Free classes, fun activities, pot-luck & more

We want to kick back and have fun together...   

We are so grateful for our blossoming community, for our beautiful space and for the energy that we all weave together.  All of us have created something of true beauty and it's worth celebrating!  

Join us Sat, Sep 10 for our 2nd anniversary celebration:  

- all yoga classes are free! 

- 11:45am yoga demonstration with Steve & Talya 

- pot-luck brunch (bring something good!)

- twister tournament

- Turbo Talent Show (how fun! Let's get playful & share our  

                                      talents.  Sign up at Turbodog) 

- mini yoga classes (30 min long & optional) so your family & friends

  can experience this yoga first hand & "get" why you love it so much 

This is the perfect opportunity to share this place that you love with your family, kids and friends.  Let's all celebrate and have fun together!

Emma began practicing at Turbodog about a year ago.  She's one of those people who lights up a room with her bubbly smile and outgoing nature.  She takes her healing process very seriously, relentlessly stalking her inner demons in search of her own truth.   

We are delighted to share her story with you:    

Emma Shiver  

When I first attended a weekly Forrest yoga class at my gym several years ago, I learned to breathe deeply through challenging work assignments, healed my back-pain from a car crash, and experienced a profound sense of peace following classes.  The instructor moved to another gym and I ended up doing Core Power Yoga and various other types of exercise for a couple of years.  Then I was diagnosed with a large ovarian cyst (had surgery to remove it) and Painful Bladder Syndrome.  Overall, I was feeling anxious and experiencing pain in my pelvis / lower back.  My doctor recommended for me to stop exercising, including any form of yoga.  I, however, felt a calling back to the healing power of Forrest Yoga and was lucky to find Turbodog!  

With a sense of panic about diagnoses that would potentially lead to chronic pain and no yoga for the rest of my life, I called Steve.  He listened to all I had to say (a lot, I believe!) and then calmly said.... "come to class and see how you feel."  Talya recommended for me to keep a journal about my symptoms before and after classes.  Within a month my pain started to subside substantially!  Now, a year later, I am taking classes approximately four times a week.  I view them as my nightly date with myself (smile).  Classes help me gain insight into the source of my pain.  They encourage me to breathe deeply into those areas of my body that are stuck, and free them. The practice brings me a great sense of mental, physical and spiritual peace.

Of all I have learned from my yoga practice at Turbodog, there is one concept in particular I have integrated into my daily life: become aware of where I have pain, choose NOT to go into struggle and suffering, and then do something nourishing instead.  If I am in a yoga pose and become aware of pain in my lower back, I have started to notice the pain rather than reacting by fighting with it.  At that moment I also ask myself what is a healing action I can take.  Sometimes the answer is taking a few extra longer and deeper breaths, and sometimes it's moving into a modified version of the pose.  Similarly, when in a situation in life that is painful (i.e. a difficult conversation with a loved one), I have started to pay attention to emotions such as anger and frustration that arise.  I recognize them and then wonder what would allow a shift to a more healing state.  Sometimes just recognizing the emotion and imagining touching it, as if with a feather, can help it dissolve and morph into a more relaxed mode.    

Michele Blouin-Vinezeano 

Favorite Pose:  

Extended Twisting Warrior   

Favorite Food: Pad Thai with Chai Soy Milk 

Outside of Yoga--   

  What do you love: Swim in the

                              ocean    

As a teacher, my intent is to guide my students to use the pillars of Forrest Yoga to connect to their inner wisdom, to develop integrity in their personal relationships (including with themselves!), and to feel and connect with their Spirit. And it is my desire to be a channel through which students can plug in to the Forrest Yoga community. This is so important to me because our community values integrity, and for both myself and my students, that quality of community is a rare and precious gift.

As for my own journey, I have healed so much through my Forrest Yoga practice! I had a bunch of athletic injuries, like tendonitis for example, which are now completely gone. I have also enjoyed some deeper gifts like a release in my jaw and face muscles, which I had been seeking for years, through learning to speak my truth. I developed the ability to feel by using my breath to clear out the cobwebs in my heart and to clear out the gunk in my gut, allowing me to feel into my pelvis. Once I was able to connect to feeling, I could feel my Spirit coming home. My Forrest Yoga practice has become a ceremony that nourishes my Spirit!

Michele teaches an intro class on Thursdays from 7:45-9:15pm and a level 1 class on Sundays 4:30-6pm.   

Steve and I were riding on the bus, when we got to witness something extraordinary take place. A pretty blonde girl, about four years old, was on the bus with us, and a pretty black girl about four years old got on the bus a couple of stops later. Her father sat her down in the only open seat, which happened to be across from the blonde girl.  As soon as she sat down, the black girl saw the blonde girl, and waved at her, saying "hello".  The blonde girl immediately responded with a wave of her own, saying "hello" back. After that brief introduction, they were now friends.  It was that easy and that simple.  They began a conversation about the color purple, sharing with each other how much they loved the color.  The blonde girl proudly pointed out that she was wearing a purple dress.  And the black girl immediately responded by showcasing her purple hair clips.  Then they shared a moment of joy over the coincidence that both of them were wearing flip flops.  The black girl had pretty red ones, the blond girl, pretty pink ones.  It was so easy, so natural for them to become friends.  "I'm a little girl, you're a little girl;" that's all they needed.  

We adults make it so much more complicated with our masks and shields and the multiple benchmarks that we require others to meet before we allow them into our lives.  As adults, we have a whole host of protective strategies that we've put in place, designed to keep us from getting hurt, when the truth is that they keep us isolated and in fear.  

As adults we never just say "I'm a human, you're a human; let's open up to each other and be friends."  We are so protective of ourselves that we are, in fact, shut down and closed off.  As adults, we tend to focus on all the small ways we are different instead of just seeing the main underlying reality of our alikeness.

To be fair, most adults have reasons to be this protective.  Most of us have gotten hurt, at one point, by another human, and have grown to mistrust, or at best be skeptical of others and their motives.  This being the case, why would we want to make ourselves vulnerable through opening up to connect with others?  Instead, we make up a host of stories that justify our shut down until shut down is our default state of being.  

However, witnessing the easy connection between the two girls got me thinking.  What if we could be more like them?  Would that be good for us, or would it simply expose us to being hurt? It was so beautiful. They both were so much happier as a result of becoming friends, even though that friendship lasted only five minutes.  (two stops after the black girl got on the bus, the blonde girl had to get off. )  Are the costs of our voluntary separation too high?  

One of the very high costs we pay is that so many of us feel really alone.  That feeling is like a gaping wound.  We were designed as social beings.  Aloneness is painful to us.  We need connection - both physical and heart-felt.  When we don't receive it we are scarred.  Scientific experiments conducted by Harry Harlow were some of the first to prove our need for psychological warmth.  In these, two groups of monkeys were tested.  Both groups consisted of babies receiving milk from surrogate robot mothers.  One group's surrogate mother was covered in soft terry cloth, and the babies would snuggle up to it even when not feeding.  The second group's surrogate mother was made of bare wire mesh, and the babies would only come near it when hungry.  Even though both groups grew to the same physical size and at the same rate, the monkeys that had soft, tactile contact with their terry cloth mothers were psychologically better adapted, capable of dealing with frightening situations with much greater resiliency. The group precluded from tactile connection with their robot mother displayed characteristics similar to autism. They would lie on the floor rocking back and forth, screaming in terror and unable to soothe themselves.

In our minds we, adults, have all the justification in the world to remain closed off. However, both the girls and the monkeys knew that the benefits of connecting with others far outweigh the risks. Those little beings, whom we consider "underdeveloped" instinctually knew what we have forgotten - we need connection and without it we suffer.

So what can we do to overcome our learned skepticism? One of my centrally held beliefs is that we must embody the change we wish to see in the world.  It is up to each one of us to apply the golden rule of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" so that we may have the privilege of rewriting the current human story of slyness and deceit. If we justify being dishonest or uncaring even though so many others are, we are ensuring that the dream of self-indulgent, egocentric humans goes on.  I recommend doing a check-in now and again and inquiring "have I acted in integrity in this situation?" If you are unsure, ask yourself "does this behavior make me proud of myself? Am I modeling, in my actions, my deepest wishes for humankind?" If you've strayed off the integrity path, those questions will help get you back on track.

Don't misunderstand me, I am not suggesting that you walk through life pretending that everyone you come across is a friend. It is absolutely necessary to use your intuitive antennas when dealing with other beings so that you can perceive when you might be in danger. However, we need to also honestly assess the degree with which we examine and size up others. Too often, it is our conditioned wariness and jadedness that is dictating our willingness (or lack thereof) to make a connection.

What would it feel like to risk opening up and allowing others in? Sure, we might get hurt, and we might get disappointed, but so what?  Is the alternative of aloneness really that much more appealing?  One of the great skills learned through Forrest Yoga is the gift of resiliency. Just like the monkeys in the science experiment, Forrest Yogis have an inner strength that enables them to stay open and centered in the midst of a challenging situation allowing them to glean the lessons from it and grow.

Additionally, how deeply we get hurt or disappointed in a relationship depends a lot on us and on the expectations we have.  Those two girls had absolutely no expectations of each other.  They didn't expect to be lasting friends.  They didn't expect to have a sleepover the next night. They didn't even expect each other to like the same things - it just so happened that they did.  Because they had no expectations and they were just being in the moment, they were able to enjoy each other's company and be positively stimulated by their interaction for the five minutes that it lasted.

What expectations do you bring to your relationships?  What hoops do you set up for prospective friends and lovers to jump through in order to prove their loyalty or worthiness?  Do these actually work - do you find that these mechanisms help you weed out the bad apples, ensuring that you never get hurt again?  Or maybe are they just more defensive strategies designed to keep you safe and designed to justify why you won't risk making that connection?

I don't have all the answers, but I find this topic fascinating.  I wonder what it would be like to experiment with being open enough to connect with someone every day.  I wonder what would it be like if our fascination with fully experiencing the present moment, with all of its possibilities, trumped our assumptions and preconceptions. Would our hearts feel fuller, more confident, happier? I plan on experimenting...

Pump-Up Your practice  

With 4 days of morning intensives with Steve & Talya

EXHILARATING  *  INTENSE  *  SWEATY  *  FUN

Oct 13-16, 2011 

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