A New Season Begins

The season is changing as we move away from the heat of summer and into the cooling aspects of fall. The light shifts as the days get shorter, and I am embracing the dark again. My favorite time is to teach in the studio with the light of candles.

Even in the early morning, as I wake with gratitude, I light my candle and set the intention for the day. I do it physically before I begin my personal practice, and I create the awareness of my inner light turning on through my breath.

I begin each day by committing to living my day linked to listening and responding to life with mystery. To be able to cultivate the right thought as it moves into energy, not attached to feelings but to the desire to celebrate this day. The new day always offers the wonder and AWE of beginnings.

It has been a full ride of days leading us to this moment in time. I accept all the responsibilities of living fully with the passion of joy, even when doing the next hard thing. I am thrilled to continue teaching and offering my heart and soul to our community at Yoga Among Friends.

To grow and expand, I am thrilled to announce that the baton is being passed forward. My niece, Sara Shotsberger, will carry on the space as we begin to shift all my other roles. I need to let go of running the studio and managing the daily tasks.

She is a brilliant psychotherapist who brings the mind and body connection to her work as a trauma-based professional and registered yoga teacher. She genuinely embraces all health and wellness tools as we intend to expand into more of a healing center.  Under her creative tutelage, we will only grow and thrive with her passionate direction.  

So, nothing is changing for our students, and yet, for me, everything is possible in this transition. I can enjoy more time and space to teach and see the studio thrive with new beginnings. This new season is offering us an opportunity to expand, and for that, I am grateful. All our classes with our outstanding teachers will continue, and I can focus on sharing my teachings in classes and inspiring students in my private sessions.

This transition allows us to move forward through the integrity of our mission. We hold space for growing and expanding the higher vibration of healing. During these turbulent times of emotional confusion, we offer stability and a place to feel connected to our deeper selves. 

Enjoying the community and mentoring others is my joy, and I know we are only creating more opportunities for everyone to thrive. I am becoming more conscious that my enthusiasm is my superpower, and my laughter needs to be expressed in all my roles. I am welcoming new opportunities to create.

In the dark, we are planting new seeds as we nourish this season for the sweet spark of life unfolding. I am lighting the candle, and thank you for being the sustaining force of Yoga Among Friends.

As always if you have questions or would like to share some feedback, please leave a comment below or reach out to us via email.

Blessings,

Laura Jane

End of Summer Reset: Join Our Yoga Classes to Ease Back into Your Routine

It is September, and the back-to-school agenda begins again. Yes, it is time to ease back into our regular yoga practice on the mat. Life is exciting at YAF with our fall classes, workshops, and events.

The gift of our studio is the welcome each teacher extends and the safety of learning a new way of experiencing our health. I am so excited that we are also bringing other modalities to the studio, with Kim Eisendrath offering a series of myofascial flow workshops, starting Tuesday, September 3rd, with shoulders and neck. This is a great way to release all the tension we hold in the shoulders and neck—especially those of us who work on a computer day in and day out. And the following week, she will offer the myofascial flow for digestion. This is another fantastic workshop with an extraordinary teacher.

Please tell your friends and neighbors about our studio. We need to spread the word about how wonderful our teachers and classes are for all ages and genders. Yes, people still ask me if we offer classes for men and kids. Amazingly, the word “yoga” might lead to a bias about who can do yoga. We know it meets everyone where they are (men included)—especially our great class on Monday mornings, Yoga for EveryBODY. Our Yoga for Kids program (ages 7-12 years) will run on Wednesday afternoons starting September 4th.

A new weekly class, Mat Pilates, will allow our community to explore this alternative mind-body practice. Beginning September 17, the class will focus on strengthening core muscles with Donna Ohman on Tuesday mornings from 11:00 to 12:00.

Also, on September 17th, Jessica Gonsiorowski returns with another fantastic workshop on the therapeutic aspects of working with the feet and legs. Her knowledge of the foundation of our human bodies starts from the ground up.

Then, Donna Ohman returns for an event on Thursday, September 19th, on how to go deeper into alignment with proper props and assistance.

I am thrilled to welcome back Girish, who is returning on Monday night, September 23rd, with the magic of his live healing sound music as I teach a flowing practice leading into a profound savanna of deep relaxation. Then, the very next night, Tuesday, September 24th, he will share his breathwork and healing mantra workshop. We all need to take this time to move deeper into sound and use our voice to heal.

I have invited a wonderful Nashville teacher to share her brilliant understanding of the mystic in learning to listen to our inner voice through the tarot and use it in a yogic practice. She is a gifted yoga therapist who can take us out of chatter and help us to true something in our gut intuition. Listening to the tarot's tools will expand our insights into our healing journey. She is funny and insightful, and I highly recommend this wonderful workshop.

We are thrilled Kim will again offer her wonderful workshop, Yoga for Trauma, on September 29th. In it, we will explore the emotional body of our systems.

I am grateful that we continue our commitment to community and offer our students a place to gather and share these healing practices. It’s exciting that so much is happening this fall. Let’s enjoy this season as we return indoors and meet back on the mat.

Blessings of living large, and let us stay on the path of loving-kindness.

Blessings,
Laura Jane

P.S. Keep checking our website and schedule for all our ongoing classes. Watch for a new Restorative Yoga class with a new teacher starting in October on Saturday mornings at 11:00 am. Finally, I will be starting a new meditation series in October as well.

I’m off to Spain to teach our fall retreat this week. Keep your eyes open for when we post about my next big European retreat, coming in October 2025. I will launch that trip to the mystical ancient city of Ephesus in Turkey.

Also, if there is a class or workshop that we don’t offer currently but you’d like us to consider, please drop us a suggestion or leave a comment below. We welcome all feedback about our current offerings and suggestions for new ones.

The practice of shifting anger to passion

Keep the light shining

To understand the language of compassion and love, we have to be willing to experience them. The intellect chews on ideas and concepts, yet the depth of understanding arises from our true experiences. It’s the courage to go “inside the skin” of the body and witness the qualities of expanding the space in our hearts as the actual act of breathing. I have been catching myself holding my breath or hoarding the tension around my chest as a protective layer from the outer thoughts.

Life right now is a huge roller coaster of emotional moods. Is my inner peace dependent on the outer world? So much of the collective consciousness is full of noise. I am being pulled daily into the extremes of polarity, and it is one big distraction from my own inner harmonious sounds of stillness. I am having to make an even greater effort to maintain balance as I continue to sustain a state of yoga.

Living is the experience of my practice, and I practice walking in the opposite way as I attempt to stay in a compassionate understanding that others might see, hear, and experience life from a different lens than I do. I catch myself in judgment, and that only leads to anger. Arising from my own need to control the situation as I am right and someone else is wrong.

Humility is my practice as I can feel my heart ache and my stomach churn with confusion over how the world can be so fragile. I witness so much venom being projected out. Language is tricky, and words hurt and tone can cause huge suffering. I live my practice by witnessing my own thoughts. How do I maintain passion, commitment, integrity, and voice my heart without appearing righteous or dogmatic in ideals? Where is my moral compass for living in right thought for right action?

I have a passion for living with the roots of humanity valued as a soul. Yes, the body is brilliant, and my “container” is my vehicle to experience life. However, to live in greater joy and thrive in the higher vibration, I have to move past my anger at seeing the pain of war, famine, and all the ways shaming is being used to control the spirit of humanity. This is a tipping point for me to celebrate the voice of the female.

I am roaring with passion to move past the horrors of an angry ego. I am making a deeper commitment to inspire healing and grace and to cultivate the willingness to live in truth. As I practice turning my inner light on, the sattvic guna, I will move that quality of inner light upward as an actual experience in my meditation to expand the glow of love. It sounds so lofty and ridiculous. It’s not an “airy fairy” concept when I actually can feel the shift from tension to ease. The nervous system shifts and the body armor melts its gripping nature.

As my mind stays focused on the sensation of the breath as the object of my practice, I feel an effortless quality of ease moving past the wall of my identity. I no longer hold on to my need for safety when I feel the fullness of my inner space. My mind can actually rest in my inner self.

Practice, practice, practice. It is not a quick fix, and yet, health demands my willingness to move in this direction inward. Turn off distractions, worry, and the noise of fixing things. Sit in the awkwardness of not knowing. Let the experience become a new memory or pattern, and trust that these tools are healing humanity. I am practicing for all beings.

I am passionate about maintaining our sweet studio as a place of rest and restoring the human spirit to feel safe and nourished. We are moving forward as a healing studio and offering wonderful new workshops and experiences to learn the tools of yoga. Asana is a wonderful tool but it is not the only tool. Yoga has so many ways to experience being balanced. Come as a beginner to every class and enjoy living fully today.

Blessings always, 
Laura Jane