SHAMANIC BODYWORK, TRAUMA RELEASE, AND YOGA
Shamanic bodywork is an intuitive process and also includes energy work. It is designed to facilitate deep release of trauma held in the body, as well as "stuck" energy and emotions.
We always begin by bringing in sage smudging and breathwork, and we create an intention for our work together. I weave in various shamanic tools, such as rattles, feathers, and chakapa (leaf bundle), aromatherapy, and sound bowls, as well as the sound of my own voice. I call in the Divine Mother energy to bring you into a deep space of feeling held. My touch is gentle, yet penetrative, and I work on the areas of the central channel, such as the head, jaw, throat, sternum, abdomen, and pelvis. This work is a meditation and is designed to bring you into a trance state, where you can find a deep reset and deep healing. It is not uncommon for deep releases such as crying, tremoring, sounding, and sighing. You will leave feeling lighter, loved, and supported.
"Bonnie is the best body worker I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I don't know how she does it. It feels like magic. She gets to places that I never even knew were there and I feel like I am floating at the end of a session!" Kevin C., Houston, TX
It is well-known that the "body keeps the score." While we may have worked through our traumas on certain levels, we must also work to release it through the body. I use a combination of yoga postures and trauma-release exercises (TRE), as well as abdominal massage, to assist your body in the release of traumas that have been held. These traumas may be remembered or held deeply in the subconscious and may also be ancestral. It is not necessary to remember a trauma to release it from the body. This work is gentle yet very effective. I will teach you ways that you can continue this work on your own.
Yoga is for everyone. It is ancient technology that helps us to transform and remember who we are. Union with your breath, your divinity, and your inner peace is what defines yoga. Yoga helps us to go inward and to find our center and our steadiness, stability, and ease. The postures, a very small part of yoga. are designed to open up the physical body and improve overall health and fitness and they also are designed to help us open up on the energetic level so we can burn away patterns which no longer serve us.
As a 500 hour E-RYT, I have been teaching yoga and meditation for over 20 years, and mainly teach yoga classes and workshops on retreats and in yoga studios around the world. I have been asked many times to lead portions of Yoga Teacher Trainings and assisted my main teacher, Dr. Chintamani Gautam, as the lead instructor for YTT at Nepal Yoga Academy. I also developed my own Yoga Alliance approved 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training. I recently assisted Kula Collective and world-renowned DJ, Mose, on their silent retreat where I led guided shamanic journeys and yoga sessions to live music and DJ sets.
I am happy to offer you private yoga sessions that are tiered to your current physical, mental, and emotional abilities and needs and can also offer classes in yoga, breath work, mindfulness, and meditation for special groups, corporate events, and offices. I can combine private yoga sessions with massage, and classes can be gentle or dynamic.
Look for my new Yoga enterprise in the coming year... The Ancestral Yogi!
Laughter is the best way to break the ice and form bonds and it is an incredible gift to see people come into a workshop as strangers leave as best friends! I have been asked to lead short laughter sessions before employee meetings to help ease group tension and create cohesiveness, and I have taught laughter yoga to special groups for diabetics and cancer patients. Laughter truly is the best medicine!
I am a Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher through the Medical School at UCSF and have taught laughter workshops in various settings around the world including corporate events, yoga studios, and retreats. Laughter Yoga is not what you might think it is. It might bring visions of twisting into crazy yoga postures while laughing, but yoga postures are not a part of laughter yoga. I will take you through a series of laughter exercises, some that involve light movement, that are unique to my practice, so what you might see on a you tube video is not what I teach. My laughter exercises are designed to help you open your voice, open your heart, and find your way to the bliss state that exists within each and every one of us.
"Bonnie offered laughter yoga to our department as well as to our diabetes group. She helped to set the tone for our office meeting and we were able to discuss difficult topics from a centered and peaceful place." S. Gardner, Sutter Health, Cardiac Rehab
I studied nutrition at FSU back in the 90s and learned a lot about the science of food and nutrition, but I learned nothing about the science of eating. As a nurse, I educated a lot of people on heart-healthy diets, but didn't know until much later until how to eat from the heart. I was married to a farm-to-table chef for many years and we owned and operated the first farm-to-table restaurant in Beacon, NY.
Nowadays, I don't focus as much on 'what' we eat as much as I do on 'how' we eat. When we learn to be still, how to truly listen to our bodies, and when we are in balance, our body, not our mind or books or an 'expert,' will tell us what to eat. We learn to choose foods that are a vibrational match for us.
As I have described in previous sections, we are sensual beings, and eating is a sensual experience. Taking time to see and smell our food heightens our food experience. Our food breathes the same air and drinks the same water we do. We are comprised of the same elements! We can focus on the earth element of our food, the colors, textures, and earthiness of it. We can acknowledge how our food harnesses the fire element, the energy of the sun.
Taking time to bless and give gratitude for our food alchemizes the experience. Water responds to our thoughts and the water in our food responds to our prayers. We actually raise the vibration of our food, and thereby our bodies, when we pray or set intention. Eating slowly and mindfully, with presence, has a profound effect on how food is digested and absorbed in our bodies.
I have done 2-hour workshops and 7- day retreats on the "Yoga of Food." There is so much to this I could write an entire book (and maybe one day I will)! I can devise a program to suit your needs and we can always incorporate the yoga of food in to any session. May you eat with peace, mindfulness, and joy and may you eat food consciously grown and prepared with love.
"I attended Bonnie's Yoga of Food Retreat. It was revolutionary and revelationary! I thought I had good eating habits, but this retreat made me realize how many layers there are to connecting to food and to the soul of food." Dan S., Michigan
