Charlotte Clean and Green April 17 Honoring Earth Day

Charlotte Clean and Green returns to the Central Campus of Central Piedmont Community College on April 17th from 10am-3pm. The Earth Day event will offer individuals, families and businesses the opportunity to learn how helping to save our natural resources can also save money, create economic opportunity and provide for healthier living. Free workshops and presentations will be offered on home efficiency, green living, solar photovoltaic and hot water, green remodeling and building, green careers and much more. Vendors and exhibitors will showcase green products, services and ideas to help save money and conserve our natural resources.

Great food choices and activities for kids and teens and live music and entertainment provided by Sensoria and John Tosco round out the fun-filled day.

For more information visit www.charlottecleanandgreen.com.

Matthews Earth Day Recycling Event April 24

Make a difference in the amount of junk that goes into our landfills and for local non-profits at the fourth annual Earth Day in Matthews April 24th from 10-1 in Stumptown Park.   As part of the event, Habitat and Wildlife Keepers (HAWK) is promoting a giant recycling initiative. You can bring the numerous items to Earth Day and they will be properly disposed, reused, or donated to nonprofit groups.   Items being collected are: cell phones, eyeglasses, aluminum pull tabs, hard plastic caps, egg cartons, compact fluorescent light bulbs, natural or synthetic wine corks and inkjet cartridges. Goodwill will be collecting computers and computer parts. 

to help make a difference, Matthews!  Start collecting your stuff now and bring it to Earth Day.  While you're there, visit all the different booths to learn more about what you can do and what's going on in the world around you.  There will be food and music, so bring the kids and make a day of it.   For info or to participate in the event, contact Debbie Foster at 704-841-1372 or [email protected] or visit www.habitatsteward.com.  

Center Vibe Offering Unique Holistic Services The Center for Vibrational WellBeing (also know as Center Vibe) is now offering a variety of treatments and services that complement each other to promote holistic care. An array of specialists help wellness guests achieve their health goals.

An acupuncturist, chiropractor, health coach and naturopath are on staff and Healing Touch, Reiki, massage and NADA AcuDetox are available. Each practitioner uses a specific blend of techniques in his or her practice. Center Vibe takes pride in its Community Acupuncture and NADA AcuDetox programs that make holistic care affordable to all.

Nutritional counseling and coaching, health seminars, yoga, tai chi and qi gong classes are ongoing. The center also offers space rental opportunities for events.

Co-owner Margaret Thornton considers Center Vibe a one-stop solution for vibrant wellbeing to all who walk through the doors. “The idea that it is not the healer that does the work, but the patient’s readiness that allows the healing is our premise,” she says.

Center Vibe is located at 1111 Hawthorne Lane, Bldg C. For more information call 704-875-0585 or visit www.centervibe.com.

GrassRoots Yoga & Meditation A Common Ground for Consciousness

GrassRoots Yoga & Meditation recently opened in the NoDa area of Charlotte. Grown from India’s traditional roots of yoga, the studio offers an environment where yogis of all levels experience yoga as something beyond the body. 

“I opened GrassRoots Yoga & Meditation after learning there was more to yoga then what the surrounding westernized yoga studios were offering,” says owner and instructor Meghan Tartamella. “I’ve experienced yoga as something beyond the body and want to share that experience with the community."  

GrassRoots offers ayurvedic diet assessments, energy work, chakra balancing and specialty classes such as Candlelit Flow and Yoga Lunch on Vinyl in an environmentally friendly studio. 

Tartamella says participants will be able to enhance themselves in a caring, supportive and adds, “I give my scouts honor to never make any student of GrassRoots Yoga practice to a Justin Timberlake album.”

Grassroots Yoga & Meditation is located at 511 E. 34th St., Studio 204. For info call 704-668-9690 or visit www.GrassRootsYoga.net.

Inner Peaks Expands to Include Yoga Studio

Inner Peaks Climbing Center recently expanded to include a yoga studio. Inner Peace Yoga offers 12 classes per week with Yoga Alliance certified instructors in a variety of styles, including Beginner’s Hatha, Anusara-inspired and Vinyasa-style classes. 

Owners Page Lee and Doug Cosby were inspired to start the studio after they noticed how their rock climbing improved from their dedicated yoga practice. “We saw benefits in all areas of our lives and experienced lower stress, better sleep and an all around improved attitude,” says Lee, a Charlotte Roller Girl.

Cosby says the addition of the yoga studio and fitness room is a boon to existing customers. “The fitness room usage is free with a regular membership or day pass and yoga classes are ½ off. Now some members of the family can climb while others enjoy a yoga class or fit in a quick work out, all under one roof.”

Inner Peace is located at 9535 Monroe Rd. To find out more call 704-844-6677 or visit www.innerpeaks.com or www.innerpeacecharlotte.com.

Yamuna Bodyrolling Classes Roll away aches and pains

Yamuna Bodyrolling, a fitness and therapy practice that combines healing, wellness and injury prevention, is now available in Charlotte. The unique modality helps to relieve problems ranging from sciatica and herniated disks to fibromyalgia and low back, neck and shoulder pain.

Balls of various sizes are used to work specific muscles in the body, to optimize range of motion, reeducate muscles and stimulate bone while creating positive, permanent changes in the body.

"My goal is to help people keep their bodies fit, pain-free, and totally functional so they can sustain their quality of life,” says Cat Corchado, a certified Yamuna Body Rolling (YBR) Practitioner and pilates instructor.

YBR works the way a hands on practitioner works, only using a ball. The ball replaces hands as it moves on muscles to stretch and dislodge tension and discomfort, increase blood flow and promote healing.

“Now you can roll away aches and pains while getting a wonderful massage at the same time,” says Corchado.

Group and private classes are available at the BellyGuru Family Yoga Studio, 219 Main St., Ste. A, Pineville. For info on other classes forming contact Corchado at 704-806-5771 or [email protected]. For more info visit www.yamunabodyrolling.com. Gardening with Nature Intelligences Create a personal oasis

Spring is time to break out the gardening tools and reconnect with nature. Gardening with Nature Intelligences workshop will help you create a garden, outdoor haven or personal oasis in harmony with nature that radiates outward to encompass your neighborhood and community. 

Attendees will learn a simple muscle testing technique as a way to "hear" what the nature intelligences impart and how to form questions for better discernment on creating your garden. The workshop will assist participants in deciding what plants, arrangement, number and location are best for their nature spirit sanctuary.

Bird feeders, water elements and focal points will also be discussed. Students will make a simple Genesa Crystal that draws in energy and cleanses and balances it before sending it back out.   Instructor Cynthia Barnes says the class will help gardeners “build on their earth sensitivities and come into active partnership with nature.” Barnes is a trained Habitat Steward of the National Wildlife Federation and apprenticed under shamanic practitioners Hank Wessleman and Jill Kuykendall.

The workshop will be held April 18 at Harmony Yoga in South Charlotte from 2-4pm. Cost is $25. To register, contact Barnes at 704-661-0270. Full Moon Drumming April 30 On the Square at Trade & Tryon                        

Monthly full moon drum circles will begin uptown on April 30. The music circle is open to all ages and no experience is necessary. Bring drums, tambourines, rattles and other instruments. Be ready to free your dancing feet with the primal beat.

Circle leader Steve Nelson says the beat of the drums brings celebrators into tune with the rhythms of nature, while the dancers evoke and raise powerful currents of life energy.

“The drums and the dance naturally raise, harmonize and transmute primal energy. This energy then becomes available to power individual and group intentions that quietly go on the air,” states Nelson, a professional astrologer and celebrationist.

The circle takes place on the Square at Trade and Tryon Streets from 8-10:30pm. For more info: [email protected].

Sacred Activist Andrew Harvey Visits April 9 & 10 book signing and workshop

Andrew Harvey, renowned mystical scholar, author and founder of The Institute for Spiritual Activism, will bring his message of spirituality and world communion to Charlotte.

Harvey will hold a lecture and book signing “Rumi and the Sacred Wound” on April 9th at 7pm. The interfaith workshop “Sacred Activism” will take place April 10th from 9:30am-4pm. Both events will be held at Myers Park Baptist Church.

In his workshop, Harvey will discuss the five forms of service that are necessary to become a sacred activist and the seven laws that that he has distilled from the world’s mystical traditions that govern the wise use of sacred activism.

The special event will be the first in a series of guest speakers, seminars, classes and workshops sponsored by The Olive Branch Center for Spiritual Inclusion and Solidarity in Charlotte.

“It is time in our evolution to join together our spiritual practices with our commitment to peace and solidarity,” says Chris Saade, co-director of The Olive Branch.

For registration details visit www.theolivebranchcenter.net. To learn more about Andrew Harvey go to www.andrewharvey.net. Matthews to Become a Community Wildlife Habitat

The town of Matthews is doing what comes naturally and is committed to becoming a Community Wildlife Habitat, a certification bestowed by the National Wildlife Federation.

Individuals, businesses, schools, the town government, faith communities and other groups are working together to preserve wildlife and give animals water, food, shelter, and a place to raise their young.

To qualify, the town must earn 450 points from a list of goals that include such items as educational programs, garden tours, stream clean up, environmental websites and a certain number of Backyard Wildlife Habitats and Schoolyard Wildlife Habitats.

It will take 2-3 years to get certified. After the goal is achieved, the town must be recertified every year by completing a number of other activities.

The effort will be led by members of Habitat and Wildlife Keepers (HAWK), the local chapter of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation. HAWK president Carol Buie-Jackson hopes the program will rally the entire community to reconnect with the natural world.

“If enough people get involved this could help improve the water quality in Matthews streams, increase recycling participation, reduce the level of chemicals we are using in our homes and gardens, preserve greenspace and get kids to turn off the video game and get outside and explore,” states Buie-Jackson.

For more information visit www.habitatsteward.org.