Mary Gerdes is an experienced Anusara Inspired yoga teacher whose passion for life, love, beauty and adventure provide the foundation for a yogic journey that is fun, insightful and motivating. Mary has studied extensively with Anusara founder John Friend, Ellen Saltonstall, Bernadette Birney, Paul Muller-Ortega, Douglas Brooks and a host of other extraordinary teachers and continues to delight in the process of learning. With a mastery of the Anusara Universal Principles of Alignment along with a deep resonance with the Tantric philosophy of intrinsic goodness, Mary offers each student a safe and supportive environment to explore both their physical and spiritual greatness.

You know that moment you’ve been waiting for?

That pause in your day/month/life that if only you had one, you’d really get some things in order?

It’s not coming.

Sorry, I know, I’m supposed to be all positive happy shinny yoga lady.
But it’s true. It’s not coming (am I’m not that shinny).

There is no big day in the sky that when that day comes everything will miraculously work out just fine, exactly the way you always wished it would. Nope. Not gonna happen.

I waited for that moment many times but still the years just kept coming and going fast and furious. I hoped, I wished, I even meant to hit the proverbial pause button, even for just a day (ok an hour!) so I could breathe, reflect, organize my mind, let some stuff go of and take the time to think about the year/s to come. But still, that pause never came.
Imagine that, huh, actually taking a moment to think about how I might want my life to go. Crazy, right?.

But that is just the thing.
You actually have to TAKE the moment.
You have to grab it, seize it, make it, squeeze it…heck, hijack that sh#t, whatever it takes!
And give yourself (oh, and all the poor people around you) the gift of a pause to disengage the auto-pilot and be engaged, envisioning and enraptured by your life.

Luckily, I have some witches for best friends who made me  taught me a New Years Eve ritual of taking this pause and visually doing this kind of thinking. We ENVISION our intentions, promises and actions for the year all onto a Vision Board (ala Napoleon Hill). The board becomes a visceral expression of manifesting, seeing, feeling and knowing it all, already, shall be.  My vision for 2012 is shown here.  And then, in true tribal form, we set a flame the previous years intentions around huge bonfire to symbolically release of all the stuff that needs to go now. Love that voodoo.

I HIGHLY recommend getting some witches for friends who will make you help you take pause this year, however, your yoga teacher ( ♥ ) could be the next best thing, in which case…I implore you, insist, demand, get your butt too…

The New Years Radical Affirmation workshop with Me & Julie Dohrman.

As well as doing some rocking yoga on the mat , we will do some “yoga” off the mat; creating vision boards learning the magic of ENVISIONING.

Jai Hanuman in St. Lucia

Dear 2011,

No offense, but…Goodbye!
Don’t get me wrong, I mean, you had some fantastic moments of which I am truly grateful. However, first I want to thank you for all the other “blessings” you brought me this year.

Thank you for putting me in a position to HAVE TO find the guts to make hard decisions and tell scary truths so that I could better follow my heart.

Thank you for messing up my rental house so that I HAD TO find the guts to buy my first house and actually buy it!

Thank you for giving me a little (tiny) pink cottage to live in so I HAD to come to appreciate that less really is so much more.

Thank you for still not curing me of my issues with food so that I HAVE to look deeper and want to care for myself more (but feel free to cure me of that one any day now plz).

Oh, and thanks for the worst bronchitis EVER so that I would learn to ask for help and take time rest, no really, THANK YOU!

I love all the challenges, they grow me up fast, just the way I like it.

And yes, I thank you for the magic & miracles too like Mexico with The Witches, Wanderlust with Bern, St. Lucia with Nicholas, Workshops with John, Sarah & Kenny,  and all the magic moments. Those were delicious too.

I want you to know, your lessons were learned and you are free to go now.
And I am officially requesting the BEST YEAR EVER this year, OK?
I am going to design my year with a vision board, manifesto and all just like Lauren taught me
so it’s crystal clear for both of us. Deal? Deal.

Love you,
Linda

PS. If you want to make a vision board & manifesto this year too,

Come to the New Years Radical Affirmation workshop with Me & Julie Dohrman.

We will be making them there…Arts, Crafts & Yoga! Yay!

RYT 200

Nell’s thoughtful, gentle voice inspires her students to live and breathe fully on and off their mats. Nell enjoys fusing her passion for yoga with her calling as a teacher. Nell has taught children’s yoga since 2003 and is a full-time classroom teacher in Stamford. In 2010, Nell studied under Mitchel Bleier, Tracy Bleier and Donna Jackson in Norwalk, CT, to earn her adult teaching certificate. Whether working with children or adults, Nell infuses enthusiasm, patience and love into her radiant classes.

Photo by Robert Sturman

RYT 200

Laura Young Kilkenny brings inspiration and purpose to her study, practice and teaching of yoga. A graduate of the 200 hour Anusara teacher training program, she has been exuberantly practicing yoga since first finding her teacher Bernadette Birney in 2005. Anusara yoga, and its’ Connecticut community has inspired, complemented and supported the many changes in her life, and she is passionate about sharing this philosophy and practice with her students. She continues her study towards full certification, and is thankful to her many teachers including John Friend, Desiree Rumbaugh, Amy Ippoliti, Ross Rayburn and many others.

Photo by Gail Buggy

RYT 200

Cherie Zavitz began her yoga practice in San Francisco years ago and is honored to now be teaching in Connecticut with such an amazing group of yogis. In her classes, she seeks to combine a sense of playfulness while weaving movement and yogic philosophy. Cherie strives to incorporate a heartfelt asana practice infused with creativity and a sense of humor. She has completed her Level I Anusara Teacher Training, Immersions I, II, and III. She is grateful to all the teachers who have guided her on her journey and is always striving to find different ways to approach her classes and to open up new possibilities for her students, as her teachers have done with her.

Photo by Robert Sturman

RYT 200

Izabela fell in love with yoga the first time she touched the mat and has since dedicated her life to being a great yoga teacher. She first got certified in 2006 and since then has studied and practiced many different styles of yoga including Vinyasa Flow, Asthanga, Bikram, Jivamukti, and Iyengar Yoga. Most recently, she has fallen for Anusara Yoga and has completed two Anusara Teacher Trainings as well as several trainings in yoga therapeutics and prenatal yoga. The principles of Anusara yoga inspires her on and off the mat, she is a devoted student of life and yoga. She looks forward to sharing all her knowledge with her students and friends, growing together every day and keeping the practice full and fun.

Photo by Robert Sturman

Anusara® Inspired

Jeanine is an Anusara-Inspired teacher and a certified Thai Yoga Bodyworker. Jeanine’s yoga classes are filled with laughter, as she instills in her students a nurturing playfulness that allows every practitioner – from beginner to seasoned yogi – to practice freely, in a safe, loving, supportive, yet challenging environment. Jeanine emphasizes the Anusara Universal Principles of Alignment that allow each student to align with his or her optimal blueprint in order to progress in a way that helps to avoid injury and heal the body.

Photo by Gail Buggy

Anusara® Inspired

Colette White is an avid student of yoga who has approached the exploration of her body, mind, and heart with boundless curiosity and a delightful sense of humor. She is a gentle and supportive teacher with a keen eye and an open heart. Her training as an Early Childhood educator informs her teaching and makes her a sensitive listener. Colette has studied a variety of styles of yoga but her heart lies with Anusara Yoga.

She is grateful to the teachers who have supported her on her journey, including John Friend, Bernadette Birney, Moses Brown, Suzie Hurley, Todd Norian, Susan Rubin, Mary Gerdes, Annie Hampford, and Ross Rayburn.

BKS Iyengar

It was a scene right out of Karate Kid. I reluctantly go to my first yoga class where the teacher proceeds to tell me to sit on my shins making a sort of W with my legs and breathe for 10 minutes a day. In other words, sit in a way I never ever would for fear my knees might split in half, the way I used to sit when I was three and my joints naturally spun 360 degrees in every direction.

“Are you Nutz?”, I hopefully said silently to myself. But my teacher talked me down and explained not only the therapeutic benefits of the posture but the metaphysical changes that where happening as I sat there eyes closed, breathing deeply.

He told me a little story about this posture called Virasana. Vira means Hero in Sanskrit, which was the first thing that made any sense to me in this yoga class because you certainly needed to be some kind of hero to sit in such a excruciating challenging pose. To this day, I can barely recall anything else he ever said or any other pose we ever did, but somehow, after about 6 months of sitting quietly and breathing deeply, my knees were healed. I could squat down and stand back up and sit in Hero’s pose for several minutes at a time with absolutely no pain.

It was my first yoga miracle.

So, my love for yoga began, as did my passion for inspiring the Hero in every student I meet — especially in the face of setbacks. Today, owning my own business, being a mom, a wife, a teacher and an athlete presents me with all kinds of setbacks, upsets, failures and challenges everyday. Maybe you know what I mean?

It is through the practice of yoga; the artistic, scientific and spiritual alignment of our mind, body and heart; that I become more than ever present to what I learned that very first yoga class…

Breathe and Remember, You Are a Hero.

Ps.
I am super proud to announce the start of a beautiful partnership with Moore Physical Therapy & Fitness. Together we have created possibly the only physical therapist approved yoga class called, Therapeutic Yoga, in the area (maybe even in the world!…a girl can dream!).

We begin Tuesdays and Thursday, September 27that 6:30pm in Moore’s gorgeous facility; bring all your set backs and the reluctant hero inside you, and experience the transformational and healing power of yoga. Contact Moore if your interested, class size is limited ensure one-on-one attention.