Freedom through practice

During this time of year around the 4th of July, I always reflect on what freedom means to me.  I think back to when I first started yoga and how much I was controlled by the negative, worrisome thoughts of my mind.  Even after finding yoga, my journey was quite a tumultuous one, but the practice was like a road map guiding me in the right direction.  According to the philosophy of yoga, consistent practice over time with dedication, enthusiasm and conviction will ultimately lead us to freedom from suffering.  It doesn’t mean we don’t experience hardship or pain but Read the full article…

The reason we do asana or yoga poses…

I hope are having a great month so far!  Summer is upon us and the heat is rising! Next week is the Summer Solstice, when day and night are equal and the earth will sit in perfect balance. A yoga practice is designed to help us create balance in the ever changing tides of life.   In the Yoga Sutras of Patanajali, which is the manual for the philosophy of yoga and is comprised of 195 sutras, there are only 3 dedicated to asana (or the poses) and why and how they should be done.  It all comes down to Read the full article…

Immediacy

Yoga Blend, Burbank, Christy Marsden

Happy May! I hope your month is off to a great start. This week I found myself getting lost in all the things I have to do and feeling like I will never get caught up. Noticing my anxiousness around the overwhelm, I paused to take a few deep breaths and decided to focus on what I could do right now rather than than what I couldn’t get to. There is a principle in the Burning Man culture of immediacy that I have been incorporating into my daily life. How many times have you found yourself saying…”one day I will Read the full article…

Yoga Gives Us Time

Happy middle-ish of the month! With the longer days and higher energy of spring, I find myself getting caught up in the quickening of the season. I am scheduling more, moving faster and taking less and less time for myself and for turning in. Oops. I have noticed that I seem to be moving from one thing to the next with practically no down time. As a result, I find myself unable to fully focus on what I am doing and I end up feeling fatigued and anxious at the end of the day. I am reminded of this quote Read the full article…

Self-Care

Yoga Blend, Burbank, Christy Marsden

Hello and Happy April! I hope this email finds you thriving and enjoying the surging energy of spring! One of the greatest things we can do for ourselves in order to handle all the roles and responsibilities of our very demanding lives is to take care of ourselves….first. Some of us were taught that serving others first is the most important. We were taught it is righteous to sacrifice our time, energy, and sometimes even our own happiness in order to help or do for another. At least I was taught that. Now, don’t get me wrong. Helping others is Read the full article…

Comparison

I hope your month is going well! As I consider all the things I want to create and look to others for inspiration, the following quote keeps ringing in my head: Comparison is the thief of joy. With the neurosis and suffering that comes from comparing ourselves to others, especially on the internet, I’ve been putting my attention toward respecting, appreciating and celebrating others for their unique gifts. One of the surest ways to increase suffering and stop our dreams in their path is to constantly look outside of ourselves in comparison to others. When we are always comparing, it Read the full article…

13 Years

Happy March! I hope you are doing well and enjoying the winter we are having here in SoCal 🙂 This weekend on March 4th, Yoga Blend will celebrate 13 years. WHAT?! On one hand it seems like we just opened a few years ago and on the other, it feels like Yoga Blend has always been there. It definitely seems that it has always been in my heart. From the time I was a little girl, I felt Yoga Blend. Now, I had no idea what Yoga was or that I would ever even try Yoga and certainly didn’t know Read the full article…

Yoga is a Practice of Action

Happy middle of the month! I hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day filled with love and laughter. I am behind on just about everything because things don’t always turn out as planned. And this is why practicing the art of surrender can be super helpful 🙂 Yoga is a practice of action. If we don’t like what are getting, then we have to do something different. We cannot just know, understand, or desire something in our mind. We have to actually do something about it. However, knowing what action to take can be a challenge. So we practice yoga Read the full article…

Awareness

Happy February! I hope you are having a great start to your year and if you set them, that your intentions, goals and/or resolutions are going well and bringing you greater health and happiness. When I first started yoga, I was pretty frustrated with how far I felt I had to go in my life with regards to where I wanted to be physically, emotionally, in my work, diet, relationships, behaviors, health, etc. I remember expressing this to a teacher and her saying to me that at first, the awareness alone is enough. She said to start by simply observing Read the full article…

Envision a Bright Future

I hope your month and year is off to a great start. I was talking to someone I met last weekend who was asking me questions about what feels like to me a previous life. It was a time when I knew deep down that I was a good person but for some reason my life and the people around me didn’t reflect the deep longing of my heart. I drank and smoked too much. I woke up with anxiety attacks on the regular. I wasn’t doing what I loved. I was surrounded by negative people who I didn’t trust. Read the full article…

Detachment

Happy New Year! I hope you had an amazing holiday doing things you love with people you love! It has been an interesting couple of weeks for me. First, my computer hard drive crashed and I lost a lot of data. I am hoping some of my information can be recovered but only time will tell. Thank goodness for my phone…that is until it was stolen…the day before I had to travel. It was so interesting to feel anger move into panic into frustration and finally, into complete surrender. All within a matter of 10 minutes. I have the Yoga Read the full article…

2018 Immersion Scholarship

Annoucing Yoga Blend’s FIRST scholarship to our 2018 Immersion! This year we will be offering 1 full scholarship to our Immersion, a $750 value! Do you know someone that loves yoga but can’t afford to pay for the Immersion? Or maybe you would love to participate yourself and were wondering if this was your year? We want to hear from you! How to Participate: You can nominate someone close to you such as a friend or family member or you can nominate yourself! To nominate yourself or someone else, please share a short essay with us on: ~What impact yoga Read the full article…

Sustained Focus

Happy December! I hope your month is off to a great start so far! The Yoga Sutras defines Yoga as the ability to direct the mind toward one chosen object (can be anything) and maintain that direction without distraction for a sustained amount of time. When we are in a state of Yoga (i.e. mind focused, therefore relaxed and settled), we experience our true nature. Ahhhh. When we are not in the state of Yoga (distracted and agitated), what we experience is the activities of our mind instead. Oh dear! With everything that is happening in the world right now, Read the full article…

3 Great Yoga Deals

Thank you for being a part of Yoga Blend. All of us here appreciate you and are grateful for your support, your presence, your practice, your awesome-ness…all of it! The best way to deepen your yoga practice is through consistency. A consistent practice helps us to fine tune the body, relax the mind and create positive changes in our loves. And when we practice in a studio environment, it fosters community, encourages connection and offers inspiration and support. As much as you may want come to the studio to practice regularly, sometimes life or finances can get in the way Read the full article…

Knowing vs Not Knowing

I hope you are having a great month so far. I was just having a conversation with someone about knowing vs not knowing and the confusion, pain and fear that can result when we are unsure about which way to go. We have so many roles, goals and responsibilities in our lives that we sometimes just go on autopilot and do all the things without really pausing to see if what we are doing is still true to our heart. Then maybe one day we wake up and see that the things we are doing no longer serve us and Read the full article…

Embrace the Darkness

Happy November! I hope you had a wonderful Halloween full of tricks, treats and magic! The season of change is upon us. The weather is changing (especially here in Tennessee) and the nights are growing longer. This weekend we will set our clocks to standard time and fall back into more darkness. In the past, I have struggled with this time of year. Although I was born in November, I am a child of the summer. I thrive in the warmth and the light. The cold makes me shiver and the dark makes me question. Everything. And therein lies the Read the full article…

Self Care First

I hope you are having a great month so far! I have been thinking a lot about why it is so easy to put ourselves last. So many people I talk to have a hard time with staying consistent in doing things for themselves, feeling guilty when they do or being able to saying no to others for their own needs. Myself included. We learn at a very young age that the way to show love or to be a good person is to do for others first and that being selfish or putting ourselves first is bad. We are Read the full article…

Dualities

I hope this newsletter finds you safe and surrounded by your loved ones. My heart aches at the state of our world right now. So much violence. So much pain. So much sadness. Then, in the midst of the heaviness of my heart and an overwhelming feeling of helplessness with tears burning my eyes, my 7 year old son and his 5 year buddy who is in town come cheerfully bounding out the door to say good morning and ask for breakfast. And such is the dualistic nature of this life. As I move through the polarities of daily life, Read the full article…

Pricing Changes Beginning Oct 1st

Pricing Updates beginning Oct 1st 6 Month Unlimited Auto Pay will reduce to just $99 per month! This special rate will only be available for sale from October 1, 2017 thru December 31st, 2017. After Dec 31st, the price will increase back to $115/month. Anyone already signed up for auto pay and students who enroll during this time will lock in this very special promotional price of $99 as long as they do not cancel! Those already enrolled will be automatically renewed at this reduced rate beginning with their next billing cycle after October, 1st. If canceled and renewed at Read the full article…

Yoga Gives Us Time

Happy middle of the month! “Yoga doesn’t take time, it gives time.” This quote by Ganga White is one that I find myself repeating on a regular basis when I think, ‘I don’t have time for yoga today.’ By doing yoga, I actually give myself more time to do the things I need to do. It is easy to get caught up in all of our roles and responsibilities and put our own needs and self-care on the back burner because we feel that we don’t have time. However, when we are empty and depleted, everything feels harder. When we Read the full article…

Change Is Always Happening

Happy August! It seems the summer just began and now, here we are just past the mid point between summer and fall, steadily heading towards longer nights. The weather, as if on cue here in Nashville, has totally started to change. As we know, the only thing we can really count on in life is that it is always changing. Change can be very welcome, exciting and a cause for celebration. It can also be unsettling, frustrating and stressful. Regardless if we perceive it as positive or negative, change is always happening so we might as well prepare the best Read the full article…

Surrender

I hope you are having a great month! This newsletter is coming out a week late because sometimes, regardless of our efforts, things just don’t work out the way we planned. Better late than never! The past week has been the ultimate in surrender and letting go for me. So many plans, so many intentions. So many upsets and so many disappointments. This is life. The real stuff. During all of the challenges, I had to continuously remind myself that the best way to handle the unexpected and allow the unfolding is through surrender. I am sure many of us Read the full article…

Take Steps Now to Avoid Future Discomfort

I hope you are having a great month so far. I am so happy to be back in Burbank and at the Blend! I was up super early yesterday for a full day of travel and was feeling grateful that I am able to be in Nashville with my family and still come to Burbank every few weeks to be with my Yoga Blend family. Although totally worth it, it can be really challenging to travel every few weeks. I will admit, it took me quite awhile to learn how to take care of myself in the process. Yoga Sutra Read the full article…

Atha

I hope your month is off to a great start! As I was thinking about what to write this morning, the word commitment kept coming to mind. If we want something that we don’t have it usually doesn’t just magically appear in our life simply by wishing for it. When it does, be grateful and celebrate because it is a rare thing indeed. What is usually required is a commitment and the ability to follow through with concrete action. The very first word of the Yoga Sutras is Atha which translates as Now and implies a commitment. Now begins my Read the full article…

The Power of 30 Seconds

I hope you are having a great month! Do you often find yourself saying: I don’t have the time? Yeah, me too. More than I care to admit actually. So lately, to counter the anxiety of always feeling behind, I have been exploring the power of 30 seconds as a practice. Every day, I notice people (myself included) rushing from one thing to the next and not fully paying attention to the world around them. So I have made a conscious decision to REALLY pay attention. It blows my mind when people are in such a rush that they won’t Read the full article…