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From where to take a class while visiting another city to books and resources that will assist you in exploring your practice, below are some of our favorite recommendations to make your life flow more easily. Enjoy! Please let us know if you would like to share any recommendations of your own.
BOOKS, CDS & DVDS THAT INSPIRE
LOCAL GEMS
OUT-OF-TOWN STUDIOS
ECO-CONSCIOUS LIVING
YOGA GETAWAYS
HOLIDAYS TIPS FOR GIVING GREEN
BOOKS, CDS & DVDS THAT INSPIRE
Wherever You Go, There You Are
Book. Meditation is important because it brings about a state of "mindfulness," a condition of "being" rather than "doing" during which you pay attention to the moment rather than the past, the future, or the multitudinous distractions of modern life? This book makes learning meditation remarkably easy.
Autobiography of a Yogi
Book. Yogananda sensitively interprets not only his own spiritual evolution but also his relationship with elements of the West's spiritual tradition
Finding Flow
Book. While many self-help books purport to tell readers how to find happiness, few such titles can claim to be based on any scientifically valid, large-scale studies?people were happiest when most absorbed in their actions, a state the author termed flow.
Anatomy of Hatha Yoga
Book. Anatomy of Hatha Yoga is the only modern authoritative source that correlates the study of hatha yoga with anatomy and physiology... anyone who is curious or troubled about how the body responds to stretching and exercise will find in this book a cornucopia -- partly new and partly old -- of readable and reliable information.
The Light On Pranayama: The Yogic Art of Breathing
Book. In this classic, a yoga master describes the techniques of breathing together with a comprehensive background of yoga philosophy in this authoritative, practical and indispensable guide.
Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Book. This book provided readers with a fresh and accessible translation of this ancient text?A fresh translation of the writings of Patanjali, the first man to record the ancient practice of yoga.
Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom
Book. If this book is to lay any claim to authenticity, it must make one point clear above all others. It is this: By persistent and sustained practice, anyone and everyone can make the yoga journey and reach the goal of illumination and freedom.
Yoga: A Gem for Women
Book. A detailed, practical guide for the yoga student who wants to go deeper with her practice of Hatha Yoga. The book is divided into three sections that create an integrated path of yoga suitable for both the beginner and advanced student.
Hatha Yoga Pradipika
Book. This book is a classic treatise on Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga is a combination of two beeja mantras. It has been explained in hatha yoga that tha represents prana, the vital force and ha represents mind the mental energy.
Moola Bandha: The Master Key
Book. Moola Bandha - the Master Key is for those dedicated yoga practitioners researching for the master key to unlock the abode of maha kundalini. Little has been written about the ancient practice of bandha, which is regarded as an important aspect of both hatha and kundalini yoga.
Yoga Posture Adjustments and Assisting: An Insightful Guide for Yoga Teachers and Students
Book. This is the first comprehensive guide for yoga teachers and yoga students providing all the details on how to adjust or assist someone while they are performing a yoga posture? The book's clear instructions and generous supply of photos make it easy for yoga teachers to learn how to adjust or assist their students.
The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice
Book. Feuerstein is a renowned yoga scholar and a tireless communicator, sharing his knowledge in more than two dozen books on the subject as well as translations of key yoga scriptures? Feuerstein explicates the different yogic schools and profiles key yoga teachers.
The Woman's Book of Yoga and Health: A Lifelong Guide to Wellness
Book. Sparrowe, former editor of Yoga Journal, has teamed up with one of the most preeminent yoga instructors in the country, Walden, to put together a comprehensive guide to yoga for women. The book contains numerous yoga sequences and photos and is designed to be a lifelong reference guide for female practitioners.
Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom
Book. Quite possibly every female over the age of 12 will find this huge book enlightening, pain saving, and perhaps even lifesaving. Think of it as a much more empowering and holistic Our Bodies, Ourselves.
Imagine a Woman in Love with Herself: Embracing Your Wisdom and Wholeness
Book. Imagine a Woman in Love with Herself empowers women to move from self-loathing to self-love, from self-criticism to self-celebration. It dismantles the question "What's wrong with me?" by exploring its historical, theological, and personal origins.
Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Book. With the basic principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan lead you through a comprehensive twelve-week program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other inhibiting forces, replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity.
The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice
Book. Krishnamacharya was one of the greatest yogis of modern times-a master scholar, healer, and spiritual teacher-whose students have changed the face of yoga in the West. Now Krishnamacharya's son, himself a renowned teacher, talks about his father's unique vision of yoga.
Ashtanga Yoga: The Practice Manual: An Illustrated Guide to Personal Practice
Book. This is the most user-friendly yoga book available!...It is a great book for all levels of practitioners to enjoy and teachers will find it to be an invaluable tool for teaching their students.
Shiva Rea - Yoga Shakti. CD.Comprehensive but user-friendly, reasonably challenging but accessible to a variety of levels, Yoga Shakti is inarguably one of the best yoga products on the market--no small achievement when one considers just how many of them there are. Instructor-creator Shiva Rea, a California-based yogi of considerable international renown, specializes in vinyasa yoga (a vinyasa is essentially a series of flowing, connected poses, incorporating breath and movement and cultivating heat, strength, flexibility, and balance).
Shiva Rea - Yoga Trance Dance. CD. Yoga Shakti, one of the finest yoga programs on the market, Shiva Rea's Yoga Trance Dance is substantially different in content but every bit the former's equal in terms of style and presentation. Combining what she calls "two of the oldest ways (to get) back home," Rea has mixed dance and yoga to create "a contemporary exploration of conscious movement meditation," with an eye toward healing the split between body and mind that has, she says, led many of us to live primarily "from the neck up."
Yoga for Scoliosis CD.
Rodney Yee: ABS Yoga for Beginners. CD. Sculpt sleeker, leaner abs with a workout that¹s more efficient, satisfying and inspiring than situps or other one-dimensional abs workout techniques. Abs Yoga shows you how mind-body workouts and using the weight of your body can reshape your torso and leave you feeling centered and revitalized ? so you¹ll be more likely to do this workout often, and more satisfied with your results.
A.M. and P.M. Yoga for Beginners. CD. "The morning is a precious time," says the narrator of A.M. Yoga for Beginners. "Just as the sun rises and falls, so do our natural rhythms. The morning is perfect time to open our bodies and center our minds." This 20-minute yoga practice with supple instructor Rodney Yee is the perfect way to start your day by energizing your body and calming your mind. "The evening is the perfect time to calmly transition between being active and being quiet," says Patricia Walden, instructor of P.M. Yoga for Beginners. "One of the greatest gifts yoga has to offer is deep relaxation." This 20-minute program is designed to balance, calm, and revitalize you at the end of the day. It starts with centering poses: gentle stretches bringing awareness and quiet to your senses.
Power Yoga - Total Body Workout.CD. Power yoga "demands your attention," says instructor Rodney Yee. He leads a challenging, constantly progressing series of poses, one flowing into the next, integrating breath, movement, tension, and relaxation. The poses include Sun Salutation, standing poses, forward bends, back bends, twists, and arm balances. The Hawaiian setting is gorgeous and inspiring. This is an excellent yoga workout that you can grow with, adding on more as you get stronger.
Prenatal Yoga With Shiva Rea. CD. The best thing about this prenatal yoga program is that there is a model for each trimester. Instructor Shiva Rea demonstrates each of the stretches and exercises for the first trimester, and two pregnant women show modifications for the second and third trimesters (they're even dressed in different colors for easy reference). This removes the self-doubt home-exercisers often have about the safety of certain moves--especially in that cumbersome final stage of pregnancy. By including the different adaptations, Rea has made a program with the flexibility to carry an expectant mom through her entire pregnancy--and beyond, if she wishes.
LOCAL GEMS
Mediate with Insight Meditation Community of Washington, a spiritual community teaching and practicing Vipassana meditation.
JavaGreen is an organic eco café serving vegetarian/vegan fare including juice, tea/coffee, and loads of tasty wraps, salads, and noodles.
Blink Optical has the coolest eyewear in town.
VegDC should be your first stop for things vegetarian in the DC metro area.
Vegetarian Society of the District of Columbia, Inc. (VSDC) is the nation's oldest vegetarian society. It is a non-profit educational organization that seeks to promote the benefits of a vegetarian diet and to unite vegetarians and those interested in vegetarianism in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
OUT-OF-TOWN STUDIOS
Going out of town? Here is a short list of some of our favorites!!
Jivamukti Yoga - NYC
Laughing Lotus Yoga- NYC
Vira Yoga NYC
Exhale NYC
Kula Yoga NYC
Yoga Union NYC
CONSCIOUS LIFE-STYLE
Green Yoga Association -- Flow is a Founding Business Member of the Green Yoga Assocation, an organization dedicated to fostering ecological consciousness, reverence and action in the Yoga Community.
Burningman -- Annual gathering in the Blackrock Desert -- a festival inspiring creativity, transformation and freedom -- with it's leave no trace motto and barter only policy, an essential life experience encouraging full participation.
Treehugger is the definitive, modern yet green lifestyle filter. It will help you improve your course, yet still maintain your aesthetic. The future is green -- find it here.
Culture Jammers -- Adbusters -- a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Their aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century.
Campaign for America's Future -- DC's progressive think tank - focusing on energy, social security and education issues.
Random Acts of Kindness Foundation inspires people to practice kindness and to “pass it on” to others. They provide free educational and community ideas, guidance, and other resources to kindness participants through their website.
Idealbite -- Sign up for a daily dose of "short and sassy" tips on eco-friendly living.
Choose Climate -- Calculate your CO2 emissions for any flight around the world, and get linked to climate friendly alternatives.
Lazy Environmentalist -- Read about green living, green design and innovation, green marketing and branding, and the transformation to a sustainable economy.
Carbon Fund -- Find out your personal carbon footprint and learn how to offset your impact in a positive way.
The Slate Green Challenge -- Join the slate GREEN Challenge to create your own eight week carbon diet.
New American Dream -- Tons of information and resources to help people and institutions shop smart and responsibly for the health of all beings.
Social Invest -- Do you feel good about the policies of the companies you invest in? Learn about socially responsible investing.
GreenMatters - The Busy Persons Guide to Greener LivingTM is helping busy people help the environment by making it easier to do so.
YOGA GETAWAYS
Omega is the nation's largest and most trusted holistic education provider and is highly regarded for its pioneering work in holistic health, meditation, yoga, transformational psychology, spirituality, world music, and art.
Kripalu has the country’s largest and most comprehensive selection of yoga programs, and brings an array of opportunities for connecting to your authentic self. Explore optimal health and wellness in programs that focus on yoga, massage, weight loss, brain rejuvenation, and Ayurveda. Discover the relationship between music and consciousness in music and chanting workshops with world-renowned pioneers.
Yogaville -- just 3 hours from DC in Virginia -- Integral Yoga's Satchidananda Ashram and Retreat Center at Yogaville, Buckingham, Virginia, USA, offers a full, authentic Yoga experience to Yoga beginners and established Yoga practitioners.
GREEN & CONSCIOUS GIVING IDEAS
Give Flow. Flow's eco-chic boutique, "Glow" has lots of earth friendly gift choices including yoga mats, eye pillows, lotions, potions, soy candles and more. Not sure what to choose? Give the gift of FLOW: a Flow Yoga Gift Certificate is easy to purchase, easy to receive.
Give homemade. Personally-made gifts are always thoughtful. Prepare a batch ofspecial cookies, create some art, or offer a service like a massage, closet clean out or yummy at-home dinner.
Give life. Start a new tradition and help the earth by buying a live holiday tree this year. My husband and I like to keep ours all winter and then plant it in the spring. If you don't go live, you can still go green by having your holiday tree converted to mulch.
Give twice. For every pair of shoes purchased from TOMS , they will donate a pair of shoes to a child in need. Not only will your recipient love getting a fabulous pair of TOMS, they'll love knowing that a pair of shoes has been donated in their name.
Give help. Mercy Corps, an international humanitarian organization, offers a popular gift option called Mercy Kits . Kits are sent to communities around the world to help people who have been ravaged by natural disaster, conflict or severe poverty.
Give green, literally. Houseplants like boston ivy, spider plants, philodendrons, potted mums, gerber daisies, peace lily, and bamboo are great gifts that not only look pretty, but also clean the air. Or give a Garden-in-a-Bag , a beautiful living reminder of your good wishes. Or go global to help protect the Forests of the Rift Valley by adopting an acre of rainforest.
Give giving. Check out the local Alternative Gift Fair Happy Hour for a night of buying meaningful gifts of charity to support a variety of non-profit organizations. Meet friends, cross items off your shopping list AND help people and communities in need!
Give self-sufficiency. Heifer International helps children and families around the world become self-sufficient through training and animal gifts. "A Growing Solution" helps people become self-sufficient by donating fruit trees that are a self-renewing source of food.
Give philanthropy. Kiva is a great organization for folks with philanthropic dreams but tiny budgets. Kiva connects people interested in loaning small amounts of money (as little as $25) with individual entrepreneurs in the developing world, empowering people to lift themselves out of poverty. You can even track their progress.
Give kindness. Best Friends Animal Society is the largest no-kill sanctuary in the country for abandoned, abused and neglected companion animals. I have personally visited thisUtah sanctuary and cannot recommend it enough. They also have a program for helping animals in the Middle East.
Give bamboo. Highly durable and sustainably grown, bamboo is being used in a huge range of products from sheets to cutting boards. One great idea is this cute organic utensil set.
Give again. Have a post-holiday gift swap party. Take all those unwanted gifts and trade them with friends. Better yet, bid on unwanted gifts and donate the proceeds to your favorite charity. Or, make it a clothing swap where you create whole new wardrobes from one another's discards. Extras can be dropped off at Martha's Table.
Don't forget the wrapping. 2.65 billion gift cards are purchased annually in the U.S.--that's an awful lot of paper, most of it ending up in landfills. Why not try a plantable card or re-use old wrapping paper to make your own cards and new wrap. Better yet, use fabric (remnants, old jeans, even t-shirts) for unique and earth friendly wrapping alternative.
