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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 2015)
FRIDAYEXTRA ! The Daily Astorian Friday, March 27, 2015 Weekend Edition ƱȽȵȯΎȴȳɁɂȷɄȯȺ ɂȳȯȱȶȳɁΎȱȽȻȾȯɁɁȷȽȼ˴ΎȱȽȼȱȳȼɂɀȯɂȷȽȼ ERICK BENGEL — EO Media Group Marnie Rodebush, foreground right, a resident of the West Coast, and a group of yoga enthusiasts adopt the Namaste Pose during a yoga workshop. The workshop focused in part on dissolving the negative narrative about oneself. Instructors show different ways to meditate, including art By ERICK BENGEL EO Media Group ‘We hunger for compassion. We crave it. We benefi t from it.’ C E N S H O U R • 2 4 • • O P ANNON BEACH — Sarahjoy Marsh’s workshop on compassion toward one- — Sarahjoy Marsh self and others — held the second day yoga instructor of the three-day Cannon Beach Yoga Festival — began somewhat paradoxically. Sitting upright on blankets and yoga mats in the Cannon Beach Community Hall, the 33 at- WHQGHHVJDYHWKHLU¿UVWQDPHVDQGWKHQXWWHUHG a noncompassionate word to characterized their lives or themselves. The choices were revealing: “lame,” “shame,” “sadness,” “afraid,” “careless,” “failure,” “judgment,” “impatient,” “anxiety,” “defective,” “abandoned,” “unworthy,” “frus- tration,” “disrespect,” “rejection,” “jealousy,” ³VHO¿VKQHVV´ ³VKXW GRZQ´ DQG VR RQ :KHQ her turn came, Marsh said, “unkind.” “That’s a relatively cruel perspective to have on ourselves,” she said. “First of all, it’s fundamentally not true. And secondly, it doesn’t leave a lot of room for growth or radi- DQFHWRÀRZHU´ Over the next two hours, Marsh, a yoga teacher and yoga therapist from Portland, dis- cussed yoga-based practices to reach higher states of compassion. Singing long, deep notes is one such practice, she said. ERICK BENGEL — EO Media Group Marsh led the group, call-and-response- style, through a vowel-laden Sanskrit mantra Linda Kinhan, Cannon Beach, sketches model Julie “Fig” Yanko. Behind Yanko, Lila meant to induce a healing trance. It translates Wickham, left, Cannon Beach, and Jennifer Wyman, Tacoma, Wash., do the same. to: “May we practice together in a way that is also not likely to be singing about how the effective and strong and produces luminous selves or each other in the process,” she said. 2QHEHQH¿WRIVLQJLQJLQ6DQVNULW³:H¶UH dog died and the boyfriend left and the house outcomes. May we not feel impatient with our- E K W E • 7 D A Y S A COMING SOON TO SEASIDE! eeds- n n o i t a t r o p s n a r t C all us for your appy! w e w ill m ake you h Astoria, Warrenton, Seaside 503-325-5818 Long Beach, WA 360-665-3500 burned down — the painful heartache songs,” she said. Compassion ³:H KXQJHU IRU FRPSDVVLRQ :H FUDYH LW :H EHQH¿W IURP LW:H ORQJ WR NQRZ KRZ WR express it more consistently, more effective- ly,” she said. Unfortunately, “we don’t have a particularly compassionate culture,” which she described as a “very competitive, materialistic, consumeristic culture, rife with anxiety and de- pression” and consequent physical disorders. Positioned in the wide-legged forward bend (also known as the prasarita padottanasana), the group meditated on compassion. Then, in the downward-facing dog pose, they imagined dissolving the tension caused by their own noncompassionate word and “the story about feeling lame or ashamed.” ³:H FDQ DSSO\ FRPSDVVLRQ WR WKH SDLQ we’re causing ourselves. ... That’s one of the pathways out,” she said. “If you apply cruelty to cruelty, you won’t get out. You just go fur- ther in.” In the back of the hall sat Gina Leon, of 3RUWODQGD<RJD)HVWLYDO¿UVWWLPHU “The whole conference has been very pow- erful and positive ... and emotional, too,” said Leon, who also attended Marsh’s workshop at the Surfsand Resort the day before. Leon, who works in banking and may un- dergo a career change, found the festival “very helpful in processing lots of thoughts and feel- ings.” See YOGA, Page 4C R O Y A L C AB L.L.C. Locally Owned & Operated by Travis Weichal, since 1996 L.L.C. • SMOKE FREE • BIKE RACKS ON ALL VEHICLES ww w . royalcab . net