Nothing can be changed unless it is faced. Philosophers, religious leaders, writers,have been hammering this fact away for 3000 years...

Three Major Health Benefits of Mindfulness and Mindful-Yoga You may remember the skit on Saturday Night Live with Will Ferrell as he walks onto the stage “we need more cowbell!” I am as persistent about “we need more mindfulness!” If I could, without risking looking ridiculous, and counterproductive, I would walk through town with a cowbell shouting; we need more mindfulness. Mindfulness allows us to become more resilient to emotional adversity, physical pain, more present to

Out running the Viking; Mid-Evil times, Comparison and Resiliency action. This last week I had a great opportunity to travel abroad to Ireland. It was an important trip for many reasons. My husband and I were traveling alone for more than a weekend, without out our 2 and half year-old daughter for the first time since she was born, (thank you grandma!). It was also my first transatlantic flight in almost 4 years and I was looking forward to the discovery of a new adventure. A

I received this personal letter with the public recommendation from my student who finished 200-hour training at Spira last year. Some of you are contemplating taking on this journey and wondering what to expect; read Helen’s letter below… Her personal letter was so honest and wonderful, that I asked permission to share it along with her formal recommendation. Thank you Helen for participating, for giving me an opportunity to teach, and for writing this amazing letter. Below

Cultivating Awareness and Healing though Mindful Yoga Integration Today’s blog comes to us from Des Wood. Des teaches at Spira Power Yoga Tuesday’s at 8:30 am and every third Sunday at 4:30 pm. Des is also a critical care nurse. After eight years as a bedside nurse, Desiree went back to school to obtain her doctorate degree in nursing. As part of her thesis project, she conducted one of the first studies looking at helping to teach mindfulness through gentle yoga for patients

Another amazing year has gone by, and Spira graduated a new class of 200 Hour Teacher Training – Self Enrichment Graduates. You may have been wondering what the 200-hour training is all about. Or maybe you are curious why Spira is different. Below you will find a letter from one of the graduates, we hope it will answer a few of your questions. We also have an Info Session coming up in June 15th. We would love to see you! Spira Power Yoga 200-Hour Graduates, Class of 2018 Teac

Today’s blog was sent to us by Holly; she has been practicing yoga at Spira Power Yoga for four years, and she has completed Spira’s 200-hour Teacher Training / Self-Enrichment in 2017. Holly is also an attorney of law. Read her blog about how she made friends with both yoga and anxiety, and how she channels this newfound relationship into productivity at her job. Holly with her husband, who is also a Spira practitioner enjoying a moment without law, yoga, or anxiety. Proving

It was time to let go of these old tapes… I just finished a bit of spring cleaning, and I stumbled onto my old yoga VHS tapes. For those of you born after the 1990’s, VHS cassettes are the big plastic boxes that we used for movies back when we rented movies from Blockbuster. The good old days, when we had to get out of our house to rent a movie because we felt alone. Therefore because we had to get our butt out of the house and go to the movie rental place, we increased our c

Yoli practicing mindful yoga The Secret to Taking your Yoga Practice to the Next Level By Yoli Grandjean Yoli completed her 200HR Teacher Training at Spira Power Yoga, she is also trained in Trauma Sensitive Yoga, she teaches every Sunday at 9:30 AM at Spira Power Yoga. When Yoli is not teaching yoga, she is busy promoting community health as a nurse manager and educator. You can find out more about Yoli and the rest of the amazing teachers at Spira Power Yoga here. When I st

At age 35 I choose a different path. I decided to dedicate myself to my work, to create a business that fulfilled a need in our community. I dedicated myself to teaching health, inner peace and well-being. After six years, with the business thriving with 17 teachers on staff, with thousands of students attending classes monthly, and hundreds of teachers graduated from our Schools, I stand with disbelief much the same way a mother gazes into a grown child’s eye; “I cannot beli

“The Importance of being Earnest” –Satya with Ahimsa – Truth can be a painful business. “It is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth. It is the first time in my life that I have ever been reduced to such a painful position, and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind.” – Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 2 Yes indeed, telling the truth is uncomfortable at times because we know that hearing the truth is not always pleasant. B

Often living in America, it can feel that Freedom was an American invention, this is far from the truth. Swa (meaning one’s own in Sanskrit) raj (to rule over) has a dual meaning through history. Swaraj or Freedom was spoken of in the Indian Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita (we will read in Teacher Training) starting about 1000 B.C. One interpretation of Swaraj as strictly political; to rule over one’s land. But the second and much more discussed meaning is spiritual or psycholog

200 hour Yoga Teacher Training at Spira Power Yoga is great whether you want to teach or simply wish to deepen your yoga, and Enrich your life with new perspective and inner peace! Make no mistake, Spira’s teacher training is great for folks who DON’T want to teach. But that message often gets lost ever since Yoga Alliance started regulating programs. Today we are forced to call it ‘Teacher Training”. We are boxed into categories of 200-hour & 500-hour “Teacher Training.” Yea

Happy Father’s Day. The words on the calendar bring the most mixed emotions to my heart, but despite the turmoil of emotions, I am grateful. On social media, we tend to highlight the Hallmark moments of our life; the perfect smiles, the wholesome family, the happy moments. Leo Tolstoy opens Anna Karenina with my favorite line in literature: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” I would like to dedicate this blog to the celebration of

Des at work at the VA I love to hear from my students on how yoga helps in their everyday lives. I received two beautiful blogs from Des. Des has been a Spira practitioner since I opened, she is also a visiting lecturer on the topics of anatomy and physiology for Spira’s Teacher Trainings. I am publishing part one now for you to enjoy. Look out for part two in a few weeks. – Dora From our new blog by Des Wood: I cannot believe it has been a year since I wrote my first blog p

Happy Thanksgiving, from Jenna’s family to yours! Dear Students, My dear friend Jenna wrote this year’s Thanksgiving Blog. She is among many things a Spira yogi, Spira’s social media guru and a graduate of Spira’s Teacher Training and your future teacher when she is ready for the task. Jenna not only supports me with Social Media, but she is my sounding board when I need advice. Every small business owner needs someone who is willing to challenge and discuss ideas to grow. Je

Listen now Free speech only works when it is responsible, and people in public eye, television stations and news organizations need to recognize their power and take responsibility. I know this is a sticky wicket since it sounds like controlling free speech. I will stay away from that very complex legal argument that has tremendous merit. For now, I would like to discuss this responsibility that we all have in life when we speak to our family, our neighbor, the grocery store

The way you practice yoga, think and speak can heal our world. Listen now A few weeks ago, in part one of Healing Our World blog series, I explained how yoga is not a self-centered practice. (Here is a link to that blog in case you missed it) The goal of yoga is to discover the inter-relatedness of our universe. I have mentioned that the process of finding universality starts with ‘inward gazing’, but the goal is not to get stuck on the inner-centeredness. Via a few examples,

This blog is first in a series: Mindfulness can heal our world- Part One. Listen now If you are a regular practitioner in my classes, you probably heard me saying; “We are all related. This is not your yoga. This is not YOUR time.” I know some of you are a bit shaken by this statement and may even take it personally in a hurtful way. That is not my intention. My intention is to teach yoga, meditation, and mindfulness. But momentary ease of challenges and temporary reduction o

This blog is written by Jenna Buckley. She graduated Spira’s teacher training in 2015. —————— Jenna I’m one of those people that think about doing something and then I sit on the idea for quite some time and in this case, a couple years. I knew I loved practicing yoga with all my being but would I love teaching it or would it be forever different for me?   And the answer after getting my 200hr teaching certification was yes; it is now forever different for me mentally, physic