March 1st, 2022
Hello! I hope that you’re okay, or even doing well. If you have experienced loss, or fear, or other hardships in these months of the pandemic, I wish you comfort and healing, and send you love.
I’ve added a new page to this website, with educational resources related to mental health. It currently holds the links to my presentations on YouTube about Complex Trauma and Body Centered Healing, and links to pdfs of the slideshow I just completed about the Community Resiliency Model, or CRM, a non-yoga body-centered approach to working with anxiety, depression, and trauma.
The CRM slideshow has a lot of exercises and activities to support mental health, with many of them designed to be accessible for people of all ages, including children. It also has a detailed section about the neurobiology of anxiety, depression, and trauma, and the ways that the CRM exercises can work with your nervous system to help you feel better. If you’re interested I hope that you’ll check it out, and let me know if you find anything helpful in it.
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Would you like to join me for some free online yoga? I offer three free online yoga sessions every week, in English, Spanish or bilingually, depending on who shows up; Zoom links are below.
To learn about community yoga classes that I teach online for Madison School Community Recreation (MSCR), you can scroll further down the page…
Other resources on this website include:
Poems from a variety of poets: https://clarenorelle.com/category/poetry/
Information on trauma and healing in the body: https://clarenorelle.com/trauma-and-healing-in-the-body/
Free drop-in yoga classes, online, in English and Spanish.
Yoga for Sleeping: Tuesdays at 9 pm in Wisconsin and in El Salvador; 7 pm on the west coast. A very gentle practice to help you sleep well. Yoga para el Sueño: Martes 9 pm en Wisconsin y en El Salvador; 7 pm en la costa oueste de los EEUU. Una práctica muy suave para ayudarte a dormir bien.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89934245112?pwd=RjZyV0JpQXBaSXNWLzltbmNIajJzZz09. Meeting ID: 899 3424 5112. Contraseña “greenroot” / Passcode “greenroot”
Gentle and Yin Yoga: Wednesdays 8 pm in Wisconsin and in El Salvador; 6 pm on the west coast of the US. A gentle practice to help alleviate stress and anxiety. Yoga Suave y Yin Yoga: Miércoles 8 pm en Wisconsin y en El Salvador; 6 pm en la costa oueste de los EEUU. Una práctica suave para ayudar a aliviar estrés y la ansiedad.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88280449664?pwd=K3JWYmxCcTEwYUpOc0RPRHpJMldOQT09 Meeting ID: 882 8044 9664 Contraseña “greenroot” / Passcode “greenroot”
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Gentle Yoga: Saturdays 8:45 am in Wisconsin and in El Salvador; 6:45 am on the west coast of the US. Hatha yoga standing, sitting, and lying on a mat, to relieve stress, strengthen the immune system, and increase well-being. Yoga Suave: Sábado 8:45 am en Wisconsin y en El Salvador; 6:45 am en la costa oueste de los EEUU. Hatha yoga de pie, sentado, y acostado en un tapete o colchoneta, para aliviar el estrés, fortalecer el sistema inmunológico, y aumentar el bienestar.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83014638156?pwd=L2NtcS9xWjVyVmo5SEY1WGpBcHZ4UT09
Meeting ID: 830 1463 8156. Contraseña “greenroot” / Passcode “greenroot”
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If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together. –Lilla Watson, Aboriginal elder, activist and educator from Queensland, Australia.
Even after decades of yearning and learning and working towards racial justice and reparations—really really imperfectly, pretty steadily—I still get inarticulate when I try to talk about these things. So I’ll just say that along with raw grief and fear over the deaths of so many Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people from police violence and Covid 19, I find unexpected hope in seeing how many people are working in so many different ways towards ending the violence and racial injustice embedded in our culture and its institutions. I stand with them, and with the people seeking ways to make this movement grow and become sustainable.
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I appreciate and feel so much gratitude for the long history of yoga in India: for the practitioners who carried it forward and developed it, and for the many diverse paths that they travelled with yoga over time, first in India and then out into other areas of the world. I love yoga practices for how they can support physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and for how they can strengthen a sense of self-determination, freedom, connection, and solidarity with the world around us.
So I want yoga to be accessible to anyone who wants to try it. For people of different backgrounds and histories and bodies of all kinds. Inexpensively or for free, whenever possible.
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More about the free online yoga classes
Some days a lot of people show up for these free classes, and other days one or two. Either way I like holding space for people to practice yoga together, and as long as people keep coming to these sessions, I will keep offering them.
You’re welcome to participate in any of my free community yoga classes for free, really. But if you’d like to take them and make a donation somewhere, here are some good places where you might do that:
MACH1 Health (street clinics for people in Madison without housing) at: http://machonehealth.org/donate/.
The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, at https://www.gofundme.com/f/blackwomenswellnesscenter
ROOTS4Change Farm to Families fund, at: https://roots4change.coop/farm-to-families-fund/
Occupy Madison, building tiny houses for people in Madison WI who are homeless: https://occupymadisoninc.com
All of the yoga classes I teach are informed by my training and certification in Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY), emphasizing skills that can minimize the long-term neurological and whole-body impact of overwhelming experiences, helping to strengthen resilience, immunity, and general well-being.
Online and in-person yoga sessions, Winter and Spring 2022
Mondays / Lunes
10:15 am Yoga Suave en sillas, en línea, Madison School Community Recreation (MSCR): 31 enero – 28 marzo (sesión de invierno); 4 abril – 6 junio (sesión de primavera). Para personas con más de 50 años; una práctica relajante, sentada en sillas y de pie usando sillas para apoyar el estiramiento. Para inscribirse: https://apm.activecommunities.com/mscractivenet/Activity_Search?txtActivitySearch=yoga%20suave&applyFiltersDefaultValue=true&cat=Activities
7 pm Yin Yoga online through MSCR: Jan. 11 – March 22 (Winter); April 4 – June 6 (Spring). Slow, long-held stretches sitting and lying on the ground; a peaceful practice, good for increasing physical and emotional flexibility. To register: https://apm.activecommunities.com/mscractivenet/Activity_Search?txtActivitySearch=yoga%20suave&applyFiltersDefaultValue=true&cat=Activities
Tuesdays / Martes
10:30 Gentle Yoga online, MSCR Goodman Rotary, Jan. 12 – March 23 (Winter) and April 5 – June 7 (Spring) A gentle hatha yoga practice combining stretching, strengthening, balancing, and guided rest. This is a Goodman Rotary Class, for people over 50. To register: https://apm.activecommunities.com/mscractivenet/Activity_Search?txtActivitySearch=yoga%20suave&applyFiltersDefaultValue=true&cat=Activities
9 pm Yoga para el Sueño en línea, gratuita; 8 pm en Wisconsin y El Salvador; 7 pm en la costa oueste de los EEUU. Una práctica muy suave para ayudarte a dormir bien en la noche; sesiones gratuitas abiertas a todxs, y sin necesidad de inscribirse.
Yoga for Sleeping (in Spanish, online) Tuesdays 9 pm in Wisconsin and in El Salvador; 6 pm on the west coast of the US. A very gentle practice to help you sleep well at night; free drop-in sessions open to all, no need to register.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89934245112?pwd=RjZyV0JpQXBaSXNWLzltbmNIajJzZz09. Meeting ID: 899 3424 5112
Passcode / Contraseña: greenroot
Wednesdays / Miércoles
5:30 pm pm LGBTQ+ Yoga MSCR Outdoors April 6 – June 8 (not online) at Tenney Park. An in-person outdoors class, masked and socially distanced: this gentle hatha yoga practice for LGBTQ+ people combines stretching, strengthening, balancing, and guided rest. To register: https://apm.activecommunities.com/mscractivenet/Activity_Search?txtActivitySearch=yoga%20suave&applyFiltersDefaultValue=true&cat=Activities
8 pm Gentle Yoga with Yin Yoga online (free): 8 pm in Wisconsin and in El Salvador; 6 pm on the west coast of the US. Designed to support mental health and well-being, these sessions offer nothing extraneous– just a quiet practice of mindful movement, to help release stress, and to strengthen connections and integration in your nervous system.
Yoga Suave con Yin Yoga: Miércoles 8 pm en Wisconsin y en El Salvador; 6 pm en la costa oueste de los EEUU. Una práctica suave para ayudar a aliviar estrés y trauma..
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88280449664?pwd=QWJuUHBicmVoN2lzekcvbjRQWmlNUT09. Meeting ID: 882 8044 9664. Passcode / Contraseña: greenroot
Thursdays / Jueves
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12 -12:45 pm Gentle Yoga with a Chair, free ongoing drop-in sessions: Learn to do yoga sitting in a chair and/or standing and using a chair to find better stretches; no yoga mat needed. You can sit through the whole session or stand through the whole session, or do a combination of both. 12 a 12:45 pm Yoga Suave con una Silla, sesiones gratuitas cada semana empezando el 3 de marzo; no hace falta inscribirse. Aprende a hacer yoga sentade en una silla y/o de pie y usando una silla para encontrar mejores estiramientos; no se necesita tapete de yoga. Puede sentarse durante toda la sesión o permanecer de pie durante toda la sesión, o hacer una combinación de ambos.
Meeting ID: 867 4716 0793
Contraseña “greenroot” / Passcode “greenroot”
Saturdays / Sábado
Yoga Suave para Aliviar el Estrés (gratuita): Sábado 8:45 am en Wisconsin y en El Salvador; 6:45 am en la costa oueste de los EEUU. Hatha yoga de pie, sentada, y acostada en un tapete o colchoneta, para aliviar el estrés, fortalecer el sistema inmunológico, y aumentar el bienestar; sesiones gratuitas cada semana empezando el 3 de marzo; no hace falta inscribirse. Gentle Yoga for Stress Release: Free ongoing drop-in sessions, Saturdays at 8:45 am in Wisconsin and in El Salvador; 6:45 am on the west coast of the US. Hatha yoga standing, sitting, and lying on a mat, to relieve stress, strengthen the immune system, and increase well-being.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83014638156?pwd=L2NtcS9xWjVyVmo5SEY1WGpBcHZ4UT09
Meeting ID: 830 1463 8156
10:15 MSCR Yin Yoga Jan. 14 – March 25 (winter) and April 9 – June 11 (spring). Slow, long-held stretches sitting and lying on the ground; a peaceful practice, good for increasing physical and emotional flexibility. To register: https://apm.activecommunities.com/mscractivenet/Activity_Search?txtActivitySearch=yoga%20suave&applyFiltersDefaultValue=true&cat=Activities
The world is full of beauty, magic, miracles, and patterns that induce wonder… Emergence is one of the best concepts I have learned for discussing this wonder. Emergence emphasizes critical connections over critical mass, building authentic relationships, listening with all the senses of the body and the mind.
The crisis is everywhere, massive massive massive. And we are small.
But emergence notices the way small actions and connections create complex systems, patterns that become ecosystems and societies. Emergence is our inheritance as a part of this universe; it is how we change. Emergent strategy is how we intentionally change in ways that grow our capacity to embody the just and liberated worlds we long for.
adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy
