Latest Studio News

Yoga in the Park!

The studio is still closed, but we're offering in-person classes on Tuesdays and Sundays at 10am at Bonforte Park! Please note the time change to 10am on Tuesdays starting in October. Both classes are Vinyasa Beginner/Intermediate and are appropriate for all students. Please be sure to read the important details before coming to class.

All other classes are still being offered on Zoom for your comfort and convenience. Click here for detailed instructions for both Yoga in the Park and Zoom classes.

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Registering for Class and Troubleshooting

Thank you for your continued support of PYC and the amazing teachers we are so fortunate to have! To register and pay for in-person or online classes, please visit MINDBODY Online, the MINDBODY App, or the Schedule page.

If you have any trouble logging into your MINDBODY account, registering or paying for class, receiving class links, or joining Zoom classes, please call Hethyr at (719) 287-9715 or, as a backup, Jon at (719) 287-5438.

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Focus of the Month

I love the blazing reds, yellows, and oranges as fall leaves pattern the mountain landscape in the fall. You might admire the trees all full of vibrant color and then observe trees letting go as golden leaves gracefully float to the ground. Harvest time in the garden also shows ripe fruits and vegetables becoming heavy and dripping towards the earth. If the fruit eventually makes it to the ground, then new seeds are imbedded into the earth to begin a new plant next spring. During the fall season, nature gives us many excellent examples of how to let go, release, or surrender control.

Nature is exemplifying and guiding us to practice the art of letting go, known as vairāgya. Vairāgya is a Sanskrit term meaning "detachment." It is a state of being free of attachment to a materialistic life. It can also be a mental state of mind that lets go of all clinging. Relinquishing a sense to control and releasing feelings, thoughts, and actions of pride, ego, attraction, aversion, inferiority, superiority complex, false identities, and fear are all associated with vairāgya. Vairāgya guides us to find contentment with what is. Vairāgya helps us to discern between what is essential and non-essential and to also develop the art of right thoughts, speech, and actions.

Vairāgya is often grouped with abhyāsa, or practice, because life constantly gives us opportunities to practice letting go of that which no longer serves us or takes us away from realizing our authentic or true Self. Abhyāsa and vairāgya are sometimes referred to as “two wings of a bird” because the two opposing forces keep each other aloft. Persistent effort (abhyāsa) to realize a goal of self-understanding is balanced with a corresponding surrender of external attachments (vairāgya) that obstruct our true or best Self. Too much abhyāsa could lead to exhaustion or injury. Too much vairāgya could lead to complacency or laziness. We must seek a balance of “never give up!” with “always let go!”

The Sanskrit term vairāgya, is rooted in “rāga”, meaning “coloring or passion” and “vai” is translated as “dried, exhausted, or weary” so vairāgya is translated to mean “growing pale.” One interpretation is that our attachments to external objects, people, or ideas “color” our conscience. These attachments influence and confuse our true identity, or that which is unchanging. Attachments may fluctuate and can cause us suffering when there is change, which we know is constant. Through the practice of vairāgya, we learn to “bleach our consciousness” of these “colorings” or attachments. We recognize the transitory nature of our attachments so we can surrender them at the appropriate time.

The effort, discipline, and focus towards a consistent practice (abhyāsa) coupled with surrendering, releasing, and letting go help us achieve progress towards the life instructions of the Yoga Sūtras below.

Yoga Sūtra I.12 states that “Identification with the fluctuations of the mind is stopped by consistent practice and non-attachments.” With balanced measure, be resolute in your efforts without fixating on the outcome and your mental modifications (vṛttis) will calm and still.

Yoga Sutra I.41 tells us that “Our consciousness becomes like a transparent jewel that allows the light of our authentic Self to shine through brilliantly without distortion.”

Finally, vairāgya can be an observation of both positive and negative emotions or experiences. Do not let it identify you or define the way you see yourself. Sitting with the ease and comfort of our true Self is one of the many goals of our yoga practice. The true Self is eternal so identifying with this unchanging light can lead to peace, freedom, and enlightenment. Like the ripe fruit once attached to the vine, then released to the earth, the magic of vairāgya is that by letting go you are planting seeds for something new to bloom and thus letting a cyclical flow of your life take course.

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 “In the process of letting go you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.”

 ~ Deepak Chopra