Starting Tuesday, April 30, 2019, all of Justine Fanarof’s group classes + workshops will be held at Blossom St. Yoga Shala, on Blossom St. just east of Shepherd between St. Thomas High School and Washington.

Justine offers regular weekly practice for experienced practitioners on:
Tuesday evenings 6:15 – 7:30 PM: Slow + Steady Evenings
Wednesday evenings: 6:15 – 7:30 PM  Candlelight Yoga + Yoga Nidra Meditation
Sunday mornings: 10:30 AM – noon: Slow + Steady Mornings

Justine offers new students a monthly Beginners’ Series. Please read more about Beginners’ Series on the website https://justineyoga.com/beginners-series/ and reach out to Justine with any questions.

Justine also offers regularly scheduled Yogi, Know Thyself ™ workshops including monthly Yoga Nidra Meditation Workshop + Practice, seasonal Altar workshops, and monthly Movement, Mantra + Meditation workshops at her Blossom St. Yoga Shala. Yogi, Know Thyself ™ is an ongoing exploration of svadyaya, or self-study, in a sourced and experiential space of personal practice, self-care, and inquiry.

Please reach out to Justine to learn more about Blossom St. Yoga Shala and register for class on the Schedule + Sign Up page on https://justineyoga.com/schedule/

Private yoga instruction with Justine is available at the Blossom St. Yoga Shala, your home, business or via an online portal. Please contact Justine directly for more info regarding private yoga.

NAMASTE

NAMASTE

A Spring Haiku

Opening heartspace,
welcoming understanding.
Finding home I breathe.

I’m excited to offer a Yogi, Know Thyself ™* Yoga Nidra Meditation Workshop + Practice at Sama Yoga on Saturday, April 13, 2019, 6:30-9PM.

Please register for this workshop via MINDBODY. Detailed information is below. Please reach out to me via the contact page if you have any questions. Thank you!

Yogi, Know Thyself ™
Spring Yoga Nidra Meditation Workshop & Practice
Justine Fanarof, JD, MPH, ERYT-500
Saturday, April 13, 2019
6:30-9:00PM
Sama Yoga
$65

According to the yoga tradition, we have five bodies, kosha in Sanskrit, made of increasingly finer grades of energy. Think and feel them as you would Russian matryoshka dolls, one resting within and supporting another.

They are described in the Taittiriya Upanishad:

“Human beings consist of a material body built from the food they eat. Those who care for this body are nourished by the universe itself.

“Inside this is another body made of life energy. It fills the physical body and takes its shape. Those who treat this vital force as divine experience excellent health and longevity because this energy is the source of physical life.

“Within the vital force is yet another body, this one made of thought energy. It fills the two denser bodies and has the same shape. Those who understand and control the mental body are no longer afflicted by fear.

“Deeper still lies another body comprised of intellect. It permeates the three denser bodies and assumes the same form. Those who establish their awareness here free themselves from unhealthy thoughts and actions, and develop the self-control necessary to achieve their goals.

“Hidden inside it is yet a subtler body, composed of pure joy. It pervades the other bodies and shares the same shape. It is experienced as happiness, delight, and bliss.”

In Yoga Nidra meditation, we move through the gross layers of the physical form and through the kosha, accessing somatic nourishment and relaxation; here we discover a profound way to internally source and experience well-being.

Yoga nidra meditation is practiced while resting comfortably on your back (supine), in savasana (corpse pose) with props supporting the body. If the practitioner is not comfortable resting on their back, additional resting poses are offered. Justine then takes you through an exploration through the pancha maya kosha (five layers of self), leaving you with a sense of wholeness, rest, ease, clarity, and peace. These aspects of freedom are what we cultivate through yoga and meditation practices.

Spring Yoga Nidra Workshop + Practice focuses specifically on the energy of spring, clearing the mind to soften and nourish the heart, and the deepest layers of our beings.

In our time together we will:

• Learn about the subtle body,
• Discuss yoga nidra postures, propping, and experiences,
• Move into a gentle asana practice to shift from the mind into the body,
• Find our way to the ground to place our blankets and bolsters in the best way for each practitioner, then,
• Be guided through the practice of yoga nidra and experience it for ourselves.

Yoga Nidra is:

• Practiced lying down with the comfortable support of your mat, blankets, and bolsters,
• Suitable for most people,
• A unique practice that cannot be done incorrectly,
• Adaptable and changeable for a variety of practices,
• Easily incorporated into your daily life,
• A tool for reducing stress and creating more flow in life force and vital energy, and
• A lifelong practice to discover intimacy with yourself.

Please come to this practice ready to learn more about yoga nidra, and willing to do the practice of letting go. Gentle asana (yoga postures), pranayama (breath work), and meditation will be aspects of our time together.

What you’ll need from the outside:
-comfortable yoga clothes
-your yoga mat
-an eye pillow (we have some at the studio if you’d like to borrow or purchase one, and it’s nice to have your own!)

What you’ll need from the inside:
-the willingness to tap into your layers and explore meditation
-a desire to connect with your infinite multitudes in a new way, learn a meditation technique, and practice yoga nidra

Yogi, Know Thyself ™ is an ongoing exploration of svadyaya, or self-study, in a sourced and experiential space of personal practice, self-care, and inquiry.

NAMASTE!

LIGHT & COLOR MEDITATION

I’ve been working with and teaching a light and color meditation through the body.
♾
Close your eyes and see the light and color inside. Feel the light and color move through your form. Allow the light and color to softly move with the breath, in and out, light and color.
♾
May our days be filled with light and color. May awareness of this rainbow body within each of us bring us into deeper harmony with ourselves and one another.

 
Looking forward to our time together on the mat in group classes at Sama Yoga in Houston, TX:
♾
Tuesdays: 6:00PM Slow & Steady Yoga
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Wednesdays 7:30PM Candlelight Yoga & Yoga Nidra
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Sundays 10:30AM Slow & Steady Yoga
♾
Private yoga and meditation sessions also on tap and available…

One of my greatest life highlights is being an active volunteer in the Houston, TX Wellness Retreat for Caregivers of Alzeimer’s and Other Dementias. We have put together a sweet and short video from our 2019 retreat in Houston, TX. Please have a look and see what this all volunteer endeavor is doing to co-create wellness for caregivers and our communities. If you find yourself jamming to the music you’re in good company.

Two palms together for all our volunteers, and if you’re able to support our work, please know we have a Go Fund Me and would love some loving attention and donations!

Altars, Intentionality & Self-Care: 2019 Grounded in Spiritual Practice

Sunday, January 13, 2019 from 3-6PM at Sama Yoga

• What does it mean, look like and feel to create a sacred space for you to utilize in daily life?
• What do you use to ground your practice on the daily?
• How and why do you set intentions?
• How is spiritual practice a part of self-care?
• What support do you want to bring in in the New Year?
• How do you maintain your balance, understand what brings you stasis and support personal integration?

In this workshop, we will explore the practical experience of setting clear intentions for 2019 and create a personal altar to use in daily life as a reflective space for self-awareness and spiritual and personal practice. The intention and care used to create your altar at the beginning of the year supports spiritual practice and self-care throughout the next 52 weeks, and creates a space for continued intentional living and spiritual ground in life’s cycles.

In this workshop, we will take some time to set clear intentions for 2019, construct a small altar that reflects and supports the intentions set and practice together with our creations and intentions in place. You’ll then be given guidance and support to take your altar home and set it up as a sacred space for supporting pause, peace, ease, ground and daily practice in your life.

Advance RSVP is required for this intimate practice.

$30/person

Please bring: (1) 4-8 small personal objects that feel true and clear to you in the present moment, and that you want to utilize in a personal altar for the next year, (2) a small vase that can hold water and a few flowers (3) your yoga mat and (4) be ready to learn, create, move, breath and sit.

Suggestions for altar items: gemstones, pine cones, sand in a glass bottle, seashells, prayers/mantras, incense, deities (some people like to put them on their altars, not required at all), candles, photographs of spiritual teachers, dear ones, special rocks, feathers (some people like to put living items on their altars, some don’t—ultimately it’s your sacred space and you can put what you want on it), yantra or other spiritual art and mala beads. Items should be personal and have clear energy from your perspective.

Prep-work: Please start thinking now about your values and intentions—what do you want to bring into and ground your life in in 2019? What do you want to cultivate? What are you ready to release? What needs polishing? What needs cleaning? Start creating the space for clarity, purpose and passion. Take a deep breath, and as you exhale feel the preciousness and expansiveness of this life. Know there is specific power and access to energy when a group does this intentional practice. Yay!

See you soon.

Justine Fanarof has been teaching yoga and creating altars for many years. She enjoys utilizing the space of the New Year to curiously assess where she’s been, where she is and where she’s going. She super-enjoys bringing together beautiful and significant objects, which are used to construct a home altar that reflects and supports goals and intentions for personal, professional and spiritual practice. This altar is the grounding point in her every day life—a space that encourages peace, passion and pause, a place to reflect upon and to nurture. Ultimately the altar is a reflection of the self—its beauty, depth, change and dimensionality.

**Yoga For the Holidays Gift Packages**

Friends—I’ve got a few wonderful, fun, supportive and thoughtfully-put-together packages for you to consider for your holiday gifting and receiving:

Yoga Under the Mistletoe/Yoga Aphrodisiac: A Couples Package

Three 50-minute sessions for $350 or Five 50-minute sessions for $500

These build on one another and focus on specific partner work to improve connection, energy and subtle body awareness. Through the work you do on the mat you’ll learn more body awareness and have the opportunity to deepen the spaces of intimacy with yourself and your partner.

Stretch and Release

Three 50-minute sessions for $350 or Five 50-minute sessions for $500

Are you training for the Houston Marathon, or working your body really hard in other physical and mental aspects of your life? In this special series we will work together to bring stretching, ease, support and peace into your life. Together we’ll learn about the way you’re using your body and create an easy to remember/practice regimen for you to use in between training sessions. This series is perfect for that person who says, I cannot touch my toes, but secretly wishes they knew how to get there.

Mindfulness 101

Five 50-minute sessions for $500

This class provides the guidance and support to understand what a mindfulness practice is (and is not), teaches you how to find and take your seat, introduces you to the tools of mindfulness including the breath and mantra and gifts you with a solid foundation to bring these practices into your life. The five sessions are specifically tailored to you. They build on one another to support and develop a meditation practice that works for your needs and lifestyle.

Yoga Nidra for Everyone

One 90-minute session $250, group size up to ten people, please contact me for larger group pricing

If you’re looking for a different way to chillax and find deep rest with your friends, family or co-workers this holiday season let’s Yoga Nidra together. Yoga Nidra is a guided meditation practice that you do lying down on your back or side, supported by blankets and pillows! Through the practice of Yoga Nidra your brain effortlessly transitions into an altered state of consciousness that helps you relax, focus and sleep better. In this session you’ll be guided through a short, all level yoga practice, followed by full body relaxation mediation. Yoga Nidra can be effective at bringing the mind into a theta, delta state (the space of healing) or deeper state of relaxation and is endorsed by the US Army Surgeon General and Defense Centers of Excellence as a complementary and alternative medicine in the treatment of trauma and PTSD. If you haven’t experienced this practice before you are in for a deep and restorative experience. Some people say it is #lifechanging

Family Yoga

Three 50-minute sessions for $350 or Five 50-minute sessions for $500

Let’s do yoga together! In this special class we will practice yoga together with your beloved and crazy (yes, I said it/you know it!) family. We will have fun, bring in joy, cultivate laughter and loving attention, partner up and move into relaxed stillness together. This is a wonderful way to be together in a healing, supported and loving way.

Deepen My Practice
Three 50-minute sessions for $350 or Five 50-minute sessions for $500

In life and on the mat it’s helpful to have a teacher a few steps ahead of you to support practice and awareness. Let’s work together to support the deepening of your practice in a way that allows you to find more freedom and ease in your life. This series is for those who want to learn more about themselves through the physical and energetic body and through further developing their regularity in or want to establish a home practice, wherever they are in the world. Meditation, pranayama, asana, restorative, ethics, altars & intentionality, bhakti, mantra, japa, yoga nidra…let’s go deep into what you are curious about experiencing.

**Fine Print on All Sessions**

Location is in a mutually agreeable space—either your home or my home studio.

Yoga for the Holidays Packages are final sale; they can be transferred with mutual agreement.

Yoga for the Holidays Packages expire on August 30, 2019. The purpose of these sessions is to get into your body and develop a practice of self-care in 2019—please be ready to commit and get going towards the beginning of the new year!

Please contact Justine directly for more information: Justine@justineyoga.com

Grateful to have the opportunity this past weekend to share compassion and wisdom practices with the amazing students participating in Svasta Yoga School’s training program. It’s not everyday that we get to dig into ethical action and its impact on interdependence. Thank you to the students for showing with open heart and minds.