Yoga instruction, massage & bodywork
McMinnville, OR
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In Dedication...
Named at the time for my Father whom I was caring for. He had a bad heart (actually a very good one, but a tired one)
Dad ended up being the first man in his family to live past 35 years because of hereditary heart disease. I fell into such deep compassion, love, and frustration with him in his final years that I knew yoga for the heart was not only for the healthy benefits that a yoga practice can bring, but for our hearts that grow and ache and live in this human form. My Father died October 12th, 2004 and I know one of the gifts he left for my sisters and I was his very gentle heart.
A Brief History...
After studying in Maine for many years with Patricia Brown as a young mother we relocated to Oregon. I actually became interested in yoga during high school. Going to high school outside of Washington D.C. offered many interesting cultural excursions and classes in Georgetown near the university. A fellow student's mother was teaching yoga in her home as well and I soon became a loyal student. I actually did an independent study about yoga for an English credit!
Upon moving to Newberg, Oregon in 1990, I sadly found no yoga in the area. I started traveling to Portland for yoga and studied with many teachers there. Julie Gudmestad, Diane Wilson, Holiday Johnson, and Julie Lawrence. Many workshops and teacher trainings with senior teachers transpired over the years. Studies in anatomy and physiology, and after some years a more serious meditation practice with Rodney Smith. (Lessons from the Dying) Hospice training became a big interest in my life. First in my early 20's, then later after my children where older. For several years I volunteered as a respite care giver and eventually as a chaplain. Learning to show up for people in this time of life makes life worth living. To sit with death will rattle your bones, break your heart, and grow your spirit like no other experience. Of course our ancestors knew this! Unfortunately we have stripped this gift from our culture and yet come face to face with it sooner or later and often have no clue what is happening. I have found that by inviting death in, that we are dying all the time. If we can keep learning how to die to the everyday changing situations of our life we keep opening to new life.
Such is the practice savasana, corpse pose, dying at the end of our practice we are renewed and restored to create again.
Namaste,
Seylah