Fall Schedule available for download (please click on picture)
Schedule of Yoga Classes
Monday: 9:30am (Janaki)
optional meditation from 11-11:30am
Tuesday: 5:30pm (Sara)
Wednesday: 6:30pm Yoga/Sound Bowls (Matthew)
Thursday: 10:00am by Zoom (Rick)
10:30am Chair Yoga (Sharon)
3:00pm (Sharon)
Saturday: 9:00am (Matthew)
Sunday: 5:00pm (Sharon)
Meditation Classes
Foundations of Meditation Class for Beginners
Those who have taken the class in the past are welcome to repeat the class with our compliments.
Janaki Pierson, the Director of WMYC, offers Foundation of Meditation, designed to help participants establish themselves in a regular, daily practice of meditation for radiant health, and inner peace. Training in the theory and practice of correct meditation is the focus.
5 Thursday Evenings: November 21, December 5, 12, 19, 26. 6:30-8:30 pm
$161
Deepening Meditation
For people who have completed the Foundations class any time in the past.
Tuesday, 11/19: 7-9 pm
$35/ $25 early registration if received 3 days in advance
Class meets in the hall with abundant space for proper distancing. Discussions begin with sustaining and deepening one’s meditation practice, the yoga sutras, thinking into being, creating our own reality or living fully and dying gently.
Office Hours: Mon, Tues: 9:00-12; Thurs: 10-12
November 16
40th Anniversary Open House Celebration
Thank you all for joining us on this wonderful day of Relaxation, Laughter, Light, Love, Joy.
Everyone, from people brand new to the center to many of us from 30-40 years ago and all the time in between—it was a joyous, warm and peaceful reunion.
Himalayan Singing Bowl Sound Healing with Karin Reetz
Next date: Sunday, December 21, 3-4:15pm
$25 or $20 early registration if received 5 days in advance
The gentle yet powerful vibrations of these Himalayan Singing Bowls
empty the mind of thoughts, allowing the brilliance of pure soul to heal physical body and reveal ever-joyful inner peace.
Karin’s highly intuitive playing provides each individual the experience they require.
Friday, November 8th 6:30-7:30pm (please arrive 6:15ish to get settled)
Suggested Gratitude Offering: $20 (more or less always gratefully accepted)
Matthew McGlynn (Level Two Sound Healer - IASH, RYT 200hr)
Tibetan Singing Bowls help release blockages in the Chakra and cells. Allow your body and mind to become one with the vibrations.
The sound waves will help support your healing and meditation while you rest. We will also work with vocal energy to embrace our personal vibrational gifts. You deserve this peace. Please come and allow your “self “ to be refreshed.
Participants may choose to sit upright in a meditative posture for a bowl to be placed on the head and/or then lay down for bowls to be placed on or around the body.
What is Forest Immersion?
Watch for December dates for this event.
Forest Immersion, or shinin-yoku (also known as Forest Bathing), is aJapanese mindfulness practice that encourages slowing down and fully immersing oneself in the soothing atmosphere of a forest.
Through being present, engaging all senses, and connecting deeply with the natural world, forest immersion offers these benefits: reduced stress, improved mood, enhanced mental clarity,and a strengthened immune system. Studies show that the calming effect of the forest can lower cortisol levels, heart rate, and blood pressure, promoting overall well-being and a sense of peace.
The event concludes with a tea ceremony.
Our Guide, Karen Bobowick is a licensed psychotherapist with certifications in Forest Bathing and Mindfulness Ecotherapy. Join in for a walk into the peaceful, healing serenity of the natural world.
Inner Peace is World Peace
November 16
40th Anniversary Open House Celebration
Thank you all for joining us on this wonderful day of Relaxation, Laughter, Light, Love, Joy.
Everyone, from people brand new to the center to many of us from 30-40 years ago and all the time in between—it was a joyous, warm and peaceful reunion.
Himalayan Singing Bowl Sound Healing with Karin Reetz
Next date: Sunday, December 21, 3-4:15pm
$25 or $20 early registration if received 5 days in advance
The gentle yet powerful vibrations of these Himalayan Singing Bowls
empty the mind of thoughts, allowing the brilliance of pure soul to heal physical body and reveal ever-joyful inner peace.
Karin’s highly intuitive playing provides each individual the experience they require.
Friday, November 8th 6:30-7:30pm (please arrive 6:15ish to get settled)
Suggested Gratitude Offering: $20 (more or less always gratefully accepted)
Matthew McGlynn (Level Two Sound Healer - IASH, RYT 200hr)
Tibetan Singing Bowls help release blockages in the Chakra and cells. Allow your body and mind to become one with the vibrations.
The sound waves will help support your healing and meditation while you rest. We will also work with vocal energy to embrace our personal vibrational gifts. You deserve this peace. Please come and allow your “self “ to be refreshed.
Participants may choose to sit upright in a meditative posture for a bowl to be placed on the head and/or then lay down for bowls to be placed on or around the body.
What is Forest Immersion?
Watch for December dates for this event.
Forest Immersion, or shinin-yoku (also known as Forest Bathing), is aJapanese mindfulness practice that encourages slowing down and fully immersing oneself in the soothing atmosphere of a forest.
Through being present, engaging all senses, and connecting deeply with the natural world, forest immersion offers these benefits: reduced stress, improved mood, enhanced mental clarity,and a strengthened immune system. Studies show that the calming effect of the forest can lower cortisol levels, heart rate, and blood pressure, promoting overall well-being and a sense of peace.
The event concludes with a tea ceremony.
Our Guide, Karen Bobowick is a licensed psychotherapist with certifications in Forest Bathing and Mindfulness Ecotherapy. Join in for a walk into the peaceful, healing serenity of the natural world.
Inner Peace is World Peace
Please call or email with questions, comments, clarifications.
Kindly advise which class you expect to be attending regularly. If none of the available classes offered above meets your needs, let us know. We’ll make every effort to add a class that works for you. Sign up for our Enews for weekly updates.
We wish you health as you keep your yoga and meditation practices strong at home.
About Woodbury Meditation & Yoga Center (WMYC): Founded in 1984, WMYC is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. We offer yoga and a variety of other programs and classes. WMYC welcomes individuals to try a class for free and see first hand how yoga can change your life.
Director’s Letters
Dear Yoga Family,
What if we could see and listen from our heart? Receive communication directly with our heart?
The mind hoards memories and interpretations of situations—both of questionable veracity. When we don’t know how, when, or why something occurred, the mind tends to automatically fill in the unknown circumstances with its own concocted set of facts.
With this “knowledge” of unknown provenance, the mind creates filters through which we then perceive a distorted reality, easily forgetting the source of this perception is largely illusory. Decisions are made, emotions rise and fall, and actions are taken based on nothing of substance.
What then, is true? We are, when we are fully Here, Now. Truth is right knowledge and joy—unity consciousness. Our inner connection to one another is true, as is our innate wisdom accessed through this interconnectedness. From here springs unconditional love, compassion and selfless service. The entire package is right here, in our collective heart, accessible in meditation.
Abandoning the filters of the mind, let us see from our heart with clarity—the direct perception of what is. Here love alone prevails. Fear dissolves in the presence of truth.
Let us be steadfast in our experience of Truth, Consciousness and Joy. It is here, within each of us --available at every moment. Sending our roots deep into the soil of truth, may we each blossom and bear the fruits of joy and unity consciousness.
With gratitude,
Janaki
"If you wish to see the truth
then hold no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the disease of the mind.
When the deep meaning of things is not understood
the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail. "
hsin hsin ming by Sengtsan, Third Zen Patriarch
September 1, 2020
Dear Yoga Family,
The breath is our lifeline. Not only does it maintain the physical body, it is the most direct connection to our innate spiritual wisdom. Slow, even, abdominal breathing — through the nose — calms and quiets the mind so the voice of our heart is perceptible. Heart, or spirit, speaks only the language of love; her guidance requires no translation. Once the mind, with its misguided, fear-based anxieties, is dismissed, attention is free to rest in truth. No distraction.
Difficulty falling or staying asleep is usually accompanied by a racing mind cluttered with unwanted activity. This same slow breathing offers relief by reining in the pace of thoughts. Now mind succumbs to rest.
Breath is also a key focus in meditation practices from traditions throughout the world. Accompanied by a mantra, counting, or sometimes both, focus on our breath guides attention to the stillness between thoughts, where each breath ends and a new breath begins. With time, our meditation practice extends this stillness beyond a few moments. Sustained by regular practice, the quiet mind becomes ours even when we are not sitting intentionally in the stillness.
Everyone, dedicated meditator or not, can access this freedom from anxiety and cascading, confusing thoughts by practicing slow, abdominal breathing anytime, anywhere. Whatever our capacity for daily meditation, let us remember our breath is a certain path to being calm and centered in every moment. Accessing our innate wisdom in this way, we collectively shift the planetary consciousness. Unconditional love prevails.
May universal consciousness embrace each of us now.
Janaki
"By expelling and restraining prana*, the mind is pacified." –Yoga Sutras I.34
*Prana is the vital life force, closely connected to the breath. The yogis use the breath to control prana.
June 12, 2020
Director's Letter
Namaste yoga enthusiasts,
Recognizing the essence of humanity—that the heart of each and every one of us is the same—is the potent significance of the greeting: Namaste. In Sanskrit:
namaha—to bow by way of saluting or honoring,
together with te—contraction for the word “you,”
When spoken, traditionally with palms together, we are saying “I honor you.” Since Namaha is the same verb used in thousands of mantras saluting or surrendering to aspects of the divine, our higher consciousness or nature, a more comprehensive understanding of the greeting is:
“The divine within me recognizes/honors the divine within you.”
Thus, each time we greet another person, we remind ourselves of the mutual inter-connectedness of unity consciousness.We are affirming that we are both One; this One is unconditional love, peace, joy and contentment.
My higher consciousness honors your higher consciousness.
On the face of it, this may seem borderline ridiculous; it is all the same awareness, ultimately. Consciousness greeting consciousness. Yet we still inhabit different physical bodies and tend to think of ourselves, and therefore treat each other, as if we are individual and separate, even fearing one another. Consciousness fearing consciousness.
Yogas chitta vrtti nirodhaha.
(Yoga is the stilling of the modifications of consciousness.) —Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Chapter 1, verse 2
When the mind, or consciousness is still, (i.e., there are no thoughts arising) there is no fear. Consciousness itself is fearless. It is the thoughts, or modifications of the mind, that give rise to fear. In stillness, through meditation or other discipline training the mind to be still, is the fertile field giving rise to unity consciousness.
“Namaste” offered with folded palms, is a simple reminder, that we are all connected; that each of us share a common consciousness, a common humanity. Let us recognize and honor this truth, even silently within ourselves, as we hear, read about, or greet others.
This practice alone serves to strengthen our humanity, our connection to unity consciousness.
The science of Yoga is the science of unifying individual consciousness with universal consciousness.
Namaste everyone.
With deep love and respect, —Janaki
See God in each Other. —Swami Muktananda
God dwells with in You as You. —Swami Muktananda
Dear Yoga Family, May 15
With the inner peace we access though meditation, yoga, other spiritual practices, or simply our natural state, peace abides within us every moment, under any circumstances.
How do we further anchor ourselves in our innate, ever present, center of calm? Slow, even, abdominal breathing is an old standby for on-the-spot stress management. Resorting to it regularly throughout the day is a good strategy.
Will this sustain us as we face a daily pervasive onslaught, a constant withering of a familiar, known, order of things? Change is the new normal; adaptation is required. Let us try gradually, gently, expanding our comfort zone. When our comfort zone is too small, we are ill-at-ease, or dis-eased, under many circumstances.
Today, almost everything is in a continuous state of flux. It may seem daunting to expand our comfort zone to keep pace with the current changes enveloping us. Still, directing our attention to it a little at a time, as with grief, we gently, slowly, allow ourselves to accept small adjustments in manageable bits at a time. Simply acknowledging that there is so much change, and it is challenging, is a huge step.
This recognition leads to releasing expectations, bearing the fruit of an expanded comfort zone. Resisting, denying, worrying, attempting to control are painful and draining approaches to change. Letting go, flowing, and accepting bestow peace of mind; from this place of stillness, arise new ideas, new potential and the possibility of unexpected joys and collaborations in community, family and the world.
Clinging to the past is fruitless. The present is all we really have, ever. With our attention firmly established in inner peace at this moment, the blueprint for the future is set.
May radiant health, joy, and peace remain yours,
Janaki
If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a person changes their own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards them. —M. Gandhi
At the moment of inner enlightenment
there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness.
The changes that appear to occur in the empty world
we call real only because of our ignorance.
Do not search for the truth;
only cease to cherish opinions. —Sengstan, Third Zen Patriarch, ~600AD
Present Moment Awareness May 5
Welcome to the present moment. It is only here, now, that we experience the fullness of our Being. Away from what we have heard or read moments ago, without fear of what will or will not come next, just staying present with ourselves and whatever is in front of us. What is directly in front of us? A child, a parent, an unsolvable obstacle, grief, things unknown or uncontrollable?
When we are simply present in calmness and contentment with the present moment—without expectation, judgement, the need to control, change or solve—from that stillness comes guidance. Inspiration arises not from the mind, but from the absence of thought. Resolution alights when worry and doubt subside. Letting go is arriving.
This moment of stillness can expand into always. By recognizing and guarding against a detour clinging to our attachments or escaping our aversions, we keep our attention in the present.
Twenty minutes or more, once or twice a day, sitting in silent meditation, we practice present moment awareness. Daily meditation habituates our mind to slow down and be still, inviting “letting go” into our lives. Here arrives contentment, boundless joy and resolute stamina and confidence.
This is the antidote for our time.
In the stillness with love,
Janaki
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Gift Shop Hours: 9 am – 12 pm Monday through Thursday, before & after Yoga classes and events, and by appointment (203-263-2254).
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