Threaded Yoga

Like training a muscle to have muscle memory, our mind starves for the same training.

But we often do this intermittently, through starts and stops, sputtering along as we proclaim that, “yes, we will do better and do this thing.” And then we hustle onto our next task and forget….over and over again.

But when we practice this on our mat, our life lab, we blend this mental practice with deep rhythmic breathing designed to activate our parasympathetic nervous system and set our mind and body up to receive healing, repairing, and realigning.

This includes the mental rewiring of our go-to toxic thoughts. Imagine this!!

Yoga + reflections on self compassion, empowerment, courage (and so on) really do come down to this simple yet powerful method.

And that’s exactly why we practice this in our life lab (our yoga practice) over and over and over again. 💛

Keep coming back to the mat, and keep on keepin’ on. 🙏🧘‍♀️

It really is this simple. Just be YOUR beautiful self.

In yoga, we come to understand that comparison completely misses the point - it’s entirely irrelevant, on the mat and in life.

Our mat is a “life lab” where our practice eventually obliterates this instinct. There, we get to practice focusing within rather than around, and can train our mind to quiet chatter, judgment and unreachable standards.

When we do this over and over again, eventually, we too bloom…not through comparison, but through what replaces the instinct to compare: the superpower of self acceptance. And that’s sooooo much better💪🙏

So be YOUR beautiful self. (And keep coming back to the mat)!
💜💚💙💛

💛
Let yoga show you how.

Be your beautiful self. 🩷

This is yoga. The art of mindful movement with intentional breath takes us out of our hamster wheel minds and into our bodies. As we quiet our mind, our focus, almost hypnotically, comes to our body and soul. With quiet, we don’t just feel amazing and invigorated, we begin to feel and hear our truest self. In quiet, we come home, reconnecting with our inner compass and true north.

With a steady practice, this is the rhythm of all of life’s highs and lows, gently rebalancing and centering back to home base. But when life intervenes and rocks us off our axis - either a complete rebuild or even some much needed realigning - a regular yoga practice helps to transform that deafening silence into a sense of safety…self care that guides us to be unafraid of changes and the unknowns, and brings us back to our true north.

Allow the rhythm of a steady yoga practice, including the silence, to be an opportunity to know yourself…to empower you to live a full and balanced life.

Come practice with me. In person groups, virtual, and private options always available. Consults are always free. 🙏💜

Add some inspiration to your summer! Come chase the sunrise with me and add a fresh perspective and open, joyful spirit to your days.

☀️$80 for full series.*
☀️$40 for 3 class pack. ☀️$20 drop in
(drop in fee due before or at class).

*Series includes full access to private online group for community and centering, empowering reflections that lightly thread all of what you need to feel whole body-mind-soul revived.

Sign ups with
Venmo: -seaver-1
Or call/text 774-696-9438

See you at sunrise 🧡
🙏☀️🧘‍♀️☀️

Sign ups for the spring yoga series are here. We start Wednesday May 1 and go for 6 weeks and then finish with a Saturday morning retreat (details below).

The cost for the 6 week series and retreat is $80. I am always open to making payment plan arrangements that fit into the series timing.

But reach out now to save your spot.

Otherwise, Venmo at
Brenda-Seaver-1
Or
Message me for cash/checks.

See you on the mat!! 💜

Shedding labels that aren’t true, reconnecting with what is - and having compassion for ourselves along the way - is the most heroic journey we could ever make.

…Noticing where we lose our way in order to avoid living authentically when it’s hard….and finding the courage to refine and realign…what a beautiful thing.

We engage with others in the way we engage with ourselves. So when we live fullly, our entire essence sends a message of peace and acceptance to the world around us.

What you do here in yoga is revolutionary in so many small but powerful ways. This is the path to untarnished peace and love for ourselves, our loved ones, and the world. ❤️

This is part of yoga, and a post I shared recently with students in our current series, on our private page (which is part of every Threaded Yoga series).

We’ve had a great time and are finishing our “Trust Your Gut” Series this month. A new one, called “Spring Fling,” is coming for May and the first week of June - just in time to bring some love and lightness into your summer. Stay tuned…

💚💕

This is so beautifully worded and worth the read. Thank you to Archeology for the Woman’s Soul for posting.

Trust yourself, your experience, and who you know you are, not what the world decides for you. 💕

I want you to know that the world is going to try and push you into things. That the people all around you will tell you who you are.

Who you aren’t. Who you should be. Some of them mean well. Some of them don’t. Together, they will teach you to discern the difference.

In the end, it is you who answers to yourself in the mirror. So find out what’s true for you. Find out what makes your heart turn into butterfly wings, flapping wildly in the sun. Follow that.

Find out what makes the drum in your belly beat. Follow that.
Find out what richness is. I’ll give you a hint: money has very little to do with it. It may be so, that grass or oceans or mountains or crow feathers do. Or Greek mythology. Or paint. Or words. Or tulips or hummingbirds. It is likely that family has a lot to do with it.

Whatever it is, find it out, and follow that.

Leave room for the mystery of life to seduce you, but don’t give yourself away.

Pursue ecstasy with grace.

Embody everything that expresses your nobility.

Turn away from what diminishes you. There is no mistake in the making of you.

Let your body inform you as much as your mind does. Trust it’s knowing. It knows languages the mind cannot speak. It can have conversations with soil and drums and oceans and star shine.

Your gut knows what it’s talking about. Your intuition is true. Your dreams mean something.

Your life is for you. And you, are for the world.
~Alison Nappi~

Photo: Art by BeverlyAshGilbert on Etsy

Archaeology for the Woman's Soul

💛🙏

💜

💜💕

Threaded Sanctuary’s all levels vinyasa yoga’s next 8 week series begins soon. 🎉🎉

🧘‍♀️Once a week in person vinyasa practice threaded with 🧘‍♀️an ongoing private virtual group for home practices, reflections, pranayama, opportunity for private consultation, and community. PLUS 🧘‍♀️a bonus wrap up retreat.

*Wednesdays
2/28-4/17
7-8pm
*Sat., April 20th 7pm-9:30pm
Pakachoag Community Center
203 Pakachoag St.
Auburn, MA

Series $130 (includes retreat!)

To secure a spot:
Venmo: -seaver-1
PayPal: Brenda Seaver
Cash/check or other payment options/plans- talk to me. 774-696-9438

A little about this series:

Blending Threaded’s signature sanctuary approach to our mat practice, this series pays special attention to quieting our mind and FEELING our experience…and listening to what our soul and our gut have to say. The reconnection back to what is true and real is a reconnection back to ourselves.

The “Trust Your Gut” Series weaves in all of the tools of yoga during the course of the entire series. As we move toward reconnection, we’ll lean in to the yamas and niyamas, breathing practices, and simple home practices that help us find our way “home”…and begin to deliver to us more of those “aha” moments.

Space Is limited and is filling up. Please contact me to save a spot. 🙏❤️🧘‍♀️

💛Rumi

Pay it forward. Spread love. 💗

Happy New Year 🙏❤️🧘‍♀️

Sometimes it’s a subtle but powerful shift in the way you see yourself that creates the biggest changes.

When you take off the heaviness of angst and harsh judgment, and embrace your whole messy wonderful self, it’s surprisingly a whole lot easier to live with more compassion and kindness.

To be clear, embracing all of your beautiful mess doesn’t give you license to continue acting in ways that cause harm to yourself or others. But this wouldn’t happen anyways - because when you give yourself a break and embrace your messy humanity - all of who you are - your better angels within sing.

Why? Because shaming yourself for being human and holding a kalidescope to magnify and distort only less flattering parts…it’s a trap, a vicious cycle that imprisons you within invisible walls. And it doesn’t work anyhow, because it ends up feeding those impulses until they become louder and more destructive.

Want to live each day to your fullest potential? Give yourself the gift of feeling the relief of self compassion and acceptance of ALL that you are. Eventually, you’ll breathe and see differently…and eventually annihilate those invisible walls. …It is SO much easier to live in a way not impulsively dictated by fear, shame and anger.

How much lighter and freer you have the potential to feel!

This approach is central to how I approach a regular yoga practice.

I offer free consults to help you find a practice that works for you - wherever you are. You don’t have to end up with me, or even in a studio. Home practices are terrific too. Whatever makes sense for you…just get going.

Give yourself the gift of YOU for an amazing 2024 and beyond.

Happy new year 💛💗💜

The beauty of a yoga practice is that it is so much more than what happens physically. In fact, it’s not that at all.

It’s about what happens within us when we are there…the grace and inner strength that bubbles from within. And the deep sense of feeling connected to ourselves, and a knowing…an inner wisdom that is the voice of our heart and soul.

It’s a dance of effortless effort fueled by a committed routine - even if just a few short minutes a day.

And, believe it or not, it actually happens when we DON’T strive and create benchmarks - and instead open and allow our breath and reflections to slowly but surely transform us from the inside out. We receive it from ourselves rather than wrestle it out of ourselves. What a beautiful thing.

…So, instead of forcing “aha” shifts within, we dance between some effort and no effort…that effortless effort.

…instead of willing our seeds to grow, we allow our inner grace to arrive and let go just a little.

…we summons our Fierce compassion, courageous inner truth, and a bit of curiosity and lightness…

Believe in the proces. We are always shifting, churning and growing…

Continue with yoga’s drumbeat of linking breath to movement, tapping in to your parasympathetic nervous system, taking a break from your mind to turn inwards….

And then - without judgment - observe when your mind wants to join your party…and gently return to your quiet moving meditation on your mat. (Without judgment! We are human, after all).

This is yoga. I teach private virtual classes and in person series. The Sanctuary Series is wrapping up this weekend, and I’m working on my late winter schedule now.

Message me if you’d like to chat about this or request a free consult…or have a series or workshop idea. My inner lab is alredy cooking up my plans so pipe up if you have input or want a spot. 🙏💜🧘‍♀️

This is yoga. This post says everything about finding your peace…and about not seeking yourself in the reflection of other people’s mirrors…and about finding yourself in your silence.
🙏❤️🧘‍♀️
(Author and photo credits below)
***
‘She sat at the back and they said she was shy,
She led from the front and they hated her pride,
They asked her advice and then questioned her guidance,
They branded her loud, then were shocked by her silence,
When she shared no ambition they said it was sad,
So she told them her dreams and they said she was mad,
They told her they'd listen, then covered their ears,
And gave her a hug while they laughed at her fears,
And she listened to all of it thinking she should,
Be the girl they told her to be, best as she could,
But one day she asked what was best for herself,
Instead of trying to please everyone else,
So she walked to the forest and stood with the trees,
She heard the wind whisper and dance with the leaves,
She spoke to the willow, the elm and the pine,
And she told them what she'd been told time after time,
She told them she felt she was never enough,
She was either too little or far far too much,
Too loud or too quiet, too fierce or too weak,
Too wise or too foolish, too bold or too meek,
Then she found a small clearing surrounded by firs,
And she stopped...and she heard what the trees said to her,
And she sat there for hours not wanting to leave,
For the forest said nothing, it just let her breathe.'

Author: Helmsley. Photo: Howarth Photography

The holidays can be so joyful, but also hard for so many…sometimes at the same time. Add the short daylight days to the mix, and it can feel daunting.

This is a great time to add a very short yoga home practice ritual - off the mat.

I recommend this so highly because short rituals have become the heartbeat of my practice, threading me through whatever else I am doing on the mat.

There are many ways to do this, but I’m focusing this post on reading and/or journaling….

Set a timer if time is short and pick a time of day (early morning or just before bed is great). I like to add a tea or coffee and light a candle too.

Reading and journaling helps me feel centered and clear. The hampster wheel slows and my mind gets a little less cluttered. It naturally rebalances my perspective and I feel at ease. It makes a huge difference for me, especially during these months.

“No Mud, No Lotus” is a great book choice, but I have tons of others - and you probably do too - so please add yours to the comment section. While you’re at it, please share some of your other yoga home practice rituals.

Reach out anytime if you’d like to talk about your home practice.
🙏❤️🧘‍♀️

One mistake people make when trying to create a yoga lifestyle is adopting the “all or nothing” mentality.

This only invites frustration and self judgment. It feels awful, and works against your best intentions to sustain a steady, regular practice.

My advice?

Instead of abandoning your practice during the busy times, try as little as five minutes of a daily yoga ritual.

The critical key here is to maintain the habit and rhythm of yoga even when there is almost NO available time.

During life’s sometimes-chaotic rat race, you have two choices: (1) abandon intentions to practice at all and cast yoga off for another time, or (2) do almost nothing, but something- even just five minutes.

By maintaining the pulse of a (very minimal) steady practice, you are maintaining you inner steadiness and clarity. You are maintaining your inner power and grace so that it remains as your anchor AND compass, to see you through just about anything.

Do this, and feel GOOD about your five minute practice. Don’t let feelings of guilt or lack creep in because that is just social conditioning that holds no value.

Stay the course and keep the faith.
Before you know it, you’ll be back to a fuller and longer practice.

Our life ebbs and flows so allow your yoga to as well.

I am available to talk you through how to establish a steady home practice that can grow full but slim down when needed. …That ebbs and flows with your life, but that is always there…the pulse and rhythm, your anchor and compass.

Message me if you’d like to talk more. In person and virtual appointments available.

Yoga is so much more than “nailing a pose.” In fact, it has nothing to do with that at all. And yet, your body plays a key role in making space inside for your breath to flow and your mind-body-soul to FEEL your practice, your body, and your experience.

And that’s the first step, in those quiet moments, to become reacquainted with who you are right down to your soul…and realign that mosh pit we call life with your whole, true, authentic self. There are so many threads to this, and we don’t do this all at once.

Consider it a journey that takes time, but begins paying dividends right away in little pieces…and more and more as you practice. When you let it be a journey and experience, you can let go of micromanaging your results and, instead, simply let go, enjoy the feeling, and allow it to come together almost on its own. Join in, but give yourself time.

Threaded Yoga helps guide you as you experience all of these pieces of yoga, and helps you love every second of the journey.

Your mat will become your sanctuary, maybe the one sacred space where you can just “be.” And where you will learn to let yourself be.

Summer sessions are closed, but fall sessions will open for sign ups soon. Reach out if you want to be a part of it and I will try to help you find one that fits your schedule.