Category Archives: DYMC

Don’t Slacken Now

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By Swami Shrutananda

A yoga therapy client told me:

I no longer get headaches. My skull is still tight. Mostly I don’t notice this tightness.

I no longer get the mild dizziness while doing a pose. My neck and upper back are tight, but not as tight as when we first started.

My chest tightness is mild. Walking around Lokananda or out for a stroll with fellow yogis, I didn’t notice the tightness.

This is a trap!  You might be trapped into thinking that how you feel now is probably as good as it gets.

You feel underlying tensions, some aches, maybe areas of your body that trouble you. So you do some yoga, and you feel better after doing yoga.

Yet you cannot address those deep underlying tensions on your own. You settle into the trap of assuming “this is good enough.”

You only get one body in this lifetime. That tightness and underlying tension, whether noticed or not, will surface in your future. If unaddressed, it will become a condition that doctors will later give a name to. Some conditions are life threating.

Don’t slacken now!

Svaroopa® Yoga Therapists specialize in releasing deeply held tensions along your whole spine from tail-to-top. Regular sessions, once a week minimum, are essential. A series of sessions will propel your healing process.

Most effective are ten sessions in a row, ten every other day and ten every third day. Repeat this 10-10-10 series as needed. Your body is the home you live in 24/7. Take care of it.

Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy addresses the deeper underlying tensions you have. Regular, consistent sessions enable you to live a comfortable life, a healthy life, a happy life. Don’t settle for less.

Let 2026 be the year you do more yoga therapy sessions. I dare you to feel better than you can even imagine!

Yoga Therapy

New Storefront

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Look at our big new windows and doors! Bright, shiny and new for the new year – let the light shine in.

This is the first stage of our storefront upgrade, with new colors and front steps coming soon. With a big thank you to the generosity of a donor and a number of sevites who have been working on the project for months.

This will make it easier to see us – and to come in for more yoga…

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Support Equals Release

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By Swami Samvidaananda

In almost every yoga class, I say, “Support equals release.” It is a key principle of Svaroopa® yoga. 

The support you receive in class takes many forms. The plaid blankets are the most obvious, and colorful!

We fold and roll and stack and tuck blankets in wherever you need them most.  We give you blocks, a strap, or a chair. Your teacher excels at knowing how and when and why to provide you with a prop. 

The props meet your body where tension is holding it back. When you lean into that support, your deep internal tensions let go. Support = release.

You’ve been carrying those tensions for so long.  Sometimes you are so used to holding them, you don’t even know you have them. Then you do a supported spinal-opening pose, and the tensions let go. It feels so freeing!

In my very first Svaroopa® yoga class, I didn’t understand the purpose of the props. I had done other styles of yoga, where your only prop was a sticky mat. I didn’t think I needed any.  Begrudgingly, I let the teacher give me one blanket roll for Shavasana, yoga’s relaxation pose.

The more poses we did, the more I warmed up to using the props — blocks under my hands in Lunge, blankets under my belly in Half Frog.  I was open to using them because I felt better and better. 

By the end, I felt so amazing that I was on board with whatever props the teacher wanted to give me! I hadn’t actually ever felt that way at the end of a yoga class. It wasn’t just relaxation.  It was bliss.

With Svaroopa® yoga’s core-opening poses, you can experience not merely relaxation, well-being and renewal, but bliss. It’s the bliss of your own Beingness, which yoga calls your own Self.

Your spine is a doorway to the inner depths of your Beingness. When you release the deep tensions in your spine with these precise, supported and deceptively simple poses, you open that doorway inside.  And the experience of your own Self is inherently blissful.

I taught Seated Side Stretch the other day. After one side of the pose, I asked the students to describe the differences between their two sides. One student had a look of utter surprise and joy on her face. All she could say was, “Wow!” Though she didn’t have the words for it yet, she was experiencing her own Self. 

This is the gift of Svaroopa® yoga. And it begins for you by accepting the support of those ubiquitous plaid blankets.

Yoga Therapy

Yogic Pathway to Healing

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By Swami Shrutananda

After her first class, a new Svaroopa® yoga student shared, 

I feel a wholeness now. Why am I going to a chiropractor and a therapeutic massage therapist? This yoga is a pathway to healing.

She signed up for another yoga session. She had come to see if yoga would help with pain in her knees and a frozen shoulder. It worked immediately. Her knees felt better. And she had more shoulder movement.  

Practitioners of other therapies can be excellent at their profession. Yet you may find you feel better for only a short time. Then your pain returns. Soon, you are seeing your therapist again. Being stuck in this repetitive cycle is painful physically, mentally and emotionally.

Finding a Svaroopa® yoga teacher is the key to ending this cycle. You learn poses that heal.  You are inspired to come to classes. You are empowered to practice what you have learned at home. This will save you from a life of constant pain. 

How does this work?  Instead of treating symptoms, Svaroopa® treats the underlying cause. You can’t heal your shoulder by working on your shoulder.  You can’t heal your knee by working on your knee. Painful areas are in poor condition because of spinal tension. It’s like these areas of your body are dying on the vine.

Svaroopa® teachers are experts at releasing spinal tension. In a Svaroopa® class or individual session, we sequence poses in a way that releases your spinal tension from tail-to-top. Your whole spine decompresses.  

Spinal decompression improves your whole body.  As soon as you release your spine, increased circulation, enervation and life energy flow into your body’s painful areas. You feel better immediately.

You need a yoga teacher to teach you how to release your spine.  Trying to learn poses from a video, or even on Zoom, is only marginally effective. You get the most by having a yoga teacher physically in the room with you. 

Svaroopa® teachers are highly trained to meet your body where it is at. The teacher tailors the poses to your needs through customized props, alignments and adjustments.  This personal attention propels your healing. 

How can you cooperate with your own healing process? Come to a class once a week to release the tensions you layered in from a week of life.  Coming twice a week enables you to get ahead of life’s stress on your body.  You don’t merely add to your benefits — your healing is exponentially deepened. Then with home practice you are on your way to feeling better and better.

You can’t attain such a change on your own. The best teachers inspire and motivate you to come to class. They teach, inspire and empower you to stay consistent with home practice. They give you something you will have your whole life. Do yoga. Do more yoga. Come to class. Come to more classes. Sign up today. 

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