“When I look inside and see that I am empty, that is wisdom. When I look outside and see that I am everything, that is love. Between those two, my life turns.”
~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
For many years, I wondered if there was a way to reconcile the Buddhist notion of emptiness with my own experiences on and off the mat of fullness–my sense of connection to everything. When I came across this quote by the Nondualist teacher Nisargadatta, I felt the apparent duality dissolve.
Why would such a philosophical point matter, you might ask, when there is so much fear and heartache in the world, when so many of us are struggling with root chakra issues like job security and financial stability? For me, when I can embrace the nothing inside that needs nothing, as well as the everything outside that connects me to all that I am, then fear and constriction around money and basic survival needs diminish. I can act from a place of clarity to fulfill those needs for myself and for others.
If you are worried now, please take a moment to breathe into the wisdom you are. Take a moment to breathe out love. Nothing and Everything. You are not separate from the wisdom and love of the cosmos. Nor are you separate from those who suffer. When you act in harmony with this knowledge, from this place of connection, you are in service to all.
A loving namasté,
Amy
In This Issue
NEWS: New Website Launched
RESEARCH: Depression During Pregnancy
LifeForce Yoga for Professionals – A Training on CD
NEWS: LifeForce Yoga® Bhavana
CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS
MEDIA MENTIONS
LIFEFORCE YOGA® RESOURCES
RESOURCES AMY RECOMMENDS
NEWS: NEW WEBSITE LAUNCHED!
I’m happy to announce that after months of work, we have just launched the new LifeForce Yoga website, still at the old address of www.yogafordepression.com! There are many new resources there for you, an easy navigation system, beautiful imagery and Hannah Caratti’s lyrical chanting of “Chandi” on the home page.
I would like to thank website designer, Loretta Mossburg of Plexus Design www.plexusdesign.com, and the friends whose opinions I solicited at each homepage draft. I would also like to thank Hannah Caratti www.yogahealingarts.net for her contribution of music, Rose Kress, Melissa Mimms, Dan Duncan, Leo Gosselin and Christine Austin for photography, and Judy & Stu Singer for tech support over the years.
In keeping with the launch of the site and the new look, we are redesigning all our LifeForce Yoga print material as well. Special thanks to Christine Simpson and Karen Scott of Great Scott Design www.gr8scottdesign.com for their creative work!
RESEARCH: Depression During Pregnancy Affects Premature Delivery
The outcome of a study reported in the peer-reviewed October issue of the online journal Human Reproduction, (www.humrep.oxfordjournals.org) showed that depressed women were twice as likely to have a premature delivery. Given that preterm births are a leading cause of infant death, treating depression in early pregnancy is vital to the health and wellbeing of both mother and infant. Since antidepressant treatment during pregnancy is controversial at best, complementary treatments like yoga are an important alternative to psychopharmacologicals, which could put the fetus at risk. Prenatal Yoga classes may be as important to a healthy birth as they are to the optimum mental and physical wellbeing of the mother.
NEWS: LIFEFORCE YOGA FOR PROFESSIONALS – A TRAINING ON CD
LifeForce Yoga Workshop on CD for Professionals:
Empower Your Clients to Manage Their Moods
This 12-hour+ workshop was recorded live at the Cape Cod Institute, August 4 – 8, 2008 on 11 CDs.
Learn and practice Yogic strategies to help clients focus, relax, and have greater access to feeling states. Discover for yourself the physiological changes occurring in the body during Yoga practice that produce the immediate “feel good” affect, and experience the shift in your own outlook as we practice simple exercises that can change your life and the lives of your clients.
For more information and to order click here.
Amy will be offering this workshop again, July 20 – 24th at the CAPE COD INSTITUTE
The CAPE COD INSTITUTE is a summer long series of 26 week-long in-depth continuing education courses for mental health and
management professionals, taught by leading contributors to knowledge and practice. Sessions are held Monday-Friday mornings, leaving the afternoons free for leisure and study. The courses are approved for continuing education credit for various professional groups.
For Further Information:
CAPE COD INSTITUTE
www.cape.org
Toll Free: 888-394-9293
E-mail: prolearning@behavior.net
NEWS: LIFEFORCE YOGA BHAVANA:
New LifeForce Yoga Resource
LifeForce Yoga Bhavana
LifeForce Yoga Bhavana:
Say Yes to Yourself ~ A Guided Relaxation Experience
Align heart and mind to find your life’s mission. This guided relaxation experience (Bhavana) helps you reconnect with the burning bush in your heart and say “yes” to that heart’s desire and to Yourself. This original and inspiring guided visualization practice incorporates mantra, pranayama breathing, some gentle stretching, and a writing exercise.
- Introduction 2:23
- Calm Strength – Intro 1:51
- Calm Strength – Bhavana 4:26
- Yes to Yourself – Intro 7:07
- Yes to Yourself – Set-up 5:59
- Yes to Yourself – Clearing the Space with Movement 9:43
- Yes to Yourself – Clearing the Space with Breath 7:40
- Yes to Yourself – Bhavana 13:41
- Yes to Yourself – Automatic Writing 2:37
- Yes to Yourself – Closing 3:20
Total Running Time 53:47
Written & produced by Amy Weintraub
Music composed and performed by Bill Cashman
Recorded by Bill Cashman at the Cavern Studios Tucson
To order your own copy of LifeForce Yoga Bhavana, click here.
CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS: Winter/Spring
After the January Retreat and LifeForce Practitioner Training in Tucson, I look forward to seeing many of you at Kripalu at the end of the month for LifeForce Yoga® to Manage Your Mood.
In February, I’ll see some of you on the West Coast of Florida at Joyful Yoga in Bonita Springs, or in Arizona at the Bisbee Yoga Expo.
After the first Tucson Book Festival, March winds will blow me to Chicago for a weekend at Generations Yoga and then on to Washington D.C. for one of the highlights of my year-teaching and learning from some of the most brilliant thinkers and creative therapists in the world at the annual Psychotherapy Networker Symposium. March ends with my second visit to Willow Street Yoga, this time at their Silver Spring, MD location.
In April, I’ll be offering workshops in Tampa at the Lotus Pond, at Kripalu with author, yogi, and psychopharmacologist Richard Brown, M.D., and at the Yoga Therapeutics Conference at Kripalu.
In May, I look forward to returning to Mount Madonna in Watsonville, California.
In June, I’m happy to be teaching for the first time in London. I’ll lead a weekend mood management workshop and a LifeForce Yoga Practitioner Training for Yoga Teachers and Health Professionals.
KRIPALU CENTER
Lenox, MA (January 30 – February 1, 2009)
LifeForce Yoga® to Manage Your Mood
This weekend will help you cultivate the compassionate inner space that allows you to embrace life’s challenges with a peaceful mind and a courageous heart. In this inspiring workshop, you will learn and practice breathing exercises, easy postures, guided meditations, and other experiential yogic tools for managing your mood.
BISBEE YOGA EXPO
Bisbee, AZ (February 13 – 16, 2009)
Give the Mind A Bone: LifeForce Yoga® Chakra Clearing Workshop
Breathe-yes; meditate–of course! But how, when you’re in the middle of a busy day or a stressful situation? Lean a meditation that ticks the mind into mindfulness even in the midst of chaos.
LifeForce Yoga®: From Blues to Bliss ~ All Day Intensive
You’ll learn strategies that can help alleviate both depression and anxiety and methods to safely release chronically held tension and repressed emotion in the physical and emotional body.
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Tucson, AZ (March 13 – 15, 2009)
Tucson Festival of Books
The first annual Festival of Books
promotes a region-wide public celebration of reading and literacy.
GENERATIONS YOGA CENTER
Chicago, IL (March 20 – 22, 2009)
LifeForce Yoga® to Manage Your Mood
In Yoga, one size doesn’t fit all-all bodies, all levels of experience, all moods. Learn to assess the mood–yours and your students–and design a menu of practices to meet it.
PSYCHOTHERAPY NETWORKER SYMPOSIUM
Washington D.C. (March 26 – 29, 2009)
Psychotherapy Networker Symposium
Amy is the LifeForce Yoga® Facilitator leading morning yoga, afternoon meditations, an all-day Creativity Intensive, and a clinical-applications workshop.
WILLOW STREET YOGA
Silver Spring, MD (March 29, 2009)
LifeForce Yoga® to Manage Your Mood
In a safe and accepting environment, Amy will teach you yogic strategies that can help you maintain your optimum mental health and methods to safely release chronically held tension and repressed emotion in the physical and emotional body
THE LOTUS POND
Tampa, FL (April 3 – 5, 2009)
LifeForce Yoga: From Blues to Bliss
In this inspiring workshop, you will learn and practice breathing exercises, easy postures, guided meditations, and other experiential yogic tools for managing your mood that are not often taught in regular yoga classes. Amy will guide you through practices to help you dissolve the obstacles that keep you from knowing the joy that is your birthright.
KRIPALU CENTER
Lenox, MA (April 20 – 24, 2009)
Kripalu Yoga Therapy Conference
LifeForce Yoga Therapy: Meeting Negative Beliefs and Feelings on the Mat
In this workshop, you will learn a yogic inquiry practice (svadhyaya) that addresses the negative beliefs and feelings associated with depression and anxiety. When your student or client says, “I can’t,” or begins to cry, this strategy shows you how to dive beneath the story, through the body’s wisdom, to mine the depths of self-limiting beliefs and shift negative self-talk. Through a demo and practice, you will learn to apply the technique to your own self-inquiry, as well as in your yoga therapy and teaching practice.
KRIPALU CENTER
Lenox, MA (April 24 – 26, 2009)
LifeForce Yoga Meets Complementary Medicine to Manage Mood
In this new program, you will learn and experience profound changes with the LifeForce Yoga strategies along with Coherent Breathing and Open Focus Meditation-two self-regulation techniques that balance the nervous system, relieve anxiety, increase well-being, and improve focus. During the weekend, we will look at current research on the use of herbs and nutrients in managing mood.
DESERT RENEWAL CENTER
Tucson, AZ (May 7 – 13, 2009)
LifeForce Yoga Practitioner Training ~ Level 2
For those that have completed the Level 1 Practitioner Training. Explore the depths of LifeForce Yoga with this additional training. You will learn new techniques and expand on the ones that you already know. For more information on what the training entails, email Rose, rose@amyweintraub.com
MOUNT MADONNA
Watsonville, CA (May 15 – 19, 2009)
LifeForce Yoga: From Blues to Bliss
Amy leads a 5 day Lifeforce Yoga retreat in the mountains of northern California.
KRIPALU YOGA CENTRE
Dorking, Surrey, ENGLAND (June 12 – 14, 2009)
LifeForce Yoga to Manage Your Mood
Amy brings LifeForce Yoga to the UK for the first time. For more information and to register, contact Carly, events@gingerpai.com
THE SPECIAL YOGA CENTRE
London, ENGLAND (June 20 – 24)
LifeForce Yoga Practitioner Training ~ Level 1
Designed for Yoga teachers, mental health professionals, and serious students. Learn to apply ancient Yogic strategies to empower your students and clients to manage their moods. For more information and to register, contact Carly, events@gingerpai.com
CHANTING OPPORTUNITIES
Bindu MJ Delekta, my long time friend in Yoga, has added a chanting page to her beautiful Sacred Circle of Yoga website. Bindu’s voice is haunting and deep, and I am grateful for her spirit that shines through the chants on both the level One and Level Two LifeForce Yoga to Beat the Blues DVDs. You can listen to her chants, read the English translations and what they mean to her and see the lovely accompanying photographs at www.sacredcircleofyoga.com. Bindu offers Yoga retreats, Yoga therapy sessions and classes at her studio on Martha’s Vineyard.
I met Yoga teacher and psychotherapist intern Hannah Caratti at Richard Miller’s Santa Sabina Retreat last May, and have continued with almost daily chanting of the Dawn Chant by Sri Shankaracharya that she led at the retreat. Hannah has a lovely voice, and I highly recommend her CDs, which you can purchase, along with her Gentle Yoga practice DVD from her web site at www.yogahealingarts.net. Yes, this is the same Hannah who chants “Chandi” on the homepage of our new LifeForce Yoga website!
Senior Kripalu meditation teacher and kirtan leader Bhavani Lorraine Nelson has a new CD that includes the folk singer/songwriter Linda Worster and the musician and composer Mark Kelso. A New Dawn includes the beautiful “Dawn of an Eagle” and “Home in the Mountains” that Kripalu visitors and friends have enjoyed for years, as well as many new meditative songs by Bhavani and her friends. To order her new CD and others, including her meditation CD, previously reviewed in this newsletter, visit Bhavani at www.bhavanilorrainenelson.com.
LIFEFORCE YOGA® RESOURCES
2 Award-winning, LifeForce Yoga® to Beat the Blues,
75-minute videos (DVD) practice,
- led by Amy Weintraub
- Programmable Chapters
- Original music
- Includes a Study Guide booklet
- Shot on-location in Tucson, AZ by Emmy-award winning Director of Photography, Dan Duncan.
In both Level 1 & Level 2 DVDs, Amy Weintraub, MFA, E-RYT 500, author of the book Yoga for Depression (Broadway Books), offers a comprehensive sequence of breathing techniques, toning, and postures to lift and balance the mood.
Level 1LEVEL 1 – In this gentle, beginning, yet invigorating video yoga practice, Amy invites practitioners into the loving embrace of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Quan Yin, “she who hears the cries of the world.” In the sacred space Amy creates, students begin to feel and safely experience their bodies and their emotions. The practice culminates with Yoga Nidra, or deep relaxation, in which participants integrate the experience and return to full wakefulness feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.
***Winner of 4 Bronze Telly Awards***
Music by William Chapman, Krishna Das, & MJ Bindu Delekta
Level 2LEVEL 2 – Amy offers modifications throughout this more challenging sequence of postures. Here, Amy invokes the energy of Shiva in his incarnation as the Fire Dancer Nataraja, guiding viewers to stay present to the sensations in their bodies, cultivating self-awareness as they burn away what is no longer serving them. The practice ends with an invitation to allow the awakened prana to guide the practitioner into her own flow of poses before transitioning into Yoga Nidra.
Music by Master Charles ~ Synchronicity & MJ Bindu Delekta
“A rare gem. This is a DVD that I will enjoy, and continue to learn from, for years to come.”- Richard Miller, PhD – President, Center of Timeless Being; author, Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga
“No matter what your mood, Amy’s unique LifeForce Yoga® program will bring you balance and joy. I loved this practice!”-Lilias Folan, PBS Host; author, Lilias! Yoga Gets Better with Age
“This is a wonderful testament to self-acceptance, the sentiment at the core of beating the blues.”-LA Yoga
RESOURCES AMY RECOMMENDS
Resources by leaders in the field of yoga and mental health that Amy recommends (books, CD’s & DVD’s) are available at Carol Hendershot’s online store Expressions Yoga. Many of the resources Amy uses during her workshops can be found here, including the music
For wholesale orders, please contact Rose Kress at info@amyweintraub.com.
iREST YOGA NIDRA
Tools for deepening your awareness from the Center of Timeless Being by Richard Miller, Ph.D.
www.nondual.com
International Association of Yoga Therapists
This organization maintains a vast database of Yoga research, a library, publishes a yearly journal, and a tri annual newsletter with current research and articles. In addition, IAYT maintains a searchable online member database, which folks can use to locate a Yoga therapist/teacher in their vicinity. (They currently do not do any verification of training and experience). If you are a health professional, a Yoga teacher or therapist, or have an interest in Yoga therapeutics, I encourage you to become a member.
www.iayt.org
Have a Healthy Mind
Dr. Richard P. Brown and Dr. Patricia L. Gerbarg offer integrative approaches for mental health and brain function that include herbs, nutrients, yoga, yogic breathing and meditation based on their research and clinical experience as psychiatrists and psycho-pharmacologists.
www.haveahealthymind.com
