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Exclusive Content for Yoga Journal Conference Alumni and Friends -- April 2010 |
Boston Conference: Thank you for Attending! Over 2,000 yoga enthusiasts filled the Sheraton in downtown Boston for 6 days of yoga classes with the top teachers, special events and our Yoga Marketplace. Deepak Chopra gave an inspirational talk to a sold out audience, and many more dropped by just to check out the Yoga Marketplace with vendors from around the world - including countries as far as Morocco and Latvia. Thank you for joining us and for your generosity! Together, we raised over $1,300 for scholarships, allowing 6 people to attend the Boston Conference who otherwise would not have been able to. Over $1,700 was raised for Yoga Hope, a non-profit yoga outreach program dedicated to offering yoga instruction to women in recovery or life transition. Although we won't be in Boston next year, you can join us in New York City, May 13-16, 2011. 
Colorado Conference - Estes Park: Registration Open!We return to beautiful Estes Park, Colorado for the 15th Annual Colorado Conference. Registration is now open! If you haven't experienced this unique event, now is the time. Come enjoy world class yoga surrounded by the stunning Rocky Mountains and roaming elk. This year, the event will again feature a 3-Day Anusara Yoga Grand Gathering with John Friend and other top Anusara Yoga teachers. In 2008 the Gathering sold out fast, so register early! We will also offer 4 days of 100+ yoga classes in all styles for all levels with 40+ teachers. Choose from the Main Conference or an All Day Intensive including Rock Climbing and Yoga on Thursday and Friday plus Special Events such as:
Conference Video: Sneak PeekClick here to see our new Yoga Journal Conference video and a glimpse of what makes these events so special. Namaste, The Yoga Journal Conference Team 
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The Anusara Yoga Grand Gathering at the Colorado Conference  This is the second, momentous Anusara Yoga Grand Gathering. The first one in 2008 was sold-out with well over 800 students, and it contained the biggest single classes of Anusara yoga's history. Even with the large number of participants, everyone who attended truly felt that it was an intimate, unforgettable, and incredibly transformative time. This year's theme is the celebration of Art through the body. The Gathering will include 3 master classes with John Friend - Dancing with the Divine, The 3 Doshas and the 9 Rasas, and Weaving a Life of Beauty. There will also be a variety of classes with 12 of our top certified Anusara yoga teachers, Tantric scholars Douglas Brooks and Sally Kempton, music with Shantala and special guests, an acrobatic play lounge, hoop and dance lessons, slack-lines, and amazing Acro Yoga lessons and demonstrations from Jason & Jenny. This 2010 Grand Gathering experience will take the entire Anusara yoga community to new levels of creative artistry and delight. For more information, visit yjevents.com/ep John Friend, the Founder of Anusara Yoga Editor's Note: In addition to the 3-Day Anusara Yoga Grand Gathering, John will be teaching classes during the Main Conference. Click here for details. 
In 1967, I was first introduced to yoga when my mother began reading me stories of yogis with supernatural powers and hidden knowledge of the mysteries of life. As an
8 year-old-boy I dreamt of becoming one of these yoga super heroes when I grew up. For my 13th birthday, I bought a copy of Juan Mascaro's translation of the Bhagavad Gita at a local bookstore. My first reading of the Bhagavad Gita moved me to tears and I knew from that day that yoga was my path in life. Immediately thereafter, I began a regular practice of hatha yoga and mediation using Swami Satchidananda's book Integral Hatha Yoga and Jess Stern's Yoga, Youth and Reincarnation. I would sometimes practice in our living room wearing my blue jeans, trying not to break anything as I fell out of headstand!
In my early teens I joined the local Theosophical Society and a group of Sufis in Youngstown, Ohio. One summer when I was 16 years old, I spent an entire day chanting, dancing and doing meditation practices with the Sufis. I was so expanded in my consciousness after that day that everything in the world seemed like it was sparkling with Technicolor Shakti! So, to try to keep my new vibratory state I became the first vegetarian in my high school. My Southern mother (from Alabama) was so concerned that she wanted to take me to a psychiatrist! Over the years, I have had the blessing of studying directly with dozens of yoga teachers including several master teachers: B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois and Gurumayi Chidvilasananda. My esoteric studies and practices cover a wide range including Taoism, Jewish Mysticism, Wicca, Freemasonry, sacred geometry, astrology, and Tantra. On the physical side, I am well versed in anatomy, kinesiology, and physiology with a National Certification in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork. I began teaching yoga in 1980 when my teacher became very ill, and then six years later quit my job as a financial analyst to teach full-time. In 1997 I founded Anusara yoga, a school of hatha yoga which unifies a life-affirming Shiva-Shakti Tantric philosophy of intrinsic goodness with Universal Principles of Alignment. In Anusara yoga we emphasize community, for it is in relationship that we can awaken to the Truth of our hearts. The Anusara yoga community is a worldwide, diverse, merry band of co-artisans collaborating in a consciousness-expanding way of life. We come together just to spend time with one another and to expand the magnificent artistry of life through the body - for the second Anusara Yoga Grand Gathering at Estes Park this September. |
