Our Tweet-fest Contest Winners!

We got so many great tweets through our Tweetfest Contest that we couldn’t pick just one! So we picked 3! We asked our community to tweet the reasons why they love CCY with the hashtag #love, and these are our favorite responses:
@grl_come_undone – “on @CharmCityYoga. Everyone here makes yoga so accessible and not at all intimidating. #love”
@grl_come_undone was chosen for her sheer persistence. We loved getting so many tweets from her, we just had to give her something!
@dancingwaves – “@CharmCityYoga – #love you guys because when I leave the studio, I feel better able to live in this world fully and with a tender heart.”
@Dancingwaves won us over with their beautifully sentimental tweet. Ultimately, we home everyone leaves the mat feeling like a better person.
@katytroe – “#love that @CharmCityYoga begin. series gave me a foundation 4 a rockin home practice & classes still continue to challenge me today.”
@katytroe’s tweet impressed us because it encompasses all facets on the journey to a fulfilling yoga practice: from starting with our Beginner Series to developing a home practice to maintaining a practice through classes at our studio.

We also chose an Honorable Mention because this tweet was too good not to recognize. However, she forgot the #love hashtag, so we couldn’t award her a prize:
@citysparrowsews – “@CharmCityYoga I <3 yoga bc after just 1 month of practice now when i go dancing i can drop my booty to the floor AND get it back up again!” Read More…

A Multifaceted Yogi

Even yogis need a little extra help sometimes. Todd Bauer is Charm City Yoga owners, Chris and Kim’s personal trainer. On these winter days when the weather doesn’t always cooperate, Kim isn’t able to ride her bike to the studio. Of course, Kim credits her physique to her vigorous yoga practice, but in order to stay strong as a cyclist, Kim turns to Todd. Todd is also a yogi and understands the benefits of adding a yoga practice to your fitness regimen. We asked Todd to tell us a little about how he uses yoga to find balance in his life, and in the lives of his clients. Read More…

Cultivate Generosity Through the Practice

“The path for those who are climbing to spiritual heights is selfless action (that’s Karma yoga).” -Bhagavad Gita

Suzanne Cary, who graduated from our teacher training in 2009, has committed her practice to bringing yoga to underserved communities. In 2009, she went to Cambodia with Seane Corn and her “Off the Mat, Into the World” program, and raised $24,000 for that organization. Now, Suzanne is committed to being an ambassador for the Africa Yoga Project. AYP offers daily free Baptiste yoga classes for the slums of Nairobi to over 4000 students every week, and trains the locals to be yoga teachers, enabling them to not only keep the yoga spirit alive in their community, but also giving them a career. AYP also brings fresh water and food to those communities, feeding their bodies as well as their souls. Read More…

Our Response to NYT

Last week, the New York Times posted an article entitled “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body.” Not surprisingly, this article has raised some eyebrows, not just in the CCY community, but throughout the yoga world in general. Kim penned a response to set yogis’ minds at ease.

Dear Teachers and Students,

I wanted to write a response to the NYT article featuring yoga teacher Glenn Black. Although, at the end of the article he blames his stenosis on “40 years of extreme backbends and twists” I would contend, and I am sure he would agree, that during that time of grasping and achieving, he was not practicing yoga. Read More…

Tweet-Fest Contest!

For the month of January, we’re holding a Tweet-fest contest! Log on to your Perkville account and tweet why you love Charm City Yoga! Tag your tweet with the hashtag #love and we’ll pick our favorite. The winner will get a Charm City Yoga t-shirt! We’ll announce the winner on February 2nd, so get to tweeting! You’ll get 10 Perkville points just for tweeting anyway, so it’s a win-win for everyone!

A Sense of Belonging

“Imagine a multidimensional spider’s web in the early morning covered with dew drops. And every dew drop contains the reflection of all the other dew drops. And, in each reflected dew drop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so ad infinitum. That is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image.” -Alan Watts

On December 16th, Kim led a holiday yoga class overlooking the city in the penthouse of Silo Point. “Looking out over the city, we could see lights forever,” Kim said, reminding her of Indra’s Net, the Buddhist concept of the universe. “There are an infinite number of lives in the city and that engenders a sense of belonging. Community is a wide cast net, each of us is a light, and reflected in each of us is the entire net.” Read More…

Workstudy Feature: The Dance of Yoga

Judy Kurjan has been a workstudy for Charm City Yoga since the spring of 2010. A dancer and choreographer as well as a yogini, Judy’s art has been influenced by her yoga practice and vice versa. Yoga is a dance, regardless of physical ability, strength, or flexibility, and our movement leads us to wellness. Judy says, “Because of yoga, I am able to look at and feel my movement from a deeper, almost cellular level– it is not just about beautiful shapes- it is about moving through every fiber of my being.” Click through to read more about how yoga can translate into the art of movement. Read More…

Anna Muzzin in Mysore

Our own Anna Muzzin has been strengthening her yoga practice in Mysore, India. You can read about her journey in India on her blog, Pack Your Mat: An Asana Adventure. Here’s a post by Anna about the beginning of her practice in Mysore and about learning to slow down. Read More…

Our Night with Ricky Williams

Last night, we had the pleasure of co-sponsoring Ravens running back Ricky Williams’ yoga and meditation class at Stevenson University to benefit the Ricky Williams Foundation, His foundation is a not-for-profit that provides tutorial services, public speaking programs and sports camps to youth in underserved communities. Over 15 of our teachers helped Ricky by assisting the class and demonstrating the postures. Ricky, a certified yoga teacher as well as a Pro Bowl MVP and Heisman Trophy winner, taught a Sivananda style yoga class which focuses mostly on meditation and the breath. Read More…

Linking Communities: Chanting the Night Away

The Baltimore Hebrew Congregation is proud to have Kirtan Rabbi Rabbi Andrew Hahn bring a night of Kirtan singing and chanting to their community, and is inviting the Charm City Yoga community to join in and try something new. Read More…