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Focus Practice for this month:

Giving Thanks

Practicing gratitude daily: you will have a lot to be thankful for.

Start each day with a grateful heart. As you awake in the morning, think of something you are grateful for and feel thankful in your heart.

End each day with a grateful heart. Before you sleep, think of something the day brought you, something to be grateful for. Feel thankful in your heart.

Keep an attitude of gratitude all day. Say thank you to everyone you meet for everything they do for you.

Keep a gratitude journal, writing what you are grateful for.

Practice appreciation. Each day, call someone or send someone an email or letter thanking them for being in your life and telling them how much you appreciate them. A free class to whoever reaches out to the most people this month, from today on.

"Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary." ~ Margaret Cousins



"We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives." ~ John Kennedy

Last Month's Focus: Lunge Ahead!

We challenged you to take the plunge and do the lunge pose at least once a day and keep count. The one with the most lunges counted in October is Kathy Bassford: 66 lunges. Her reward is a free Embodyment session ($70) plus all the benefits the lunges bring.

Kathy says about the monthly focus activities: "I love the challenges. They always help keep me on track. I do the Magic Four every day now. It's such a quick fix. "

She has been coming for Embodyment sessions for several months and reports that they are definitely helping a lot. Her comments about Embodyment are included below in the Svaroopa® Embodyment section.

We are also giving a 2nd place award for

Marie Thibeault, who reported doing 50 lunges in October. She has earned half off on her next Embodyment session.

Kathy and Marie are doing more yoga!

Kudos to all of you who are doing more yoga in incognito! 🤗

• No class Thanksgiving Day, Thursday November 23. We will hold classes that Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
• We have a commitment on Saturday December 1st, so that class will be held on Sunday the 2nd instead, at 10:00 am.

These three organizations are striving to bring peace and reconciliation between Israel and Palestine.

We can make a difference. Choose one, two or all three to support. Any amount will help, especially if everyone donates something!

Special note: This past few weeks, more people have been showing up in need of food. Last Wednesday, twice as many people showed up as usual ― the most that the director has ever seen in the years that the pantry has been open. This will probably continue on through the winter. So donations are of paramount importance now. There are many hungry and destitute people living around us. They are very appreciative of the service the pantry provides. I volunteer at the pantry, and last Wednesday, one of the people waiting in line for food volunteered to help. She stayed with us all the way through, even after her turn to receive came. Volunteers are needed.

We continue collecting donations of money, food and other items weekly for the West Brookfield Sharing Cupboard Food Pantry. Top priority includes non-perishable food such as regular sized (not large) canned proteins (meats or beans), dried beans, grains, peanut butter or other nut butters, powdered milk and cheese that does not have to be refrigerated, cookies, crackers, coffee, condiments (mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, etc.), canned or packaged soups. Organic is appreciated by many. Also, toilet paper and paper towels. You can also bring cleaning supplies, hand cleaners, and can openers. There is a box in our mudroom where you can drop off your contributions. Thank you in advance!

Hope: Maui Strong Fund

The Hawaii Community Foundation newsletter provides updates about the impact of your Maui Strong Fund donations. The first weeks after the fire, the main priority was rapid relief, with focus on immediate necessities like food, water, medical care and shelter. Now, the money is being used to help orchestrate a coordinated approach with partners focused on Maui, with the intention of making a lasting impact. For more details and personal stories, click here.

Hope: Celebrating Hope: A Glimpse of Good News from Ukraine!

Donations to Project Nadiya have been helping greatly! We recently received an email from Nadya Tkachenko sharing current status. She is the director and originator of the project. She writes: "While we continue to see distressing news from Ukraine, and now witnessing similar heartbreaking news in Israel and Palestine, today I want to share some exciting updates from Ukraine..., to celebrate ways in which your support is helping change lives." To read more of her newsletter, click here.

Class schedule: Onsite and Online

All classes are offered onsite and online. You can enroll for the Experienced class (Friday mornings) if you know the basic poses and need little assistance. Otherwise, join the Continuing (all levels) classes.

Masks Are Optional and Available at the Studio

COVID is still around. Masks are welcomed. We will wear ours. Class sizes will continue to be limited to assure social distancing in the studio. We also have plenty of air circulation and air filters.

If you feel ill, have a cough or runny nose, or might have been exposed to someone who tested positive, please do not come to the studio, even if you tested negative. Feel free to join classes via Zoom until you are symptom free.

Scent Free Studio

Help us accommodate those who are chemically sensitive to fragrances and other scented products Thank you!

Free audio recordings of Swami Nirmalananda discourses are available online. Listen from home or during your travels. Listen

from your cell phone or PC at https://svaroopa.org/audio-recording

You can also join Swami Nirmalananda online in meditation every morning, by subscription.

New! Swami has a new book titled Yoga: Embodied Spirituality, subtitled Navigating the Inner Quest for Wholeness. We have several signed copies for sale in the studio. The book is also available in Kindle or as a paperback at https://svaroopa.org/books

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive -- to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love..." ~ Marcus Aurelius

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." ~ Thornton Wilder

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." ~ William Arthur Ward

"Count your blessings, not your crosses,

Count you gains, not your losses.

Count your joys instead of your woes,

Count your friends instead of your foes.

Count your health, not your wealth."

~ Proverb

"Heaven is not how much we have.

Heaven is how grateful we are." ~ T.R. Khanna

"When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around." ~ Willie Nelson

"Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day." ~ Robert C. Linter

"We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes." ~ John F. Kennedy

"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness." ~ Proverb

"There are no hopeless situations. There are only people who have grown hopeless about them." ~ Clare Booth Luce

"If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" ~ Shelley

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Hope is a renewable option. If you run out of hope at the end of the day, you get to start over in the morning." ~ Barbara Kingsolver

"What is hope but a feeling of optimism, a thought that says things will improve, it won't always be bleak, there's a way to rise above the present circumstances." ~ Wayne Dwyer

https://cardthartic.com/product/faith-in-humanity/

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness." ~ Desmond Tutu

“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have, because history has shown us that courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own.” — Michelle Obama

Football

[41 seconds or so - no ad]

A child's gift from dad.

Really?

30% of all pet owners let their pets sleep in their beds. Not a good idea! All my goldfish died.

"The invisible man married an invisible woman...

The kids were nothing to look at either."



Deep Thought of the Day

"When you clean out a vacuum cleaner, you become the vacuum cleaner."

A lawyer sent an overdue bill to a client. He attached a note that stated: "This bill is one year old."

The bill was returned by his client with a card attached. It read: "Happy Birthday, Bill"

Dinner Ends in a Tie?

For his fortieth birthday, the dutiful son received the usual two ties from his mother, this time a paisley and a solid. When he picked her up for dinner that night wearing the solid, she took one look and snapped, "And what's wrong with the paisley?"

What my friend here means to say is, "No, we haven't see your shoes."

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Enjoy your Self! Effulgent Bliss is your nature.

Much love and light,

Phil and Nancy