Sept. 20th, 2022
Hello! I hope that you’re okay, or even doing well. These past several months have been so hard for so many people, adding to the challenges and sorrows of the past two years. If you’ve experienced loss, fear or other hardships, I wish you comfort and healing, and send you love.
There are links on this page to free online drop-in yoga classes that I teach each week to support people’s mental health and well being; please scroll down to find those if you like. The day has changed for one of these classes: Yin Yoga, which used to happen on Wednesday evenings, will now be on Thursday evenings--with the exception of Thursday October 6th, when there will be no class.
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A few months ago I added a new page to this website, with educational resources related to mental health. It currently holds the links to my youtube presentations, Complex Trauma and Body Centered Healing, and links to pdfs of the slideshow I made about the Community Resiliency Model, or CRM, a non-yoga body-centered approach to working with anxiety, depression, and trauma.
You can find these resources here: https://clarenorelle.com/resources-for-mental-health-and-well-being/
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; Clases de yoga en línea, sin necesidad de inscribirse, en inglés y español
(No classes on Tuesday October 4th and Thursday October 6th 2022; No habrán classes martes 4 de octubre y jueves 6 de octubre 2022)
Yoga for Sleeping: Tuesdays at 9 pm in Wisconsin; 8 pm 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; 8 pm 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”
Yin Yoga: Thursdays 8 pm in Wisconsin; 7 pm en El Salvador; 6 pm on the west coast of the US. A gentle practice to help alleviate stress and anxiety. Yin Yoga: Jueves 8 pm en Wisconsin; 7 pm 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”
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 some 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, Summer and Fall 2022
Mondays / Lunes
10:15 am Yoga Suave en sillas, en línea, Madison School Community Recreation (MSCR): 20 junio – 22 agosto (sesión de verano); 12 septiembre – 21 noviembre (sesión de otoño). Para personas con más de 50 años; una práctica relajante, sentada en sillas y de pie usando sillas para apoyar el estiramiento. Para inscribirse:
7 pm Yin Yoga online through MSCR: June 20th – August 22nd (Summer); September 12th – November 21st (Fall). 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, June 21st – August 23rd (Summer) and September 13th – November 22nd (Fall) 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 cada semana; 9 pm en Wisconsin; 8 pm en 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. En español e inglés.
Yoga for Sleeping, free online each week; 9 pm in Wisconsin; 8 pm 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. In English and Spanish.
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 June 22nd – August 24th (not online, summer only) at Tenney Park. An in-person outdoors class: 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 every week (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 en línea cada semana (gratuita): 8 pm en Wisconsin; 7 pm 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
Saturdays / Sábado
Yoga Suave para Aliviar el Estrés (gratuita): Sábado 8:45 am en Wisconsin; 7:45 am 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; 7:45 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 June 25 – August 27th (Summer) and September 17th – November 19th (Fall). 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
