Less than a year ago I received news that instantly changed my life. I found out that my dad had Parkinson's, and that it was progressing quickly. So much ran through my head upon hearing the news. My brain spiraled out of control with scary thoughts... fear, sadness, uncertainty. I did what I always do in those difficult times, I turned to my mat. 

In fact, I found myself returning to my mat over and over again. More than I ever had before. I realized that as my father was losing control of his body, I wanted to take control of my own. I knew deep down that the only way to accelerate my practice, and ultimately the connection I had with body, was to jump into teacher training. 

Upon entering a 200 hour program, I had no desire to teach. To my surprise, the more I stood in front of the room, the more comfortable I became. I began to love teaching others how to drop in and connect with their own bodies. The gratitude from seeing my students' contentment after class was my new passion. 

I was beyond elated to take my first gig at Blossom to teach a new community class, open to the public. Every Tuesday night is a new experience for me. Every class I teach I feel strong, confident, and all of the negative thoughts in my head disappear for that hour. There are some things in life that are out of our control. In my case, for everything else, there is yoga. 

​Join Stef for Vinyasa Flow on Tuesdays at 7:15pm.

by Evelyn Preston
Excerpt with permission from Parenting on the Peninsula

Every parent’s been there, those fraught moments when their cuddly, cooing, oh-so-cute baby suddenly turns into a cranky, frustrated infant or toddler, spitting food, constantly crying, or even throwing tantrums. When it’s a toss-up over who’s more frantic and confused, baby or mommy, and it’s definitely not colic, a bump or a burp, there’s an ingenious way to ask baby “What’s up?” The little tyke may not yet have any words but definitely demands to be heard.

To bridge this super charged communication gap, Happy Baby Signs’ dedicated instructors teach new parents how “to talk” with their young offspring via American Sign Language. The amazing results calm everyone, get baby’s message across and offer brain enhancing benefits: accelerated language ability, reduced aggressive behavior and positive interaction plus the bonus of a stronger bond between baby and parent.   

The fun-filled classes with songs and interactive activities teach classic American Sign Language to parents (babies welcome), who then weave it into their infants’ everyday routines. Tricky to learn from a book, however an experienced “personal trainer” can fuse the nuance of signs, sounds and gestures that will work—and stick.

Parents begin the Happy Baby Signs programs just as children’s long-term memory and motor skills kick in at about four to six months old.  At eight to ten months, as kids start mimicking adults and gesturing their wants, simple signing provides a jump-start for the verbal skills ahead. The 90 minute Introductory Workshop presents the basics and benefits of signing (with a proof-positive video of adorable babies signing), prior to the follow-up six weeks of themed, one hour courses designed to help absorb about 100+ signs (for foods, colors, clothes, animals, playtime, etc.), that cement the magic.

According to Teacher Bill, even the youngest babies want to be connected to the world around them and can be clever and resourceful while learning how. Infants will emphatically indicate, “all done” after meals and baths or begin moving their hand to their mouth when they’re hungry. Emotions shine via smiles and hugs to the unmistakably signal “I love you.”

With mom, dad and grandparents consistently reinforcing with words, expressions and body language, signing kindles indelible associations in the fast forming infant brain. “It’s like riding that proverbial bicycle,” explains Bill, “once learned, not easily forgotten.” Early communication in languages, whether signing, Chinese, English or all together, becomes natural, interchangeable, useful and fun. Babies just do it and quickly catch on! As children mature, the pleasure of being understood enhances self-esteem that in turn, encourages confidence toward increased communication which leads to more effective signing…a lasting circle of learning that spirals on to pre-school and beyond. 

Parents wholeheartedly endorse this training. Just read the testimonials. Happy Baby Signs' instructors are lauded and loved for their special expertise and super enthusiasm. Paraphrased excerpts include, “My baby is rarely frustrated and therefore so am I; my child was so excited when we understood him; such a fun way of presenting the material—never too rigid; my daughter adds signs together for sentences...like 'MORE' + 'BOOK'.” and “the payoff is tremendous!”

As a speaker, Mommy’s Coach, and class participant, Carrie Vawter-Yousfi, says, “I especially appreciated Bill’s teaching by example, his wonderful stories of how signing with his own two young sons made their family life so much easier. I learned to start early, the sooner the better.”

Liza Baskind, mother of three, dispels the mistaken notion that signing will limit speaking. “On the contrary,” she says; “especially for so many children with delayed speech ability, signing will coax out more words, another factor in reducing frustration for parent and child.”

With the increasing popularity and positive results of Happy Baby Signs classes, parents who consider saving for a far off college future can make a nominal investment of time and money for their babies today that pays huge dividends in just a few months. It’s proven that children who communicate early via signing are verbally ahead a year or more by age three. Along with Thoreau’s premise that “language is the basis of all knowledge,” Teacher Bill reminds parents that “You can never redo those most important first two years of life!” 

Happy Baby Signs Classes with Bill are offered Saturday mornings at Blossom. For older children, teacher Erika leads Toddler/ Preschooler Sign Language at Blossom on Wednesday mornings. Their website is HappyBabySigns.com.

And get their international best selling book, Signs of a Happy Baby!

by Jeanna Lurie, Program Manager

​I have practiced a couple of times with Blossom's resident Forrest Yoga Instructor, Sharon Dawson and just love her class!  Coming from a completely different background, I enjoyed the opportunity to interview her and learn more about Forrest Yoga and what inspires Sharon to share this style of yoga with our community. 

Tell me specifically about Forrest Yoga and what makes it different than other styles of yoga?
Forrest Yoga is a strong, modern style developed by Ana T. Forrest. Emphasis is on connecting to the subtle muscles of the core, deep breath, and pose sequences to build heat, flush out toxins and release stuck emotions. Ana studied with many of the living masters and traveled through India.  She translated their teachings and made them relevant for Western culture.  What we need is to relax our necks, strengthen our core, and work more deeply with our breath, and so she’s brought all that to her style.  She’s done a lot of research within her own body to find what works for her.  And there’s also her personal story- she came from a hard life, started drinking at a young age, experienced sexual abuse, drugs, eating disorders, and she tried to commit suicide.  This is all in her book, Fierce Medicine - it’s all public knowledge. She also broke her back.  So she had a lot to overcome emotionally, physically, and spiritually- she was really broken and her yoga developed from her life, from her experience and so it’s really all about healing.  That’s the cornerstone of Forrest Yoga.  What we agree to as Forrest Yoga teachers is to “Mend the Hoop of the People.” This comes from a dream that she had about a rainbow hoop of people which was inspired by the work she was doing with Native Americans.  She lived on tribal land for a while and studied the culture and became a Medicine Woman. She was a Ceremonial Pipe Carrier, and a lot of her healing traditions are steeped in the Native American ceremony. We use a lot of Native American ceremony when we get together as Forrest Yoga people. I don’t really bring that into the simple classes that I am teaching here because we only have an hour or hour and fifteen.  Every now and then, I’ll do a smoke ceremony with sage or I’ll spray the room with sage for cleansing and clarity.
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That leads perfectly to the next question...if somebody comes to your class as a Forrest class, what can they expect?
I like to have the class somewhat warm, not hot, somewhat warm because that’s better for our muscles. I will generally open with breath. Breath is so important for healing our bodies, our souls, our spirits, our emotions, so there will be a lot of emphasis on it.  If I have time, I will do a little pranayama exercise, like maybe alternate nostril breathing and that’s partly for breath, also for the brain- for how we can rewire the brain, calm the nervous system, and prepare for our yoga class. So generally a little pranayama, some opening warm up, I almost always do core work in the beginning- Forrest Yoga core work, which is very specific and very safe, and then we’ll move into more active practice.  We’ll generally do some sun salutations, Surya Namaskar B, which is a little bit more vigorous, some standing poses. I’ll often have a theme for the day which might be hip openers and arm balances or it might be that we’re working towards back bends, so I’ll try to sequence the class in such a way that we’re well-prepared when we get into our apex back bend and that we warm down appropriately, so it’s very safe for the body. The  overarching theme is calming and quieting the mind, and healing - the emotions and whatever stress we need to let go of.
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So of course, I’ve taken your class and I love your it! I think it’s really good for my body. What is really good for you about teaching? What do you love about it?
I love watching people arrive, and I can read energy pretty well.  Watching people come in and they’re just scattered, they’re stressed out, their shoulders are up by their ears and they’re not breathing.  They’re all hunched over and pissed off, and by the end of class just watching them open and unfold and maybe even smile.  They start to breathe and feel their body and finally,  in shivasana to see their energy become soft and relaxed. That’s beautiful for me.  I love that! I also love over time watching people change and shift and be able to do some poses that they didn’t think they could do and that’s really super fun. And just seeing people, watching people- how they change!

Enjoy Sharon's Forrest-style class on Wednesdays at 9:00am.  The class is a mixed-levels class for all members of the community (not just pre or postnatal).  Limited childcare is available onsite for $12 ($10 members).