Creative Yoga Events to Inspire Community
Sponsored Content by Celebrant Foundation & Institute
Credit: John Lund/Tiffany Schoepp/Thinkstock
Yoga and Meditation Instructor Candace Ryan and certified Life-Cycle Celebrant® Pamela Packard of Flagstaff AZ, friends for a few years, recently partnered to offer captivating and valued community events with their favorite local Yoga studio owned by Malissa Bobbitt.
Pam tells us, “My friend Candace is a yoga and meditation instructor in our local jail (so cool!) and has also been playing the crystal singing bowls and gongs for quite some time. Almost two years ago she had the idea that we partner up to do full moon ceremony and sound baths at our favorite yoga studio in downtown Flagstaff. Our first one was the full Wolf moon of January 2016. We also did the full Flower moon last May and we just did the Strawberry moon this June.”
The joining of these wise women to create an array of successful, yoga-centered, life-awakening, healing and empowering earth-based ceremonies are much loved by their community and regularly attended. They are attracting not only Yoginis but turning the community on to the higher purpose of Yoga (that teaches us to tune in and respect life), and for some, maybe for the first time. This combination of Yoga, Meditation and Ceremony is a great match that resonates well on many levels. Their attendees pay up to $25.00 a person for each special event that they have now come to value and depend on.
I say: “Hail to insightfulness and wisdom of Pam, Candace and Malissa who are making Flagstaff, AZ a flagship creating noble and successful Yoga to community inspired events.”
Reading about their story in this article may just be what you need to get you thinking about viable ways to create a buzz and offer relevant events like this in your community and engaging like-minded organizations.
What’s amazing that’s coming from this dynamic team? Pam tells us, “We are very proud that this fall 2017, we will be holding a free to the public, world-wide “Peace ceremony” at an outdoor venue in historic downtown Flagstaff, sponsored through the City.”
Here are some excerpts of events written on their Facebook event to give you a feel of the warm and fresh way they market their offerings:
- June 9, 2017: Join the pack as we gather once again to howl at the moon—the full, ripe Strawberry moon of June. What are you ready to harvest? To bring to fruition? Come energize and solidify your intentions with ceremony and sound bath led by Celebrant Pam Packard and "Gongster" Candace Ryan.
- December 31, 2016: Good Riddance Ceremony! No matter what kind of year you’ve had, it’s time to put it to rest. Join us in ritual ceremony to empty ourselves and make room for the hopes and promise of the new year. No hindrances, nothing to hold us back, just a fresh start and a pure heart for 2017! This brief ceremony will prepare you for a guided meditation and sound bath immediately to follow, where you will be bathed with crystal singing bowls and gongs. (Not a full moon ceremony).
- May 21, 2016: Come howl with us at the Full Flower Moon May 21 as Candace Ryan and Pam Packard once again come together in a healing ceremony and sound bath. We will focus on gratitude and a sense of community. Please bring a single flower for a sharing ritual.
- January 23, 2016: January was dubbed the month of the Wolf Moon for amid the deep, dark cold of midwinter, wolves could be heard howling in hunger outside the villages. Through ceremony, we will honor the “hunger” that grows within each of us—our dreams and desires for betterment, peace and prosperity. Come howl with us, giving voice to your intentions, strengthening your resolve to endure this period of seemingly-endless darkness, and reaffirming your belief in the rightness of your place in our pack and the turning of the seasons.
Pam Packard is a certified Life-Cycle Celebrant® dedicated to the belief that ceremony can have long-lasting, life-enhancing effects in our lives. “In ceremony,” she says, “past, present and future meet and all take their proper seat.” Seasonally minded and spiritually open, she loves using relevant and meaningful words, symbols and rituals to honor and help order the human experience. She holds three certificates from the Celebrant Foundation and Institute (Ceremonies for Couples & Ceremonies across the Life-Cycle, 2010, and Ceremonies for Healing, 2015), as well as a M.A. in English from NAU (1994).
Candace Ryan is a Yoga and meditation Instructor, Reiki Master and Holistic Coach. She is the Founder and Facilitator of The Peaceful Revolution Project offering yoga and meditation to underserved and at-risk populations since 2013 specifically to the inmates in the Reentry and Exodus pods at the Coconino County Detention Center for the last 4.5 years, as well as the Facilitator at Soulstice. Her passion is working with under empowered, at risk and underserved populations by providing an inclusive approach to yoga and mindfulness geared towards individuals struggling with addiction, generational trauma.
Malissa Bobbitt, Studio owner of Northern Arizona Yoga Center, Flagstaff, AZ since 1999. Malisa has taught many disciplines to many ages. In 2006, she completed her 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training with Tom and Trisha Kelly in Encinitas, California. Since then, she has taught 1000s of hours and continued her education with Master Teachers Rod Stryker, Tim Miller, Leslie Kaminoff, and many others. In February of 2011, she completed a Yoga Alliance, 500 Yoga Teacher Training that mainly focused on Yoga Therapy; Many of her teachers have studied directly with Desikachar himself. She founded Vertical Soul Yoga in 2011 and is the Director of the Yoga Teacher Training. Her passion is to make yoga accessible to all and to create a loving space to practice the art of yoga. http://northernarizonayogacenter.com/
About the Celebrant Foundation & Institute
The Celebrant Foundation & Institute (CF&I) is the nation’s preeminent online educational institute that teaches and certifies people as modern day ritual and ceremony professionals called Life-Cycle Celebrants®. Founded in 2001, the educational nonprofit organization headquartered in Montclair, NJ, is a member of the International Federation of Celebrants. To date, the CF&I has graduated nearly 900 Life-Cycle Celebrants® who preside over 20,000 ceremonies each year throughout North America, Asia and Europe. To learn more about the CF&I, visit www.celebrantinstitute.org
Watch January 2017's Weddings with Zita (Zita Christian) with featured guest Elisa Chase, CF&I Academic Manager, discussing Ceremony, Rituals and the Celebrant Foundation & Institute.
