Encouraging Connection
A mindful movement-based class for older individuals or those with mobility limitations. We’ll enjoy upright cardio movement to get the heart rate up. Then we’ll use bands and props to help us grow stronger while staying safe with our joints. It’s the perfect place to laugh and gain confidence in your ability to move around in the world.
Let’s pair up our favorite things! This special event on Saturday, June 4 will begin at 10 AM with an hour-long Barre Fusion class to wake up the body and breath. Then we’ll head across the street to Fort 88 for delightful refreshment. Your first beverage (mimosa, bloody mary or boozy cold brew) is included in the price of the event.
Space is limited – register right away!
$22 | Unlimited Member pricing: $19
News of Elon Musk purchasing the Twitter has the world abuzz. One of my favorite podcasts, Your Undivided Attention, did a spotlight feature on what this means, specifically as it pertains to how to create a world where our attention isn’t purchased by the highest bidder.
I’m not a regular tweeter and only rarely tune in, so my feelings on the ordeal are minimal. It’s clear to me that Musk doesn’t have a large family that demands fresh berries in their lunches amid a spike of inflation, or he’d be spending his billions on horticulture and sustainable earth practices. But, no, he wants twitter, in the name of “free speech.”
Armchair Expert had a timely release with a 1st Amendment attorney, where Floyd Abrams highlighted how this amendment doesn’t just protect the individual’s freedom to say what they believe. It also protects the collective to be able to hear information and ideas that people in the position of power may not want you to know, such as the Watergate scandal.
As one who writes, creates, and teaches, this freedom for individuals is something I value. To stifle that 5th chakra is to lead to other energetic challenges. (I’m also a strong proponent that just because you share the opinion, even loudly, it does not make it right, true, or good. Also, exercising your freedom of expression or press does not mean you’re free to avoid the consequences of sharing said information.)
In The Hidden Order of Intimacy: Reflections on the Book of Leviticus, Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg poses the idea that the sacred teachings put a particular order to the divine act of obedience and listening. Tradition has it that the Hebrew people followed the Golden Calf incident with the utterance of a commitment to their God: We shall do and we shall hear! Zornberg poses that the obedience comes first with a purpose: hearing is the spiritual horizon of doing. Obedience isn’t the final goal.
“When the people desire to return to Egypt, to the condition of slavery, they resist this divine demand [to hear]. To return to Egypt is the easy option, falling back on habit, on the constricted life of the slave for whom obedience is all. Freedom means turning toward the future and its possibilities, its difficult demands.”
Zornberg, p. XVI, emphasis and brackets mine.
This is why, Zornberg explains, a Hebrew slave who returned to his master would have his earlobe pierced against a door lintel. “He has sinned against that passion for hearing more that is to inform spiritual life… to opt for slavery is to betray, to immobilize, one’s ear for the sacred, for freedom and responsibility.”
Here’s where Musk, Abrams, and Zornberg converge: our first amendment right is also the sacred act of choosing to listen to – or for – particular voices. IMHO, Musk didn’t purchase his right to speak, he purchased our freedom to choose the voices we want to hear (presumably so he could elevate his own voice.)
It’s not a distant translation to see our own propensity in our yoga practice. How easy it is to step your right foot forward to the front edge of the mat, anchor your back heel and open to warrior 2, as you are told? Perhaps the first few times we partake in the practice it feels odd and requires more attention, but soon enough mere obedience requires nothing from us. But to listen to the body and her response to a posture: that is the real work.
How often do we short ourselves the true freedom of the practice? Zornberg brings it home for me: A certain quality of attention (tension, desire) is invoked in this listening. Perhaps the na’aseh ve-nishma [we shall do and we shall hear!] response conceals a reservation about the larger aspiration of listening. By putting obedience before listening, one may be reserving the option of making do with mere performance.
We can perform the acts of our yoga. And it might even be beneficial to us, and the world, when we do, much the same way we can perform the yamas and niyamas or the 10 commandments, obeying the precepts of right inner and outer living.
And – and I love this – this is only the initiation. Beyond the doing there is also the listening. Bending our ear to the divine to hear where our obedience can continue to free us. Doing the right thing is only the first invitation. We’re offered to a more relationally-driven way of living on our mat, in our homes, and in our community. This way requires that we pay attention and that we are free to listen.
Part Yoga Book Club, part restorative yoga, part spiritual experience. This event is designed to be a reflective embodiment of our readings.
It’s expected all participants will have finished reading This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley. We will open with discussion of the book with personal reflections – perfect for sharing your underlines, highlights and questions.
We’ll then move into a slow, reflective series of poses to help invite the themes into our own experiences. There will be no flow, and you will use your own body to support the standing, seated and reclined poses. Several restorative poses will utilize props.
Plan for a 90-minute class and get started on the book now.
$21 | Members: $19
This fall we’ll escape to the rolling hills of Southeast Ohio for a 3-night experience of nature, yoga, and restoration. Our retreat will feature daily yoga practices along with morning workshops to explore grounding and re-connecting to our roots. This isn’t a weekend of staying in downward facing dog – daily hikes, evening activities, optional projects, and plenty of downtime to yourself will be included.
Registration for the retreat is available online. Prices include:
Thursday: Arrive by 7pm and get settled in. Evening activity to get acquainted and shake loose the week. Probably a dance party.
Friday: 8am yoga, breakfast and a morning workshop. After a delightful lunch, a hike and afternoon time to yourself, we’ll have more yoga, dinner, and an evening group activity.
Saturday: A repeat of Friday, but different.
Sunday: Early morning yoga, breakfast, and then pack & go!
You can book a private queen bedroom ($570) or use a payment plan ($101 non-refundable deposit, $117.25 monthly payment).
You can book a shared bedroom that will be either a shared queen bed or a twin/bunk bed ($470). This option also has a payment plan ($101 non-refundable deposit, $92.25 monthly payment). Of course, as registrations come in we are glad to make bunking arrangements and do our best to put you with someone you know and enjoy. Requests cannot be guaranteed, but Michele is pretty good at making magic happen.
Don’t forget – this retreat is giftable! Mother’s Day is coming…
A non-refundable deposit ($101) is included in all registration options.
You can get a full refund minus the deposit until June 1, 2022.
You can get half of your registration, minus the deposit, until September 1, 2022.
No refunds will be given after September 1, 2022.
We realize that things come up and life changes. Talk to Michele as circumstances occur to see if we can find creative solutions.
While in seminary, I was asked to be part of a panel of women for a class to speak to the “women in ministry experience.” I declined, feeling at the time that my experience wasn’t unique to being a woman and that I’d largely been treated with a sense of fairness in the circles with which I worked. I could also, at 24, see that my experience of opportunity was paved by the generations ahead of me who had very different experiences – and they sat on the panel that day.
Then, just a few short years later, I encountered what these predecessors warned me of: I was outright denied the opportunity to serve a group I loved specifically and unapologetically because I wasn’t a man. I came home outraged and terrified for my girls. When I told JJ about it, his exact words were, “Wait. This is still a thing?” We left that organization the next day without regret.
Over the course of several years spent sorting baby socks and filling sippy cups, my commitment to supporting the opportunities for women continued to simmer. While I had chosen to spend the hours of my day in a particular way, centered around my babes and littles, it was easy to recognize that it was the choice in so doing that made it worth it. Rewind just a few generations ago, and endless hours of washing (dishes, clothes, hands, floors) and moving (dishes, clothes, people, toys) wouldn’t be a choice but a mandate, and doing such work would feel more like slavery than servanthood.
And while I can bask in certain freedoms, if only a few years ago I was denied a role solely because of my sex, then we’re not as far as we think we are.
Woven Yoga is a studio owned and run by women – many these women are also owning and running other organizations as well. Then when you peek inside our classes, you’ll see a large population of amazing women. So many of our classes and events center on women celebrating the roles and places we find ourselves today so that we can keep opening doors – and businesses, organizations, platforms – for our daughters, nieces and neighbors. Our work won’t be done “until there are 9” – when our world being run by women feels as normal as the fact that it’s always been run by men. Putting female faces at the helm will someday be commonplace rather than noteworthy, and I’m here for it.
Cassandra Speaks (Elizabeth Lessor) – I especially LOVED what she said about providing new and more opportunity to men to fill other roles within the home. Our empowerment shouldn’t come at the expense of others, but rather opening doors for all people.
Untamed (Glennon Doyle) – she has a bit about referring to God as She that has nothing to do with sex or gender but about normalizing the sense of female value. Totes amaze.
The Sun and Her Flowers; home body (Rupi Kaur) – her poetry digs into the generational progress we feel and are making.
Ready to give yoga a try? Join with others who are new to the practice – a room full of people who don’t know what they’re doing, so you don’t have to pretend! This 4-week series gets you familiar with poses and movements of a basic yoga class with repetition to help you learn and variety to expose you to the breadth that exists within yoga.
It’s okay if you’re not flexible, if you don’t know what to wear, or if you’ve never given it a try! This is the place to learn.
We’re excited to offer an introductory series of yoga for children! Using elements of story, breath work, poses and guided meditation, kiddos will connect with their bodies and become aware of their feelings, thoughts and sensations.
Yoga helps kids to:
In recent study from MIT on the effects of an eight-week mindfulness program (comprising breathing exercises), sixth-graders reported feeling less stress and fewer negative emotions after the program. Brain scans revealed reduced activation of their amygdala, the region in the brain that processes fear.
Teaching this 4-week series is Traci Coffman, a seasoned 4th grade educator at Wynford Schools and our regular Yin Yoga teacher as well as familiar face in All-Levels Flow. She has used these elements with her own students – especially in the midst of COVID – and found that many kids loved the chance to reconnect with themselves.
We’re using a different platform to book for this class so that parents can book on behalf of children. You can sign up for an account with Momence (formerly Ribbon, where our online library is hosted) and list your child/ren before booking. Then when you book with the link below, you’ll be able to select the child you’re booking into the class.
This class will be listed in fitDegree, but registering on fitDegree will not add you to the class.
This one is for the guys. Ready to give yoga a try? Or perhaps you want to keep moving forward in this practice of moving on a mat. Dude Yoga is a 4-week series for men who want to explore what yoga has to offer: strength and flexibility, challenge and contentment.
But first, you have to show up.
Waaaay back in, say, 2014, I finished The Signature of All Things and promptly googled the author. I’d had a lackluster encounter with Eat, Pray, Love but this novel wrapped me up in a new way. I wanted to know more of what Elizabeth Gilbert (henceforth: Liz, because we have a relationship now) was up to. It turned out that she was coming to Ohio, thanks to the Toledo Public Library, in the following weeks. So I messaged my friends, Lori and Patty, and did exactly what was called for in such situations: I drove 3 hours on a Tuesday to hear an author talk about books. Then I turned around and drove the 3 hours back home.
As it turns out, her library tour was to promote her forthcoming book, Big Magic. I’ve read it countless times. There are moments in life when I feel the world is grey, as if everything is written in Times New Roman, and the days seem to repeat themselves. So I walk into our library, go to the front row on the far right (just past the Young Adult section), on the second set of shelves on the second-from-the-bottom shelf and find what I call my personal copy of Big Magic.
Some mornings, I’ll pick it up and turn to a section and feel the rush of refreshment wash over me. It’s not a magical book, it’s a magical concept: that ideas come to visit, and that inspiration needs a human partner. Her generous approach to the creative life leaves room for whatever it is that you want to add to the universe. I’m a believer – and, apparently, now her Downline in selling this particular version of magic.
(That’s a lie. It’s not for sale. It can never be bought. But I feel as passionately about my Liz version of creativity as any essential oils distributor.)
Since this time, I have recommended, quoted, cited, and figuratively threw a copy of Big Magic to all my favorite people. I’ve hosted retreats where we simply say the words back and forth to one another. People come at me with thoughts and I practically push them to to follow that Idea “to its natural end.”
Just this past year, in my very town, I was talking with a gal who had bravely tried something. She had an idea that wouldn’t leave her alone, and so she opened her doors to it. There were struggles (hello, COVID) and learning curves. In a brief discussion I learned that while I was a tad obnoxious over my excitement at her very existence, other people were…. not so much. She actually endured so much criticism and “are you really sure you should do this?” that her continued existence is a miracle.
I told her: All of these people full of doubts are terrified you’ll succeed because it means that the big dream they have living within them could actually work. Your success means the reason their dream never comes into existence is THEY aren’t brave enough to try. They desperately want reason and logic and “that won’t work” to be true because they are scared of their own power.
I’m surrounded by brave people who are willing to partner with Inspiration and try something. (Note: they’re not “fearless.” They’re just willing to try. We’ll talk about fear, don’t worry.)
I’m going to open my doors to all these brave souls.
I’m going to create space for Inspiration to come knocking.
I’m going to create time for you to tune your ear to the call of the Idea.
I’m going to tell you one million times that your worthiness has nothing to do with it.
And then I’ll finally shut up long enough for you to do your thing.
Who: Anyone who has ever had an idea come to visit.
What: I’m going to read Liz’s words, invite reactions that evoke hospitality to creativity, and then give space.
When: Some Tuesday nights. (Note: It’s known in these parts that Wednesday morning is when we Get Shit Done. Right after Rise & Shine yoga. Creativity does require you to show up and do the work.)
Where: Woven Yoga
Why: Because an Idea visited, and I don’t like to say no to a good idea without good reason. (“You don’t want word getting around the universe that you’re difficult to work with,” Liz writes on page 37.)
Your responsibility: Sign up & show up. (The signing up part is only loosely suggested.) It costs zero dollars and requires zero membership. No yoga, no touching toes, no chakras unless you want them, none of it. This is for the sake of the created/creative order. You might want to bring the notebook where you and Enchantment work out the details. And a good pen.
