seva journal

with Chicago yoga teacher Remi Gonzalez
Saturday, April 9, 1-3 p.m.

Learn the basics of Forrest Yoga, and start to heal your body, relationships and life with a stronger connection to your body and spirit.

Find your Breath.

Feel your Strength.

Live your Integrity.

Nourish your Spirit.

These are the four pillars of Forrest Yoga. Take them with you off the mat, and they can transform your life. Forrest Yoga honors ancient yoga practices, and addresses the physical and emotional challenges unique to life today. Injuries, relationships, work and life transitions can be healed with the connection to your body and spirit that Forrest Yoga creates.

Learn the basics of Forrest Yoga and apply them immediately during a 90-minute class. Afterward, we’ll address your questions and discuss how to continue your journey.

www.forrestyoga.com

Remi Gonzalez is a certified yoga teacher based in Chicago, and has studied with Ana Forrest since 2005.

Cost is $30/pp.

Expand your awareness of the rhythm of life as you embrace a…
24-Hour Reset with Michele Fife And Marro Spehar

Pierce Cedar Creek Institute . 701 West Cloverdale Road . Hastings . MI 49058

YOGA . HIKING . DRUMMING . VEGETARIAN MEALS

Exhale at PCC with Michele and Marro for a 24-Hour Reset designed to calm the mind, open the body and relax the spirit.

Arrive at Pierce Cedar Creek in the mid afternoon and let the journey begin as you drop your bags in your room and allow yourself to unwind at the 661 acre nature facility. We’ll begin the guided activities at 5:00 PM. Marro will lead an afternoon Yoga (Sadhana) before sitting down for dinner at 6:30 PM. Saturday evening finds us exploring our innate relationship to rhythm. We will be led in an experiential drumming workshop – weather permitting, around a fire pit at 7:30. After finding our rhythm, unwind with a restorative Pranayama and Yoga Nidra session with Michele and Marro, 9:30pm.

Sunday morning brings an inspiring Yoga session with Michele at 8am before enjoying breakfast observed in Loving Silence at 9:15AM. Sunday morning is yours to explore the forests, fields and wetlands. Our closing lunch will be at 1pm.

June 4 & 5
Cost: $180 single, $160 double

Includes:
Overnight Accommodations
3-Vegetarian Meals
2-Yoga Classes
Drum Circle

Participation is limited. Register now!

*cancelled reservations subject to $50 cancellation fee.

March 26/27

Emotional and spiritual transformation evolve within a place of safety & security. We spark this transformation by fulfilling our moral obligation to provide our students and ourselves with a physically safe practice.

Optimal alignment enables us to create simple modifications for individual physical conditions, thereby providing the security needed to change and heal. This will be an interactive, hands-on workshop from which you will glean practical information to support your teaching and/or enrich your personal time on the mat.

Accessible Modifications and Adjustments
March 26, 1:30pm – 6:30pm
Exploring the postural template: applying and adapting it to your body as well as seeing it and guiding others to do the same. With this awareness, exploring pose modifications for oneself and others keeping body type, injuries and sensitivities in mind. The use of props and best adjustment techniques will be reviewed.

The Ethics of Yoga
March 27, 1pm – 4pm
A discussion of ethics as it applies to the seat of the yoga teacher with interactive group work and practical applications.

Saturday, March 19 · 5:00pm – 7:00pm
We have done it before, we can do it again!

Yogis near and far,

108 is considered a sacred number in Hinduism and Yoga. Traditionally, malas, or garlands of prayer beads, come as a string of 108 beads. Mathematicians of Vedic culture viewed 108 as a number of the wholeness of existence. 108 also connects the Sun, Moon, and Earth: The average distance of the Sun and the Moon to Earth is 108 times their respective diameters. According to yogic tradition, there are 108 pithas, or sacred sites, throughout India. And there are also 108 Upanishads and 108 marma points, or sacred places of the body.
And one can enjoy a Yoga mala of 108 Sun Salutations as an offering to Peace and Unity.

Join Michele on Saturday to celebrate the vernal equinox with 108 sun salutations!

$20 Day of event space permitting.

In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers report the results of their study, the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain’s grey matter.

“Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day,” says Sara Lazar, PhD, of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, the study’s senior author. “This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing.”

Read the full article at physorg.com

March 5 & 6

Principles of Ashtanga Yoga
Sat, March 5, 2:00 – 4:00pm
Ashtanga is the root of modern vinyasa. It is a powerful practice designed to bring about total balance of body, mind and spirit. Through this workshop you will learn and practice the foundational principles of Ashtanga Yoga. Through breath (ujjayi pranayama), energy guides (bandhas), and flow (vinyasa), Ashtanga heats the body to purify it of all toxins. A good understanding of the Ashtanga sequence is a must for serious yoga practitioners and teachers.

Ashtanga Primary Series
Yoga Chikitsa
Sun, March 6, 1:00 – 3:00pm
Yoga Chikitsa (yoga therapy) is a beautiful foundational practice that offers a deeper understanding of the art of flow. This Ashtanga sequence consists of a specific set of postures systematically designed to open and purify the body. In this workshop you’ll put to use the Principles of Ashtanga Yoga.
This high-energy flow is all about journeying the river within.

one year yoga experience recommended.

$30 per session at the door

Saturday, January 22nd, 1:30-6:30 pm

Discover your shakti in this workshop designed to bring you greater awareness of your energetic anatomy. Chakras, energy centers, whirl within us, supporting our life energy and defining our consciousness. When too open or blocked, physical, emotional and spiritual imbalances occur, challenging us to grow.

Although there are numerous chakras within the body, 7 are of major importance. Located along the spinal axis, they’re associated with specific life functions. In this workshop, you’ll not only learn about these energy centers, you’ll experience them. Lecture, meditation, visualization, mantra, asana and group discussion will synergize to open us to the spectrum of light within.

The workshop includes a 90-minute chakra vinyasa class (3:30 pm – 5:00 pm) in which you’ ll experience familiar asanas from the perspective of the chakras, deepening your awareness of your energetic anatomy.

Note: the vinyasa class can be taken separately.

Cost: $60/entire workshop
$20/chakra vinyasa class

Nancy McCaochan, MA, E-RYT is a former writing professor and a published author who left the college classroom to devote her life to helping people feel better in their bodies. She’s been teaching hatha yoga since 1995 and chakra yoga workshops and teacher trainings since 2004.

with Natalie Donnellon
Saturday, December 18 · 1:30pm – 6:30pm

Ayurveda “the science of life” is a natural, holistic approach that facilitates the body’s own healing process.

This workshop will include lecture, discussion and hands on experiences that we will share together.

Our program will cover:
Introduction to Ayurveda Lecture
Creating a vedic kitchen at home
Optimizing Digestion and immunity

$45 Pre-Register
$55 Day of Space Permitting

Friday, December 10 at 6:00pm – December 11 at 1:30pm

Slow Down, Unwind and Relax with us in Nature at Pierce Cedar Creek.
You will enjoy 2 Rejuvenating Yoga sessions with Michele and Marro as well as 3 Healthy Vegetarian Meals prepared by the onsite Chef.

We will begin Friday night with the perfect end to your work week – YOGA. After practice we will enjoy a healthy dinner together and then you may relax by the fire, enjoy a movie with us in the auditorium, or simply retire to your… private room.

Saturday we will wake with another Yoga session designed to inspire your day and then share a delicious breakfast in the dining hall. From here by mornings light you will be able to see the beautiful nature preserve that surrounds us.

After breakfast, you will have the opportunity to join a guided hike through the 661 acres of field, forest and wetlands, or relax as you choose.

We will all meet again to share one last meal in the dining hall, closing our experience – Until the next time that is.

Cost is
$155 Single rate
$135 Double rate

The cost includes Yoga, Meals and your accommodations.
Depending on weather we can hike, snowshoe or x-country ski.

Please contact Michele at Seva – 616-458-2541
or email us for information.

The facility can house 40 guests.

November 13th 3pm – 5pm
Bring body and soul into greater balance with an afternoon of nourishing yoga asana, meditation and pranayama breathing. We will enhance our experience with essential oils for deep renewal; unwind the tangles and tensions within.

$35 pp