THE YOGA OF SOUND
Saturday March 23rd, 4pm to 6pm
Almond Flour Oatmeal Cookies (Vegan + Gluten-Free)
Super easy vegan cookies ready in under 30 minutes? Yes, please! Customize with nuts, or omit chocolate (why?) and add dried fruit of choice!
Servings: 26
Adapted from author: Gwen Leron
Ingredients
1 tbs ground flax seeds
3 tbs water
1 ½ cups almond flour (NOT almond meal)
1 ½ cups rolled oats
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¾ tsp baking soda
½ cup vegan butter (room temperature)
⅓ cup light brown sugar, packed
⅓ cup granulated cane sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅔ - ¾ cup chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
Line cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper.
Prepare your flax egg by whisking together ground flax seeds and water. Set aside to thicken.
In a medium bowl, whisk the almond flour, rolled oats, cinnamon, and baking soda together.
In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, sugar, and salt until blended and creamy. Add flax egg and vanilla extract, and blend.
Add the almond flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix.
Add chocolate chips and stir until they have combined evenly with the dough.
Form to desired size (I used a 1/8 cup to form the perfect cookie size).
Bake for 10 minutes if you want soft, chewy cookies or bake for 12 minutes if you want crisp cookies.
8 things I learned from Luna’s Yoga Teacher Training - by Natacha Khalife
You might already know about the eight-limb path of yoga. Yoga is more than the physical poses that make for a workout, as you practice and learn more about yoga, you may come to appreciate that it is the union of Breath, Body and Spirit. It is also a practice made up of eight limbs, a practice for life or at least until you (hopefully) reach the ultimate goal of Bliss or Enlightenment. If you have ever felt or glimpsed this union, you may be interested in deepening your knowledge and practice!
In this blog, I have summarized the key takeaways from my teacher training journey in eight points to help you decide if you’d like to experience it for yourself! Though this is a personal journey and it might be different for you, Luna Yoga’s 250H Teacher Training curriculum is sure to include the following points in various stages throughout the ten months of your training.
1. Presence and Awareness
Being present and aware encourages natural curiosity, or what we can call play. As adults, we rarely play. And in the open spirit that is play, we glean freedom from fear. This helps us foster non-judgment, the ability to accept ourselves even if we fail and therefore accept others.
2. Knowledge is power. Empower yourself.
With learning, we can cultivate that awareness and support it with knowledge and confidence. Confidence brings about the security to act on that knowledge, propelling you into your future by being proactive in your own life and sharing that knowledge with others.
3. Lineage is History. Learning the history of yoga is respecting the lineage. That’s how we honor what we know.
Honoring the people that brought us knowledge: our dedicated teachers, gurus and the pioneers of the various traditions in the history of yoga. Learning is sacred, and respecting our teachers and their service helps us solidify our own teachings, and our ability to remain students for life.
4. The courage to be vulnerable and overcome the fear of the unknown
Taking the first step, so the rest can follow. Setting an intention is powerful. It will set off a chain reaction of events, simply through the energy of momentum. You are the catalyst.
5. Your limits are not set in stone. Nothing is. That’s why everyone is worthy of compassion
With practice, your limits will shift naturally. Even when you come upon roadblocks, your persistence will bring about transformation. Practice is discipline. Discipline is resilience. Everyone is on their own path, and you will come to appreciate your own and the path of others.
6. Compassion extends to everything and everyone and ultimately involves reciprocity, i.e community.
Reciprocity involves being of mutual aid and service to others and accepting help in return. It is a vulnerable thing to share an experience with others but it’s worth every moment. You are able to create opportunities for growth together, and the intimacy and compassion that results from those relationships is a part of the teacher training experience, as much as it is a part of the true nature of yoga.
7. The importance of community - the Sangha.
Community means you. You are a part of everyone and everything. Togetherness in all, i.e ritual, is the foundation of community. Togetherness in all is Yoga.
8. Ritual is sacred. Honor the Source of all practice in awareness.
Devotional yoga is intimidating for most practitioners at the start to say the least. However it becomes an essential part of the practice after you experience the transformation of yoga in its wholeness. The practice is eight-limbed, and extends past breathwork and postural yoga. You will come to enjoy the breadth and depth of the practice throughout the teacher training, including spirituality, self-study, meditation, energetic anatomy and history.
As a final note, I’d like to encourage you to follow your instinct and to take a chance on yourself. You alone can start on your path - the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said; “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” Take your first step! It is an act of trust that will plant the seeds of your future and will hopefully bloom into self-realization.
With love, Natacha.
Embracing the yoga journey
I stumbled upon Luna Yoga one day in July 2018. I was looking to get more serious about my practice and found Luna, this cute-looking studio that was close to my work. So I booked a noon class and basically never left. In this little one room studio, I found something huge: a loving community of like-minded yogis that gives me room to grow and contribute.
Before that moment, my experience with the practice was mostly about stretching muscles, trying not to fall in balance poses and finding short term comfort in light meditation.
I tried all types of yoga: Iyengar, Ashtanga, Shivananda, Power yoga, hot yoga, Hatha… But somehow Luna’s flo was my Goldilocks. It just felt right. I could leverage my strengths and challenge myself. So I kept coming back to it, three or four classes a week and without thinking about it, I was progressing in a steady practice.
Taking the plunge - Teacher training
At some point, I felt like I needed to deepen my practice even more, just taking classes wasn’t enough. I signed up for Teacher training in 2020 amidst a flow of encouragement from the teachers. Andrea told me “You’ll see, it’s like camp!” and she was right. It was an unforgettable and transformative experience.
From yoga to Yoga: deep diving into philosophy, mythology and the eight limbs of Yoga gave purpose to my practice. Gaining a deeper understanding of the lineage and history made me feel connected to centuries old wisdom. It helped me reframe my thoughts and hold new perspectives.
Level up: my asana skills progressed furiously. I learned to be more strategic in my approach, to drive my breath and focus and reach comfort in a variety of postures. Learning anatomy (both classic and subtle) and sequencing empowered me to drive my own practice in new directions and also share that with others.
And actually teaching… Luna makes space for students to apply their skills by giving them the opportunity to guide four community classes and assisting in others. This was a game changer for me. I wanted to live the experience to the fullest, but not necessarily teach… but I got caught up in it, and I found out that I love sharing my love of yoga (also: creating playlists every week is awesome).
Where to next?
When I signed up for teaching training, I thought it would be an ending, but with the love and support of my Luna Teachers, I found out it was just one stop in my adventure.
3 Common Misconceptions About Restorative Yoga
Originally published by Andrea Peloso | Yoga International
I felt the summer heat on my bike handles as I sped home. I had just finished teaching my third Ashtanga vinyasa class of the day. My bike ride was usually fun and I had an evening planned with friends. So why did I feel so grumpy? I became frustrated with myself.
I tried to bury my feelings, but they were a symptom of a deeper problem. A fog of sleeplessness, muscular tension, and depleted immunity had begun to cloud my life.
Despite all of the profound benefits of the physical yoga practices I had enjoyed for the past nine years, I was increasingly fighting cycles of insomnia, bronchitis, irritability, and failing eyesight (that required a prescription a good 20 years before my parents had). I was flexible and strong, but exhausted.
It was during this time that I signed up for a course with Judith Hanson Lasater on the vertebral column. There I experienced Restorative Yoga for the first time.
I had previously been to some great classes that I thought were restorative. After studying with Judith, I realized that those other classes were more like yin yoga classes with music—wonderful sensory experiences, with held stretches. Though I had enjoyed those classes, I knew that I hadn’t rested deeply during them. That was an empowering realization.
Judith taught me that Restorative Yoga is the supportive use of props that facilitate resting in deep ease for long periods of time. I learned how to be still, and I felt my health responding—and changing. On the last day of the course she gave my hand a quick squeeze, as she sometimes does with students, and she said: “Will you do this practice?” I said “Yes!”
Six months later my insomnia was gone, along with much of my irritability. After about a year I stopped getting the terrible colds I used to get regularly. As if all this weren’t enough, my vision improved! According to my optometrist, there is often a correlation between exhaustion and poor eyesight, which makes a lot of sense if you think about it.
I was amazed that I’d found a gateway to greater health as well as increased compassion and presence. And, extrapolating from my own experience, I realized that Restorative Yoga was just what the world needed. I continue to study with Judith and have now been teaching and practicing Restorative Yoga for the past 18 years (though I still practice and teach other forms of yoga as well). My conviction about its universal benefits has not waned.
Regardless of where we live, most of us are exhausted by modern-day life. According to the American Institute of Stress, 55 percent of Americans are stressed during their day. The American Academy of Sleep Deprivation reports that 30 percent of adults in the U.S. regularly get insufficient sleep. Most of us forge ahead (as I did) without recognizing our need to heal and rest.
Restorative Yoga is, in my opinion, one of the simplest and most straightforward practices we can do to alleviate that exhaustion and its debilitating side effects. It’s also a great way to get our daily dose of necessary relaxation in order to balance the nervous system to combat stress. But even though Restorative Yoga offers so many benefits for so many people, it’s not always totally clear what it is and how to practice it.
COMMON MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT RESTORATIVE YOGA
In my years of teaching and studying Restorative Yoga, I have encountered three common misunderstandings that have served to spread confusion about what this practice actually is. I would like to address these misconceptions so that you can better understand Restorative Yoga and hopefully benefit from it as much as I have.
Misunderstanding #1: Restorative Yoga is a sequence of many poses that are held for two to 10 minutes each.
By their nature, restorative poses are intended to invoke ease, and so they demand ample support for comfort during the long hold times. Resting in a pose for 20 minutes or longer is a core part of the practice, although some poses are held for less time, and our nervous system is able to do deep healing work during these uninterrupted periods of ease, comfort, and safety.
The point of a restorative class is to take students to a place of uninterrupted rest so that the senses can turn inward—only then can the parasympathetic nervous system do its healing work. Longer holds in easeful positions give our system the chance to switch gears from the sympathetic (fight or flight) to the parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system. Once our parasympathetic nervous system is working, our ability to heal the body in all ways begins to unfold.
Misunderstanding #2: Restorative Yoga involves stretching.
Whether the method is hatha, yin, or vinyasa, most asana (the physical yoga practice) has some element of stretching. Restorative Yoga is different. As my teacher Judith is known to say: “Restorative Yoga is not about stretching, it’s about opening.” It’s about supporting the body to facilitate states of ease and soft, open release. Sometimes there may be a mild stretch, but that is not the goal of the asana.
In order to balance out our preconceived notions of stretching, it may be helpful to think of the passive positional release techniques used in massage therapy. Judith would sometimes mention the work of Moshe Feldenkrais when showing some restorative support—a deep field of study which has some crossovers with passive positional release at times. When a muscle is fully supported without any kind of effort (including a stretch), only then can it fully let go, rest, and heal!
Try this exercise: Place your elbows on a supportive surface and catch your temples firmly with the palms of your hands. Let your head gradually release more and more, becoming heavier in your hands over the next minute; let your jaw go slack. Can you see how the stability provided by your hands enables a release that becomes ever more powerful the longer you stay? You may have thought that you were relaxing at first, but the longer you remained in the pose, the more you could trust and let go. This is a tiny example of what happens to your whole body in increasing waves of restfulness as you lie supported in a Restorative Yoga class.
Misunderstanding #3: Sensory stimulation is a beneficial—or even necessary—part of a restorative class.
Researcher and yoga teacher Roger Cole has documented the importance of sensory withdrawal so that we are not distracted with stimuli that may invoke stress. Restorative Yoga is ultimately about finding deep states of ease in mind and body. This can actually be achieved only when the senses are not being stimulated. Any kind of sensory aid that may be enjoyable as a means of guiding you into the state of relaxation—such as music, massage, poetry, and scents—eventually becomes a hindrance to going deep. We can’t be stimulated by the outside world and turn inside at the same time.
In short: Restorative Yoga is a practice in which deep relaxation arises because of wonderfully supported rest in stillness without the senses being aroused.
RESTORATIVE VS. YIN
Restorative Yoga is often confused with other styles of yoga, in particular yin. Let’s take a look at just a few of the differences between these two styles of yoga:
In this comparison we can see that these practices—though each valuable in their own way—are actually quite different from each other!
In a world so unfamiliar with true rest, it is understandable that these practices, both of which often entail lying on the floor and being assisted/supported by props, are easily confused. Anything that brings us even a taste of rest is welcome relief for us, and distinctions can seem less important. I also don’t think most people know what having a balanced nervous system feels like. As a friend with whom I just shared some elements of Restorative Yoga said to me: “You think you know what resting is, but you don’t”—I would add, until you experience Restorative Yoga from a well-trained instructor.
Our lives are so complicated, so fraught, so busy. We rush from one activity to another with little or no chance to rest and recharge. Our immunity, mental health, relationships, and sheer joy in life suffer as a result. What a difference it could make if each of us were to feel completely supported, safe, and at ease in order to facilitate healing and a letting go toward deeper states of presence for even 20 minutes each day!
This practice has had an enormously positive impact on me and my busy life. I am healthier, happier, and much more connected to ease. I wish the same for all of you!
Join us for our upcoming Info Session for 40hr Restorative Teacher Training and meet the author Andrea Peloso.
Happy Vegan Day! With the cold weather around the corner, a cuppa tea and a delicious scone can brighten any grey day. This easy recipe can be adjusted to what you have in your pantry. Cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg are such warm spices, I couldn’t resist and currants are just a less obnoxious raisins, but feel free to use your faves!
Vegan Currant Cardamom Scones
Adapted from TheMostlyVegan
Makes 8 scones
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
½ cup organic cane sugar
½ cup coconut oil (solid & chilled)
¾ cup oat milk
½ cup dried currants
1 teaspoon cardamom
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon melted coconut butter
Sprinkling of sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 F.
-Combine flour, sugar, cardamom, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and whisk together. Add solid coconut oil and, using a fork (or pastry cutter if you have one), cut the coconut oil into the dry ingredients until the mixture begins to form fine crumbs.
-Whisk together the vanilla extract and plant-based milk then add to the flour mixture, along with dried currants and stir until the mixture forms a soft dough and no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl (add additional almond milk 1 tablespoon at a time if your dough is too dry and crumbly). Turn the dough out onto a parchment lined cooking sheet sprinkled with flour and shape into a circle, and cut into 8 triangles and gently separate scones, giving them enough room to spread out as they bake. Brush with coconut butter and sprinkle with sugar.
-Bake for 20 -25 minutes, until golden and edges begin to brown.
-Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
Enjoy!
The Benefits of Restorative Yoga: The Four R’s
Originally published by Andrea Peloso | Dec 16, 2021 | Restorative Yoga
If you think that Restorative yoga is similar to stretching-based style of yoga then you are in for a wonderful surprise. At its root, Restorative yoga is about simply being, being in deliciously comfortable stillness. And it’s amazing what happens when we can just be. This practice can support an increased sense of resilience and “going with the flow” which impacts us on all levels: chemical, physical and emotional. The benefits of Restorative yoga are profound and are different from other yoga practices. Each style of yoga has so many benefits to offer and each is different in those benefits.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the many gifts of this practice.
Reconnect
We live in a society that has forgotten what it means to rest. If you look at stats around the world from different countries, 30-55% or more of people are chronically sleep-deprived let alone have a chance for basic relaxation. This causes exhaustion, suffering, and poor health. We hear things like this all the time but it can be hard to take in the impact.
Entertain me for a moment: I am guessing that there is a large population of raccoons where you live. Imagine if I told you right now that almost half of them are chronically sleep-deprived. Kind of scary right? Or, sad. Definitely unsettling. I don’t want sleep-deprived raccoons wandering around all over the place! That reality is the case with humans every day and we have so much more power than any animal! Imagine what our world would be like if that were different if even 10 percent of us were better rested. A benefit of Restorative yoga is reconnection with our innate ability to rest. Once we rest we also have a greater chance of being able to sleep and be in a healthy balance. Everyone will thank you, although I’m not sure the raccoons will care. 😉
Redress
Once we have reconnected with our ability to rest, we will give our mind, body, and emotions a far better chance at health. Our central nervous system, delicately balanced to administer chemicals to us when it perceives danger or safety likely finally has a chance to calm down. Our body will probably experience fewer shots of cortisol, norepinephrine, and epinephrine – all chemicals that are designed to increase our safety in the short term but turn off a lot of systems in our body that are good for our long term health. You’ll be amazed once these chemicals are no longer likely wrecking as much havoc. Your heart, blood pressure, hormonal balance, immunity, digestion, fertility, emotional health… basically everything will quite likely thank you! A benefit of Restorative Yoga is quite likely greater balance in all the systems of our bodies including our nervous systems and hormones.
“Once we have reconnected with our ability to rest, we will give our mind, body, and emotions a far better chance at health.”
Remedy
Now that you are regularly resting watch as your body slowly rebalances and uses each opportunity to heal whatever it can, making big problems into smaller and smaller ones. Watch as your emotional resilience increases. Your chances of being healthy consistently will increase. Your likelihood of losing your temper, having a road rage attack, or getting anxious will fade and lessen. You are now giving yourself less stress from both the inside and the outside.
Watch as you gain a capacity to be present with kindness towards yourself through the deep inner strength you are creating by this practice. Notice that you seem to be getting sick less often. Rest is not a luxury, it is the foundation on which we build our capacity to be healthy, stable human beings.
Refine
Once your reservoir of rest and health improves, learn to be more and more at peace and at home with yourself by resting through more and more of the experiences you have being human. As the Tao te Ching says: “compassionate to yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world”. You will gain compassion and insight into others from the gentleness and kindness that you cultivate for yourself. Restorative Yoga is a great support in expanding our capacity to be present with ourselves even during difficult times so that we have more choice in how we choose to live, act and be in the world.
Restorative Yoga is a wonderful journey that enfolds with increasing benefits over each passing day. I cannot personally imagine my life over the last twenty years without the support of this practice. I am sure that my health would have been worse and my relationships would have suffered more as well. What are you waiting for? Time to get cozy.
Article by Andrea Peloso
Photos reposted from Yoga International
Except Danielle by Andrea Peloso
Tao te Ching – Stephen Mitchell Edition
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Our lovely Léa is an instrinsic part of the Luna community. Teacher, LYTT staff member, mental health specialist and mother of a toddler, this wonderful human being is so full of light, we wanted to shine a little back on her.
This month has been full of salads and smoothies but on those chilly days, a salubrious soup is what we crave! Simple and made in minutes, this soup nourishes and can warm up even the coldest days!