We’re very excited to announce our own branded style: Flow + Ground Yoga! Developed by Jay MacDonald in coordination with our 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training, this signature blend is an integration of movement and stability.

In this yoga practice, the emphasis is on finding balance and presence in every single aspect of our movement, breath and surrender which is unique to each individual. This journey of self discovery should be made with a sense of wonder and joy free from criticism or judgement.

Our belief is that each individual’s mind, body and spirit should be respected and handled with the utmost care and compassion in every yoga class. Our job as instructors is not to impose our own will or ideals of what a yoga pose should look like but rather to encourage and guide students safely and carefully on their journey to discover what each pose should feel like in their own physical, mental and spiritual expression of each pose.

As instructors, we owe it to our students to observe and listen to any concerns or fears with the understanding that only they truly know what a pose feels like in their own body. We also owe our students the right to decide and set their own boundaries regarding hands on adjustments vs. verbal adjustments without implied judgment or criticism.

This practice moves with breath, gravity and surrender through each pose. It’s designed to gradually build toward higher energy flow sequence that pushes out what is stuck and stagnant then slowing gradually back down to a grounding calming static practice that centers and renews, then finishes with a brief meditation, bringing in a fresh and clearer perspective.

Each class will include several twisting sequences to wring out stagnant energy / blood / lymph / metabolic waste, followed by heart chakra and throat chakra openers to open up to the fresh and new. This is followed with at least three sets of sun salutations. The sun salutes are followed by a low grounding slow flow sequence including Yin, gentle or restorative poses (such as hip openers). Class is finished with a brief meditation or guided imagery sequence before savasana.

Stillness + Motion

Flow = to issue or move in a stream; circulate; rise; abound; to hang loose and billowing; to derive from a source; to deform under stress without cracking or rupturing.

“Water will flow from areas with high energy to those with low energy.”

“I want to be like water, I want to slip through fingers and hold up a ship.” {Michelle Williams}

“Water doesn’t resist, water flows.
When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress.
Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you.
But water always goes where it wants to go and nothing in the end can’t stand against it Water is patient Dripping water wears away a stone Remember that my child Remember that you are half water…” {Margaret Atwood}

“A Woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself.” {Maya Angelou}

“Water is fluid, soft and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.”  {Lao Tzu}

***Water is of major importance to all living things; in some organisms, up to 90% of their body weight comes from water. Up to 60% of the human adult body is water. According to H.H. Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry 158, the brain and heart are composed of 73% water, and the lungs are about 83% water.Jul 23, 2018

Ground = the solid surface of the Earth; an area of knowledge or a subject of discussion or thought; factors forming a basis for action or the justification for a belief.

“Feeling rooted in the earth is soothing to the body, and it is our connection to the earth that gives us our most basic sense of belonging, home, resilience, and safety.” {Jessica Moore}

“Any spiritual practice that draws our energy and attention ‘up’ – without equally focusing downward – is inherently ungrounding and will make us out of balance.” {Jessica Moore}

“Asanas don’t exist. What I mean is that there is no such thing as an asana. What exists is a person, who has a body that gets put in a shape and then you say, ‘Oh, that’s that asana.’… You can’t take the downward dog out of your body and look at it as if it’s an entity devoid of context.”

Asanas don’t have alignment, people have alignment. Everyone’s body is a little bit different; everyone’s body is unique and what works for one person will create harm for somebody else. Engaging someone in an inquiry to discover their own uniqueness is one of the great benefits of an asana practice.” {Leslie Kaminoff}

“What I’ve learned over the years… is that it’s far more powerful to engage a student in an inquiry than to simply give them an answer.”

It’s taken a while to be comfortable with just sitting inside a question, and letting students sit inside a space of questioning and exploration… but what I found is that the answers people come up with in that situation are much more powerful; because it’s their answer, not anyone else’s.” {Leslie Kaminoff}

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a small or a large group because the intent is for each person in the group to connect with what’s going on for them, not to just follow the leader or do what the teacher is doing.” {Leslie Kaminoff}

“The ultimate context of yoga is the person that is doing it. So to me the purpose of yoga is to bring that individual to more of a state of balance and whatever that means for that person. What’s balance for me can be very different than what’s balance for you. Understanding our own individual nature to me is what yoga is.” {Leslie Kaminoff}

“You could be doing something on a yoga mat that looks like yoga practice but you could be not paying attention to your breath, your mind can be wandering, you could be doing a hundred other things in your own head, while your body is going through the postures. I don’t think that’s yoga. By definition, if the mind and body are being brought together through the breath then I think its yoga, and its spiritual. It’s all the same definition.” {Leslie Kaminoff}