"Another Personal Interlude in Green Living: Solar Plexus Chakra/Yoga Workshop

Good Morning, Interwebz!

This weekend was yet another interlude in green living with a visit to the Dharma Yoga Studio in Coconut Grove for another Yoga/Chakra Workshop with Veronica Vidal.

Dharma Studio Yoga in Coconut Grove

As some may know, this is the third in seven workshops hosted by Dharma Studio to help focus and align the seven main chakras of the human body. The more aligned and centered a person’s chakras, the more balanced and peaceful a person feels.

The last time we talked about chakras, I had returned from a workshop focusing on the second, Sacral Chakra. Over this past month I have been working on multiple lessons Veronica taught in the workshop with varying success. I think that this one is a bit tough to vocalize in this format the progress, but i did notice that i had an unusual amount of pain in my lower back, above the center of the Sacral Chakra. I think that the progress of this one will be evaluated later too when I have a better perspective and when i evaluate my progress with the three lower chakras as a group.

Anyways, this month’s lesson was my favorite one thus far: SOLAR PLEXUS CHAKRA. As you may have already extrapolated, it is centered at your solar pexus (that sensitive spot below the ribs but above the belly button). Anyways, this chakra can be associated with wisdom, willpower, stomach problems and all kinds of good stuff like that, as well as you overall feelings of personal power. So this month i shall be using my solar plexus chakra to focus my energies as they relate to Theodore is Dying. If this chakra is about personal power and using it to get ahat you want, my deepest desire is indeed completeing Theodore is Dying.
So we go from chakra that is a bit of an abstraction to evaluate progress to one that we will be able easily identify for everyone.

This class has been my favorite of all then chakras. Maybe its because of the energies of that chakra, and the fact that remedying an angry stomach and using your persnal power to achieve the things you want, but i found it the coolest.

So this lesson, after a nice review of last month’s sacral chakra we dove right into learning about the Solar Plexus Chakra. Which if you are interested in learning more about chakras, instead of my feeble attempt to distill information inaccuratly, you should study your personal energies. But after a great lesson that included passing out incense (incense stimulates the Solar Plexus Chakra) and yellow wristbands (to act as our daily dose of wearable yellow for the month) followed by a group communion of crunchy granola (complex carbs a good for the SP Chakra), we got into the yoga.

This Month\'s Special Dose of Yellow

One of the most interesting things about this class was that we seemed to up the intensity of the stretches, either that or I found them particularly intense. But as part of the physical aspect of pur class, there is an exercise which the name escapes me, but I am hoping Veronica may post the name of in the comments, that is fantastic for your overall feeling of vitality and acts as a massage for all of your internal organs from your stomach, intestines, lungs, and heart. The goal, after releasing all the air from your lungs, is to bring all of these things up into your rib cage and hold. This exercise surprisingly feels quite nice in spite of the way it sounds. However, unfortunatly, it also can cause heartburn and other feelings of indegestion for people like myself with stomach problems. But barring that aspect of the yoga, whic maded me feel like I was digesting a rock for some parts of the remaining yoga lesson, i look forward to continuing to massage my organs this month as long as the heartburn disappates…
. I am not a yoga master by any stretch of the imagination (heheh stetch heheh pun) but I really enjoyed being physically challanged and this lesson did it. I shall not embarass myself by displaying my ignorance for the name of posesby describing them, but i highly recommend anyone who has any interest at all in yoga, chakras, personal wellbeing, green lifestyles, etc ANYTHING really, check out these great workshops.

And on that nonpaid plug, I look forward to chronicling this month’s workshop lessons on the blog for you best to see. Where else could there be a better forum for documenting my progress on TID…. Oh wait, ON THE BLOG.

REMEMBER WHAT IT IS THAT YOU REALLY WANT.

Namaste-
Allie" - www.movingpictureparty.com

"What’s a Sacral Chakra?

Hellllooooo!

I hope everyone had a nice relaxing, enjoyable weekend.

Dharma Studio Yoga in Coconut Grove, FL

As promised, it’s time again for another installment of chakra and yoga workshop with the great people of Dharma Studio in Coconut Grove led by Veronica Vidal. But first, a reflection of the last month of personal growth for the Root Chakra. Overall, I think it was successful. To work on your Root Chakra, we are asked to focus energy on grounding and our connections to the Earth, and work on non-violence. As a sarcastic person who often speaks before thinking, I took this as an invitation to work on benevolence. Violence doesn’t have to be physical to be violent, so in my own life I took this opportunity to hold my tongue in a good many scenarios in which I would not normally have done so. It may not sound like a lot to strive for, but I find inaction to be far more challenging than a call to action.

This month, our focus is on the second chakra or the Sacral Chakra. The Sacral Chakra is centered at the base of the pelvis, and governs our senses of creativity, emotions, and sexuality. So after a bit of review on last month and some reflection on our progress with the Root Chakra, we got started (on time and with a much more comfortably sized group than last time!) on our journey with the Sacral Chakra.

After our interactive lecture session with Veronica, after which we were treated with a group communion of freshly sprouted almonds in raw honey. The sprouted almonds were a real treat, there are foods that help “feed” your chakras and honey and almonds both ‘feed’ your Sacral Chakra. Needless to say, that they were delicious, and helped segway us into the yoga portion of our workshop.

Some sprouted almonds in honey and water (this photo, brought to you by Burn Notice).

Now the yoga.

The yoga was awesome. According to Veronica, the Sacral Chakra is also a center of movement, so seeing how we were focusing our energies on our pelvic area (hips) and on movement, it was quite the rigorous yoga practice. At least for me. Lots of squatting, lots of downward dog, lots of stretching the hamstrings. It was a wonderfully physical and challenging workshop. I felt drained in the best kind of way at the end. By the time we finished the yoga and did some final meditative cooling down, I was in need of the rest. It was really rewarding, but exhausting.

As I finish this blog post, now on Monday, my hamstrings are still sore – but in a good way – and I am going to continue to work on my chakra tune-up all month long. And I look forward to next month when we learn about theSolar Plexus Chakra!

Inspired by Veronica’s sprouting almonds for our workshop, I am current sprouting some almonds of my own. They’re delicious and (as my cousin has been telling me for a while now) really good for you.

Check out online more information about chakras or visit the Dharma Studio or Veronica Vidal websites to find out when the next workshop is.
Thanks Veronica Vidal and Dharma Studio Yoga in Coconut Grove for another excellent Saturday of enlightenment.

Namaste-

Allie (www.movingpictureparty.com)
"

"What’s a Root Chakra?
Posted by Allie Kenyon
Why HELLLLOOOOO Interweb!
At our most recent meeting of the braintrust, we had some really good things going that we are going to be expounding upon this week! But I shall not reveal too much so that we can share the awesome news in its full blown awesomeness upon it being unveiled later this week. So ya, sorry for the tease, but it’s just that… a tease!
So besides our super-secret meeting (of which the contents will soon be revealed), I have been extending beyond my normal green practices and activities to join our environmental impact coordinator Becca at a yoga workshop that focused on centering your Root Chakra.
I have been to many yoga classes in my life and I enjoy practicing yoga when I can, which I admit is not as often as I would hope for. The workshop was held at the Dharma Yoga Studio in Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida, a place that I have often seen, but never been inside of until the day’s class, but it’s as cool on the inside as it looks on the outside. If you live in Miami, you should check it out.
So for those of you like myself who want to know what your Root Chakra is and why you should care, then here goes in my succinct, and hopefully not too abbreviated way.
THE ROOT CHAKRA IS THE 1ST OF THE 7 MAIN CHAKRAS. LOCATED AT THE BASE OF THE SPINE, IT IS THE LOWEST CHAKRA AND IS THE GROUNDING FORCE THAT CONNECTS US TO THE EARTH AND CENTERS OUR PHYSICAL ENERGIES.
So as a whole, yes, I think I do need to work on centering my chakras, if they say that the everyday stresses and pressures are what throw off your chakras, then my must be like houndstooth. So I arrived with an open mind to this chakra therapy workshop ready to start to realign my inner energies. After a late start, we were treated to a (for lack of a better way to say this) interactive lecture on how our chakras get out of balance and what an imbalanced Root Chakra does and how and why we should try and realign our energies.
As I am no expert on any of this so I should not/will not even try to impart the knowledge on you that was shared with us. But, to give you an understanding, we are all born with naturally balanced chakras, however, as life happens and outside stimuli affects us in both negative and positive ways our chakras become imbalanced in various ways. Some events and stimuli may be more impacting on certain chakras than other events or stimuli.
Anyways after the info session about chakras, I was feeling like trying to tune up my chakras is something long overdue. I was ready to do some actual yoga with these 50 other strangers sitting on our mats on the floor looking up at the instructor like oversized kindergarteners wearing spandex, but still I had to wait through more Q&A and a the group communion of salty water (full of grounding Himalayan salts) and a bit of chanting to get to the yoga.
I will say though, waiting for an hour and a half to get to the yoga part was definitely worth it. To ground our bodies more to the energies of the Earth by working on our stability and connection to the earth we did a lot of practice with stomping feet, pressing flat against the ground, and bringing our balance from the ground upwards. It was kind of cool to have someone not just guiding the class but guiding it within the framework of ‘this is what you are doing, this is how it works towards what we’ve been talking about’.
I know that sounds silly, but I have taken a good many yoga classes in my life and while people may be good yoga instructors, they may not always tell you how it relates to the bigger picture of yoga practice. Which is pretty cool.
So after a full hour and a half of grounding based yoga, I felt thoroughly rewarded in my first chakra based yoga class. I would say that the class was an overall personal success, and think I will be taking the lessons from the class with me into my world and trying to focus more of my energy into refocusing my chakra in an effort to improve my overall mood, productivity, and health in a way that I would never have expected or thought possible without the forceful but guiding ways of our green producer, Becca.
So thank you Dharma Yoga, Veronica Vidal (our very well informed yoga instructor) and Becca for my first foray into Chakra education.

Check back next month when I evaluate my success with refocusing my Root Chakra and visit Dharma Studio to learn about the Sacral Chakra. BTW if you see me wearing red more than normal this month, it’s all a part of the Root Chakra education. The color RED is supposed to help ground you more and it has a particular positive energy.
I highly encourage anyone interested to further educate themselves about chakras, it’s pretty powerful and interesting stuff for even the most fervent of nonbelievers (ie. myself).
Namaste -
Allie
"

"As the time pass by and I will continue to take Yoga classes with a Master like Veronica I think I will keep improving an getting better every time from the inside as well as the outside of me :)

Thank you very much Veronica for inspiring so many people including me in an Unique , special and amazing way.Your own way of teaching really make us better persons in every single aspect. Thank you for your \"Education\"

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and for caring about others, Vero Yoga class is not just another class of Yoga, Vero Yoga IT IS THE CLASS OF YOGA :)

My best regards and my most deeply and sincere appreciation and gratitude for our Mentor, Veronica Vidal.

Love, Yadira"

"Veronica is an extraordinary woman who has the mastered gift of teaching, senses each student’s needs and knows how to guide them to reach their potential. She instructs with passion, shows warmth and compassion and is so full of joy! Her focus is strong and she inspires by example as she imparts her vast professional knowledge with each breath. Strong and caring Veronica is a gift to all those fortunate enough to be near her. She has changed my life in a profound way by helping me to grow and stretch in so many ways. She is humble and modest, loving and kind and knows exactly how to teach so that each student receives personal attention and feels special as well as being part of unique and cohesive group experience. "

"Vero classes are superb, inspiring, challenging and at the same time spiritual! My practice today and my love for yoga is definately due to Veronica, a gift that I'll be forever greatful.


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"After over ten years of attending Veronica's classes, I can say that she inspired me to explore the possiblities of working with the body, the mind and soul in a such a way that now I feel that apart from the amazing benefits that i gained on a physical level, it helped me become more aware of my spiritual being through this mindful practise. Her classes never get old, there is a constant newness to every single class, it is like tapping into something different every time. Thank you for this gift Vero."

"I like each class MORE than the previous one.

Love you "

"I really look forward to those days when I take Vero's classes. I know I will walk into a warm, inviting room where she will be paying attention to what each one of our needs. Her calm voice and energetic classes leave me ready to face any challenge of the day feeling focused and relaxed. I just wish i would go more often! "

"Las mejores empanadas de Humita"

"I have started to practice Yoga with Veronica about a year ago and I love it. The practices are fabulous and intense! It gives me peace in my mind for the time I am practicing yoga and leaves me energized and focused for the rest of the day! It is a great exercise for mind and body alike. Thank you!"

"I feel great, I love yoga. I have forgotten how well I felt after a yoga class, so energize!! Also my daughter who is a swimmer enjoyed the best summer season ever thank to Vero, no back pain after 5 hours training a day for 2 month was really great. Thank you!!"

"Only 2 1/2 years ago I could not bend, open a water bottle and sometimes sleep from the pain associated with arthritis.
That is when I started doing yoga with -I must admit- little hope.
In the beginning even the relaxation poses were difficult for me!
Today I feel like a new, younger, stronger woman.
I highly recommend Veronica's classes.
Thank you Vero!"

"Veronica was the Teacher I was looking for. I started 5 years ago full of prejudices about what a woman my age might be able to accomplish. Now at 49, I am more flexible and stronger than at 16, when I practiced Ballet. To the beginner I would say: Don't be descouraged by your rigidity, stiffness and pain. If you practise regularly, you'll overcome all of this and find a new self. At Veronica's class you get much more than what you see physically. Light, peace and an open heart are only the beginning of it."

"Since I started to be in Vero classes I feel that my mind was changing. I understand how to conect my breathing, my mind and my body. Her discipline and her attentio to everything we do in the class improve my self in every aspect of my practice. Every class is different and a perfect challenge to see how far can I go."

"I've been practicing Yoga for the last three years with Veronica as my first teacher. From the beginning she has taught me the importance of gathering the forces of my body, my breath and my mind together during the practice, through concentration and flowing movements. It's not an easy task, I assure you, but when you succeed you experience that every single cell of your being has received a powerful awakening energy.
Last year I moved to Madrid, Spain, and ever since I've tried to find a Yoga class with this same powerful awakening energy. But I just couldn't find it! From my experience in Madrid I realized how good Veronica's class is and I regret not thanking her enough before.

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"Since I began practicing 3 years ago, Yoga has been changing my life in many ways. After only 4 months practicing the powerful sequences of VeroYoga, I feel stronger and more flexible. My body consciousness and my running workouts have reached new levels. The precious few Meditation sessions with Veronica build my balance to help living the moment. With time and disciplined practice, Yoga and Meditation positively influence LIFE beyond the mat."

"I started doing yoga with Veronica three years ago, she teaches with so much love and devotion. I have seen many positives changes both physically and spiritually ,her teachings have helped me grow in every aspect of my life."

"I started taking Yoga classes with Veronica one year and half ago.
Her instructional style is informative, disciplined, powerful for the body and mind, challenging and fun.
I was a prisoner of taking the medications my ex-psychiatrist prescribed for my depression and anxiety problems. But in a very short period of attending to the VeroYoga classes, i was a free man full of energy and just didn't need any pills anymore!
It just gets better and better with each class. Veronica is the BEST!"