New Teachers and New Classes are coming to the studio!

We are so happy to introduce you to Emily Wright and Jacob Friedman.

EMILY WRIGHT (she/her) Emily's greatest guides are creativity, honesty and heart, and she strives to bring each to every space she holds for healing. Her classes have a soothing tone that inspires softness and self-compassion, balanced with activation of the physical and energetic bodies to empower a connection to wholeness. The practices she offers are the same ones that have guided her to finding steadfast peace in the most trying moments, and her guidance is rooted in trusting the wisdom of life's unfolding.

Emily will be teaching Practice Flow on Tuesdays at 5:45 pm at the studio.

Practicing Flow Anchored in intentional breath technique, each session combines a mix of breath-to-movement flow, held postures and therapeutic movement that builds physical strength and flexibility, creates spaces to release energetic blockages and balance vital life force. This blending of dynamic movement and Pranayama is active with modifications, appropriate for all levels and abilities.

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JACOB FRIEDMAN (he/him) As a yoga teacher, Jacob guides you to cultivate a curiosity that may be panoramic or precise, but is always oriented towards the present. Knowing that the potency of your practice depends upon the quality of your inquiring attention, each class is designed as a formal play structure within which you might extract a morsel of insight from the inner workings of your experience. Using tangible forms of asana and pranayama, we investigate the more ephemeral narratives internal to the form. We play with a plethora of tools, techniques, and maps to orient and organize the mind, body, and breath with integrity. Landing fully alive in the here and now, we set up the conditions to have a joyful experience, and to radiate that joy to others. We practice for personal and communal well-being.

Jacob will be teaching Hatha Yoga (Katonah-inspired) Mondays at 9:00 am at the studio.

Hatha Yoga (Katonah-inspired) In this Katonah Yoga inspired class, traditional Hatha yoga is infused with Taoist principles, geometry, metaphor and maps to orient and organize the practitioner in time and space. Working with the trinity of mind, body and breath, we set up the forms (asana) in order to fit for proper function, and navigate the mind and breath through the body to define and refine personal space. Fitting yourself well first, you can then go out and fit well with others. We practice for personal and communal well-being and joy.

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Earth day, any day, every day

Hello beloveds,

Earth Day is April 22nd. There are countless ways we can honor this day. I would LOVE to hear how you center around this day of awareness and intention.

One way I have decided to center on Earth day is to support and suggest joining the Equitable Giving Circle plant exchange - where white folks gift plants to BIPOC folks in the Portland area. You can “Plant it Forward” – follow this link https://floranoir.us/product/plant-it-forward-plants/ to both support Flora Noir, a local, black-owned, women-run business and the BIPOC folkx who receive the gift!

Plant it Forward is a project of Equitable Giving Circle (https://www.equitablegivingcircle.org/). There is some powerful work going on here, please check them out and consider supporting one of their many wonderful projects, including the plant circle and their CSA Program (https://www.equitablegivingcircle.org/#csaprogram).

I am also very inspired by The Black Food Sovereignty Coalition, a collaboration hub for Black and Brown communities to confront the systemic barriers that make food, place and economic opportunities inaccessible to us. whose mission is to ignite Black and brown communities to participate as owners and movement leaders within food systems, placemaking, and economic development.(https://blackfoodnw.org/)

Happy Earth Day – I hope you take the opportunity to put your bare feet on the Earth, to soak up the beautiful, grounding energy and let it warm you from the soles of the feet all the way into your heart. Feel the air, breathe it in. Feel the connections that are all around you, ever-present. We are united in this shared experience of BEING.

With love,
Laela