50-51 A weekend of yoga

Saturday morning was spent practicing yoga along side some good friends. On Saturday afternoon my hubbie and I headed up to Encinitas for a work shop presented by Tim Miller at his Ashtanga Yoga Center. The intimate workshop was 3 hours long and it was based on "Remembering Who We Are" and all proceeds went to the Sean O' Shea Foundation here in SD. This foundation is in rememberance of a young man who lost his life at a young age a few years ago in a tragic car accident. There mission is is, "to empower youth through yoga, nutrition and optimistic teachings that help to develop life skills that can enable youth to take responsibility for their life, develop respect for themselves and others, and have confidence in their own potential." seanosheafoundation.org

The workshop was lengthy and we covered a lot of pertinent, insightful information within those few hours from Tim. Below is his email that describes the workshop.

The traditional purpose of the practice of yoga is self-realization--to awaken, recognize and remember our true nature. All of the different methodologies of yoga are intended to facilitate this process. There is something inherent in the human condition that creates a kind of "spiritual amnesia," causing us to forget our essential self. Without some kind of intervention we are trapped in the endless cycle of samsara (conditioned existence), which causes the mind to spin in unceasing, repetitive cycles, creating suffering for others and ourselves. When we are under the spell of samsara we are unable to penetrate the layers of our conditioning to perceive the essential self and experience the grace, peace and joy of yoga (union).


The yoga sutras of Patanjali offer us a map to navigate the path of self-realization. Drawing from his more than 30 years of practice and study of the yoga sutras, Tim will offer insights regarding how the philosophy of Patanjali and the methodology of Ashtanga yoga come together. In this workshop we will explore how the fundamental practices of Ashtanga yoga--ujjayi breathing, vinyasa, bandha and tapas--are designed to take us beyond the surface layers of conditioning into the heart of our true nature.

I am almost positive that Tim offers workshop's like these quite often. I recommend one of his workshops to anyone practicing yoga, wanting to maybe start practicing or just wanting to give back to the community? Meeting Tim for the first time was very cool. His presence as a teacher of yoga was very grounding, compassionate, lighthearted and real.

Shanti