Testimonials

From Yoga Community's Spring Detox, 2008

The "Detox Dozen" met for the first time on Friday, April 4 full of questions and very unsure of what we had gotten ourselves into.
What would this detox mean for our daily lives, our habits (sure to be tested!), our "addicitions" (yes, no caffeine, sugar or - oh no - chocolate for 3 weeks)? Doug, Ayurvedic guru, gave us our instructions for week 1 - and they weren't so bad. We could do it!

Monday, April 7, 6:30 am: our first early bird yoga class. What HAD we agreed to? Yoga every weekday morning at 6:30 am? But there we were, enthusiastic and ready to begin our detox. Gentle yoga to begin to loosen toxins.
A equally gentle diet to start to flush out ama or Ayurvedic sludge in our systems, not just in digestive tracts but in our mind and emotions as well.

Friday, April 11: our first meeting at the end of week 1 to review, commiserate, share, support each other. We were 1/3 of the way through already! We receive our instructions for week 2.
Hmmmmm - this might be a bit more challenging.....

 

Week 2: Purging. What WERE we thinking when we signed up for this? Every morning - how do YOU feel? How is it going? Emails flying around the group to check in and offer advice, helpful hints, and more support. The camaraderie builds and we are happy to have new friends to share our experiences with. We begin to know more about each other than normal in polite society!

Friday, April 18: Another check-in meeting. We are feeling somewhat depleted after a week of heavy detoxing, but at the same time we feel lighter, clearer, ready to let go not just of dietary habits, but other things in our lives that don't serve us. We are all glad to be together.

Week 2: Rejuvenation! Starting to reintroduce foods into our diets - to build our agni (fire) that will digest food and also ghosts from our past that we want to dispel. We find that the desire for those foods that we thought we couldn't live without have diminished or disappeared. We have all lost weight (a much desired by-product for some of us)! After class we stick around longer to chat - a desire to linger that was not there during week 1 when we rushed off to work or home duties.

Friday, April 25: Our last meeting complete with celebration dinner from Taste of the Himalayas. We all dive in but notice that we don't want to eat as much as we did before or "undo" our much fought for detox. No one wants to see the group disband - we have been through a mini-panchakarma together. We agree to continue meeting for yoga two mornings a week at 6:30 am. Most do follow-up meetings with Doug to continue their new-found Ayurvedic lifestyle because we all feel better - lighter in all ways, more energetic yet more relaxed.

Comments from the group:

"I enjoyed the first week's sense of adventure, the challenge, and the new knowledge I was gaining. I enjoyed the sense of accomplishment, camaraderie and physical 'lightness' experienced during the third week."

"The middle of the 1st week I felt good, Enjoyed the ghee and oil massage technique. Felt light and strong.
Then midweek of 2nd week after the purge. Really felt cleansed inside and out. There were moments of lightness of being. Wished I could have been out in nature more.
Then midweek of 3rd week, I did feel moments of wonderful clarity and a stillness of mind."

"I really came out of this a changed person. Not what I was expecting at all. I love the fact that we created a morning yoga class as a result; that I have a new way of looking at food; and that I have reached a new level of awareness. Very cool."

Will we all do it again in the fall???
"Looking forward to doing the fall PK."
"Can't wait for October!"

Yep!!! Come join us!!!

- Carol

 

Dear Old Friends,

Since moving to Albuquerque almost two years ago now there is one thing I have really missed about Sonoma. No, not the wine although it is a close second. it is the Yoga Community. I have tried a few places here, and have found that what you all have to offer and to share is simply beyond compare.

What I gleaned from years with you lives in my mind, body, and heart always. Thank you!

Warmly,

Steph Schantz

 

"I love coming in here. It feels so peaceful and I love the way it looks. I want my house to look like this space."

Jocelyn Arild

 

"Marlie strings her words into fragrant garlands, laces her body into a beautiful garland...her chants mist the garlands, the drips glimmer in the light, her essence shining, lighting our presence."

Isa Jacoby

"I've really enjoyed going to yoga classes for nearly a year now.I knew nothingof yoga and decided to try it out after reading a descriptive flyer I picked up before going next door and getting a carton of smokes. Ironic, I know.I don't like going to the gym, never have, even back when I was playing sports daily,(sorry coach), but Ifelt I needed to exercise so I gave yoga a try. Absolutely perfect.The instructors are great!A nuturing yet challenging environment.The Yoga Community has a great atmosphere and all the equipment you will need. After going once a week for six weeks my flexability increased (or should I say returned) dramatically.I've been going two times a week for nine months and I am stronger and more flexible than when I was 18. If you're thinking of trying yoga......do it!"

Matt Lund

"I can't believe it. First time, one day after my first Yoga class, my blood sugar dropped from 160 to 80, normal. I can't believe it!"

Pierre Mainz, who is diabetic, student in Lisa Murray's restorative yoga class

"Carol is gifted—she puts so much thought and care into her classes."

from the "Gratitude Board" in the Yoga Community studio

"Barbra has made such a huge impact on my life. It is difficult to put into words the positive influence her teaching has made in not just my life, but in so many others. Over the years I began to really appreciate her level of knowledge and experience with yoga. It wasn't all about asanas. It was clear yoga was not just about being in class, it was a way of life. That was one of the most important things I learned from her"

Marilyn Lemaich, student of Barbra's for four years

"Thank Shiva for teachers like Mark Dennis at the Yoga Company (now Yoga Community) in Sonoma. A one-man union on strike against the rigors of "Jane Fonda yoga," he espouses deep work with lots of breathing, work that is more likely to make you supple than sweaty. But his true genius is the humor he brings to yoga, something almost taboo, peppering the class with the occasional shout of "If you all don't stop looking so pious, I'm going to have to jump out a window" or "Make sure to look at your neighbor to see that you're doing it better than them, because that's what yoga is about." Clearly, what yoga is about is people of all ability levels doing their practice together with a teacher as well-versed in anatomy, as enthusiastic and as attentive as Mark Dennis. And if you're able to smile in the middle of your downward-facing-dog, so much the better."

Metroactive Newsaper, "Best of the North Bay" 2004

"Barbra's class has meant so much to me over the past three years…that night (a weekly Monday class) was a constant for me, and an integral part of the healing process since my brain surgery in July 2005."

Melissa Hart, student of Barbra's for three years

"John Friend’s emphasis on the heart in yoga shines through in Marlie’s teaching. Moving with Grace is what her classes are about, a combination of heart, mind and body. She brings a love of the philosophy to the mind, a love of life to the heart, and a love of moving and achieving joy in the body through the asanas."

WakeUp Feldenkrais Blogspot

"This is the first time in 20 years that I am not in pain!"

a student in a class for Chronic Pain Management clients led by Barbra Brady