Announcing CENTERING SUNDAY: Practice with a good karma twist!

 

On MHA’s Centering Sunday, May 19th, you can practice yoga, take pilates or book a massage, all with a good karma twist.

In honor of May's Mental Health Awareness Month, yoga studios and wellness centers across the Hudson Valley are offering classes in support of the Mental Health Association of Westchester’s mental health programs and services. 

Through these events, MHA hopes to increase understanding and reduce stigma, which causes needless shame and is the biggest obstacle to seeking help.  With good treatment, people can and do recover and lead healthy, productive lives in the community.

 

Join us!

May 10th at The Yoga Sanctuary in Mamaroneck - 6pm


May 16th at Premier Pilates & Yoga in New Rochelle - 6:15 PM

Sunday, May 19:

Athleta (Scarsdale) – 10:00 AM

Bikram Yoga (Yorktown Heights) - 3:00 PM

Bronxville Wellness Sanctuary (Bronxville) - Massage 2:00 - 5:00 PM

Devoted Yoga (Yorktown Heights) - 10:00 AM

Energy Movement Center (Peekskill) - 11:00 AM

Hudson Yoga (Croton-on-Hudson) - 11:00 AM

Pilates on Hudson (Peekskill) - 9 AM Yoga for Anxiety & Depression

Quest Yoga Arts  (Mt. Kisco) -11:45 AM

Riverstone Yoga (Tarrytown) - 9 AM

Sage Yoga (Armonk) - 4:00 PM

Santhigram Wellness & Ayurveda Center (White Plains) - 11:00 AM

Scarsdale Yoga Studio (Scarsdale) - 11:45 AM

Skinny Buddha (Mount Kisco) - 10:00 AM

Soulauras Wisdom & Wellness Center (Briarcliff Manor) - 2 PM

SPACE/Pilates Yoga & Beyond (Bedford Hills)  - 11:00 AM

The Ajna Center for Wellness & Community (Croton-on-Hudson) - 1:00 PM

The Yoga Room (Pelham) - 12:30 PM

Yoga Haven (Scarsdale) --3PM

Yoga on Lake Rippowam (South Salem) - 5:00 PM

Yoga Spark (Mamaroneck) - 12 noon

Thank you to these generous studios and studio owners for partnering with MHA. Together, we can do so much. Together, we will!

For a map and directions to all locations, visit http://www.mhawestchester.org/onyourmat/Centering_Sunday/Find_a_Studio/find_a_studio.html

www.mhawestchester.org

Feeling alone? Disconnected? Try This Breathing Practice

By Amy Weintraub

MHA Westchester is so happy to welcome Amy back as we begin the countdown to this year's mega yoga event, Get On Your Mat For Mental Health,  Wednesday, June 19th on Court Street in White Plains. To register, visit www.mhawestchester.org
I know of no better way to sense our interconnectedness than to begin a breathing practice.  Aside from the well-documented health benefits, we can stop a ruminative chain of thoughts or a negative mood state in its tracks with one of many simple yogic breathing exercises called pranayama.  Trauma, loss and the everyday hassles of daily life can create constriction in the physical and emotional body.  As we constrict, we begin to close off from others.  Some of us carry this sense of separation throughout our lives in the form of depression.  Yogic breathing can begin to break through that wall of separation, perhaps just a chink at first, through which we begin to feel less separate and alone.  A simple breath can give us a felt sense of our connection to the energy of the cosmos.  Einstein once said that we are operating under the optical delusion of our separateness and that our separateness is lethal.* When we breathe mindfully, that delusion dissolves and we begin to see clearly again that we are intimately and eternally connected to the energy of the universe and to each other.  What is authentic within us is given voice. 
 
Practice:
When we breathe consciously, we may quiet the clatter of thoughts so that mindfulness naturally arises. Try this simple breath when the busy mind needs a respite.  Let it be the portal into your seated meditation practice.
Ocean-Sounding Victory Breath (Ujjayi)
This breath, jokingly referred to as Darth Vader Breath, is soothing to the central nervous system, even as it calms the mind and supports greater focus for meditation.
1. To begin, inhale through the nostrils to the count of four with a slight constriction at the back of the throat, so that the breath is audible, like a light snoring sound.
2. Exhale through the nostrils for four counts, maintaining the snoring sound.
3. The breath is slow, and deep.  Feel the breath expanding the belly, the ribcage, and then the upper chest.
4. On the exhalation, pull the abdomen in and up to empty the lungs completely.
5. Sense the breath at the back of the throat.
6. Listen to your breath.  Does it sound like a wave gently rolling across pebbles?  Imagine your favorite pebbly beach.  Does it sound like an infant’s snore?  Let it be like a lullaby to yourself—perhaps a younger you.

*Calaprice, A. (2005). The new quotable Einstein. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, p. 109

Amy Weintraub, director of the LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute, author of the bestselling Yoga for Depression and the ground-breaking Yoga Skills for Therapists, has been a pioneer in the field of yoga and mental health for over 20 years. She trains health and yoga professionals and offers workshops for every day practitioners.  The LifeForce Yoga protocol is being used in residential treatment centers, hospitals and by health care providers around the world. She is involved in ongoing research on the effects of yoga on mood, and has produced an award-winning library of evidence-based yoga and meditation CDs and DVDs for mood management.  Find Amy at www.yogafordepression.com.,