Dancing For Birth™ is a fun and uplifting dance workout for prenatal and postpartum women. Weaving together African Dance, Belly Dance, Caribbean Dance, and Latin Dance, Dancing For Birth™ teaches women how to use world dance moves to facilitate more comfortable pregnancies, labors, and births while encouraging optimal fetal positioning. Postpartum women can wear their baby in a wrap or sling and use the same dance moves to stretch, strengthen, and tone their bodies after childbirth while bonding with their babies.  Moves such as “Birth Goddess,” “Dilation Gyration,” and “Rock the Baby” empower mothers with techniques that they can use in labor to help baby navigate his/her way through the pelvis at the time of birth.

Participants report experiencing low levels of discomfort, few or no interventions, brief labors and high levels of satisfaction during their births.  Babies whose mothers take Dancing for Birth™ classes love the motion of dancing and are easily soothed after birth by being held while the mother dances.  Mothers regain their pre-pregnancy shape and tone more quickly when they continue Dancing for Birth™ classes with their baby after the birth.  One of the only classes where pregnant and postpartum moms are together, it serves as a valuable resource for expectant mothers to learn from those who have gone before them.

Beginning Monday, October 3, 2011, the Monday Evening All-Levels Kundalini Yoga Class will be held at Community Yoga, 600 N. Wallace (the corner of Peach and Wallace.)

Over the past year, Susie and Anna of Montana Lotus Yoga have been sharing their beautiful studio space with me.  The demand for evening Anusara yoga classes has increased, and they have decided to meet that demand by offering classes in their tradition five nights a week at their studio.  I would like to publicly thank them for their kindness in opening their studio to my Kundalini Yoga classes over the past year, and I wish them well in their expanded class offerings!

Lucky for me and those who practice Kundalini Yoga with me on Monday evenings, Gail of the primarily Ashtanga-based Community Yoga studio has been equally kind and welcoming in offering me a place to teach in her beautiful new studio just across town.  It feels like such a seamless transition and I am so grateful for open-minded yoginis who like to share!  I love the concept of Community Yoga, too!  Members pay $35/month to access the space when they need to for their own personal practice and $5 per class.  Non-members pay an affordable rate of $10 per class.

Hope to see you there!

Sat Nam Yoginis!  I’d like to invite you to a very special women’s retreat weekend!   Celebrating Women is in it’s 19th year of inspiring and empowering women, and this year’s theme is Weaving The Web:  Creating Conscious Community.  The Celebrating Women Gathering will be held at the historic Boulder Hot Springs, in Boulder, MT on the weekend of September 23-25.  I am looking forward to a weekend full of hot spring soaking, drumming, dancing, learning, sharing, and connecting.  There are several workshops over the course of the weekend, one of which I will be presenting- a Women’s Kundalini Yoga and Meditation workshop called “Celebrating Shakti.”  Other workshops dive deep into practices of self-exploration and community building such as meditation, dancing, creating a community mandala, permaculture, knitting, the ancient Taoist practice of Kunlun, the Labyrinth, the power of song, art, and poetry.  Also included in the weekend is a keynote address from the founder and director of Hopa Mountain, a Bozeman-based non-profit.  Open Mike night and a Silent Auction round out the weekend, as well as morning Kundalini Yoga classes to start your day off right.  Participants may camp or stay in one of the Boulder Hot Spring’s guest rooms.  Meals are prepared from organic, locally grown food and special dietary requests will be honored.  Registration is a 2 part process.  Register for the Celebrating Women retreat ($80 before Sept 1, $110 after) by requesting a brochure and turning in the form.  Then book your stay at Boulder Hot Springs- please call them directly as there is a block of rooms held for this retreat.  Cost of meals for the entire weekend is $84.  Camping is $18/night and rooms vary from $25-60 per person depending on occupancy.  More elegant Bed and Breakfast rooms are an additional cost.  I hope to see you there!

Click on the above photograph to view an album of Mommy & Me photos. Thanks to Anne Sherwood for taking the photos!

Click on the above photograph to view an album of Blissful Bellies Prenatal Yoga photographs. Thanks to Anne Sherwood for taking the photos!

Lately I have been getting more and more requests for private classes, and it is really something I love to do.  There is something really special about getting to know a student well, and tailoring the classes to suit him/her.  I love to dig through my yoga manuals and select just the right kriyas and meditations to serve the particular needs of the person I am working with.  It is very gratifying also to see people dive deeply into the teachings of Kundalini Yoga.  Often those who desire private classes wish to practice also at home and really accelerate their personal growth.

Sometimes people who seek out private classes simply want to experience Kundalini Yoga by themselves a few times before joining a class with others.  Sometimes it is because the regular scheduled classes don’t fit into their schedule.  And sometimes it is because they feel intimidated by the thought of exercising in a group.  Generally, though, people seek out private classes so they can experience a class tailor made for them.

Often as I get to know a student, they will tell me their stories, their health concerns and goals, and other information about them that can help me choose appropriate kriyas and meditations suited for them. The beautiful thing about Kundalini Yoga is that there is pretty much a specific kriya or meditation for everything under the sun. With kriyas with titles like “Stress Set for the Adrenals and Kidneys,” “Abdominal Strengthening Set,” “Firing Up the Metabolism,” “Detoxification,” “Kriya for a Calm and Open Heart,” “To Relieve Inner Anger,” “Glandular System Tune Up,” “To Make the Skin Radiant,” “Refreshing the Nervous System,” “Kriya for Elevation,” “Let the Liver Live,” and “Kriya for Disease Resistance,” (to name just a few) we really can target specific conditions with yoga. And the meditations are countless as well. There are meditations for prosperity, dealing with depression, healing, good luck, removing negative thoughts, boosting self-esteem, becoming more intuitive, healing the wounds of love, and even for keeping up with your children! Truly the possibilities and combinations are almost endless.

Another way to tailor a class to an individual is to do a Tantric Numerology Reading.  The numbers of one’s birthday are plugged into an ancient yogic formula, and a reading is given with customized suggestions for a personal yoga practice based on the individual’s results.  This is something that one can do for free online, or something I can do using a specific formula given by Yogi Bhajan and using information in my books and manuals to put together a reading.   Often it is nice to do both the online reading and the reading from the book, because occasionally there will be a slighly different perspective or insights given to better understand the depth of the reading. The suggested yoga sets and meditations can then be worked into a private yoga class and then into the student’s home practice.

To find out what your personal Tantric Numerology reading is for free online, please visit this website. In order to really understand the philosophy behind the reading and to understand also what the different numbers and categories mean, please also read this page and this page.

Private classes are held at my husband’s cozy office space on Fairway Drive, or in your home. I can also work with clients long-distance using Skype. For more information and to schedule, please give me a call at (406) 595-2547.

In the words of Yogi Bhajan: “Obey, Serve, Love, Excel!”

Sat Nam!