Caitlin Vives Yoga and Reiki

Not everyone is a yoga fan, apparently 🤣

If instruction manuals were written by yoga teachers 🤣

Today, notice the little things... not just around you, but within you. Notice the changes in your breath when you think about a topic, the feelings in your body when you speak about a situation, the sensations of your energy (within and immediately around you) when you are sharing space with someone, the patterns of your thoughts when you're engaging in routine activities.

Get curious. Get quiet. Notice♡

Communication is key.

Whether it's communication with self, friends, partners, or family, communication can make all the difference in our experience of self, others, and the world. Use words wisely. Consider them before you say them. Apologize if and when you misuse them (because we're humans and we all make mistakes), then -- and this is the biggy -- own it and make a concerted effort to not repeat the misstep.

Communication can make the difference between an expression of vulnerablity versus an ego-centric argument, a person feeling seen versus a person feeling demeaned, a person feeling supported versus a person feeling abandoned. Communication can hold a relationship together or tear it apart.

I wish you beautiful communication today, within yourself and your life♡

Goal for the day: be more like Barley.

- Give love abundantly to those who show me genuine love and deserve my trust

- Reserve my affection for those who treat me well, and create space from those who do not

- Take it slow (with snippets of temporary swiftness)

- Enjoy the little things (sunlight, naps, comfort, affection, food...)

- Communicate my needs and wants

- Be gorgeous 😄😁🐶❤️

Blustry days are perfect days to practice balance asanas on the beach.

Why? Because, it imitates life and challenges my ability to balance in all ways better than any studio or fair-weather practice.

How? As the wind whips around me and crumples my mat, as the sand shifts beneath me and grates across my skin, and as unsteady gusts attempt to topple me and upend my stability, can I maintain my steadiness -- physically, mentally, and energetically -- and retain a playful willingness to try again when/if I fall? Can I connect down through the three points of my feet, into the unsteady ground, smooth my breath, calm my mind, and root into the center of mySELF?

Even more, can I bring that practice into my everyday life off of the mat? THAT is the true practice.

Little known fact: I am a poet.

I was a writing major in college, with a penchant for poetry. Today, that nagging urge to write struck me when I least expected it.

As any artist knows, inspiration ebbs and flows, and sometimes it smacks you right in the face. Today, it assaulted me on my way up the beach, following my morning yoga. Verses to a poem yet unwritten poured into my mind. Knowing I'd forever lose them if I waited to write them down when I got home to my usual writing perch, I sat down right there at the top of the dunes. And I wrote.

The ability to surrender the "shoulds" to opportunity is a beautiful challenge that's worth the effort.

Svadhyaya, the yogic tenet of self-study, is pivotal in our ability to create and maintain self-awareness, contentment, healthy relationships (with self and others), centeredness, and so much more. Until we know ourselves, we can not be ourselves, and what is this life but a gifted opportunity to uncover, embody, and love through unapologetically being our truest self?

You belong.
No matter your color, creed, abilities, background, sexuality, or identity, there is space for you to safely belong.

Everyone deserves this, no matter their age. This is why all of my offerings hold this as a central goal.

This is also one of the reasons I am so joyfully aligned with Greater Washington Dance Center . Their core value of creating and maintaining a safe, accepting, inclusive environment in which every individual may flourish and grow is something that speaks to my heart, not just during 🌈 Pride Month 🌈, but every single day.

Happy Pride month to everyone in between, as well.
You are seen.
You are valid.
You matter.
🌈❤️

So much of adulthood is stripping away the social conditioning and wants of others, and coming back into who we truly are... who we've always been. That true self always existed beneath the masking and performing and doing.

As we peel away these layers and rediscover ourselves, often, we find that we were deeply in tune with, if not simply aware of, this true self in our childhood but got lost along the way. That self was always there waiting to be freed.

♡Be your beautiful truest self, because there's no one else worth being ♡

I adore all of the yoga offerings I GET to teach, but private sessions are really where it's at. Everything is customized and tailored precisely to that individual practitioner to meet them exactly where they are and support them in attaining their personal goals. The differences experienced and made in private yoga sessions are phenomenal.

The leaps and bounds this spunky preschooler has made in the last nearly 8 months of weekly private yoga sessions have been the most gorgeous advancement to witness. Sheer joy, this kiddo. Kicking cancer and reaching goals with the most effervescent zeal imaginable.

I am so fortunate to GET to do what I do ♡

(Photo shared with permission)

Those who do not love, support, and accept you are not your people. Plain and simple. You deserve to be surrounded by love, support, and acceptance for the person you ARE, not for the person others want you to be.

Be you and you'll find not only your happiness and your people, but yourSELF♡

You are beautiful just as you are. You do not need to carve off or hide away or ignore parts of yourself to be loved. You are the most gorgeous version of yourself in your truest authenticity. YOU are who you were always intended to be... no one else. Just you♡

Every body has a place in my yoga classes.
Every body deserves the healing and release of reiki.
Every body is welcome ♡

When I was initially seeking out yoga teacher training, I knew I wanted my classes to be the safest, most inclusive, most welcoming, most accepting place possible for my practitioners. And so, I chose to pursue trauma-informed yoga teacher training.

What does a "trauma-informed" yoga class look like in comparison to one that's not? In my classes, these are some of the ways it manifests:

- I do not touch my students.
There are no physical adjustments. I solely use verbal and demonstrated redirections.

- I do not walk behind or in between students.
Practitioners always know where I am in the room. I will never invade their physical or energetic space during class.

- I do not only cue students to close their eyes.
I offer alternate options and communicate the acceptability of both choices.

- I do not cue certain postures.
Some asanas are broadly known to make many individuals feel vulnerable, and so I do not include those poses in my classes. Practitioners may practice them, of course, but I will not be ushering the entire class into that experience.

- I do not use certain words in my cueing.
As an anatomically-focused teacher, I seldom used pose names to cue students into postures, which means I am constantly using body part names to guide practitioners' movements. I am methodical in my word choices and body references.

- I do not use music, top lights, or scents.
I do not attempt to force or direct my practitioners' experience; it is theirs to shape and hold. Plus, people have a wide range of responses to music; what is calming to one is grating to another. Top lights and scents can trigger overstimulation, and so I avoid them

- I do not expect -- or even want -- my practitioners to do everything I say.
I empower my practitioners. I encourage the class to listen to their bodies first and to honor their body's needs.

- I do not make class serious.
I keep my classes casual. I ensure students feel safe to try -- and in that trying, maybe not succeed initially -- by maintaining a comfortable environment.

As a trauma-informed yoga teacher, I strive to create and embody the safest space possible for each and every one of my practitioners so that they may fully dive into their experience of self.

In today's 3pm yoga class, we will focus on grounding into the divine feminine. We'll move and breathe and be in our essence, releasing all that which draws us away from our grounded and divinely guided selves.

Don't forget to pre-register at least 1.5 hours prior to class to secure your spot in the unique offering: GWDC.PUNCHPASS

Come join us for this unique yoga offering: 50% mindful movement, 50% anxiety- and stress-reducing techniques that you can take into your everyday life.

Pre-registration is required: GWDC.PUNCHPASS

Did you know that yoga isn't just about asanas (postures) and breathwork? It's about the way we live our lives, in our interactions with self and others, too.

Being true to yourself and clear in your truth is a way of practicing yoga. Not only is it a practice of the yogic tenet, ahimsa (non-violence/kindness) by expressing compassion and acceptance towards yourself, but satya (truthfulness) in being honest in your self-presentation and asteya (non-stealing) by not robbing yourself and others of the opportunity of experiencing the genuine you, as well. It also beautifully leads to santosha (contentment).

You deserve to live in your truth, be seen in your truth, be accepted in your truth, and be loved in your truth. You are worthy.