through the body relaxing the shoulders away from the ear feeling that sense of grounded stability in the us and mentally affirm strength and courage fill my body cells breathe in as we lengthen up once more reading out as we circle the arms down coming back into to us and closing the eyes lifting the gaze to the point between the eyebrows and feeling for the and of the affirmation as laurie is into dos and that resting phase she can continue and you can continue to do the affirmation to take the experience of the posture thousands of years old and there are a common language between all real yoga schools but what an audio does is it takes then the affirmation that's the essence of that pose and helps you go deeper into it by getting the mind enlisted i cooperate and that's what i like so much about incorporating the meditations the affirmations it's just so whole body and spirit as i'm watching laurie i feel really a blip did and she's doing her poses you can really feel the energy flowing through her so it feels that it would just really open you up nicely going to it's tempting to stand up and i know we want to join you laurie but actually we'll sit down here and we'll watch you do the next pose which is the jackknife pose so we turning to the side to demonstrate this suppose once more as we breathe then we're going to sweep the arms overhead stretching tall lengthening through the crowd of the head will bring the palms together and just at the hips slightly bending the knees will bring the hands towards the heart center coming forward oh my as far as we can with still what we call the neutral spine and then bringing the hands to the to just feel the energy flowing to the place between the eyebrows feel that you're letting go of all imitation oh restlessness mentally affirming nothing on earth can hold me coming back home will bring the palms back to the tops of the thighs breathing and with that long spine slowly coming out sweeping the arms overhead once more and circling the arms down with the exhale because these this is an inversion and very dynamic because it gives the quality of call moose and relaxation and a sense of freedom from all of the claims of this world so it's a great way it's a great posture to do at the end of the day you know you've had a rough time at work you had a hard time in the commute you had the kids without you whatever nothing on earth can hold me you know my my consciousness is free and open if i turn that direction and so those are great that's a great posture thank you so much more for that part yeah i like nothing on earth can hold me because i think  almost looked like she was flying a little bit you know nothing on earth can hold her and she was really moving out and stretching and absolutely one of the things that a person can do who's interested in doing the old postures is develop a routine and there are resources on crystal clarity publications are publishing house they've got different different c d s d v d s and stuff they can give a person access to different lengths of posture sessions and they have the affirmations included they can also take a person into a guided visualisation at the end and then into a meditation so these things again these things are standalone you can do any one of them any time you like but you can do them in combination and just go deeper and deeper inside as you do that you'll find that you typically start with the standing poses and a great line from our teachings is what's the best yoga pose and  the korean out of the founder of anon the yoga he was a direct disciple of parm hans yogananda he said the best yoga pose is the one that leaves you firmly on your own two feet it's all these are about building our own character building our own sense of wholeness inside as you go deeper into the postures you took in the start standing up then you go into the kneeling poses or sitting poses and then you go into the supine or the lying poses and then into deep relaxation to assimilate the effects of all the different parts and that leads nicely into the next series of poses that lori's going to share with us and laurie is now going to live down to the floor and she's going to show us are two variations you can keep the arms that your sides or you can extend the arms overhead i'll be extending my arms down by my side so i'll breathe then laid then up to the crown of my had and just letting go restlessness and tension this is great for lengthening the spine relaxing the shoulders opening through the shoulders again all the tension that we carry on our shoulders all day long and you can see laurie has been doing this for quite some time you can really feel the energy flowing through her absolute relaxation and it is interesting to note as she's in this position you can sense the energy flowing up as you bring it to eye area as well to the middle of the forehead so yes it's looks incredibly relaxing and i really want to get the affirmation and it's particularly lovely i relaxed from out her involvement into my inner haven of peace feeling good we feel uplifted when we're feeling you know we're having a hard time we feel down and out and so all of this is about bringing the energy in and up so that we have that again that uplifted feeling in our lives we carry this around with us all the time it's always accessible but we have to know what to do to give access to it so these are the keys and a straight forward to very sick this is something that anyone can do anyone can do and you know people in wheelchairs can do it as modifications for people who don't have much mobility we have extra gentle yoga is the phrase we've used for the modifications of all these things that give anybody access you can go you know you can take these to the point where you can wrap you know one leg around the other you know and do all that but they can't even the slightest amount it's going into your stretch that's where the releases that's where the feeling of will be lying in the prone position with their hands about shoulder distance apart bringing any arms and elbows close into the body tozer point it will be l ening out from the hips out to the toes and from the waist up to the crown of the head will do this in three breaths what's important about a backward bend is that we keep the pressed into the floor throughout the pose to protect the lower back so as we inhale we're going to lengthen through the total length of the crown of the head just lifting the head and shoulders inhaling once more coming up a little further and if you've got more in you you can breathe then coming up fully but notice i'm not using the handsome using the strength of the back and we keep the back of the neck long it's a very dynamic pose for awakening hannity's in the spine the the brain communicates with the body down through the knack and then through the nerves that radiate out from the spine as we  make as we energize and make the energy in the spine more dynamic we feel much stronger flow of energy in inside to have access to a lot greater flow of energy both in relaxation and openness but also dynamically in the moments of our days so it's a very powerful posture and the affirmation of a joyfully rise to greet each new opportunity you feel that vitality in the power to meet life as it presents beautiful position you'll notice also that it's a perfect balance to the child's pose for the hair pose that she did before so she bent forward no she's bending back so you've got to get the heart out you've got the you know the balance between the movements floor and then if it's comfortable for your neck you can gently with the head off the floor routine doing it to the left you would normally if you were in the studio you would have more room for that arm to be down on the ground is very relaxing then a very natural to look out over the extended arm very comfortable and as you breathe in you you lengthen and then as you breathe out you relax more deeply into each pose so over the course of you know a few minutes you can go very very deep the there's a tip to the tissue around the muscles called the mile facial tissue and it  actually has its own rhythms and as you breathe if you if you push yourself through these poses the body won't relax it will stay tense but if you go just to the point where you are feeling the first stretch and you breathe in breathe out the body will naturally open to relax and you know much deeper into all of these p instructions on how to do the pose so you can do it on your own the culmination of all yoga postures as a posture is the poses she's in now the  it's the challenge is to relax completely and allow the changes that have happened through the past years to assimilate throughout your system and to become a part of your native awareness so that it's not herself just relaxing ever more deeply until she loses body consciousness and all she feels is that deep state of peace and whole and at the end of this only she could do it for a couple of minutes or five minutes or more at the end of that she would bring her consciousness back to the fingers and toes and then you know move the head a little bit begin though bring yourself back and we're body but what you notice when you do this is that it's a perfect preparation for meditation you don't feel like going anywhere or doing anything you feel alive and dynamic inside but very content and still and at one with yourself and peace and that is the fruit of a nod to yoga that's beautiful and lori i want to thank you so much for coming and sharing these beautiful poses with us today thank you for hosting us and blessings to everybody who's watching and who's part of the crew today thank you so much you can learn more about yoga at our web site at new connection journal dot com join us next time a new connection where you can tune in and grow