Mindfulness Via Yoga

align. renew. transform.

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Ayurveda Events Coming

Tuesday, June 17, 4 to 6 p.m., downtown Lancaster. A conversational style get together for novices and experienced people about Ayurveda as a lifestyle. Jenny Schulder Brant and I will be talking about Food As Medicine, Cleansing and Oiling the Body, your very own Lifestyle, and even some Yoga and some Meditation, We will meet at the yoga studio at 119 North Duke Street. there is even some parking in the rear of the former Public Library building. Most of all we will plan for monthly get togethers in the fall to learn, share, and explore Ayurveda as a system for healthy living.

Also in the Works: A low-cost, three- day field trip to the Himalayan Institute where we will do some gardening toward paying for our yummy vegetarian meals and clean, clean, clean lodging. Dr Carrie Demers, M.D. and Ayurvedic physician will sit with us for a talk, questions, and sharing . Part of the June 17 program will be planning this trip.

Stay Tuned. Reply to me at roberta.strickler@gmail.com if you want to hear more as it develops.


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Autumn Events

Breath: The Art of the Exhale

Monday, October 21. 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. 1170 Erbs Quarry Rd, Unit 1,

$50 or sign up for the series at a lower cost.

Learn how to use the breath to align the body in poses, stretch out the tight places, find energy. Knowledge of most basic poses is useful. Call me with questions ( 717-576-2099) or  here is the signup link:    http://yogaunitedatbrighton.com/workshops.

Chair Yoga:

Tuesday, October 22.

Columbia Public Library at 11 a.m…….

Lancaster Downtown Library at 5 p.m.

Everyone can do these classes. The prop is provided. Sign up at the website of each library. or just come.

Yin Yoga:  

Saturday, October 26.  10:30 a.m. West End Yoga Studio.  

221 West Walnut St, Lancaster,

I’m a sub this week. Explore your yin and your yang,

Chair Yoga.  

 Monday October 28 at 10:30 a.m. West End Yoga Studio.  

an ongoing class for which I am subbing this day

Aging and the Spine:  

Sundays, November 3 and 17.  4 to 6 p.m.  $30 each.

West End Yoga Studio. 221 West Walnut ST, Lancaster

The Physical Body ( Nov 3 ) . Using lots of props: chairs, the wall, bolsters, and breath, your spine will be stretched, explored, soothed,known.   An active but subtle  practice without a lot of thinking.   https://www.wellnessliving.com/rs/event/west_end_yoga1?k_class=718830&k_class_tab=37450

The Subtle Body ( Nov 17):  Energy centers, visualization, advanced pranayama, mantras, meditation techniques.  Oh wow !  intuitive work..

Restorative Yoga with Walking Meditation: 

 First Friday, November 1.

Doors open at 7. Be in your seat for 7:30 pm start. 

Saint James Parish House at 119 North Duke Street.

Free-will donations are suggested. No sign-up; just come.

Dynamic duo of Stormy the teacher and Roberta the assist.

Room for everyone. Bring your own props or borrow them.


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A Blog about Kindness and Rules

On Friday, August 2, at 9:35 a.m., a woman in a brown hat with a small brim boarded AMTRAK train # 648 in Lancaster PA on a busy Friday morning.  High season for summer tourism.. She, Ruth, was visiting relatives in Bridgewater, CT, and felt fortunate — but a little scared of the unknown; she seldom traveled — to have a ticket for the entire trip. Because the transfer from the Keystone line to the New England line allowed only 22 minutes, Ruth was cautious. She – and I – had decided to wait more than an hour in PHL instead of risking the close connection.  Ruth had planned this trip for some time and her luggage was complicated by hospitality gifts she had carefully assembled in anticipation of this reunion.
She complimented me on the tidy collection of my luggage. I assured her that my big suitcase was traveling elsehow, giving me a svelte look I did not deserve. Nonetheless, we bonded and later, we sat in aisle seats across from each other, in the Quiet Car.
To my surprise at seeing a new piece of equipment,  when Keystone #648 stopped in Lancaster an AMTRAK employee, a woman, got off the train and rolled out a bright yellow ramp and helped Ruth to board easily with all of her luggage.  Ruth had one large blue suitcase plus a black, wire, vertical, cagelike, rolling cart, very festive with a bushy, leafy tree waving up top.  A large and colorful bouquet of cut flowers marked the center.  And, anchoring the bottom, a very large watermelon.  Her hospitality gifts.
Nearing Downingtown the train had picked up full speed.
Suddenly, a white-shirted, tall conductor appeared in the aisle, just short of our seats,
“Is that your tree,” said he.
“Yes,” said Ruth, surprised.
“Well, that tree has to get off the train. They are getting very strict about those rules,” he said.
He turned and he left, she got up to follow him and said, “ Please leave the pot. I will need that later.”
Shortly, she returned to her seat and the drama unfolded as she related the stages :
“That was a peach tree that I grew from a start,” she said.  “I am very upset.
“He just opened the door and threw it out.”
She sat back for a few minutes.   
Then she turned to me and said, “I’m very upset about my tree.  But why did he have to throw away the flowers. They were very expensive.”

By the time we reached Philadelphia, I had researched the AMTRAK rules.  Never try to take a tree on a train.  Cut flowers are not named.
In 30th Street Station, my ire sent me around to stop all white-shirted AMTRAK male employees to ask them how to report this act of violence.
“ Really,” said one of several men standing in a group, “ I would have let that go.”   
They sent me to Customer Service  ( which is air-conditioned, you may wish to know).
These women verified that we had entrained at 9:35 but gave me the USA-RAIL  phone number for entering a protest that was mostly a question defining the rules..
For that, I am still waiting for a call back.
For Ruth, she said, “I am way too upset to do anything about it. it is gone.”
and so, on she went   with only one large watermelon for a hospitality gift.


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Chair Yoga

3 in a Chair Yoga

There is No Evil , just lining up with friends in Chair yoga !

” Doing yoga in a chair is NOT for sissies !” is the testimonial I hear repeatedly from my dear friends in the classes at Bright Side Baptist’ Opportunities Center. and from my dear friend, Ed, a strong athlete and cyclist who was forced into chairs during mid-life when he was still strong but less able.

Lately I have been teaching Chair Yoga here & there, as a consultant to the wonderful Oak Street Health Clinic, a non-profit ,primary care center on New Holland Pike in Lancaster.

I teach Chair yoga at the Downtown Library in Ewell Square of Lancaster. Go to the www.LancasterPublicLibrary site to register ! We start at 5 p.m. Afterwards we walk around the corner to the Imperial for a drink and maybe a snack and some visiting. If you want to get down on the floor for Savasana, bring your mat. Otherwise, just come and plan to stay and visit and look around the new Library !

Chair Yoga on Tuesday, October 22, 2024: Columbia Library at 11 a.m. and Lancaster Library at 5 p.m. Friday, October 25 at 10:30 a.m. at the Arch Street Center , 629 N, Market ST, Lancaster.


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Biggest Buddha of All

Here is the 3-legged Buddha at the Storm King Sculpture Park, a couple of hours north of New York City, and along the Hudson River.

This 500-acre park with huge sculptures – seemingly scattered but actually placed carefully by the artists – lies along the highway. If you are someone who goes to Maine or Vermont or the like it’s one of those places you intend to visit ” some day.’ So I am spending my Fun July like this. The landscape is amazing and the art is intriguing


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This eclipse

Most of all, it was festive.

Talked about, sought in groups, hyped. Drive somewhere far away. Worry about cloud cover.

What is not said: an effect not known elsewhere: the experiences from the other senses.  

Touch: the way the wind suddenly goes cold.  The growing grayness, every phase of a gray scale, seldom seen except in ink on paper. The three-dimensional meaning of opaque.

But most of all, sudden quiet by the animals, the bugs, the family dog, the noisy geese, the tiny birds.

A pause in all of life in which we realize the enormity of Rumi’s poem:

and the sun never says to the moon,  “ You owe me.”


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HUGS

8/DAY & 12/DAY

Who knew?

As it turns out, yogis seem to know this is the formula: 8 hugs per day for maintenance and 12 per day for good health, Yoga teachers have been saying this for years. Now it is my mantra as well

It was my good fortune to hear about this custom while I was living in a large, indoor, community, where outside there were strong March winds, hail the size of spitballs, and snow till the end of March, perhaps the end of time ! No one ventured outside for long. and so, opportunity was ripe !

My first way to get hugs was just to explain the theory and wrestle the receiver into one

Secondly I would march up and say: You need 8 hugs a day and I am here to help you out,

By the third day I was reduced to approaching strangers. And then something happened: Everyone hugged me…..to illustrate that in a small community the word gets around,

So start with the first one you see and watch your hug community grow !


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Become a Yogi without Lifting a Finger !

Thursday, September 21, 2023, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Saint James Episcopal Church,

corner of East Orange & North Duke Streets, Lancaster PA.

Sit in a chair, wear any comfortable clothing, listen, learn, ask questions,

WOW !  become enlightened with the mysteries, the lifestyle, the practises, that define the famous 8 Limbs of classical yoga.

You will emerge with a hunger:

  • To live your inner and your outer lives with a new-found perspective on doing good.
  • An option to share the discussion over a feast of the wonderful Bhutanese food at Norbu, the restaurant that is just across the street
  • To share with others , the concepts—to name just a few —  of contentment, concentration, truthfulness, self-study, of constant awareness of a higher reality.

Roberta Strickler has been studying and living a yogic life, teaching meditation and Ayurveda principles of wellness,  for 30 years.  She is more famous for her devotion to fun and adventure.

Register here: https://www.saintjameslancaster.org/urbanwell/Events/Calendar