Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
- Rachel Carson

As I prepare to lead the 11th Annual Yoga on the Steps for Living Beyond Breast Cancer this Sunday, I’m reflecting on my grandmother, Kathleen Converse, as inspiration, not only for YOTS, but as one the reasons I love to practice yoga outdoors.

Yoga on the Steps for Living Beyond Breast Cancer was created after my friend and student, Courtney Kapp overcame breast cancer in 2001 and we decided to collaborate. I had a wild vision of leading a giant yoga class on the Philadelphia Art Museum Steps and she proposed my vision to LBBC President, Jean Sacks.

Now, in its 11th year, the event is the largest outdoor yoga class in Philadelphia/Tri-State Area and raises close to $400,000. a year and will be expanding to Washington DC, Kansas City and Denver.

Why do participants come year after year from NYC, Washington, North Carolina, Louisiana, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware to experience the inspiration of Yoga On The Steps?

The event is held on what I call “a power center” or the “Rocky – Hey, Adrian, I love you!” steps feeling.

The Philadelphia Art Museum plateau is an epic view of one of most stunning major cities in the world: Philadelphia. And it’s where I grew up, digging our authentic “have a good-one” accent, food, art, people, schools, and business.

Yoga On The Steps cultivates a meditative, self-reflective extravaganza of movement/balance/strength/alignment and live music of Yvette Pecararo, which in my experience, has been life-giving beyond my wildest dreams. There are so many great women and men who attend. It’s the outdoors, the view and mostly the community wrapped together that makes it intimate and spectacular.

My grandmother, Kathleen Converse, died of complications with breast cancer – as did many fabulous women in my family including my great aunt, and my father’s mother. In dedication to them, I lift up their legacy and say, You mattered! I love you! I miss you!

My grandmother loved to garden and spent hours outside tending to geraniums, picking hydrangea or telling the tree guy how to prune her cherry trees.

The adoration I have for spending time with flowers, plants and trees began with my grandmother.

When I do Yoga outdoors, it’s like climbing back into the child I was and still am – that inner child inside of all of us – that wants to return to innocence, to summers off, to running after fire flies, wearing no shirt, or climbing trees and pretending to live up near the leaves.

Would the physical support, energy of yoga and community have helped my grandmother and friends with their journey with cancer? Would it have given them a few more breathes? A few more support buddies? A few more moments feeling beautiful and surrounded by loved ones?

Scientific studies indicate yoga’s strengthening and stretching exercises; specific breathing and relaxation techniques reduce stress, and blood pressure, while improving flexibility, stability of movement and heart function. As well, there are studies that indicate mentally, emotionally and physiologically we are healed and returned to our self through nature.

In his book Last Child in the Woods – Saving Our Children form Nature-Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv writes, “Natural–deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses…By weighting the consequences of the disorder, we also can become more aware of how blessed our children can be biologically, cognitively and spiritually – through positive physical connection to nature.”

What is gained in the presence of the natural world?

Each June begins another Yoga Around the Garden and Yoga Out On a Limb in the Morris Arboretum.

I love the smell of the grass, stretching over the uneven ground, balancing while watching the leaves, bunnies, weather patterns and sitting breathing “doing nothing but hanging out” in the hands of Mother Nature.

The sun sets bright radiant orange over Erdenheim Farm and I imagine it’s the African Serengeti or Tuscany. I get returned to wonder, less Ego, a space of the unknown, freshness.

To me,  Thoreau was an outdoor mindfulness educator (and yoga teacher with out the moves). Whether we walk, swim, do yoga, meditate, write in a journal, canoe down the Delaware, or bird watch, Mother Nature reminds us to remember and reconnect to how temporary, how light, how dark, how fierce, how futile, how stunningly brilliant time here is.

John Burrough’s writes, “I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in tune once more”.

Philadelphia has over 75,000 acres of green space and is the largest city park in the world.

How lucky are we?! We all have access to the benefits.

Mind you, swimming, writing, painting or Yoga outdoors isn’t about perfection (sometimes you need good old bug spray or a big old hat). It’s been my experience, that you can’t get much closer to the greatest change agent or educator (or yoga teacher) that ever was than Mother Nature.

I think of her as the female version of the Sistine Ceiling in my own back yard.

She is my WHY.

What is yours?

I look forward to seeing you and sharing the beauty.

Jennifer

Study finds measurable health benefits for those with easy access to nature
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Oct. 15 (HealthDay News) —
The closer you live to nature, the healthier you’re likely to be.
For instance, people who live within 1 kilometer of a park or wooded area experience less anxiety and depression, Dutch researchers report.
The findings put concrete numbers on a concept that many health experts had assumed to be true.
“It’s nice to see that it shows that, that the closer humans are to the natural environment, that seems to have a healthy influence,” said Dr. David Rakel, director of integrative medicine and assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
One previous study had noted fewer health inequalities between rich and poor people in areas with lots of green space, and other studies have echoed these health benefits. But much of this research had relied on people’s perceptions of their physical and mental health.
This new objective look at the matter involved scouring medical records of 345,143 people in Holland, assessing health status for 24 conditions, including cardiovascular, respiratory and neurological diseases. This information was then correlated with how much green space was located within 1 kilometer and 3 kilometers of a person’s postal code.
People living in more urban environments had a higher prevalence of 15 of the 24 conditions, with the relationship strongest for anxiety disorder and depression.
In areas with only 10 percent of green space, about 2.6 percent of people experienced anxiety disorders, compared to 1.8 percent of people in areas with 90 percent green space. The disparity was evident for depression as well — 3.2 percent of people living in more urbanized areas had depression versus 2.4 percent of those in more rural areas.
The health benefits were evident only when the green acres were within a kilometer, not at the 3 kilometer perimeter, except for anxiety disorders, gastrointestinal digestive disorders and so-called medically unexplained physical symptoms, the researchers said.
Children and poor people suffered disproportionately from lack of green acres, the researchers found.
The study findings were published online Thursday in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Any number of factors could account for the benefits of green space, experts said.
More natural sunlight, for instance, has been linked with a lower incidence of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and other benefits.
“If patients in hospitals have direct exposure to sunlight through a window or natural sunlight, hospital stays are shorter and patients have less complications,” Rakel said. “That’s been well-established.
More light also means more vitamin D in the skin, which has been found to elevate mood and improve muscle strength, he added.
And fresh air, obviously, has a benefit as well, as do the exercise opportunities that come with more open space.
But much of the relief may come from the simple ability to de-stress.
“If we’re in a busy street with more technology and artificial things, we’re going to be multi-tasking more, which prevents us from focusing on one thing,” Rakel said. “In this day and age, we really need some sort of centering practice. We need to get our mind out of its own stories and focus on something that’s pure. Nature is a beautiful example of that — it’s the way things were meant to be.”
This study has “implications not only for city planning but also for indoor design and architecture,” said Richard Ryan, professor of psychology, psychiatry and education at the University of Rochester Medical Center. But the benefit is proportional to how much people pay attention to nature, he said.
“If they’re in their heads and not paying attention, it doesn’t do them much good,” said Ryan, co-author of a recent study report that people who are exposed to natural elements are more socially oriented, more generous and value community more. Another experiment he was involved in found that people who spent time outdoors had more vitality and energy.
More green space may also be a way for whole communities to become healthier.
“As health-care costs spiral out of control, it behooves us to think about our green space in terms of preventive health care,” said Dr. Kathryn J. Kotrla, associate dean and chair of psychiatry and behavioral science at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine Round Rock campus. “This highlights very clearly that our Western notion of body-mind duality is entirely false. The study shows that we are a whole organism, and when we get healthy that means our body and our mind get healthy.”
More information
The World Health Organization has more on how environments can affect health.

Written and Performed by Jennifer Schelter

Directed by Anne Zumbo

What did one girl do to save her fathers life & change the course of history for a family?

Come on a journey to Istanbul, Turkey to meet Iraqi prisoners of war, who open wide the conversation of transcendence, forgiveness and friendship.

Saturday, October 3rd – 7pm
Roberts Hall -Marshall Auditorium – Haverford College
Cost: Free, with suggested donation to Amnesty International
Directions to Roberts Hall: Enter Haverford College from Lancaster Ave. Follow signs to visitor parking lot. Make right out of parking lot onto Coursey Road. Roberts Hall is located at end of Coursey Road.

Led by Jennifer Schelter, MFA, Founder of Yoga Schelter

Back by popular demand! This group rocks – look out – good karma happens!

Like daffodils breaking through the ground, use the energy of Spring to create a new beginning. What’s on your wish list? Lose weight? Apply for a new job? Schedule an adventure? What changes do you need to make?

This group is a safe space to identify and explore your goals and dreams. It’s about envisioning who you want to be, where you are going, and taking steps to make “It” real. The positive group energy provides a powerful structure to sustain your intentions and realize your goals.

Highlights and Benefits:
- A facilitated network to identify your success “Team”.
- Learning and using tools to create positive possibilities.
- The holistic mind, body, spirit process of happiness.
- More calm, self-trust and joy.

Recommended for those who want:
- Authentic happiness and inner-peace.
- Know what they want but can’t seem to “get it”.
- To kick the “fear, worry, anxiety and doubt” habit.
- To create “the next thing” or a “new chapter” in life.

Includes: Vinyasa Yoga, Meditation, The Laws of Attraction, Creative Visualization, Journaling & Writing Exercises, Positive Team Dynamic, Weekly Action Plans, and one inspirational email a week from Jennifer.

When: Sat. 9am-Noon – April 14 – June 2, 2007
Where: Yoga Schelter 3502 Scotts Lane, Phila. PA 19129
How Much: Yoga Class ($14.) & Manifestation Group ($30.) – $352.
Just Group ($280.) Registration is required for all 8 sessions.
Speak to Jennifer – 215 991 9642 – check, cash, credit card accepted. Checks: “Yoga Schelter”

THE RADIANT RETREAT SCHOLARSHIP

Do you want to come on the retreat but needed a little break? Or do you know someone who would really love to go to Mexico and this would be the added bonus they need to make it happen?

We have 2 scholarships for the yoga retreat March 24-31, 2007 to Maya Tulum, Mexico!

We’ll be granting two individual scholarships worth – $410 – towards the cost of the retreat. The Retreat prices are listed on the events page of the blog.Thanks to the generosity of Liz Gilbert, who donated her deposit because she’s going on her paper back book tour for EAT PRAY LOVE. To learn more about Liz and her book tour go to: www.elizabethgilbert.com

She said, “Give it to someone who really wants to go and who would love to go! But doesn’t think that they can, but really, really wants to!”

Is that you?

If so, to apply for this scholarship, and to honor the writing talent of the donor, we ask you to write the following in a short one page essay:

1) Why you want to come on the retreat.
2) What you hope to get out of it.
3) Why you should be considered for the financial support.
4) Your contact number and email, where you can be reached.

Please submit your essay by snail mail or email to:
YOGA SCHELTER RETREAT SCHOLARSHIP – 3502 Scotts Lane, Phila. Pa,19129 or to JSchelter@yogaschelter.com

Due date for the application is Dec. 23/06.
You will be notified about the scholarship by January 10/07

We wish you the best and look forward to hearing from you.