As you may know, Yasuko and I have visited the Sivananda yoga retreat centers a number of times through the years. We think highly of their practice and have wished to bring it to CRS. Unlike some yoga approaches that focus primarily on asanas and physical discipline, the Sivananda tradition continues to incorporate meditation and to emphasize that the practice of yoga is essentially a mental/spiritual practice of returning to one’s true self, a practice for which moving the body is just one tool at the mind’s disposal.
On Yasuko’s last retreat, one NYC-based instructor, Kevin Hari Dehan, was especially recommended to her and we are happy to announce that we will host his class on Sundays from 2 – 3:30 pm beginning September 23. We’ll have a free trial class on Sunday, Sept 9 from 2 – 3:30 pm, and we hope that you can join us. For more information, please see Kevin’s class description and profile below.
Love,
Christopher Pelham
Director
CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing)
Sivananda Hatha Yoga
Sundays from 2 – 3:30 pm at CRS starting Sept 23, 2012
(free trial on Sept 9)
Class Fee: $20/ class or $170 for 10 class (Valid for 3 months)Register here!
While many yoga classes focus primarily on exercise through asanas (postures), Sivananda Hatha Yoga takes into account the importance of not only the asanas but also incorporates Pranayama (breathing exercises), Savasana (relaxation), Vedanta (positive thinking) and Dhyana (meditation.)  It is through all of these practices that one is able to master internal focus, where bliss (one’s true nature) resides.  All levels of students may participate in this no-pressure class as each student is instructed to never overexert their own personal mental or physical limits.  A beautiful calm washes over the students during the class, and the effects of this practice help the yogi embrace any obstacles that they may encounter in their daily lives. 
Kevin Hari Dehan
Kevin moved to New York in 1998, and while slowly gravitating more toward artistic ventures, he left the corporate world in 2005 and has been a Brooklyn dog walker ever since. After walking The Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile pilgrimage across northern Spain, he enrolled in writing classes at NYU. He wrote two screenplays, some short plays, two of which were performed in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and, after two of his stories were published in literary journals, he self-published a collection of short stories on Amazon. He was exposed to Hatha yoga when he moved to Brooklyn in early 2000 and loved the benefits of not only the Asanas (postures) but also found additional calming effects through practicing Pranayama (breathing exercises) and Savasana (relaxation). Since he found yoga to be so very life changing, he went to Paradise Island in The Bahamas and became a certified instructor of Sivananda Hatha Yoga. He not only continues to reap the innumerable benefits of his individual yogic practice but also finds sharing this gift with others to be especially rewarding as well.