yogaHOPE’s Teacher’s Blog

What an honor!

I have been very busy this week attending classes and experiencing first-hand the connection that our teachers are making with their students. First, I joined Brian in his class at Meridian house. What a wonderful group of women and it seems they REALLY look forward to their yoga class! They were all feeling tired physically and emotionally as they have been on restriction for the last three weeks which means no leaving the house..for any reason!! They all took care of themselves, came into child’s pose when they needed to and joined the practice when they felt ready. Brian has clearly connected with these women and they put their full trust in them!

Later in the afternoon I attended the benefit class at o2 yoga in Somerville. I was so moved by the support of the community as well as the support of our sponsors! Caroline from Lululemon is so fantastic and though it’s work for her to cart all the clothing and racks to the studios, she assures me that she loves being a part of the yogaHOPE effort and the sense of working together to spark change in the community feels great to her..as it does to me. Our Benefit Class Team (Brian, Amy, Jasmine and Jourdan) were unbelievable!!! Amy showed up with a three-fold display of yogaHOPE photos and program information. Jourdan took charge behind the desk with the folks registering and Jasmine (who’s in charge of the commity) and Brian helped with the sponsors, registrants and anything else that needed to be done. I barely had to do anything (something I’m not used to) and I was so touched and thrilled to see their dedication and excitement!! LUNAbar, Summerhouse Bakery and Smartwater were all there to provide refreshments and professional photographer, Peter Tennenbaum donated his time to document the event. AMAZING!!

Yesterday morning I headed to Women’s Lunch Place to observe Lori’s class and take photos. What a treat!! She is an awesome teacher, completely genuine and the women obviously trust her fully and return to yoga week after week! Check out the photo section of our website to see some photos of Lori in action!!

Later in the afternoon we had our first Photo Shoot with three of the women from Hello House!!! Professional photographer Stephen Sherman and his stylist Vincent donated their time to make the ladies look gorgeous and took the first of 15 women’s photos for an exhibit we will be showing at our 108 Sun Salutation fundraiser at Sportsclub/LA in October.

I am so honored to be working with so many incredible, generous and dedicated spirits. This organization has moved me no end..it is truly indescribable!

blessings to you all!

sue jones
founder/yogahope

“My body is quiet for the first time!”

Words from a woman at Woman’s Lunch Place on Newbury st.  This was her first and last yoga class.  She may return again.  Woman come and go at WLP.  Yoga is offered to those who want to participate and so far we have a consistent 4-8 people show up.  Half of the students are regulars and the other half are usually total newcomers to yoga. “I feel like my body is quiet for the first time!”  An amazing truth.  Grateful she shared this.  I had chills hearing these words.  Her words were genuine.  Real.  I knew she was telling the truth.

-Lori O’Doherty
Teacher for Women’s Lunch Place

What a day!

Class at the Meridien House was bittersweet on Saturday. I was pleasantly surpirsed that Sue was there when I arrived. However, she pulled me aside to inform me that one of my favorite students was discharged from the house. This was really tough to take because she has progressed so much in the last month. My only hope is that she is safe and healthy and can hopefully utilize some of the principles she has learned through yoga to help her through a successful recovery. After this, I had to regroup because I still had seven incredible women to teach. They told me that they were a bit tired because they are on restriction and had to wake up early to complete their chores. So I started out the class kind of slow and tried to focus on breathing. However, as the class went along, I could sense that they were getting stronger, so we tried some new poses. This was the first time they practiced with blocks, so we tried half moon! This was difficult for them, but I could see their determination shine through and knowing them, they are going to keep working hard at it because they are so committed to improvement. I want to thank Sue because she assisted the women and took pictures throughout the class. Sue is an amazing assistant and the women loved being assisted by her, so we were incredibly lucky to have her there with us! We ended class with a nice long savasana and I read them a passage about opening up the heart. Even though we lost one of our students, I was reminded about lucky I was just to be with them. We really have to live in the moment and appreciate what we have because things in life always change unexpectedly. If we honestly did everything we could in the moment, then we can’t be angry at ourselves when things don’t go our way. I can truthfully say that the love and spirit that I have been given by these women is much more than I could ever possibly give to them. They are truly special, special people.

In the afternoon, we had our first yogaHOPE benefit class at 02! It was so exciting to be there and to meet our wonderful supporters! The turnout was terrific and it was great to have Lululemon, Smartwater and Luna Bar there supporting us as well. Everyone who took the class couldn’t stop raving about the fun and loving class that Mimi of O2 Yoga taught us! After the class, it was great to connect with the supporters of yogaHOPE to share our experiences so far and hopefully inspire more people to join in our mission. Thank you to all the yogaHOPE people who organized this incredible event and I’m looking forward to our next benefit class at Baptiste Yoga!

Namaste,

Brian

Meridian House Tonight

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending a class at Meridian House taught and assisted by Amy and Jess. The class was truly amazing, the women were enthusiastic, happy, excited, and not only that, they found places in themselves to challenge. At one point in the class, the women asked, and did… wheel. I was blown away.

Half way through the class Fran, the founder of Meridian House, an older women clearly proud of the girls in this class decided to sit down and watch for a while. The look on her face was amazing. She had tears in her eyes. As she got up to leave, she paused in the door way and said, “In all my years, this is the most amazing, and inspirational thing I have ever seen my women do”. I realized in this moment, that this is why we do what we at yogaHOPE.

Truly a fantastic class. Amy and Jess were so great with the women, they had a bond that was so clear, and even Jess who is no longer scheduled to assist, asked if she could come back and practice with the women for the next few weeks. Thank you both, and all the women, for such a great, and moving class.

Kat

Inspirational Evening at Meridian House

There was a great vibe in our class at Meridian House tonight.  First of all, Brian, who teaches the Saturday morning class, came to practice with the women, which was very cool.  Second of all, a woman who has thus far sat in the back of the room and shyly watched our classes, despite repeated encouragement to join in, finally got on a mat!  She and the other new girl jumped right in and the fresh energy they brought was a great addition.  As we walked away from the house, Jessica, who assisted, and I both remarked at how peaceful, focused and totally relaxed many of the women were tonight.  We could see it in their eyes and faces, especially during the warrior poses and savasana.  One woman who has really taken yoga to heart (she remarked tonight that “being an addict and having to live in [Meridian House] is hard and yoga helps to keep [her] calm”)  asked Brian and I if we would be willing to teach an additional optional class each week because she wants to do as much yoga as possible.  The other women seemed interested as well so we said we’d talk about logistics and hopefully make it happen.  The evening ended, appropriately, with a quote from a woman who has been a student of yogaHOPE in both Hello and Meridian Houses.  She said: “I put a lot in to my yoga practice because yoga is my recovery.” 

Be well,

Amy       

Yoga is what we make it

Tonight at Shepard House I had just one student, a girl who’s been with me since I began there.  All the remaing girls are now out of the house.  I wouldn’t say she necessarily loves yoga, but there’s a reason she shows up.  She gave me a hug before class which was really nice.  She has just eaten right before class which made it difficult to do certain poses.  We mainly focused on breath, and her breath was the best I’d ever heard it.  She would often say “I can’t do it” when we’d try certain poses but I’d tell her she could, and we’d only do 5 breaths, and she was able to do that.  Counting the breaths helped her immensely.  At one point another woman who is new to the house as of Monday came in to watch.  My regular girl had to run to the bathroom at that point so this woman and I chatted and it turns out she has Hepatitis C and the medication she takes makes her awfully tired.  She mentioned how she hasn’t told any of the other women in the house yet because it’s her business. At the same time she admitted that it’s likely many of these women too have Hepatitis C.  We talked about how we always think we’re alone with our issues but there always others out there going through something similar.  My regular girl came back and asked if we could head to Savasana and end early.  Savasana is her favorite.  The woman who came in to watch is on the couch and during Savasana both of them fell asleep - the woman on the couch snoring and my regular completely relaxing.  After class, I got to thinking how sometimes we think of yoga as having to be certain poses, a flow, certain breathing, stillness, etc, when often it’s simply what these women are asking for in the given moment.  And often that’s the comfort of someone listening, a gentle touch, a guide and teacher… I find more and more with these women it’s simply being present with them.  

Amanda 

Some updates from the other side!

I just wanted to share with everyone a few comments from the program directors at facilities that are carrying a yogaHOPE program right now. I thought some of their comments were insightful and really helped remind me why it is we are working so hard to make yogaHOPE as strong, and as popular as we can!

Question: Overall, what changes, if any have you noticed in the women at your facility?
Answer: …the women that I have seen do come out feeling very content and rewarded by the experience.

Question: Do you find that the women in your facility look forward to yoga class? Do you find the opposite? If you are at a facility where the women do NOT live, do you notice they come specifically to participate in a yoga class?
Answer:Yes, several have told me how much they do.

Question: How has your experience with yogaHOPE been overall?
Answer: Wonderful. The teachers seem to be very popular and people come out of the class looking blissed out. Communication is strong and the group has worked well with our strengths and limitations.

Every calming breath, or moment of healing is a difference to these women, so thank you, everyone who is a part of yogaHOPE for helping us do what we do!

Kat

Down but not out…

I was very excited to be back at the Meridien House after a week off. However, the minute I walked into the house, I knew something was not right. K****, the house director was a bit distracted and clearly had a lot of stuff he had to attend to. All of the women were in a meeting in the front room and all of the men were in the kitchen where we usually practice. When the women were done with their meeting, they all went out for a smoke break before practice and invited me along. They said that they were on restriction still and did not know when they would get off of it. They were a bit reluctant to talk about restriction or why they were on it, but said that it meant that they could not leave the house unless they were going to work and they could not have an interaction with the men whatsoever. I was the only guy they were allowed to have any type of contact with. After the break, we went inside to begin class, which started a bit late because of all of the meetings. I asked them what kind of class they wanted and they said that they wanted to work on their abs. They always seem to want to work on their abs, so we have a powerful abs series every week! I could sense their difficulty with being on restriction, so I thought it would be best to have a nice flowing class so that they could forget about restriction for one hour and just move some of their energy. The women had an unbelieveable practice and were incredibly strong. I was surprised at this given the situation they were in, but I should not have been surprised at all knowing how resilient and dedicated they are. Balancing poses continue to be difficult for them. I told them that they need to find their one focal point and not let it waver, but it makes sense that this is their most difficult series because balancing entails a lot of focus, which is what they tend to struggle with. After class, they all said they felt wonderful and really enjoy the little passages I read to them during savasana. Knowing that they love it so much, I gave them a copy of Journey to the Heart to leave at the house so that they could read a passage a day when they felt they needed it. They also said they love how my teaching style differs with Amy’s and Sue’s because it provides them with a different experience and that one is not better than the other. I also played Krishna Das during savasana since Sue said they really enjoyed it. Afterwards, V*** told me that she was crying during the song and felt that emotions were getting stuck in her throat and she was not able to release them and didn’t know why. I told her that it is not easy to let go of deep emotions and it is not something that will happen overnight, but that if she continues to heal herself through yoga and breathing, she will slowly chip away at her emotional block and become more and more open. I really am so blessed that I get to spend time with these women and get to see them grow and enjoy this practice so much. Big thanks to Allicyn for assisting and being there for these special women!

Namaste,

Brian

Touching some emotions at S.O.A.R

Today I accompanied Jane for our second class at SOAR. This time she taught and I assisted. We had some repeat women, a woman with a broken foot who kept her practice modified and a new woman. The class is sandwiched in between a substance abuse treatment therapy meeting (9 to 10) and the bus that takes the women off the island (it leaves at 11:10) This makes it just about impossible to have a one hour class as most of the women don’t get settled onto their mat until 10:15 and they all want to make sure they leave by 10:45 so they don’t miss the bus. As a result, Jane lead the ladies through a beautiful half hour class, continuously encouraging them not to strain or push or force, but to let their breath help them relax and guide the stretch and the movement. These women were CHAMPIONS OF BREATH!! It was so inspiring to hear them so intentionally come into their breath in a way that sometimes takes people a year to really get..Jane and I were both amazed! One of the women (new to the class) was struggling emotionally through the class. I could see with every assist I gave her she had an emotional reaction and I made a great effort to be very gentle in my assists and to use my hands and my breath to send loving and healing energy to her. There was a sorrow that I could tell was coming from deep within and I could sense the fragility in her. I felt she needed some space to feel this emotion but I also wanted to send her the subtle message that she deserved to love herself and believe in herself. Finally, in Savasana the tears came. I could tell that savasana was a very vulnerable feeling pose for her. She seemed to want to draw in her knees and curl up and cover her face with her hands. At the end of the class all the women were talking about how good they felt and Jane was sure to mention that sometimes it doesn’t feel so good. Sometimes yoga taps into and stirs up some buried emotion and it’s challenging but good in the end because it’s a safe place. This woman vowed to come back next week, as they all did. The spa day is REALLY motivating them to get 10 classes under their belt!!

Thanks Jane for a beautiful class and I am so looking forward to witnessing your connection with these ladies grow!

Blessings,
sue

Back at Hello House

After what seemed like a long break I finally taught a class at Hello House this past Tuesday. It’s always so amazing to me to see how the previously “new” women look so healthy and are so strong and graceful in their yoga practice, and the new women struggle through that first practice but they always have big smiles on their faces telling me how much they loved it! Another week of graduations sent my two previous “star” students out into the world and the ranks are shifted once again. The women who practice yoga seem so much more happy than the women who don’t. When I show up to teach a class their faces are always so bright and cheery and they are just so enthusiastic. The yoga classes are the bright spot of their week! I won’t be back there until the 24th of July because I’m going on a family vacation, but we all discussed the photo shoot (a photographer has offered to take beautiful huge portraits of some women so we can have an exhibit at our fundraiser) and they are ALL SO EXCITED!! I am also hoping that a few of them can come to our benefit class at o2 on the 28th of July. I think it would be wonderful for the participants to meet some of the women that this program is helping! Amy was there helping with the assist and they all are very familiar and comfortable with her..she is and will be teaching more at Hello House. Juli joined us for her first yogaHOPE experience and it was so nice to get her feedback at the end of class. She seemed quite moved.

Blessings,
sue