Happy Valentine’s Day!

Being a part of or witnessing an act of love rouses deep emotions and often stops us in our tracks. Love can do that. It has the power to still us and encourage us to listen and connect with those around us to connect with nature and to remind us of the beauty and malleability of our own human nature. One of the things we appreciate most about Pilates is how it encourages us to listen to our bodies, to love and respect our abilities as they are now in this moment. We move moment to moment with attention to detail. We work compassionately with our bodies so that ultimately we are stronger in our own skin and on our own two feet. Let this Valentine’s Day be a reminder to each of us to take the time to take care of our bodies. To take the time to be sacredly selfish (as my friend Flossie used to say) so that with our strength we in turn can go out and spread acts of love for others to witness.

A Valentine’s gift for you…for the month of February please chose a complimentary yoga/pilates class, (Wednesday@ 9:30), a cardio dance class, (Tuesday @6:30) or a wall/tower class (Monday @ 1:00). *Cut and paste this sentence to redeem your free class or mention it when you arrive at the studio…no need to sign up in advance.

Love always,

Diane & Sylvia

Visit www.PilatesCoreCenter.com or www.DragonflyYoga.net for directions.

Bring Balance Home

There’s a reason we refer to our yoga as “practice”: It’s an opportunity to practice whatever qualities we want to see more of in our lives. Sometimes we do yoga to cultivate patience, clarity, or bravery. Other times, our list is more tangible. We want a strong upper body, increased energy, or open hips. The reasons we practice inevitably change as we go through career moves, love affairs, pregnancies, and other life transitions.

They also change from day to day. Developing a personal yoga practice allows us to devise a specific program to give ourselves what we really need at any given time. We get on the mat whenever we can, for whatever length of time, in whatever amount of space is available to us. This practical approach is a first step toward integrating yoga into everyday life.

Today, why not try unrolling your mat and practicing a little on your own. Even if it’s just for 15 minutes at a time, the work you do at home will strengthen your practice by making you a more conscious and independent yoga practitioner. Even if you prematurely give up on a pose that makes you feel uncomfortable or forget a sequence you’re working on, each small home practice session will help you build up to a longer, more meaningful home practice.

 

~ Article by Yoga Journal

 

2009 New Years Resolution Challenge!

This is one New Year’s resolution you’re going to want to keep!…

Everyone wants to get fit for the New Year… but THIS New Year we are going to add a little incentive! Sign up for our 12 week “2009 New Years Resolution Challenge,” and you will receive a complete makeover package for $500, valued at over $1,000! Sign up before the program start date of January 19, 2009 and you will receive:

• A comprehensive wellness evaluation by Health Goals Chiropractic
• A nutritional evaluation with NuBalanced Nutrition
• A guided meditation session & discount coupon from Advantage Hypnosis Counseling
• 12-weeks of classes (2 per week) with Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga
• A discount coupon for Julian Hair and Color Studio
• Three $20 discount coupons for skin care with Donna Radcliffe of Skin Basics
• Three $20 discount coupons for massage with Joan Dighton
• New Years Resolution Challenge Party on Saturday, April 4, 2009

You will be given a punch card with a spot for each class, evaluation and session! Upon successful completion of this 12 week makeover program, you will be eligible for a drawing.

 

First Prize:

• 20 class package from Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga
• Complete Make-over from Julian Hair and Color Studio
• 3 one hour massages with Joan Dighton
• 3 one hour facials by Donna Radcliffe of Skin Basics + more!

 

Second Prize:

• 10 class package from Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga
• Hair Cut and Color from Julian Hair and Color Studio
• 2 one hour massages with Joan Dighton
• 2 one hour facials by Donna Radcliffe of Skin Basics + more!

 

Third Prize:

• 5 class package from Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga
• Hair Cut from Julian Hair and Color Studio
• 1 one hour massage with Joan Dighton
• 1 one hour facial by Donna Radcliffe of Skin Basics + more!

 

All participants:

• 10% off any class package (except 8 class auto pay) at Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga
• Discount from Julian Hair and Color Studio + more! 

At the end of the program Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga will host a party complete with deliciously healthy refreshments. A photographer will take the “after” photo of the group, followed by the prize drawing. Contact Diane Grossman of Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga Healing Arts & Retreat Center to register.

 

*Makes a great gift!*

 

HHS Announces Physical Activity Guidelines

Thanksgiving kicks off a season when Americans typically spend the next six weeks enjoying their favorite holiday treats only to make it their New Year’s resolution to shed the extra three to seven pounds they’ve put on.

With two-thirds of Americans already being overweight or obese, additional holiday pounds can wreak more havoc on people’s bodies than the obvious extra padding. Holiday stress and excess calories can precipitate attacks of angina or even a heart attack in people with underlying disease.

Therefore, the new exercise guidelines, released last month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, are just in time to get an entire population moving.

This is the first time that the government has issued specific guidelines on how much exercise, types and intensities are appropriate for people of all ages and physical conditions.

Dragonfly Yoga now offering Sunday Morning Yoga & Guided Meditation in Mount Laurel, NJ

The perfect way to start off your week! Dragonfly Yoga Healing Arts and Retreat Center and Pilates Core Center are now offering an all-level yoga class Sunday mornings from 8:30 to 9:45am, followed by a one-hour guided meditation at 10:00am in our Mount Laurel location. These class are perfect for students of all levels of experience.

The all-level Yoga class will include modifications and variations to be offered for most poses so that everyone leaves their Yoga class refreshed, centered, and ready to start the week. The following guided meditation is for those who wish to grow in knowledge and peace of mind, achieving a deeper connection to the energies around them, while helping to deepen their Yoga experience.

Every student from beginner to experienced will be able to enjoy these classes and grow their practice!

We look forward to seeing you there.

Ayurveda – Know Your Stress Type

Ayurveda is a system of healing that integrates basic physiology, emotional disposition, and spiritual outlook, then presents all three in the context of the universe itself.

We often speak of stress in terms of situations we find ourselves in – traffic jams, looming deadlines, getting laid off. But Ayurveda holds that stress actually originates in the mind. “Fundamentally speaking,” says Nimi Nitai Das, an Ayurvedic physician in Boston, “stress is a disorder of rajas.” Rajas represents passion or undirected activity; it’s one of three universal qualities, or gunas (the other two are sattva, or “purity,” and tamas, or “inertia”). According to Ayurvedic texts, too much rajas shows up in the mind as attachment, craving, and desire – by their nature, these impulses can’t be satisfied and therefore create a negative psychological disposition.

GYROKINESIS® Now Offered at Dragonfly Yoga & Pilates Core Center

After experiencing many personal struggles and chronic illnesses, Juliu Horvath spent many years in self-exploration and study. These experiences not only led him to true healing, but he was also inspired to create a movement system that offers the same benefits offered by yoga, dance, gymnastics, swimming and tai chi, but is not derived from these other exercise modalities. Some of the hallmarks of  GYROKINESIS® exercises are the fluidity of the movements and the ease with which one can perform them.

GYROKINESIS® exercises allow one to work on the entire body through seven natural elements of spinal movement: forward, backward, left side, right side, left twist, right twist and circular, as well as all other joint articulation.

This approach systematically and gently works the joints and muscles through rhythmic and undulating movements. These movements stimulate the body’s internal organs while different corresponding breathing patterns are integrated along with the movements.

What is Yoga?

Many people think that yoga is just stretching. But while stretching is certainly involved, yoga is really about creating balance in the body through developing both strength and flexibility. This is done through the performance of poses or postures, each of which has specific physical benefits. The poses can be done quickly in succession, creating heat in the body through movement or more slowly to increase stamina and perfect the alignment of the pose. The poses are a constant, but the approach to them varies depending on the tradition in which the teacher has trained.

Yoga is a scientific system of physical and mental practices that originated in India more than three thousand years ago. Its purpose is to assist individuals achieve their highest potential and to experience enduring health and happiness and improve the quality live.

Evolution of the Spirit

Evolution of the Spirit  Evolutionary biologist Elisabet Sahtouris has written that stress is what creates evolution in nature: Plants grow through pruning, and human beings grow the same way. When we’re faced with a situation that we can’t control or change with our current level of understanding and skill, evolutionary stress arises. The stress impels us to question the situation, seek guidance and answers, practice what we’ve learned, and eventually take a leap out of our comfort zone into a higher level of awareness.

For most of us the stress is uncomfortable and disturbing. But in science and in spiritual life, important breakthroughs are often preceded by a period of intense frustration or impasse. The scientist has assembled his data and performed innumerable experiments, but he is unable to crack the problem; the answers aren’t coming. His passionate quest for answers and his frustration about not receiving them build to a white-hot intensity. In this impasse, frequently while he is resting or taking a walk, the answer emerges from his momentarily still mind. Often it takes the form of an insight, like a download from the Source.

– Article by YogaJournal