by Brianna | Feb 15, 2012 | Craignair Inn, Healing, Maine, Yoga, Yoga Retreat
Healing House Retreat (Spruce Head, Maine) My parents and I invite you to our seaside home for three days of practice, healing, contemplation, and renewal. The Healing House Retreat is based on the lifestyle that I adopted in order to heal myself from chronic fatigue. During that time of healing I interwove a number of practices together, including: nutrition, yoga, walking, meditation, and singing. Each in their own way helped me to find my way back to myself. I am excited to share my family’s remarkably healing space and these simple practices with you! Friday Evening (November 9, 2012): · Meet and Greet / Agreements 7pm · Fire and candlelight practice 8pm – 10pm Saturday (November 10, 2012): · Singing in the Sunrise: 6am · Fruit and Tea 7am · Morning Practice: 8am – 10am · Inn Breakfast/ Private Time: 10am – 2pm · Afternoon Walk and Practice: 2pm – 5pm (Brianna will meet you at the Inn) · Healing House Dinner: 6pm · Fire and candlelight practice: 8pm – 9pm Sunday Morning (November, 11 2012): · Singing in the Sunrise 6am · Fruit and Tea 7am · Morning Practice 8am – 10am · Inn Breakfast/check out 10am – 12pm Accommodations: Craignair Inn by the sea (originally owned by my beloved Godmother) is located less then a mile from the Healing House. Each room at the Inn is unique and therefore the pricing for the three-day retreat ranges from: $380 – $480 (Single Occupancy) The fee includes the following: 2 nights accommodations...
by Brianna | Sep 1, 2011 | chakra yoga, practice, Yoga
Over the many years that I have been teaching I have spent the majority of my time instructing beginners. I love the challenge inherent to teaching people new to the practice but even more than that I love their openness. Beginners have yet to define what Yoga means to them so they are flexible. If I say Yoga is chanting, they are in. If I say Yoga is breathing, they are in. If I say Yoga is stillness, they are in. What has always seemed strange to me is that many students over time become rigid about their practices. They define Yoga for themselves and are no longer open to new ideas or new styles. To be honest that rigidity makes me sad. Yoga is a 5,000 years old tradition and from my experience every time you try to limit it the practice will expand beyond the boundary you set in the sand. This last week I challenged myself as a teacher and taught Chakra Yoga with the bīja (seed) mantras to beginning students. That basically means that for over an hour my students sang while holding postures. It was a huge risk as a teacher and while I am rarely nervous about teaching on Monday I was. Through that agitation I caused myself to grow, after all the only way to expand a comfort zone is to be uncomfortable. As usual my beginning students were my teachers. From the Root Chakra to the Crown, twenty-two students sang with open minds and hearts and I am proud of every one of them for it. To me the myriad of...
by Brianna | Jun 7, 2011 | Healing, practice, Yoga
First and foremost, I know that “efforting” is not a word. Lately though, I have found myself using it when I teach. At first I used air quotes to acknowledge its made-up status but I even dropped that. Full disclosure, when I read books and there are typos or grammatical errors I find a pen and circle them. So why am I using a fake word? I think we can all agree that word choice is powerful. For example the word “try” has a very different meaning and implies a very different energy than the word “effort”. So in all honesty I am hopeful that my students will forgive my bad grammar when I ask them to make sure that they are efforting. I wish instead that they use that cue as a reminder to take a breath, reconnect to themselves, become active participants in their pose and put forth some focused...
by Brianna | Feb 25, 2011 | practice, Yoga
Sustaining stillness in postures requires strength, concentration, and will. During an extended period of holding, proper alignment becomes a necessity. After all, stacking your bones correctly affords a lot of extra strength. It also safeguards you from injury, trains the muscles, and teaches you how to breathe through uncomfortable and difficult positions. I have found that stillness and strength, just like balance and focus, reside in the same space. Vinyasa or flow is the fluid elongation of the breath to generate movement. Inhale up dog; exhale down dog; inhale right for forward; exhale left foot forward, each wave of the breath generating a distinctive motion in the body. It is fast, it is powerful and if allowed the sustained focus can become so deep that it shifts to moving meditation. Flowing is liberating and makes you feel empowered; even brand new practitioners can whip there way through poses and feel like yogic rock-stars. But herein lies the rub; they will not be in alignment and they will struggle with the most basic aspect of Vinyasa, which is linking of the conscious breath to movement. In all actuality appropriate flow only grows from exploring stillness. In Yoga there is really no beginner class or advanced class there is only practice and the willingness to work your own edge. Often what we perceive to be easy is the most difficult. Next time you go to class, put your ego down and give yourself the opportunity to learn alignment and explore your breath. Then from that place of awareness, take on the challenge of hurtling yourself through the poses while riding the...
by Brianna | Feb 4, 2011 | Hypnosis, meditation, practice, Reiki, Yoga
Not to be snotty but I have maintained a daily practice for over a decade. It became my touchstone during a very difficult time and has remained so ever since. Through my practice, I breathe myself into a place of action rather than reaction. Allowing my postures and meditative practices to become a reflection of where I am currently. When you practice something daily, in whatever discipline you choose, that practice will grow and change and shift with time. Although now my practice is a mirror for my current state of being it took a very long time for it to become so. When I first started with Yoga, my type A-personality was desperate for perfection in my practice (and life in general). I forced myself to bend and shift, stretch and strain, even in my meditations. To be honest, there was an unhealthy forcefulness with how I came to the mat and manipulated myself through my practice. After many years of pushing myself in every direction, I went down for the count with chronic fatigue. That time in my life, although it at first appeared like a curse, was really a blessing. Over several years I used Yoga, Reiki, and Hypnosis to heal myself. It was during that time of healing that I realized yoga is not about perfection. Quite simply, that is why it is called: practice. As my perception shifted, how I engaged in practice shifted as well. Instead of force, I began to move to my mat with compassion and make inquiries into the nature of my mind, body, and spirit. Those first few breaths...
by Brianna | Feb 2, 2011 | art, Healing, practice, Yoga
During college, I took yoga as my gym credit. The practice transformed me, as it does, deepening my ability to be present. Ultimately, that awareness rippled off the mat, making me better at ferreting out the subtler aspects of composition, technique, and story in my art historical studies. Back then, I spent a lot of time meditating in galleries at the local museum, using objects as my point of focus. Both Yoga and art, as practices, require: discipline, introspection, contemplation, and focus so deep that it becomes a meditation. In Yoga, each breath builds on the next; in art, each artist builds on the ones who came before them. There is a flow to both; an unfolding is intrinsic to each. I wonder, the last time you went to a museum, did you actually see the art? Are you sure? Seems strange but most museum visitors will spend less than three seconds looking at an object. Which begs the actual question: “were you even present for that bit of time?” Recently I shared with my yoga students at The Baltimore Museum of Art how I came to design a public program where art history and yoga are interwoven. Although there are many reasons (including that it is the coolest thing ever to do yoga next to a Rembrandt), I realized as I said it: “my true goal with this class is to teach you to not just look, I want you to actually...
