An Alison Miller Blog

Visting Maui?  Looking for great Maui yoga classes?  Maui is a mecca for great yoga!  Offering a healing environment steeped in natural beauty and outdoor adventure, Maui is a melting pot for some of the greatest yoga teachers around the world.  You can take your pick from Iyengar, Birkram, Anusara, Jivamukti, Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Kundalini and more… This post will highlight the five of the greatest Maui yoga classes on island and of the week.

• Maui Yoga Class & Teacher:  Mackensie Grant, Anusara Inspired - Classes offer a radiant blend of vinyasa flow, Anusara alignment principles peppered with great stories, music and adjustments. Maui Yoga Class Location:  The Studio Maui & Paia Yoga
• Maui Yoga Class & Teacher: Skeeter Tichnor, Certified Anusara Yoga - Classes offer interesting and intricate guidance through the  Universal Principles of Alignment, taught by father of Anusara, John Friend while placing an emphasis on holistic approaches to well-being.  Skeeter has a unique ability to understand students needs and apply principles to help students to grow to their next level in their yoga practices.  Maui Yoga Class Location: The Studio Maui
•  Maui Yoga Class & Teacher:  Nadia Toraman - Classes by Nadia are a Vinyasa combination  based on ashtanga, flow yoga and power building sequences.  If you like to sweat this is the class for you!  Fun, dynamic and challenging class sequencing will keep you coming back.  As well, the fellow yogi’s who are pro surfers and masterful yoginis  are great company to keep too. Maui Yoga Location:  Maui Yoga Shala
• Maui Yoga Class & Teacher:  Avi, Ashtanga & Mysore   If you are looking for great leader and a lot of  one-on-one attention then class with Avi is a must.  A devoted Ashtangi for over a decade Avi brings heart, soul and knowledge together for a rich class experience.  Maui Yoga Location:  Paia Yoga
• Maui Yoga Class & Teacher:  Lily Diamond, Jivamukti -  Born and raised on the island of Maui, this Yale graduate brings elusive Yoga teachings, movements and chanting into a harmonius blend that is both palatable and desirable.  With a vocal presence of a performing artist and heart of a bodhisattva you will not be disappointed at this class.  Group chanting, Jivamukti themes and long Savasana’s make this a very popular class with both the locals and visitors. Maui Yoga Location: Paia Yoga

To register for workshop with John Friend at The Studio Maui click here.  Studying the Bhagvad Gita with John Friend & Ram Dass

DATES: Wed Sept. 23rd - Fri 25thPRICE: $425 LIMITED SPACES STILL AVAILABLE

Weekend Workshop with John Friend

MIXED LEVEL: Saturday 26: 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm Sunday 27: 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm Cost: $75INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED :Saturday 26: 8:00 am - 10:00 am and 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Sunday 27: 8:00 am - 10:00 am and 4:00 pm - 6:00 pmCost: $150

North Shore

Paia Yoga - http://www.paiayoga.com 

Maui Yoga Shala - http://www.maui-yoga.com
Maya Yoga – www.yogaonmaui.com
The Studio Maui – www.thestudiomaui.com

Makawao

Asthanga Yoga - http://ashtangamaui.com
Yoga Awareness – http://www.yogawareness.com

Central

Bikram Yoga - http://www.BikramHawaii.com
Body of Light - http://www.bodyoflightyoga.com

South Shore

The Maui Yoga Path - http://mauiyogapath.maui.net

Westside

Island Spirit - http://www.islandspirityoga.com
Bikram Lahaina - http://www.bikramyoga.com/Studios/Lahaina.htm

Aloha!  I am happy to announce morning mediation classes will be offered again at The Studio Maui starting September 8th, 2009 7:45-8:45am.  There will be pranayama, visualization and silent meditation.  The collective energy of group meditation is powerful to generate peace through the whole community.  Please join in!  Add to your Maui experience by learning more about yoga while visiting the island.  For directions  go to http://www.thestudiomaui.com 

Nada Yoga means union through sound.  Experience the profound healing and union of Self, while visiting Maui, and attend Attunement to Source workshop where healer Timothy Morgan will share his blessed tones in a group setting.  Hear Timothy’s healing tones, at Attune to Source website.   Workshop will be held April 17th, 2009 at 6:30pm-8pm go to Maui Soul Yoga  for directions.

Maui yoga and yogi’s celebrate the inaguration of President Obama!  On and off the mat, we dedicate our practice to the new direction of our country. Recognizing the circle we embody in the sphere of self, the sphere of our community, the spere of outlying cities, which begins and ends within the SELF, we celebrate the change we want to be and see in the world. Across the ocean - studio to studio- yogi to yogi - Maui yoga celebrates this day.

This evening during yoga class at the Maui Studio,  I brought up the topic of addiction and devotion.  On the surface the two may appear very similar.  However, under the surface the differences are very clear.  Addiction is the motivation to seek to gain something outside oneself whereas devotion is to seek to evolve something within oneself.  One leaves us feeling empty and the other guides us to connect to that which is full inside ourselves already.  Devotion is not a quality we commonly see highlighted in western society.  More often our addictions are glamorized.  Whether it be relationship, food, money, beauty etc., it seems media offers endless solutions to fill these addictions.  Where it is not often we find  commercial promoting the  long lasting impact of breathwork  or meditation, unless specifically sponsored by an organization offering these experiences.  Why is that?  What would happen to our society if we stopped engaging in addiction and started living from devotion?

Celebrate Yoga in Maui for Thanksgiving!

The Studio Maui, premier movement arts studio on island, www.thestudiomaui.com, just announced they will celebrate the weekend by doing all classes by donation. The Weekend of Grace & Gratitude Nov 29-30 at the Studio; with proceeds going to the Studio.

The Maui elections for county council are just around the corner.  Weave into your Maui Yoga schedule time to vote in the general elections on November 4th!  For candidate suggestions go to: http://www.ohanacoalition.org/

Here are some of the top issues facing our  county:

POLITICS: Viewpoints on Politicians, Politics, and the changes Maui residents would like to see in the political system.

THE ECONOMY: Real life stories on the effects of today’s economics. Drop in tourism - what does this do to the tourism-based industries? How are small businesses feeling it?

THE HOMELESS POPULATION: the difficulties of life without a home. Many of Maui’s homeless are working, living on the beach, some trying to raise children. How does this tie into the lack of affordable housing on Maui?

WATER ISSUES: Between the Wailuku Streams issue and the EMI issues in East Maui, how is it possible that one of the wettest places on Earth lacks available water?

HEALTH CARE SERVICES ON MAUI: Kidney Dialysis issues for East Maui residents, Hospitals being blocked in South Maui and West Maui, Lingle’s cancellation of Universal Healthcare program for Hawaii’s youth.

WEST MAUI DEVELOPMENT: How do you feel about the harbor improvements at Mala Wharf? The development of Oluwalu? Preserving Honolua Bay? Think about issues that are important to you and explain why you feel that way.

SOUTH MAUI DEVELOPMENT: Makena Development (Wailea 670)…the fact that our island’s most incredible natural resource is going to be surrounded by homes for the wealthy, miles of concrete, traffic, and additional water problems.

Technology amazes me.  Living in Maui, floating on a rock in the middle of the sea and still global teachings reach me.  I have been enjoying the Oprah Winfrey Soul Series.  Oprah  recently stated, during her unprecedented 10 week interview series with acclaimed author Ekhart Tolle, “I don’t think there’s anything more important than awakening now and knowing what your purpose is.”  Ekhart Tolle responded:  “Yes. And the answer may not immediately come. A very important part of asking life, so that you can be ready to receive the answer, is to practice inviting moments of stillness into your life so that you’re not continuously absorbed in the incessant mental noise that we call thinking; most of which is unnecessary and repetitive.” This is yoga. Learning to still the thoughts.

So what do we do to change from a life of over-scheduling our time, over-spending, eating poorly, and worrying about what will happen next in our lives? How do we move from living in a world of what if’s?  When there is news of financial crisis on every news channel, radio station, and newspaper and the emotional upheaval invoked is relentless.  How do we experience the stillness within, where all solutions are found, during this time?  It begins with simple steps. One of which is eating differently.  Eating for our awakening.  Nutrifying the natural intelligence in our cells is a critical part of our personal and planetary transformation. We have been duped by large corporations and media for generations promoting foods and substances that dumb us down, numb our creativity and annihilate our full self expression. All of which are the necessary tools to navigate current change.  I ask you to ask yourself this question. What if you were born for this time?  Are you fully living the gifts & talents that are meant to reveal through you? What if you were born for this time?  What if now is the time to face your fears? What if the world outside is the world inside you?  What if your expression is the wing upon which the world awakens? Like the caterpillar changing into the butterfly….