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Events In this section you can find news snippets of past events and information about what's coming up. You may also wish to subscribe to our mailing list to ensure that you are always updated with the latest news from the Lotus Room. Always feel free to contact us for more information regarding upcoming events on info@lotusroom.org Yoga @ the Beach Monday 27th September – 18:30hrs-19.30hrs Weather permitting, we will have a yoga session by the beach... yippie! All are welcome to join... this event is free of charge. Healing Yoga Retreat ~ Villa Govinda, Italy Dep from Malta Friday 17th September, Return on Monday 20th September FULLY BOOKED Villa Govinda Ashram, set in the beautiful countryside of Lombardia known as La Brianza, is an idyllic retreat condusive to physical, mental and spiritual healing. Imagine waking up to the fresh country air and the sound of singing birds, practising practically all the systems of yoga throughout the day, and eating all-vegetarian food that goes straight from their own organic vegetable garden into the cooking pot, with home-made bread and cheese! The daily routine includes: hatha yoga by executing various poses accompanied by regulated breathing; mantra chanting; jnana - the yoga of knowledge - in the form of reading, lectures and discussion; bhakti - the yoga of devotion - in the form of various yoga rituals; dhyana yoga, or meditation; and karma yoga in the form of service activities. In free time we can just relax or enjoy nature walks... Villa Govinda Ashram is located near the River Adda and Lago di Como. Accommodation, meals and all yoga sessions at ONLY 190 Euro!!! Additional options such as healing massage sessions and a field trip are yet to be confirmed and would be paid as extras. For more information and for bookings contact Jenny on 99867015. Please confirm your attendance by not later than 15th August 2010 as places are limited to only 10 persons and flight prices increase nearer we get to the departure date! Diving Activity Saturday 7th August 14.00hrs Is there such a thing as Scuba Yoga? Perhaps not traditionally, however yoga and scuba diving both require careful focus on the breath, the practice of deep relaxation and a holistic, harmonious relationship within ourselves and with the environment. Vinyasa yoga is a form of yoga that is flowing, creative and energetic; a healing practice that integrates body, mind and breath. While surrendering ourselves to the water, the fluid element, ‘flow’ can be experienced more easily. Our harmony with water is expressed by effortless movement into and out of asanas. The focus on long, slow, deep breaths, the weightlessness of the body and the silence of being underwater while scuba diving all add to the experience of inner tranquility that is achieved by practice of yoga. For more information and for bookings contact Jenny on 99867015. Yoga @ the Beach Wednesday 16th June – 19:00hrs-20.30hrs This hatha yoga session on the beach was great! We had the largest group session ever and everybody enjoyed it very much! If you missed out, don't worry... we will have another one soon! Home ~ Movie Projection Wednesday 31st March (public holiday) - 17:30hrs-20:00hrs Since we live in a time of imminent catastrophe; when increasing awareness about the pitiful fate of our planet demands an urgent plea to change our ways and make amends, we wanted to share with you HOME - a non-profit film which has been conceived specifically to share in order to act for the planet! Following the projection, we took the time to discuss the issues presented from a yoga perspective. Yoga shows us how to have a higher consciousness when doing any kind of charitable, humanitarian or global/universal works. That is the core of karma yoga and bhakti yoga practise. Cooling Moon Yoga Friday 19th March (public holiday) - 17:30hrs-20:00hrs This workshop focused on Chandra Namaskar – the Moon Salutation – which cultivate a cooling and rejuvinating quality. Various yoga techniques were used to achieve a calming, cooling and soothing effect on body and mind. Solar Sadhana Wednesday 10th February - 9:30hrs-12:00hrs This workshop focused on Surya Namaskar – the Sun Salutation – a flow of breath and movement which awakens the source of inner heat, energy and radiance like the sun. Utilising asanas (postures), kirttan (chants) and meditation, we expanded our heart space and concentrated divine energy into our hearts. Chakra Workshop Tuesday 8th December - 09:30hrs-12:30hrs Wednesday 13th January - 17:30hrs-20:00hrs During this Intensive about Chakras, we explored each of the seven main chakras – the energy centres of the body – in detail, by performing various yoga practises intended to open and align the chakras to achieve internal balance and harmony. The connection between all of us was deep and dynamic so that we all had a wonderful experience! The enthusiasm expressed by the students inspired us to repeat this workshop, originally held in December'99, again in January'10 and to continue offering similar workshops to share these experiences together. Yoga Teacher Training The Yoga Teacher Training Course with Shiva Rea, which was held in Morocco in early November, was a very fulfilling experience. The group of yoga practitioners present were beautiful bunch, and all of us allowed ourselves to absorb the vibrations of the land through vinyasa prana yoga flows, meditation, chants and Moroccan music including drum rhythms and various dance forms... all integrated into a single holistic experience. Vinyasa Yoga flow is a continuous moving rythmn of postures and I was able to experience movement in stillness and stillness in moving flows. It was wonderful to feel the current inside me and around me and be one with it, while allowing it to manifest its full expression. There were no rules regarding how any of us should move because it was understood that everybody is different and therefore every movement was likely to be different from another's. Through this experience I learned that while nobody’s life is always plain sailing, we must simply learn to adjust to its changes and that brings harmony into our lives. Vinyasa yoga flow taught me how to to continuously change with the present situations; to flow with the current of the moment... and that in this way I can truly evolve as a result of those changes. Sunset Chants Sunset Chants Throughout Summer 2009, every Wednesday at 19:00hrs we would meet for kirttan (singing meditation and mantra chanting) on the beach during sunset. This was a time to soothe your soul to the sounds of Vedic hymns with an open heart among friends. It was a time to listen, or sing like nobody's listening, and allow the vibration to pervade your being. This was a time to let yourself be transported by the melodies of Bengali and Sanskrit devotional song, the beats of the mrdanga and the tinkles of the caratels, while experiencing the sunset, a reminder of the miracle of another day gone by. We look forward to share more outdoor activities with you in the warmer months. One-Day Yoga Retreat On Sunday 7th June the Lotus Room organised a One-Day Yoga Retreat. Different aspects of Yoga were explored through posture, breathing, meditation and mantra chanting. The day was broken up by practising asanas (postures), pranayama (breathing techniques), yoga nidra (conscious yogic sleep), mantra yoga (chanting) and sambanda jnana yoga (reading & discussions on yoga philosophy). Earth Garden Festival The Holistic Area this year comprised the Lotus Room yoga centre and Lotus massage in a small space on the edge of the Market Area. The weather was much brighter than last year, however this perhaps accounted for scattered visitors to the festival in the hotter hours until 6pm. However the trees provided sufficient shelter from the hot sun, and we gave some demonstrations of yoga flows which attracted interest in passers by to join our yoga retreat planned for Sunday 7th June. Meanwhile, several people stopped at our market stall and looked through the vast array of books on yoga and spirituality which are supplied by the Lotus Room, and some subscribed to our Awareness newsletter. Overall a pleasant experience, however we certainly plan to have a bigger and better Holistic Area next year, which will allow all of you to participate in our planned activities to harmonise body, mind and spirit. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to those of you who could not join our sessions due to restricted space. Yoga Ashram During the last weekend of August the Lotus Room organised a special event aimed at reproducing the India ashram feeling, bringing it to Malta for the benefit of those who cannot easily travel to India. Although ashrams vary considerably in philosophy and practice from one to the other, we combined the activities of a hatha yoga ashram and a bhakti yoga ashram to give attendees a full and varied experience. Special guests contributed to the success of the event. Sripad Bhakti Sudhir Goswami, an internationally renowned spiritual thinker and lecturer in Vedic knowledge and yoga philosophy, gave four audiences apart from a number of seminars leading up to this weekend retreat. An engaging and dynamic speaker, Sripad Bhakti Sudhir Goswami's speciality is delivering lectures based on questions posed by his audience. His close association with some of the most elevated souls established as saints and sadhus in India contribute to his capacity as a carrier of transcendental knowledge in its purest form. Furthermore, Krishna Kanta Devi Dasi and Munindra Mohan Das, the managers of the well-established Villa Govinda Ashram in Italy, also honoured us with their participation. Yoga Ashram ran for an entire weekend, during which time its residents could experience all the yoga practices in the Lotus Room curriculum. There is a system of yoga that will appeal to everyone. Yoga is for everyone. Gaiafest The Lotus Room was invited to take part in Gaia’s festival of holistic living, which is a celebration of life, in both its internal and external expressions. Gaiafest focuses on awakening the senses and increasing awareness of the nature which surrounds us and which is also within us. The Lotus Room set up a book table, which provoked a lot of interest in people to enquire about the different types of yoga. Many people were keen to discover who we are and what we do and subscribed to our Yoga Awareness newsletter. The whole experience was great! Earth Garden Festival For its second edition, Earth Garden invited the Lotus Room to operate its entire holistic area. Earth Garden was the most popular family event the previous year in Malta, with over 10,000 people attending throughout the weekend festival. Unfortunately, on the first day gale force winds meant that few people attended, yet nonetheless some readily joined our activities such as the kirttan sessions (singing meditation and mantra chanting) and yoga flows. The next day, from early afternoon one could see that several more people were about... it promised to be a good day! The festival was crowded and spirits were high. Everybody wanted to make up for lost time and the atmosphere was really great! The Lotus Room was pleasantly peaceful - a refuge for those seeking something different. Audio-visuals, books and our demonstrations attracted several people. Some participated and the curious enquired or simply looked on. Since the Lotus Room is a diverse yoga centre, we endevoured to engage in various yoga practices during the course of the festival. The yoga flows were graceful, simple demonstrations of concentration, balance and flexibility - the union of body, mind and spirit. The public found this part of the programme fascinating and a huge crowd gathered, while all those who joined thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The yoga-flows, chanting and interaction with people continued alternately throughout the day until the light began to leave the sky and the atmosphere of the festival changed accordingly. After sunset, we packed the holistic area and concluded with happy satisfaction in our hearts.