EXPERIENCE MEDITATION WITH KUSALAMULA BHIKKHU

Kusalamula Bhikkhu, affectionately referred to as Bhante (teacher) by his students, is offering a 3-Day Meditation Retreat open to anyone interested in practicing meditation and experiencing it’s benefits. Bhante will share instructions and guidance in Buddhist meditation known as anapanasati (breath focused concentration), vipassana (insight), and metta (lovingkindness). While the context is the Buddha’s teachings, these practices are universal and help deepen awareness and compassion. The retreat is open to both new and experienced meditation practitioners. All are welcome. The retreat will begin on Friday, February 28th at 8:00am and end on Sunday, March 2 at 6:00pm at Community Yoga Center (2900 Adams Street, Suite A-20, Riverside, California 92504).  More information here. 

WINTER SOLSTICE SUN SALUTATION PRACTICE

On Sunday, December 22nd, we’ll be honoring the Winter Solstice with a special sun salutation practice at Community Yoga Center. We hope you’ll consider being part of this seasonal event. The event begins at 8:00am and is expect to end around 9:15am. 

Practicing cycles of sun salutations with mantra is a beautiful yogic practice of offering gratitude for the light-giving force of the sun and recognizing the gift of life itself. It is a practice of reverence and commitment, and a special opportunity to connect in community.  

Practicing a lot of sun salutations cycles (like 108!) can be an act of tapas. The Sanskrit word “tapas” can be translated to English to mean “heat causing change.”  Practicing tapas involves purposely staying in the crucible of intense experience until its wild flames die to embers – embers that carry the potential to spark alchemical transfiguration. Tapas recognizes the reality of suffering and asks us to willingly bear adversity to open to greater insight. It knows that sometimes we’re unaware of our own capacity unless we’re challenged and discover a force within us powerful enough to match the adversity we face. Practicing sun salutations in this way can be a kind of challenge that asks us to meet it with enough inspired passion, fortitude, and patience to willingly (and even enthusiastically) endure intense experience.

If you’re interested in welcoming intense experience in this way - as a part of the whole of our human experience, please consider practicing sun salutations with us on the Winter Solstice. It invites us to connect with a fierce kind of grace.

This yoga offering is shared freely. No cost. Everyone is welcome.

SOUND BATH WITH MARLENE

You DO NOT want to miss this sound bath with Marlene Friday, November 22nd at 6:30pm at Community Yoga Center (2900 Adams Street, A-20, Riverside, CA 92504). Marlene is adept at facilitating connection through the power of sound. You have to experience it to believe it. It’s like magic!

WOMEN’S CIRCLE & SOUND BATH

Experience for yourself the grace of sisterhood - the friendship, support, and insight that arises in a space where your voice is heard and your heart is held in love.  This is a space of self-reflection, self-expression, and deep listening where you can explore your whole range of thoughts and emotions - free from judgement - while embraced by the collective compassion and wisdom of other women.

Please join us on Friday, September 20th at 6:30pm at Community Yoga Center for a beautiful, intentional gathering for anyone who identifies as she/they and would like to be a part of an inclusive, welcoming, and healing environment. This gathering will be opened by Carly who encourages the group to connect as a sisterhood and mindfully share their experiences. This allows a loving container for participants to be seen, heard, witnessed, and held in compassion. This women’s circle will highlight the energy of the autumn equinox, feeling into the balance of light and dark, and honoring the change of season. Marlene is offering a special sound bath to support the energy of the collective and offer meditative rest.

FUNDAMENTAL FLOW ASANA LEARNSHOP SERIES

Join Inga Buchbinder for a special fundamental flow learnshop series focusing on the building blocks of postural practice. This learning opportunity breaks down body alignment and explores pose modifications so you can develop the foundational elements for an asana practice that’s unique to you - meets you where you - and helps you "play your edge" of experience. This offering occurs on three consecutive Saturdays in August (10th, 17th and 24th from 9:45am-10:45am) at Community Yoga Center (2900 Adams Street, Suite A-20, Riverside, CA 92504). You’re welcome to join us for one session or all three. Whether you're new to mindful movement practice or looking to deepen your established postural practice, this learnshop series will provide you with tools and techniques to enhance your yoga journey. Don't miss this opportunity to learn and connect through yoga! This offering is free - there is NO COST - everyBODY is welcome.

ASHTANGA 5 DAYS A WEEK I THREE STYLES OF PRACTICE

Ashtanga is the bomb! Come and experience it for yourself! The incredible yogis at Community Yoga Center are offering FIVE FREE opportunities EVERY WEEK to practice three different styles of ashtanga. What a blessing! Check out the details below for more information and consider practicing ashtanga with the Community Yoga Center sangha!

NEW SKOOL ASHTANGA

New sckool ashtanga is offered Monday and Friday mornings from 8:00am to 9:30am as well as Tuesday afternoons from 4:00pm to 5:30pm. This is not your 90’s ashtanga. Poses are not “earned.” Practitioners are not “held back.” Obedience to an “ideal” is not rewarded. Perfectionism is recognized for what it is - a construct that kills creativity and love.

New skool ashtanga values the genius of old school ashtanga poses, sequencing, and intentionality of breath - without the old school asana fundamentalism that fuels insideous competition around physical abilities and perpetuates shame when dictated expectations are not met. New skool ashtanga emphasizes the joy of practice - the creativity, love, and self-realization that’s cultivated in an atmosphere of infinite possibilities.

Like classic ashtanga, new skool ashtanga is a postural practice that links breath and movement in a dynamic sequence of poses. New skool ashtanga follows the same primary sequence of postures practiced in classic ashtanga primary series - about 75 incredible poses that are repeated during every practice session. And, like classic ashtanga, each posture is held for about 5 breaths and includes transitional movements into and out of the poses. Practicing consistently and rhythmically in this way not only creates a regular frame of reference from which to observe the felt sense of the body-mind, but also helps build a self-guided yoga practice that can be practiced anytime and anywhere, without the assistance of a guide. This combination of heightened awareness and personal autonomy underlies the power of new skool ashtanga.

Unlike classic ashtanga, there is no authority per se who’s “authorized” to officiate the group practice. Instead, we facilitate communally, with multiple practitioners offering sequencing and alignment cues during practice. You're invited to practice along with us, and lead yourself in a way that resonates with your intellect and intuition. You’re invited to connect with your body and feel into it’s experience - to experiment, adapt, and modify your experience as you go - tuning in and tapping into your energy. In this way, new skool ashtanga is like a choose-your-own-adventure kind of experience! Initially, this might seem odd - and uncomfortable. Real freedom can feel weird at first. But, if you lean into the spacious connectedness created by this kind of individual and collective experience, you might feel more at ease practicing yoga like this than in an old school kind of way. So you pick! You decide how you'd like to practice. And together we'll all hold the space for new skool ashtanga.

CLASSIC ASHTANGA

Every Sunday morning from 8:00am to 9:30am we practice classic ashtanga, a sensitizing style of postural yoga inspired by a sequence of poses created by Tirumalai Krishnamacharya in the early 1900’s based on Rama Mohan Brahmachari’s teachings. Krishna Pattabhi Jois, a student of Krishnamacharya, began teaching the sequence in led classes that emphasized synchronized group movement and breathing. Jois coined the term “ashtanga yoga” to describe his sharing of postural practice in this way. The practice spread through the efforts of many of Jois’ early students, including David Swenson and Richard Freeman, and influenced many current styles of postural practice, including all types of vinyasa flow and power yoga practices. Over time, this style of yoga has evolved, leading to various interpretations of the practice.

Classic ashtanga links intentional breathing with a dynamic sequence of about 75 postures known as “primary series.” Under the direction of an experienced guide, breaths are cued, adjustments are offered, and suggestions are provided for transitional movements into and out of the poses. Because the flow of movement and breath is the same during every practice, a regular frame of reference is created to observe the felt sense of the body, mind, and heart. This awareness combined with the rhythmic synchronization of mindful breath and movement creates a powerful style of asana practice.

Once classic ashtanga is learned, it may be self-guided with ease - anytime, anywhere, without the assistance of a guide. 

ASHTANGA PLAYDAY

We like to play! On Thursday afternoons from 4:00pm-5:30pm we play with poses that are part of classic ashatanga intermediate series. These postures are known for cleansing the nervous system through a dynamic combination of back-bending, twisting, and hip-opening. Intermeditate series is traditionally learned after an ashtangi has an intuitive feel for and regular practice of the postures in classic ashtanga primary series.

Because the postures in classic ashtanga primary series are so heavily focused on forward folding, ashtangis may greatly benefit from the counter back-bending emphasis in intermediate series. These poses can also re-inspire an ashtangi’s connection to asana practice and their body by exploring something new, helping to shift settled patterns, shake up stuckness, and grow insight.

If you regularly practice new skool ashtanga or classic ashtanga primary series, and you’re interested in playing with the poses in intermediate series, please connect with Marlena and Kristin about the possibility of participating in ashtanga playdays!