Baptiste Power Yoga

Elevate YOGAkron // outdoor yoga festival!

May 20, 2015 by Rachel 5 Comments

There are many things that I’m passionate about. When two of those things come together (like drinking wine and painting, for instance – LOL!), I am in heaven!

Two other things that I am passionate about: Northeast Ohio and Yoga. A few years ago when the first Believe In CLE event took place, I was beyond excited to practice yoga with hundreds and hundreds of other yogis at the Rock Hall.

Recently some of my fellow Akron-area yogis put together an outdoor community practice at Hardesty Park, located in the heart of Akron’s Wallhaven neighborhood!

In partnership with the City of Akron & local yoga studios, the lululemon athletica Akron Showroom and YOGAkron have teamed up to present the inaugural Elevate YOGAkron event, which is being held on Friday, May 29th from 6:00 – 9:30PM, rain or shine!

This free-, outdoor-yoga festival will celebrate the heart and soul of the beautiful city of Akron! Live music, courtesy of Akron-native DJ Nino, will last through the all-levels Vinyasa practice, led by lululemon Ambassador and YOGAkron Founder Tracy Rhinehart (ERYT-500HR). During the all-levels practice, yoga teachers from various studios throughout Akron will be offering hands-on assists to the practicing yogis!

The Cleveland-based, Akron-loving, company, NOOMA, will support the event with free samples of their delicious electrolyte hydration drink throughout the practice! After the practice, DJ Naeno will continue to spin until 9:30PM and local food vendors, such as Ms. Julie’s Kitchen, will be at the event to provide nourishment and just plain ol’ tasty eats for the yogis!

Registration to the event is completely free, but you will need to fill out an online registration here. You do have an option at the point of registration to purchase a commemorative tee or tank for just $10. (I did! Look how cute it is!?!)

Registered participants can check-in, complete their waiver, and pick up their Elevate YOGAkron shirts at lululemon athletica Akron Showroom (21 Furnace Street in Downtown Akron) or at Yoga Bliss in Fairlawn (3045 Smith Rd, Fairlawn, OH 44333) during normal business hours on both Thursday, May 28th and Friday, May 29th. Check-in is also available at the event beginning at 6pm for those unable to do so ahead of time.

Will I see you there?? Let’s lift Akron up with love and light! 🙂 If you have never been to an event like this and want someone to go with, hit me up and let me know! 🙂 I’d be happy to go with ya!

Just before this post was set to go live, the folks over at lululemon let me know that they’d like to give an Elevate YOGAkron t-shirt to one of my readers! Enter using the rafflecopter widget below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure: THIS IS NOT A SPONSORED POST! 🙂 Ha! I just really love Ohio, I really love Akron, and I really and truly love the yoga community here. 🙂 And the giveaway? That just seemed to fall into place the way that the community of Akron likes to do! I just hope to see some of you there! And hey? why not try and score a tee while you’re at it! (Thanks, Lemons!)

Believe In CLE // CMA Event Recap

February 4, 2014 by Rachel 3 Comments

Last summer I had one of the most powerful nights of my life — the night of the #BelieveInCLE Yoga & Music Event at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!

I wrote about the experience here. I had originally stated that 1100 yogis were practicing together, but come to find out it was 1400!! FOURTEEN HUNDRED! Incredible!!

A second Believe in CLE event was announced near the end of December and I knew I was not going to miss it.

Cleveland Yoga from the East Side (the studio I began with 7 years ago!) and Inner Bliss Yoga from the West Side hosted the event this past Saturday at the Cleveland Museum of Art‘s (fairly new) Atrium.

Note :: All of the professional pictures in this post have been borrowed
from the ever-so-talented Candy Kolsen of New Image Photography,
courtesy of the Believe in CLE Facebook page!

It was my first time in the CMA since the atrium was added on. I’d heard wonderful things about it and couldn’t agree more! What’s even better is that the atrium had its “Living Breathing Collection” which was a collection of plants/grasses/live growing things!

Denise Dufala from 19 Action News started the night by talking about her amazing yoga transformation from one-year ago. People who don’t practice yoga think us yogis with all our ‘transformation’ talk is nonsense. But I assure you, that given an open mind, an open heart, and a little time with a yoga practice, and everyone has a ‘transformation’ story of sorts. Whether it be physical, emotional, mental or all of the above, yoga is life-changing!

A DJ and Tammy Lyons from Inner Bliss got the vinyasa practice started.

It was a little chilly at first, but the power and energy in the room heated it up! And it was definitely a power practice! The sequences were both thoughtful and challenging! As always, modifications were encouraged to make it an all-levels class.

But it was HARD y’all! In a good way. But hard, nonetheless.

About halfway through the 90-ish-minute practice, Tami Schneider from Cleveland Yoga took over and led the 800-yogi class through some fairly tough core work. (Boat pose is my friend, right?? Right. Well, that’s what I kept telling myself as I counted back from 50!).

Oh and the assists!! I nearly forgot about the assists! There were about 40 yoga teachers from various studios across northeast Ohio who were assisting the 800 practicing students. It was so nice to get a little ‘love’ in a spinal twist and triangle pose!

The savasana came at a perfect time (doesn’t it always??). I never imagined that a room filled with 800 people could be completely silent, but it was. It was awe-inspiring silence. Knowing that I was surrounded by all of these people who I loved — these people who I didn’t even know but that I ‘knew’ from this 90-minute practice — THAT was incredible.

The only interruption to the silence was an a capella solo from Annie Yoder. It was beautiful. And it brought me to savasana tears — which are the best, most therapeutic tears in all the land!

At the end of the practice I was WIPED OUT in the best way ever. I can’t wait until the next #BelieveInCLE event! I’m excited to hear about a new venue and excited to share yet another vinyasa practice with a thousand people I don’t know but love anyways. <3

In the meantime I’m going to be riding this post-yoga high for a while… and spreading my love for CLE + Northeast Ohio everywhere! Love my home!!

get fit! // fitness update

June 14, 2013 by Rachel 3 Comments

I would love to say that if I wasn’t working, I’d be spending hours and hours a day working out. But I know that’s not the case.

That being said, I dream about having 3 additional hours in every day; an hour of which I would spend with Ari. The other two? Working out and cleaning.

But even with working full time, [somewhat] keeping up with our household chores, and taking care of Babycakes, I have been fitting in workouts.

I’ve been continuing Weight Watchers religiously. In fact, the second week I lost 1.5 pounds. After a 5-pound first week loss, I’m proud to have lost a second week in a row! I still had a ton of unused activity points. And I did have a couple of meals that weren’t healthy — but that were worth it! [Umm, hello?? Grilled cheese?! YES!]

Last week I went to TWO yoga classes at Yoga Bliss. TWO! That is nearly unheard of! And it has been doing my body wonders. Power yoga is a really tough workout plus it’s a great way to balance out my runs.

Speaking of running, I totally rocked it again last week. I’ve been running for 30-minutes straight for the last week and a half now. There are times in my run when I start to doubt myself, but I keep moving. I ran a total of 14.5 miles last week, and walked an additional 8.5 miles with Ari! And? I’m averaging a 9.5 minute running mile. Which is certainly not my best, but I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished post-Babycakes. 🙂

And I’m officially signed up for four races! One 5k in July, one 5k in August, the Pretty Muddy Women’s 5k, and the Akron Marathon Relay 4.8 mile leg in September. Holy smokes! I’m so excited, but I’m also thinking, ‘what have I gotten myself into!?’

But mostly I’m excited. 🙂 I’m excited to see where I’m headed. I’ve been here before, and I’m happy to be making my way back.

bonjour, 2012!

January 2, 2012 by Rachel 5 Comments

I don’t usually make a resolution for the New Year.

But this year is… different.

I feel like I got off track last year;

like I was going through the motions,

but not actually being in the moment.

And in the spirit of beginnings

{don’t say ‘new beginnings’ — every beginning is new, silly people!},
I’m starting fresh!

Out with the old me,
in with the new!

I’m pushing stress, anxieties, and toxicity from my life for good!

How I’m going to do it:

1. Get serious about myself — Get in
to a daily meditation practice. As someone who is self-described as
spiritual {not religious}, I really need to get my mind set about myself
and life. I see lots {more} yoga in my future, as a way to keep my mind
sharp, and my body in peak shape. Perhaps even a vegetarian diet is in
order; at least for a little while.

2. Spend more time doing real things — I don’t watch a ton of TV by
any means. And even when I’m watching it, I’m always half-watching,
half-doing something else. I would really like to monitor how much time I
spend tied to my electronics. I would rather be doing real life living. All of this will help me to slow down and be a better me.

3. Find my blog again — 2011 was a year of absent{-minded} blogging. I wasn’t
focused, and I had so many distractions. My heart wasn’t 100% in it. But
towards the end of 2011, I {re}found the direction I wanted my blog to
go in. Keeping it simple. Keeping it authentic.

monday mantra.

June 27, 2011 by Rachel 3 Comments

This week will be a 4-day work week for me. I’m excited to be spending my Monday off in Pittsburgh with the BF.

I believe that sometimes you need someone to remind you to breathe. And this is why I go to yoga. 🙂

{image}

I’m addicted to yoga!

I wish for a less stressful week than last week. It was a pretty intense work week last week. By Thursday I was exhausted. I don’t know if I can handle that again! Fingers crossed…

I’m happy for every moment I have to spend with those I love. Life is short and you shouldn’t wait to embrace the moment until you’re reminded of this!

Soundtrack/Mantra for the week: “We use our bodies to into the poses, but really we use the poses to get into our bodies.” — one of my favorite yoga teachers, Terri Bahr, at a yoga class at Cleveland Yoga last night. Such amazing wisdom for yoga and for life.

my yoga story: part two.

May 25, 2011 by Rachel 5 Comments

Find part one of my yoga story here.

One thing that is important to know about me is that I am by no means a religious person. At one point in my life I was, but during college I came to appreciate and respect all religions, and I just couldn’t see picking one over the others.

But sometime in 2008 I began to practice yoga. It immediately began to fulfill both a physical and emotional need in my life. I came to class; practiced; listened for wise words about life, yoga, or just breathing, from my teachers; and soaked it all in.

It was an amazing feeling.

Just over one year ago, I moved back to Ohio from Syracuse, New York. And shortly after that something happened and I was forced to question all that I had been taught in yoga.

I have yet to talk about this incident on my blog because it’s been difficult to come to terms with in real life. But it’s time.

One year ago, I was offered what I thought would be my dream job: to manage a yoga studio in Ohio. I had worked in another studio previously and jumped at the opportunity.

I moved back to Ohio on a Saturday, and began working on Monday for one of my teachers.

You think you know your teachers because you take their classes. I had to come to the realization, that you don’t. And they aren’t always who you think they are.

And that was incredibly difficult to come to terms with.

Needless to say, I was there for a week. Struggling to make my yoga teacher/new boss happy by doing anything and everything she asked; but it was never good enough. I felt like a major screw up {she has this way of making people feel that way}.

I worked long, intense hours {think 16 hour days for my first 5 days} and everything I did was put under a microscope. I could do nothing right; there was no learning curve of how she did things.

After my first week home, my sister graduated college. I spent the weekend barely able to eat, not at all able to sleep, and crying non-stop.

Not only was the job I was so excited for not working out, but I felt like a major screw up and was starting to believe all of the things that this woman was saying to me {and trust me, they were some really awful things}.

I was actually relieved on Monday when I came into work and she told me she didn’t want me to come in anymore. I hadn’t had the balls to actually quit myself. But it didn’t end there.

She gave me a verbal lashing for an hour. Telling me how worthless I was; that I was a liar; that I was an idiot.

I shed no tears in front of her. I said nothing in response. I had already come to the conclusion that you cannot try and tell a crazy person that they are crazy. She would’ve just tried to use it against me.

I walked out. She told me that I wasn’t allowed to come back and practice at her studio {which was fine by me because I wanted nothing to do with her, but really? turn away what could be a paying customer??}.

And then I had to deal with the consequences of how this shook my yoga practice to its core. And it’s something that I have been dealing with ever since.

{Part three is on its way!}