Sunday, January 29th, 2012;  10 am-2 pm  $65 @ Lionheart Yoga Training–3102 30th Ave S., Seattle

Through a combination of Lecture and Asana Practice we will uncover the deeper workings of the spine in our practice to bolster the quality of our teaching.  We will outline and discuss the tissues that build the spine, hold it together, and allow for such an amazing range of motion.  We’ll cover the common ailments of the spinal tissues and how to best avoid them.

Using  2- and 3-dimensional visual models we will examine the musculature that supports this boney frame and creates the dynamic movements we take for granted each day.  Identify the most vulnerable points in the spinal column and learn in detail how to fire the correct muscles to support these places.

Take control of your practice by inviting in a more detailed view of your internal terrain.  Observe your own limitations and hypermobilities to improve the quality of your personal practice, and learn to look for them in your students.

While this course is designed for yoga teachers, it is open and appropriate for yoga students eager to gain deeper knowledge of their Asana practice.

Space is extremely limited, Pre-Registration is mandatory! Use this Body Of Knowledge Registration Page to save your space.  Only registrants who are paid in full will be guaranteed a slot.

You may submit registration and payment via check payable to Unity Therapeutic, c/o Lionheart Yoga Training, 3102 30th Ave S, Seattle, WA  98144

OR  you may pay in full via Paypal (you still need to submit the registration form.)

Share the Gift of Health and Wellness with your loved ones this giving season.  When you purchase a Certificate of Healing for your family and friends, you offer them the opportunity to build a routine of self-care for reduced pain, increased strength, mobility and vibrance.  Each recipient can choose to spend their hour-long session in one of the following:

• Therapeutic Massage Treatment
• Therapeutic Yoga Treatment
• Private Yoga Instruction

Richelle will bring all the needed supplies to the recipient’s home for treatment in the comfort of a familiar atmosphere.

Each certificate is $75, inclusive of all travel and setup costs.  This is a $100 value for just $75!

Too much length in the ligaments that hold the joint together, coupled with a lack of direct strengthening of stabilizer muscles may result in degeneration of cartilage tissues and eventually bone.  In the most extreme cases, hip replacement will be necessary.  The video I have inserted below illustrates the procedure in beautiful detail, showing exactly what a patient will experience in the case of an Anterior Hip Replacement.

While this is done in computer illustration, it is still a powerful representation and may be too graphic for some viewers.  I recommend caution in viewing for yourself.  I do believe, however, that a more accurate understanding of the potential consequences of our actions in practice, may guide us toward a slower, more observant practice on our mat.

I would love your feedback on this post, as I plan to use more material of this sort in my quest to open up the world of anatomy and physiology to my community of heartfelt asana practitioners.

~Namaste

Jennifer Kuduk 206-369-1502 jenkuduk@gmail.com

Kira Sipler 206-579-0051 kira_siper@hotmail.com

Mihal Ehven 206-524-4444 mihal@ehven.com

Jessica Laprade 206-251-8754 jessicalaprade@comcast.net

Tiina Ritalahti 206-650-3952 amtamembers.com/tiinaritalahti

Greenlake Massage 206-527-9709 6823 Oswego Pl NE, 98115

New Seattle Massage 206-632-5074 4519 University Way NE, 98105

To stay in touch with Richelle on her NEW mailing list, please use the form here:

New Mail Chimp Mailing List

November 5th, 2011 @ Sutra Yoga, Seattle WA (Wallingford)

2pm – 7pm

$50 Pre-Registration Required–Space is Limited, register early

Get grounded in your roots as we immerse ourselves in the center of our Universe: the Hips and Pelvis.

Through Lecture, Asana, and Partner Work we will explore the anatomy, physiology and movement of the hip at a deeper level.  We will take a closer look at the range of motion of this remarkable joint, examine it’s limitations and discuss it’s strengths.  We will develop a clearer language through which to understand this complex system that supports the health of both the knee and the spine.  

Lecture: We will employ visuals, 3-dimensional models and hands on adjustments to help us dive into a new level of yoga practice.  This study will help us to begin an internal conversation that will help our practice evolve and grow.

Posture: Our asana practice will slow us down so we can pay close attention to the subtleties and depth that the hip involves.  Armed with the knowledge of the structures and tissues that support us, we can visualize our movements from the inside, adding to our awareness, sensation and intelligence within our movement.

This is where our internal conversation gets REALLY INTERESTING.  Fertilize your roots with the nutrients of knowledge!  Grow from the inside out.

Contact Sutra Yoga for registration.

Contact Richelle Ricard for content questions…206-931-2949

The trees of the Inland Northwest are different than in the West.  The topography flows at a different rate, with different shades of green and gold and brown than exist around the Puget Sound.  These are the colors I grew up in, the textures that I remember with the soles of my feet.  Basalt rock covered in dry patches of lichens and weedy stalks of course grasses–grays and blacks and browns instead of bright green.

The Puget Sound is a land of Water, surrounded by water, built by water frozen or flowing.  Floods occur each year in an endless cycle of wetness falling, flowing and filling our basins; spreading itself over us and through us, our land our bodies, our nature.  This place is bright with green in a way few places are green….saturated and sprawling green, everywhere.  

The land to the East is instead a land of Earth and Fire.  It is rooted to it’s volcanic heritage completely and undeniably. Water exists in abundance here, but it is sequestered, guided, pent up….lakes and reservoirs, rivers, falls and ponds…they are deep and magnificent, but seem to be placed precisely, set like gems in a heavy gold ring.  It is land that breathes with Fire, the volcanic base, the true heat of Summer’s sun, and instead of flood-season it sees fire-season.  Blazes that sweep through forest and plain destroying, breaking down, cleansing in a way….making space for new growth.  There are tamarack trees, the conifer that is not an evergreen.  Each season these trees turn from green to copper-brown; each one like and individual flame of it’s own; and drop their needles to make way for new blooming sprouts in Spring.  There is an entire hillside in North Idaho we called Tamarack Mountain, which each year turned into a glowing orange swath amidst the seemingly endless black-green of the pines surrounding it.  It was our family’s version of the changing of the fall colors.

So while penetrating this place with such a purpose as a yoga festival, I was observant of this place in a more nuanced way than I ever have been.  Knowing too that I would not long from now be moving far away from this place, perhaps a certain nostalgia prodded me into a more thoughtful experience of this space.

The Eureka Center is an idyllic camp nestled into a small valley just near the edge of Lake Pend Oreille. Gardens, meadows, woods, dotted with rustic amenities like outdoor showers, an amphitheater and covered outdoor dining area…this was the home of the First Annual Northwest Yogafest.  We drank pure water from the Earth, filled our bellies with home-crafted foods, and shared the first summer-light-heat many of us had felt this year.  Yoga was offered in various forms; strong solar flows, concentrated balance sessions and bakhti-fests alike.  It was an amazing immersion into the vastness that a yoga practice can encompass.

For my own part, my practice here served me in a way I was unprepared for.  This gathering offered me a reconnection to the Land of my youth.  My grandparents’ property is about twenty miles west of here, along the Pend Oreille River, just before you cross the border back into Washington.  I grew up here.  I have often looked back into my memories of this place as a stark, harsh and burnt out environment; a dry, dusty place where trees were black on the landscape and you sought out the shade of the forest to escape the relentless heat of the dry open fields.

Here though, with the eyes and open heart of one who has studied her own depths, I experienced this old home in a new way, shedding new perspective on those distant memories.  This truly is the land of my roots.  The soles of my childhood feet grew tough from walking through dry grass and climbing over rocks….I could run down a gravel road barefoot!  I became familiar with the terrain by feel…I could walk through the dark in the middle of the night because my feet knew where to go. For all the dryness and starkness, there was always water; we lived in the lake.  Not just my brother and I, everyone had a lake place or a friend with a lake place; and boats were our culture.  Kids learned to water ski, and knee board and inner-tube and eventually wakeboard….we jumped off high rocks confident that the depths would cushion our fall through space.  Shallow water seemed like a waste, so we never spent much time on the beach; docks were where we lived; little islands bobbing in the wake of ski boats.  We swam in the deep water, with the fish and the muskrats and snakes.  If you could touch the bottom you weren’t out far enough.  Your breath was never in doubt, it was as if  you could just grow gills and breathe the water if you needed to.

I remember all this as I cross the long bridge across the lake to Sandpoint.  I can see boats and canoes and people swimming, skiing…. Being here reminds me that this is where I am from.  This land is such a part of me, it will always be where my roots take hold.  This land is where my own personal gravity is heaviest.  This was hammered home in my first early morning class with Karen Sprute-Francovich; use your infinite gravity to gain stability in order to grow up and outward in endless Light.  This sums up not only my experience over this weekend, but the trajectory of my life right now.  

I now acknowledge and own my roots…the strength and stability gained through scrabbling it out in this tough environment and make it possible move forward into the potential of my future.  I now set out on a road of new experience; endeavoring to shine my light into the mystery before me.  I grow up, I grow out, but am always tethered to the strength of these humble roots.  In this experience I have found comfort and support for my new momentum. Walking to the center of the labyrinth, I found my Self.  Permission Granted.

Many of you have heard by now that UniverseCity Yoga is no longer sustainable and will close at the end of the month.  We are disappointed that it worked out this way, but all things have a time and a place and UCY was an amazing accomplishment for all of us.  I have few regrets and feel that the opportunity to explore my teaching in this space was an invaluable experience.  I will miss the people, the studio, our practice…but I trust that we will all move forward just as we are meant to.

That said, there are all sorts of other developments in the Life of Richelle….With the closure of the yoga studio, I am seeking a temporary home for my massage practice.  I may have a room worked out at an existing studio for a time, but in the end I may need to work out of my house for a while.  Either way, there will be some shifts to my treatment schedule that may mean the elimination of some time slots.  I will keep you posted as these developments crystalize.

I said I was finding a temporary space because my massage practice will only continue through mid-September, as Jay and I are preparing to move to Austin, TX at the end of September.  It is a decision we have been struggling with for over a year now, and with the closure of the studio and opportunities in music and art for both of us, we feel now is the time.  I will do my best to serve you all in the weeks to come as we make this transition more real by the day.  Please understand though that as the schedule shifts we may need to offer referrals to other therapists in the area.

I will compile and distribute a thorough list of practitioners who can serve you into the future.  For many of us this will be a slight trauma, as we have worked together for nearly nine years.  It is daunting to think that I will need to create a whole new village of clients and friends, to start marketing myself all over again from the ground up….but because of the love and the life you have shared with me over the years, I am confident that I can convince at least a couple people down there that I know what I’m doing!  In this regard, I ask for your assistance….If you feel willing and able, I would sincerely appreciate a letter of recommendation from you, my clients, regarding the work that I do.  Whether in massage therapy, yoga or anatomy instruction, these letters will be a priceless commodity as I move forward into new markets.

If you would like to participate in this campaign, you can mail, email or bring a letter to your next appointment regarding the work that I do.  Please be as specific as you can and direct these to prospective clients or employers.  My Thanks are great in number and infinite in magnitude.

I will continue to be present in this community by way of workshops and retreats throughout the year.  I will maintain my teaching relationship with Semperviva Yoga College in Vancouver, B.C., and space allowing, continue to offer Anatomy training in the Northwest on a periodic basis.  To stay in touch with me regarding these events, please be sure to sign up on my NEW mailing list.  I have had to make some changes to the list behind the scenes, so even if you’ve signed up in the past, please do so again.

Email Marketing You Can Trust

I cannot express the gratitude in my heart for so many years of devotion, learning and Love we have shared.  My life is what it is because of all of you. Please accept my thanks for all that you have taught me and all that I take with me forward into the future.  I am blessed.  ~Richelle

(This will be tagged and reposted at my Facebook Page soon, and sent out as a letter to all current clients.)

Registration Required For This Workshop; No Drop-Ins Allowed

A Yoga Mala is a string of 108 beads used as a counting tool in a mantra meditation practice.  Yours will be made by YOU and be infused along the way with the intention of your own mantra.

We’ll string our Malas using silk thread and semi-precious stones that offer their own powerful resonance.  Class will include:

• Opening Intention Meditation
• All supplies and stringing/knotting instruction
• Personal Mantra appropriate to your intentions
• Closing Mantra meditation to break in our Mala

More details here…

Richelle Ricard, LMP, RYT

Unity Therapeutic Bodywork & Movement

15 hours CEU’s  $150 @ UniverseCity Yoga

Sunday, April 3rd  12:30-5:30

Saturday, April 9th  3:00-8:00

Sunday, April 10th  12:30-5:30

Take your teaching to the next level.  With a true understanding of anatomy, physiology and kinesiology, a yoga teacher becomes a better witness to the movements and safety of their students.  This class is interactive and discussion based, focused on concepts of movement and observation, it is not about memorizing muscle names.  We look at the body through the eyes of a yoga teacher, and relate this science directly to the art of teaching yoga.

We will cover:

• Anatomy and Physiology Basics–terminology, tissues, structures and functions
• Mechanics of Movement–concepts of movement and how to be more observant of these in our students
• The Nervous System–the brain, learning, reflexes and the mind
• Common Injuries–modifications, healing and what to avoid
• Posture-specific Analysis– risks and modifications

More details at the Body of Knowledge Page. Now you can pay online!