Newsletters
Welcome to the first edition of the Moon Tree Gentle Yoga and Wellness Center's newsletter. My name is Ma'lena and I will be your server, pilot and tour guide.
I began practicing yoga about eight years ago. I was quite unwell at the time and--it seems as if this is always true of me as well--overweight. I walked into what I thought was a Gentle Yoga class. When we went into a child's pose, and I was dutifully folded over and resting, I had trouble breathing. I lifted my bottom a bit. The teacher came over and pressed down on my sacrum. I stopped breathing. After class I went over and said, "Um, you know I can either have good form in that pose or I can breathe. Personally, I prefer breathing." I knew I was in deep compost when she didn't laugh.
Here is the pattern I followed over the next year: I went to class and when I could no longer even pretend to get into the poses, I stopped going only to start up another class and again and again until I reached that wall of impossibility, the place where I could not go because of my body's shape, size and level of fitness--what an inflexible and unforgiving wall it is. It wasn't until I went to a different teacher, a teacher who took the time to look at me holistically, that I finally began to breathe and find comfort in the poses. This was all at Harmony Yoga and the amazing woman who taught me is Brit Penberthy. She worked with me to modify poses so that I could come into a pose, stay there, and find comfort. It is what everyone who practices yoga needs to do.
After a year or so I kept saying, "I should become a teacher and teach others like me. No one is out there." Need I mention the be-careful-what-you-ask-for cliche? Why not? Ask and ye shall receive . . .
After teaching about a year, a year in which I schlepped blankets, bolsters, straps and blocks, I got weary of poor class times and towers of props heavily balanced on a handtruck higher than me that blocked my vision. It was time to find my own yoga studio.
There is a canyon of difference between saying, "I'd like my own studio," and actually having one. I'll save all that juicy drama for a book. In the meantime, I now have Moon Tree Gentle Yoga and Wellness Center.
I have no idea what I am doing; I've learned how to be okay with the mystery of not knowing who will show up in my classes, who might or might not teach other classes, how I will pay for everything, and whether or not anyone is even interested in what I have to offer. I am simply letting go and choosing to act with faith.
It seems not too long ago that I was saying--to myself and anyone who would listen--"Some day I will open up my own studio." As the venerable writer and wit Kurt Vonnegut was fond of saying, "So it goes." And so it does . . . we have a studio, a small violet and blond jewel. Less than 500 square feet, with bamboo flooring and lovely violet walls, Moon Tree Gentle Yoga and Wellness Center (hereinafter mostly referred to as MTGY because it's too much to type everytime)is an inviting space to stretch out your body and mind, relax into stillness and soothe your spirit.
We share the office waiting room of Dr. Vivian Moise, who is a Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine specialist. So not only do we have a gorgeous space in which to play, we have the cachet of being associated with a real, live physician, one who refers her patients, friends and other physicians to yoga, specifically MGTY. How lucky are we? How grateful, too?
You are all invited to come and play.
Hope to see you soon.
Clean feet and open heart,
Ma'lena