On this spring morning, as I sit and write, I am awestruck by the beauty and wonder all around me. There is an array of vibrancy and color in my yard from my potted flowers and tomato plants to the colorful lovebirds that nest in my backyard trees. Mother Nature, in all her glory, is in full bloom. The seeds are now flowers and edible foods, the eggs of the lovebirds are now baby birds squealing for their morning meal. The monarch, once a caterpillar, emerges a brightly colored winged creature taking flight through my fruit trees. At this time of year, we can see renewal everywhere we look.

For a yogi, continual renewal results from a persistence in a daily practice, allowing for an experience of coming home to oneself – a recognition of the sacred that surrounds each one of us and also lies deeply within. Similar to nature’s seasons and cycles of renewal, we shed old habits and conditioning. Our yoga practice brings to light more of our true nature. Each time we connect to the spiritual side of ourselves we open to the breath of light that ideally guides our thoughts, words, actions and the experiences of our lives. May this season renew your spirit with the beauty of nature and may we each be fed by the connection of this wonderful healing community as we practice yoga together. Blessings to each of you.

-Mary Beth

No matter where you live in the world the coming of spring brings the miracle of new growth, renewal, freshness of life. Have you noticed how your own senses awaken to the brilliant change of daylight, the sweet smells of blossoms and grasses, the joyful sounds of bird songs and children playing outside? Spring is when life is alive in everything. There is a Buddhist saying that if we could see the miracle of a single flower, our whole life would change. The season of spring encourages our spirits to shake the old ways of being and reveal the expanded parts of ourselves. Take some time this season to renew your spirit. If life has felt like an extended period of winter, let all the sensual gifts of this season nurture, feed and soften your soul. Take your yoga mat outside and greet the day with appreciation. Drink some fortifying cleansing juices, receive a massage. Find some quality time with inspirational, like-minded individuals and enjoy some discussions and community experiences. Allow this season to offer you ways to connect to that part of yourself that is vibrant, clear and open. May this moment and every moment become the best season of your life.
With Joy,

Mary Beth

It’s Spring! Traditionally our thoughts turn to “spring cleaning” of our homes and property; let’s not forget ourselves in this process also. Sauca – cleanliness of mind and body. Our practice of yoga and incorporating massage into our lives can be a path for cleansing throughout the year
Asana, pranayama and massage increase our blood flow, oxygenating our cells, organs, muscles etc. while stimulating our lymphatic system, a major component of our immune system. Visualize your circulatory system. The heart works 24/7 pumping blood throughout the tissues of our bodies. Our lymphatic system looks very similar to our circulatory system, yet there is no “pump” to stimulate its flow. It is through our practices of yoga and massage that we stimulate and enable our bodies to cleanse and heal itself. The majority of lymph nodes are in our gut (intestines) and as we incorporate gentle twists and full breaths into our abdomen during our asana practice, we assist the path of healing.
Massage is a beneficial component of self-care and cleansing. The basic premise of massage is to stimulate blood flow and oxygenation throughout the tissue of our bodies while releasing the toxins stored in our muscles and joints. Have you ever felt tenderness in your body after receiving a massage? This soreness can be a result of the toxins being released into your system and then ultimately out of your body through massage.
As we practice our body softens and our mind becomes more present moving into a calmer and more positive state of mind. Choose to begin letting go of thoughts, beliefs and patterns in your life which no longer serve you, thus cleansing the mind creating more openness, peace and tranquility in your life.

~Kelly Knapp

~Mary Beth Markus

With spring comes thoughts of newness and birth: baby birds and insects of brilliant colors appear, purple petunias, courageous daffodils and other glorious flowers arrive, the weather begins to warm and the sun is still soft and mild. Life is once again reborn! Beautiful and soft in it’s tenderness, spring inspires hope and endless new beginnings.

It is a time of transition and a time of polarities. Winter is ending and releasing it’s claim and yet there are often stops and starts before spring comes in fully. The weather warms up and then with a drop in temperature, the heat inside is needed once again. Or the flowers are planted and a sudden frost comes. In early spring, the beginning is bumpy and unpredictable.

I was born on the first day of spring and my mother often told me the story of the day she went into labor. It was March 20th and it was a beautiful sunny and soft day. She packed spring clothes and headed off with my dad to the hospital. However when she woke the next day with her new baby and looked out, a thick blanket of snow was everywhere. March 21st. One day’s difference. Spring is like that…stops and starts until it finally claims the space.

Bulbs come to mind during the early spring. They rest below the surface, surrounded by the dark earth and wait until they get an inner prompting that it’s time to grow. In the right time, in the darkness they open, extend and push upward unseeing and unseen until they break the surface and find the light. What a journey! It’s easy to remember the visible bud and burst of color while forgetting the other side; the courageous journey through the dark, yet they are both part of the story.
As we shake off winter and move into spring we are awakening to a new self. We may feel the inner prompting, the excitement and invitation to grow or we may sense the darkness, want to hide and feel a bit unsettled. Eventually spring pushes all of that aside and calls to us anyway. It invites us to clear out the old, cleanse and prepare for a new beginning. It reminds us that just around the corner is a burst of color waiting to be fully seen and appreciated.

Our yoga practice is well suited for the polarities of early spring. Rooting down we connect with the earth. Lengthening up we connect with the Sacred. And then as we breathe, the breath comes into the space created by this polarity creating more space and access to the heart. In this place, we can sense our inner knowing and listen to the quiet voice within. Our practice reminds us to let go of old habits and ways of being that no longer serve and allow the birth of the new, fresh and vibrant ways of being to emerge and flower.

~Victoria Crawford

Each season throughout this year we will focus on themes and aspects that relate to each season. Some of the themes we will explore through our classes and trainings for the winter months are repose, reflection, clarity and potential. We will offer philosophies, movements, meditations, therapies and workshops with suggestions that will help to keep you balanced and moving towards vibrant health specific to the season we are in. The teachers and therapists have always been so helpful in these ways. We hope you can take advantage of their teachings and offerings.

Desert Song Yoga is now moving into its 29th year of teaching the art and science of yoga by supporting individuals with maintaining their health through yoga and tai chi classes, workshops, retreats, massage therapies and community activities for the entire family. We are so grateful for your support that allowed us to continue to offer the quality of services during this sensitive economic climate. We appreciate you more than words can express and feel deeply blessed for this opportunity to share with you our passions and joys.

With great anticipation we are about to embark on the 20th year of our Teacher Training Program for 2012 with enthusiastic individuals committed to this incredible spiritual journey together. Furthermore, we developed a 300 hour Advanced Training Program that offers 3 separate and/or combined tracks of study:
Therapeutic and Wellness Track
Family Studies Track
Anusara Yoga Track

We have invited our senior teachers and international guest teachers to share their wisdom in these specific tracks. These workshops will offer the general public information about the inner practices of yoga in maintaining health as well as support teacher trainers in therapeutic and family studies. In addition, Meg Byerlein will be offering Immersions and Teacher Training in the Anusara® Method and Mary Glover will be offering a 95 hour certified teacher training for children.

With the offerings and gatherings planned for Desert Song this year our vision is to bring more individuals into the love, light and radiant health and happiness that is possible through this ancient practice of Yoga. We invite your comments, suggestions and input for the evolution of our yoga practices together. We’ve listened to your suggestions and have added 3 more classes to our offerings. View our website at www.desertsongyoga.com.
May 2012 bring you many gifts and blessings that allow for more ease, health and happiness this year.

With gratitude and love,


Mary Beth and Vince Markus
And the Staff at Desert Song

This month we will explore the many gifts and blessings of living a life expressed in gratitude. Our hope is that as we focus on this experience of being grateful, we grow to share the blessings that uplift everyone who comes to the center. It has been mentioned many times a week over the course of Desert Song’s 28 years that the energy of the studio feels so good. I truly believe that some of the energy is pure expression of gratitude for having a place to come back to the essence of our spiritual selves.

May this month offer you many ways to feel the collective blessings of this community. May you always feel honored when you come to Desert Song and allow the spirit of our connection be a support to you along your path.

We invite you to learn more in our classes, services, workshops, retreats and this months Dharma talk to assist you in living life with equanimity and sweet balance.

Compassion for one another is one of the central reasons that Desert Song has developed the monthly Dharma Talks. It gives us an avenue to support one another’s views, ideas, intentions, concerns and needs. The opportunity to both share and receive from the yoga community creates the foundation for us to grow in a safe and supportive environment. Proceeds from our gatherings allow us to monetarily share with our larger local community charities chosen by the facilitators of the evening. The entire experience cultivates well-being and connects us all through the gifts of compassion, relationship and understanding.

As the Dalai Lama says, “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek.”

I hope that you always know how much you are honored, loved and appreciated at Desert Song. And may the light of compassion and love that you feel here be shared with those in your life and the community.

Blessings always,

Mary Beth and the staff at Desert Song Yoga and Massage

Supported Bound Angle Pose: One of the Most Relaxing Poses of All Restorative Poses
Adam Montoya, TCI, CYI
If there was only one restorative pose for relaxation, supported bound angle pose would be it. This pose cradles the body, which helps tension melt away in the shoulders, chest, abdomen, and inner thighs. You can practice deep breathing in this pose and experience the breath massaging the lower abdomen as well as filling the lungs with life giving oxygen. This pose affects four key acupuncture meridians that affect the immune system, the free flow of life force, and our physical and emotional constitution. Supported Bound-Angle benefits those with high blood pressure and breathing problems. It is also helpful for women during the menstrual period and during menopause. In my restorative class we always build up to this pose and combine it with a special meditation technique. I find it to have the most benefit in experiencing a deep state of relaxation.
Entering the pose:
1. Prop a bolster at an incline with the short end touching your tailbone.
2. Bend your knees and place the soles of your feet together.
3. Place rolled blankets or cushions underneath your outer thighs and if you have a sandbag, place it across your feet.
4. Use your hands as support as you lay back on your bolster. Place a folded blanket underneath your neck and head at the desired height for you.
5. Bring your arms out to the sides with the palms facing upward. Hug your shoulder blades to the spine and then relax them into the bolster.
6. Breathe deep, exhaling and inhaling slowly a few times. Then breathe normally.
You can remain in this pose for 10 to 15 minutes or longer.
To come out, guide your knees together with your hands and sit up or roll to one side off of your bolster.

Cultivate Coolness and Calm with the Inverted Lake Pose
Alisa Gray, RYT 200, CYI
Pregnant yogis living in the desert have specific challenges brought on by our extreme weather, including swollen feet, varicose veins and insomnia. This summer, take a plunge in the inverted lake pose to relieve your symptoms and quiet your mind. Commonly referred to as “Legs up the Wall,” this restorative pose, or asana, relieves a variety of ailments anytime in your life, but is especially helpful during pregnancy. Its Sanskrit name, Viparita Karani, means “inverted lake”reflecting the health benefits of inversions for circulating fluids and prana or life force energy throughout the body. By inverting the legs and feet, blood and hormones move easily downwards. In this modified prenatal version, the torso remains slightly elevated to reduce the weight of your baby on your organs and back, while your legs eventually move apart providing a gentle stretch to your pelvis, hamstrings and inner thighs.
1. Place a bolster (or stacked and folded blankets) approximately 1 – 1 ½ feet away from the wall. The bolster should be perpendicular to the wall. Under the end of the bolster furthest from the wall, place either another bolster to form a “T” or a block, creating a small ramp for your back.
2. Sit facing the wall with your pelvis against the end of the bolster. Adjust the space between the bolster and the wall as needed for you and your baby’s comfort.
3. Allow your torso, neck and head to recline along the bolster and place your feet on the wall. Bend your knees and bring your feet flat against the wall, adjusting the height of your feet as necessary for your comfort.
4. Slowly allow your knees to widen away from the center, as if you were in a squat position. Rest into your pose breathing smoothly and deeply for approximately 3-5 minutes.
5. To come out, gently roll to one side, using your arms to bring you up slowly to a seated position.

Using Essential Oils to Restore the Body
Kelly Knapp, LMT, CYI
When thinking of restoration, consider the benefits of essential oils and how they enhance our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. Essential oils are so molecularly small that they quickly penetrate the skin and will be distributed to every cell in the body within twenty minutes and can remain up to two hours. You can receive the benefits of essential oils by inhaling or diffusing, applying topically (check for sensitivity before applying liberally) and some may be taken internally. We carry Young Living oils in our boutique; please ask at the front desk for our selection.
COOL OFF with peppermint through inhalation and topical application. Try rubbing a drop onto the back of your neck and feet. Adding 1 to 2 drops to a tepid bath can be very cooling and refreshing.
Lavender creates emotional balance and assists the Nervous System. It is soothing to the emotions and skin. Apply lavender to a sunburn or a combination of lavender and aloe vera for soothing relief.
Peace and Calming reduces depression, anxiety and stress. Used at the end of the day, it promotes relaxation and helps with insomnia.
Release enhances the removal of memory trauma from the liver where anger is stored. It assists in the letting go of negative emotions and frustration. Apply over the liver and on the feet.
Valor helps to balance the electrical energies within the body and is very grounding. It brings a feeling of calmness, peace and relaxation. Apply to the feet.
Our muscle is the densest part of our body and holds a lot of physical and emotional debris. To assist in its removal try an Epsom Salt bath. Epsom Salts is magnesium sulfate and magnesium is a natural muscle relaxant. In the heat of summer many will hesitate to take a bath. Try adding Epsom Salts to a warm or tepid bath and truly restore and rejuvenate your body’s well-being.
4 cups of Epsom Salts
Natural oil – Almond, Apricot, Jojoba
Essential oils of your choice
Soak for 30 minutes. ENJOY!

As our country celebrates our freedom as a nation, we as yogis connect to a broader understanding of what it is to be free. Freedom is a state of being that is inherent in each one of us individually. Freedom or enlightenment emerges from within as we release ourselves from our desires, mental entanglements and the whole complexity of what we think we are and what we think we need and want. When we can quiet the continuous chatter and obstacles that pervade our minds for an extended period of time we discover the stillness that rests inside each of us which connects us intimately to our broader expanded Self. It is here that we connect to all of life, not separate but a part of the whole of creation. This is a great truth or “secret”…you are that which resides inside you. It is this Self Realization that gives us the freedom to live to the highest expressions of our unique and individual selves.
Come join Victoria and me for our July focus on Freedom. It is sure to promote some deep feelings, thoughts and discussion.

What does it mean to you to be free?
What gets in your way?

Mindfulness has to do with paying close attention to all the sensations in our bodies.  We are accustomed to paying attention to our thoughts and believing that our thoughts are actually the truth.  How many times have your thoughts actually lied to you? I know my mind lies to me daily.   Our minds lie all the time.  They pick thoughts out of the “thoughtmosphere” and believe that they are the truth.  On the other hand, our bodies do not lie to us.  Listening mindfully to our bodies and our senses will connect us to our higher wisdom.

We mindfully chose who we want to be and how we want to show up in our lives.  When we are mindful, when we are completely present in our bodies, time actually slows down.  On those days that seem to have us scrambling for time, if we simply show up mindfully to the task before us––not thinking about our to do list but instead about what or who is before us now––time seems to expand.  Have you ever noticed when you quit trying to push things to happen, when you surrender, things just seem to flow?  

In my own life I experienced this phenomena late last year when the economy remained sluggish.  I saw the financials dwindling and immediately started doing everything I could to bring in new business. This only increased my stress and it didn’t help Desert Song in the least.  Things were actually just a little worse for the business, but a lot worse for me.  It was only when I surrendered and quit trying so hard that I finally could hear my inner guidance again. In connecting with the universal mind, I started to enjoy quiet time again and soon I was in the flow.  I started getting new contracts and people who hadn’t been in the studio for a while started calling or coming in.   I realized I could connect with universal consciousness and that I didn’t have to work so hard. I just need to stay connected. Seems that when we quit pushing, quit trying to control and just completely show up in the moment …………. connected ……………. magic happens.  - Mary Beth Markus