What’s shaking in your life right now? Anyone feeling the longing to be out in the world again, and simultaneously feeling the fear of leaving your house? I’m thinking about this, too, and how to move forward in a new way, with caution and care for our bodies and spirits. We have to change and heal and part of that is in our coming together, online or in-person, to move together, and grow our relationships with each other. 

We have been adapting for the past year and have found ways to survive, hopefully with more kindness, more generosity; with room for grief and less hurry and more appreciation for community. We’re cooking and walking and joining book groups that do not center whiteness. We have many hard questions to contemplate and no easy answers. How will we emerge with a freshness that is thoughtful and inclusive? In terms of our yoga studio, who has previously not been in the room? What do we need to leave behind as we reopen and what will we bring with us? How will we train our bodies and minds not to turn away from discomfort but actively witness?

land acknowledgment

Yoga and meditation are not spiritual bypasses if they embody us with the fortitude to do the work and take responsibility for our world, for the harm that has happened and continues to happen, and to care deeply for protecting what we love: the earth, our communities, our friends and families, ourselves. We occupy Stockbridge-Mohican land, the indigenous people who tended and maple-sugared, and grew medicinal plants; who were here before us, who canoed on the river that never stops (the Hudson) and were in ceremony and in reciprocity with the ancestors, made up of the sky, earth, tree, birds, rocks. We’re building a relationship with them, now living in Wisconsin alongside the Munsee people. We have co-created a land acknowledgement with their blessing, and will hold a dream ceremony in mid-April as a way to find our next steps.

We’re out on the land at Feathertail Farm, getting our hands in the dirt, growing food to feed ourselves and others, sharing recipes, grieving and laughing. At Sadhana, we reach out and offer you to do this with us, together. We stand with BIPOC, AAPI, Trans rights, Disability Justice, LGBTQ+. We offer scholarships for BIPOC. Our studio in Hudson is a third-floor walk-up. We appreciate and feel deep gratitude for the beauty in our world and the love we generate and share with each other, including all those other than human.

sadhana studio to re-open

We will have a soft opening in May, starting with a few classes where we explore options that have safety and well-being at the forefront. We have been approved by the Department of Health to open and will be following Covid safety protocols; disinfecting after each class, windows open, no-contact temperatures taken, and limiting class sizes to 10 people.

Sondra will teach an in-person class on Sunday mornings beginning May 9, with masks required; this class will also be offered live on Zoom. Additional classes will be added soon. Online registration is required for in-person and Zoom classes, and the pricing will be the same for both versions.

Sondra will also be offering a class in the big barn at PS21 in Chatham on Wednesdays at noon, starting on May 19th, through the summer.

sadhana service project

The Sadhana Service Project continues to teach people in recovery via Zoom. We are starting a garden project at Meadow Run, working with women to learn how to use tools, plant seeds and grow food! We’re working to reach the kids from Greater Hudson Promise Neighborhood with Yoga Snack videos on Instagram. We’ll start teaching a writing/yoga series with the Youth Clubhouse in Catskill in June, and have other projects and plans simmering. 

SSP is offering a scholarship to a local yoga teacher who is interested in teaching yoga in the prison nearest you, when it is possible to do so. The two-day online training takes place on April 27 – 28th, run by the Prison Liberation Project and will cover:

  • Social Conscience and the Importance of safety in yoga
  • Healing Trauma
  • A Liberation Prison Yoga Empowerment Practice 
  • The 12 Elements of a Trauma Informed Practice
  • Teaching from the heart
  • Conversation about race and privilege

Email us if you’d like to apply for the scholarship!

our inspiration

We take inspiration from those leading the movement for liberation, from poetry, podcasts, art, documentaries, essays, and from each other. As Rumi writes: 

“You suppose you are the trouble. But you are the cure. You suppose that you are the lock on the door. But you are the key that opens it.”