Dearest Friends,
As we near our 43rd summer retreat season at the Ranch, we turn the spotlight to illuminate each of our programs and offer you an glimpse into what makes each offering compelling and relevant to our times. Today, we turn your attention to our spotlight on vibrant, joy-filled Freedom Yoga teacher Alie McManus and her upcoming retreat, "Opening to Freedom Under the Big Sky."
 Hi! This is Alie and I am absolutely thrilled to be guiding my first retreat at Feathered Pipe Ranch this summer.
This will be my very first time at The Feathered Pipe, as it may in fact be for many of you too, should you choose to join me at this unique and beautiful place on Earth. So much about Feathered Pipe is calling to me: I love the experience of being immersed in the natural world. I love traveling to new places. I love the practice of Yoga, and more specifically, the practice of Freedom Yoga, which has a long and wondrous history at Feathered Pipe.
 Whenever I travel somewhere I have never been before, I feel intensely alive -- ignited by all of the newness I am experiencing. Curiosity, excitement, and a child-like enthusiasm to discover something new all occur naturally. When I do Yoga I am alive to what is happening in
the now; I feel creative life energy flowing throughout my body; I am grounded and light, centered and spacious, calm and aware. I feel conscious connection with what is.
Come with me to the Ranch this summer, July 7-14th, and create a practice that connects you to your essence -- to your inner Awesome-- and experience effortless joy bubble up within you. The best part, however, will be the plan to not make a plan, and instead, to experiment with doing what you feel like doing in each moment as it arises.
 I invite you to share the experience of Yoga with me, that is, conscious union with the present moment, or what is happening right now as we move through the practice, on and off the mat. How will we do that? I use a few simple tools available to
all of us: the breath, gentle asana, and relaxing, everywhere, all over. During this process, we notice the distractions, the thoughts, the reactions—then if we recognize those distractions for what they are, we can choose to come home to the feeling of YOU, and, well that is self-discovery. We return to the wave-like quality of the breath over and over again, and each time we have the opportunity for a new insight into the truth of our experience.
I invite you to join me in the inquiry into the truth of what is, and into an experience of clarity that offers you the possibility of relinquishing old patterns and habits, and living from a place of greater clarity and freedom, being guided by your natural curiosity and having the courage to flow with inspiration.
Namaste,
Alie
We invite you to join us at the Feathered Pipe Ranch this summer, July 7 - 14, for Opening to Joy: Freedom Yoga Under the Big Sky.
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What does it mean to be “Good at Yoga”? – Gernot Huber
Let me throw out something potentially controversial: “Excelling at the physical practice of asana actually is a detriment in the quest to deepen your yoga practice.” That is not to say that you shouldn’t practice advanced asanas. But what determines whether your advanced asana practice is beneficial to your growth depends on what is going on in your head when you do it.
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The Unexplainable Importance of Yoga - J. Brown
We’ve all heard about the amazing things that yoga can do for us, but try explaining exactly what it is and how it works and you quickly find yourself on shaky ground. There is an innate something at the heart of the matter that simply cannot be measured, only felt. As unsatisfying as this may be, the highly subjective perception of our own experience is the only real basis for any understanding, and the very thing that makes yoga
so vital.
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Contact Us |
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Feathered Pipe Foundation
P.O. Box 1682
Helena, MT 59624
(406) 442-8196
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