Sep 10, 2015 | Sedona Yoga, Yoga Conference, Yoga Festival, Yoga Festival Experience
There’s this beautiful turning point…
in all of our lives where everything begins to click for us. Anything that is no longer resonating with our frequency, serving higher good or purpose, just seems to just dissipate and be no more – while everything we dreamt would be, IS, and we begin creating/manifesting so many more opportunities to live a fantasy-like reality & dream even bigger.
A few years ago, I was cruising through the commencement of this very point in my life (my awakening if you will). I had a clear knowing that I no longer wished to live in big cities modeling and aiming for fame, and meditation was beginning to take over my life (and trust me, no complaints!). It was then that I was driven to the idea to go on a life-long journey; but first, I just ‘had to’ make my way back home to Arizona, head north and be present at the Sedona Yoga Festival. It’s funny how that works, isn’t it? How one thing, idea or mission turns out to be so perfectly aligned with all else – as if by divine timing, or destiny.
Having manifested the trip, made my way and aligned with the coordinators (Marc, Heather as well as Stephanie), I felt at peace and knew this was solely the beginning of so much more to come into fruition. The vision was there, it had always been. I love Arizona – it’s home and it’s magical – but even more so – Sedona is a place I can escape to & discover more of my Self and of the Universe, with each visit bringing to life new parts of mySelf and shining light on different aspects which need cleansing, healing, balancing, focus or simply… Peace & Love.
In short, am completely at awe with the energy Sedona holds, and as I was here amongst many others who too felt it’s pull – I knew one day, and soon, I would return to amplify that very energy.
As mentioned, I crossed paths with beautiful Souls whom I completely loved from the moment of introduction. Everything at Sedona Yoga Festival was what I wanted to do, be a part of, and BE. There were so many things going on throughout the weekend that lured me in – from yoga, meditations, healing, lectures, film screenings – this was it! I felt I had ‘found my calling’ and purpose a bit prior to then, but furthermore – and when I left that weekend, I left shining, brighter, inspired and DRIVEN to come back again with something to offer, gift and spread. That was the mission, and so the journey began…
Life and the Universe conspired/happened soon after, and before you knew it I had started a brilliant Self-Development Program online for meditation through Peace Revolution (a project under the World Peace Initiative Foundation). After completing the initial 42 day Self-Development Program that they offer online (free of charge!), felt beyond connected. I knew this had fallen into my life and path for something beyond that in which could be seen at this moment, and had a continuous strong feeling & knowing to fully confirm that very notion.
From then on, my meditative practice continued to evolve, and my drive & determination towards wishing to be a part of something so beautiful kept expanding. Having gone through the application process once before, knew there was still reasoning behind my desire for involvement. Applied to join in on their fellowship where ‘Peace Rebels’ then become ‘Peace Agents’, and this is what manifested…
I spent a few weeks in an intense (but pure & life-altering) meditation retreat and training with our beloved teaching Buddhist monks in Thailand. Joined together with 29 others from different countries all over the earth, it was an experience unlike any other I had yet had. Our days began before the sun rose; we meditated to welcome in the day, and did yoga upon sunrise at the scenic view to welcome in the Light & Life. We bonded, took in lectures, did activities – all of which taught us valuable lessons – and of course, more and more meditations throughout the day. So much peace was harvested, grown and prepared to be shared as we all channeled to our purpose of spreading sustainable world peace.
As the weeks past by, and my practice which had been put into motion for years now grew even more still & bright – I knew this was home. Beyond the beautiful views, people, energy and values – Peace Revolution, this group of people & organization, were precisely what and where I wished to be – and I was – and it all came together. I was going to be sure I was a big part of this project, and I was going to bring it with me as this ‘home’ was not a location, but more so a feeling of belonging, love of Self and others… this was PEACE.
Weeks, months, and now years, passed. Travels to India to visit His Holiness for teachings, Mother Theresa’s House and tomb for further study and research, Swami Sivananda’s Divine Life Society, cleansings, more teachings, International Yoga Festival, Holi, temples upon temples – visits to sacred spaces and places all over the world to meditate and absorb all of the beautiful energy to eventually come back to reciprocate, reflect and share with the world – it all came down to this very moment, our NOW.
Now here I am, grateful to announce and tell you all of the beautiful alignment which has come to be. I reached out to Sedona Yoga Festival not too long ago (after having been away on my personal journey since our last crossing), and told them all about my visions, and wishes to join forces of positivity, light and love for PEACE – and of course, they are all in! We have now joined together and begun to organize in bringing what shall be the very first Peace In Peace Out (PIPO) event to the United States of America, and will be having a Global Peace Meditation this coming year at SYF!
Am so excited and am ever so grateful for all of the magic that has come, and that shall be – thank you ALL for being here, now, with us. Do hope to see you all in person soon, raise vibrations & hold frequency together to aid in bringing world peace, home.
From my journey, heart & Soul, to your own – may we see that we are all One.
See you in the stars…
Dulce Ruby
Meet Dulce Ruby
Nov 19, 2014 | Sedona Yoga, SYF2014 Presenters, Yoga Festival Experience
Living in Sedona and consciously practicing what you preach it’s easy to forget how it is “out there” in the “main land” for most people… I get frequent reminders with clients from big cities visiting for tune-ups and their much needed “Sedona time”. I observe them arrive enveloped in broken grey auras, lower energy centers clogged with what seems like slabs of “concrete” – aka “survival concerns”, dull eyes, lack of presence, stress and drama addictions, constant dependency on their electronic devices, indigestion, anxiety, poor sleep. Their complexion is dull, eyes empty, health in decline. I welcome them, I embrace them, I speak… I know I will have to later repeat everything I’m saying as for the first few days they hear nothing except internal chatter about ginormousness of their problems. And so for the first few days they try to express to me how so important and absolutely unavoidable all of the problems in their lives really are.
And thus our work together begins… It’s a journey back Home, back to their Souls, back to who they really are. The day the cell phone is turned off or
left behind in the room, I know they are ready to embrace the transformation, this is the day of “re-introduction to self”. For those who are ready and willing Source works its magic through Sedona vortex energies, through me and the work that I do, through mystics and healers they meet here, through synchronicities and strangers who say “just the right things”…
Right information assists: becoming aware of conditioning, programming, limiting beliefs, self-sabotaging habits brings “aha” moments and tears to eyes where the next step is change and letting go of what no longer serves. Finding connection with one’s own Soul, one’s true nature, one’s Divine Guidance allows the “big” every day problems to “suddenly” look much less important. Hearing the gentle voice of one’s Heart brings in miraculous synchronicities, lightness and ease into decision-making. Focusing on joy instead of problems and suffering creates more reasons to be happy. A couple more days and the inevitable “aha moment” sweeps them of their feet with inspiration, excitement and determination for change: either big or small, and the “old familiar life” no longer looks like an acceptable option.
I observe expanded glowing auras, shining eyes full of life, tears of gratitude, re-awakened sense of purpose and joy for life, faces clear and radiant, physical sickness removed, years off their spirits and faces, Source shining through with all of its magical brilliance. Off they go and later letters come from the “main land” telling of changed, inspired, incredible lives.
Blessed are brave souls who seek change and transformation as when they do it is always assisted with and given. And so it is.
Feb 6, 2014 | Sedona Yoga, SYF2014 Presenters, Yoga Festival, Yoga Festival Experience, Yoga Pre-Conference
Time sure does fly quickly when you’re having fun! We are all working hard with stellar smiles on our faces and stars in our eyes as all the angels arrive and congregate to get this festival ready for you to arrive and delight in the experience of your transformation.
As you can see from the schedule above, we have a lot more going on than the festival itself. There are lots of free things for the community to participate in at the Heart Center Vendor Village.
If you are attending the festival, this will be the location that you check-in for registration. To help that process go smoother, we ask that you print out your ticket for easy scanning.
Please bring your yoga mat, your shining faces, an open heart, and a clear mind!
Our Opening Experience is taking place–THIS EVENING at 6:30 p.m. in the Heart Center Vendor Village. If you haven’t already, please take a look at the beautiful work-of-art that just so happens to be our program, where you will find schedules, maps, local information and helpful guides moving through the festival. To view the program, click here.
Much like a heart, the Heart Center Vendor Village has a flow and rhythm that moves in and out of the vendor’s huts, registration, John Soderberg’s sculpting studio, the outdoor stage, around a pond and
reaching out to the limbs of free yoga classes, local eats and areas to breathe. Bundle up and get familiar with the yoga community that is already forming around us all to create that beautiful lift and rise of consciousness.
Starting at 7 p.m. Friday night at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre, filmmaker Suzanne Bryant presents her film, “YOGA IS a Transformational Journey” . Through this journey, Suzanne meets the most prominent Yoga Gurus and teachers in the west and travels to India to explore the power of this ancient practice. Along the way she discovers what YOGA IS. Be sure not to miss her Tea Time Fireside chat on Sunday at L’Auberge Cottage from 3:30pm to 5:00 p.m.
Chris Spheeris will moderate Friday evening where he will show his short film, “Facets of Infinity” that has been ten years in the making. A collection of stills of cacti and succulents folding into mandalas and kaleidoscopes come alive in the perfect setting of Sedona. Be sure not to miss his other offerings, including his inspirational workshop, “All you have to do is Listen” .
Feb 3, 2014 | Sedona Yoga, Yoga Festival, Yoga Festival Experience
- Amara Resort and Spa
We are proud to work with many sensational Sedona venues and after taking the final walk-throughs and measurements, we couldn’t help but share the exquisite beauty that honors Sedona in all of her glory. Each location holds an incredible space for transformation, growth, imagination, exploration and creativity.
Come take a look with us and plan your SYF2014 Transformation!!
Salt water hot tub burrowed in the salt water infinity pool nestled cozily above the creek at Amara Resort and Spa. Here you can catch Pamela Quinn’s Ayurvedic workshops, Barbara Matsura’s Qigong’s Ba Duan Jin classes, and Robert Sturman’s Yoga Photography classes.
- Heather admiring one of John’s many phenomenal bronze sculptures that highlight the Sedona Creative Life Center.
Sedona Creative Life Center. Dedicated to creativity, fulfillment, growth and coming together in a diverse spiritual community for personal spiritual advancement, the Creative Life Center offers magical views of Sedona, beautiful spaces to gather and lifting rooms for learning. Home of our Mindful Therapeutic Yoga Practices for Veteran’s 2-day Intensive Training for Yoga Teachers, You’ll get to enjoy a healing meditative sonic journey on Saturday evening with East Forest from 7pm-10pm. Mark Whitwell presents Sunday morning as we move into Sarah McLean’s Meditation Gathering for World Peace at 1pm.
Start your mornings off right at 7 Centers Yoga Arts. Each morning there will be a Morning Sunrise Agni Hotra and Meditation at 7am with Ruth Hartung. There are many fulfilling classes here, Shelly Prosko’s “Happy Hearts Healthy Backs”, Liz Tucker’s “Bhavana in Motion” and Julia Mick’s “Biology of Ecstasy”. Sunday sit with Rama Jyoti Vernon for the World Peace Meditation at 1pm as Sarah McLean leads the broadcast Live to the World!
SYF 2014 Staff hard at work visualizing the magic and music that will unfold at the Sedona Rouge Hotel and Space. Starting Friday off, we have Barbara Matsuura’s “Sheng Zhen Gong, Unconditional Love Practice”, Saturday Stephanie Colletti gets our chakras dancing in her, “A SOULful , Whole-Being Healing Experience” and Sunday, Ana Brett and Ravi Singh encourages us to balance those crucial “glandular go-getters” in their, “Happy Hormones: Kundanlini Yoga” class with live gong music!
- Agave’s Terrace
Agave of Sedona is walking distance from our thriving Heart Center Vendor Village and home to one of the most breath-taking views here in West Sedona. Himalayan Institute’s Luke Ketterhagen will be teaching his class, “Agni Sara, The Master Practice” here, where you are sure to become the energy, light and transformative qualities of fire in this strengthening class. Finishing Friday off, Marguerite Baca will have us laughing, dancing with Outlaw Yoga and spinning fire with SYF’s Artistic Director, Matthew Hunsaker and tribe! This is where I’ll be Friday night, for sure!!
That’s just a few venues for now! Stay tuned for more visually stimulating captures that will be caught by our team of photographers and active participants!
Jan 30, 2014 | SYF2014 Presenters, Yoga Festival Experience
Ever heard that the way to God Consciousness is through the feminine? What this means is that we need to move away from sterile logic and attune more to our inner creative, and intuitional selves. A higher vibration, if you like, of how we are often living our lives. Women generally are great “multi taskers”, and whilst on the practice side this can be great for all concerned, for cultivating deeper spiritual experiences, we generally need to slow down and simplify our lives. Not easy when we may have to care for other family members, as well as go out to work. Women simply coming together can forge not only great friendships, but can actually help us to excrete oxytocin, which is a natural de-stressor.More and more women are realizing that they don’t have to become tougher to begin to turn the tide of change back to the matriarchy. It is a question of balancing the masculine and feminine energy within us, that is the very mechanism for prying open the center channel, where sacred energy often referred to as kundalini, awakens. It is for this that we practice. It is for this that we become aware, and it is for this that we aspire to create more peace and compassion in our lives. It starts with balancing the root chakra and cultivating apana vayu.
Camella will be giving an informative and inspirational talk along with some
asanas, on Friday at 3:30 at the Sedona Karate Academy. More information about Camella can be found at:
www.camellanair.com
Camella was born and raised in Bedford, England. At the age of 17, she began attending yoga classes with her mother. She moved to the United States in 1995, when her first born son was only 8 weeks old. It was then that she began to deepen her spiritual practice as she became a mother and housewife. She found the teachings she craved in a formal lineage when she began her studies with the Temple of Kriya Yoga in Chicago. It was a few years after the birth of her second son that she obtained her Yoga Teachers Certification.
Jan 14, 2014 | Sedona Yoga, Sedona Yoga Retreat, Yoga Conference, Yoga Festival Experience
Building on the tremendous success of their inaugural festival last year, organizers of the highly anticipated Sedona Yoga Festival are gearing up for another truly transformative event early next month. Thursday–Sunday, February 6–10, yogis and other conscious community members will flock to the quiet boulevards and soaring red rock canyons of Sedona for three days of yoga, music and energy work in the undisputed spiritual center of the American West.
For attendees, it’s an unprecedented opportunity for powerful personal growth—in a destination unlike any other. Unlike larger corporate-sponsorship yoga conferences, held in large central facilities with cavernous rooms and hundreds of attendees per class, the Sedona Yoga Festival schedule was developed specifically with the city’s quaint, homey atmosphere in mind. 200+ classes, workshops and events are sprinkled over 21 intimate local venues, with convenient shuttle service available and a variety of lodging options close at hand.
Presenter Cat Arena at Amara Resort
The flexible conference structure gives yogis the chance to weave their own experience in the richly colored cultural and natural tapestry of Sedona. Workshops and music are everywhere—spas, yoga studios, ballrooms, banquet halls, movie theaters, chapels and beyond. At the hub of this creative collective is Heart Center Village, a lively central gathering and registration area where participants can share the festival experience with yoga, healthy food and drink, conscious vendors, live music, listening lounges and a host of free, open-to-public activities.
The event’s esteemed faculty is widely varied and deeply experienced—and, befitting the destination, utterly down to Earth. Presenters were chosen not purely for their marquis-friendly names, but for the richly layered credentials, commitment to consciousness and unfailing authenticity that resonate in Sedona’s spiritually charged environment. Among them are acclaimed author/teacher Mark Whitwell, Yoga Journal Co-Founder Rama Vernon, Kundalini masters Ana Brett and Ravi Singh, best-selling spiritual author Sunny Dawn Johnston and more than 100 yogis, healers, artists, authors, musicians, shamans, scientists, philosophers and performers.
Together, the festival’s 108 presenters will facilitate more than 200 classes, workshops and events, from Yoga Nidra to Ecstatic Dance and just about everything in between. Conference attendees are also encouraged to set aside time for the exploration and contemplation of their surroundings, which include some of the most breathtaking high desert landscapes in the world. With more than four million annual visitors, Sedona is a virtual mecca for hikers, bikers, artists and spiritual seekers. Rich in energy “vortexes,” the area has long been known for its inspiring, regenerative powers—making it the ideal place to take one’s practice to the next level.
“Sedona is such an inspirational place, and so closely aligned with the principles of any yogic, spiritual or consciousness practice. It seemed incredible that there wasn’t already a festival here—or indeed a cohesive yoga offering we could share with the world.” said Marc Titus, SYF Founder and Director. “We are so honored to be helping to fill that gap as we bring the yoga community hOMe to Sedona.” In keeping with the spirit of seva, SYF is donating a portion of conference proceeds to the Give Back Yoga Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting yoga teachers in the offering of service to their communities.
SYF2014 kicks off at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 6. click here for complete conference schedules or click here to purchase tickets.
Now here I am, grateful to announce and tell you all of the beautiful alignment which has come to be. I reached out to Sedona Yoga Festival not too long ago (after having been away on my personal journey since our last crossing), and told them all about my visions, and wishes to join forces of positivity, light and love for PEACE – and of course, they are all in! We have now joined together and begun to organize in bringing what shall be the very first Peace In Peace Out (PIPO) event to the United States of America, and will be having a Global Peace Meditation this coming year at SYF!
