workshops
Restoring Connection to Nature
A Yoga & Mindfulness Mini Retreat at Woodstock Farms
with Liza Higbee-Robinson
September 12th, 2020 from 9am - 12pm
$35 Early Registration by 9/5 - $40 after
The average American spends 90% of their life indoors and as many as 11 hours a day on a screen, can you believe it? With COVID-19 transforming many of our work, educational, and even social spaces into virtual realities, we may find ourselves spending more time indoors and on screens than ever before. Fortunately, there are simple things we can integrate into our daily living to clear the virtual fog and restore our connection to place. In turn, we actively support our emotional, mental, and physical health in a myriad of ways. Summer is the perfect time to nurture place-based rituals, setting us up to stay connected to nature even as the season shifts to fall. This is what has inspired Liza to create Restoring Connection to Nature: A Yoga and Mindfulness Mini Retreat. The practices integrated into this retreat are designed for you to take home, share with your loved ones, and continue to cultivate over months and years to come.
Liza’s life work has been to restore place connection for herself and share her love of nature with her friends and family. As an undergraduate student at Fairhaven College she designed her own major Explorations in Human Ecology: Linking People to Place, combining environmental education, natural history of the Pacific Northwest, and anthropological studies. As a yoga teacher, Liza crafts energizing and empowering flow sequences that instill a sense of play and exploration. This day retreat is an offering that combines Liza’s greatest passions.
Location: Woodstock Farm, a 16 acre park on the edge of town, nestled along a bluff that rises up from Chuckanut Bay. The park features breathtaking views of the Salish Sea, meandering trails, and the perfect lawn for yoga outdoors!
Details: The mini retreat will begin and end with guided walking meditation from North Chuckanut Trailhead to access Woodstock Farm (1/2 mile easy walking each way). At Woodstock, Liza will guide a grounding asana practice and nature-centered mindfulness practices. There will be space for us to physically distance as we take time to connect with place and with one another!
Class Size Capped at 12!
Mandala Vinyasa (on the deck)
A Special 2 Hour Monthly Class Series w Liza
August 22 + Sept 19
6-8pm
Mandala: an integrated structure organized around a unifying center; loosely translated to mean “circle.” In Buddhist and Hindu traditions, mandalas are sacred geometric figures which represent wholeness, the universe, and our relationship to the infinite.
Vinyasa: linking breath and movement with awareness.Join Liza to slow down to human tempo and connect with sacred patterns of the infinite.
Mandala Vinyasa is movement in meditation, inspired by Buddhist and Hindu teachings. Traditional yoga postures are interwoven by transitions that guide you 360° around your mat. As you move through the mandala, your orientation in time and space changes. In the midst of this change, the invitation is to connect with and steady yourself from core center. As the mandala becomes familiar, you may drop into a deeply meditative state, restoring your ability to connect within and beyond yourself.
$18 Drop In or Normal Class Passes/Memberships
Tea Ceremony
with Melissa McConnell & Gregory Meredith
POSTPONED
12:30-1:30pm
Join Melissa McConnell and Gregory Meredith for a tea ceremony inspired by the elements—an act of devotion to Nature. Melissa and Gregory have been working with the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) for many years and honor the practice as one of their most cherished daily rituals. We will sit with the tea in silent mediation for many bowls to appreciate the fullness of the expression of the leaves. The practice will be an hour of silent sitting from start to finish, guided by the wisdom of the leaf. We will choose the perfect tea for the day’s energy. All the teas that we serve are grown with care and integrity.
If you have been drawn to deepen your relationship with tea, this experience may act as an initiation to creating your own personal tea ceremony practice. Tea ceremony is a beautiful experience to share with community, and a perfect compliment to your yoga and meditation practice.
Sliding Scale: $15-25
Embracing Calm, Clarity & Joy
An Ayurvedic Workshop with with Isabel Castro, AHC
POSTPONED
1:00pm - 3:30pm
Emotions throwing you off? Have trouble getting your mind to slow down? Together we'll learn to presence and play with challenges to unveil the lessons beneath them. We'll take yoga off the mat with Ayurveda, giving space to see challenging emotions and an overactive mind in a new light. You’ll tap into your intuition with playful exercises and traditional practices, and explore next actions to create more balance. Bring colored pencils, crayons, or markers, and a journal. Some supplies will also be provided. No art experience necessary, just bring your willingness to play!
Isabel Castro is an Ayurvedic Health Practitioner, Yoga Instructor, and Reiki Practitioner, passionate about empowering others to take charge of their health. Costa Rican-American, she's always found a way to integrate cultures, passions, arts, and sciences. She blends her diverse education and experience to provide a colorful blend of practicality and play. Using a commonsense lens, language, and tools, she demystifies health, and makes it an approachable daily practice to promote well-being. She focuses on stress resiliency and digestive balance, allowing people to shed their limitations and live to their potential.
Investment: $30 pre register, $35 at door
Tween Yoga
A 6 Week Workshop Series with Lisa Flick
POSTPONED
4:30pm - 5:45pm
This series will explore creative ways to reduce stress increase flexibility, build strength, and improve confidence based on different energetic concepts. Classes will include physical poses, breath practice, and meditative relaxation in a supportive environment. Each session will also break down fundamentals and uncover strengths in both thoughtful and playful ways. No experience is necessary.
(April 14, 21, 28, May 5, 12, 19)
Space is limited to 10 students.
SUPPORT
From the Ground Up: A Pelvic Floor Workshop
POSTPONED
1:00pm - 3:00pm
Join Caroline and Suzanne in exploring your body’s connection from the pelvic floor to the ground. Discover greater ease and balance. Learn ways to sustain your pelvic floor and other support systems. Informed by Nutritious Movement® and Somatic Experiencing®, this mother and daughter bodyworker duo brings playful enthusiasm to their classes. Bring your yoga mat.
Trained as a Nutritious Movement® certified Restorative Exercise Specialist, Caroline’s work is grounded in an evolutionary biological perspective that the body functions optimally when experiencing natural movement—motions your body would make if you lived in nature. thrivabilitymassage.com
Suzanne’s integrative bodywork practice in Southern California helps clients re-regulate their bodies’ responses to stress and trauma. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing®, gentle facilitative work, and her structural alignment background from Neuromuscular Therapy anchor her practice. integrativebodyworkclaremont.com
Investment : $35
Yin Yoga Training
A 50 Hour Immersion with Leah Adams
50 Hours of CEUs
POSTPONED
HOURS
Friday - 12:00pm - 7:30pm
Saturday & Sunday - 11:00am - 6:30pm
Understanding the foundational concepts of yin, the origin of yin yoga, teaching methodology, the physical & energetic anatomy for the poses for the lower body, poses for the upper body, mindfulness meditation as an anchor in the yin practice, and ying/yang philosophy uncovering how traditional Chinese medicine meridian energetics can be drawn upon to enhance and balance energy.
Leah Adams is a yoga teacher trainer, meditation facilitator, and speaker grounded in ancient lineage and personal practice, integrating her unique blend of Yin yoga, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic remedies, neuroscience and mindfulness. An early calling to holistic wellness rituals and the beauty of the natural world drew her path first to Ayurveda, then to an extensive array of Eastern practices and modalities.
The Path
100 Hour Immersion
September 17th - October 24th
(6 weeks)
SCHEDULE
Thursday & Friday - 5:30pm - 9:00pm
Saturday - 9:30am - 5:30pm
The Bellingham Yoga Collective offers education and immersions as a way for passionate students to dive deeper into the traditions, teachings and practices, whether the intent is to teach yoga or not! Join Claire Stetina, Lisa Flick, other in house teaching faculty as well as visiting guest teachers for specialty subjects.
Yoga is not just a physical practice of poses. Yoga is a set of practices and tools that has evolved for thousands of years as a system to help us wake up in our lives. Yoga is a lifestyle and an anchor to which we can navigate in relationship with everything around us.
This 100 hour immersion is designed to deliver tools to commit to the lifestyle of a yogi. This immersion also focuses on functional body mechanics and alignment of poses and building a safe, sustainable progressing yoga practice.