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Dear friends and fellow yogis,

Happy Nowruz & First Official Day of Spring!

The insects are out and the robins are back, adding their beautiful melodious calls to our soundscape. I glimpsed my first Snowdrops and Crocuses in town! It’s time to emerge from the hibernation of winter and into the energy of renewal that is spring. Renew your love of yoga, Qi-Gong, and meditation and rekindle your relationship with your practice and yourself.

Meditation Workshop: How to Cultivate a Regular Practice –

Saturday, April 3rd, 10am-12noon PT / 1-3pm ET

As we welcome the longer, brighter days, we are reminded of the significance of light and its association with knowledge, purity and happiness. Light is such a powerful and optimistic metaphor and meditation practice is a unique method for illuminating our lives.

For those of you who are interested in meditating and developing a regular practice, I will be offering a 2-hour Meditation Workshop on April 3rd. The workshop will explore the reasons to meditate and offer up a variety of tools for developing one’s practice – suitable for beginners and experienced meditators alike. Cost is free for DYA members / $25 for non-members.

To register, please go to my website, dohrennayogicarts.com, click the “Book a Class” tab, scroll down to “April 3rd Meditation Workshop: How to Cultivate a Regular Practice”. Monthly subscribed members can then select “redeem package” to attend for free.

8-Weeks of Guided Meditation

Following the workshop, I’m happy to offer a weekly guided meditation practice, Saturdays from 8 to 9am (Pacific Time). Starting April 10th and running through to May 29th, Matthew and I will be leading practice on such topics as The Four Foundations of Mindfulness and Mahamudra. We are offering these classes free of charge for anyone that wishes to join. This class will not be accessible via my website, so please contact me directly by email if you are interested in joining.

Yoga and Qi-Gong are Mindfulness Practices

Mindfulness meditation is all the buzz these days with all manner of people embracing the practice. Schools are incorporating it into their curricula and workplaces are scheduling it into their lunch breaks, mostly as a means of stress reduction. Given all the hype, you would think this is a recent discovery of the West. The reality is, mindfulness practice is thousands of years old and has been transmitted from teacher to disciple as a means of cultivating our full potential as human beings. Yoga and Qi-Gong are ancient traditions that fully engage the body and breath to bring calm, stability, and insight to the mind. Whether it’s holding Trikonasana with great attention to our body’s alignment or actively releasing tension while connecting with our internal landscape in Viparita Karani or synchronizing a luxurious deep inhale while raising our arms overhead, we are staying fully present to our embodied experience. These practices are powerful tools for deepening one’s mindfulness practice and are in fact, a form of meditation in and of themselves.

Hope to practice with you soon!

Yours,

Cristina Sanchez, Ph. D