Yoga St. Louis 2017 Guru Purnima Vegetarian Potluck

Please join us for our annual Guru Purnima get-together. The holiday commemorates Vyasa’s completion of the Vedas and celebrates the guru, on the full moon day in the Indian month of Ashada (July 8, 2017). Come for an afternoon of sharing. Friends and spouses welcome. After a casual shared vegetarian meal we will show a 2010 video clip of BKS Iyengar teaching the ethical precepts of yama and niyama in  Trikonasana.

 

12th Annual Iyengar Yoga Winter Intensive (2016)

Nine students studied how to apply the principles of abhyasa (practice), the means of yoga, to asana and pranayama. The Twenty-Sixth Annual Iyengar Yoga Summer Intensive is scheduled for July 10-14, 2017.

 

5th Annual Iyengar Yoga Fall Workshop (2016)

Sixteen Yoga St Louis students worked on anuloma and pratiloma vinyasa sequencing in four 1-hour asana home practice sequences over two days. The Saturday class (shown) focused on Intro level; Sunday on Asana I.

Yoga St. Louis 2016 Guru Purnima Vegetarian Potluck

Twenty-three students and family joined us for an afternoon vegetarian potluck in honor of our late guru, BKS Iyengar.

After lunch Bruce showed a short 2005 video of BKS Iyengar demonstrating the principles of Yoga for Depression. Brick Supported Savasana (shown above) opens the chest to provide more space to breathe. Otherwise, “when the sternum caves in, the mind caves in, and the sternum becomes a storehouse of depression.”

25th Annual Iyengar Yoga Summer Intensive (2016)

Summer 2016 Iyengar Yoga Intensive at Yoga St. Louis

Ten students participated in this semi-annual event that focused on the theme of how to eradicate pain,  despair, and shakiness in yoga through restraint of the senses and turning inward.

International Yoga Day at Yoga St. Louis (2016)

Yoga St. Louis students worked to realize ahimsa, non-violence, by adjusting the diaphragm to facilitate normal breathing in asana.

 

Spring Iyengar Yoga  Workshop (2016)

The Art of Iyengar Yoga Sequencing: Home Practice Sequences

Bruce Roger taught three 45-minute sequences that can be practiced at home by Intro and Level 1 students.

11th Annual Iyengar Yoga Winter Intensive (2015)

2015 Annual Winter Iyengar Yoga Intensive at Yoga St. Louis

For students attending the Intro level class who want to prepare for moving up to Asana I. This course draws on the fourth and fifth month syllabi described in Yoga in Action: Preliminary Course by Geeta S. Iyengar. This includes the practice of head balance (Sirsasana) at the wall, and shoulder balance (Salamba Sarvangasana) starting from Plough pose (Halasana) with toes on a chair.  Course taught by Bruce M. Roger.

 

4th Annual Iyengar Yoga Fall Workshop (2015)

Fall 2015 Iyengar Yoga Workshop at Yoga St. Louis

Seven Yoga St Louis students worked on pratyaksha, direct perception, in a wide-range of asanas.

Yoga St. Louis 2015 Guru Purnima Vegetarian Potluck

Seventeen students and family joined us for an afternoon vegetarian potluck.

After lunch Bruce showed a short 2005 video clip of BKS Iyengar responding to his question about the significance of the inverted Viparita Karani described in the 15th c. CE Hatha Yoga Pradipika.

“Viparita Karani has two actions. Not only does it improve the blood circulation, but it also quiets the brain so that the brain becomes an object: The venous blood collects in the abdomen, like an artificial tank. From there it gradually drips towards the heart, like a waterfall. The blood is purified without strain and spreads to the lungs. The pose also induces a naturally meditative passive, pensive state to quiet the brain.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar: 2005 Yoga Intensive at Estes Park 9-29-05

 

24th Annual Iyengar Yoga Summer Intensive (2015)

Ten students participated in this semi-annual event that focused on the theme of kriya yoga in practice.

 

International Yoga Day at Yoga St. Louis (2015)

12 Yoga St. Louis students joined Iyengar Yoga students worldwide to rid suffering through yoga. We learned to wait and observe the hamstrings stretch, without becoming impatient: “Sometimes a plateau may be very short, sometimes it may be too long. The mind is connected to time. If there is no mind, there is no time.” – BKS Iyengar 9-27-05