with Kristin Urbanus

Do you find your energy or attention pulled in many directions?  

Do you sometimes think about the past or future but would like to be more fully present?  

Do you ever feel distracted, and long for a deeper lived experience of what matters most to you?  

In this workshop, you will be guided through simple yet powerful practices and inquiries, meant to expand your awareness and capacity for presence.  When we expand our capacity for presence, we not only expand our ability to be present with life’s challenges, but also with the creativity, joy and love that is also a part of our human experience.

Join us for an evening of using the inherent wisdom of the body to guide you into a deeper felt sense experience of presence.  

You will: 

• Explore an area of your life where you would like to experience greater presence

• Identify what assists you in being present

• Experience organic movements meant to ground your nervous system and open your heart

• Experience the support of like-minded community

Cost: Tiered pricing, $30-40

with Lauren Gestes

"The Body Is Not An Apology" by Sonya Renee Taylor explores the concept of radical self-love and advocates for embracing one's body without conforming to societal beauty standards. The book examines harmful beliefs about body image to support readers in moving towards self-acceptance and empowerment. Lauren will facilitate reflection questions and discussions included throughout the book around topics such as: media influence on beauty standards, exploring internalized messages of body shame, and the connection to systems of oppression. Participants will have the opportunity to explore what it means to practice radical self-love in daily life. 

What Lauren has to say about The Body is Not an Apology: “For me, this book is an invitation to re-evaluate my relationship with my body with compassion and new insight. It presents an opportunity to reclaim the story of my body and challenge long-held negative beliefs. I'm excited to share in conversation with others as a way to engage in activism and contribute to body-positive movements!”

Cost: Free for members; $10 for non-members

with Candice Tindell

Staying tender and compassionate in difficult times

Join this special workshop to explore the concept of bodhichitta - the nobled and awakened heart - through yoga, meditation, breathing and journaling. We live in an age where suffering is broadcast to us on a nonstop loop. It can leave us feeling helpless and ready to give up, look away, and shut it all out. But Bodhichitta offers a different perspective. 

Through this workshop, you're invited to explore questions like: 

How can you stay actively compassionate towards your loved ones, community, and the world at large when there seems to be so much suffering around the world? 

How can you begin to tap into the deep well of compassion and tenderness that resides inside you when it feels like existing requires having protective shields up at all times? 

What if vulnerability in caring for others is the key to true peace? 

While these questions might feel overwhelming to answer, you'll be invited to approach them with gentleness and nonjudgement. No previous yoga experience required to participate. 

Cost: Tiered pricing, $30-40

Join us for an in-studio open house! Following a free practice at 5 pm, we’re opening both studios to gather as a community.

Come meet fellow community members, snack on some light bites, and enter to win some incredible raffle prizes from our generous partners Alchemy Acupuncture + Herbs, Division Chiropractic, and Five Point Holistic Health. Stop by anytime between 6-8pm! Registration required only if you’d like to join the practice.

with Nichole Brown

A powerful, gentle yoga practice intertwined with journal prompts and guided meditation to help you connect to Svadhyaya. Svadhyaya, or self study, is an important piece of Yoga, as it acknowledges who we’ve been, who we are, and who we want to be. Join me on February 18th to compassionately reflect and hold space for all you’ve been and all you can be. 

Cost: Tiered pricing, $30-40

with Hannah Lee

“I recognised winter. I saw it coming (a mile off, since you ask), and I looked it in the eye. I greeted it and let it in. I had some tricks up my sleeve, you see. I’ve learned them the hard way. When I started feeling the drag of winter, I began to treat myself like a favored child: with kindness and love. I assumed my needs were reasonable and that my feelings were signals of something important. I kept myself well fed and made sure I was getting enough sleep. I took myself for walks in the fresh air and spent time doing things that soothed me. I asked myself: What is this winter all about? I asked myself: What change is coming?” 

-Katherine May

In the Northern Hemisphere we often treat the cold, dark winter days with a kind of dread. What if there is another way? What if, instead of yearning for the perpetual growth and activity of summer, we see the winter as an important time to slow down, follow the cycle of the seasons, and allow ourselves time to hibernate?

Join yoga teacher and therapist Hannah Lee for gentle movement and journal prompts inspired by Katherine May's book, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat In Difficult Times. 

Cost: Tiered pricing, $30-40

This workshop with Kristin Urbanus is designed to assist you in clarifying your intention, or sankalpa using the inherent wisdom of the body.  

We will use this ritual time of year to clarify and/or cultivate a deeper relationship to your heartfelt intention.  

In yoga, a sankalpa is a sanskrit word referring to a heartfelt desire.  This intention is different from a goal, in that it comes from a deep listening within and assists you in fulfilling your next level of evolution and growth.

 As Brian Klemmer says, "When the intention is clear, the method appears."  Cultivating a clear, positive intention related to your deepest most heartfelt desire assists you in focusing your energy, habits, actions and even healing and growth in alignment with the experience that you desire.  

In this workshop, you will experience gentle yoga asana movements that assist in connecting you to the wisdom of your body, meditation, visualization, yoga nidra for deep relaxation, and more. You will co-create a Sankalpa in service to your greatest growth, fulfillment and upliftment.  

Teachers and teachers-in-training: This workshop content is registered through Yoga Alliance as continuing education. You do not need to be a teacher to attend!

Kristin (she/her), E-RYT 500, is a Certified Yoga and Meditation teacher, Somatic Touch & Spiritual Psychology practitioner and life coach, and interweaves Somatic Experiencing practices and principles into her work.  She finds that this uniquely gentle, yet powerful blend of modalities provide holistic healing, and deep and sustained transformation.  

with Adam Grossi

When something moves us deeply, we might say that it resonates with us. The term resonance implies both a sense of connection or kinship and also a deepening of the richness of our experience.

Join Adam and greet the turning of the calendar year with a gentle extended practice. We’ll use resonance as thread to weave explorations of physical techniques, sound creation, breathing practices, and the crisp focus of deep listening. Leave the session with a felt sense of the renewal and integrity that result from internal resonance, and let that feeling-state orient you to your path through the new year.

This session is open to beginners as well as seasoned practitioners. Adam will provide open-ended instruction designed to create accessibility throughout the practice. Attending part of the session is welcome: come and go as you please. A block and a strap may be useful, as well as any supports you need in order to take a comfortable seat.

Cost: Tiered pricing, $20-40

with Sierra Buffum

The Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year and a celebration of the “birth of the sun”, draws us into a period of reflection and pause. As we circle towards the solstice, this practice will invite us to draw inward and notice our own cycles through gentle, intuitive movement, conscious breath, and journal prompts for self-reflection.

Please have a bit of wall space available for this practice, props that help you feel supported, and any journaling tools that you enjoy working with. Candles to represent the return of light might feel like another welcome addition!

Cost: Tiered pricing, $30-40

with Hannah Lee

Yoga and poetry are both beautiful ways to access mindfulness. Join yoga teacher and therapist Hannah Lee as she shared poems, journal prompts, and gentle yoga sequences to help you connect to your body and explore the experience of being human.

Cost: Tiered pricing from $30-40

with Hannah Lee, LSW

Pregnancy and postpartum are intense times of transition, often focused solely on the new arrival. This workshop, designed for people in pregnancy or up to one year postpartum, is a space for you to explore how to care for yourself and your own mental health while taking care of your baby. We will reflect on the challenges and strengths we bring to parenting, learn more about what "perinatal mental health" is, build strategies to care for ourselves, and share resources in a validating and supportive space. Class will be online in real time, with replay of the recording available to registrants for 7 days following the workshop.

Cost: $60

Purchase as a bundle with Empower Your Pregnancy and take $20 off! Choose Empower Your Pregnancy + Mental Health Bundle at checkout for discounted rate.

with Shanna Linn

Beginnings, belonging, remembering, acknowledging our family, accepting our history. Finding balance in our past, present, and future “take root” in the first energetic center at the base of the spine.

Like the acorn that spawns a mighty oak tree, the Root Chakra Muladhara (“root” in Sanskrit) is a powerful grounding force in the body. On a physical level it is associated with the earth element and the functions of the lower body, the strength of the lower limbs, and mula bandha, the “root lock” engaged to stabilize the pelvic floor and organize physical sensations. The Root Chakra energetically tethers us to the physical world, helping us take root as we grapple with the life lessons of basic survival—food, shelter, safety, comfort, and community.

This session of Yoga + Journaling will focus on elemental yogic postures that promote grounding and gravity, journaling prompts to help articulate feelings of safety and stability, and affirmations, visualizations, and meditations to bring deeper awareness of the root chakra. 

Cost: Tiered pricing from $30-40

Join us for our quarterly October book club on We Heal Together: Rituals and Practices for Building Community and Connection by Michelle Cassandra Johnson, led by Jamie Pikulin.

It is a different kind of book, so we are inviting you to join us for a different kind of book club event. For the first hour of the bookclub, Jamie will facilitate a discussion of the ideas and practices shared in the book. For those who feel called to stay, or for those who prefer to join after the discussion, at 7pm Jamie  will guide us for 15-20 minutes as we share a healing practice from the book.

Here’s what Jamie has to say about We Heal Together:

“For me, this book is inspiring and challenging. Hopeful and difficult. Expansive and confusing. Calling to something deep inside me and meeting my intellectual skepticism. It may seem familiar or foreign. All feelings are welcome. I found that remembering that Michelle Cassandra Johnson shared this book from a place of vulnerability and love helped me to keep an open mind.

I quickly realized when I picked it up that, for me, reading it from cover to cover was not an option. Rather after reading from the forward through the section entitled, “Shared Language,” I bounced around the chapters over the course of several months depending on what called to me in the moment. You may find yourself similarly called. If so, do not worry that you have not read the entire book before you join the book club. However, it may be helpful to read the section entitled “Shared Language” to help to connect more meaningfully to the discussion.

If you prefer to join only for the practice at the 7pm, you are also welcome. 

Michelle Cassandra Johnson reminds us, ‘We are whole, and part of our work toward collective liberation is remembering our collective wholeness and that we are interconnected with every other living being and the planet.’ I look forward to connecting and practicing with you in community with this special book.”

Cost: Free for members, $10 for non-members

with Renee Zambo

This workshop is designed around one of yoga's ancient philosophical frameworks, the Kosha model. Kosha means "layer" or "sheath" and refers to the five dimensions of self - physical, energetic, emotional, mental, and spiritual (or connectedness). These five layers of the self are interconnected, but can be pulled apart to examine how one aspect of ourselves affects and relates to the whole. Practices will range from supine to prone, to seated with a few standing postures given the option of a chair. Journaling prompts will be woven throughout the class as we move from physical awareness to spiritual awareness, uniting our multi-dimensional selves with compassion.

Cost: $25

Join us for our next community gathering! We’re hosting a cookie exchange at Millennium Park. Walk with us from the studio following our 5:15 pm Flow + Restore class or meet us there. In case of rain, we’ll stay in the studio at 25 E Washington.

Please RSVP if you’re able to attend so we know how many folks to expect and to get details on the cookie exchange!

Nedra Tawwab is a famous boundary queen in the social media space, and she has two books and a workbook now, guiding us all in setting limits and putting ourselves first. She says it like it is and is an inspiration for us all to set limits to increase joy and respect in our relationships. Boundaries are a foundational part of healthy relationships with ourselves (our technology, too), our friends, family, lovers, and our children. Yet, they can be hard to receive, hard to set, difficult to keep, and can sometimes be really hard to shift or even recognize we need to them. 

Why read her book Set Boundaries, Find Peace together and reflect in book club? Setting boundaries is an everyday practice, as Nedra says, it’s like brushing your teeth. In this post (and present) pandemic world, where life can be isolating, relationships have shifted, social media is loud and showing up (physically or virtually) sometimes doesn’t feel comfortable or safe, boundaries have changed too and restating them and setting them can be hard and scary. We will hold a validating space to reflect on her guidance and how to be accountable to setting and holding boundaries. 

Cost: Free for members, $10 for nonmembers

Join Jamie for a donation yoga practice on World Meditation Day for Woke Chicago, whose work disrupts inequity in well-being by creating access to trauma-informed movement and mindfulness programs within under-resourced Chicago communities & schools.

Practice is free to register and attend; we ask that you donate what you can directly to Woke at https://secure.givelively.org/donate/woke-npo

Get involved with Woke Chicago and join their virtual community training on Saturday, May 27th: https://www.wokechicago.org/events

with Jamie Pikulin

We understand that skills - learning a language, playing an instrument, giving speeches - take practice. What if we approached joy not as a spontaneous accident, but as another skill we can practice? If we bring more joy into our yoga practice, can this lead to experiencing more joy in our lives off the mat? Can mindfulness really give birth to joy and happiness?

In this workshop, we will explore intentionally practicing joy.  Through meditation, asana (movement) and pranayama (breathwork) along with journaling prompts, we will practice coming home to the present moment and recognizing the conditions of joy available within us and around us. Journaling in this practice can be whatever calls to you in the moment such as: writing in a notebook, drawing, coloring, knitting, sipping tea, working with a mantra or any of the limitless possibilities you imagine.

with Mirella Silva

It can be easy to be consumed by the routine of one’s daily life. Spring is here and with it, more space for creativity and rebirth. 

Have you ever experienced static periods in your life where there seemed to be a lack of flow or stalled creativity? Maybe you felt stuck? Experiencing these creative blocks may occur as a result of a major life change, trauma, anxiety, depression, fear, self-doubt, perfectionism, grieving someone special, the end of a relationship, or lack of stimulation beyond the mundane routine of day-to-day living.

When we get stuck, we often wait for external change to happen. But in reality, change doesn’t happen to us, it comes from within us. Change always begins with a choice to do something differently. “How you do anything is how you do everything.” For example, how we choose to show up on our yoga mat can be very reflective of how we choose to show up in our everyday life.

When we take the time to intentionally connect mind, body, and breath we allow ourselves to become connected to the ever-present wisdom and guidance that exists within each of us. When we choose to “Let it Flow” we are choosing to release what no longer serves us. When we let go of what is taking up space in our lives, we are open to gaining clarity–which ultimately yields change.

This all-levels workshop is designed to help inspire creativity, on and off the mat, by incorporating holistic tools such as mindfulness, yoga, and journaling.

Suggested props: 

Yoga mat, blankets, bolster or pillows, any essential oils (perpermit, jasmine, lavender),  a pen, notebook, and an inspirational personal item (photo of a loved one, trinket, quote, etc).

Cost: $25

with Candice Tindell

Everyday we extend love and kindness to the people we care about without thought or question. What many of us struggle with is extending that same loving-kindness to ourselves. Yoga teaches us that we are all the same and therefore, are all deserving of the same love. Take time for yourself in this yoga + journaling workshop to foster love and kindness for yourself. 

your

self love

is a 

medicine 

for the earth 

yung pueblo 

With Hope Barnes

Romantic love gets a lot of hype, but the depth and expansiveness of friendship is also a love story worthy of huge celebration. Friendship holds growth, community, joy and grief, accountability and trust, being known and loved for who we are. In this practice, we will come together in the spirit of friendship to explore movement, rest, and prompts for journaling/creating.

Held virtually so you can practice with friends even across space. Feel free to bring any materials you’d like to use for journaling or art-making.

Cost: $25

In the spirit of sharing the love, find Hope’s pre/post workshop playlist here!

Join Room to Breathe Psychotherapy & Yoga for an in-studio open house!

Following our 5:15 pm Candlelight Flow + Restore class, we’re opening both studios to meet together as a community. Come meet Room to Breathe instructors and therapists, snack on some light bites, and receive in-studio only discounts on class packages.

No registration required!

with Hannah Lee

Wintertime in the Northern Hemisphere is often seen as a time to be endured, rather than a time of opportunity. Reflecting on the themes of retreat, slowing down, and following the ebb and flow of the seasons, this yoga and journaling practice will create space for you to explore what's possible in this season of turning inwards.

With gentle movement and reflective prompts, we will celebrate that we need periods of "wintering." As Katherine May writes, "Life meanders like a path through the woods. We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again."

Cost: $25

with Adam Grossi

We all seek renewal. The nourishment that yoga offers us can be described as greater access to the intrinsic radiance within us.

Join Adam Grossi on New Year’s Day for a suite of practices intended to strengthen our connection to the light of awareness. Enjoy the full sequence as an immersion, or drop in for the practices that resonate with you. Open to all levels of experience.

Retreat schedule:

9 am Chanting - Enjoy the heart-mind therapy of sound vibration. We'll chant some seed sounds and explore a Sanskrit mantra or two from the yoga tradition in the Sanskrit language.

Props needed: anything that helps you sit comfortably. If sitting on the floor, some blankets or a bolster to support the hips. You are most welcome to sit in a comfy chair as well.

10 am Physical practice - Explore the field of sensation through an all-levels practice of vinyasa yoga. Use the breath to propel movement while also creating space for stillness and sustained holds.

Props recommended: Yoga mat, block, and strap

11:30 am Breathing and meditation - Drop into the pattern of the breath and explore some foundational techniques of pranayama, yoga's science of breath and awareness, to facilitate mental clarity.

Props recommended: anything that helps you sit comfortably. If sitting on the floor, some blankets or a bolster to support the hips. You are most welcome to sit in a comfy chair as well.

12:30 pm Philosophy conversation - Learn a few key concepts from the deep well of yoga philosophy that support the workshop's theme. We'll have space to contemplate together. Your questions and engagement are welcome.

Come to one or come to all!

Cost of the retreat:  $25

Postponed to Tuesday, December 20th at 6pm

With Renee Zambo

Free for the community!

Customizations and empowering choice are key components in Room to Breathe's 250hr Yoga Teacher Training. Catch a behind the scenes look at how we train individuals to teach accessible yoga for all abilities.

Class will include a mixture of education on cueing postures, how and when to give options, and a gentle to moderate practice. Stick around for a Q+A with lead trainer Renee Zambo afterwards! All levels, ages, and abilities are welcome.

Can’t make it in real time? No worries! This workshop will be recorded via Zoom. Folks who register to attend will receive the recording within 24 hours of the workshop.