Art Montage Center

Top 5 Benefits of Hot hatha Yoga

Annette — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:49:08 +0000

Top 5 Benefits of Katy Hot Yoga

1. Relaxation

It’s absolutely a proven fact. When you pull the door open at our local Katy Yoga studio your mindset changes immediately. Like a hot cup of cocoa or coffee – yoga can warm your spirits! Come try our facility during the Winter months to see what I mean – you’ll become happily addicted! This immediate feeling of well being is expressed on both the emotional and physical level.

2. Motivation

As humans we are warm blooded and therefore experience ‘thermoregulation’ – which refers to a natural physical balancing of heat loss, with heat production in our bodies. As adults, when we are hot, our bodies sweat to compensate and cool down… Hot Yoga class involves sweat from the first few minutes and our mind relates to this hard work as release. Gratification is immediate because benefits are easy to feel. Creating a positive mental image of ourselves is crucial after a week of being beaten up from various directions and sometimes due to our own bad personal habits. Positive mental images stay in our minds even if it’s sometimes a little tough during the sessions. The truth is that…. You will stay motivated!

3. Confidence

Mood dictates feeling and our confidence is the sum of all our good feelings each day. hot yoga creates a positive – Mind – Body – Soul – experience. Tangible changes in our body include toned abs, butt, stomach, arms. Yoga is an important tool to prevent injuries as well. Hot yoga strengthens your body in a well rounded way – weaknesses are singled out and eliminated – flexibility is increased – body composition changes – you start burning more calories every day from the results – results become better results…

4. Stress Reduced

A person can dedicate each breath in their body to achieve the correct breathing to cope with stress, opening the door to our success. Successful people manage their weaknesses – hot yoga will involve you strengthening your weaknesses. With strength and power comes relief and less stress.

5.- Highest Potential.

We are on our way to be successful and we get all the ingredients, a confident and energize mood, an increasing motivation , satisfaction for the results in our body, we learn how to cope the stress using our breath and as we connect mind and body we learn to know each other a bit more practice after practice. We are no more in the “want to do” phase, we are doing and applying all this skills in our daily life. We begin to write or rewrite the script of our life, developing this gift, this talent that we have and “Yes” we all do have one . We are doing, knowing what we do and understanding why we do it. The pleasure, the immediate gratification we experiment at the beginning of our journey becomes something more, we start to feel happy, a durable and long lasting state of well being . Happiness obtained by doing, growing, feeling, listening, observing , can´t be taken away from us.

CONCLUSION:

YOGA itself is a source of happiness and joy and can be practiced in any safe environment. An enthusiastic practitioner will practice at any time, in any circumstances, in almost any environment. But lets be honest to ourselves, most of us are average practitioners. Sometimes we prefer to stay at home watching tv rather than practicing yoga .?HOT YOGA can really increase our motivation helping us to get in a self- confident and energetic mood. Motivation is the key and HOT YOGA is the terrain.?Sweating is the trigger which helps us to keep back on the track and on the mat to get all the benefits and live our highest potential in every area of our life.

The sound of silence.

Annette — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 23:46:13 +0000

Once upon a Voice…

After reaching the peak and just before crashing into shore, a huge wave remains in suspension . The tension builds up , the familiar sounds of the comings and goings of the ocean have been interrupted by the sound of silence, a profound and threatening silence. The music is quite different now : uncertainties grow , resonating elements and tiny inaudible sounds are capturated and manipulated , unquiet vibrations soar above the water.

The sound of silence is magnified by the synchronizations and coincidental meetings of the cry of a bird with the lower register of a ship’s siren , lower frequencies of human voices are filtered out. A perfect composition , a genuine harmonie that appeals to all your senses and explores each cell of your body.

The sound of silence is a taste of eternity in the back of your throat that squeezes all your cells to release the bittersweet of life , aiming to draw the listener into the inner workings of the body and mind.

The sound of silence is the omnipresent echo of the absence , the witness of truths and lies, the open wound of Veterents , the broken voice of elderness facing a wall of indifference The sound of silence marries the night and caresses the light. A necessary purgatory to purify the soul.

There is nothing more vibrant that the sound of silence, a pure and terrifying Suspens takes part of the action : life and death are swinging back to back on the same smooth rope.

A piece of time in the void, and a breath of nothingness in time.

An instant where everything can happen and where everything is possible.

A pure energy in suspension .

When the wave begins to travel down along with the treble of the wind rubbing the water , the laugh of a child meets at random with the wave in motion, sounding as allaying as a balsam for strained lives.

Sitting by the ocean , when you close your eyes to hear the sound of silence in tune with the flow of your breath , it becomes a voice. A voice tinged by hope and sometimes by despair, a voice punctuated by long resonances and rarefied chords . The insides of the soul are audible now in a structured tempo, sparkling through colors and emotions.

Finally the wave breaks by producing a release of energy and creeps up the sand.

The voice dilutes in the words and perpetuates through the gesture . Sitting by the sea, while your fingers are digging deeper into the wet sand for draining the water of your castle, the sound of silence slowly fades . Before you open your eyes, a new wave crashs upon the shore to take back what belongs to her.

The brown wall of your castle smoothed to perfection slowly dissolves in the midst of the tranquil trickling sound produced by the reversal flow.

The musical sheet is folded gently toward its point of origin, far far away, somewhere…. between the sky and the sea.

Living with our little deaths.

Annette — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:23:26 +0000

We go through countless little deaths in our lives.
They can arise unexpectedly, in moments of happiness as of sadness and can sometimes interfere with our dreams.
These are feelings, emotions, desires that were brutally interrupted in their flow, solidified and petrified over time at different stages of our lives.
These little deaths are not a source of sadness or depression, they are rooted in the heart of life .

There is no connection between them, they can be both perfectly incompleted or imperfectly completed. Within this solidification is an invaluable and unique content that makes us profoundly human, unpredictable and full of contradictions.
This frozen material is kept deep within us , and moves freely in our subconscious. It is not gone but forgotten.Sometimes some of those little unexpected deaths are dragged to the surface with the flow of new feelings, desires and emotion . Their intrusion makes us feel extremely vulnerable and confused ,but it can also make us deeply happy, giving us the possibility to intimate with them, freely and out of others judgement. Each of our little death carries with it the evidence of our weaknesses but also of our strengths.

Practising yoga as a meditation in movement, regularly and with full consciousness, allows us to establish a strong relationship with our little deaths , to connect with them and therefore to life. The process that leads us to transform our little deaths into a living matter for creating and moving forward,
makes us more alive.

Our ability to connect with life depends on our ability to connect with our little deaths. Sometimes we live an idea of life that comes from the outside and does not allow us to blossom. Our life may evolve fully through our commitment with our little deaths rather than through acceptance or opening which implicitely both evokes the exclusion and the blockage.
While acceptance may be conditionning and subjected to external pressures, the commitment remains a choice which requires of courage and of involvement on a long period of time. That’s what gives it all its dimension , what really worth and makes us free.

Through the practice of yoga we have a unique opportunity to expand our present to embrace our past and look to the future.
This is the commitment of all of us that paves the way for the future, by carving in every stone the memory of tomorrow , and this commitment can not admit neither the forgetfulness nor the negation.

Yoga: “The last yard”.

Annette — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:39:04 +0000

Beyond the tradition and innovation , yoga has to do with roots. The roots have no form , no color, no smell , and if they had, it would be a mixture of soil and blood. The roots live in our flesh and breathe through every pore of our skin. The roots make a man and give him the chance to spread its wings to be free. They are the light in man eyes, the living memory of all those who have gone. Roots give man the dignity to live when its wings have been torn off. Yoga is not only about thousands of practitioners around the world spreading the voice, sharing their knowledges attending conferences, yoga is about thousands of people exercising their right to vote for humanity.

Yoga is action, movement , the superficial demonstration of going deeper in our search for getting closer to our roots , to our truth. An open road for every women and men of this world regardless of his culture, sex, or religion. Yoga may unifying many truths by giving each of us the opportunity to embrace any yoga styles or any branches as the extension of our roots .Over time they break as a natural process and more branches grow nurturing our illusion to get closer to our roots as we walk forward to come back home.

The innovation keeps alive tradition and both of them satisfy our need to give an answer. Tradition is what we are, tradition is an answer to a question . Roots are who we are , roots are the question to the answer. That is what keeps our intelect alert and powerful. Answers may bring some peace and also suffocate our truth.

IN OUR WAY TO COME BACK HOME.

Home can be everywhere, nowhere or somewhere, home is where we feel good . It is a weaving of colors, odors and flavors that we carry in our heart over time regardless of where we live . Home is a place to cultivate our garden to remembering of the Voltaire citation, a place to experiment new savors and colors , to expand our roots through the fence of our house, and across over borders of our country.

Roots are the network of those whose freedom have been taken away. When there is no place to go, no dream for live, a pure and indestructible force that arises from the deeper of our self, remembers us that no matter where we come from, the only way to come back is to step forward.

Living the energy: the true power of yoga

Annette — Mon, 30 May 2011 19:01:11 +0000

ALL YOGA POSES ARE TRANSITIONS and the biggest transition is called corpse pose o shava- asana.

As a transition we understand that a yoga pose is a place to get through rather than a place to be or a goal to reach because we can´ t achieve the unachievable.

YOGA is much more that sequences of YOGA poses, YOGA is an ART , an unfinished masterpiece that makes us dream . Focusing on achieving a YOGA pose is just killing the dream .

The dream is constantly nurtured by the energy we move within and around us during the practice . Propelling, expanding and compacting our energy generate a high impact dynamic and a magnetic field of energy.

Learning and understanding how to channel this energy that is always moving and transforming doesn’ t only empower our body but also our life.

A POWERFUL CIRCLE OF ENERGY.

This moving energy is directly connected to the level of intensity we use during the practice. We gauge this intensity in terms of density and not in terms of strength . We build strength using our muscles but we get inner power working consciously on the intensity in a deep level of energy.

Working consciously on our energy produces a hudge and highly positive impact in our life .

We don´ t only get invaluable health benefits restoring and healing our body along with a lasting feeling of well-being but we also get this strong feeling of being part of a whole where there is no past present or future but only space time.

All the YOGA poses are transitions and our life is a sequence of transitions too including death .

We generally keep in mind the big moments or events but we get confused trying to fill out gaps between

each events. We remember the WHAT but we rarely remember the HOW.

The WHAT depends on each of us, the HOW belongs to all of us. The WHAT makes us strong, the HOW makes us powerful.

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE.

Being part of a whole is getting into the circle of life surfing on a huge wave of energy and finding the perfect equilibrium .

It is a mindful immersion into vital force. A continuous movement that nurture the source of the dreams and keep them alive.

The energy is everywhere but we can´ t see it . What we can see is real but the truth is invisible so may be dreaming our life is the real truth.

Absorbing ,storing and transforming the energy empower our life as a natural process understanding that there is nothing to achieve but only a dream to keep alive.

Walking Against the Wind

admin — Wed, 04 May 2011 00:15:40 +0000

After the Art Montage Yoga & Music Center ribbon cutting ceremony, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about yoga. He had himself some yoga practice in the past, knew the benefits of yoga as a physical exercise and its impact on the health but didn’t really understand the spiritual side of the practice of yoga. When I was talking with him about the body as an avenue to the spiritual that works from the inside out, and the importance of focusing on our breath when practicing, I realized that my friend, a well educated person, was listening carefully enough to end up the conversation as soon as possible. I came back home and wrote some words thinking about my own experience with yoga and I want to share my thoughts with you.

All of us have experimented this feeling of walking against the wind, physically o mentally. And we know it is hard, as life is hard sometimes and a yoga practice too. The first time we spread our toes on the mat we can be surprised, I was. I was expecting to escape in a special cosmic world by crossing my legs sitting on the mat, waiting for a huge and positive change in my life just because from now on I’ve decided to fill my mind with positive thoughts….Of course it is important to be positive but it is not enough.

I started to practice yoga as almost anyone who starts with yoga. Walking against the wind, struggling with my body, trying to breathe desperately during the practice and wanting to quit after each practice. But the good news is, it doesn’t change with time.

I am still struggling with my body because I am getting older and as anyone I am always changing.I feel angry and frustrated sometimes and yes, sometimes I want to quit.

I am still walking against the wind, but my body is getting stronger and more flexible so I can face the wind without harming myself, folding forward, backward and leaning deeper to the side, waiting steady and quiet in an uncomfortable position, balancing on my arms, gathering my strength in a child pose and letting my breath carrying me when the wind is too strong.

I know now that spirituality is not about living out of the world in a third dimension, turning my back to the real world and only nurturing my mind with positive thoughts. Spirituality is about facing the world, looking in its eyes straight ahead, learning, knowing, and understanding. Spirituality is being awake, aware and meeting the difficulties of our live with courage and determination.

And that is why yoga works from the inside out, because each time we come back on the mat we learn how to walk against the wind, and practice after practice we start to enjoy it. And sometimes at the end of the class when we close our eyes, we can feel the breath of wind whispering us,

“it has been an honor to face you today”.

Namaste

Annette Le Pavec

Yoga for Everybody

admin — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:34:29 +0000

Yoga for Everybody

By Annette Le Pavec

LA ROCHEFOUCAULD said:” Death and the sun are not to be looked at in the face “. Maybe YOGA neither is.There are so many articles, books, conferences and videos about YOGA, so many YOGA styles with so many different teachers that it seems like this enormous octopus of endless tentacles is growing bigger and bigger and will never stop. This metaphor of YOGA is neither negative nor positive, that is a fact. Too many choices, too many words may create confusion as we get lost in an ocean of information.

Saying that YOGA is a growing market is not a scoop , we know it is, we also do know that there is nothing wrong with it. Affirming that the new generations are more materialistic and less concerned with spirituality sounds a bit naive and moralistic. The growing popularity of YOGA is not problematical and does not lead to a reductionism and distortion of the traditional yogic heritage. Popularity isn’t either bad o good, it only means that more people have the opportunity to practice yoga.

The reductionism would be to think that YOGA is reserved to a few elected people. YOGA just as any art form, gives anyone the right to appropriate it the way he or she wants . There is not only one door to walk into YOGA, but many of them . There are no diktat, edicts about the best YOGA style or the best YOGA teacher. YOGA is a path of liberation, not a bondage.

It is surprising to read in some very serious YOGA journals things like “Many new students doubt their ability to ever progress in the arduous path of YOGA.” or ” as they look at their teachers or other accomplished practicants they wonder how they will ever get from their relative feeling of confusion to clarity, grace and precision they see in the masterful art of YOGA.”

These kind of words are not constructive. A man can’t ever be measured and classified through his time practicing YOGA. We are never accomplished YOGA practicants, we are always new students. Only if we remain that, we have a chance to get from a feeling of confusion to clarity.

The path of YOGA is the path of life. Spirituality is not about living alone in a Thailand´s popular Island and meditating all day long, spirituality is about going through real life with courage and determination, sometimes alone , sometimes along with someone,interacting o sharing with others, running, walking , stopping for a while or resting forever. The seed of our own spiritual investigation takes root in the other as the reflection of ourselves through the mirror of our consciousness.

The best background for any yogis is not Ashtanga, Lyengar , Bikram o Hatha yoga, their best background is life.
YOGA´s spirituality has been pushed inside and not aside with the increased popularity of YOGA, and has never been more alive. Underlying the differences between the ones and the others is a deep incoherence and a demonstration of intolerance. It seems like sometimes YOGA practice and meditation run parallel to the art of living and sharing with others.

Reading some YOGA books o listening to some internationally renown spiritual master can be intimidating and frustrating for some. We may feel that we never will be good enough or that we are always missing the point, but the point is that there is no point.The world changes, we are always changing, and that is what make us human, and as human beings we are totally unpredictable.
Who says what is better for us? We do, because we are smart and we have learned to wash the dishes. That is what make us human, our ability to wash the dishes sooner o later.
So let it be and let it be the changes.

Art Montage Houston Chronicle Business of the Week

admin — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:52:46 +0000

Art Montage Yoga & Music Center was appointed by the Houston Chronicle as the Ultimate Business of the Week.

Toys, a Check, a YOGA gift card ,Clothes, Sexy lingerie? The hidden message of a gift

Annette — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 04:02:47 +0000

Toys, a check, a YOGA gift card ,clothes, sexy lingerie ?

We love to give gifts as much as we love to receive them . Giving a gift is part of an established code in our society. We can give a present for a special occasion or at any time of the year. When we give a gift to someone it always means something. We send a conscious or unconscious message to the gift receiver.

A gift can express a variety set of human feelings. It can be love, appreciation for someone, but it can also expresses the shadows of our feelings, the darker ones like anger, rancor, culpability or even hate.

Parents tend to buy expensive toys to their children when they feel guilty. Christmas is a good opportunity to compensate the lack of attention toward their children during the year. Guiltiness is expressed through too many and/or too expensive toys under the Christmas tree. Children are not naive and toys can´t fill the emptiness .

A YOGA gift card that comes from someone in your family or a close friend may send a different message that a YOGA gift card that comes from your work colleague. But for sure all of them are telling you that you need to calm down and relax. Your family and friends know that you are under pressure and care for your health. Some of your work colleagues might’ve told you, “working with you has been hell, please do something, get yourself together!”. But anyway, most of them think that YOGA can help you to cope with stress improving your health and your relationships at home and at work. And they are right. A YOGA gift card is the best gift ever that you can receive. Even if you are not a true believer of the YOGA philosophy, the practice of YOGA will have a positive and long lasting impact in your live.

Have you ever received some exotic and sexy lingerie? Smaller size than yours may be?Of course the message varies depending on your relationship with the giver. Fiancé, husband or mother in law will send a different message to you.If the sexy lingerie comes from your lovely husband after ten years of marriage, then we may think that this gentleman needs some refreshment in his intimacy and would really appreciate if you could lose some weight. The message means clearly, ” Heeee……..lp”!

A friend of mine told me that every Christmas he receives a check from his father in law. This charming man fills out the check in a hurry on the corner of the table. The gesture is offensive and the message is clear. “My daughter deserves someone better than you”.

For many years my sister received for Christmas the same blouse in different colors from her sister in law. The kind of blouse that she loves to wear but doesn’t fit my sister. The Message?,” I don t like you.” These are just a few examples of the many messages we can receive o send to someone.

Many of us have experienced an uncomfortable feeling by receiving a particular gift. We can’ t even explain exactly what it is, but it just doesn’t feel right. We can have sent an offensive message to someone too and hurt a relationship. We should pay attention to the message we send to the receiver when we offer a gift. Most of the time we are not even aware of the message we are sending but we can really harm the feelings of this person. The cost of the gift has nothing to do with our appreciation to the person. A very expensive gift can be as much offensive as a cheap one. A gift can say much more than words and betrayal your thoughts. Being the greatest communicator in the world won’t help if we don t learn the”Art” of giving a gift. I am not thinking about flowers, specific colors o a right number of roses. It is much more complex and interesting than that.

Anyway this Christmas is not the exception, and one more time thousands of gifts under the tree will end up unused in our closets. There may be out there thousands of people that would be happy to have them, and charity is always a wise and good decision.

Happy Holidays !!

Yoga fun kids

Annette — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 23:07:10 +0000

Being a yoga instructor for kids is an honor and a privilege. Kids are natural yogis, they are flexible, fearless ,and always live the present moment while for many adults it can be a real challenge . They are amazing, receptive, spontaneous and so surprising. A yoga class for kids is an adventure , it never turns out the way we planned it , but way better. A yoga instructor may remains open to the surprise factor and takes it as an unexpected learning opportunity. The real challenge for a yoga kids instructor is his /her ability to plan for the unexpected.

One week ago I’ve had a wonderful time with an amazing group of ten years old girls scouts.
They were so excited about learning new things that the one hour yoga class spent together went too fast. I mentioned above the surprise factor as part of a class, and this time was not the exception . I was prepared for the unexpected, but i did not expect this kind of surprise. The class worked out just the way I have planned it ! The dream of any teacher.
When both, kids and instructor are totally open and let go of expectations, a yoga class comes easily. Kids needs yoga just as much as adults.
The list of kid stressors is about as long as adult ones. Navigating childhood can be tough. Learning how to breath to calm yourself and building confidence and health through yoga helps with kid life. If kids can learn some of the benefits of yoga from an early age, we can imagine the positive and long lasting impact of practicing yoga in their futures . That the mission of any yoga instructor and my conviction that dreams come true.
Namasté.