April El Portal Yosemite Community Yoga

Theme: Just Breathe

Monday, April 4th 6:00-7:15 pm Arin Trook
Wednesday, April 6th 6:00-7:15 pm Schuyler Greenleaf

Monday, April 11th 6:00-7:15 pm Jennie Wheeler
Wednesday, April 13th 6:00-7:15 pm Liesa Scholze

Monday, April 18th 6:00-7:15 pm Arin Trook
Wednesday, April 20th 6:00-7:15 pm Schuyler Greenleaf

Monday, April 25th 6:00-7:15 pm Heather Sullivan
Wednesday, April 27th 6:00-7:15 pm Cynthia Ramaciotti

Women of Color Going Backpacking? Oh Yeah!

Click here to read Oakland Local blog from CB Smith-Dahl as she shares her personal connection to natural spaces, and why it’s important to support Balanced Rock in providing the unique chance for women of color to connect with the outdoors on their own terms. Thanks also to Outdoor Afro for sharing the blog with their community!

CB Smith-Dahl (aka Ms. Smitty B) is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, and educator who has always put the community at the center of her work. In 1997, she founded Community Bridge Video. As Oakland Local’s Community Media Manager, she creates new media content for the site. Her work with Oakland Local Academy teaches and engages youth and community members and organizations in useful media skills.

The Refuge

Yoga is a practice of refuge. Slow the breath, turn the gaze inward, find a place of stillness. These are both aspects of the path, as well as the destination, for yoga practice. Yoga, in its literal translation, is union. Union of breath and body, union of spirit and mind, and union of self and other, the coming together of community in yoga, in union.

All wonderful and inspiring (if a bit uber-groovy) words. And yet the afternoon of the Storm, the first day of Spring, we were reminded of these truths in a very real way.

The First Day of Spring Storm had hit Mariposa and Yosemite hard. Heavy rain and thick snow had toppled hundreds of trees, washed literally tons of stone and mud across highways, covered the high roads with thick drifts of snow. Much of the area had lost power, and every road in and around Yosemite National Park was closed. My family and I had just missed the last window to return home, arriving at the Highway 140 closure just minutes after the last car was allowed through. We waited out the night, and the next day, with the road still closed, began to bide our time in Mariposa, anxiously wondering if we would be able to get home any time this week, wondering about work, about pets, about friends and family and homes. There were rumors of tree branches fallen through rooftops, power lines laying across most of El Portal’s roads.

Unable to really rest, we poked our head into the Downtown Yoga studio. And we were not alone. One by one, more El Portal refugees began to arrive, everyone trapped away from home, simply waiting. Jen Meno, as always the most gracious of hosts, had hot tea ready for us all, and soon began nudging us out onto yoga mats. Gentle music was soon on the new sound system, and one by one, individual yoga practices began.

For me, the time we spent in the Downtown Yoga studio as refugees was one of the most beautiful expressions of yoga I have experienced. The stress each of us felt being away from home and family melted away in a collective yoga practice. Our world was chaotic, the future uncertain, we were in a real crisis. And yet, we were in this together. And this made all the difference. We stretched our way into peace, into a gentle acceptance of the moment as is was, in all its chaos and uncertainty. This was yoga, as it was meant to be.

And then, sometime in the early afternoon, Josh arrived with the news. There was a convoy from Highway 120 heading into the Yosemite and El Portal at 3 pm. If we hurried, we just might make it through the hairpin turns of Highway 49 over the Merced River in time to join the convoy and head home. The moment was broken, and we jumped into our cars to head across the county and back home.

Of course, several hours later, huddling in an unlit, unheated apartment under three sleeping bags, we all had to wonder why we ever left the warmth of the Downtown Yoga refuge, what was so compelling about getting home again?

No one looks forward to crisis. And yet, I was reminded again at our recent emergency town meeting in El Portal that crisis and disaster can actually be an opportunity to build stronger community. It is at times like this, when things seems incredibly dark, that we are closest to each other. And this is yoga, the practice of union, the refuge.

Miho Aida: Special Guest Speaker at Women of Color Fundraiser

The Balanced Rock Women of Color All-You-Can-Eat-And-Drink Fundraiser is this Saturday, March 26 from 3-7:00pm at Sol's (Sustaining Ourselves Locally) in Oakland (1236 23rd Avenue).

Besides all-you-can-eat korean BBQ tacos, beer and other beverages, music, a silent auction, backpacking treats for sale, guides Chelsea Griffie and Elizabeth Sy have ALSO coordinated a special guest speaker. We're honored to announce that Miho Aida will join us to talk at 5:00pm about her project "Empowering Women Through Outdoor Role Models."

Miho was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. In 1999, she left Japan to study environmental education and natural sciences at the Teton Science School in Wyoming. Since then, she has dedicated to educating young people, especially urban youth and those with limited access to nature, about the natural world at the Headlands Institute in Marin Headlands. Simultaneously, she gained
opportunities to learn climbing, surfing and many other outdoor sports that have empowered her and helped her connect with the natural world. In 2003, she joined the staff of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) as a backpacking and rock climbing instructor to give others the same opportunity she had.

Along this journey, she has become aware of the lack of support for women, especially women of color, to pursue environmental work and outdoor adventure. To change that, she founded two awards winning project called "If She Can Do It, You Can Too: Empowering Women Through Outdoor Role Models." Since 2008, Miho has traveled to four continents and documented images and stories of diverse and remarkable outdoor women from around the world. Her project shares these images and stories so that women, especially women of color can see what's possible. Today Miho will share her experience in the outdoors and these diverse women she met along her journey.

The Balanced Rock annual Women of Color Backpack retreat began in 2004 and remains the only program of its kind in the country. All monies raised from this event will go towards scholarships for this year's trip which runs from August 10-14, 2011.

Event is $15-25 suggested donation at the door.
RSVP required by March 21—Email elizsy@gmail.com or info@balancedrock.org to RSVP.
Warm thanks to our event sponsors for this event: Lagunitas Brewing Company, Sol's, Trumer Brauerei, Black Orchid Bakery, and New Belgium Brewing.

Can't make the event but still want to donate? Click here.

The Power of Hanuman

The stories and myths of the monkey god Hanuman stretch across the centuries. Hanuman is the son of the wind, the divine incarnation of service in his role as the faithful servant of Ram. We inhale, a small wind, and invite the playful and powerful spirit of Hanuman in with each breath.

The lessons of Hanuman are vast, and here I will focus on just a pair of key insights Hanuman has offered me in my own monkey-wanderings through the years. As a child, Hanuman, like all monkey children, was playful, bordering on mischievous. His constant pranks ands meddling finally upset the forest sages so severely, they beset upon him a life-long curse. Although Hanuman was able to keep his almost limitless power, the sages’ curse erased his memory of this power. Only when reminded of his power by someone else is he able to unleash this hidden potential.

Later in his adventures, Hanuman found himself stuck at the end of the Indian sub-continent, looking across the vast sea to the island of Lanka, a demon-ridden land where the wife of Ram lay captured. Alone, Hanuman was at a loss for solution. And yet he is reminded by Jambavantha of his powers, and with this recall, leaps into the air, crossing the sea in one jump.

Is this not a wonderful description of human nature? Here we are, “playful monkeys” moving through our worlds, meddling and creating unintentional trouble, usually oblivious of our actual hidden potential. As Nelson Mandela said in his inaugural speech, quoting Marianne Williamson, “our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure”. As human beings, we have an incredible wealth of untapped potential, and yet usually it is only through someone else’s eyes, someone else’s encouragement, through service to a greater good, that we can realize this. Isn’t your yoga practice usually more refined when in class, encouraged by a teacher, constantly reminding you of your full potential? Is there not always just a little more energy you find deep inside when taking care of your children, when giving back to your community of friends and family?

”Hanuman faces many intense challenges along his path, and each time he is able to rise above the obstacle, finding new strength, new abilities and skills he had forgotten. When we see life through the eyes of Hanuman, we realize the challenges of life—the lost love, the passing of a parent, even the inconvenient flat tire—all these are actually opportunities to find our own wealth of power. Obstacles, in this Hanuman perspective, become opportunities. This is true service work for the world, because as Mandela and Williamson conclude, “as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same….

Sustainable Speaker: Brad Lancaster Sunday, April 10

Rainwater Harvesting and Water Security
On Sunday, April 10, 2011, from 1:30-3:30pm Brad Lancaster, noted author of a series of books titled Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, will speak in Mariposa about rainwater harvesting and reuse of greywater. This donation-based event will be held at the Board of Supervisors’ Chambers at 5100 Bullion Street, Mariposa, starting at 1:30 pm. Lancaster, whose wisdom and know-how is sought internationally, has taught, designed, and consulted on the sustainable system of permaculture and integrated rainwater harvesting systems since 1993. He lives on the thriving 1/8th-acre urban permaculture site he created in downtown Tucson, Arizona.

Lancaster's presentation is for everyone who uses water. He will present an overview of how to safely harvest and store quality water from your roof for household and landscape use, as well as redirect greywater to your landscape.

An alliance of Sierra Foothills groups, such as the Upper Merced River Watershed Council, Mariposa County Master Gardeners, Yosemite Area Audubon Society and California Native Plant Society, along with area residents, have cooperated together, to bring this award-winning author to the community. Balanced Rock is one of the event sponsors. For further information call 966-1206 or email to desertbounty@hotmail.com

March Monday Yosemite Yoga Series with Heather Sullivan

Cultivating a Healing Yoga Practice, Respecting Our Bodies’ Limits

March 7: Salamba Sarvangasana "Whole Body Supported Pose"
Our practice tonight will focus on the queen of poses, shoulder stand and ways we can support our entire being toward health and peace.

March 14: The Back Body: Yoga and Lower Back Pain/Injury and Tight Hamstrings
Explore the connection of hamstrings, hip rotators, iliopsoas muscles, & sacroiliac joint. Practice poses that strengthen and support these systems while identifying poses and practices that could aggravate or injure the lower back or hamstrings.

March 21: Deep Restorative Practice
A relaxing evening of deep self care and nourishment. Sample poses include supta baddha konasana, matsyasana over chair, salamba sarvangasana over chair

All classes take place at the El Portal School Multi-Purpose room, Mondays, 5:45-7pm
All level classes. Hand-outs and take home practices will be available. These classes will emphasize restorative and healing poses and practices. Focus on proper alignment, breath, body awareness.
Please bring: Journal and pen, warm clothes, extra blankets, pillows and bolsters if you have them.