Inspirations

For our inspirations this month, we're giving you a lot of options to get involved in seva through the Anusara Yoga^® community. So many of our Merry Band members give back in a big way, showing their gratitude for the gifts they've been given by sharing their skills, donating their time, offering monetary aid, etc. Below is a list of some of the wonderful people in our community that are making a difference. We encourage you to check out their sites, get inspired and get involved. Perhaps you will choose to bring the spirit of compassion in action alive in your own hometown in a unique and creative way! A simple fundraising method is to offer yoga classes whose proceeds go to a particular organization or cause. If you are a teacher, maybe you can do this from time to time. If you are a student, maybe you can bring this up to your local Anusara Yoga teacher. The possibilities are endless…

Karma Krew – This great organization spreads love all across the globe. Karma Krew groups are springing up all over the country, getting together to have fun and support less fortunate people, either in their local communities or around the world. Anusara Yoga teachers are on their board of advisors and serve as "krew chiefs" from the mountains of Boulder, Colorado to the hills of western Massachusetts. Karma Krew founders Scott Feinberg and Amy Lombardo are working with Anusara Yoga to bring a seva project to the Certified Teachers' Gathering in Denver this Spring. You can read about this project in the Summer ‘08 edition of Currents. Click here to visit the Karma Krew site and email them to find out where there is a nearby krew. If there is not one in your area, maybe you can start your own and help enhance the world by spreading good karma.

The Anusara "house band" Shantala offers their gift of devotional music across the country, frequently performing their music at events with John Friend and other Anusara Yoga teachers. For the past year, they've found a way to raise awareness and funds along with sharing their beautiful melodies. Benjy and Heather's niece, Ruthie Wertheimer, helped to found suubiafrica.org, a group that works with refugee African women. Suubi, meaning "hope", ships colorful handmade necklaces, made in Africa, to the United States. Shantala sells them at their kirtans and has raised over $4500 to date. 100% of the money raised through the sale of the necklaces goes directly back to the craftswomen in Uganda. $4500 is enough money to provide food, housing, basic health care, and education to 60 families for over 3 months. Find out how you can help at www.suubiafrica.org, or check out Benjy and Heather at http://www.shantalamusic.com to see if they'll be coming to your town soon.

The Paarinama Prison Project brings yoga to prison inmates in Mexico. Paarinama is a Sanskrit word for transformation or evolution. Founded by certified Anusara Yoga teacher, Ann Moxey, Paarinama brings volunteer yoga instructors into the prison in Atlacholoaya, Morelos. Some of them travel an hour and forty minutes all the way from Mexico City to Morelos, which means leaving their homes before dawn. The weekly classes have about 60 men and 20 women participating regularly, with the Anusara Yoga Invocation leading into a full spectrum asana practice, savasana, and meditation. Ann Moxey writes: "The gratitude shown by the inmates at the end of every session and the visible transformation, parinaama, and refinement of shakti that occurs before our eyes is ample payment for our efforts." You can help bring freedom to the prisoners inside the walls by donating through Paypal on their webpage, http://annmoxey.blogs.com. Photographs of the prison yoga classes are provided by el Diario Reforma.

Many of the members of our Merry Band are doing seva every day by choosing to live in a more environmentally conscious way. Our Spring issue will be dedicated to green living. Let us know what you do to preserve the planet at newsletter@anusara.com, and we'll share your tips in the next Currents. If your teacher or studio is involved in seva for the environment, tell us about the projects you've started and we'll show our entire community how the compassionate hearts of Anusara Yoga are giving back to the earth. Let's put our hearts and minds together to create a better world!