Yoga and Friends
In Yoga and Friends we combine one to two hours of hatha yoga instruction and practice with a sociable vegetarian potluck supper. Through this program Magic provides a disciplined - yet relaxed and informal - context for individuals to refine hatha yoga skills, and to build community with others by sharing in the preparation and enjoyment of an evening meal.
Hatha yoga asanas (postures) have been developed over many centuries. Millions of people, including athletes, physicians, and psychologists, have experienced or observed that hatha yoga practitioners preserve and enhance suppleness, strength, balance, relaxation, concentration, calm, and general well-being.
Participants in Yoga and Friends range from teenagers to seniors, from novices to those who have practiced regularly for years. We are united in viewing hatha yoga as a path to greater personal awareness, rather than merely a set of postures or movements to be mastered in perfect form.
We train together in large part so that we may assist each other in remembering our overarching purpose: to become more loving. For us, concentration, awareness, flexibility, and calm developed through hatha yoga are steps towards greater peace within, with others, and with nature. When weather permits, class is held in Peers Park in Palo Alto. At other times, we meet indoors at nearby facilities.
Enrollment in each ten-session series is limited to sixteen. Series commence near the beginning of calendar quarters. Instruction most quarters begins between 5 and 6 on a weekday evening which we vary from quarter to quarter. Classes are lead by Magic associates who've qualified as yoga instructors or who have sustained and evidenced ability to guide others in developing committed yoga practices.
Like many Magic activities, Yoga and Friends is sustained by voluntary gift. Some choose to give by assisting in preparing the practice space prior to each session. Others make money contributions. Each series is partially funded by those who have completed previous series. After the tenth and final session, participants are invited to contribute so that Magic may continue the program, and others may benefit as they have.