baja mexico retreat – february 2024

Join Ossi Raveh and I on our Winter retreat in Baja Mexico, February 4 – 10, 2023, at the beautiful Yandara Institute. We’ll explore the elements; earth, water, fire, air, and ether or space. The elements are the foundation of the universe and they correlate with the senses and with particular body parts and functions. Each has an energy correspondent among the chakras.

Ayurveda, the sister science to yoga, prescribes balancing elemental energies through diet, herbal supplements, meditation, and movement practices such as asana. We’ll be your guides along this journey toward rebalance in this most beautiful location alongside a week of sun, surf, and play!

There will be daily asana practice exploring the elements, daily workshops to expand on the theme, meditation practice to close our days, and some surprises. There will be plenty of time during the day for optional excursions, hiking, surfing, or simply lounging on the beach or next to the pool. And yes, there will be coffee!

Email me at dennis@yogidennis.com or click here for more information and how to reserve your spot!

baja mexico retreat – january 2023

Join Ossi Raveh and I on our Winter retreat in Baja Mexico, January 29 — February 4, 2023, at the beautiful Yandara Institute. We’ll explore the yamas and niyamas; our ethical practices of yoga. They are guidelines for how we treat ourselves and the world around us. Feeling stuck? These moral precepts help us gain mastery over our lives when we feel tossed about. We’ll be your guides along this path toward a new way of being alongside a week of sun, surf, and play!

There will be daily asana practice exploring the yamas and niyamas, daily workshops to expand on the ethical practices, meditation practice to close our days, and some surprises. There will be plenty of time during the day for optional excursions, hiking, surfing, or simply lounging on the beach or next to the pool. And yes, there will be coffee!

Email me at dennis@yogidennis.com or click here for more information and how to reserve your spot!

When Great Trees Fall

When Great Trees Fall

By Maya Angelou

When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.

baja, mexico retreat – march 2022

The chakra system is a bridge between: heaven and earth, inner and outer, above and below, mind and body. The chakras form a ladder allowing us to climb to heaven or get down to earth. The goal of the chakra system is about wholeness and integration. It is a template for transformation and a formula for wholeness.1 Join Ossi Raveh and me, March 3-9, 2022, at the beautiful Yandara Institute in Baja Mexico as your guides along this path toward alignment and illumination.

There will be twice daily asana practice exploring the chakras and a meditation practice to close our days. There will be plenty of time during the day for optional excursions, hiking, surfing, or simply lounging on the beach or next to the pool.

Click here for more information and how to reserve your spot!

  1. Anodea Judith’s Chakra Yoga. Anodea Judith. Llewellyn Publications. 2017.

What You’re Feeling is Grief

I’ve been saying this to folks in my circle for the past few months. In the West we don’t deal with grief particularly well. We want it done and over with; whether it’s others or ourselves. Well, it just doesn’t work that way. Click through to read the article.

For some, the tools we have been using to cope with unprecedented loss and stress are no longer working.
— Read on nymag.com/article/2021/02/what-youre-feeling-is-grief.html

New Class!

As the last hours of Summer slip into Autumn, no doubt this message finds you moving back towards a bit of “routine” (whatever that means these days) in your life. While I’ve been teaching through the pandemic, the start of Autumn has offered me the opportunity to add a new class to my schedule.

Beginning Tuesday, September 22 (and regularly thereafter), I’ll be offering a one-hour Slow Flow (gentle yoga) class. Class will be via Zoom at 10:00am ET. This class will be super accessible and appropriate for beginner and seasoned practitioner alike. No acrobatics, just a super chill slow flow yoga class!

Your payment ($15.00) will be considered your sign up and a Zoom link will be sent to you fifteen minutes before class start time. When you register, please indicate in the notes field “Slow Flow 9/22” or whatever the date is your registering for.

Additionally, in these initial stages of setting this up, kindly send me your email address (via “contact me“) so I am sure to have it for sending you your link. I will not abuse the privilege of having the email address.

Your payment can be made:

Venmo: @Dennis-Teston-1

PayPal: PayPal.Me/yogidennis

I look forward to the opportunity to once again connect with you. Please reach out with any questions.

Ethics of Yoga

Navigating day to day life is a challenge for all of us. How can we gain mastery over our choices? How do we gain skill when we feel stuck? How do we move deeper into a richer, fuller life?

Yoga comes with a set of ethical disciplines giving you direction toward a well lived life. The Yamas and Niyamas are the first two limbs of the eight limbs of yoga as outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, They are the method how we can clearly navigate life and make it rich and fulfilling.

This LIVE ONLINE five week module will explore the first two limbs of yoga, as outlined in the sutras, and help you put into practice on a daily basis these tenets. This series begins Saturday, July 11 at 4pm ET to 6pm ET. It will continue on Saturdays until August 8. You can attend individual weeks or attend all five.

Find more information at Brooklyn Yoga Project by clicking through here.