The Pure Bag is an antimicrobial solution for packing for every occasion. Photography and styling by Sarit Rogers.

Fun and Functional Travel & Retreat Fundamentals

When you’re getting ready for your next retreat or vacation, selecting a few quintessential practice solutions can help you enjoy your experience. Check out these selects to support your travels.

The Pure Bag

When you’re committed to wellness on the go, how you carry can be as important as what you bring. The Pure Bag Founder Lori Gildea has produced an innovative line of mat bags that are designed to provide hypo-microbial protection from bacteria, fungus, mold, and everything gross. They’re easy to clean and easy to carry. Pictured: Glacier Reversible Yoga Bag ($148)

Even when you’re not traveling with mat cleaner, you want to keep your practice surface fresh for your hands, feet, and face, The Pure Bag’s lightweight Silver Lining Mat Wrap ($34) is an easy-to-pack accessory you can take anywhere in the world. The hypo-microbial fibers protect you from rolling up invisible bugs when you roll up your mat. For more info, visit: thepurebag.com.

Jade Yoga Mat

Made sustainably with natural rubber, Jade Yoga mats provide great grip when you’re traveling or on retreat. A variety of thicknesses, sizes, and colors are available for every situation, from needing to fitting your essentials into a carry-on bag, to cushioning your practice in style. For more, info, visit: jadeyoga.com.

EcoVessel

Make sure your water bottle is empty when you go through airport security if you are flying, but remember to pack this aid for hydration on any trip. The award-winning Aspen TriMax Insulated Bottle by EcoVessel is a versatile companion that keeps hot drinks hot (for 20 hours) and cold drinks cold (100 hours). It can even serve as a container for wine. Shown: The Aspen in Gold Dust ($31.95). Learn more at: ecovessel.com

Love & Asana t-shirt and accessories, Root 2 Rise Leggings, and Shaman Sisters bracelets. Photo and Styling by Sarit Rogers.

Love & Asana

Throughout the year, sales from Power Yoga instructor Tiffany Lord’s Love & Asana supports a variety of nonprofits including: yoga4cancer, Mindful Yoga Therapy, Eat Breathe Thrive, and Give Back Yoga Foundation. Her soft fabrics, flattering designs, and message-forward imagery are perfect for mixing and matching with solids and prints while traveling. Pictured: Walking Elephant Dolman Tee ($30) and Walking Elephant Shawl/Infinity Scarf ($22). Learn more at: loveandasana.com.

Root to Rise

Dana designs the prints on Root to Rise’s mindful yoga wear and she sews all of the garments in her home studio in Calistoga. A variety of playful patterns adorn the high-rise leggings shown here ($78) as well as tops, shorts, joggers, and bell cut pants. Be bold when you’re on vacation, and keep the celebratory retreat vibe going when you’re back at home. Learn more at: rootyogawear.com.

Shaman Sisters

Gemstones have a long tradition and history of providing energetic support and protection, even while being beautiful accessories. Shaman Sisters crafts protective handmade jewelry with genuine gemstones to strengthen your subtle energy. Awaken your inner superhero. Bracelet prices vary based on gemstones. Learn more at: shamansisters.com.

Sarit Rogers

Sarit Rogers is a photographer, yoga teacher, writer, and founder of the LoveMore Movement, who is a Somatic Experiencing™ Practitioner. She is also a contributor in the anthology Yoga Rising, by Melanie Klein: saritphotography.com. saritzrogers.com

www.saritphotography.com

The post Packing for Travel and Retreats appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Sock Styling and Photography by Sarit Rogers

When your Soulful Socks Make a Statement

Workout socks have become more than a simple fashion statement. They’re functional when you are  taking a barre class and they can keep you warm or clean in studio environments or on the road.  Athletic socks feature grippy soles and now fashionable colors and playful messages. Check out our picks for this season’s soulful socks.

5 High Performance and Fun Socks

Top Row Left to Right

Pointe Studio

The women-owned Pointe Studio is founded on the belief that, “Working out is more than a luxury. It’s a survival strategy. We believe in sanity over vanity.” Their grip socks come in a variety of colors and patterns to power up your practice.
pointestudio.com

Tucketts

Toeless grip socks company Tucketts for Peace Initiative supports the partner organization Move This World with the mission to engage the power of creativity to reduce fear, build trust, and develop human potential. Founder Paola Shah combines her love of socks, sustainability, and workouts to develop Tucketts’ colorful array of patterns in fashion-forward color palettes.
tucketts.com

Bottom Row Left to Right

Toe Talk Mindful

This empowering line of message-driven creative has brand-new styles releasing this month. Remind yourself that “You Got This.” Celebrate in style with the “Joyful” design and wear your gratitude not only on your sleeve, but on your feet with “Grateful.” Toe Talk Mindful‘s sports socks are crafted from bamboo rayon with terry cushioning and playful grip patterns that match the messaging.
toetalkmindful.com 

Shashi

Shashi Owner and founder Natalie Sudit’s love for adventure, workouts, and fashion is evident in Shashi’s designs. Koi Wave by Choomi Kim from the Artist Series made with Coolmax breathable moisture-wicking fabric. There’s When you want some sparkle in your life and workouts, the Star line combines mesh and glitter for everyday glam.
shashionline.com

Sticky Be Socks

You can take your daily affirmation with you wherever you go with Sticky Be Socks. Their messages come in a variety of shapes and sizes, for men, women, children, toddlers, and even babies in full toe, half toe, pom pom, crew, knee highs, and leg warmers. Be Confident, Be Chill, Be Empowered, and just be your best self.
stickybesocks.com

Sarit Rogers

Sarit Rogers is a photographer, yoga teacher, writer, and founder of the LoveMore Movement, who is a Somatic Experiencing™ Practitioner. She is also a contributor in the anthology Yoga Rising, by Melanie Klein: saritphotography.com. saritzrogers.com

www.saritphotography.com

The post Soulful Socks for All Seasons: Footwear Inspiring Messages & Style appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Photo of Jessica Rosen by Sarit Rogers

To call Jessica Rosen busy is both an understatement and a simplification. A youthful, playful spitfire as well as a woman who values community, Jessica Rosen is a yoga teacher who is the founder, owner, and director of popular One Down Dog yoga studios in Silverlake, Eagle Rock, and now Echo Park. In addition to her life in the studio, she’s married to her high-school sweetheart, Daniel, and she is the proud mom of their two-year-old son, Max.

When we first met in 2012, I was struck by how much she is a force of nature. It’s a force she’s used to create One Down Dog (affectionately called ODD). I continue to be inspired by her strength—and her long-term vision for the ODD community. One Down Dog is a community—and family—that has been embedded in the studio since the beginning, from securing funding, to actually building the space, to rainy photo shoots, and to love, support, and heart.

Photo of Jessica Rosen by Sarit Rogers

Jessica Rosen and One Down Dog

Even the name One Down Dog has a heartfelt and community crowdsourcing-based origin story. Jessica, while searching for a name for her growing business teaching and organizing yoga in rehab facilities, had a timely conversation with a friend who reminded Jessica of her frequent in-class instructions, “It’s not about the pose; just take it one down dog at a time.” Her friend yelled, “That’s it! That’s the name! One Down Dog!”

The name stuck. A high-school friend created the logo: Jessica’s dog, Patrick—in downward facing dog. Other friends helped create the website, flyers, logo, and photographs. Jessica began photographing herself in downward facing dog anywhere and everywhere. She also created a series of “Patrick Says” memes with photographs of her dog. Taking it further, Jessica asked people to send in images of themselves down dogging during their travels.

Travels through Practice

Throughout her own journey, Jessica’s practice has been an important source of support. She began yoga when she was in graduate school earning a Masters in Psychology at the Center for Humanistic Studies in Michigan. It was her mom who suggested that an awareness of yoga and mindfulness might be beneficial in a therapy practice. While Jessica completed her teacher training, at first she had no intention to teach and was terrified to speak in front of people. Nevertheless, Jessica was asked to teach yoga at a prestigious rehab facility in Michigan. While she was eventually promoted to a full-time therapist position, Jessica discovered she preferred teaching yoga and felt it was an area where she could make an impact.

When Jessica moved to Los Angeles, her interest in working in recovery led her to Visions Adolescent Treatment Center where she met the Center’s co-founder Amanda Shumow and felt a connection to the their treatment philosophy. The group Jessica led included an hour of yoga, and an hour of sharing. While she no longer actively teaches at Visions, Jessica continues to direct their yoga program with has a few select ODD teachers running the groups. She’s committed to helping people dealing with addiction and she said yes when I asked to offer a Refuge Recovery-based yoga class at ODD.

Photo of Jessica Rosen at One Down Dog by Sarit Rogers. Jessica is wearing clothing by Soybu.

Creativity and Community at One Down Dog

Jessica and the entire team are conscientious about creating an open and supportive environment through One Down Dog’s open, fun, playful and nourishing atmosphere. It’s a studio where people connect and practice together without judgment or fear of not fitting in. She says, “The yoga world can feel intimidating and very limited.”

Jessica says, “We are a yoga studio, but more than that, we are like Cheers! where ‘everybody knows your name.’ More than that, I want to know what do you do for a living, what brings you joy, how can we help you? There is a sense of belonging [at ODD] and people need that. I need that.”

The Juggling Act of Family, Practice, and Business

Jessica says running a studio “boils down to asking for help and delegating.” At ODD, Jessica’s surrounded herself by a phenomenal crew and she is adamant about taking care of them. Her persistence and rebel soul is part of what fuels this connection in the studio and at home, where the foundation of her family life is collaboration, joint effort, and equity.

Jessica Rosen on Fitting in Personal Practice

Teaching and running a group of studios make personal practice even more of a necessity. Jessica is honest about her challenge for maintaining the time for a personal practice with raising her son, Max. Yet life with a toddler can bring unexpected gifts—and a few realizations. For example, a current read Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right offers lessons on how to not get in the way of your…crap.

Prioritizing self-care is one of these lessons; Jessica’s journaling practice helps her uncover ideas she uses to adjust her practice based on her daily needs. Practice can include journaling in bed, a daily gratitude list, regular sessions with a personal trainer (for scheduling and accountability), as well as time on the mat—especially on Thursdays, her long day at ODD. Sometimes Max joins in. His favorite: Chanting “Om.” In addition to the ongoing practices, she schedules one day a month for self-care when she makes a point to be outside in nature with trees, dirt, and sunshine: it’s her medicine. She also makes it a point to learn and grow, integrating her commitments to business and yoga.

Photo of Jessica Rosen at One Down Dog by Sarit Rogers

Inspiration, One Down Dog at a Time

Jessica keeps herself on the studio’s schedule. It is one of the many ways she connects to the ODD community and it’s an ongoing source of inspiration. She loves hearing people share their experiences, their ah-ha moments, and their trials and tribulations. Jessica is uplifted by her crew; her staff, teachers, family, and friends. ODD is a home, a place to go to when things are going well and when things have gone awry. “Community is why it works. People come together and are willing to be vulnerable. That willingness, that’s IT. Essentially, that’s love.”

More Information

For more information about Jessica Rosen and the growing One Dog Dog community, visit: onedowndog.com

Jessica would love to see your ODD dogs, so send a pic to her at hello@onedowndog.com.

Clothing by Soybu (selected photos). For more information, visit: soybu.com

Sarit Rogers

Sarit Rogers is a photographer, yoga teacher, writer, and founder of the LoveMore Movement, who is a Somatic Experiencing™ Practitioner. She is also a contributor in the anthology Yoga Rising, by Melanie Klein: saritphotography.com. saritzrogers.com

www.saritphotography.com

The post Yoga Teacher Jessica Rosen: Practicing One Down Dog at a Time appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

How Jesse Schein Deals with Anxiety

Jesse will be the first to tell you that she deals head-on with anxiety. At the age of 25, she found herself in a state of “existential malaise,” as she puts it, facing anxiety, depression, and managing tons of health problems.
 
Jesse felt like she was in perpetual crisis. One of the things she pursued was acting classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. “It soothed my anxiety to get out of my head and into a different character.” At the time, she wasn’t able to articulate what it really meant, but from today’s perspective she recognizes that the work with the Method, the breath, and being in the present moment were like yoga.
 

Jesse Moves to California and Moves Beyond Asana

She moved to California, the land of “daytime and not nighttime” where she dabbled in acting but ended up leaving that world because it felt fake to her. Then, while in her late 20s, she was chain smoking, anxious, and unemployed. Her roommate suggested she try yoga.
 
So Jesse, in low spirits, made her way into Seane Corn’s class at YogaWorks. She remembers thinking, “Here comes this gorgeous, strong, confident, blonde woman from Jersey who said it like it was, telling at me to do things with my body in a no-nonsense kind of way. I thought, ‘I could do this’!”
 
Six months later, Jesse had an ‘ah-ha’ moment while weeping on her mat. She fell completely in love with yoga, recognizing the deeper layers. Jesse dug in and practiced diligently for two years with Seane Corn and Vinnie Marino. She eventually signed up for her first yoga teacher training with Maty Ezraty.
 
Jesse describes herself as a “hot mess” and a “kiss-ass,” sitting in the front row, asking tons of questions, and embracing her type-A personality. She signed up for the next training as soon as the first was finished and then took three 200-hour trainings back-to-back until Ezraty told her to stop.
 
For the first year of her teaching career, Jesse apprenticed with Annie Carpenter, Laura Miles, Seane Corn, and Maty Ezraty. Ezraty groomed Jesse, providing her with a solid foundation and some sage advice: “For your first two years, you teach, you don’t sub out, you don’t travel, you show up, you build trust, and you create safety.”
 
Jesse continues to teach and practice with this foundation. She confides that as a teacher she prefers smaller classes where she can pay more attention to her students, and has recently chosen to give up prime time slots to accommodate this preference. Jesse says, “No one gets hurt on my watch. Period. What you say and how you say it affects students.”
 

Jesse Schein on Yoga Girls

Considering this, I asked Jesse, “How did you find yourself on a reality TV show?” Simply put, she says, “I love television. It’s entertaining. I love making people laugh. I love reality television — it’s hysterical!”
 
According to Jesse, being on Yoga Girls feels like an opportunity to be herself in a social experiment, and she has been able to find humor in the experience. She said, “On the show I am extremely outspoken and I don’t hold back my opinions!”
 
The network lets her be herself. Jesse is 43 and has a family that includes her husband, son, and pup. She’s been practicing asana for 18 years and feels frustrated seeing teachers using yoga as click bait or as a charge point—it defies the “Do no harm” policy that guides her teaching. Jesse adds, “There’s a difference between what a quality teacher is and what the other crap is. I want the world to see the bullshit and know what it is.”
 
Yoga Girls has already caused a stir in the yoga community; many see it as a bastardization of yoga. Jesse is lighthearted about it all. Perhaps it’s her love of reality television or the simple fact that she doesn’t take herself that seriously. Regardless, it’s refreshing to meet someone who is able to laugh at herself with grounded grace.
 
Perhaps that perspective comes from her attitude, “I’m going to be a student for life. The beginner’s mind is what needs to be cultivated. I’m inspired to be in the present moment – the experience of ‘now-ness,’ to try to ease the suffering of being human. Some days it works and some days I have to take a Valium, but I have better coping skills now in my 40s.”
 

How Jesse Schein Continues Her Practice

This is the work of the practice: it changes shape and form, it expands and contracts. It shifts constantly; it’s the perfection of imperfection. Jesse’s desire and willingness to cultivate this beginner’s mind is part of what makes Jesse, Jesse. She isn’t interested in knowing everything, she’s interested in being connected. Throughout her time on the mat, she has awareness about the evolution of her practice, the need for her body to slow down, and the ability to move to an internal teacher.
 
That said, Jesse knows it’s easy for her to get into a lot of “crazy” poses because of her body type and hyper-mobility. This came up when she was put on stage during her first teacher training and as she says, she was used “as an example of every single thing that was misaligned and wrong with my body.” She was mortified.
 
Jesse was told that the experience was going to make her an outstanding teacher, a teacher who can see every body in front of her and know what to do. Mortified or not, this provides some insight into the way Jesse teaches. Through her experience, she knows how to encourage stability in hyper-mobile students and how to coax more mobility for those who are less flexible.
 
This awareness also influences her ambivalence around aspects of the social media yoga scene which often highlights fantastical and out-of-reach asanas. She’s found her own way to navigate this territory. Jesse’s Instagram is hilarious; she riffs on herself and life in general.
 
Coming back to our first meeting — Jesse as reality TV show character, me as photographer — I reflected on our interaction and the shift that occurred during the shoot. When I asked her about it, she told me she stopped trying to guess what I wanted and instead moved into feeling her direct experience.
 
Jesse reminded me of something I said, “I’m here to celebrate you. Just be you and do your practice. I’m merely an observer to capture moments in time, not an illusion of perfection. It’s about what you feel in your body.”
 
When she recognized this, Jesse began to move like no one was there, not me, not the TV cameras. She said, “I started going inside to let go of the exterior and go into the interior.” It was Jesse, her breath, the air against her skin, the warmth of the sun, and her internal experience expressed outwardly through grace and presence.
 
This interior focus informs her go-to practices of meditation and the cultivation of stillness. It’s no surprise that Jesse’s personal practice has shifted from her busy pre-family days. She used to practice every day, sometimes twice a day—the “double dip” as she calls it. Now her practice might be a class a month, or asana practice once or twice a week.
 
Jesse said, “What I need to do changes; sometimes a bike ride is an asana practice.” Her mentor, Maty Ezraty, suggested that after 18 years of dedication to asana, it was time to focus on another limb of yoga. Jesse recognizes that meditation and stillness are more in line with what she needs these days.
 
In this moment, Jesse speaks with excitement about her passion for and dedication to yoga. She’s figuring out the path to be in a place of integrity with her values and what she loves about the practicing and teaching in the modern world. “Teaching inspires me,” she says.
 
Her clarity comes from her continued work with her mentors, such as Ezraty, as well as taking the time to be in stillness and meditate, including a week-long meditation retreat. She’s influenced by some of the advice she received there: “Remove what’s causing you to suffer,” and “Keep looking at what you love.” Jesse’s reality is hopeful and as a teacher, she’s looking at what she loves.
 

Follow Jesse Schein

Jesse Schein teaches public classes at YogaWorks, online at MyYogaWorks, and privately. In 2018, she’ll be at the helm of a YogaWorks 200-hour teacher training program, leading retreats, and facilitating a post-500-hour mentorship program. Follow her on IG at @jessescheinyoga.
 
 
Credits

• Hair and Makeup by Jeannie Jeffries a freelance hair and makeup artist and avid yoga practitioner.
• Photos by Sarit Rogers
• Photo shoot assistant Jakob McCarty
• All clothing by Hard Tail

This photo shoot was filmed as part of the the Docu-Series Yoga Girls, airing on health-entertainment cable network Z Living Sundays at 8pm ET.

Sarit Rogers

Sarit Rogers is a photographer, yoga teacher, writer, and founder of the LoveMore Movement, who is a Somatic Experiencing™ Practitioner. She is also a contributor in the anthology Yoga Rising, by Melanie Klein: saritphotography.com. saritzrogers.com

www.saritphotography.com

The post Jesse Schein: From Rock Star Yoga Teacher to Reality TV Star appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Hala Khouri photographed by Sarit Rogers

Every time Hala Khouri leads her online or in-person trauma-informed trainings designed to inform and empower yoga teachers and clinicians to recognize the various ways in which trauma appear in the body, she assures her students, “The wound is the gift. And the gift is the wound.” The more time I spend practicing and training with Hala, the more meaning I uncover in this phrase, so much so that I’ve begun hearing myself say it to my own students. This phrase is the answer to our panicked SOS about emotional and physical pain, letting us know that the wounds that cause our suffering are the very things that can provide us with profound gifts we are able to share with others. For example, the “gift” of hyper-vigilance can also be a hyper-awareness of the suffering of others, an ability to attune and be empathetic. The path to this process involves looking inward, dancing with the shadow, and softening the edges so our wounds can begin to heal.

As a teacher, Hala skillfully creates a safe container for people to begin this process of healing. The phrases she uses can shift a practice. They include, “Bring a little tone to the low belly and let your lower back know, ‘Hey, I got you!’” or in savasana, “Bring your awareness to the parts of your body touching the ground, notice what’s got your back.” Hala provides her students with invitations to investigate a shape, or choose the version of a pose that is available to them. This method of teaching is liberating. Suddenly, students are given the sense of “I can” instead of “I’m not as good as…”

I first met Hala Khouri in 2013 when I was a student in the Awakened Heart, Embodied Mind teacher training she leads annually with Julian Walker and Jay Fields. Even before we met in person, I was inspired by the way she dedicates her voice for social justice along with her passion for facilitating positive change by educating others through workshops, teacher trainings, and public classes.

Photo of Hala Khouri by Sarit Rogers

The roots of her passion for this work are seen in her own journey. As she says, “We begin by admitting that we do this work because we want to heal ourselves.” Hala was born in Beirut, Lebanon, where her father was a physician in a local hospital. Every day he was picked up by tanks and driven up a hill visible from Hala’s home. The family would watch, wondering if the next explosion would be his tank. Yet Hala felt protected by her family and her mother’s clever storytelling that shielded her from some of the terrors of war. The family got out of Beirut in 1976, shortly after the war broke out—Hala was three years old at the time. Although Hala says that the effects of living in a war zone has shaped her, she doesn’t feel she has sustained trauma from the experience because of how protected she was.

Hala’s family was able to obtain their paperwork and leave Beirut and her father soon landed a job in the US, a fact Hala recognizes was indicative of their economic, class, and educational privilege. Her awareness of social injustice, inequity, and inequality are integral to her work. Everything she does, be it direct activism or through her entertainment, is informed by this consciousness of injustice in the world.

In her late twenties, as Hala was finishing her Master’s degree in counseling psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, she was working with a therapist who was a Somatic Experiencing™ Practitioner (SEP). During her post-graduate traineeship, she realized the importance of including the body in therapy, and this led her to train with the Somatic Experiencing™ Trauma Institute (SETI), founded by Peter Levine. Hala has been a Somatic Experiencing™ Practitioner for 15 years; SE® provides her with the distinctive trauma training and tools she needs to train others. In addition to what she does through teacher training and her public classes, her work with people with PTSD and underserved youth gives her an ability to see and address the various ways in which trauma shows up in the body. Hala’s present-time awareness of her state of mind and body, as well as her ability to track her own physiology, allows her to be grounded and present. I think of her as a trauma ninja with the puzzle-solving skills of Sherlock Holmes.

Hala Khouri photographed by Sarit Rogers

When Hala trains people to work in the realms of releasing trauma and promoting justice, she also encourages people to play. She reminds us that it doesn’t serve anyone if we stay in the red (stress zone) if we don’t have to, because there are enough people who don’t have the privilege to take a break from trauma or stress. In order to do this work sustainably, we have to nourish ourselves. Hala notes that all of her mentors have creative hobbies. Her go-to is to dance! She loves sharing this playfulness with others; even in her drop-in classes, there is often a random dance party.

Hala Khouri recognizes that doing yoga doesn’t mean you’re in a constant state of bliss. She sees how it can be used to bypass pain and discomfort under the guise of being spiritual. Hala shares that she used to to do this a lot using magical thinking to visualize her problems away. When she sees others doing this, she has compassion. Eventually she realized, “There is suffering in life. Yoga and meditation can help us cope with suffering, but we can’t avoid it. When we avoid suffering we also avoid the joy that comes from being present in life.” Though it was a tough awakening, it came with a sense of relief coupled with the recognition that all the ways she was avoiding suffering were the things that were ultimately imprisoning her. The bridge Hala creates is in an invitation for her students to be curious about their sensations and emotions, to notice what’s arising and passing and to meet it with awareness and presence.

Like many of us, Hala found yoga because it was good exercise and it made her feel better physically. She taught her first yoga class in 1999 as a sub for her teacher in New York after 10 years as a fitness instructor. Teaching yoga felt “… like being home…” so she subsequently pursued formal yoga teacher training. Hala learned a great deal from her mentors, and when they started practicing yoga, she also shifted away from aggressive exercise practices to more mindful ones like yoga.

Hala Khouri Photographed by Sarit Rogers

Hala says, “Yoga is a tool for self-regulation.” This is connected to the work to release trauma that she and I are both learning. She also says, “Yoga teaches us to tolerate discomfort. It teaches us to get curious and not run away from our experiences. If I can inspire people to understand that, then I feel like I’ve done my work in the world because I know that running away is often what causes suffering, even more than the things we’re running away from.”

One of the ways Hala is committed to her work in the world is through the nonprofit organization Off the Mat, Into the World, which she co-founded with Seane Corn and Suzanne Sterling 10 years ago. They are in a process of constant collaboration, practicing both within the organization as co-facilitators and in their work with activists in training as well as communities they serve. When I took an Off the Mat Intensive, I was struck by how involved the three of them are as they continually explore and investigate their relationships with themselves. I can relate to their commitment to doing the work of releasing trauma and promoting social justice with intention and without the sound and fury. The goal is the same, no matter what “side” we are on – to be liberated from suffering.

When thinking about Hala, I am reminded of something I recently heard Rabbi Moshe Bryski say, “Unity doesn’t mean we become one, it means that each of us in our uniqueness come together to create peace.” Hala’s work is connected to compassion and justice for all, yet without the need for everyone to be the same; the inclusion of all bodies, races, abilities, ethnicities, sexual identities and genders in her work speaks to her dedication. We are unique and autonomous, but our goals are similar. We desire to suffer less, to be seen and heard and cared for, to have access to resources, to thrive, and to be supported and loved. Walking into a class that Hala is teaching is like coming home to a place where everyone shows up just as they are: it’s welcoming, it’s accepting, and it’s accessible for every body.

Hala Khouri can be found at Santa Monica Yoga on Mondays (all levels) and Fridays (Yoga for All Bodies) at Santa Monica Yoga. Hala’s website is: halakhouri.com

Sarit Rogers

Sarit Rogers is a photographer, yoga teacher, writer, and founder of the LoveMore Movement, who is a Somatic Experiencing™ Practitioner. She is also a contributor in the anthology Yoga Rising, by Melanie Klein: saritphotography.com. saritzrogers.com

www.saritphotography.com

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