Encouraging Connection

Advent Restorative

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6:30 PM, Sunday, December 8

A unique yoga experience that intertwines mindful movement with spiritual connection.

This class invites you to experience gentle, restorative yoga poses while integrating the themes of advent with quiet prayer and meditation. Each posture becomes an opportunity for for hope, love, joy and peace; allowing you to deepen your mind-body-spirit connection. This class is designed to nourish your soul and refresh your spirit as you weave through the holiday hustle and bustle. All levels are welcome—come as you are, and leave with a renewed sense of harmony and purpose.

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Chicken, Egg or Henhouse?

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Brains, Bodies and Behavior

Given my line of work, that I daily deal with bodies and minds, I continue to be enthralled by the research that tells us so much more about how they work. The nature vs. nurture debate has been endlessly fascinating, and depending on what I’m reading or who I’m listening to at the moment, I can easily find a home on either side of the equation (which, TBH, is right where I want to be).

My training in yoga for the classroom was by an Occupational Therapist who was working in classrooms with all types of students and first introduced me to the role of our biology in our brain-based endeavors. It’s where I first learned about stress and the effects of hormones. She would say that before we can open the minds of children for learning we must create a container that is ready to receive it. She worked with children, but it’s true of all humans.

What we know is true by experience is being proven by science: we behave in ways influenced by our experience of being in bodies. There are now scads of studies that people will behave differently (make harsher judgments, etc) based on their environment – if there’s a putrid smell in the room, for example. And then there’s the hormones – not just at the time of their development (need I remind you that I’m raising 3 teenagers right now?) but how our brains’ receptors to those hormones are formed early in their bodily experience. (See Dr. Bruce Perry in What Happened to You? for some big insights to how our earliest days shape our entire existence).

The hopeful part of this research is the neuroplasticity – our ability to rewire our brains, which has much to do with the behaviors we practice. (Remember how I wrote back-to-back newsletters about how change can begin with either behavior or belief? Opportunity has so. many. doors.)

Specifically with young people, the part of our brain that helps us make decisions is wide open to suggestion until the mid-twenties. Parents around the world both love and hate this age of opportunity – on the one hand, teens just don’t have the wiring for quick, easy, wise decisions. On the other hand, they’re not done yet. Then again, neither are us 40-somethings or even 80-somethings. Come to a chair yoga class and WITNESS.

If this is the brain region central to doing the right thing when it’s the harder thing to do no genes can specify what counts as the right thing. It has to be learned the long, hard way, by experience.

-Robert M. Sapolsky

So what do we DO with this? If it’s in our wiring and our biology, are we just done? That’s a hard NO for me. Because our biology is shaped by our environment. And guess what?

We are the environment.

I always strive be a loving container for my kids to grow up with safety and acceptance always available – that our home allows them to be their whole self. But one of my biggest goals as a parent has been to put my kids in places where there are other adults who love them, provide them safety and freedom of expression, because our community is part of their container. Our interactions with one other create the biological wiring that help us to decide these questions of right and wrong. When my kids shop here, work here, get cheered on and off the field/court here it changes who they are at the cellular level.

If you think your yoga practice is just about that zen feeling you get post-savasana, I’m thrilled you love your experience. But it doesn’t stop there. When you change your container by lessening stress hormones, expanding your window of tolerance for mental and emotional stress, and practice setting intentions for your day, you then go out into the world and shape the containers of the people you encounter. Whether you asked for this role or not, we’ve been born into bodies of social creatures and we now take our place in shaping the world where we want to live.

So let’s do it, friends. Show up, Work hard, Shine bright, Love all. Create the world you want to live in.  

Gratitude Challenge

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Workshop: 7 PM October 27, 2024

Challenge: Daily November 1-30, 2024

For the month of November we use our studio practice to help you center on becoming more grateful and magnifying the blessings in your life.

Registering for the Gratitude Challenge includes:

  • An exclusive gratitude workshop on Sunday, October 27 at 7 PM. We’ll dive into the science and art of gratitude and how it affects your mind, emotions and your body. Gratitude plays a huge role in your health! (If you cannot make the workshop, we will record it and offer it via playback.)
  • Weekly group classes in the studio from Nov 1 – 30.
  • A printable, bingo-style card of daily practices of gratitude to put the energy of gratitude into circulation. These ideas can be completed at any point throughout the month. Fill your card and bring it to the studio for celebration and a small memento of your experience.
  • Connection and support – receive daily text reminders of gratitude prompts as well as the good company of those of us who are also practicing gratitude. Register by October 12 and receive a bonus gratitude journal! Link to register is in our bio.
Register Now

Fall Ayurveda Workshop

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6 PM Sunday, September 14

Discover the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda in this immersive workshop designed to help you find balance and stability in your daily life. Through personalized guidance, you will learn how to integrate Ayurvedic principles into your routine to enhance your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. This workshop will cover the fundamentals of Ayurveda, including the doshas, diet, lifestyle practices, and self-care rituals. You’ll leave with practical tools and techniques to maintain harmony in your body and mind, no matter the challenges you face.

Alongside the workshop, participate in a transformative week-long reset (Sept. 22-25) designed to align your mind, body, and spirit. This experience includes all necessary materials, such as an Ayurvedic guidebook, herbal teas, oils, and spices tailored to the seasonal experience. Each day, you’ll follow a structured plan that incorporates Ayurvedic meals, mindful movement practices, meditation, and self-care rituals. With daily support and access to resources, you’ll embark on a journey toward greater stability, rejuvenation, and inner peace.

You’ll leave this workshop with:

  • A basic understanding of the science of Ayurveda
  • Key ingredients and recipes for your dietary reset
  • Access to daily meditations, breathwork and movement practices throughout the week’s reset experience
  • Daily in-studio yoga Monday – Thursday of the Reset
Register Now!

Beginner’s Yoga

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4 PM Wednesdays, August 28-September 18

Beginner’s yoga is a gentle and welcoming introduction to the practice of yoga. It focuses on the foundational poses, breathing techniques, and mindfulness to help build strength, flexibility, and balance into your body and mind. In the beginners class, the instructor often provides modifications and adjustments to support each student’s individual needs and abilities. The emphasis is on moving mindfully, listening to the body, and cultivating a sense of inner peace and relaxation. Beginners yoga is a great way to start your yoga journey and discover the many physical, mental, and emotional benefits of this ancient practice.

We learn best by repetition so we designed a starter series of 4 weeks! You can take classes individually OR register for the whole series and get that 4th class free!

Register Now!

Happy Birthday Woven Yoga!

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Can you even believe we’ve been on Sandusky Ave for 5 years now?! What a ride – and we’re only just getting started.

If you’ve waited this long to see what it’s all about, now’s your time! This week only we’re offering a 5 days Free pass for new clients who want to taste of our classes.

Grab your pass before Wednesday, August 7 and get 5 days to try our menu of regular classes. We can’t wait for you to try!

Get Started Now!

Summer Holiday

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Woven Yoga will be CLOSED July 15-19, 2024

This summer our Woven Yoga staff will be traveling the globe! Michele, Toni, Traci and Shelby will be at the retreat on the Amalfi Coast while Nina climbs Mt. Kilimanjaro and Melissa cruises the mediterranean. What a summer!

During the month of July, the studio will be On Holiday from July 15-19 to allow for the staff R&R. July 9-14 and 20-24 we will be open with a limited schedule.

While we’re closed all Unlimited Members will be paused; Flexible members will accumulate classes. Thank you for supporting our team as we stretch our wings!

Sunrise Encouragement

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The benefit of driving into town so early on a Wednesday morning is that the summertime brings a new view: sunrise. This morning’s was a gorgeous pink hue and I felt like I was catching an early screening of a movie.

It made me consider how the sun, not yet visible to the horizon, still cast its glow over the earth before its arrival. Evidence of what is to come. Yet, it’s effects were present. I used my headlights, but I could still see.

Considering the basic physics, how the earth is simply rotating around to catch a different glimpse of the stationary orb, I then began to consider that darkness – night – is just a different orientation to the light. Correct, we do not see the light. But that doesn’t mean that its presence isn’t still in existence. We – the humans living on this side of the earth – are just turned the other way.

How often do we believe that certain aspects or qualities have escaped us, left us, or have become absent? We use “night” and “darkness” to describe loneliness, hardship, or lack of joy. But if we consider the night is still in relationship to light, just turned in a different direction, we can suddenly have access to hope. Perhaps that’s why the scriptures write that God’s mercies are “new every morning.”

Now that we’re entering into the most light-filled time of year, I hope that you’ll soak it in. Turn your face to the light. Imprint it into your nervous system so that in the depths of winter, when arriving to 6:15 AM yoga classes feels much tougher, you can remember that that light has not left you, we’re simply turned in a different direction, moving through a different season and different relationship to light. But its presence doesn’t stop existing based on our view.

Peace, my friends. Light & love to all.

Summer Solstice Restorative Yoga

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Sunday, June 23

7-8:15 PM

Celebrate the long days of the year with a soothing Summer Solstice Restorative Yoga session. This special class is designed to honor the light of the sun and the energy of the summer season, helping you to relax, rejuvenate, and restore your body and mind.

Join us for a deeply relaxing and meditative practice that incorporates gentle restorative yoga poses, breathwork, and guided meditation. The Summer Solstice marks a time of peak energy and growth, and this class aims to balance that vibrancy with calm and introspection. Each pose will be held for an extended period, supported by props such as bolsters, blankets, and blocks, allowing for complete release and surrender.

Class Benefits:

*Deep relaxation and stress relief
*Enhanced flexibility and joint mobility
*Improved mental clarity and focus
*Emotional balance and a sense of inner peace
*Opportunity to set personal intentions aligned with the energy of the solstice

Members receive 20% off the registration price

Register Now

Your body is not a problem to solve

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Robin Wall Kimmerer, botanist and writer, begins every semester asking her up-and-coming environmentalists “Do you love nature?” and is regularly greeted by a room full of hands going up. And then she asks “Do you believe that nature loves you in return?” to which the response is not strong. These good-hearted students live in a one-way relationship to the earth, which fundamentally changes the nature of their work. Our ancient ancestors operated with a sense of being in a reciprocal relationship with their surroundings; whether they felt they were being rewarded by Mother Nature or punished by her, at least they were engaged in a constant conversation with her.

The world is getting much better at body acceptance: Do you love your body? And while we can often get at least part of the way there – that we love having a body, and even though we may not love the way our body looks on a particular day or in a specific style, we can acknowledge a baseline love.

But do you believe She loves you back?

One-sided relationships are challenging. (I mean, do you remember the Newborn Years?) We often forget that we live in relationship to our bodies. Psychotherapist Esther Perel notes that we often think in terms of machinery nowadays, and efficiency or maximization might be the language you more frequently use with your body. Perhaps you’ve been taught this pile of muscle and bones is here for “optimization.”

Except that our bodies aren’t machines, based off a zeros-and-ones algorithm. Our bodies are hosts of a complex web of relationships, which often comes with paradox and tension. The push-pull of strength and flexibility, taking in and letting out that happens within a body is not easily reduced to if/then statements that engineers and programmers prefer.

What if you began to believe that in your relationship to your body, your body loves you back? Hold the tension that comes with normal human relationships: she might love you in ways that aren’t how you asked to be loved. Like a romantic partner, sometimes she might not do everything you say you want to happen. But getting everything you want isn’t a reflection of love, it’s a reflection of control.

Our bodies have ways of loving us that might fit outside of our romantic expectations. Your body cares for you with it eliminates the toxins of digestion instead of asking you to carry around poison. Your body cherishes you when it slows you down your abilities to think clearly at night, reminding you that you need sleep. Your body provides you reminders of boundaries with aches and pains so that you won’t continue to carry loads that will take you beyond normal wear and tear of your structure. Your body treats you when it makes chocolate and cheeseburgers and garden mulch taste distinctly different – and thanks to the heavens that it all doesn’t taste like garden mulch!

Our bodies are not problems to be solved but home to multiple complex relationships. We get to decide how to manage, maintain and improve these relationships, and past experience tells me that we do that by how we spend our time and energy – including thought energy. I’m hopeful that we can at least begin to think and receive indications of love from living in and with a body.

Peace, my friends. We keep at it. Show up, Work hard, Shine bright and Love all.