The first thing you remove at The Awareness Center is your shoes. After that: stress of the day, weeks of worry, years of hard living—what you remove is up to you. If you need more you can sign up for a private session or a healing. It's a pretty place, with soft light and a serene feel to it. I'll post more photos in the future.The Awareness Center specializes in Kundalini yoga but they also have Hatha for all levels taught by Bindu, who has a loyal following and also teaches private students. (I practice Hatha with Bindu, pretty much at the "stress of the day" level.)
I've studied yoga off and on for years at lots of different places. They all attempt to create a happy atmosphere and some achieve it. The feeling of goodwill at the Awareness Center is genuine. This probably begins with owner Gisela Powell (Wahe Guru Kaur), then trickles through the teachers and staff to the clients. When you enter and remove thy shoes, you feel all that goodwill right down to your toes.
18 comments:
My people are not of the limber tribes. Stout, yes. Nevertheless, my experiences with yoga and Qi Gong have been calming. I'm really good at the part where one relaxes on the floor with knee and head support, a blanket over, and eye pillow on face. And breathing.
I should start by saying that yesterday, I actually fell off my exercise ball...
I love yoga, and a couple of years ago practiced it regularly. I miss it, and might just be motivated, after reading your post, to start again!
Heres a verse:
capable of carrying heavy loads
can not touch her toes
I too, belong to the same tribe as uselaine
I could sure use some of that calm and relaxation now with movers arriving next week.
I love that sign!!
I have to admit that putting my shoes on usually helps me to calm down and relax though, not the other way around.
Very calming photo. Great that you're finding yoga to be such a positive and de-stressing experience. The last time I did yoga was a class at a community center in Minneapolis about 15 years ago. One guy insisted on lamely coughing every few minutes, and I just remember wanting to strangle him. Maybe I should give yoga another chance!
uselaine, I'm a really good breather, too. Very proud of my breathing.
kelly, you made me laugh out loud.
palm axis, I couldn't touch a lot of things when I started, and I can touch some of them now...
musings, I'm doing my best to send the vibes across the miles to you.
Shoes for you, christie, socks for me. But you have to be barefoot for yoga so your toes can grip or you'll slide off your mat.
katie, I remember being in a class (at a different studio) where a woman brought her young son, who couldn't pay attention and was very distracting (running around the room, blowing his nose, etc). Some people got angry. Some people seemed not to notice him at all. I was somewhere in the middle: he didn't bother me much, but I wondered if the teacher should have asked the mother to remove the distraction from the class...?
My mum has been doing yoga since I was a little kid.
If I ever have an ailment I always hear - "yoga would fix that".
Sore neck - yoga would fix that.
Sinus troubles - yoga would fix that.
Foot growing out the side of my head - yoga would fix that!
BTW - really like this shot.
Was this you taking a photo surreptitiously?
hi Petrea. When I click on "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" at the bottom of your blog, it does not offer me the chance to subscribe. It's handy to have favorite blogs as RSS feeds. Any advice?
freefalling, your mum was right. Except about the foot in the head, I think it's still there.
I have permission to shoot at The A.C., but people are sensitive to being photographed in class so I'm careful. I took this one semi-surreptitiously, then showed it to the owner of the toes, who approved it.
Dina, I'm honored you want to subscribe. I'm working on it.
Hi, I have been doing yoga at The Awareness Ctr for over three years now. They used to be located upstairs and although the facilities are now a definite upgrade, The Center has always provided a home and family to anyone who walks through the door. I now teach Kundalini Yoga there and I also teach Reiki which is a Japanese form of energetic healing. The reason for mentioning this is that I have grown so much in the last few years and The Center has provided a welcome space and plenty of opportunity to grow as an individual and as a part of our community.
I encourage you to join us. We are very compassionate with our students and our teachers are very qualified to teach at all levels without singling individuals out. In fact, we have a 4 week series every Wednesday, starting June 4th, called KY101. It is a GREAT series aimed towards beginners that is taught by Amy/Sat Prem Kaur & Helen/aka Dev Avtar Kaur. The price is $60 for the series or $15 per class. Please feel visit our website for additional info at www.awarenesscenteryoga.
Like you say, devmurti, it's a welcoming place. And there's always something going on.
Ooh, I think I like your yoga studio! My practice began in 2000 and I was faithful until last fall. I don't know what's happened but I'm determined to get back to regular yoga (Iyengar). The class I take is held at our old Grange Hall, quite different from this photo!
I just visited Katie's blog thanks to your referral - and think it's great. Katie, let's both recommit to yoga, what do you say?
Hello everyone,
Thanks to Devmurti's kind words. I am co-teaching an introductory 4 week class called KY101 (Kundalini Yoga 101) starting this Wednesday, June 4 from 7-9PM. It's suitable for all ages, body types (uselaine!) experience levels (kelly!). You can even choose to sit in a chair for the entire class.
This is a great way to discover whether you might like Kundalini Yoga or not, or even to refresh your memory or go deeper into topics that teachers usually don't have time to go over in class.
For example, this first week, I'll be covering pranayam - breathing - sounds simple, but there are many subtle (and not so subtle) effects that can be accomplished with the breath.
Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions at satpremkaur(at)gmail.com
I hope to see you this Wednesday!
Best of luck with your new class, sat prem kaur. (Or as we say, "break a leg." But don't.)
The Awareness Center is great. I just started taking classes with Bindu and I am really loving them!
Hi, Johanna! I was there today, were you? Hmm. I looked at your blog. If you were there today I can guess which one you are.;)
Hi Petrea. I think that I was there. I definitely have seen you in class. I'll speak up next time! ;) Hope you had a great holiday weekend.
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