What’s coming up at the studios?

Online Chair Yoga Series

Chair Yoga brings the best of a yoga practice to those who require or prefer the support of a chair. Students will explore gentle, slow modifications of twists, hip stretches, forward bends and mild backbends. This class helps participants stay healthy, vibrant and confident by focusing on developing small and large muscle groups, stretching, balancing (beside or behind the chair) and strength building. Benefits include improved balance, strength, range of motion, along with increased mindfulness and body awareness.


Date: Tuesdays, September 29th – November 3rd
Time: 11:00-12:00pm online via Zoom, Preregister Here
Cost: $80/$85/$90 

 

 

 

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

There has never been a more important time to develop practices for self-care and resilience. Living during the uncertainty of a Pandemic, facing the issues of racism that plague our country, feeling divisiveness in politics on a national stage, but also in our own families and communities, many of us are walking through our days with a high degree of stress, anxiety, and inner turbulence.
 
In the MBSR program, discover your own inner resources for health, healing, stress resiliency, and self-care through this thoroughly researched and well-respected Stress Reduction Program created by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.
 
This program is for those experiencing a variety of concerns, including chronic pain, illness, and other stress related issues. Practices will be accessible and adaptable.
 
~Mobilize inner stress resiliency, gain tools to handle both internal and external stress.
~Understand the connection between mind and body in relation to stress.
~Access a deeper experience of ease, peace of mind, and self-compassion.
 
What to expect:
~An online format, so you can participate from the comfort and safety of your home
~Guided instruction in mindfulness meditation and gentle mindful movement
~Mindful group discussion and sharing with partners
~Home practice assignments
~Half Day Online Guided Home Retreat
 
Please note that participation in this series is not recommended for those dealing with acute, untreated mental issues. Please discuss your participation with Erin Joosse if you have a question about if the program is right for you. Upon registration, you will be sent an intake form.
 
Beginners are welcome; open to all levels and physical ability.
 
Dates: Saturdays, September 19th – November 7th, (10am-12pm)
+ Half Day Retreat Sunday, October 25th
(11:00am – 4:00pm)
Online Cost:  Sliding Scale – $325/$350/$375*
*Pay at the highest level you are able
(Some scholarship funds available – if you need financial support to participate, please email us at [email protected])

 

Heart & Lungs: A Restorative Somatic Yoga Practice

Breath has been in the forefront of our collective awareness during the COVID pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. In this time of uncertainty and change, it is important to be present with ourselves. Using gentle movements and restorative poses, this somatic workshop will help us remember our innate wholeness and ease. By bringing our attention to our lungs and heart, we can directly impact the health, vitality, and balance of ourselves and our community.
 
This workshop will include:
  • Anatomy of lungs, heart and blood flow
  • Guided meditation to feel and directly experience your lungs
  • Restorative poses and gentle movements to calm, nourish and connect to yourself
  • Breathing practices to bring into your daily life to promote physical, emotional, and mental balance and strength
All bodies welcome!
 
Date/Time: Sunday, September 27th, 6:30-8:30pm
Cost: Autopay Members Free; Non-Members: $20; Preregister Here

Anti-racism as a Spiritual Practice ~ A 6 Week Series

A White Ally Working Group

 
Are you a spiritually inclined white person, troubled by white supremacy, but unsure what to do? Are you wrestling to understand and address these wrongs in a holistic and embodied way? Do you wonder what #BlackLivesMatter means for white folks, and more particularly, for Source Yoga community members?
 
This is a 6-week series designed to support white folks through experiential, embodied engagement of the recent death of George Floyd, subsequent protests for Black Lives, and the legacy of white supremacy in our nation, communities, and selves.
 
We will engage through five focal points of intention:
1. Interspiritual + Somatic Practice: the circle will begin and end each week with contemplative practice. This forms a foundation for all the other work as a method of spiritual, neurological, and physiological muscle-building; for resiliency, self-healing, skill, quality of attention and staying-power amidst discomfort.
 
2. Education: we will work from blogs, chapters from books, and videos of various POC and white educators to learn about the history and current reality of racism, and explore how white folks can engage in Anti-Racism work. Weekly assignments will take no more than an hour.
 
3. Relationship and Peer support: where do you have power to affect change right now, in your immediate relationships and spheres of influence? We will spend time addressing and supporting each other’s specific efforts.
 
4. Financial Reallocation: this circle is being offered at a sliding scale, and 100% of funds after facilitator costs will be donated to The People’s Assembly, Tacoma’s grassroots racial justice movement. Kate (the facilitator) contributes 50% of her funds to local black and brown healers.
 

5. Listening for the call to Direct Action: what are our community members of color asking of white folks? What are they already up to that we can amplify? What are we being asked to “continue, stop, start”? This might look like identifying one local action to consistently support together, getting involved in legislation, or other things that may emerge. This also will include deepening and widening our own risk-taking, and examining the question: who do we need to be to follow black and brown leadership?

Folks of all spiritual/faith traditions welcome, as well as those who are spiritual but not religious.
 
A note for Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC): you are also absolutely welcome. Please know, however, the work outlined in this series is geared towards supporting white folks in taking on some of the labor of anti-racism, and to do our own work without requiring the emotional labor of our BIPOC peers and colleagues. It is also a space in which white folks will be learning and building skills (so probably making mistakes and being awkward and/or potentially harmful). This includes Kate (the facilitator)! Kate is white and still growing in her work of healing her own racism and facilitating groups addressing race.
 
If you desire to know more about any aspect of this, please do not hesitate to talk to Kate. If BIPOC folks wish to attend the circle, I, Kate, will do my best to prioritize your voice, safety and well-being, and support you in choosing in or out of any aspect of this practice. You will not be expected to support the emotional processing or be called upon to teach or explain if you do not wish to do so.
 
A final note: This is just one aspect of the wider and deeper work that Source Yoga is engaging in, in an effort to be in integrity and responsible to our black and brown community members and wider world, particularly as a white-owned business. It is a work in progress occuring imperfectly on many levels!
 
Date: Thursdays, Oct 15th – Nov 19th
Time: 6:30-8:30pm
Tuition: Sliding scale $75/$150/$225
Max participants: 20 people
 
Kate Fontana (she/her/hers) believes that healing at the personal level is inseparable from healing at the interpersonal, systemic, and planetary level. She is co-founder and steward of The Sanctuary Northwest, a center for trauma resilience, spiritual wellness and cultural healing. Kate has practiced yoga since 2002 and has been teaching yoga since 2009. More recently, she has sought the integration of embodiment, spirituality, and racial justice work through training and being mentored in the emerging trauma-informed field of Cultural Somatics with Tada Hozumi and dare sohei. She is also a seminarian at the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, discerning a call to the priesthood with the Roman Catholic Women Priests.

American Sanskrit Institute’s Online Level I Immersion

Knowledge of Sanskrit makes it possible to grasp the subtleties of yoga, whose body of teachings are written in Sanskrit. Since ancient times the practice of yoga has included the study of Sanskrit and the chanting of Sanskrit mantras to induce calm and clarity in meditation. Sanskrit is integral to yoga meditation and its pure sounds essential for harmonizing and balancing the mind.
 
This Sanskrit Training will teach you how to approach the language of yoga as a yoga that is both enjoyable and inspiring. The first step in learning Sanskrit is to develop an intimacy with its sounds; become familiar with their exact location, feeling their force and power, and the unique way they vibrate the palate and engage the breath. Above all, enjoying sound is at the heart of our program.
 
This Sanskrit Training is an educational adventure that will give you a permanent connection to the beauty and energy of Sanskrit as well as a dynamic model of yoga in the classroom that supports a natural and effortless focus.
 
We have recently begun presenting this workshop as a virtual offering. The ASI learning model and design of this program depend on a unified, collective group experience. We know that it can be more challenging to achieve through an online format, but are confident and pleased that to date, we have been able to maintain a high standard while adhering to specific conditions for participation.

 

As always for this workshop, participants must be present for the entirety of the course. This means being with the group online for up to seven hours each day, with scheduled breaks of 15-30 minutes throughout and shorter breaks as needed. It also means being able to be in a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted, and can focus on the computer screen, speaking and chanting out loud with the group.

 

The ASI team continues to work hard to refine the details of the online course, but anticipate that there are some things we are not going to be able to foresee. This experience does require that we all lean into our yoga practices to cultivate patience and understanding for what is a collective new experience.

 

Participation for this event will be limited to no more than 15 people. Please join this adventure if you are comfortable with the online learning format, have a living situation that will support your participation, and are ready to take your practice deeper.

 

Date/Time: Friday, Oct 16; 6:00-8:00pm
                   Saturday, Oct 17; 1:00-7:00pm
                   Sunday, Oct 18; 9am-3:00pm
Cost: $250, Preregister Here

Source Yoga Bookclub – October 2020

Senator Rosa Franklin, RN (1927-) was the first African American woman to be elected to the Washington State Senate. With a rich and varied 42-year background in health care and social justice, she went on to serve in the Legislature for another 20 years representing the 29th District. She retired in 2010 and was the first African American woman in the United States to be elected as the President Pro Tem of her State Senate.
 
Longtime Source student and writer Tamiko Nimura had the opportunity to collaborate with Franklin on the Senator’s biography and oral history. The result was just published in 2020, titled Rosa Franklin: A Life in Health Care, Public Service, and Social Justice. Tamiko will spend some time talking about the rewarding journey of writing the book, the things she learned about Tacoma, and the lesser-known histories of people of color in our state. She’s happy to discuss the writing of the book, the mutual benefits of conducting oral histories, and much more.
 
The book contains a short biography of Senator Franklin’s life and achievements, including rare family photos and artifacts from her long career. The other half of the book is an edited transcript of the oral history interviews. You do not need to read the entire book in order to join the discussion.
 
Book: Rosa Franklin: A Life in Health Care, Public Service, and Social Justice
Date: Tuesday, Oct 20th
Time: 7:00-8:30pm online via Zoom
Cost: This offering is freely offered. Please consider donating in any heartfelt amount to SOTA Antiracist Lending Library fund: a community-supported library which offers sets of books to student-led book groups.  Donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/antiracist-lending-library-fund