Inner Light Outer Peace Yoga Blog

Next Beach Yoga Tonight!
Tuesday 6/30 at 6:30pm.
Weather looks amazing! See you there.

West Beach, Stamford, CT

Parking nearby without a permit is available. Directions below.

Fun Yoga on the sand as the sun sets with Yogi musicians to accompany the sounds of the sea. Breathe, flow, move and groove with us. Dress in layers, bring a blanket AND beach towel, an open mind & a smile! A willingness to feel the sand on your toes is useful too!

Payment & registration NOT required. Karma donations of kindness, dollars, hugs or even some good vibes will be appreciated.

Directions & Parking Scoop

Option 1: I just learned that there is no longer non-permit parking in the outer lots. If you have a park permit please use the entrance to West Beach on Shippan Avenue(it is not marked on the map but trust me it is there!). Here is a Google Map with directions from Summer Street. You can drag the beginning marker to the location of your starting point.

Option 2 Parking without a permit: Continue past West Beach on Shippan Avenue and turn left onto Iriquois Rd. Follow Iriquois all the way to the end & you will be facing a grassy hill, the beach is on the other side of the hill. Park on the street near or around Brennans Restaurant on Iriquois, Wapawama, Ponus Ave. or Rippowam. The beach is very close and can be accessed by the paved foot path that wraps around and over the grassy hill. Google Map

For questions or further details:
Jen Irwin, RYT (203)524-2919 or jen@dewyoga.net
*In case of rain, cancellation will be posted here by 5:30pm.

Be sure to read the post “Gratitude” which is my thanks to all of you and here’s what people said about the last classes:

Yogini N said it poetically, “It was like a mini vacation. I always feel a bit like that at the beach, but this was incredibly special and memorable. Thanks to Randy, too. So nice to have gentle rhythmic sounds bobbing on the breeze.”

Currently available at the Farmers Market – One bunch organic radishes @ $2.50 + one bunch beets @ $2.50 = $5.00.

Trim the greens off both bunches, wash well in cold water.
Slice the radishes and add to the greens.
Boil (or roast) the beets and add to the greens
Little olive oil, salt, balsamic vinegar.

Why is it cheap? Plentiful salad for five people for $5.00.

Why is it rich? Red beets provide Vitamins A and C, calcium and iron, and add fiber to the diet. Beet greens contain large amounts of vitamins K and A, along with large amounts of anti-oxidants beta Carotene and Lutein. Radish greens contain almost six times the vitamin C content of their root and are also a good source of calcium. Radishes have antibacterial and anti-fungal properties and contain vitamin C and potassium.

A little stream of sound and words trickled through my head, so, I thought I’d share,

“C’mon people now, Smile on your brother, everybody get together
Try and love one another right now”

Complete lyrics below the video.

~The Youngbloods, Written by Bagge, Anders/Astrom, Per/Price, Stuart.
Get Together
Love is but the song we sing,
And fear’s the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Know the dove is on the wing
And you need not know why

C’mon people now,
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try and love one another right now

Some will come and some will go
We shall surely pass
When the one that left us here
Returns for us at last
We are but a moment’s sunlight
Fading in the grass

C’mon people now,
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try and love one another right now
(Repeat)

C’mon people…

If you hear the song I sing,
You must understand
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It’s there at your command

C’mon people now,
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try and love one another right now

Alessandro sent me this enlightening opinion piece from the NY Times. More reasons to shop the Farmer’s Market or better yet to join a CSA. More about that next post.

Here’s an excerpt,

“The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000,” Michael Pollan, the food writer, declares in the film.

What’s even more eerie is the way animals are being re-engineered. For example, most Americans prefer light meat to dark, so chickens have been redesigned to produce more white meat by growing massive breasts that make them lopsided. Who knew that breast augmentation was so widespread in chicken barns? Click here to read the whole piece.

I have always liked shopping farmers markets, allowing the dinner menu to emerge from whatever goodies I can find on the weathered tables and presented from hands that have touched the actual earth that sprouted my future meal.

After watching Earth 2100 (see post below) I became even more inspired to shop the farmer’s markets. Besides that fresh picked tastes better and lasts longer, we can rest assured that the carbon footprint is smaller when the cucumbers are not being transported from half way around the planet and hopefully are not just a little piece of the agribusiness puzzle that genetically modifies and then chemically ripens our produce. (Did you know that our ‘winter’ tomatoes are picked green and then ripened with methylene? Watch the trailer for upcoming movie, Food Inc. for more on that topic.)

Finally, at least for me, it is myth that buying food at the farm stand is more expensive. At the grocery store whether the veggies are pre-packaged or there is a 3 for 1 type deal going, I always end up with more than I can use before they spoil since they were likely picked at least two weeks prior.

Yesterday I arrived at the new High Ridge Shopping Center Farmer’s Market a little too late, they were packing up. However, I managed to purchase 3 beautiful cucumbers and 2 large and juicy tomatoes for only $2. I can tell you that the cucumbers were so good, my teen age kids ate one with breakfast this morning. Now that’s a testimonial and a dollar well spent if my teens are eating veggies for breakfast.

Here’s where you can buy your food fresh and local, reduce the damage to the Earth in the process, and feed your self and loved ones with fewer chemicals.

Wednesdays, 10am-4pm High Ridge Shopping Center, Stamford, CT
Promises fresh produce, flowers & baked goods from in and around Connecticut.

Wednesdays, 10am-2pm Bartlett Arboretum, High Ridge Road, Stamford, CT
Promises seasonal vegetables, fruits, cheese, chocolate, fresh baked pies, homemade soaps and lotions and more, grown and made in Connecticut.

Wednesdays, 11am – 6pm Darien Farmers Market, Municipal Parking Lot on Mechanic St. Promises Now featuring greenhouse tomatoes, lettuces, other greens and baby root veggies, fresh cut herbs and flowers, annuals and perennials,hanging baskets, honey, free range eggs, non-hormone beef, pork, chicken, goats milk soaps, pies and pastries, breads, pesto, jams and jellies, and a whole lot more.

Saturdays, 9am – 2pm, Stamford Downtown French Market Bedford & Forest Street. Promises freshest fruits, vegetables, flowers, baked goods and more! Straight from the farm and right to your home.

Saturdays, 10am – 2pm New Canaan Farmers Market Corner of South Ave, Maple and Main Streets.

If you know of others, please let me know, I will add them to the list. Happy shopping local, eating fresh and saving Earth!

Thanks Elysa for helping to compile this list!

Feeling a bit insomniac one night, I dropped into the CCC. Cyber Collective Consciousness.

OK, whatever, I was browsing the WWW and I wanted it to sound Yogic. The internet is yogic anyway – it’s all about connectivity.

I found this ABC News Special, Earth 2100.

Wow.

Just check it out for yourself. It’s viewable for free online. I can not give you a direct link to the page but just follow these clicks:

www.abc.com
Free Episodes
ABC News Specials
Earth 2100

It’s a two part series, one hour each, that illustrates what could happen to Earth in the next 90 years as told through a fictional character born in 2009 with commentary by today’s brightest minds and some pretty spectacular video of Earth as we know it now.

The headline reads “Marin lawyer accuses yoga group of being a cult”.

My very minimal exposure to Dahn Yoga came in Union Square in NYC. I was approached by a ’student’ urging me to take a free class and handed a brochure as I passed by. A few weeks ago, I passed the same location and noticed a new Yoga studio in it’s place. I remarked to my boyfriend that perhaps Dahn had changed their cover. After all, they have operated under eleven different names including: Dahn Tao Institute, Healing Society, Tao Fellowship, Dahn Hak and even Tao Aerobics.

Dahn Yoga does not elicit warm reactions in the Yoga communities I have flowed through. Worse, organizations like Dahn give Yoga a bad name and frighten away new students from any Yoga practice.

I am not an expert on cults but Rick Ross is and has a page on his site dedicated to Dahn for quite sometime before this lawsuit was reported in SFGate. I have heard that they are very aggressive in their promises to transform all the yuck in our lives into luck and are quick to turn that one free class into a very big hole in your pocket as you become a teacher and then master and then who knows what.

One blog I read called Ilichi Lee, A Fan blog, which can now only be read in Google’s cache because it has since been deleted by it’s owner, claims,

“An Ilchi Lee cult or a Dahn cult are unlikely to exist considering Ilchi Lee and the Dahn Yoga centers he founded have the sole aim of helping many people with a simple mind-body system…”

I do believe Jim Jones had the sole aim of helping many people. David Koresh down in Waco likely aimed to help many people as well.

The problem with groups like Dahn wearing the guise of Yoga is that Yoga is a system of transformation that does help many people. However, it is crucial to study Yoga with discernment. It was a key point in my Yoga Teacher Training at Kripalu which had it’s own time and need for collective discernment which caused trauma, upheaval and ultimately healing.

The practice of Yoga encourages us to let down our guards, our barriers, to open our hearts and minds to the wisdom of Sat Guru (Sanskrit for true teacher). I was taught Sat Guru means truth and the only true teacher is within ourselves. Beware gurus on golden thrones, I have blogged that before and it holds true now.

In my own Yoga Community, our first rule is “Do No Harm” as Elysa like to say it or as I proclaim, there is no violence in Yoga; not to your hamstrings, heartstrings, values, morals or ethics.

Maintain discernment wherever you practice and if you detect violence to any part of your being, listen to Sat Guru – your very own truth from within and walk away from that community but that does not mean that all Yoga schools, classes, studios and groups are cults.

Look what Ann Russell, Liz Pia and Sally Grillo have going on this weekend:

Announcing…
pARTy in the Park
Saturday, June 20th
noon – 10:00pm.
Mathews Park in Norwalk, CT.

Take a walk along the river next Saturday and join us
for yoga, fun, food, and music!!!

Ann Russell, Liz Pia and Sally Grillo will be leading a special yoga flow at noon in the park next Saturday, June 20! Please join us and celebrate the 1st day of summer with your family and friends! We would like to dedicate this practice to our friend, Melanie Weeks.
Yoga, art, music, food, drumming and more!
What a way to kick off summer!!!

Please park at the Maritime Garage SONO and check out the web:www.norwalkarts.org/

Meet Lauren!

See that smile? I don’t think she leaves home without it. Even between crunches in the Yoga Blast or determined to find the center of gravity in Crow pose, a look to Lauren is always met with a warm and no doubt about it, genuine, smile. Whether she arrives solo or with friends and roommates, she is such a happy energy in the studio, we wanted to shine some love and light back her way. Next time you see her at Dew be sure to say hi and you too will be gifted with her light. Of course, we asked her the usual questions…

Q: How long have you been practicing Yoga?

A:I had been introduced to yoga about 5 years ago, but did not give it much attention until 3 years ago. A very good friend of mine got me really excited about it and I began to see the benefits, learning, and enjoyment it gave me as I practiced more.

Q: what fills your time off the mat?

A: Exploring new places, running, reading, and enjoying the outdoors. I try to always keep in mind that I do not know how long I will live in an area, and dedicate time to getting to know my surroundings and seeing as much as I can!

Q: how has your yoga practice affected your life off the mat?

A: Yoga opens up a window for me to get to know myself in a way that I have not found with anything else. When I practice it helps me to see myself more clearly off the mat, and I feel comfortable that I am being true to who I am. Sometimes images, that feel like insights, will pop into my head during practice that I keep with me for a few days. Not to mention I am more relaxed!

Q: What would you like to share with others about Yoga?

A: I was a runner before I was a yogi, but there are many similarities. Neither are a race, you are never quite sure where your body will go or how it is feeling as you start, your attitude will shape your experience, and both require controlled breathing. This sounds pretty simple and obvious, but I found that my experiences as a runner helped me a lot as I became familiar with yoga

I did not make it to the book signing at Angela Cosmai’s for the wine, cheese and witty conversation but Elysa did and said it was a great time in a beautiful and enchanting salon. She left feeling inspired to conspire with Angela to create a beauty and wellness event in the near future.

I am very grateful to have received something healthier for me than the wine and cheese. Angela treated me to some of her products. My favorite is the Revive Body Scrub from her Spa collection.

I have dry skin and no matter how much I hydrate and supplement with flax seed oil I still have dry skin so revival is just what my dermis needed. Wow. What a delightful surprise. It is made with lime blossom, bergamot and ginger. Bergamot? It’s in my incense, in my tea, in a thousand things I have seen before and humbly, I will say I never knew that it was a variety of orange grown in Southern Italy. I am not sure whether it is the bergamot, lime blossom, ginger or the love she puts into her work, but it certainly revived my mood from tired and cranky on another unseasonably cold and rainy June morning as well as left my skin feeling soft and maybe even glowing! If you have ever read this blog, you know I am not into product reviews so all of this is truly because I found something wonderful and didn’t want to keep it to myself. I highly recommend this product, it can be purchased on her website or drop by her salon at 1026 High Ridge Road, Stamford, CT.

Thank you for sharing, Angela!