The excitement is building as Team 3ME prepares for another transcendent weekend at the Midwest Yoga Conference, May 17-20, just outside of the Windy City in Bloomingdale, IL.
Each year we look forward to returning to MYC as a particularly nurturing community in the Midwest. It is a home-away-from-home for us, where all of the staff treats me like family. There are people who come only to this show each spring, and they’ve been doing so for years. One of the personal highlights for me is the yoga demonstration given annually by Jim Bennitt. I have filmed him two years in a row and will make these videos available for viewing online after this year’s event.
What it is that makes this conference so special is a feeling that must be experienced rather than described. As you visit their website, you encounter a sense of enlightened intimacy, even in its virtual presence. On their theme of Beauty and Truth, Jonny Kest radiates an open invitation to “come join a radical detox movement that will celebrate a weekend of sweet yoga, live music and led dance flows,” inviting all walks of life to come together onto the mat for a shared experience.
The environment is humble and nurturing, giving students the opportunity to practice under the guidance of numerous well-respected teachers in the yoga community.
Many teachers also return year after year, including 3ME Family member Janet Stone. Her long-time teaching assistant, Jody Greene, shares that
“The Midwest Yoga Conference is simply perfect, offering an opportunity to practice with premier instructors teaching yoga in the US today, in an intimate setting — one that allows you to fully drop in, rather than feeling like you’re lost in a yoga megamall…. From the full day intensives on Thursday to the carefully-paced schedule of weekend classes, lectures and live music, MYC is beautifully designed and brilliantly executed.”
Janet will be teaching a full-day intensive on Thursday, 5/17, to kick off the weekend’s festivities. We are thrilled that she continues incorporating the Eggs into her instruction. They have become an integral prop in her Radiant Mom Yoga classes and DVD, as well as in her recently released iPhone app, Yoga with Janet Stone.
In honor of MYC, and as means to express our building anticipation, we are launching a 3ME giveaway starting on Friday, 5/11 and culminating on the first day of the conference, Thursday 5/17. We will be giving away a Namastegg Starter Kit, including our Special Edition Alignment & Flow DVD and Signature Backpack, along with a copy of Janet Stone’s Radiant Mom Yoga DVD. (For more information, check out the details here.)
This year we look forward to seeing many other familiar faces incorporating the Eggs into intensives and workshops, including Cornell Colbert, Moses Michael Kup, Les Leventhal, and Kia Miller.
This will be Kia’s first time at MYC, and already she tells us that she is drawn by the underlying spirituality of the conference. She says
“the event feels really inclusive to me, an opportunity to drop into the truth of who you are in the support of a community of seekers. In a time of uncertainty and great change in the world, I feel strongly that we need to come together and share what works for us, work through our stuff, so that the light of truth shines through all that we do, all that we say. The time is now and the way is through YOGA, union within ourselves and our communities. I am reminded of what Swami Sivananda Sarswati said 30 years ago: ’Yoga is not an ancient myth buried in oblivion. It is the most valuable inheritance of the present. It is the essential need of today and the culture of tomorrow.’ We are in that culture now, and it is spreading like a wildfire across the country and world. Beauty and Truth here we come!”
It’s not too late to sign up for this amazing annual event. Hope to see you there!