One source on the etymology of “solstice” (www.etymonline.com) says that it comes from Old French for “the point at which the sun seems to stand still.” If you are regularly up for the sunrise, you might notice how its location shifts on the horizon through the seasons. It changes a few degrees each day and moves to its furthest point in the southeastern sky this time of year due to our planet’s tilted axis and its elliptical orbit around the sun. If you are a sunrise-watcher, however, it does seems to pause for a few weeks before gradually heading north. It may be counterintuitive at this oh-so-busy time of year, but it is a nice reminder to slow down and pause.
I have another good reason to pause 5 days post-hernia repair. My belly is sore and I tire easily, but all those years of yoga practice allow me to notice tiny improvements day by day. I am listening to my body and allowing its wisdom to guide my road to recovery (along with excellent medical care, a strong velcro binder, and Tylenol, of course). Thankful for so much these days. I hope to see you all in a few weeks.
In the meantime, keep reading for an interview with Shalini Bahl-Milne, news about her upcoming mindfulness class on Monday evenings, yoga props for sale, and announcements about upcoming offerings from Sebastian Merrill, Erin Schifferli, and Pierre Rouzier.
With abundant gratefulness (and a great, full heart),
Linda
"This is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year's threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go of and becomes the future; the place of caught breath." ~ Margaret Atwood
No Class on Christmas Day
We will maintain our regular schedule through the holiday season EXCEPT FOR CHRISTMAS DAY. There will be no class on December 25th, but you can join Diana and Liz for a very special class on Tuesday Evening, December 26th at 5:30 PM.
Candle Light Gentle Yoga with Tibetan Bowls
Tuesday, December 26th at 5:30 in the Munson Library
Diana Peters-Ross and Liz Lacey will offer a unique yoga experience.
This will be a gentle yoga class which will include restorative postures and an extended savasana. Liz will share her Tibetan Singing Bowls. Come and allow yourself to be bathed in soothing sound.
Please bring several blankets and/or a bolster to use as props for this class.
Mindfulness Class Begins Monday, January 8th
Mondays at 5:30 in the Munson Library
We are thrilled to welcome Shalini Bahl-Milne to our teaching line-up. Beginning on Monday, January 8th Shalini will offer a weekly mindfulness practice 5:30 - 6:30 PM. Mindfulness is a natural extension of asana practice and a great way to take your yoga off the mat and into the world.
Shalini’s class will explore eight mindfulness skills or habits of the mind: awareness, compassion, curiosity, energy, appreciative joy, inner calm, focus, and equanimity. Through story-telling, poetry, mindful sitting, walking, and gentle movement, Shalini will invite us to notice our default mindsets and moments of transition. With time for setting intentions, reflective writing, and sharing in dyads and small groups, we will welcome the parts of us that most need this practice. Pen, paper and/or a journal may be useful during this class.
As always, all of our classes are offered freely to all. No registration required. Donations are gratefully accepted, but not expected. We want the benefits of community practice available to all.
Sundays 8:00 AM Linda Castronovo
Mondays 8:00 AM Chris Paradis
Mondays 5:30 PM Margaret Nunnelly (last class Jan 1)
Mondays 5:30 PM Shalini Bahl-Milne (starts Jan 8)
Tuesdays 8:00 AM Erin Schifferli
Tuesdays 5:30 PM Maria Kovalenko
Wednesdays 7:30 AM Kim Deshaies
Thursdays 8:00 AM Tiffany Joeseph
Fridays 8:00 AM Jen Vanderleeden
Saturdays 8:00 AM Ilana Beigel
*** No class on Monday, December 25th (Christmas Day) ***
Spread the love! Share our newsletter with friends and neighbors.
Gently-Used Yoga Bolsters and Blankets Available
Dianna Peters-Ross has bolsters and blankets for sale.
2 large bolsters (purple) $30 each
3 blankets (multi colored) $15 each
Contact her by email: dianapetersross@gmail.com
Interested in a Book Study Group?
I’d like to gather a small group to work through Kristi Nelson’s book, Wake Up Grateful: The Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted. This is not your typical book club (where too often discussion devolves away from the book), but a book study. I’d like to meet one evening per month to talk about (and practice) the concepts in one chapter at a time. Email if you are interested: lacastronovo@gmail.com
Teacher Spotlight - Meet Shalini Bahl-Milne
Shalini Bahl, Ph.D., is a mindfulness teacher, consultant, and award-winning researcher. She has dedicated over 15 years to developing cross-disciplinary solutions to help others build essential mindfulness skills. Her mission is to empower individuals to return to their inner calm, disrupt default thinking, and to live with choice for personal and collective fulfillment to create a better world for all.
Shalini's book, Return to Mindfulness (to be released January 18, 2024) offers a path to eight skills based on the original mindfulness discourse given by the Buddha—the Satipatthana Sutta. Shalini studied the original text through the lens of science for relevance in the modern world.
When she’s not researching, writing, or teaching mindfulness, Shalini loves all kinds of creative projects. She cooks tasty and healthy vegetarian food, dances and makes music, and hikes in nature with family and friends. Her love for life and mindfulness is contagious, and she brings this infectious energy to every aspect of her work.
Shalini Offers Her Perspective on Mindfulness
How were you first introduced to mindfulness?
I fell into meditation in 2001 on the porch swing of my first home in Amherst. I had just moved here from India with my son. For the first time I was away from family and friends and had yet to make new friends. Questions about my life choices started to surface. Sitting on that swing, surrounded by trees, I intuitively knew that I had to slow down, close my eyes, and go inward to listen for the answers within. That was my introduction to meditation, which is different, of course, from mindfulness, but it was how I became interested in self-awareness and contemplation, ways to understand my inner workings that I hadn’t been taught in school or anywhere else.
My interest led me to many teachers. Shamanic Journey with Chandra Lacombe and Carioca, Kriya Yoga with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Minfulness-Based Stress Reduction with Jon Kabat-Zinn, Search Inside Yourself with Mirabai Bush, Satipatthana Sutta (Mindfulness discourse by the Buddha) with Joseph Goldstein, Vipassana with Goenka, and Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings are constant guides.
What does mindfulness mean to you?
Mindfulness is our effortless knowing of what is — internally and externally—without rushing, resisting, or clinging to our experiences. To put it simply, mindfulness is our innate capacity to see clearly and act intentionally, to be fully present with ourselves and others without judgment.
Too often, the world leads us away from our inner knowing. Our default habits and evolutionary biases get in the way. We may catch glimpses of clarity when we’re completely in the moment. But as soon as our thoughts trail off into daily chores, worries, and plans, we revert to our old ways of thinking and reacting.
A mindfulness a practice allows us to cultivate habits of the mind that empower us to return to mindfulness in our everyday lives beyond the proverbial cushion.
What inspired you to become a mindfulness teacher?
As a marketing professor I kept my mindfulness practice to myself until students came to me with their stress and problems. I couldn’t NOT share what I knew could help them… and it wasn’t marketing. ☺ I started free Science of Breath seminars on campus. At the time senior colleagues were critical that I was offering things oustide of my job description. Only later did I realize that I was doing exactly what I was meant to do. Now, mindfulness is my full-time job and focus of research!
Describe your first (or an early) experience as a student.
As a student in Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course, I found my first experience with a guided body scan soooo boring and clinical. I stayed with the practice because it was part of the certification process to become an MBSR teacher. Upon reflection, I realized that I had come into the practice with expectations. Coming from a culture of devotion (the Bhakti path) in India, I wanted the body scan to induce a blissful state, similar to what I’d experienced in my devotional practices. Grasping and attachment to my earlier practice was getting in the way of simply being with what is. This realization allowed me to see and let go of my expectations. I return to this lesson again and again and often ask myself, Am I grasping or resisting? What can I let go of to be here fully?
Describe your current personal mindfulness practice.
I have a regular daily practice of 30-60 minutes after my morning walk and breakfast. I choose the quality of mindfulness I need most—awareness, compassion, curiosity, energy, appreciative joy, inner calm, focus, and equanimity—and meditate accordingly.
Situations of relative discomfort (running, difficult conversations, mundane activities) are also opportunities to practice and play with mindfulness. This playful quality is important because we often make mindfulness a too-serious self-improvement project in an attempt to become better or more focused. I invite a return to mindfulness throughout my day with activities like dancing, listening to music, eating, cooking, creating, and of course, yoga ☺
How has your personal practice changed over the years?
In addition to intentonally practicing and playing with mindfuless in the real world, I’ve learned that mindfulness is more than meditation, which is often a first step, but equally important is time to listen within after our minds are steady with meditation. This gives us the opportunity to align our thoughts, speech, and actions with our intentions and values.
Who have been your most important teachers?
So many teachers such as Jon Kabat-Zinn, Joseph Goldstein, Mirabai Bush, Thich Nhath Hanh, Pema Chodron…and if I had to choose one, the Buddha.
What are you reading these days? What are some sources of inspiration?
Jospeh Goldstein’s book, Mindfulness, is my go-to book. During my time in local politics I found Thich Nhat Hanh’s Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet to be very useful. It helped me to live and lead with integrity and understand the true meaning of compassion-in-action. I also love Acharya Shunya’s Roar like a Goddess.
Do you have a story or anecdote about being/becoming a teacher?
I had applied for and interviewed for a job that I thought was the perfect match for my training as a mindfulness teacher and researcher. After my presentation to the hiring committee, I was confident. This was the job I had been waiting for.
Except it wasn’t. I didn’t get the job. I was terribly disappointed.
Instead of resorting to my usual practice of spiritual bypassing—using positive thinking to bypass my experience—I reflected on my disappointment.
What exactly am I disappointmented about? What is underlying my disappointment?
I wanted more impact beyond my mindfulness studio. I wanted to reach more people. I asked myself What can I do now to reach more people? The answer was to write a book.
I am not a writer. English is my second language. I grew up in India and Kuwait, where I never learned creative art or writing. I first learned to write as a PhD student in marketing. But this was a way to channel my strengths and ideas for a more far-reaching impact.
Writing Return to Mindfulness has been such a hard, rewarding, and creative journey. The subtitle: Disrupting Default Habits for Personal Fulfillment, Effective Leadership, and Global Impact reveals my goal to invite readers to practice and play with eight mindfulness skills—awareness, compassion, curiosity, energy, appreciative joy, inner calm, focus, and equanimity. These skills empower us to see clearly and act intentionally for a better, brighter world.
Reflect on Yoga Outside at Andrew’s.
Before finding Yoga Outside at Andrew’s, yoga, as it is commonly taught in the US, had not resonated with me. Yoga Outside teachers allow me to be present in my body and with nature. I feel invited on a path to unify mind, body, and spirit. I am not just doing exercise and downward dogs.
I grew up with a very sedentary lifestyle in Kuwait. Asana practice allows me to disrupt my default way of meditation—sitting. I notice my resistance to the discomfort of certain poses—like downward dog—which lets me explore moving through my discomfort with love and intention. I love connection with the earth and the many living beings at Andrew’s (ladybugs, dandelions, bees, grass). I love the open skies, clouds, sun, (and sometimes rain) and the feeling of aliveness that comes with moving intentionally in nature.
Do you teach elsewhere or offer online courses or workshops?
I offer courses to the community on zoom a couple of times a year.
I also offer live sessions on Instagram.
There is also a free comtemplation tool to explore your personal mindfulness style.
I teach mindfulness-based classes at Isenberg School of Management, UMass, and I offer customized workshops and trainings for businesses, non-profits, and policy makers. If I can, I always say yes to anyone who invites me to teach mindfulness.
Thanks, Shalini, for being our featured teacher this month!
Upcoming Workshops
New Year’s Eve Workshop with Sebastian Merrill
Saturday, December 31st, 10 AM - 12 Noon
in-studio and online at Sanctuary
As we approach the new year, we will gather in the warmth of great company to honor what has been and turn our hearts toward new possibility. Re-align yourself with what matters most to you and receive the power of community to magnify our individual and collective intentions.
This workshop will include 1.5 hours of joyful yoga followed by meditation, rest, and contemplation.
Queer and Trans Yoga Series with Sebastian Merrill
Starts Thursday, January 4th, 7 - 8:30 PM
In studio at Sanctuary in Northampton
This 6-week series is designed especially for LGBTQIA+ identified students who are looking to connect with their bodies and their breath in a supportive, community oriented environment. This space aims to create a container where queer and trans community members can cultivate joy, a deeper relationship with their bodies, and a sense of connectedness to their yoga practice. Each class will feature time for community and connection and an alignment-focused physical asana practice, ending with gentle restorative movement. Sebastian’s teaching is gender-affirming, body-positive, and consent-oriented. All bodies, sizes, and abilities are welcome and celebrated.
Art of Connection with Erin Schifferli
A 12-week course beginning January 19, 10 AM - 11:15 AM
Live, In-Person Only at Serenity Yoga in South Hadley (Limted to 6 Participants)
An experiential series for anyone looking to deepen and maintain their connection to the present. Discover stillness through embodied therapeutic practices and learn to apply these methods to your everyday life, in realistic ways. Explore and understand what “being” feels like, inside your own consciousness. A small group of students will learn and practice accessible tools for stress reduction and prevention. Anchor, breathe, and connect. All levels of practitioners are welcome. Some yoga experience is helpful, but not required.
Three Four-Week Modules
Part 1 - Anchor: Art of Coming to Awareness (January 19th - February 9th) -
Part 2 - Breathe: Art of Aligning with Presence (February 23rd - March 15th) -
Part 3 - Connect: Art of Being with What Arises (March 22nd - April 12th)
Sign up for all three modules and receive a free 30 minute consultation with Erin.
Do you know someone pregnant or with a new baby?
Broga and Beer at Serenity Yoga and Wellness, South Hadley
Are you an “old stiff guy”, an aging athlete, or just nervous about going to a yoga class with all those flexible women? You don’t need to be a “bro” and you don’t have to drink a beer, but you don’t want to miss this series! Women – bring your nervous male partners; men – come bond with those fellow stiff and nervous guys! Your instructor is a sports medicine physician (team doctor at UMass for 25 years until recent retirement) who’s also led yoga for the UMass hockey team and at the Hampshire County Jail. You’ll get more flexible, stronger and learn about the myriad of other ways yoga will improve your health. And if you have any ailments Dr. Rouzier will be happy to give you a complimentary evaluation either in class or over a beer!
The BroGA series will start early this winter at Serenity Yoga and Wellness in South Hadley and run until the spring. See www.serenityyogawellness.com for more details.
Click to find Pierre on WWLP: How Men Can Benefit from Yoga
Thank YOU for being a part of Yoga Outside!
For more information, teacher bios, and an up-to-date calendar, check out our website. You can also find us on Facebook. If you’ve missed past newsletters, you can find them in the Newsletter Archive on Substack. Thanks for being a part of Yoga Outside (Now until June, INDOORS, at the Munson Library).
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