When Yoga for Women was first offered, Krista and I wanted to address the typical female issues from the viewpoints of yoga and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
During the first year, we based our classes and discussions on The Woman's Book of Yoga and Health by Linda Sparrow and Patricia Walden. The moral of the story, the bottom-line for each class, turned out to be: take care of yourself, first. It's the only way you can insure the health and happiness of your loved ones.
Lately, we've been focused upon the subject of Happiness and the class seems to attract happy women. Women of all ages and in various stages of their lives. Strong women, not willing to fit into a cultural mold. Flexible women, willing to yield to disparate views.
Daily Dharma's post entitled Mountain Guides, an excerpt from "When the Iron Eagle Flies" by Ayya Khema offers this as a description of what we are experiencing:
A good spiritual friend who will help us to stay on the path, with whom we can discuss our differences frankly, sure of a compassionate response, provides an important support system which is often lacking. Although people live and practice together, one-upmanship often comes between them. A really good friend is like a mountain guide. The spiritual path is like climbing a mountain: we don't really know what we will find at the summit. We have only heard that it is beautiful, everybody is happy there, the view is magnificent and the air unpolluted. If we have a guide who has already climbed the mountain, he can help us avoid falling into a crevasse, or slipping on loose stones, or getting off the path. The one common antidote for all our hindrances is noble friends and noble conversations, which are health food for the mind.
Photo:Climbing Equipment