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Lead The Change

If you don’t believe that one person with a vision can change the world, you have not met Paige Elenson. A senior Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga teacher, Paige is the founder of Africa Yoga Project. She embodies the concept of selfless service in action. Paige is the proof that one young woman with an idea can change the planet.

In 2006, Paige was on safari in Kenya with her family when she saw a group of young Kenyan men doing handstands in the middle of the bush. Though she had been warned to stay in the vehicle, Paige jumped out and began doing handstands with these young acrobats. Through this new relationship a bold idea was forming.

When Paige returned to New York, the acrobats contacted her and asked her to come back to Kenya to teach them yoga. What she did not know was that she would be staying in the slums of Nairobi, and what she saw when she arrived set an idea in motion.

The Africa Yoga Project was born. With the help of Baron Baptiste and the Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga Institute, Paige founded AYP and began not only teaching yoga to young Kenyans, but training them to be teachers.

AYP uses the transformational power of yoga to foster unity, possibility and non-violence, and has reached thousands of young men, women and children in Kenya. Because I know from personal experience that yoga can change lives, I have been inspired by the amazing work AYP has done.

Today, AYP offers free Baptiste yoga classes to over 4000 students every week, while simultaneously building schools, funding education, health services, and training young Kenyans to teach yoga – thus creating jobs for people with no other outlets for employment. Now, kids from the slums are being trained as yoga teachers, and find jobs teaching middle and upper-class Kenyans as well as jobs in corporate settings. Kenyan youth previously without hope have job prospects and a way to feed their families.

I had the pleasure to personally meet Margaret Njeri, a young Kenyan woman who has lived through violence and devastating poverty, but who, through AYP, has a new life. Margaret teaches children, Women with HIV and people in prison, and has found a life of purpose, vision and service. She and Paige give new meaning to selfless service and have inspired me to get involved with AYP on a deeper level. I plan to travel to Kenya to teach yoga and help this amazing organization continue to empower people and create and lead the change.

If you want to know more about Africa Yoga Project, visit www.afrricayogaproject.org or get involved with an AYP fundraiser at Dancing Dogs Yoga. Check out the new book, Portraits of Empowerment and Peace, available on the AYP website.

Lead the change. Start with challenging yourself, and join us for the Yoga Aid Challenge to benefit Africa Yoga Project on Sunday, October 2nd at 10am. Any donation to Africa Yoga Project gains entry to this worthy event.

“I am because you are.” – African Proverb

Posted in Community Outreach, Lowcountry Weekly: Ask The Yogi, Yoga | Comments Off

Ahimsa for Arizona

With the tragedy in Arizona monopolizing the air waves, I’ve been thinking a lot about ahimsa.  In yogic philosophy ahimsa, literally the avoidance of violence, is part of the Yamas, or restraints, that make up part of Ashtanga, or the eight-limbed path.  It is a philosophy that will seem very familiar to Christians and Western society, even if you have never heard of it before in the sense of a yogic tradition.

In order to live in harmony, we must practice ahimsa towards all living things. Ahimsa implies non-killing, but in its comprehensive meaning, it means much more.  Ahimsa means that we should not cause pain or harm to any living creature by thought, word or deed, and that we, as practitioners of humanity. should be of harmless mind, mouth and hand.  In other words, through all of our thoughts and deeds, we should restrain from harming others, and do unto others as we would have done unto us.

Ahimsa is most often translated as non-killing and many yogis carry this to include animals, thus engaging in a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.  While this is the most widely accepted translation of this tenant of yoga, it is not the most important application of this principle.  Many people would have a hard time giving up hamburgers, but they can practice ahimsa is more important and transformational ways.

Of course, when we look at ahimsa as this large, sweeping thing, it can be difficult to adopt its practice as a personal credo.  We must look at ahimsa as a small step that we can take every day, and in every day situations, to elicit real, positive change.  Even if we employ the principle of ahimsa just once a day, we will see changes in our relationships.  Even if we start by practicing ahimsa towards ourselves, simply forgiving ourselves for perceived shortfalls, we can create positive change.

But ahimsa is more that non-injury or non-violence; it is positively love, and the development of an attitude and lifestyle where hatred and injury are replaced by love.  Ahimsa is forgiveness, understanding, compassion and tolerance.  Ahimsa IS yoga.

It is easy to over-simplify ahimsa in regards to the recent tragedy in Arizona, but the violence there punctuates the need for our society to reevaluate the manner in which we treat each other.  If each of us took a moment in our daily lives to consider the implications of our actions, to take care not to cause harm to others through our actions, then our world would truly start to change.  As Gandhi famously said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”  Start with the simple step of ahimsa.

Posted in Community Outreach, Lowcountry Weekly: Ask The Yogi, Philosophy, Yoga | No Comments »

SEVA: Camp Happy Days Yoga Benefit

Every now and then, we intend to give back.  This coming Saturday, July 3, 2010 is one of those days.

Join Jaimee Sørlie this Saturday morning, July 3rd at 8:30am for a Yoga class to benefit Camp Happy Days! For more than 28 years, Camp Happy Days has offered a comprehensive, year-round support system for children diagnosed with cancer and their families.

During this time the organization has grown from serving a handful of local children with a single program to serving more than 200 children throughout South Carolina with programs like Camp, Family Camp, and their annual Disney Trip — at no cost to families.

We are proud to support Camp Happy Days again.  Please join us on the mat, and let’s help these kids!

$10 suggested minimum donation. All donations will be appreciated.

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Camp Happy Days Update

We are so happy to let all of you know that we have collected OVER 50 mats, new and used for Camp Happy days.  I will be driving the mats as well as almost 20 blankets, up to Mount Pleasant next week.  If you have any mats, blocks, blankets or props that you wish to donate, please do so soon!

I want to send out a special thank you to Get Fit for their donation of over a dozen mats, and to Rebecca Tew, for donating many mats and props.

It is the generosity of people like you that makes me proud to be a yogi.

Om shanti shanti!

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Yoga Mat Drive for Pediatric Cancer Patients at Camp Happy Days

I recently received a letter from a yoga instructor looking for used or new yoga mats for her summer camp. As I read the letter, I felt my heart break. Camp Happy Days is located in Charleston, and is a camp for children with cancer. Every time I try to tell people about the fundraiser we are beginning, my eyes water.

I can not tell the story as well as April can:

“Hi, My name is April Gagne and I am a yoga instructor. I teach at a summer camp for children with cancer and their siblings. Each year around 150 children travel to a camp called Camp Happy Days, in Charleston, S.C.. For one week these children get to forget about their illnesses and problems and be regular kids. Last year I was one of the volunteers. Up until last year, I was also stricken with cancer. So, last year I went and taught yoga and a little pilates to these children, aged 5-16. It was an amazing sight to see these children do yoga at 6:30 in the morning as well as later in the day. They absolutely loved it. And none of them had ever done it before. The sad part was that there was no extra money for mats. Since yoga had never been taught there before, I had nothing for the floor except sheets. So, because they had never practiced yoga before they did not miss having a mat. I was the one that felt badly. Some of these children were recovering from some very serious stuff and they were lying on the ground. So, this year I am trying to come up with around 50 mats. These mats can be seconds or short ones, even used. The best thing is that the camp can store them. This means that the kids will be able to practice from now on with mats. If you do not manufacture mats, a donation would be amazing. These mats will give the children not only a great yoga experience, but the support their bodies need to practice properly. I hope that you can help me. Namaste, April”

Whew. We’d like to provide these mats. Our goal is 50 mats, new or used.

If you trade in your old, serviceable yoga mat, Dancing Dogs Yoga will give you 20% off on a new one. We will also be selling Jade’s Children’s Mats to be donated directly to Camp Happy Days for $17.95. We will collect mats through the end of May and will drive all of the mats up to Charleston before the start of camp in June.

Please consider making a difference, and treat yourself at the same time. If you’ve been considering a new mat, this is the right time to buy one.

We are 20 mats and counting! We have a new shipment of mats arriving next week. Hope to see you soon!

Namaste!

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Recession Yoga and the Community: Santosha in the City

We yogis and yoginis often go on and on about the Yoga “Community”.  We use the word a lot:  Community.  I use the capital “C” in Community on purpose.  I think of Community as something larger than ourselves as individuals.  We are collectively in this together, though individual in nature.  So I liked Webster’s definition of Community as “a unified body of individuals.” Getting into the meaning of things, the word Yoga actually translates as “to join” or “to yoke”.  Union.  Uniting the Community through Yoga. While true in our heart, in reality we often exclude a large portion of our geographic community from our Yoga Community on economic grounds.

I have a basic philosophy when it comes to Yoga Community:  Yoga should be financially accessible to everyone.  Unfortnately, that has not always been the case here in Beaufort.  I plan to change that.

As a business owner and a devoted Yoga practioner, it is very difficult to unite Yoga and business.  They seem to be counter-intuitive.  A friend told me that she thought “The Business of Yoga” was oxymoronic.  As a business woman, my mind says, “Cut costs.  Get as much money for goods and services as you can.”  The yogini says, “No one should have to pay!  Yoga should be FREE!”  So how do we yoke, or unite, Yoga and business?  I still have bills to pay.. rent, utilities, insurance, props, mats… the list goes on. So what gives?

I read an article in Yoga Journal a couple of years ago about a studio owner in New York who started taking donations from students instead of charging rates.  His “pay-what-you-can-afford” classes were a big hit with young people scraping by in the big city.  This spoke to my heart.  This studio owner was acting in the true spirit of Yoga. Now I see this happening everywhere, and I am thrilled to bring it to my Community.  People are getting into the idea of giving, as seen in two of the most respected Yoga outlets on the web,  YogaDork and Elephant Journal.

The answer to the debacle is Community Yoga. Recession Yoga. Pay What You Can Yoga.  Call it what you want…  just help me get the word out to the people who need it.  While we offer a variety of classes that are based on a fee schedule, Dancing Dogs also offers four pay-what-you-can-afford classes every week, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday mornings (starting March 13th). These classes are all levels, which means suitable for all fitness levels and bodies. Even if you have never practiced yoga before, you can attend.

I’ve heard some talk from people around town asking about the “free” yoga. Community Yoga at Dancing Dogs is a donation based class. This means that the practioner pays based on their ability to pay. The suggested donation is between $7 and $10. If the practioner has an extra $2 and wants to come to a yoga class… they pay $2. If that $2 was meant to buy lunch…. they pay nothing.  My goal is for people to be able to afford to come to Yoga class, on a somewhat regular basis. If you can afford to pay for Yoga classes, you should make a donation. While we want to bring Yoga to those who need it and can not afford it, our teachers’ time is valuable, and we should all take care to remember that. The whole karma thing.

If the practitioner can not afford to pay, and feels funny about coming for free…. we can work out a trade agreement, where the person can help check people in, fold blankets, straighten up the studio. I am open to any way that brings people to the practice of Yoga.

The Sanskrit word “Santosha” means contentment. I am content to do my part to bring Yoga to a new segment of people in Beaufort. Santosha in the City. I think it’s good for the Community.

Special Thanks to Riann Mihiylov Photography for the beautiful photos.

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Why We Practice Yoga

Why DO we practice Yoga??

Yoga has many benefits for the health of our bodies, minds and souls.  The word yoga loosely translates as to yoke, bind, or join. It is a uniting on many levels, of breath and movement (physical), mind and body (mental), God and man (spiritual).

Some of us will develop deep, personal practices. Others will only develop a physical practice. Most of us will have something in the middle. All of us can greatly benefit from a regular yoga practice.

The physical benefits are perhaps the most dramatic and the first thing we notice:

  • Increased flexibility that activate and stretch the joints and muscles
  • Increased Lubrication of the joints, ligaments and tendons
  • Massage for the internal organs, activating and toning the body’s systems
  • Detoxification (without pills or supplements)
  • Toning of the muscles, giving us that lean, sculpted look
  • Better sleep and relaxation
  • More energy
  • Decreased blood pressure
  • Slower pulse rate
  • Better circulation
  • Decreased respiratory rate, indicating the respiratory system is working more efficiently
  • Stronger immune system
  • Balanced metabolism
  • Better posture
  • Strength
  • Balance
  • Body awareness
  • Core Strength
  • Dexterity
  • Endurance
  • Depth Perception (which is more important as we age)

Mentally, we start to notice change as well:

  • Mood, increased sense of well-being
  • Stress Reduction. Able to handle, adjust to stress better than before
  • Reduction in anxiety.
  • Positive outlook, an over-all feeling of well-being
  • Self-acceptance
  • Self-control
  • Mind-body connection, a sense of awareness
  • Increased attention
  • Ability to be in the moment
  • Increased social skills, feeling of community
  • Increased concentration
  • Calmness

Yoga can also help reduce the risks of Heart disease, Osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s and Type II Diabetes. as well as help or decrease the symptoms of Asthma, Allergies, Arthritis, Back Pain, Constipation, Carpal tunnel syndrome,  Menopause, Multiple sclerosis, Muscular dystrophy, Migraines, OCD, Scoliosis, and Sciatica.

Not enough of a reason to practice???

Anais Nin once wrote, “We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

What an amazing and poignant statement. But why is that??  Is it that we are self-obsessed? Full of ego?  Simply unaware of the true nature of ourselves, others, and everything around us?

There are many physical, mental, emotional and spiritual benefits of yoga, all which help us balance mind and body.  This is another reason why we practice yoga.

Yoga can, through a combination of all of it’s physical and mental benefits, help us become more in tune with our bodies, our minds, and with our souls. As we come to know ourselves, we come to understand others, and through our own calmness and acceptance, we can calmly accept others, regardless of our differences. Yoga is, in a word, uniting.

If you haven’t tried yoga yet… maybe it’s time to roll out a mat.  With all of these benefits… what are you waiting for?

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Yoga Goes GREEN!

When I decided to open Dancing Dogs Yoga, there were two aspects of the property I chose that sold me: the first was that our building was eco-friendly, one of the only LEEDs certified mixed-use buildings in the state, and the second was the access to the outdoors.

With our energy-efficient studio leased, and our access to a marsh-front park secured, we started to think about ways to stay as green as possible. We will offer eco-friendly mats and props for use and for sale, as well as work with Jade Yoga‘s 3-R’s program: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle.

Through this program, Jade hopes to reuse yoga mats – bringing them to those who otherwise might not be able to afford them, reduce the number of yoga mats going to landfills and recycle any mats that cannot be reused. Dancing Dogs Yoga will be the first studio in South Carolina to participate.

We will also offer BPA-free water bottles for sale, and filtered water on site instead of selling bottled water, which will help lessen our footprint and decrease our contribution to landfills. We will, however, offer recycling for all plastic and cans on the premises.

Through our use of our energy efficient space, recycling, and responsible stewardship of the land we’ll practice on, Dancing Dogs Yoga will make everyone else GREEN!

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upcoming events

  • May 25

    • DJ Yoga Party

      with Mark White in Beaufort

  • May 30

    • DDY Bluffton Grand Opening

      A DJ Yoga Party with Mark White

  • Jun 17

    • Revolution Boot Camp Beaufort

      Transform your practice, transform your life!

  • Jul 15

    • Revolution Boot Camp Bluffton

      Transform your practice, transform your life!

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