Yoga with Rebecca

Six Week Birth Yoga Session

2012-02-10T08:19:00.000-08:00

... coming up at Peace of Paradise in Chester, VT - Call Jenn at 802.875.8008 to register.

This six week session is a synthesis of a birth preparation and pre-natal yoga class. As a trained doula, long-time aspiring mid-wife and certified yoga instructor, and mama of two home birth babies, Rebecca has been working toward this vision for many years. Each session is 90 minutes long, with 30 to 45 minutes dedicated to discussion and education surrounding the physiology of labor and birth as well as strategies for coping and the different types of assistance typically available for home and hospital births. The remaining 45 to 60 minutes will be spent on a complimentary prenatal yoga practice that mirrors the three stages of labor. Birth partners are welcome to join for the entire session but are invited specifically for the last two classes at no additional cost. Please see the class outline for more details and leave a message for Rebecca at (802) 518-4421 if you have any questions. She will return your call as soon as she is able.

1. Early Labor - The 3 R's - Pranayama and Gentle Yoga Poses
2. Active Labor - Meditation & Communication - Standing Poses
3. Transition - Surrendering & Opening - Balance Poses / Forward Bends
4. The Big Push & Postpartum Preparation - Kundalini Yoga
5. PostPartum, Baby Love & Nursing - Restorative Yoga / Partner Poses
6. Whole Birth Yoga Partner Practice - Tea Party & Time to Chat

Cost: $72 for the Session

Breaking, Braking and Beginning Again

2011-10-20T05:18:00.000-07:00

It has been just about two and half months since I fractured the head of my radius and sprained my wrist this summer and I'm just beginning to get back to a regular practice on my mat. It feels so good to practice again - just as good as it has felt to put the "brakes" on my practice and teaching. (I do miss my students very much though!) How can I explain though, the way the yoga had begun to feel? The repetition of the poses was not soothing anymore, but agitating. While standing in Warrior II or pressing up into Cobra my mind was racing to the next bit even as I stayed with the constant rhythm of my breath. The resistance in my hamstrings was no more and with my whole body so open all of the time, my energetic body felt exposed, sensitive, constantly in flux. The stillness of these past couple of months have been so restorative. Yesterday, when I was following Elena Brower's guidance to breathe into my belly and move my pubic bone further back as I rounded my tailbone to release further into purvotanasana I was grateful for the resistance - grateful for the parts of myself that are not so willing to open, grateful for my structure, my boundaries. I have never wanted to be fragile. I have never really understood that I can break; for a long time I only pursued a path of growing, toughening, falling down over and over to remember that I can stand. Coming back to practice after this time of rest, resigning to my injury and having to settle for so much less than what I am usually able and wanting to give of myself has been the best gift. Each pose brought a welcome release of tension in the muscles and felt so calming and familiar. Again I was reminded of how fluid we are.

So, I must say, I am excited to begin teaching again though I'm not sure where or when at this time. I am working with Jenn at Peace of Paradise in Chester (VT) to begin a six-week series of pre-natal yoga that will begin as soon as we have enough folks registered - most likely this week or the week after. After that, I'd like to get another class going before the end of the year. In the mean time, check out YOGA GLO! ... $20 bucks a month and you've got access to so many of the greatest teachers out there right now. My old college house mate and Anusara superstar Noah Maze is there and then the lovely Elena Brower and so many more! Let me know what you think ... Blessings to all of you and I do miss you, sweet students of mine, I will be in touch with more news at some point soon.

Leaving Home

2011-06-25T08:01:00.001-07:00

My little one sends an OM to his mama while I am away - can't wait to get back home - but feeling good to be here too - a moment of the impossible coming true. Just being still where I am - something that I have never learned to do. Each day is different, each day really is new.

Sprockets is such a GREAT SPACE!

2011-06-07T05:27:00.000-07:00

This is Priscilla Millay - brand new yogini I have been blessed to meet since beginning to teach at Sprockets Cycle Studio in Bellows Falls. I'm no my way there right now and just wanted to share this ... the space is so great, you will like it when you come, I think you will. Have a great day .... :)!

Check out Yoga Journal's 21 Day Challenge

2011-01-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

A new video every day ... many types of yoga and meditation and it's all free ... a great way to kick start a practice that's been in hibernation. The solstice has passed, days are getting longer, spring will be here before we know it. Enjoy your wintry inside time and slow down this restful season with these great classes!

Expressing Gratitude, Finding Compassion

2010-11-23T09:03:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving has ALWAYS been my very most favorite holiday. Some of my warmest memories from my childhood are from around this time of year. Who can resist the yummy smells from the kitchen, family and friends filling the house, relaxing with a full belly on the couch or going out for a later afternoon walk ... so sweet! My mom would always talk about how she wanted us to volunteer at a Soup Kitchen or do something together that truly showed how grateful we were for our home and our health by helping folks who aren't as fortunate. I think we did cook a meal or two somewhere along the way, but now that I have my own kids, I sometimes struggle with this too. I want them to really understand the meaning of each holiday; celebrate with food and family but also find some way to express their gratitude more directly.

I have been reading Judith Lasater's great book, Living Your Yoga, and opened to her chapter about Compassion this morning. It then occurred to me how finding compassion is such a difficult thing to do and how it is often the doorway we need to pass through to begin to feel more grateful for all of our life experiences, even the hard ones. She begins the chapter by quoting Yoga Sutra, 1:33:

maitri-karuna-mudita-upekshanam sukha-duhkha-punya-apunya-vishayanam bhavanatash-citta-prasadanam

The projection of friendliness, compassion, gladness, and equanimity towards objects - be they joyful, sorrowful, meritorious, or demeritorious - bring about the pacification of consciousness.

Aaaaaaaaah, yes. The pacification of consciousness ... turning off that noisy voice in our heads, louder for some than others, but we all have it. Always telling us what we've done right and what we've done wrong OR how this person shoulda and shouldn't have and why couldn't they just have ... done THIS?! HOW do we do it? Lassater advises beginning with ourselves (of course)! Finding compassion for ourselves is a regular reminder during yoga classes and the holidays are also a great time to really nurture the love and acceptance we have for ourselves. The more we can do this, the greater our ability to BE compassionate for others, and the more grateful we can be for the lessons they bring us. So much easier said than done ... but each day, each breath, each moment is a new opportunity to try, to practice, to explore ...... all for now! Must go clean the kitty litter and work on my gratitude for these sweet pets as they continually make more stinkies for me to clean up.

Invoking Tapas

2010-10-05T06:21:00.000-07:00

Tapas is the heat that we generate in our bodies when practicing yoga poses (asanas). This heat is the product of the clear and focused effort that is required of our bodies, our hearts and our minds when we step into ourSelves and practice yoga. This effort is not imagined, it is not just a passing thought, it is not something that we work up to and fling out of ourselves like a wishing stone into a well. This is the kind of effort that is whole, true, and derived from a place inside of us that is connected to our true state of bliss (ananda).

The invocation of tapas begins with the inhalation; drawing energy up from the Earth. But what does this mean? For me, it means telling myself that I am okay, I am here, I am whole, I am alive, I am worthy, I am good enough just as I am. For me, it means beginning with my very fragile ego self and loving it just a bit, just to begin, just so I can believe. And then, I hold it there for moment. I hold the breath with this belief that I can do this and next I am ready to open, move more deeply into this stretch, this scary pose, this unknown balancing act and just try it out. Am I okay? Did I fall over? Nope. I'm here! I got it. It's okay.

As I continue through I find that the heat is building, the tapas grows stronger and more focused and the effort it takes to accomplish the next task (whether it is another Vinyasa, teaching my five year-old to tie his shoes or facilitating a board meeting) becomes less. I have been really enjoying drawing an awareness of this ancient yogic concept (one of the niyamas, for all of you yogic philosophy buffs out there) into my practice and into my life. When we engage and cultivate taps in our daily life, focus on the goal that will fulfill our heart's deepest desire (sankalpa) then that intense transformational heat, firey intention is bound to burn the pieces of our lives that do not serve us. What a gift?! AND what a great meditation to call upon during these times of slowly cooling weather; inviting fire into our hearts as it gets to be time to call it back into our homes.

Some Notes on Alignment

2010-08-13T09:16:00.001-07:00

The practice of helping students find their "alignment" in a pose is one of the most basic challenges of teaching yoga. I think this is mostly because I am always searching for the balance and because every style of yoga has a different philosophy about the importance of being in physical alignment and the best way to get there. I was trained in Iyengar style yoga which is typically known as a very rigid style of yoga because of its absolute commitment to physical alignment FIRST. It is only after you can practice hasta padangustasana (hand to big toe pose, http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2473) with your knee straight and your shoulder blades connected to the back that you should move onto half moon pose, etc. Once you have mastered asana practice THEN it is more appropriate to practice pranayama (yogic breathing). BUT this isn't ABSOLUTELY true because Yoga does not offer absolutes - we are going both directions at once in order to find the middle, the union, the nebulous, wonderful moment that exists between the absolutes. SO, I have come to think about and understand alignment in the following way.

Drawing our bodies into the proper physical alignment is important because we do all share a common anatomical design that allows our bodies to be the most strong, most comfortable, mobile and healthy bodies we can have. This is a great thing; to walk, dance, sit, drive, work, and live in THIS body.

Yoga postures DO nurture this alignment when we are putting our awareness in the right place - BUT if we lose the awareness and the intention and the focus - THEN the poses can actually reinforce the predisposed patterns we have that can create pain, blocked energy, and inhibit our overall mobility and comfort.

Yoga postures are EASIER when we do them with proper alignment and it is these basic principles that allow us to progress to more challenging and interesting practice that actually requires LESS work to have a greater impact. WOW - it really is very cool.

AND it is fairly common that many misalignments in our bodies often correlate with an old or current belief, idea, emotion we have about ourselves and our place here on Earth. When we come into a place of physical alignment we have to push through some of these ideas and we do open the door allowing new ideas, patterns of energy, thoughts to take hold within our very sometimes stubborn psyches.

More to come on this ... but right now I feel my sitting bones rolling to toward the sky and my shoulders sinking toward the earth ... time to get up and GO. Blessings and see you all soon!

Beginning Yoga

2009-12-08T05:21:00.000-08:00

I was very lucky to begin two new classes yesterday that were composed of almost entirely new students. It has left me thinking about all of the different reasons that we come to yoga. We come to yoga to find some time for ourSelves, we come to yoga to just get stronger, we come to yoga to heal old aches and sprains, we may to find some bit of this thing called enlightenment, we come to be calm and we come to yoga because we just want to feel better. All of these different reasons can be overwhelming for me as they walk into the studio ... yoga does give all of these things, but I think the road to getting them is difficult and it's not always clear that you will get there when you are just beginning. There are disappointments, facing the truths of our bodies, watching our busy, rushing minds, checking out the possible new friend next to us whose yoga pants look so much cuter than yours ... there is a lot to push aside to just get down to you and your mat and your yoga ... well, at least there was a LOT for me to push through.

But then surely there are also the sweet surprises and all of the joy that comes with feeling your body get stronger, your mind become slower, the breath becoming deeper and we do actually begin to find peace and understanding and the opportunity to have a new perception of who we ARE and that is AWESOME. And so, we practice. We practice yoga for the joy of the moment and for the possibility of what is to come and like so many things in life, we can learn that there we CAN do more than we think we can. We can balance one leg in tree pose or fly high in half moon pose or even hold ourselves upside down for a bit in handstand; it just takes patience, practice, and quite a lot of courage. So grateful to get to see it and be a part of it all.

More Yoga Dance Pictures

2009-08-09T08:22:00.000-07:00

Trouble Leaving Comments?

2009-08-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

I have gotten word that some folks are having trouble with leaving commnents - I think i have fixed the problem, so please try again. If you still are not able to post then just email a note to me and I will post it up for you - thanks for the input!

YogaDance ..... WOW

2009-08-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

So much love and gratitude to SARA STOWELL of Proctorsville for planting this seed - I had so much fun with all of the kids and parents who were part of this experience. Some of the sweetest moments and insights came from our opening conversations about the relationship between yoga and dance. We tried to give the kids a different example of the interplay between our "inner" and "outer" worlds were related to each other by using yoga (a quiet, meditative, singular practice) and dance (an energetic, expressive, group experience) as a metaphor for how we are always moving between these two spaces in our daily lives. Ashley asked the kids what they did to "go inside" on day three ... some kids showed us yoga poses that they already knew (pigeon and child's pose), others said they liked to sleep and a few just shrugged their shoulders with a very earnest, " I don't know". I loved this honest sharing and it was profound for me to remember that quieting down and being with ourSelves - that piece of us that makes us absolutely, uniquely, beautiful individuals and yet is also the part that is connected to everyone and everything else - is NOT something that we automatically know how to do - we have to take the time to learn how to do it and that this is a process that never really ends ... SO, we did talk a bit about fear as well - a stong emotion that just about everyone could relate to - and the students shared stories about different times that they felt afraid to do something new but eventually decided to give the new thing a try and how good it felt to walk through that nervous moment into the knowledge that they are could do the thing and be alright. We talked about how our bodies felt when we were scared or nervous: tight, hard to breathe, stiff. This conversation easily set us up to reiterate the importance of BREATH and why we pay attention to our breathing during yoga practice ... so beautiful! This all led to practicing handstands - also a scarey experience that everybody tried and found some level of success with.

You may want to do more animal poses with your kids and ask them about the messages they recieve - wow! this was another source of serious sweetness. Some of the messages that came through were: swim peacefully (dolphin pose), ribbit (frog pose), have an open heart, and hippity hippity hop. I will be more ready to write these down right away next time because they were just so great. AND then there were many stories that would come up spontaneously during yoga practice - and though I do strive for this to be quiet time for the kids I mostly had to let these stories come up as they were all related to the pose in some way.

Finally, thank you to all of the parents for supporting this camp and sharing your kids with Ashley and I. It was really powerful to see everyone play together on Friday and watch the kids share their dances with you all. Soooo, enjoy the pictures and keep your eyes and ears out for more Yoga Dance in the future ... we know that our next gig will be at the Cavendish Elementary School beginning in mid to late September after school on Tuesdays ... more information to come! Okay, finally ... I am going to post the pictures now. Phew ...

Classes for Men, Seniors, and New Mamas Coming Soon!

2009-07-21T15:44:00.000-07:00

I have decided to join energetic Kelly Kehoe and the kinetic Louisa Nufield at the True Balance Consortium near the Green in Chester. This is a small space that has been created to nurture one on one connection that will allow me to offer private classes as well as specialized series for small groups of up to three students. So far, I am planning to begin a Men's Yoga Class in early September that will take place at 7:05 - 8:00 am on Wedesday mornings. If the class is successful and all participants want to keep going, we will!

Other ideas for small (3-4 people) classes include: Prenatal Yoga, Yoga for Seniors, Restorative Yoga, and Yoga for Back Pain. If you would be interested in one of these specialized classes, please let me know by sending an email to rebecca.salem@gmail.com ... I will have a new Google Voice phone number soon - but for now, email is the best way for to coordinate. I hope to begin adding these classes in mid-September or early October. SOOOoo, please let me know if you are interested!

Cost for all classes will be $12/class with a minimum purchase of 3 classes ...

OHYES, and there is some possibility of an Men's Yoga in the evening starting up too ... we will see.

ZPots Music and Arts Festival THIS Weekend

2009-07-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

I will be teaching at the ZPots Music and Arts Festival this coming weekend on Saturday morning, set to begin around 10:30 am. My friends, Heather and Erik VanHendrick are hosting many artists, musicians, dancers, poets and creators of all kinds at their home, studio, and gallery in Brookline VT. Brookline is just between Townshend and Newfane, off of Route 30. Just head East onto Radway Hill Road (just after the Flea Market), travel about one mile, and you'll see the spot. Caro Diallo, an amazing dancer from West Africa, will be performing Saturday night (after playing at Boccelli's in BF on Friday nite) - he is just awesome!

In terms of yoga, I will teach a 60 minute class outdoors and then be available throughout the day to answer questions to work on specific poses, support folks who want to try something new and maybe even demonstrate some fun partner yoga. It should be very, very fun so check it out if you can! Go to: http://joomla.zpots.com/ for directions and more details about the festival.

Lighting the Unlit Corners

2009-07-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

This was the wonderful theme of Desiree Rumbaugh's Eye of the Tiger workshop at Yoga Sanctuary in North Hampton. These three hours of very intense practice were incredibly restorative, energizing and inspiring. I really enjoyed the chance to try things I had NEVER even thought of doing before and move my practice into new places. I hadn't realized how much I had begun to settle into my percieved limitations; this process of exploring, expanding and enjoying the Self is truly a life long adventure and yesterday's workshop was such a great reminder.

The physcial theme was all about lengthening the side body and then anchoring the inner edges of the shoulder blades into the back. We did it over and over and over again; handstand, trikonasana, parsvakonasana, and urdhva danurasana, and eventually more challenging poses like pincha mayurasana. Soooo, I look forward to exploring this more in class in the coming weeks. So FUN.

Summer Camp for Ages 6 to 11!

2009-05-29T05:54:00.000-07:00

Dance and Yoga Exploration
August 4-5 & 7-8 9:30 am - 12:00 pm
Ages 6 - 11
$75 / student

I am very excited for the opportunity to work with modern dancer, Ashley Hensel-Browning to lead a four day camp that explores yoga and dance choreography. Classes will provide students with a foundation of yoga and dance exercises that allow students to learn about their bodies while discovering their own creative resources. From this foundation the students will move into building a sense of community and self reflection while making up their very own dance! Parents and siblings are invited to join the last class.

Please send me an email for registration information.

To learn more about Ashley and all that she is up to, go to http://dancewithashley.blogspot.com and please feel free to write with questions.

Yoga for Kids Class

2009-05-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

The Yoga for Kids Class was a great success and a lot of fun for all. Thank you so much to Eamon, Ange, Laurel, Crystal, Gwendolyn and Felicity for their enthusiastic and joyful presence. Keep you eye out for another series to come in the fall. I will be teaming up with Ashley Hensel Browning to co-facilitate a Yoga Dance camp in Chester this summer during the first week of August. More details coming soon ...

What are Classes Like?

2009-04-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

My classes are a blend of Iyengar and Anusara yoga. We always begin with a short, quiet meditation before moving into a gentle warm up. There are sections of flowing into one pose from another as well as times when we explore each individual pose more deeply. Poses are held for many breaths as we take the time to really lengthen our muscles, open tight joints and build stability in weaker areas of the body. Alignment priciples are woven into the instructions for coming in and out of each pose which makes the class very friendly for beginners and more practiced students alike.

There are mats provided at both class locations. Additional props (blocks, blankets, straps) are available at the Grist Mill Wellness Center. You may want to bring water and a towel.