http://Yoga Song: Dr. Gregory Ormson: 9788182539594: Amazon.com: Books… read more...
WRITING, LEADING, INSPIRING, March 7 podcast episode w/writer and yoga teacher motorcyclingyogiG
In this episode of Here You Are Wausau (click link) Dino Corvino and I discuss writing and yoga, breath, ego, truth, ayurveda, teaching, and journaling along with people and places of Wausau.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/leading-inspiring/id1078823496?i=1000431335481&mt=2
I’ll forever see you (Dino) as the weird kid eating chickpeas from a can in the UW Milwaukee student union. Click link and listen to get the full story. WARNING: Some adult AF language.
SHOUT OUTS TO: Basil Restaurant, Limericks Pub, Malarkeys Pub, NTC, Everest HS, Superstition Harley Davidson, Buffalo Springfield, Community Soul Yoga, Croix Croga Yoga, Lightbody Yoga, Gilbert Yoga, The Magees, sitar, satyagraha, Yoga and Leather, kids yoga, prana, agni, vayu, healing, and shout outs to: Debbie Iozzo, Robyn Bretl, Jim Daly, Kirsten Holmsen, Cory Holm, Blake Opal-Wahoske, Tyler Vogt, Nick Hoen, Jon Shea, Soumya Parthasarathy, Cassandra Wallick, Dan Meyer, kids yoga, Everest Family Fitness Fest, Asana Journal, slow down and breathe, freediving, hawaii, India, Ted Roe and freediving Hawaii, Mysore, India and the Calcutta sitar.
Thanks Eric Sorensen and Dino for @hereYouAreWausau… read more...
YOGA FOR BIKERS
Yoga for Bikers is restarting Nov. 14, at 4:30 in the Eagles’ Nest at Superstition Harley Davidson. One Wednesday a month, riders and anyone interested will gather for simple movement and breath work. This beginner level class is open to anyone. This is offered to riders because when sitting a long time on the bike, it helps to move and open up the areas where we feel tightness: hips, shoulders, and neck. The purpose is to keep riders in the saddle by working gently toward flexibility and balance.
The new aspect of Yoga for Bikers this year will be a one-time per month ride to a second location. There, yoga teacher and former Motorcycle Safety Foundation rider/coach, Gregory Ormson, will show how riders can use their bikes as props in what we are calling the “Stretch Ride.”
We’ll start with a few simple breathing exercises, and then use the bikes to help us stretch. The entire class will only be 30 minutes. We’ll keep it fun and practical so you can do these stretches on your own whenever you stop.
The first stretch ride will be on Nov. 25. Meet at Superstition HD at 10:30, ride out to the Butcher Jones Recreation Site where we’ll park the bikes and use them in simple movements. If you don’t have a bike, don’t worry; they are big enough for two. After that, riders are on their own to enjoy the rest of the day but armed with some new ideas on how to stay in the saddle.
SUPERSTITION HARLEY DAVIDSON FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/events/2283158711912197/… read more...
Yogatecture: the elegant arc of change
YOGA BREATH, BREATH OF LIFE
Workshop at MOTTO YOGA, Sunday July 29, 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm.
7529 S. POWER RD. Suite 101, QUEEN CREEK, ARIZONA 480-819-YOGA
Pre register for this two-hour workshop at www.mottoyoga.com
Participants in this workshop will engage the dynamic force of their own breath – yoga’s therapeutic – through breathing exercises and healing sound, asana linked to focused pranayama, presentation and dialogue, and experimental movmement with rhythmic breathing. During the workshop, yogis will be positioned to encounter self in the ground of their being (BREATH) in their own way.
This 4th Yoga Temple workshop continues the theme of yoga as an embodiment of spirit.
The workshop will unfold as:
PART I 20-30 minutes engagement with the theme including physiology and philosophy through dialogue and presentation.
PART II 50-60 minutes practice with pranayama sets – some will be new to students but completely accessible.
** INCLUDING A TIP FROM ONE OF OUR YOGI’S WHO GREW UP IN INDIA.
SOMETHING THAT EVERYONE IN INDIA DOES IN YOGA BUT WE DO NOT FOLLOW HERE IN THE US. COME TO THE WORKSHOP TO LEARN OF THIS IMPORTANT PRANAYAMA INSIGHT. .
PART III 20-30 minutes of moderate asana with attentive breath focus
These activities will put yogis in touch with pranayama in new and even life-changing ways by:
- a therapeutic experience by engagement with presentation and breathing experiences
- silence and breath hold
- sound (soft volumes) gong, bowl, drum beat, music (recorded and live)
- movement linked to breath
SEE YOU at MOTTO yoga on Sunday, July 29, 1:00 pm for Yoga Temple Workshop #4.
Your hosts for Yoga Breath, Breath of Life
Gregory Ormson came to yoga from a background in athletics, teaching, and spiritual studies.… read more...
APPLAUSE FOR SEEKERS
The assumptions of my inherited culture: the Euro-American, Lutheran-Christian, dualist WASP-centric perspectives have shaped my perceptions and limit my ability to truly inhabit the culture of others. But I am open to understanding others and in spite of my conditioning, I’m positioned like a hungry-man at a feast; I taste the food, but the flavor escapes me.
Each yogi stretches and lifts at the direction of the teacher: man, woman, Asian, African, American, and each one contributes to the curriculum growing into a great melting pot of diversity and energy. This restless American pastiche is soothed by the flavor of an ancient culture, and in the yoga room, we become part of its recipe.
My play to be a yogi brings me to discernment where the contraries press me to awareness and lead me to examine the how and why of fate. How did I, a Midwestern male, end up lying on my stomach – top and bottom of my spine arching up at the direction of an ancient Indian mind/spirit/body science – impersonating an Egyptian tomb-protector? My inhale takes me to the mystery of purushamrigasana, a figure with the face of Pharaoh that we call sphinx.
Seekers for a new way are everywhere – because we see the old way is clearly broken – and I praise them. They take off with tender wings to do asana as if they were nimble dancers or the stony sphinx. On the surface, we are childlike; but with each asana, with each breath, I witness a hope in reaching and lifting, learning and growing.… read more...
ITS NOT JUST EXERCISE
They practice yoga in a 104 degree room when it’s 105 outside. They come from all walks of life: age, race, physical condition, gender, profession, and status. But they all do YOGA to sharpen their mind and focus their will. They show up to strengthen their bodily systems, to ground their minds in the present and deeply draw breath to hold the vital principle.
This is inspiring to observe and compels me to write. I love yoga, and I love these yogis and yoginis that keep working, keep activating, keep grounding, keep breathing, keep centering, keep on keepin’ on to make their lives better, deeper, and more leonine.
They yoga to embody their asana, mobilize prana, focus the monkey mind, and surrender cares; and when they do, the transforming medicine of yoga in its physical, non-physical, and metaphysical form makes them anew.
The yoga journey is a process of transformation, and it’s stunning to observe. This is the privileged observation of a yoga teacher: nothing more or less than friend, companion, and witness to the truth of being.
Slow Down and Breathe
Slow Down and Breathe
Yogis have been attempting to articulate the importance of pranayama for centuries, and the effort is still relevant because when a person starts yoga it doesn’t take long for them to realize its a breath centric practice which changes everything.
The practice of pranayama is an important observance by itself, but is often done in haste, as if a couple minutes at the beginning of class is sufficient warm-up for the real work of asana.
Patanjali wrote, by the right control of breath, we overcome ignorance. Breath work is a hallmark of the yogi’s intelligence, and control of breath is intimately linked to the yogi’s heightened awareness of biological and cosmic forces.
Approaches to Pranayama
It’s important to concentrate on breath or prana as a distinct activity with its own benefits and techniques as well as a guiding anchor for asana. Some yoga practices start with pranayama before asana while others pay attention to activating and sustaining ujaii breath throughout asana and pause occasionally to work on pranayama.
Another option is to end practice with a breathing set. But to fully activate the vital life force, central to building the foundation for yoga and life, attention to breath throughout must be paid.
Pranayama isn’t something to rush through in order to get to asana. One 80 year old man I know got the right idea after his first-ever yoga class at YOGA AND LEATHER: Yoga for Bikers. His replacement knees made it difficult for him to bend, and his large body ached, but he did the pranayama exercises – practicing inhale and exhale – while observing others do asana.… read more...
Yoga Inspirationals number 61.
Asana Journal Parable of Unmaking
Yoga Teacher Training Intensive
Thank you Dylan and Hello Yoga . com
link to story here: https://helloyoga.com/200-hour-intensive-yoga-teacher-training-course-retreat-reflections-857d0a954a7a… read more...
Can yoga ruin your life? This author writing for elephant journal thinks so.
So does yoga ruin lives?
Yes.
But there are many ways to interpret this. Read about it and follow the link at the end of the short article to the video.
https://www.elephantjournal.com/2017/10/how-yoga-ruins-our-lives/… read more...
Yoga Inspirational number 57. Thank you Asana Journal
Snippets from YOGATECTURE
A beautiful house is nothing if the furniture inside is draped in a gunnysack of negativity. If our inner house is awash in pride, jealousy, anger, and deep-seated prejudice, yoga offers and enables relinquishment of this toxic brew.
Where resentment is held in the body, yoga brings it to the surface and by asana pulls it out of the body. Then we observe, and decide if compassion will replace condemnation.
True Presence (yoga inspirational number 57), in Asana Journal.
YOGATECTURE: The Elegant Arc of Change
YOGATECTURE
Thank you to Asana International Yoga Journal for publishing this 56th Yoga Inspirational.… read more...
Yoga and Leather: Yoga for Riders at Superstition Harley Davidson in Arizona
Kicking off their 18th year anniversary issue of Arizona Rider Southwest, delivering biker news to all of us, Betsy and Bruce have included the full story on yoga for motorcyclists. Thank you!
It seems fitting that the yoga classes at Superstition Harley Davidson in Apache Junction will be held outside on what they call “The Eagles Nest.” It’s their second floor deck on the west side of the building. A nest brings new life into the world, and it’s where I will introduce yoga for riders. I’m calling it Yoga and Leather.
See the full September schedule below:
9/24 {Sun} Yoga for Riders @ Superstition HD on the
eagles nest patio. Come & find out how Yoga helps bikers ‘ride on’.
Bring a yoga mat & wear comfortable clothing. This is not an
exercise class, but an introduction to yoga with basic poses
as part of the experience. Class time 10–10:55am. FMI:
Gregory Ormson, 808.640.4624, greg.ormson@gmail.com
9/27 {Wed} Yoga for Riders @ Superstition HD on the Eagles
Nest Patio. See description above. Class time 5-5:55pm.
FMI: Greg Ormson, 808.640.4624, greg.ormson@gmail.com
9/30 Yoga for Riders @ Superstition HD on the Eagles Nest
Patio. Come & find out how Yoga helps bikers ‘ride on’. Bring
a yoga mat & wear comfortable clothing. This is not an exercise
class, but an introduction to yoga with basic poses as
part of the experience. Class time 10-10:55am. FMI: Greg
Ormson, 808.640.4624, greg.ormson@gmail.com
To read the article and see the benefits of yoga and how they releate directly to riding, click on each page below.… read more...
Moves of the heart are the hotline to all stories
I want to unfold.
Let no place in me hold itself closed,
for where I am closed
I am false.
–Rainer Maria Rilke
Fluid yoga, going to six years, continues remaking and each remaking is connected to another. Born in water, I am dragonfly, now rabbit. I shift to camel, fish, or embody an ever-watchful sphinx. Then I evolve once again, going back and yet forward at the same time to my child in his innocent, trusting repose. My evolving is your evolving: inward, backward, downward.
Your asana is my asana, my bending and shaping is your bending and shaping, your practice of eustress and release morphs into luminous savasana. Your savasana is my savasana, and mine is yours: a cloud, salty and damp.
YOUR LONGINGS ARE MY LONGINGS
This cloud, a safe home for witnesses and their truths, where every joy and sorrow bursts forth in prophetic rain. And as colors bend to make a rainbow, these witnesses bend into their longings. Your longings are my longings.
We breathe into sweet release, and the turning becomes a roadmap for traveling outward. The trail makes little sense; it leads down to the place where gravity rests. Tracking energy for centuries, the Tao notes that water flows to low places. My gravity is your gravity.
My guru said the way out is the way in. Her wisdom comes from a bloodline far to the east, from a practice that bent and molded her matter-mind, from evidence etched into the soles of her feet. Tucked in like a child, she steps over the soles of my feet, and your East meets my West.… read more...
Get Your Yoga on at Superstition Harley Davidson
YOGA FOR BIKERS: OUR bodies take a pounding on the road, and sometimes driving is stressful. But people do yoga because it feels good and it helps mind and body. Yoga isn’t just about flexibility, it’s about improving mobility to turn sideways and check our blind spot; about balance in slow turns, and remaining calm in the midst of stress. Over time, yoga strengthens our skeletal, muscular, and digestive systems.
Gregory Ormson, former Motorcycle Safety Foundation rider/coach and a 200-hr. registered yoga teacher, is offering three Yoga for Bikers classes at Superstition Harley Davidson in Apache Junction. Come to one, or all three, and find out how YOGA helps bikers RIDE ON!
Details:
LOCATION: Superstition Harley-Davidson, outside upper deck.
DATES: Sept. 24 (Sun). 10:00 am – 10:55
Sept. 27 (Wed). 5:00 pm – 5:55
Sept. 30 (Sat). 10:00 am – 10:55
SUPPLIES: Limited supplies available. Bring a yoga mat, and wear comfortable clothing.
This is not an exercise class, but an introduction to yoga with a focus on motorcycle riders including basic poses as part of the experience.
Gregory Ormson, 808.640.4624
#motorcyclingyogiG… read more...
Starting Yoga Teacher Training
I’m starting a yoga teacher training program this Saturday in Pine, Arizona. It’s been five years since I first walked into a yoga room in Hawaii, and during that time, I’ve learned from many teachers practicing at 12 studios in four states.
I’ve also been fortunate to attend three yoga workshops outside of regular classes, and while these were only a few hours or a half-day, I caught a glimpse of what a lifelong practice can look like. I was moved by what I learned and experienced with Kim Tang, Esak Garcia, and Lucas Miles. I’d like to borrow something from them and from all the teachers and yogis I’ve met. I hope to use it in my teaching and practice.
All these teachers are good at communicating and leading classes through basic asana. All of them speak of connection to breath and self and they all say breathe and stay present, everyone invites relaxation, and gives encouragement to do the work, and in this intentional engagement everyone discovers what they need to know.
Some use oils and music, some heated room, some chimes, bells and singing bowls, but not everyone. In some cases, they go beyond, as in the practice of Bhakti (devotional) and Naad Yoga -sound and healing – which opens self to greater Self (Cassandra Bright, Gilbert Yoga, Gilbert, AZ); speaking of how yoga restores hope and saves lives after horrible accidents, healing physical body which leads to spiritual restoration (Sheila Nelson, Motto Yoga, Queen Creek, AZ); energy healing and the way of chakras, sound, and the singing bowl (Suzette Johnston, Motto Yoga, Queen Creek, AZ); yoga after running and the pursuit of kundalini and continual learning to make intellectual connections (Leslie Pelke, Motto Yoga, Queen Creek, AZ); how to take joy and happiness from a disciplined practice (Kirsten Holmson and her team at Community Soul, Wausau, Wis); yoga as gift for all ages and peoples – especially kids – (Robyn Bretyl, Lightbody Yoga, Wausau, Wis); the willingness to take risks and reach beyond the normal (Lori Jokinen, Jennifer Taylor, and her team from Tulivesi Yoga in Marquette, Mi); the courageous heart – Croix Croga – of yoga (Katie Ziemann, Croix Croga, Wausau, Wis); yoga as the moving, transforming connection between heart and soul (Andrea Hutchens Tika Anandisari, Aaron, Melissa Katherine Lotus Heart, Brooke Meyers, Sarah Bloom, Jenna Rae, Dana Strang and Sai Fon Woozley from Yoga Hale in Hawaii); the affirmations and benefits of yoga, asana, and pranayama leading to a heightened breathcentric awarenss (a special shout out to Mark Hough, Shannon Matson, and Yolanda Bottomley from Bikram Yoga on the big island of Hawaii); the willingness to take yoga anywhere (Lorrie Blockhus, OM Sweet OM Yoga in the serene but tick infested northwoods of Wisconsin.… read more...
Below the Frost Line
When you engage with yoga, it will slowly render the surface-self transparent to its underlying divinity. It will build a foundation well below the frost line.
Yoga will not be televised, its moves are not dictated by chart, table, or graph; yoga will not whiten your teeth, but you will be astonished in moments of fluid inspiration, and the deep breaths you take will sustain apprehension of a true presence at once ecstatic and sublime.… read more...