Private classes

Rachel is currently offering Private Yoga classes both in-person and online. Get in touch for more information.

Normalizing Inversions | A Foundations Workshop
Live & Online
November 12th & 13th 2021

Normalizing Inversions | A Foundations Workshop at Nourishing Storm in Hatboro, PA 🤸‍♀️

November 12 & 13, 2021

• Friday 11/12 6-8pm 

• Saturday 11/13 2-4pm

$150 for both days *Discount available for teachers and teachers-in-training

Inversions are not only normal - they are a hallmark practice of classical Indian Hatha yoga. However, these ancient asanas can intimidate many yoga practitioners today. Inversions, therefore, aren’t a regular or normal part of classes or personal practice, or perhaps not even attempted.

Without inversions, yoga practitioners miss out on tremendous mind and body benefits that have endured the ages. In this workshop, we’ll learn how inversions benefit the musculoskeletal, respiratory, circulatory, and nervous systems so students gain a deeper understanding of why inversions should not only be normal, but prioritized.

We will also learn and practice asanas to prepare our bodies and mind for the boons of Halasana (Plow), Salamaba Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand), Salamba Sirsasana (Headstand), and Adko Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand) as well as variations. Stages, alternatives, and modifications will be provided for beginners. 

Who is this workshop for? 

• Students interested in learning how to start an informed inversions practice are welcome to attend in-person. Don’t worry, you don’t have to go upside down! There are many steps and ways to invert! Learning how is the first step. 

• Students of Rachel’s Yoga Align class are welcome to attend in-person or online and can expect an opportunity to expand their inversions practice.

• Three in-person spots are reserved at a discounted price for teachers or teachers-in-training who want to observe and assist. Please write to Shannon Gallagher at support@nourishingstorm.com if interested. 

• Online attendance is limited to:

  • Teachers and teachers-in-training for observation.

  • Students who have attended Rachel’s in-person classes previously, and with whom she is familiar with their inversions practice.

What do workshop attendees need? 

• Enthusiasm!

• A sticky mat (if you have one), 3 yoga blankets, 2 bricks, 1 yoga belt, and a bolster. Props are crucial to establishing a safe inversions asana practice. The studio has props, so it’s ok if you don’t have personal props. To ensure there are enough to go around, we ask students with props to bring their own. 

#normalizeinversions

Still not sure if Normalizing Inversions is for you? Consider this from Senior Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher Holly Walck Kostura, “Inversions are to the mind what standing poses are to the body: the latter is the foundation for physical health and the former is the foundation for mental health.”

Yin Yoga Master Class on Mind Oasis: The 5 Elements
Online, September 18, 10-1pm est

Are you a Water, a Fire, an Earth, a Wood, or a Metal Type? Do you always burn hot, or go with the flow? Are these qualities bringing harmony to your daily experience, or discord and disconnection? The 5 Elements are cosmic energies eternally available to us should we fine-tune our frequencies to their wavelengths. In Yin Yoga, the 5 Elements & You, learn the ultimate energetic balancing act of the 5 Elements through a combination of studying the roots of Yin Yoga, mapping your personal 5 Elemental make-up via the quiz linked below, and exploring Elemental energy in your mental, energy, emotional and physical bodies during the Yin yoga asana practice. 

Yin Yoga is a modern, cross-cultural yoga method tying Taoism’s Yin & Yang, Traditional Chinese Medicine’s (TCM) 5 Elemental Theory, and Classical Indian Yoga together.

Pre Workshop Activity -

1. Take the 5 Elements Quiz

This Master Class is a part of the Mind Oasis Meditation Immersion. You can also enroll in this Master Class independently. The three prices listed are for you to choose from. The Community price covers your attendance. All other price options cover your attendance and funds scholarships for other students to attend this offering and others like it.

DARK TO LIGHT: The Only Way Out is Through, A Yin Yoga Workshop Hatboro, PA March 6-7 2021

Dark to Light: The Only Way Out is Through

Pain held in the body, mind, and heart can seem agonizingly eternal so it’s natural to avoid, hide, and look away from the hurt. Adverting our gaze from pain creates blind spots, dark spots in our minds, in our hearts, and in our bodies, yet yogic wisdom teaches us the only way to be liberated from pains, sufferings, and darkness - dukah  - is to shine light on them. When we lift our gaze turning our awareness toward our pain bodies, we illuminate their dark spaces by cultivating understanding, relationship, and practice with the intention to free those pains. When we walk through the darkness carrying these lights, only then can the fears, injuries, dis-eases, disturbances,  and wounds, truly be released, let go, and, healed. In the depths of winter, we offer a safe and sacred space to go inside our pain bodies guided by the wisdom of yogic practices coupled with Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk’s book The Body Keeps the Score to learn and embody the lightness of liberation. The only way out of the darkness is through it. 

In this 2-day workshop we will be exploring:

• How the Yoga Practice Heals

• TCM 5 Elements Theory + What is Yin Yoga?

• Personal elemental make-up

• Elemental Yin Yoga practices

• Body-Mind Connection Principles

Pre Workshop Activities 1-2 hours -

1. Watch Stephanie Quirk's video on Yoga for Healing

2. Read PDF of The Body Keeps the Score Chapter 16 Learning to Inhabit Your Body: Yoga

3. Take the 5 Elements Quiz

4. Create a Body Map - Create an image of your body and map any and every injury current or past, chronic pain areas, illnesses, physical issues (digestive, respiratory, sleeping, etc.). Note dietary habits, preferences for salt, sweet, bitter, sour or spicy flavors. Note temperature preference and quality of one's skin.

Day 1 Saturday March 6 12-3pm -

• Talk Learning the 5 Elements

• Discussion - Group share of quiz results and reflection from the talk.

• Yin Yoga Class - The 5 Elements Cycle & You. With the knowledge of your personal elemental make-up and the qualities of the 5 elements, explore how these elemental energies manifest in your body, breath and mind while slowly holding deep Yin asanas.

Day 2 Sunday March 7 12-3pm -

• Talk The Body Keeps the Score & Body-mind connection principles - exploring the body/mind connection, the fight-flight-freeze autonomic responses as well as how the gross body holds onto to pain. Plus, how the Yoga Sutras help guide us through "disturbances."

• Discussion - Group share of the body map exercise and reflection from the talk.

• Yin Yoga Class - Start to even the score. Experience the healing release when holding Yin postures from awareness of both your pain body. Explore how the illumination of awareness, friendliness help to encourage the release of deeply held tensions across the bodies.

This offering is available both in-person at Nourishing Storm and virtually. The investment is $125 to join in-studio (limited spots open); $99 to join virtually.

WINTER RESET RETREAT 2020 Zihuatanejo, Mexico Feb 22-27, 2020

Join Rachel and Sharon Armstrong, aka Pineapple Yogi, in a secluded paradise this Winter to reset, recharge and reconnect with your yoga practice. Sharon, our Retreat Leader, and Rachel met in New York during a Yin Yoga continuing education workshop. Together this February they will guide students through slow, deep Yin asana classes as well as dynamic, energetic Yang classes. Other offerings also include meditation, sacred fire rituals and satsang diving deeper into what Yoga is and why we practice. We invite you to take some time to be with your temple in the exquisite natural beauty of Playa Viva, Zihuatanejo, Mexico.

For all details and to book directly through Sharon, visit Pineappleyogi.com.

WINTER RESet retreat info

Location: Playa Viva, Zihuatanejo, Mexico
Arrival: Saturday, February 22, 2020
Departure: Thursday, February 27, 2020
What’s Included -

• 5 nights,

• 6 days accommodation

• 3 meals per day + snacks and refreshments

• 2 yoga classes per day (Yin yoga + Vinyasa yoga)

• Round trip shuttle to and from airport

• All taxes and gratuities

• Welcome package

• Meditation/breathing techniques

• Sacred Fire Circle at night

• Private ocean front views/ access + infinity pool (not swarmed with people, think peace and quiet)

• New friends and a supportive open community

• WiFi in designated area

• Fresh towels and linens

• Space, there will be one other (small) retreat while we are there so there is privacy

• *Excluded: Airfares, alcohol, excursions, and spa treatments