Wish I had this answer when I was on vacation and asked one milllllion times whether or not I was single and why 😹
Join me for yoga today and help align your chakras! Even you taken peeps!
12:30 Express and 5:30 Open at Area Yoga Park Slope on 5th Ave and Bergen (areayogabrooklyn.com)

It’s been a bit of a rough week for me. I made several careless mistakes that brought stress on myself and others. I tied these mistakes to bad habits that I have developed recently, like not making sure I have my keys before leaving the house, and not caring for my pets as frequently and thoroughly as I should. My anxiety grew and negative thoughts overran my mind. I thought, “What is wrong with me? I’m usually so responsible. Is this who I am now?” Knowing that these thoughts would not solve the problems my mistakes created, I tried to quiet them. There’s a passage in the Yoga Sutras that I found that helped:

“If you do not pour water on your plant, what will happen? It will slowly wither and die. Our habits will also slowly wither and die away if we do not give them an opportunity to manifest. You need not fight to stop a habit. Just don’t give it an opportunity to repeat itself.” – 67

I like the idea that just because we make mistakes and develop bad habits, that doesn’t mean they have taken root in who we are. We are not doomed to repeat our mistakes. Rather than beating myself up about not practicing good habits, I can focus on creating a less hospitable environment for the mistakes or bad habits to occur (e.g. clipping my keys to my wallet, not scheduling so much time away from home so I have more time to care for my pets).

The asana sequences I’ve planned this week have centered around the root chakra- finding the pelvic floor, feeling centered, grounded, building inner strength, rooting down to rise up and fold inward. As the sun is in Capricorn whose element is Earth, it is a perfect time to work on these areas, and this passage is all the more apropos. If we give our time, energy, breath to our roots, making sure our center is stable and strong, then even when we develop bad habits (certain leaves growing out of the roots), we can let those habits wither and die without disturbing who we are at our core. Like ivy that will grow new leaves from even the tiniest bit of root, we can regrow good habits from our roots, nourish those, and let the others wither away.

Today being the final day of 2015, I’m ready to start the new year by focusing my energy on my roots and letting the bad habits of 2015 wither away.

I’m teaching 5 more classes this week, so come get rooty with me! (Rooty like my hair, bt dubs…#notanaturalblonde)

friday 1/1
12:30 basic/express @ area yoga bk heights (montague)
5:15 open/restorative @ area yoga bk heights (montague)

baby new year needs help with janu sirsasana!
start the new year with yoga and you’ll be a happy baby! (haha that’s a yoga pose too y’all, ‪#‎yogapuns‬)

friday 1/1
12:30 basic/express @ area yoga bk heights (montague)
5:15 open/restorative @ area yoga bk heights (montague)

  
 
I’m teaching Sweat, Stretch, and Relax 5:00pm at Area Yoga Carroll Gardens (399 Court) and Open 8:00pm at Area Yoga Brooklyn Heights (144 Montague) Both awesome, both $15 

Click menu/yoga for my full schedule. 

  
I’m teaching 2 yoga classes today at Area Yoga Brooklyn heights: 12:25 Basics and 1:45 Open/Restorative, both perfect for beginners. Perfect for rainy Sundays. Purrrrfect for youuu. 144 Montague $15
For full schedule click menu/yoga

Need help recovering from yesterday’s festivities? Come take my restorative yoga class tonight 5:10-6:20pm at Area Yoga Park Slope (45 5th Ave. at Bergen) $15
For full schedule click menu/yoga

Where I am in my life right now is about genuine self-expression. I spent a lot of my childhood and adolescence suffering and hiding. Self-expression through creative words and movement kept me alive. Dancing and writing poetry are how I have honored my experiences, acknowledged my pain, and found beauty in my vulnerability and my strength. As a child, dance class was the one place where it was safe to be in my body and have fun. I started practicing yoga as a teenager to heal my body and my spirit. My development as a professional dancer was a development of that healing.

I worked hard to build a life and career focused on alleviating other people’s suffering, and drawing on my painful experiences to help others. I am very proud of the work I did as a social worker and I know I changed people’s lives. I was still suffering. Moving to New York and turning my focus to yoga and dance is about letting genuine self-expression drive my life, rather than finding it despite my life. Yoga and burlesque may seem like an odd combination, but it is not for me. Studying burlesque and Yoga simultaneously made a lot of sense. Both are about being in one’s own body, exploring, accepting, nurturing, and expressing one’s truest self, then taking that very personal and private knowledge of self out into the world to connect with other people from a genuine, loving center. I am not just my body, but I am in this body. Taking ownership of my body and sharing it on my own terms is hugely powerful and healing. I love doing this through dance.

I am genuinely a sexual person, so my sexuality is evident in my dancing. What I discovered in burlesque is an even bolder expression of my own power. I can create my own act, my own choreography, my own message, show all the parts of myself- the parts of my body as well as the parts of my personality. I can be child-like and mature, silly and sexy, hungry and satisfied, soft and strong, exposed and in command. In performing burlesque I feel genuine. I feel connected. Being without clothing and not without control is so huge for me and for all women. If you know and care about me, you get that. So I don’t see a need to really separate my burlesque life- it’s all me. I am not ashamed of it. Maybe for the first time in my life, I am not ashamed of my body or sexuality. I refuse to be ashamed. Stella de Lis is not an alter ego or a secret, it’s a name I chose to honor where this expression comes from, where I come from. Just as I chose to be called Renée because it honors the rebirth I had when I reclaimed my life as my own.

I wear my feminism proudly, and it is evident in all aspects of my life. I fight for women to be seen and heard and respected, myself included. I am choosing now to do this through yoga and burlesque because they are both self-controlled; I am no longer struggling within broken systems. I can be truly genuine in my purpose and effect.

All this to say, I am being my truest self, and the people who love me see that. Thank you for reading this. Thank you for seeing me.

  I’ll be teaching the following yoga classes over the holidays:

Tuesday, December 22

8:25pm 

Open 

Area Yoga 45 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217

–

Saturday, December 26

5:10pm

Restorative 

Area Yoga 45 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217

–

Sunday, December 27

1:45pm

Open Restorative

Area Yoga 144 Montague St, Brooklyn, NY 11201

–

Monday, December 28

5:00pm

Sweat, Stretch, and Relax

Area Yoga, 389 Court St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

–

Tuesday, December 29

8:25pm 

Open 

Area Yoga 45 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217

–

Friday, January 1, 2016

12:30pm

Express Basic

Area Yoga 144 Montague St, Brooklyn, NY 11201

–

Saturday, January 2, 2016

3:10pm Basics

and 

4:30pm Open

Area Yoga, 389 Court St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

–

Sign up at http://www.areayogabrooklyn.com 🙏

So it’s been 13 months and I finally feel like a legit Brooklyn resident. Now I only get lost on purpose, I don’t ask for go cups at bars, and I have 4 plaid button-downs in my wardrobe. 

  Happy Fall! Fall is my favorite time of year. Leaves change color, temperatures change, we become more introspective as we let go of the warmth of summer and settle into the darker, colder elements the yin cycle brings. This is a time of gathering and elimination, both in nature and in our health. This is a perfect time to consider your world, eliminate the negative, and gather the positive.

As yoga is connection, I seek to connect to these traits of the season in my practice. I am incorporating poses that are detoxifying, grounding, receptive, and nurturing. I couldn’t think of a more perfect time to gather my teaching skills, and share yoga with my community 🙂

I’ll be teaching 4 of Area Yoga’s donation based weekly community classes at 389 Court St. 8:00-9:10pm on the following Saturdays: October 10, 17, 24, and November 7. Suggested donation is $10, and all donations benefit orphaned African elephant Boromoko, fostered by Area Yoga and in care of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.