July Schedule and Reprogramming Your Brain

Published: Wed, 06/30/21

Pranayama research with Drs Deepak Chopra, Amit Anand, and Andy Taylor last week at Harvard. Results to follow soon! Photo by Robert Moses.

Hello Folks,

I hope this email finds you all well! Welcome to our new newsletter subscribers, and hello as well to all of our old ones :)

We have made a bunch of updates to our website based on feedback that we collected from our Instagram poll:

1. The homepage schedule is once again one-click into Zoom with no more registration on our site. Donations are a separate link, and please remember to donate if you come to class as per your ability!

2. The member section provides you with all links for the month, and also access to replays of classes and courses. Previously the replays were available to everyone, but now only for members. Please consider becoming a recurring monthly member and supporting donation-based Yoga!

3. Elliot and I have migrated WITH Magazine to its own site. You can find it here, at www.withmagazine.nyc. The next issue will be out on July 6th.

There are more updates to the site to come after July 4th, but please check it out, let us know your thoughts.

Please find below the special upcoming courses and schedule for July.

Yours,

Eddie

Special Courses

1. The Intro to Ashtanga Yoga course with Sonal and Sandeep Sharma begins this Thursday, and meets Mondays & Thursdays from 8:30am-9:30am EST/18:00-19:00 IST on July 1, 5, 8, 12, 15, 19, 22, 26. Sonal and Sandeep are wonderful teachers, and this is a great way to get started with learning Ashtanga Yoga. Register here.

2. Learn to Chant the Aditya Hrdayam with Sanskrit chanting teacher Shantala Sriramaiah.

The Āditya Hṛdayam is a powerful hymn to the Sun God, spoken by the Sage Agastya Muni during the battle between Lord Rāma and the demon King Rāvana at the end of Valmiki’s Rāmāyaṇa. Lord Rāma finds himself struggling to defeat Rāvana and is initiated into this mantra by the sage Agastya Muni, who instructs that by repeating it he will gain the strength to defeat the demon king. The spiritual teacher Ram Dass quoted from this prayer often, and used his favorite line as a mantra that he would repeat over and over: "When the Sun is kept in the heart, all evil vanishes from life."

The Ādityahṛdayam is akin to the Gāyatrī Mantra – of uplifting us towards brilliance and clarity in dealing with what life throws our way. This class meets Sunday July 11th, 18th, 25th, August 1st from 7am-7:45am EST. You can register here.

Schedule Updates for July

The weekly schedule for July stays the same except for the following:

There will be no Monday evening Beginner's Class and Saturday Yoga Sutras. Yoga Sutras will return in August on Thursday evening at 7:15pm. Friday morning chanting will shift to Tuesday morning (Tuesday is sacred to Ganesh) and there will be no more Tuesday evening chanting.

Reprogram Your Brain and Face Fear

My friend Dhru Purohit did a great podcast with Dr. Andrew Huberman recently where they discuss how the brain uses fear for motivation; what to do if you have trouble focusing; and the importance of having some time each day when you don't have to focus.

Dr. Huberman is a very straight forward scientist and so his examination of these emotions and mind states are largely chemical - hormones and neurotransmitters etc. Yoga of course considers that all of these have an origin in consciousness, so from a Yoga perspective this podcast may not be completely satisfying, but from a behavioral perspective (how change in behavior changes us) it's very interesting.

An important take away from this conversation is that in respect to behavioral change it is the things that are difficult, that challenge us, that cause a certain amount of discomfort (like learning a new skill, exercising, dietary change, meditating everyday) are actually good for us. Neuroplasticity, the connectivity of the brain that occurs from adapting to new learnings, comes not simply from repetition but from the mistakes, challenges, and difficulty that comes from new skill acquisition.

You can listen to the podcast here.

That's all for now!

Yours,

Eddie