Current & Upcoming News!
Saturday, July 9th at 12:00pm: Ashley Turner is coming back to teach a special 2 hour yoga class! Lift Off with Ashley. Click on the link to read more!
You can sign up for Ashley Turner’s workshop on MBO, just log into your account
Celebrate Mother’s Day with Mala!
This Mother’s Day, come take a class with Mala. We have classes for mom’s at all levels of their yoga practice. Not around this weekend? Give your mom the gift of a private yoga session with one of Mala’s great teachers. Privates are a great way to deepen your practice with the personal attention of a one-on-one setting. Not sure what mom is looking for? We have gift certificates! Gift certificates can be used for drop-ins, class cards, privates, or one of our fantastic specialty workshops.
Easter weekend schedule
We’re on a holiday schedule for Easter weekend:
Friday, April 22: 6:45 pm class canceled
Saturday, April 23: Regular schedule
Sunday, April 24: 8 am int/adv with Daniella; 10 am int/adv with Angela; 12 pm basics with Britt; All other classes canceled
Freezes, no more: changes to class card policies
Hey gang, we’re changing our class card policies, effective April 1st. Please note that we can no longer offer freezes on the 20 class card. If you’re unsure when your card expires, log into MindBody Online and take a look. Or ask next time you’re at the front desk. Please familiarize yourself with our current policies on the prices page.
Untangling the Yoga Sutras: Meditation with Jen Whitney
Part of the Finding the Present in the Tradition Series
with: Jen Whitney
when: Saturday, April 30th; 4:00- 6:00pm
cost: $30.00
level: all levels welcome; this is not an asana class
Yoga and meditation. The two practices are often presented as separate enterprises, brought together by the meeting in the West of Buddhism and Yoga. Through an overview of the scope of meditation in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, as well as an overview of some of the common meditation practices, this workshop will start to explore an understanding of yoga as meditation, and meditation as yoga.
From there, we will investigate in detail the specific sutras in Book Three of the Yoga Sutras that concern the meditation stages of the 8 limb path of Patanjali Yoga. We will also touch on meditation in the yoga texts of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Bhagavad Gita. Combined with the initial overview, this workshop will ground attendees in a firm understanding of the place meditation has in yoga, and yoga in meditation, as well as specific practices to take home.
As the study of yoga is routed in experience, there will be an optional meditation session after the formal workshop. This will run until 6pm.
If you own a copy of the Yoga Sutras, please bring it. Handouts with the relevant sutras will be provided.
Costa Rica 2011
Greetings Mala-Brooklyn!
We have arrived in the beautiful setting of Blue Spirit, Nosara, Costa Rica and all is well. I remember Stephanie saying how amazing this place was last year and I spent the next 3 months nodding my head just not getting it. Having never been farther South than Florida, how could I? But when Christina and I stepped off our second plane and got in a cab to travel on the twisty roads to get to our third plane I was starting to get it.
This place is beautiful and as everyone was arriving the same comment came up, “the pictures just don’t do it justice.” Everybody here keeps saying how lucky we are and how grateful we are to be able to be here at Blue Spirit where you’re clock is set to morning monkey wake-up calls, afternoon soaks in the sun and the dinner time bell is the closing of the sun at sunset. We all arrived on time with luggage intact and as we are well into this retreat we only have a few bumps, bruises, bug bites & burns, so we are all healthy and as said before, full of gratitude.
So as we start our 3 hour morning practice or sit in meditation on the beautiful beach we have been bringing this gratitude that we feel to the surface and then recognizing all the people in our lives who have made this possible for us and we offer the fruits of our practice to them. But it doesn’t stop there… Gratitude is something that can be easier to find when you are in a beautiful environment, like Costa Rica or when you are in a happy place, like a leisurely Sunday afternoon. And can be challenging when things are not quite going your way or when everything seems in chaos. It’s why one practices gratitude, kindness & compassion when they are in a “good” place, when these feeling arise with much more ease so that when life gets challenging we already know that these qualities exist within us. That’s when the practice jumps off the mat an into our lives.
So with this gratitude & compassion we extend out hearts out to you all and to those in Japan who are struggling from the tsunami and it’s aftermath.
With Love & Gratitude,
Angela, Christina & all the Mala Yogis in C.R.
Down Dog of Love: Dispelling the Myths of the Heart Chakra
Down Dog of Love : Dispelling the Myth of the Heart Chakra with Lindsay Sullivan
When: Saturday, April 9th; 4pm – 6pm
Cost: $30.00
Level: Open to anyone with 6 months yoga practice
Yogis call it love. Modern psychologists call it self actualization. Ancient Yogic texts — from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali — describe the heart center as the most elusive chakra point to unravel — and the most powerful. Often misunderstood, this critical point holds the key to realizing profound, deeper levels of your practice. Through heart opening asanas, meditation and discussion, we will explore how the subtle body chakra system, psychological stages of development and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs align to reveal the path to unconditional love.
By diving into the ancient holistic practices of Yoga and Buddhism as well as Modern developmental Psychology you will
- Gain an understanding of the subtle body chakra system (particularly the heart chakra) in order to go deeper into the physical yoga practice. We will explore this through a back-bending series.
- Learn how to use both the physical and subtle body for personal growth on and off the mat.
- And you will discover how to use the practice of Yoga to improve their relationships and even learn to create the one you want.
Take Flight: A physically challenging workshop
Part of Mala Yoga’s Adventure Series
Take Flight: A Physically Challenging Workshop with Daniella Rosales-Friedman
When: Saturday, April 2nd; 4pm – 6pm
Cost: $40.00
Level: Intermediate to Advance: Suitable for students with 1.5 years of consistent practice.
Space is limited to 12 please sign-up in advance.
When the more challenging poses come up in class, do you go into “watch-asana” or perhaps look to the bathroom door to see if anyone else has beat you to it? If so, then let Daniella help you awaken the playful adventurer in you!
This workshop will work to demystify the more challenging poses that are offered in a regular class setting. The focus will be on Parsva Bakasana (Side Crow), Eka Pada Koundinyasana I and Chin Stand (a.k.a. Super-Fly!). While these poses might seem intimidating or inaccessible in our minds, the body can be taught to make sense of them. In this focused setting we’ll educate the body with a strengthening and warming asana sequence specifically designed to reinforce the body’s memory and natural intelligence. And we’ll educate the mind by identifying repeated shapes and physical alignment cues as we move.
At their “Yoga Journal” cover best, these poses are impressive party tricks. But on the path to these poses lie our perceived limitations, as well as our greatest accomplishments. Challenge yourself to step close enough to your limitations so that you can gently kiss them goodbye!
In this intimate environment you will learn
- What “basic” poses will set you up for these “advanced” poses.
- Where your personal strengths lie and how to use them to help your practice.
- How to use what you’ve got, and develop what you don’t in order to turn every yoga class into a personal workshop experience.
Advance your yoga practice to advance your life practice.
Massage and Bodywork for Babies with Ellynne Skove
Part of the Bright Minds; Big Hearts series.
When: Saturday, March 26th; 4–5:30pm
Cost: $30
Age & Level: 6 weeks to pre crawling/ No Yoga Experience Necessary – Sign up through your MBO account!
Active touch can greatly enhance development….particularly in language & social development. Touch is one of the primary sources of pleasure. Being lovingly held and touched is a great spur to development. The muscles relax, the breath deepens, tension is dispersed, and the baby’s heart rate synchronizes with the caregiver developing heart coherency, a vital element in health and wellbeing.
This very gentle bodywork approach can help little ones with calming and integrating the nervous system resulting in improved sleep, digestion, and resolution of birth stress. We work with attunement, breath, heart coherency, and a slowed pace to match the baby’s nervous system encouraging deeper bonding and attachment between parents and baby. No massage experience necessay!
Bring two baby blankets. Massage oil and creams will be provided but if you prefer to bring your own you may….no mineral oil please
Ellynne Skove, LCAT, BC-DTR, RPP, NCC
Ellynne is a licensed Movement therapist, yoga teacher, certified counselor, and body worker. She founded and developed the GoGo Babies programs for babies 6 weeks to walking incorporating developmental movement, yoga, bodywork, breath, and music. Ellynne has used massage and bodywork with babies to help parents better attune to the unique needs of their babies, and to increase bonding and attachment. She is the mother of two and has been a resident of Carroll Gardens for 25 years. Ellynne has presented her work and taught at Families First, Birthday Presence, Realbirth, Fit Mama NYC, BAX, Spoke the Hub, Mary McDowell Center for Learning, Brooklyn Hts. Montessori/ The Little Room, Packer Collegiate Institute, Area Yoga, Mala Yoga, Vira Yoga, The American Polarity Therapy Association, and the American Dance Therapy Association. Ellynne also maintains a private practice at True North Wellness, in Brooklyn, offering somatic based counseling and bodywork for babies, children, adults, and families. Ellynne is completing graduate studies in birth psychology.
Yoga Tools for Parents with Bija Kids
Part of Mala Yoga’s Family Series
Date & Time: Saturday, March 19th: 4:30-6:30pm
Cost: $30
Level: Basic knowledge of yoga poses and philosophy are suggested. Sign into your MBO account to register.
This is a workshop for parents with youngsters at home.
Join Bija Kids director Lauren Maples for an in depth look at how the ancient art and science of yoga can offer tools and techniques to help in the modern home.
Learn how to:
• Make bedtime routines a breeze
• Use breathing techniques to calm tantrums.
• Play simple yoga games to get out the door easily in the morning.
• And create remedies in your kitchen to stop that chronic runny nose in it’s path.
All the tools and techniques presented are easy to use.
Lauren Maples is the founder of Bija Kids and teaches many of the weekly classes. In addition, she runs Bija’s teacher trainings, workshops and retreats. Lauren stumbled into teaching yoga for kids almost by accident (or so it seemed at the time). In 2005, she had worked her way through college as a full time nanny, completed an adult yoga certification through Integral Yoga
Institute, and already retired from a successful career as a professional ballet dancer. She was intrigued by the profound change that children experienced from even the most brief yoga practice, so she started incorporating more and more yoga into the creative movement classes she was teaching at the time. Thus began her journey to create a program for children that incorporated not just asana and yoga games, but tools that students can take out into the world. Lauren has been fortunate to work with many wonderful teachers along her path (too many to count!) but ultimately she considers the children she works with the greatest teachers of all.