Denver Health Classes with Kate

Tuesdays/Thursdays at 5:30pm

790 Delaware - Sabin Classroom

Washington Park Class with Sarah

Wednesdays at 5:30pm

Near Franklin and Ohio (in the grass just south of the rec center) ]]> http://www.yogaforthepeople.org/?feed=rss2&p=111 http://www.yogaforthepeople.org/?p=110 http://www.yogaforthepeople.org/?p=110#comments Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:02:02 +0000 admin http://www.yogaforthepeople.org/?p=110 Every Wednesday, I have the privilege of participating and assisting Regan Linton in her chair yoga class at the Rocky Mountain Stroke Association. 

Until a month ago, I had never heard of chair yoga.  Chair yoga is a variation of yoga designed for those that are wheelchair bound or have limited mobility in their limbs.  Chair yoga still utilizes breathing techniques to focus the mind on the present as well as utilizes various stretches that elongate the body and help with stress.  Typical yoga moves are adjusted to meet each individual’s ability and desire to be challenged.  I have enjoyed watching various participants try new poses or stretches that most people would think they cannot do due to limitations; however, with slight modifications they do the poses beautifully.  Some participants stay seated, while others get on the floor to do their forward bends or backbends. 

It is more than a class of stretches to help with mobility for stroke survivors; however, to the participants, it is a class of community and camaraderie.  It is a time where they share their triumphs and failures in gaining mobility as well as hope in living.  Two women in the class bring a huge smile as they share their funny moments in the day or in the class.  They laugh together about forgetting to breathe during the exercises and in life in general.  One man said a particular exercise helped him to remember what it was like to smile.  His wife had not seen him smile since his stroke.  He thought practicing the pose would help him to smile again as he regained hope for the future. 

Every Wednesday is a new experience for me as I walk up the path and engage in the yoga community.  It is an experience steeped with great hope, great sorrow, and great courage demonstrated in a simple yet profound activity such as yoga. 

When: Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 9am 

Where: Qi Athletic Club            

2636 Walnut St., Denver

Causes for Community is a volunteer community outreach effort to help raise money for various non-profit causes by offering donation-based spin yoga classes where 100% of the donations from the class go towards the fund-raising cause. Spin Yoga is a great workout consisting of 30 minutes on the bike followed by 30 minutes of stretching in the yoga room.Please join us in sharing the gift of yoga by donating to YFP! There is no need to be a Qi member. Donations accepted in the form of cash or check made out to Yoga for the People. Suggested donation is $5 - $20.

Please participate in this fund-raising event and pass it on! If you are interested in working with Causes for Community to raise money for your cause, please contact Causes for Community through Facebook. We offer classes every Sunday at 9am at Qi downtown!
 

Can’t make it but still want to give?  Donate now to help us bring yoga programs to schools, community centers, nonprofit groups and health clinics throughout the Denver Metro area!

*Note: Volunteers positions at Bridge Project and Growing Home are high energy placements and require an interest in working with kids (experience working with at-risk youth is helpful).

Co-teaching with a friend/partner is also a viable possibility at most of the placements.

1. Bridge Project: After-school program for kids living in Denver’s public housing neighborhoods - Quigg Newton site - 4558 Navajo St., north Denver (just off I-70 and Pecos): Tuesdays 5:30-6:30pm (first half hour is K-2nd grade, second half hour is 3rd-5th grade), approximately 5-10 kids - placement ends in May/June

2.   Bridge Project: After-school program for kids living in Denver’s public housing neighborhoods - South Lincoln site  - 1217 W. 10th Ave., Denver (2 blocks west of 10th and Kalamath): Tuesdays 5-6pm - placement ends in May/June

3. Growing Home: After school activities for youth - Global Leadership Academy - 7480 Conifer Rd, north Denver (near 75th and I-25): Wednesdays, 4:45-5:30pm (slightly flexible time), 15 kids, K-2nd grade (BILINGUAL IN SPANISH A PLUS, BUT NOT NECESSARY) - placement ends in May

4.   Growing Home: After school activities for youth - Westminster Elementary - 7482 Irving Street, Westminster (near 75th and Lowell): Wednesdays, 4:15-5pm (slightly flexible time), K-2nd grade - placement ends in May

5. Denver Health - Park Hill Community Clinic - 4995 E 33rd Avenue, Denver: Lunchtime class, 1x/week, 12pm-1pm - day of the week is flexible - placement end-date is currently indefinite

6. Denver Health - Eastside Community Clinic - 501 28th St., Denver: Lunchtime class, 1x/week, 12pm-1pm - day of the week is flexible - placement end-date is currently indefinite

7. Denver Health - Staff Class - 990 Bannock St, Denver: Wednesdays, 4:30pm - placement end-date is currently indefinite

8. MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) - Zion Lutheran Church, Brighton - 1400 Skeel Street, Brighton: 9:30-10:30am, every other Friday beginning February 5th - approximately 10 mothers, maybe with a few minutes involving the preschoolers at the end of each session - placement end-date is currently indefinite

Whole Yoga offers affordable $5 classes in addition to their standard rate classes.  Check out http://www.wholeyoga.com/schedule.htm for a full class schedule.  Many thanks to Jason for choosing Yoga for the People as the beneficiary of his class!

 If you would like to host a donation-based class or class series to benefit Yoga for the People, please email sarah@yogaforthepeople.org.  We’d love to work with you!  :)

People flowed into the event from all sides. Watching it come together, I recalled my past work with the Crow tribe where people walked from the woods to the center of the perimeter to gather for a circle. The way the Crow and many indigenous cultures handle time is quite different from Western civilization’s time mania. The Medicine Man would say, “the leaves on the tree do not all change at once, we will begin when everyone is here.” Sometimes the event would begin three days after it was supposed to start, but everyone who needed to be there was there. This focus is on people and the importance of the individual’s process, rather than on a planned outcome, and it remembers that we must stay present and unattached. Yoga for the People runs on this idea, that each project has its own time and own needs and we aim to build a yoga program that works for each unique situation. I started thinking of each of our sites like a column or pillar and that Yoga for the People is like the roof or ceiling that connects all of the individual pillars, like a pavilion.

As Dave began teaching the class in the pavilion, I felt this calm wind and heard the birds singing. It felt like everyone who needed to be there was there. For me, the pavilion symbolized our willingness to come together without walls, in public, where all could see us unite, focused on our moving meditation for peace. We had gathered from different corners of time and place to be there together in that moment; to inhale the new and exhale the past, to breathe together so that the whole park would feel our willingness to allow love and light, rather than to build walls of protection. I felt vulnerable yet alive and empowered. I felt safety as part of our group. Yoga brings us closer to ourselves and to each other.

In the tarot deck, the tower card symbolizes a great change and tumult. I view the fall of those great towers on 9-11-01 as a catalyst for change in the world as a whole. At our event, during shivasana, chanting, and the extremely powerful seated meditation, I was struck by a sense of unity that could only be achieved through each person letting down his or her personal walls just enough to allow in everyone else. My gratitude for this experience is deep.

I see Yoga for the People as a new kind of structure, one that has people as its focus, and one that sees the similarities between all of us and removes unnecessary barriers to peace. We create access to this ancient and yet timely practice which teaches us compassion. I hope each of you feels the same sense of grace that we created.

“Hope isn’t an abstract theory about where human aspirations end and the impossible begins; it’s a never-ending experiment, continually expanding the boundaries of the possible.” p. 223 Loeb

In awe and appreciation, NAMASTE,

Kate Ross

Executive Director of Programs

Where:Cheesman Park Pavilion
8th Ave and Franklin St in Denver
 
Admission:  Suggested Donation - $25, all donations welcome
 
Can’t make it?  Click here to donate now!

An Awakened Ones Production: Creating Extraordinary Opportunities for Mind, Body and Spirit - Thank you Annie and Christof!