Nervous system Archives

Ayurveda & Fall Reset

August 29, 2020 // by michele

Yoga is far more than a series of poses you perform on your mat. Yoga – yoking, linking, connecting – is a way of living.

The winds and changes of fall affect us all…

Ayurveda, the “sister science of yoga” is an ancient way of seeing the world using elements, textures, tastes, and sensory experiences. By understanding the qualities of what you eat, watch, breathe, and think, you can understand how to restore balance and make effective changes in routine that don’t require rearranging your entire existence.

This fall at Woven Yoga we will host a 90-minute workshop on the basic premises of Ayurveda. We’ll explore the Doshas and provide a framework for understanding your unique constitution so that you can approach the changing season with grace and ease.

This workshop will be held at 6 PM on Sunday, September 13. Cost: $35.

Use your newly discovered understanding of Ayurveda to transition into fall unlike any other detox experiences.

The last half hour of the workshop will include an outline of self-care practices to engage during the fall Vata season and introduce the Fall Reset experience. This week includes changing habits related to diet, movement, and mental well-being to re-center and ground yourself in nourishment and care.

Woven Yoga will also host a guided Reset experience the week of September 14-17, following the workshop.

The guided Reset experience includes:

Outline of daily self-care practices
Most necessary ingredients for the kitchari mono-diet
Oils for abhayanga (self-massage)
Daily guided meditations
Daily pranayama (breath) practices
Priority scheduling for daily yoga practices
Community and support while processing the experience
End-of-week group reflection and personal intention-setting practice (Thursday, September 17 at 5:30 PM)

Cost: $70 | $40 for Unlimited Members

*Those on the Surviving September pass, email me for discounted pricing codes

Studio News: June 14

June 14, 2020 // by michele

Returning from Survival Mode
This week: Pose & Pour
Coming soon: New teachers + new classes!
Seasonal Special pricing: Student passes for sale

My study of yoga, along with my work with Mind Body Health Associates, has taught me a lot about stress. We have two sides of our nervous system that is used in our management of stress, the part that keeps us alert and alive (sympathetic nervous system) and the part that keeps us whole and integrated (parasympathetic nervous system).

When our stress system is triggered, humans have a myriad of ways to deal, anything from Quarantine Baking to Netflix binging. What we need to know is that survival strategies serve us for a particular reason, so say a little Thank You to your body and brain. Survival is a perfectly good way to… survive. And what we’ve endured collectively has been something we’ve survived.

When we watch tigers in the wild (or, more accurately, as Dr. Peter Levine explains in Waking the Tiger), we can note particular behavior as it comes back from stressful, life-endangering situations. It shakes and moves its entire body. It licks their wounds and tends to its body. It nourishes itself with food and water. It falls into a deep sleep.

This transition from stress to relaxation can be a slow one, and often it needs to be quite purposeful to be effective. The best tools are already within: a slow exhale, a calm mind, and moving the body.

As we slowly shift out of our survival response, many of us might find our yoga practices to be leading us there. Eventually, we will recognize we are safe and can begin to relax, rest, and synthesize this experience to make us stronger and healthier.

For me, I’m just now feeling like I’m resuming “normal” and I notice how I’m finally able to start planning again. Did anyone else notice how calendars were worthless back in April? And not just in the day-to-day monotony, but in my brain’s lack of ability to think clearly about the future. With the studio now open and new activities coming onto the calendar, that part of my mind is finally coming online, too. I’m glad to be able to share with you again the hope of new events and classes in the studio. I look forward to seeing you again soon!

Pose & Pour

Wednesday, June 17, 6:30 PM

at White Shutter Winery & Brewery

Registration is available online but not required.

Gift Card Giveway!

Our universe is constantly being created and recreated – just look out into those fields full of green sprouts. As an act of remembering, I’m doing a gift card giveway this summer. Every time we’ve got a full class in the studio, we’ll celebrate. Each person in the class will get to pull a gift card out of the pile that gets you $5-$15 from our favorite downtown Upper Sandusky small businesses.

So grab a group of friends and show up together! Fill the room (which, right now, means just 6 people!)

New Teacher + Classes!

Longtime regular yogi, Toni Daughenbaugh, is joining Woven Yoga as an instructor beginning July 1. Toni recently finished her 200-hour certification and is looking forward to teaching Gentle Yoga twice a week: Mondays at 10 AM and Wednesdays at 4:30 PM.

Seasonal Special Pricing

Students, don’t forget: we’ve got a special deal for you during the summer. Enjoy 2 classes each week for $15 with this summer pass. Sign up now and dive into the regular class schedule.

Sunrise

June 25, 2019 // by michele

This morning I arose at 5:30, while it was still night. I sat on the deck and had to read by flashlight. Yet before I knew it, there was enough light to read. The shift from night to day didn’t happen suddenly, all at once. It was gradual, but distinct.
*
The handle on the shower of our vacation house is broken. If you turn it to the left, you get scorching hot water. One temperature: burning. Take it to the right, and it’s icy cold. You say, “just put it in the middle” and I tell you this: that turns it off. I’ve spent my showers quickly jumping from hot to cold, trying to rinse in the amount of time the water switches. (This is not a pleasant way of bathing, BTW.)
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Our body is wired to to jump into stress mode like my broken shower knob. We go from fine to chaos with a quick switch, thanks to adrenaline, cortisol, and other helpful biochemical reactions. In our earliest habitats, this kept us alive.
However, the switch doesn’t work the opposite direction. Getting into a mode of relaxation is much more like the sunrise, and happens with change over time.
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Our culture feels wired like the shower knob, bouncing from one thing to another, trying to find comfort in the brief in-between states. But we live in bodies that need gradual shifts. My yoga practice often offers this. I’ve found it in some church worship services. It happens for me with an evening with friends – a gradual shift toward restfulness and renewal. It takes time and some awareness, but those moments of restfulness are available when we show up with the expectations of a sunrise state of mind – and body!

Nervous system