Albuquerque Yoga Studio Blog: Yoga Art Space

Yoga For Community

The past year, I have been fortunate to teach yoga to individuals who are less likely or unlikely to have access to a yoga class or to a studio in their neighborhood compared to others who have the income to attend regular classes and to afford classes/class packages. The past few months while teaching local free or donation-based classes, I have asked myself time and again: "What is community yoga? What does it mean? As a yoga teacher, how do I teach community yoga? Is the term accurate or appropriate? What can studios or organizations do to address the needs of populations of people from diverse backgrounds who can benefit from yoga and its health and wellness benefits?" The answers to the

Detach and Find True Happiness

While spending a month at an Ashram in India this summer, our Guru (Dr. Omanand) kept saying the same things… “Detach from your expectations, detach from your ego, detach from the external world, and let it go, true happiness and bliss comes from within.” I wasn’t really sure what all this meant, but after months of trying to understand and practice this, I am beginning to develop awareness. I think the reason I have had a difficult time understanding this way of life and thought is because it is opposed to the Western world I live in. In my world, a competitive, success oriented western culture, that essentially trains us to believe that things like money, nice cars, a beautiful home, res

Just Breathe!

There is no denying it, the holiday season is thick upon us. It’s easy to get overwhelmed; lost in the constant communication and preparations. Therefore, it may be nice to remind yourself that you do, in fact, possess the greatest tool capable of getting you through these times. This tool is your breath, the life source. You may have noticed, that yoga teachers are constantly directing their students to connect with the breath; harness it and use it as the stable foundation on which to build their practice. This is indeed the key to making it through the tough times, on and off the mat. When one focuses on the breath, the healing begins to happen from the inside-out. We begin to become pres

Laughter is the Best Meditation

Yoga as I have experienced in my life is any activity or circumstance that connects us with our Source. In The Yoga sutras of Patanjali "yoga" is defined as the suspension (or arrest) of the fluctuations of the mind. By this definition yoga is synonymous with meditation. Anything which suspends the restless chattering of the mind and brings us to a place of inner stillness and peace IS meditation. Laughter Yoga is the yoga of compassion in action and is based on the premise that the joy and happiness we experience in our lives will be in direct proportion to the joy and happiness we bring to others. In many yoga class circumstances we go to class with either a conscious or subconscious expec