Recent Updates

Upcoming Workshops and Events

• Despacho Ceremony

  When: Sunday, March 14, 2010, 4-7pm 
  Where: Yoga Shala SE
  3249 SE Division, Portland, OR 
  (503)963-YOGA 
  Donation: $10-15 suggested per person (all proceeds benefit Street Yoga)

  Christophe Leroy of Sacred Hoop Healing Ways will be hosting a Despacho Ceremony on March 14, 2010 to celebrate and support Street Yoga's 2010 progams. Cristophe is an energy healing practitioner whose practice is based on shamanic traditions of the Andes.   For more information, visit his blog and the Awakening Wellness Center website. 

  A despacho is a prayer mandala in the Andean spiritual tradition of Peru. Despachos are created to release the old and bring in the new: “despachar” means to “send off” or “release.” We will be creating an "ayni" despacho to bring harmony and abundance to our lives and communities. To come into "ayni" means to come into right relationship with one another, our families, our communities, and the world. When complete, a despacho is a beautiful work of art, a mandala alive with energy, filled with love, and pregnant with healing, blessings, and abundance. The event will take place at Yoga Shala SE and is open to all. Please visit the Street Yoga Events page to register for this event.  

• Street Yoga on the Soap Box

  Where: Whole Foods Market Laurelhurst 
  2825 E Burnside Street Portland OR 97214 
  When: Saturday, February 20, 2010, 2-5pm

  Street Yoga will be the featured organization at the Whole Foods Community Soap Box Event on February 20.  Please show your support for SY in the community!  Come by our table to learn about our current work, purchase a bag of our new Street Yoga tea or a Street Yoga t-shirt and ask questions about our upcoming events and workshops.

• Yoga Nidra: Deep Yogic Sleep for Extreme Relaxation

  Where: Village Theater
  1440 NW Overton St. Portland, OR 97217
  When: Sunday, April 11, 2010, 4-6:00 pm
  Cost: $21; free for active Street Yoga volunteers

  Bliss out in stillness as you recline back in corpse pose as you move through the practice of “yogic sleep”. Chandra will verbally guide you into a "threshold state between sleep and wakefulness, where contact with the subconscious and unconscious occurs spontaneously." In this authentically relaxed condition, your true nature is revealed, creativity is increased, and intention strengthened. Boost energy and relieve insomnia - A 45 minute Yoga Nidra session is the equivalent to 4 hours of deep sleep!
  Please bring a mat, and bolsters or pillows as needed. Wearing layers is encouraged.

  Chandra has dedicated a significant amount of her ten years of learning and teaching to the study of Yoga Nidra.  Confronted with an inability to move or even sit comfortably, she turned to Yoga Nidra while healing through her second back surgery. She has helped hundreds discover for themselves that Yoga Nidra can benefit a wide range of needs: relief from insomnia to deep spiritual healing.  

  Chandra teaches at Concordia University and Exhale Studio, sits on the board for Street Yoga, and coordinates sustainability efforts at Portland Public Schools.

  To purchase tickets, please go here.

• Yoga on the Dance Floor with Ekayani and the Tom Glide Space
  A Benefit Party for Street Yoga
  

  Where: Yoga Shala North Williams
  3808 North Williams, Portland, OR 97227 (503) 963-YOGA 
  When: Saturday, April 24, 2010, 9pm - midnight 
  Cost: $20 per person

  US Tour 2009-2010. World class dance music combined with live vocals from the spiritual tradition of India.
  You can find information about the artists here.
  To purchase tickets, please click here.

Upcoming Trainings 

We offer a weekend teachers' training for community members interested in learning how yoga serves vulnerable young people and their families, not only homeless youth, but young people who are faced with challenges stemming from overcoming the pain of sexual and physical abuse, homelessness, mental illness or familial substance addiction and other traumas.

The training is open to experienced yoga teachers as well as those new to yoga. In the past we've had massage therapists, nurses, social workers, teachers and many others join us for a weekend of connection, learning and soul-building.

Please check out the training schedule:

• Eugene, OR, February 5-7, 2010; (training and waitlist full)
  
• Washington, DC, February 26-28, 2010; (training and waitlist full)
• Portland, OR, March 26-28; Sign up now.
• San Francisco, CA March 26-28; Sign up now.
• Chicago, IL, April 9-11, 2010; Sign up now.
• Philadelphia, PA May 21-23, 2010; Sign up now
• San Diego, CA June 16-18, 2010; Sign up now.
• Minneapolis, MN July 16-18, 2010; Sign up now.

Recent Training - NYC

The New York City training was a wonderful coming together of yoga teachers, educators and social workers for a weekend of community building in the context of Yoga Service. Special thanks to Little Flower Yoga for co-sponsoring, and to the Sixth Street Community Center and Laughing Lotus for hosting. Also, we had a visit from the folks at Bent On Learning, which like Little Flower, is based and NY and serves schools and at-risk youth. Street Yoga has been looking to build relationships with organizations in the city to bring yoga to homeless and foster care youth, to complement the work these great organizations are doing.  

Street Yoga Tea! 

We are so excited about our new tea, which is now available for purchase. Street Yoga Tea is a sweet, refreshing hibiscus blend that calms and clarifies. Hibiscus, the red flower sacred to Ganesh, contains vitamin C and is beneficial to meditation. Street Yoga tea also has calming chamomile, rosemary for concentration, peppermint, cardamom and cinnamon for digestion, lemongrass for its antioxidant properties, and stevia and licorice for taste. This tea is beneficial and safe for all, including children.

Also, check out our new t-shirt design, which features Street Yoga's take on Ganesh. The theme of the t-shirts is Triumph. We have all colors and sizes - you can check them out here. Show your style and support Street Yoga - all at the same time!

Gratitude 

Image courtesy of Bikram Yoga LES

Image courtesy of Bikram Yoga LES

• Watch the Sweat Drop at Bikram Yoga Lower East Side was the HOTTEST place to ring in the new year in New York City! Lots of sweat, lots of fun, lots of sequins, lots of fabulous raffle prizes from generous neighborhood friends & businesses, and a sold out class helped Tricia Donegan and Bikram Yoga Lower East Side raise over $1750 for Street Yoga! It was an amazing combination of generosity & celebration, a wonderful show of how we can all help each other.

   

  Watch the Sweat Drop was generously supported by several local businesses. In particular we would like to thank: Guitar Man and owner Matt DeSilva, as well as Revival Dresses and owner/designer Virginia Craddock. Many thanks to Zico and Edible Arrangements for providing sustenance.

  And of course, a huge thanks to Julia Henderson, Tricia Donegan, Christopher Totaro, and Nick Potenzieri at Bikram Yoga, for making it all happen so beautifully!

  Bikram Yoga Lower East Side studio owner, Tricia Donegan, often tells her students that everything they need is "in this room." And she's right. The studio brings together an amazing array practitioners, puts them together in a hot, sweaty room and inspires them to inspire each other. Tricia's mission is simple: to help stretch students in every direction they want to go. She provides a space where students can concentrate on their own goals and become part of a community of people doing the same. Students find a space to stretch, room to think, and time to breathe. Bikram Yoga Lower East Side's hot pink sweat drop has come to signify health and happiness - and a damn hot class - for thousands of New Yorkers.


lululemon Union Square event
• Thanks to folks at lululemon Union Square for hosting a very sweet gathering last Sunday in NYC. Over two dozen people gathered to share a Street Yoga class, and to brunch together over fine food. Special thanks not only to Monique and the whole lululemon athletica crew, but also to Diane Ferraro, Mark Lilly, Rob Schware, Kathleen Rafferty, Dana Melillo, Stacey Sperling, Minna Kim, Laticha Sotero, Sara Neufeld, Angela Florio, Danielle Marconi, Christine Geiser, Karen Hanna and Teri Richardson for making it happen. Many thanks as well to the Give Back Yoga Foundation for co-hosting and sharing the space with us. Thank you to Maoz for the hummus plate! Another thank you to DUBpies for the savory, vegetarian pies.
• Deep gratitude to all those who donated to the lululemon in the Pearl clothing drive in Portland, OR. It was a great success thanks to the generosity of the Portland community and our friends at lulu.  We received over 200 donated clothing items which have already been dispersed to numerous partner sites, providing comfortable clothes and a greater ability to move and breathe for Street Yogis!  
• A very special thank you to volunteers Barbara Ginsberg and Lenore Cangeloso for organizing a hat knitting drive that resulted in 36 beautiful, warm hats for homeless kids that Street Yoga serves at Community Transitional School and Outside In. Thanks to all the knitters who made this possible. We will distribute the gift next week.
• We were thrilled with the community support for Street Yoga in the Willamette Week Give!Guide campaign. Thanks to everyone's generosity, Street Yoga was able to raise $2576 in donations. Thank you so much to our Give!Guide supporters, who so generously offered their services, and were instrumental in the success of the Street Yoga Give!Guide campaign: The Julie Lawrence Yoga Center, Yoga Pearl, The People's Yoga, Potentials Yoga Studio, Sellwood Yoga, The Bhaktishop, Yoga Shala, Holiday's Health and Fitness Yoga, and The Yoga Union.  To all the donors and supporters who were involved with this great effort, Thank You!

   


Image courtesy of
Laughing Lotus
• Thanks to Laughing Lotus in New York for supporting our sold out teacher training on January 15-17. What a great success - we so appreciate all your help and support!
• A huge thank you to the Arendt Family Foundation, Moksha Yoga London, and the Brewster and Rebecca Crosby and the Caroline Foundation for their support at the Eagle Level. 
  Also at the Eagle level, Street Yoga is deeply grateful to Sara and Dan Boxer, William Kinder, The Flawless Foundationand the OHSU department of Anesthesia, Pediatric Division, for their continued support. To learn more about our supporters, please visit our Community of Supporters page.