About Lynne

Lynne first and most importantly is a devoted mama of two children Ava and Wyatt who are her greatest teachers, and bring joy and light into her life everyday.

Lynne fell in love with yoga over a decade ago after stumbling into a yoga class at the Santa Barbara Yoga Center with a friend. She felt an immediate spark during the class that day. She didn’t know “why” or “what” it was about this practice that kept her coming back for more from that day on, but she knew she had stumbled upon something big.

This love affair with yoga would have it’s ups and downs for for the next 10 years, and it wasn’t until 2008 after heading down many other paths including the birth of her two kids, that she completely dedicated herself to her yoga practice. The shifts that took place on her mat, began to translate off of the the mat and into her life, and this is when she realized that she needed to teach others about the magic of yoga.

She attended yoga teacher training with Baron Baptiste who was the perfect teacher to get her “out of her comfort zone” and help her find her voice as a teacher. Lynne is eager to continue her education with as many incredible teachers as possible. A recent training with Sean Corn inspired to take her yoga to another level, and get involved with Sean’s organization Off the Mat into the World. An organization that brings awareness to many important and very serious global issues.

Yoga has helped Lynne rediscover a fearlessness within herself that she didn’t know was there. She has learned that the challenges we face on our mat are a direct reflection of the things that hold us back in our lives.  And once we recognize this, through our yoga practice, we can begin to directly apply these lessons off our mats as well.

Lynne strives to gently guide her students to and past their physical limits and out of their comfort zones so that they to can live their lives fearlessly.

Her Power Vinyasa Flow class is both playful, challenging, lighthearted, and fun, and laughter in the only requirement!

Pot Luck Hosted by Angela Wurtzel at the Santa Barbara Yoga Center 
Who – Teachers, students and friends of the Santa Barbara Yoga Center
When - Thursday, May 17th, 7:00- 8:30pm
See Event Flyer here

Classes ($12 for the month of May) 
Power Flow Hour:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 12:15pm- 1:20pm

by Carolyn Firestone

Image from sundancergraphics.com

I took my very first yoga class six months ago at the age of 28 at the Santa Barbara Yoga Center. For me, everything was new: the movement, the pace, the breathing, and naturally, the Namaste. At the end of class, I followed the cue of the teacher, snuck a brief peak at those around me, pressed my palms together at my heart and bowed whispering the unfamiliar phrase, “Namaste.”

Of course, after leaving the class my first question to my friend, a devoted yogi, who’d introduced me to the Yoga Center, was, “So what does Namaste mean exactly?” My friend offered a lovely explanation, which she called her “favorite” definition of the term. It immediately struck me that one could have a “favorite” meaning of “Namaste,” and moreover, that the word itself could carry a special and unique meaning to each person who utters it.

At its most bare bones, the definition of Namaste can go as follows:

• The God/Goddess within me acknowledges the God/Goddess within you.
• The Divine in me recognizes and honors, the Divine in you.
• The spirit within me bows to the spirit within you.

One beautiful and well-loved definition comes from the American spiritual teacher Ram Dass who translated it into the following:

“I  honor the place in you
where the entire Universe resides.
I honor the place
of love, of light, of truth, of peace.
I honor the place within you where
if you are in that place in you,
and I am in that place in me,
there is only one of us.”

In my own practice, I’ve come to value that moment of acknowledgment, the simultaneous balance between self-awareness and recognition of another. I’ve come to agree with what author Jonathan Lockwood Huie wrote: “Namaste is a greeting of unity and acceptance that recognizes the equality of all, and pays honor to the sacredness of interconnection.”

I’ve also seen it as an act of appreciation toward one’s self and toward one’s teacher. I particularly like what Aadil Palkhivala, a teacher and writer at YogaJournal.com, had to say of the practice: “For a teacher and student, Namaste allows two individuals to come together energetically to a place of connection and timelessness, free from the bonds of ego-connection. If it is done with deep feeling in the heart and with the mind surrendered, a deep union of spirits can blossom.”

What does Namaste mean to you? How does that meaning reflect or affect your own life and practice?

The teacher-of-the-month potlucks have been a great success at the Santa Barbara Yoga Center. We’ve loved having the excuse to gather in a warm, intimate setting and enjoy an eclectic mix of delicious, healthy dishes as well as great company. See images from our last potluck honoring Tiff Thompson below. And please join us for the May 17 teacher-of-the-month event spotlighting Lynne Sutherland. Special thanks to Angela Wurtzel for coordinating and hosting these special events.

by Rachel Wilkins
I am so honored and excited to be teaching a new 2/3 intuitive flow class at the Yoga Center, oh my goodness!!! While I love, love, love my all-levels intuitive flow on Tuesdays and Thursdays, it’s fun to play around with crazier, longer, more intense sequences and build up to more challenging party tricks/ asanas, as we do in my Friday donation class. We breathe, we sweat, fall on our faces and get back up, giggle when I come up with some weird variation of a pose that I can’t even lead you guys through without falling over laughing. We are cultivating a safe, sacred space for self-exploration and play, while challenging what we thought we were capable of. We are actualizing our true potential as blessed beings by tapping into that higher, intuitive knowledge that we often ignore or bury under our ideas of self. Let it out, come play and be free!

I am also so excited to be featured in Santa Barbara Magazine’s 2012 “Best of” issue, opening the health and beauty section, holler!  Read it here – http://sbmag.com/2012/03/best-of-health-beauty-mind-body-soul/

Interviewed by Angela Wurtzel

“Everything in life is connected. The point is to know it and understand it.” #46 Pedroluiss

When Tiff Thompson and I sat down to talk about yoga I realized April is the perfect month for her to be honored as our teacher of the month. She has been developing wind energy projects for the past five years and has a deep interest in sustainable living, which is apropos for the celebration of Earth Day, which takes place this month. Also, it became clear to me from our conversation that Tiff is deeply devoted to unity and community, life, yoga,  and yoking, which made me think of eggs, Easter, birth, and spring.

What drew you to yoga?

When I was 19 years old and living in Baltimore, Maryland, my friend Rachel took me to a Bikram yoga class. I felt like a klutz in the hot room. Awkward, self-conscious, and out of place. But I continued to practice Bikram for five years and grew to be an avid practitioner. In 2007, I was offered a job in South Dakota, in a town with a population of 1,000, in the middle of nowhere. Yoga studios were not available, nor were gyms! So, I made my second bedroom a hot yoga room. I moved space heaters in, stuffed towels under the door, hung mirrors up on the walls, velcroed my ipod Nano to my arm and plugged in my earbuds. Bikram Chodury’a recorded voice took me through the 26 poses. Today, you may hear me say “bikram-esque” phrases during my teaching; his voice still resonates in my head in certain asanas.

After working South Dakota, I moved to Minnesota, continued with Bikram, and picked up Core Power Yoga and P90X yoga. Then, in 2009, I moved to Santa Barbara to study psychology and started attending Ashtanga Yoga. This was my first taste of yoga without the intensity; it was more meditative—particularly the focus on Ujjayi breath. Thus, I started to experience my breath as a part of the movement and incorporated it in my practice, even into other forms of exercise, including running. It was here that I began to see the power of the breath. My mind, I realized, took over my experience of exercise in the past—unconsciously, a ragged breathing would make me feel I would expire—when the breath didn’t need to be strained in the first place. I began running for an hour, with no stress on my lungs, whatsoever.

What made you decide to be a yoga teacher?

It just unfolded, serendipitous, never a plan, though I must have planted the seed to be a teacher, because before I moved to South Dakota I thought to be an aerobics instructor as an addition to my renewable energy work. So, I studied the materials necessary to certify, but never took the test to teach aerobics, because I moved for work. Regardless, the intention was created; it was an easy and natural transition to teach yoga. Since I’ve lived in Santa Barbara, I took the Yoga Works 200-hour yoga teacher training program and was then offered the opportunity to run the SBYC Teacher Training program and teaching became an option. I have only been teaching for six months, since October 2011.

What do you like about teaching?

Foremost, I like the dynamism, the flux between the beginning of a class to the end, the calming, the centering, the apex to music, and the rolling back down to meditation. In 90 minutes a lot happens.

I like to teach a strong class, yang, powerful. I appreciate the expression that comes out of practicing yoga. Recently, I have been questioning how much I should participate in the asana practice—that is, accompanying my students in their practice versus walking around and making adjustments and teaching with a different authority. I want my students to feel taken care of, but I also want to create a communal sense by moving through asanas together. I don’t quite know how to do that yet. I am honoring that unfolding dichotomy.

What are your aspirations and goals with teaching yoga?

I see yoga as one tool for enlightenment. The physicality of yoga brings us closer to the source, lessening separation, and helping us see our inherent unity. At the end of each class, I speak these words. Someday my students are welcome to say them in unison with me.

“May I be at Peace
May my heart remain open
May I awaken to the light of my own true nature,
May I be healed
May I serve as a source of healing for all beings.”

-unknown.

Tiff currently teaches Peak Performance classes Monday & Wednesday 5:00 – 6:25 and Level 2-3 on Saturday at 10:30 am. Starting mid-April she will teach Hour of Power Mondays and Wednesday evenings at 5:30-6:30.

For the month of April, Leigh Aschoff is teaching all her Auspicious Asana classes inspired by the goddess Tripura Sundari, one of the ten Hindu Mahavidyas. “Maha” means great; “Vidya” means revelation, manifestation, knowledge and wisdom. The ten Mahavidyas are Great Wisdoms in the form of the Divine Mother – ten cosmic personalities. The other nine Mahavidyas are Kali, Tara, Chinnamasta, Bhuvaneshvari, Bagalamukhi, Dhumavati, Kamala, Matangi & Bhairavi.

Tripura Sundari is known as the Beautiful Goddess of Three Cities. She is also known as The Beauty of the World, The Beauty of Creation, Shodashi, Lalita and Rajarajeshvari. The color associated with Sundari is a dusky, red, golden color. She is often depicted holding a sugar cane bow along with five arrows. The arrows are tipped with flowers, each flower corresponding to one of the five senses. The arrows are intended to pierce the heart of sonic mudra. Sundari invites us to beauty through our own perception.

Attend Leigh’s Auspicious Asana class this month to learn about Sundari and practice yoga inspired by Sundari’s rich beauty and auspiciousness.

What to look forward to in Auspicious Asana classes for the month of April,
inspired by Tripura Sundari:

Beauty & Perception
Pure Perception & Joy
Physical Embodiment / The senses (Fire)
Energy / Throat Chakra (The Moon)
Thought / The Heart (The Sun)

…for more, come to class and invoke Tripura Sundari into your heart
and into your practice.

Auspicious Asana:
~ Tuesday/Thursday: 10:30-11:55am
~ Saturdays: 11am-12:30pm

To connect with Leigh, please join her Auspicious Asana facebook page for inspiration, information about her classes and other special events.

The Tadasana Festival of Yoga and Music is a three-day transformative experience in Santa Monica, CA over Earth Day Weekend, April 20- 22, 2012. Choose from 50 master teachers offering 100+ classes and workshops with live, in-class musical performances by artists from around the world, lectures and eco-conscious shopping in a wonderful location at the edge of the beach facing the Pacific Ocean – featuring Themed Yoga Tents, the Lecture Dome, Artwork, Chill Zones, an Organic Food Court, 60+ Booths of Eco-Goodness and much more! Sign up with the promo code SANTAB108 to get $50 off.

Tadasana Festival of Yoga & Music
Twitter: @tadasanafest
Facebook: TadasanaFestival
Tumblr: http://tadasanafestival.tumblr.com/
www.tadasanafestival.com

There is no one face, age, body type, or location that represents yoga. Yoga is truly for everyone, and everyone can find a unique way for its practice to benefit their lives. In a quest to “highlight the way that people practice yoga in their daily lives,” Yoga Journal is holding a contest asking people to post pictures of themselves in a favorite pose. The results are beautifully diverse, touching, and often, amusing. A sample of these creative images now appear in a lovely slideshow on the HuffingtonPost. Check it out here. Then, learn how you can share your own images and enter the Yoga Journal’s Talent Search contest here.

by Angela Wurtzel

Each community potluck in honor of our Teacher of the Month has created a community of people for a few hours and some really delicious, homemade-with-love food. I have noticed that one offering has usually been “raved” about and decided to start collecting the recipes to share on our blog community.

Image from FoodChannel.com

Rachel Wilkin’s Rockin Kale Salad:

Bunch of kale, stems removed and leaves ripped into smaller pieces

Dressing:
1-2 lemons
olive oil
toasted sesame oil
bragg’s amino acids
nutritional yeast
crushed garlic or finely diced
crushed red pepper
sesame seeds

For the proportions, about equal parts of the oils (maybe two spoonfuls each?), braggs and lemon juice. about a spoonful of nutritional yeast, 1/2 spoonful of crushed garlic/ to taste. mix up the dressing then massage this into the raw kale until the leaves begin to soften. let this sit for at least 20 min (but sometimes i don’t wait and its still really good!), then sprinkle sesame seeds and red pepper on top. i also like to add avocado or if you have some extra squash or sweet potatoes, dice these up and toss them in. and play around with the proportions to taste, i always just eyeball it then play around. i usually end up adding extra braggs…

Dawn Barnier’s Beautiful Broccoli Salad:

Broccoli Salad:
1 pound bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
4 stalks (or heads or whatever you call them)  Broccoli
5 scallions, finely sliced
1/2 cup Craisins
1/2 cup slivered almonds

Dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/8 cup white wine vinegar ( or more to taste)
1/4 cup white sugar

Chop the broccoli into little tiny heads, add bacon, scallions, Craisins and almonds.
Stir the dressing ingredients together and pour over salad.  Mix and refrigerate several hours.