Swami Atmarupa Saraswati

Atma Center is an award-winning yoga center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio dedicated to SATYANANDA YOGA. Their instructors are some of the most highly-trained in the nation.

Thank you so much, Atmarupa, for taking time out of your busy schedule to participate in this interview.

I am honored to have had the opportunity to study with you and other teachers at Atma Center. As a yoga instructor, I am always soaking up as much information as I can when I come to classes and workshops with you. Each time I see you, I always leave thinking how I’d love to  learn about how yoga became a part of your life and of the many adventures you have had. I know I’m not alone in my curiosity, as many of your students can attest. So, I thank you in advance for sharing your history, thoughts and insights with me, my readers, our students and the world. -Julie Konrad

Luna Presence: When did you find yoga, or did yoga find you?

Atmarupa: I originally found yoga through the “Light of Yoga” in the early 80’s.  Then a friend of mine in Australia also became very involved with Satyananda Yoga and encouraged me to try it.

LP: Many students feel confused with all the different styles of yoga out there from Iyengar to Bikram from Ashtanga to Jivamukti. How is SATYANANDA yoga different from other styles of yoga?

A:  Satyananda Yoga® is an integrated form of classical yoga that was developed by Swami Satyananda, who is still alive in India.  It draws on the ancient teachings, but has been adapted to modern living and includes practices that can be done by everyone.  The popular view of yoga is that it requires flexibility at nearly a gymnastic level, or that it is a fitness practice.  Yoga is so much more.  Yoga is truly of science of living and the practices of Satyananda Yoga® are designed to help people deal with daily stress, to find inner peace, and the physical practices are accessible to every body type or level of fitness.

LP: There are many people out there who are interested in yoga, but are afraid they aren’t flexible enough or who might be intimidated. How do you encourage these folks to give yoga a try?

A:  It is so important to realize that yoga is about awareness.  When someone is practicing with full awareness, in the present moment, without attachment to the results, this is yoga.  So, it is possible to be practicing more yoga while doing simple movements linked to the breath than while struggling to do the more extreme postures while listening to music.   We believe that yoga should fit each person rather than trying to fit each person into some preconceived idea of yoga.

LP: How did you get your Sanskrit name, Swami Atmarupa Saraswati, and what does it mean?

A:  My name was given to me as part of an initiation with my guru, Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati, who is the successor to Swami Satyananda.  A guru gives a disciple a name based on what they feel the disciple should become.  Atma means the true, unchanging Self beyond this personality or time or space.  Rupa means to take form.  My name, therefore, means that I am to realize the form of my true Self.

LP:  I loved participating in the Sanskrit classes. It’s a real workout for the brain. How long did it take you to feel confident pronouncing the alphabet and reciting Sanskrit mantras?

A:  I don’t think I feel confident even now!  Within the tantric tradition, pronunciation is important, but not of great concern provided one chants from the heart.  In the vedic tradition, correct pronunciation is considered extremely important.  Lucky for me, Satyananda Yoga® is more tantric.

LP: Do you have a favorite mantra(s). Which one(s) and can you share with us why?

A:  There are many mantras that I chant regularly.  The mantra “Om” is of course one that is most powerful to me.  If you read the Mandukya Upanishad, you realize that Om is everything. 

LP: How do you incorporate yoga and yogic principals into your life when you are outside the studio?

A:  I believe that yoga is a part of everything that I do.  I try to be fully aware of the moment I’m in and witness my mind’s activity regarding what is going on.  Learning to “witness” the play of the mind and emotions has allowed me to be much more contented in my life as I learn again and again that if I wait a moment before reacting I have much more choice in what the experience will be.

LP: I think most teachers and students find they struggle at times with always keeping in the yogic spirit and following the Sutras (Yamas and Niyamas), for example; living in the present moment, exhibiting non-possessiveness, finding contentment, etc. What do you do to guide yourself back when you find yourself slipping out of the moment or out of your practice?

A:  The first thing I do is to connect with my breath and remind myself that all experiences come and go.  I am not the experience that I am having.  Whatever state of mind I am experiencing can and will change. 

LP: You grew up in a very small town in the middle of NW Ohio called Ai, in a family that never traveled, but you have since gone on to travel the world including, Tibet, China, Delhi, and Nepal. What has been your most favorite trip?

A: That’s a really tough question.  I’ve had so many amazing experiences.  I have been up to Mount Everest Base Camp and down scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef.  I really can’t say which trip was a favorite.  Maybe the next one. 

LP: Can you share one unexpected moment that had significant meaning to you while on one of your adventures?

A: I think maybe it was the first time I went to India.  I was doing a trip called “5 Ways Across Asia”.  The first leg was riding camels through the Indian desert for about five days.  I think it was on the third or fourth day as I was swaying back and forth from the ungainly gait of the camel and looking across the endless, barren terrain that I was suddenly overcome with the realization that while I was there riding a camel across the India desert, that back here in Cleveland all my coworkers were still being stressed out by all that goes on at work.  It was in that one moment that I clearly saw that everything I am involved in is my choice.  I clearly saw it.  It doesn’t mean that I always remember it, but there was definitely a shift in my consciousness at that point.

LP: Atma Center celebrates its 12^th Anniversary this weekend. What has been the most exciting experience for you since you opened the studio?

A:  I really enjoyed being able to renovate the center about 5 years ago because it provided the students with a much nicer facility.  You know this place was a State Liquor Store prior to becoming the Atma Center - from spirits to spirituality!

LP: Any plans for the next 12 years you can share with us?

A:  I try not to think too far into the future since it never turns out the way I think it will.  I hope that the Atma Center and the teachers and students here will continue to provide a foundation of personal growth and well-being within the community.  And finally, what do you do when you are not teaching yoga?

LP:

A:  I try to live what I teach.

Truly inspiring! Thank you so much! Namaste!

Photograph by Kim Long Photography

I am thrilled to annonce that I will be teaching at Inspiral Motion!

Namaste!
Julie

Thank you to everyone who attended my special outdoor yoga event to raise money for The Sanctuary for Senior dogs! It was a warm and beautiful morning of yoga under the big blue sky! I appreciate the generosity of all, as I’m sure the senior pups do as well!

Here are a few things we can learn from our furry friends:

Namaste!
Julie

Photo: Courtesy of Kim Long Photography

Weather looks pretty decent, so let’s do it! Bring an extra towel or two to lay under your mat if it’s damp or to wrap up in for savasana. Thanks for coming!

FREE YOGA AT HORSESHOE LAKE PARK, SHAKER HEIGHTS

GET GROUNDED!
Join me for outdoor yoga on Sunday, July 19th at 9am*. If you’ve never taken your practice outdoors, here’s your chance to rejuvenate your mind, body and spirit in the arms of Mother Nature! This relaxing, gentle, hatha class is geared for adults, but young adults are certainly welcome.

Click HERE for a map

Donations will be welcomed to support the Sanctuary for Senior Dogs

*Please visit this website www.lunapresenceyoga.com the morning of the event if weather is questionable.

Hope to see you there!

Namaste,
Julie

I am certain there is no greater feeling in this world then the first time you see your child, YOUR baby. The first time you see their little head, squinty eyes, and feel their incredibly smooth, brand new skin and realize this tiny human came from you! The first moment they look into your eyes, confused by the sudden jolt from the warm, cozy womb to the harsh light and cold of their new world is a moment you know you’ll remember forever. I have been blessed to have experienced this amazing moment three times, and each time, I have been drawn to tears by the sheer miracle that is life! Looking into their dark eyes, meeting this new, little person for the first time, is a moment that can be matched by none! From the second we are brought into the world we are adapting and adjusting to environment, stimuli and natural, physical changes. The way a baby sniffs out their mother’s scent, trying to find food is instinctual and reminds me of how natural birth is, even if the delivery wasn’t exactly “natural”.  Just watching a newborn, is a great reminder that we have natural instincts built-in. Newborns wail and alter the pitch and volume of their cry to get what they need like food, attention and love. They snuggle-in close to hear their mother’s heartbeat to feel reassured and safe. Becoming a mother is a huge re-awakening to tuning into my instincts. I’ve learned to trust these instincts and follow them, but I question why we lose so much of our ability to identify our natural instincts along the way of life? Why do we question what we already know? Why do we question ourselves when the answer always lies within? Why do we start to “mess” with nature and fight what’s natural? We are products of our surroundings, that’s for sure, but I think that coming back to ourselves and trusting what we already know and feel is such a great way to reconnect with who we really are. The next time you see a baby, watch a little closer and notice what they already know… pure and simple! 

I’ve found practicing yoga during pregnancy to be such a wonderful way to ease the discomforts that come along with a growing belly, and a perfect way to balance my emotions and energy. Now that I am nearing the end of a long nine months, I’m starting to experience more muscle strain and soreness after I practice. As a  yoga teacher, I hear myself advising my students not to push the limits- to make their practice one where they advance themselves in time to avoid injury. The difficult part of practicing while pregnant is most often caused by the hormone, relaxin, which loosens joints and ligaments. It is very easy to do a pose that you’re body is used to, like a wide angle forward bend, and then experience some soreness that day or even the following day, particularly in the third trimester. With the muscles being so relaxed, you have a tendancy to go further into poses then usual-often with painful consequences. This can be frustrating, particularly to those more seasoned yoginis who find their favorite poses are suddenly, poses to avoid. Pregnancy is a wonderful time to take it easy and nurture yourself in the asanas instead of going deeper. Enjoy moving gently and easily into each posture. Work on deepening the breath and simply enjoy the benefits of increased oxygen to the lungs and to your growing baby!  

I found that joining a prenatal yoga class at a great studio was a way for me to treat myself to a gentle practice. In a regular class, I am more likely to injure myself while trying to keep up where I am used to going in each posture. Prenatal classes focus on specific areas, like the low back and hips, where you tend to feel the most discomfort plus, there is plenty of time reserved for relaxation and breathing practices at the end of each class!

Enjoy this time and moment in your life. You’ll bounce back into full Prasarita Padottanasana before you know it!

    
These photos were taken by my amazingly talented and dearest friend. I highly recommend visiting her blog to see her latest photos! Enjoy!

Every year about this time, most of us are either escaping on a well-deserved spring break to warmer climates, or figuring out how we’re going to survive the next six weeks or more of cold, sloppy winter weather. I’m one of the ones stuck here in the Midwest awaiting those beautiful crocuses, the first real visable sign that spring is on its way.

March 20th, this year, marks the Vernal Equinox or Spring Equinox. This is the day that the sun rises exactly in the east and travels through the sky for 12 hours and sets exactly in the west. Everyone on earth experiences 12 hours of daylight on this day and on the Fall Equinox. After March 20th, the sun continues to travel higher and higher into the sky until it reaches it’s highest point on June 21st, the Summer Solstice, when we have the longest day of sunlight of the year.

Consider celebrating this wonderful time of year. The following ideas are from The School of Seasons:

Create a Feast - Helen Farias in her seasonal newsletter, Octava, points out that certain foods are associated with springtime festivals: cheese, butter, eggs, pancakes, wheaten cakes, hot cross buns. Since this is a time when young animals are being born, milk is now available for making cheese and butter. In Poland, according to Dorothy Spicer in The Book of Festivals, a little lamb made of butter or sugar is placed in the center of the Easter table, which is laden with food and decorated with eggs, red paper cut-outs and festoons of green. Eggs symbolize new life, of course, and wheaten cakes, grain. In Italy, colored eggs are baked in braided loaves of bread on Easter, combining the two symbols. Hot cross buns, a traditional Easter food, may be very ancient. A wheaten cake marked with a cross was found in Herculaneum, preserved since 79, and may have been used in the spring rites.

Decorate Eggs - Pauline Campanelli in The Wheel of the Year describes many natural substances that dye eggs. Try boiling a single onion skin with a few eggs to get a soft orange. A handful of onion skins produces rust, a half teaspoon of turmeric gives a sunny yellow and beet juice and vinegar make pink. If you boil eggs with vinegar and several of the outer leaves of cabbage and allow them to cool overnight, the eggs will be a bright robin’s egg blue, but they must be handled carefully since the dye comes off easily.

Plant Seeds - choose seeds which represent the things you want to grow during the new year — wisdom, understanding, patience, etc. Visualize those qualities coming into full bloom in your life as you plant your seeds.

Whatever you do this spring, enjoy the sunshine! In the meantime, keep practicing your sun salutatons ! 
 

Happy Spring!

I attended the Cleveland premiere of the film Dalai Lama Renaissance on Sunday at The Cleveland Museum of Art. It was a sold out crowd. Another screening was shown in the room next door at the same time to accommodate the eager film-goers. I got there early and found a great seat right in the middle. I love events like this unique screening because you never know who you might meet. 

I had the pleasure of sitting next to a friendly, older gentleman from Iran. I learned from talking with him that he came to the US to visit 32 years ago and stayed here because his country was in a revolution and it was unsafe for him to return home. I am always fascinated by stories like his. I can never imagine leaving my homeland, not knowing if I could ever return for fear of losing my life! I was captured by his story and his sense of humor. He had a thick accent and we joked about pronunciation differences and language barriers and he told me about his family. The most interesting thing he shared with me was about his religion, The Bahá’í Faith. He explained briefly that his faith believes in the unity of all people. This intrigued me. I wanted to learn more. According to their website, the central theme of Bahá’u'lláh’s (the founder of Bahá’í) message is that humanity is one single race and that the day has come for its unification in one global society. God, Bahá’u'lláh said, has set in motion historical forces that are breaking down traditional barriers of race, class, creed, and nation and that will, in time, give birth to a universal civilization. The principal challenge facing the peoples of the earth is to accept the fact of their oneness and to assist the processes of unification. It’s enlightening to me to learn about different religions and it was fitting to have this conversation as we prepared to see this film about coming together, being open, loving and compassionate.

Producer-Director Khashyar Darvich, introduced the film. He’s a Cleveland native and was an English major at Baldwin Wallace College. The film was shot right before the Millennium. The Dalai Lama invited 40 of the West’s most innovative thinkers from America to his residence in the Himalayan Mountains of Northern India to discuss the world’s problems and how we can solve them. What transpired was unexpected and powerful! This film captures perfectly the clash of egos and the journey to openness and oneness. The Dalai Lama’s message to the participants was the simple message that the most important thing in the world is to realize that all people want happiness and that the way to achieve this is to instill “secular ethics” with compassion as the basis.  All action in the world must come from this basic foundation. For the complete synopsis click HERE.

The Q&A session was equally enlightening as the director, Khashyar Darvich, who is very soft spoken with a peaceful presence you could feel the second he approached the podium, welcomed over a half hour of questions. The questions ranged from when the film was shot (over 8 years ago) to how he put it all together. He only had 8 weeks to put together a crew of 18, find 5 cameras, and film during the middle of monsoon season when the electricity would go out every three hours. He was able to capture 140 hours on film and he personally watched all the footage to ensure that he accurately captured the experience. It was a fascinating film that I encourage you to see when it is released in May of this year.

I came out of this experience feeling inspired to keep sharing my love of yoga, even on my hardest days, and to stay open to what others bring to my life. Khashyar said something that has stayed with me, he said “we are sometimes afraid to be open and show our compassion because we’re afraid people might take advantage of us, but it’s important to show that we are loving and kind.” People become so closed off because of their own fears, but so much more respect lies in being open.

It was a wonderful film, and a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Namaste!

There is an extraordinary new film making its Cleveland premiere this weekend. Read on and consider attending this award-winning movie if you’re in the area. See it before it’s officially released in the U.S. on May 23^rd.

Dalai Lama Renaissance is a new film narrated by Harrison Ford and directed and produced by Cleveland native and Baldwin Wallace graduate, Khashyar Darvich, and premieres at The Cleveland Museum of Art this Friday, January 23^rd and Sunday, January 25^th.

Khashyar Darvich will apprear in person to conduct Q&A sessions after each screening of the film which has been released in theaters around the world, and has won 12 international awards!

The screening times are:

Friday, January 23^rd at 7pm and
Saturday, January 25^th at 1:30pm

Ticket information can be found at The Cleveland Museum of Art

Is there a pose you absolutely love, or maybe a pose you absolutely hate? Yoga definitely brings out emotion. I love to see the expressions on my student’s faces as I move them from a comforting pose like balasana (child’s pose) to mandukasana (frog pose). Frog pose always brings out a variety of expressions from mild discomfort or dislike, to shear agony! Now, don’t misunderstand me. I do not strive to lure my students into pain by any means, but I love to see the emotion, reaction and feeling being expressed. Yoga takes you on the journey of self-discovery and this pose usually awakens inner fire! Some of you have very open hips and this pose is actually pleasurable. I envy you. I am still working on opening to this pose completely. It’s often said, we hold a lot of tension in our hips and groin, and if we can release these areas, we will be much more open and relaxed in our lives. This goes along with the saying that our physical flexibility is a reflextion of how flexible we our in our lives. Do you agree? This is certainly true for me! I may be a teacher of yoga, but that does not exempt me from tight hips! It doesn’t matter what size we are, how tall, how short, overweight or thin, we all have areas that need more attention than others.

This week, if you are new to yoga or have been a practicioner for years, pick a pose you enjoy and a pose you struggle with. Take five minutes each day for 5 days to explore going deeper into each pose. Note how the poses feel on each particular day, after a good day and after a bad day, when you’re rested and when you’re tired. Explore how to find comfort in the poses no matter how challenging. Use the breath to relax into the postures. Notice if by the end of the week you’re staying in the poses longer.

Write to me and share your experiences with all of us!
Click on the comment button below the line to share your results.

ENJOY!