August 30, 2010
Dear Friends on the Path of Light:

I hope this email finds you well and thriving. These last few days of summer have been extraordinarily precious, so bright, crisp and clear, so very beautiful. Last week was one of the most glorious weeks of weather I can ever remember with bright sunny clear days filled with the sweet, kind, gentle summer breezes. With summer coming to a close and fall about to start, I've been reflecting a lot lately on boundaries, limitations, endings and new beginnings. With an aquarian for a daughter, I am constantly reminded that a whole segment of our population does not understand the value and necessity and contribution and benefit of boundaries and limitations. In so many conversations and interactions with my daughter, I've been encouraged to really explore the nature of boundaries, and when limitations are and can be experienced as auspicious and when they are simply sources of constriction, tightness and challenge. When is a boundary necessary? When is it simply an ego response to feeling out of control? When is it simply a habit to choose "no" rather than "yes". If you're a parent, you're probably right there with me. You've gone down this route of examination countless times. The beauty of this contemplation is that life keeps bringing fresh circumstances for you to continuously refresh this contemplation.

One afternoon last week, my daughter and I laid on a blanket in the grass playing with a caterpillar all afternoon. I had taken the week off from work and designated the entire week to time together. The week literally had no boundaries, except that of the 7 day cycle. On this afternoon, she and I delighted in the tickling motion of the caterpillar as it inched up and down our arms and legs, necks and shoulders. It was only because of the boundary of our skin that we were given such pleasure though, because that very boundary allowed us to sense and feel the caterpillar's movement. Because we had been so busy all summer, last week was exquisitely precious to enjoy time out of time together, just talking, sharing, laughing, and enjoying nature's exquisite beauty. With the boundary around summer closing in, every moment that remains is so very precious. It seems to me that the boundary actually allows me/us to be more mindful of the exquisiteness of the moment. At other times, though, the constancy of the schedule with so many moments having boundaries starts to add up to increase such a feeling of stress and tension. So there must be an optimal usage of boundaries. What is the most auspicious way to experience and receive the boundary as a gift?

Recently, one of my former students died of cancer. Even though I knew she had been ill for a very long time and had fought a very brave, gracious fight, her death came as a shock to me. She was my age, maybe a year or two younger. Besides being a lovely, intelligent, fun, humorous, creative, vivacious human being in life, she continues to teach all who knew her in death. Her death has been such a gracious reminder of the absolute preciousness of this life. The boundary around our lives instills in us the remembrance that every moment truly is a gift and inspires in me the conviction to live every moment in the highest way possible, to stretch where I think I can't, to try where I want to give up, to offer when I think I have nothing to give.

Sometimes a boundary feels like a constriction, like someone telling you no when you really want to hear yes. But I've come to think that boundaries are auspicious when they help us to remember, when they help us to reawaken to the magic and mystery and abundance in life; a boundary is auspicious when it helps us to remember that our lives, the individual boundary around our life takes place within a much bigger context, that we swim within a bigger ocean. In truth, the boundary of our individuality has never separated us from the ocean of grace that we swim within, but rather serves to allow us to open to our full empowerment as alive, awake human beings. LIke muscular energy that helps to define the boundary of our individual form, the purpose of that containment is to allow the Prana Shakti within the vessel to swell to its full empowerment. Today I think that what makes a boundary auspicious is when it allows our essence inside the boundary to expand. The boundary is not life affirming when we feel inside, our own essence gets more and more constricted, tight, shut down and depleted. It is my prayer to allow the boundaries in my life to help me remember the preciousness of each moment. When I know the time of our being together will end, it reminds me to open my heart to all that the moment has to offer me. It is my prayer that each of us, together and individually, will be able to receive the boundary of the end of summer and the boundary of the beginning of fall as an opportunity to awaken to the highest. May the boundaries of time, space, abundance, and the movement of your life assist you in the expansion and evolution of your soul. I wish for each of you these things.

With the boundary of Fall opening, I invite each of you to consider joining me in some of the programs that I am very much looking forward to offering. My season begins by enjoying 5 days in Cambridge with our beloved teacher John Friend. From there I have the great honor of co-hosting Professor Paul Muller-Ortega, PHD in Worcester, MA. After having the great honor of being a student in the classrooms of both of these exquisite teachers, my family and I will travel together to Dublin and Amsterdam for a two week adventure of yoga and fun with our European friends. Please join us!

I'll end my fall season by offering two "Foundations of Anusara Yoga (tm)" courses in both Saratoga Springs, NY & Lebanon, NH, and a weekend workshop in Avon, CT.

2011 is gearing up to be very full with an Immersion in Montpelier, VT, Level 2 of the Immersion in Dublin, Ireland, and a three weekend Therapeutics Module in Saratoga Springs, NY, as well as weekend workshops in Wellesely, MA, New London, CT, Cambridge, MA, Laconia, NH, Morgantown, WV, Middlefield, RI and Atlanta, GA.

In the fall of 2011, I'll offer a full 100 hour Immersion followed by a full 100 hour teacher training in Saratoga Springs, NY. For more information about ALL these events, please visit my website at: www.anahatayogacenter.com.

I look forward to sharing the light of the teachings of our glorious path with you all.
Enjoy these last days of Summer.

Deb Neubauer

 

 

Dear Friends in Yoga,

I hope this email finds you well and thriving!! Last Saturday, March 20th at 1:29 in the afternoon, marked the Spring Equinox, the time when the sun crosses the equator making the time of day and and the time of night everywhere of nearly equal lengths everywhere in the world. The Equinox marks the threshold that the entire Northern Hemisphere passes through as it makes its way into the season of light and expansion and the whole world comes alive with the exhilaration and excitement of springtime.
Right now the whole universe is getting ready to burst open. In this early phase of spring, the bulbs are getting ready to explode out of the hard covering that’s protected them all winter, the earth is melting the snow and getting ready to allow seeds to germinate, the body is naturally throwing off the stuck, congealed energy of winter, the sap is flowing in the trees and creative juices everywhere are starting to thrive.

In the weeks leading up to the Spring Equinox, I noticed that my body was very naturally beginning a process of easeful detoxification. Everyday I could feel my body asking me for simple things to fulfill its desire to melt and release the holding and contraction that accumulated over the cold months of winter, and open to the season of expansion with the onset of spring. I noticed the desire to drink more water, to increase sour foods, to eat lighter foods that are easier to digest. I also noticed a daily increase of enthusiasm and desire to exercise vigorously and get my heart rate up. Maybe you've noticed these cravings too, and perhaps you've had the time to heed the deeper calls of your body and soul to meet the turning of the earth's rotation toward the light of the sun. All these subtle signals represent our body's natural, easeful process of detoxification, a process that the body, when healthy is able to do quite well.

Along with this natural detoxification process happening in the body, you may have also noticed an increase in reactivity in the mind, as if the mind were similarly going through a process of detoxification, throwing out the contractions built up over winter. Just as the body needs a bit of assistance in throwing out winter's accumulated toxins, so also does the mind because the mind has such a tendency to harden, congeal, contract and form ice crystals of old limited belief and frozen ground of misunderstanding.

Spring is the time of freshness, exhilaration. Spring is the time to breathe new life into the old structures. So, today, I offer here my spring detox process as a way of assisting all of us in opening to the true expansion that our path holds out to us: the capacity to embrace our intrinsic goodness and open to the greatness that lies within!

Whether you choose to sit quietly for meditation or pranayama, chant the names of the Divine, take vigorous walks, or practice Hatha Yoga postures, the practice remains the same. It’s time, today, to pick one belief that has crystallized inside of you, that has frozen you into a limited way of viewing and experiencing your world. This belief should be one that you are truly ready to release, truly ready to meld, truly ready to be free of. For the practice to work, it must be something that your heart immediately says yes to - yes, today, you are willing to be free of this thought, this belief about yourself or another.
Turn this into a conscious practice, that with every exhalation that you breathe in the sacred atmosphere of consecrated awareness, with every exhalation release a little more of that frozen belief that’s stuck inside of you: The story of your unworthiness, the story of your limitations, the story of your suffering, the story of what you deserve the story of how someone did you wrong, the story of what someone told you you were, whatever that is for you, today, I invite each of us to release even a tiny fragment of that limited belief system so we can be more free to open to greater possibilities.

When we practice Hatha Yoga, we always extend on the inhalation and soften or twist on the exhalation. Every movement we make is accompanied by the breath. Every inhalation you breathe in the sacred atmosphere of consecrated awareness is an opportunity to open to the springtime of new understanding; to blossom the flowers of true fulfillment and to welcome the dawn of satisfied expectation. To do so, every exhalation is consecrated as a sacred offering, offer the flower of your unworthiness to the benevolent power of grace that heartily receives all offerings. Offer the frozen ground of anger, the ice crystals of self doubt, and the harsh winds of judgement and self criticism. Offer these to the benevolent power of Grace that receives all and transforms all. Don't be in a hurry to understand what will replace this frozen ground, or who you will be when you release this negativity. Simply offer.

Practice opening the various sections of your body like you're throwing open the doors and windows in the house open on that first warm spring day. Let the house of your understanding breathe again. Release the stale air of winter’s accumulation and open to freshness and freedom.

This spring, each of us has the opportunity to open with freshness and freedom to a vibrant new life. Today, you have the power to make a new choice. This spring, you have the opportunity to release the old ways of thinking and being that limit your life before you even wake up in the morning. Every morning resolve to step boldly into a new chapter, a new destiny a new vision a new dream.

For this kind of transformation, you'll need a point of stability inside. That point of stability inside is your conviction that it is possible to open to something greater, that something truly great does live inside of you and it is possible to expand that essence. Keep melting into that. How far your essence can expand is unknown. Who you’ll be when you release the old, there’s no way to know, and that’s the point. Practice as a way of invoking that essence inside, that is naturally free, naturally fresh, naturally filled with light and beauty. Practice as a call to release the contractions surrounding that vibrant inner essence. Practice as an expression of your deep desire that your dreams might actually be in alignment with the dreams that the universe has for you.

I look forward to hearing from you on how your practice is transforming your heart and life!!

With heartfelt blessings of love, Happy Spring.

Deb Neubauer