Slow, Gentle, Restorative, & Nidra
Meet your teachers!
Jazmin Vélez
Jazmin Vélez
Jazmin Vélez is a Registered Yoga Instructor, Accessible Yoga Certified, and an Usui Level 2 Reiki Practitioner who is committed to introducing students to a wide variety of wellness and care practices! She created of EspañYOGA – yoga in Spanish classes that facilitate inclusivity and accessibility – and Wild Talks – community circle gatherings that encourages learning and growing through sharing stories. More about Jazmin: she is a Cancer (sun), Libra (Moon/Rising), Vata with wild hair and an even wilder spirit. Sunowers will always make her smile, she was probably a cat in another life, and she believes the best insight comes through story-telling. Find Jazmin on instagram @jazminvelezm or facebook /jazminvelezm
Alicia Delaney
Alicia Delaney
Alicia Delaney (RYT 200) serves all people seeking rest and rejuvenation. Her class atmosphere matches her spirit: open, affirming, and easy-going. With a passion for Restorative yoga, she guides students into slow and gentle self-care, emphasizing a sensitive, open-choice approach to all offerings. Alicia came to yoga in 2015 as a source of reprieve from her academic and caretaking roles. Consistent practice as a Yoga Buzz scholarship recipient awakened a hunger to invest more deeply in her physical, spiritual, and mental health. Doing so provided her with a newfound sense of resiliency, power, awareness, and freedom. Knowing that yoga can offer that type of transformation to all practitioners is what led her to pursue yoga teacher certification. She is wholeheartedly grateful to Joy Page and Jill Dunlap, who guided her through their 2017 200-hour Hatha Yoga teacher training. She has since continued her education with a deeper focus on rest and healing: Alicia received her 30-hour Yoga Nidra Teacher certification through the ShivaShakti School of Yoga and Healing Arts in 2018, and is a traditional Usui Reiki practitioner. Alicia’s mission is to guide students toward ease and delight in their bodies through clear, safe, and patient instruction. She desires to always stay curious, to support others in the embodiment of yoga as a natural state of being, and to hold space for natural self-healing to occur. When she’s not at the studio, you can find Alicia teaching English to immigrants and refugees, playing in the sunshine, or snuggling her cat.
Brooke Brasfield
Brooke Brasfield
Brooke has been working as a mental health therapist in a mental health and substance abuse treatment facility for the past 6 years. She has facilitated both educational and process groups on anxiety, cognitive behavioral therapy, coping skills, stress management, mindfulness/meditation education, and much more. She has decided to branch out into life coaching to be able to guide & heal more people around the world. Through her transition, she has been called to give more to the community by sharing her knowledge and experience on anxiety-reducing techniques to help others live a life of peace, empowerment and light. Brooke is open to discussing her personal struggles with anxiety and her specific ways to calm the "anxiety monster" that lives inside.
About the classes
This slow flow’s focus is to use the breath to connect with our bodies in small ways. There will be attention to using inhales to move from point A to using exhales to ground at point B. Movements will be mild, sometimes held longer, with plenty of time for transitions and adjustments. Class will be wrapped up with gentle floor movements to allow subtle energies to ease in the body and mind.
In this class, we will use the practice of yoga to help us find emotional balance, strength and stillness. The philosophy and physicality of the yoga practice re-educates the body and the mind to make shifts towards calm and ease through movement, breath, and attention. Our breath anchors us in the present moment and empowers us with the ability to self-regulate. In this class we will increase body awareness, relieve stress, reduce muscle tension and inflammation while sharpening concentration and calming the nervous system. We will learn techniques to coax the body into a relaxation response allowing us to reduce stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Once a relaxation response can be achieved, many people feel that instead of trying to escape their feelings, they can stay with them, which is an essential step toward identifying the factors that trigger their anxiety and depression, and eventually lessen them.
Restorative yoga is the yoga of deep rest. It is an invitation to make self-care a priority. Through gentle movement, simple breath work, guided relaxation and full support of the body in restorative yoga postures, the student is led into a state of deep rest and healing. This practice is a powerful antidote to the accumulated effects of stress. Quiet the body and mind, melt into stillness, and explore rest as a powerful, spiritual, and medicinal force.
A state between waking and sleeping, yoga nidra is a practice passed down by yogis of old as a means to dive into the subconscious and deepen inner awareness. Regular practice can boost creativity, shift responses to stress, regulate circadian rhythms, and offer blissful meditative oneness with the body, mind, and broader states of consciousness. Cultivating this type of practice as we shift into winter is complementary to our body’s natural urge to hibernate and be still. After a few minutes of gentle poses to relieve general stiffness and discomfort, students will relax lying down for approximately 30 minutes of yoga nidra. Guided instruction will include breath attention, body scanning, and guided visualization/meditation. This practice assists in releasing mental, emotional, and physical tensions, leaving you feeling tranquil, balanced, and refreshed.
Long day? Unwind with this slow evening yoga routine. Evenings are a great time for yoga. A relaxing nightly yoga class can improve your sleep, protect you against stress and relieve tension in your body.