Offerings & Workshops
GRATITUDE YOGA CLASS for 2018
On Wed Nov 21st 830-10am we will celebrate our Best Moments together. What are you thankful for? A slow flow with guided restorative poses to be with your heart, listen deeply and welcome whatever is there. Are you in? Only $25 for this 90 min class. Space limited.
https://harmonyogastudio.com/cart/
Restorative Yoga Workshop
Sunday December 9th 4-6pm
LIVE MUSIC, Cellist Kevin Makarewicz. Harmony Yoga has been teaching Restorative Poses for many many years. This workshop always delivers and live music will be so healing! You will leave feeling renewed and restored. It is not about doing more it is about doing less…and remembering your wellness that is always there…one breath at a time. You will gently lay over props and melts, receive guided meditations and deeply listen to your body, mind and heart. Self Care is the new health care. Come join us!
Harmony Yoga’s KIRTAN with guided meditation.
Come join us…
Sunday TBD this Fall
4-515 pm
Suggested Donation Only $10
Healing for Lost and Found-strategies for self care
SUNDAY JULY 1st 2018 4-6pm
Have you experienced loss? Whether it is a loved one passing, divorce, losing a job or changes in physical abilities, loss is part of life. Carol Shwidock’s personal journey with loss has led her to a greater understanding of how to help others maneuver thru these days. Utilizing Five Elements Yoga, Guided Meditation and Group Integration we will explore to open to the place of acceptance and joy that is always present inside. SPACE LIMITED MUST RSVP
PAST STUDENTS TESTIMONIALS
“These sessions are very useful, not only for participants who are grieving but for anyone desiring to expand the inner and the outer horizons. Thank you Carol, well worth it”
“Carol’s Lost and Found Workshop is an amazing experience for anyone who has gone through any type of loss. I’ve personally done it twice, and each time was different for me, both in miraculous ways. Highly suggest it for the skeptical and the highly evolved!”
“I can begin to let go of what i lost and concentrate on what I’ve found in myself and others. Very soothing and inspirational workshop that gave me the space to feel and begin to heal…kept me on my journey.”
“This workshop was a commitment to myself to release and transform, and affirmed the comfort that I’m not alone in my journey.”
Read about Yoga for Grieving Healing for Lost and Found
http://www.enaturalawakenings.com/FAIR/February-2017/Yoga-for-Grief-and-Loss/
YOGA DANCE IS BACK!!!!
Sunday April 22nd 1-2pm
Yoga dance with music to the FIVE ELEMENTS…we will ground, flow, sweat, open and receive…Guided Chakra Tuning Meditation with Essential Oils to end the class. NEWBIES WELCOME… we are all dancers, you don’t need to be a dancer or have done yoga to do Yoga Dance so RSVP ASAP to harmonyogastudio@gmail.com and show up! Only $25 a class or use your class card. Namaste Yoga Dancers!
Words from a Yoga Dance Student
“It’s a place where you don’t follow a script! Everything is scripted in life…In Yoga Dance you move from the inside out..it’s a reminder that it all starts with you..and it’s what you take out of there when you go back out into the world…the script is only there if you decide to follow it..and you have a choice on how you respond… In Yoga Dance you don’t think, you move and feel!!!”
New Workshop happening Sunday Feb 4th 2-4pm YOGA AND AYURVEDA! Ayurveda is the Traditional Medicine used in India for thousands of years. A sister science to Yoga, there are many daily practices to follow to improve your health. In this workshop we learn about our Doshas and discover how to tailor your yoga practice to what you specifically need in the moment! It will be informative and enlightening as we do specific yoga practices for Vatas Pittas and Kaphas… follow this link for more info and use the link above to sign up for the workshop or bring a check to class!
Fostering Profound Healing and Empowerment
Have you or someone you know experienced loss in your life? If you are human, the answer is probably yes. Loss can mean many things, including life changes such as divorce, loss of body parts and/or functions, loss of a job or house, loss of a pet, loss of safety and of course loss of a family member or friend. There are many tools and techniques available to help deal with loss and grief. Yoga has proven to be a powerful modality in this regard.
Stamford’s Harmony Yoga Studio has been teaching Yoga for Grieving for three years. This workshop initially began after Carol Shwidock, the owner and a Yoga Therapist, lost her husband to liver disease. Shwidock had donated 60 percent of her liver to her husband although there was only a 1 percent chance that she was a match. After 14 months, his original autoimmune disease returned and he passed away. Shwidock created the Healing for Lost and Found Workshop out of her own need for profound healing and has since witnessed healing/empowerment in many others.
The Healing for Lost and Found Workshop at Harmony incorporates Five Elements Yoga, meditation, restorative yoga, creative activities, Reiki/energy work and culminates in Five Elements Yoga Dance. As Shwidock’s teacher and friend Megha Nancy Buttenheim from Kripalu quotes in her book Expanding Joy, Let Your Yoga Dance, “You are a dancer. Even if you’ve been a couch potato, are a computer geek, or have been physically challenged your entire life, you’re still a dancer. You might not be a professional dancer, but you’re a dancer, nonetheless; it’s your birthright.”
It is likewise our birthright to be empowered and to find the joy inside us all the time, if we choose to notice it. The question explored in the workshop is how does one find the joy in the dark moments? The answer is through becoming present to the now and being present to all that is being felt in the healing journey, whether it is sadness, anxiety, depression. These are the waves of loss one goes through; sometimes the waves are powerful and strong and may be very close together. As time passes, the waves get further apart and may not be so intense all the time.
How does one become really present? As any yoga practitioner knows, one of the easiest and effective ways is by tuning into the breath. We don’t have to go anywhere to do it! Our breath is always here… in the now…waiting for us to come back… waiting for us to notice… not being stuck in the past or in the future. It is an empowering realization anyone can hold on to in any moment, no matter what they are experiencing. We have the choice in every moment to find the joy. Breath is one way to anchor to the present moment and yoga or dance—or yoga dance—allow us to find and express the joy.
In a Yoga Dance class we hear the music, feel the beat, see the movement and respond… in the moment. In a Five Elements Yoga Dance Class we explore Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space through song, through words, through feeling what is present. Most importantly, it is our bodies that respond, not our minds. That is a key for moving through loss; fully inhabiting the body. In a Kripalu Yoga class we focus on the wisdom of the body. It seems many of us live from the neck up; we are always planning, organizing, thinking, over-thinking, etc. For many, this means not listening to the messages of the body. Kripalu means giver of compassion.
Can you be compassionate and listen to your body?
Can you be present and focus your attention on the small stirrings of the heart, notice without judging and use the breath as an anchor to be in the moment?
Healing and empowerment might begin at that very moment.
Emotions may be thought of as energy in motion. Once we notice our emotions, we can begin to allow it to be what it is and perhaps find a way to let go, surrender, accept… and maybe then begin to heal. Yoga can help you shift the energy and rediscover a sense of trust. Trusting in a divine presence—something greater than us—and knowing we are not alone is healing and profoundly empowering.
For more information on Healing for Lost and Found, Five Elements yoga dance classes, Kripalu group or private classes, corporate yoga classes or beach yoga, please contact Carol Shwidock at 203-962-4672, HarmonYogaStudio@gmail.com and HarmonYogaStudio.com.
TAKE A FREE CLASS WITH CAROL ONLINE 25min WATER ELEMENT FLOW
Go to Harmony Yoga Studio Facebook page, be a friend and take a class on us! IN JOY
WATER ELEMENT HARMONY YOGA CLASS.mp4
Read what Harmony Yoga says about Combating Fatigue in this months online Grand Parenting Magazine
http://feelgrand.org/6-ways-
Read the latest blog about the healing effects of yoga and organ donation Mindful_Movement-01Mindful_Movement-01