Yoga in My Hood: Hillcrest SE

Dec 20, 2011 by sari

I must give love and a humongous shout out to the lovely flexible ladies (and one powerful gentleman) of our “Mocha Yoga Mondays” yoga classes at the Hillcrest Recreation Center.

Power, flexibility and spirit in action, Hillcrest Residents

We celebrated our last yoga class of 2011 sharing inspirational quotes, poems and goals. Everyone carved out their own pathway to self development ranging from “Starving Fear” and “Using My Big Voice” to focus, discipline and letting go. And somehow, we tied this all into our yoga asana practice by holding variations of tree pose (vrkasana) , warrior 3 (Virabhadrasana I) and getting deep into our breath.

I love guiding this class because we are not afraid to show our weaknesses and get emotional on issues that mean alot to us personally and collectively. During the summer, we started our yoga journey practicing the fundamentals to the grooves of Aretha Franklin and Lauryn Hill. Overtime, our class has grown to discover it’s own unique yogic rhythm.

Collective Activism

After a hiccup in scheduling, two passionate yoginis (Ms. Thaddanie and Marguerite) fought hard to get classes back up and running. We also received support from the DC Social Innovation Lab, US Dept of Health Office of Women’s Health, Stonyfield Organic and the Hillcrest Recreation Center’s Mr. Moton and Director Kim McPherson. With their financial and logistical support, our classes popped off again in October including a new Zumba instructor.

The People United…

The Hillcrest community is just one small example of what happens when we collectively speak up for our health.

If you want it and demand it, whatever you need will come to your community.
Let’s take our demands up a notch and ask for more healthy restaurants, gourmet convenience stores and affordable access to healthy food within walking distance of our homes. Take some time to encourage and support small business owners through patronage and pooling resources. If everyone makes one small act of change, we will see ripple effect throughout the community at large.

The health revolution starts at home.

Have a happy holiday and stop by our Soulful Flow Yoga on Mondays in February 2012.

Soulful Flow Yoga aka Mocha Mondays
Instructor: AnacostiaYogi
Hillcrest Recreation Center
3100 Denver Street SE
Washington, DC 20020
email: anacostiayogi@gmail.com
Namaste – “The light in me honors the light in you”

Comments (2)

by wacks, December 23, 2011

This comment has been removed by the author.
by music and meditation, January 18, 2012

very interesting article.keep it up.regards..

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Sariane Leigh

My name is Sariane Leigh I am a modern day revolutionary tackling health disparities in my own unique way, teaching wellness in my neighborhood of Anacostia.

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