Yoga Mandala is a place for people from all walks of life to discover, experience and pursue the study of yoga. We are committed to sharing our belief in the goodness of yoga by combining physical yoga practices for the body with breath and meditation techniques for calming and balancing the mind.
6 Reasons to Start Yoga
1. CURIOSITY. What is yoga all about anyway? There are many different yoga traditions, and many more teachers who do not teach within a single tradition, so come try something different, come try something new, give yourself the benefit of mind, & body health, and explore several classes or try different teachers before you come to any conclusions...
2. EXPERIENCE. the benefits of yoga for yourself; you keep hearing how great it is for you, now is the time to try it out.
3. ROUTINE. Just as painful habits take time to unravel, a new discipline takes time to instill.
4. RELAX. By using your breath, learn how to unwind and create more balance in your body and mind.
5. SPACE. Life will always be busy. Learn how to create more balance and space in your day-to-day life.
6. HAPPINESS. The key to contentment and peace comes when you take time to know yourself on all levels. Delve into this time-seasoned practice to re-discover what is always there but perhaps you've neglected or forgotten.
How Yoga Mandala Came About
Yoga Mandala is a small community yoga studio. I want to say the studio just kind of happened, without much forethought or planning even. In fact, it took a lot less thinking than doing and would certainly never have ‘happened’ without the time and energy, kindnesses and trust of many, many, many people…I like to believe that the studio is a natural extension of all the preceding events and circumstances in my own life, synergistic with yoga’s growing ‘popularity’ in this country at the time.
At the foundation of yoga’s exponential growth in America is the fact that our culture feeds our collective desire to find answers (to questions we haven’t always formulated), to accomplish and attain (goals we don’t necessarily realize we don’t really want for ourselves), to accelerate and achieve (illusions of our increasingly erratic minds). Our basic currency in this society is money, so yes, we have this tendency to measure all we do and what we are in dollars and cents. Today, yoga is a multi-billion dollar industry, but I can assure you that for small studio owners (like myself), teaching yoga is not a particularly lucrative enterprise, well, not if you measure it in currency. I can attest, however, that I am immeasurably wealthier today, in more ways than one, than ever before in my life so far.
One of the main underlying impetuses for Yoga Mandala was to escape ‘supermom’-hood as I have come to understand it. Let us expunge that myth right here, right now. It is a word that has accrued a heightened notion of what it means to be human—that a woman can be all things to all people. To be an extraordinary asset to too many people comes at a very dear price to our own humanity and to our families. Fundamentally, life is not about how much a single individual (mother or father) can accomplish all at once, on their own. Life is about relationship and teamwork on an ongoing basis. We are fortunate, my generation and I, to have choices that society or science didn’t allow our mothers and fathers before us; yet, I’d add too, these choices have become by degrees burdensome, overwhelming, and unsupported by society. Our culture struggles with accepting women who are strong and persistent in their pursuit of endeavors which enable them to grow and stay grounded so they do not get caught up in the emotional frenzy of life; or men who are tender and patient by degrees in their pursuit of authenticity rather than power and prowess. In fact, some of us are on a path straight to somewhere we haven’t paused long enough or often enough to make sure we want to go.
Yoga Mandala is a place to pause and take a deep, deep breath; the yoga practice is about taking what you learn about yourself each time you land on your yoga mat back onto the road with you. Our life only lacks or loses the quality of significance and inherent beauty because there is so little empty space in it, more so now than ever. “The space is scribbled on; the time has been filled. There are so few empty pages in my engagement pad, or empty hours in the day, or empty rooms in my life in which to stand alone and find myself. Too many activities, valuable things, and interesting people,” writes Anne Morrow Lindbergh in Gift from the Sea. This was back in 1955, before the advent of technology as we know it, before air travel became second nature, before women in this country had as many choices as they do now.
Yoga Mandala is really just an empty space in which to ground oneself in the midst of all of the craziness in our intertwined lives. It was created for me, so that I could offer a saner, more whole version of myself to my family and friends; it was created for my husband and children, so that I can be there for them when they need me to be there; it was created for this community, because of all the things—let’s face it—that make us only human: our anger and impatience, our envy and egoism, our fears and frustrations. So this space is for anyone remotely human.
Perhaps I like peace and quiet more than the average person; perhaps I derive energy from stillness, while another derives energy from the hustle and bustle of a filled-to-the-brim life. Perhaps I find pleasure in early morning inspirations (which include two cups of coffee), a body exerted (but not driven to exhaustion), and moments in my day of doing nothing at all—what our culture so aptly calls ‘laziness,’ but in the Buddhist tradition is referred to as simply Being. I have found in the yoga tradition and philosophy guidelines to an authentic and fulfilling life amidst the physical busy-ness and mental chaos that engulfs me on a daily basis. Every day that the sun rises and I continue to breathe is a reminder that I am alive. I remind myself, every day can be met with pessimism or optimism, we can fail and we can succeed, and every day is a new day. Every day is a yoga practice, as long as I show up for it. And this is why Yoga Mandala is.
Step onto your yoga mat and join all of us who make Yoga Mandala such a wonderful place to be. Feel what it’s like to breathe. Appreciate the gift of the physical body and the joy of movement. Experience moments of stillness and equanimity… Our doors are open to anyone and everyone. Our intention is always to make each yoga experience an extraordinary one.
Namastē
Nicole
