Craft as contemplative art - The ideas that inspired Crafting A Yoga Practice.

The process of making something draws you into the moment.  

When I am sewing or knitting something I have given myself an opportunity to suspend myself in the present moment, because distraction will most certainly show in my work.   

The process of yoga opens my mind and body up for the possibility of that work. I feel as if I couldn't really have one with out the other.   The freedom that yoga gives me sustains my drive to create, and those acts of creation feed me spiritually.  Weather it is making a meal for my family or working on a design for a whole community (I used to be a Landscape Architect),  my yoga  practice gives me a more vibrant perspective of my context - the information is more detailed and clear.  

In an interview with Terry Gross, the composer John Cage talked about meditation practice (I think of yoga as including meditation), and how instead of it being a practice to block out the world,  his experience was about taking things in and processing them unconventionally  - outside of cultural context or conditioning.  We have options when it come to how we respond, and yoga gives me the tools to help vary my responses.  These same tools help me absorb information with different perspectives, and all of that informs my creative self which ultimately gives rise to my spiritual self.  

A chain reaction.  

This is the approach for the Crafting a Yoga Practice Workshop.    Here are some photos of the materials and one of the possibilities for the projects: 

Hand spun yarn, because good materials enrich the sensorial experience.

Make that hand dyed hand spun yarn.  

A pattern that gives parameters instead of rigid instruction so you can play with textures and volumes - no worries for beginners; simplicity is an option as well.

I hope we get to see you there!

Crafting a Yoga Practice; The Knitting Edition 

with Melissa Montilla

Novice & beginning knitters and yogi’s are welcome!

Saturday, October 23rd  

9:00am - 5:30pm at a retreat space in Melrose, FL