Always a full house at Hot Mama Prenatal Yoga

Look how we have grown!

As we near our 3rd full year in business I am reflecting on the beauty of our growth not just as a yoga studio but as a community. As a collective group of amazing women and men that have come together to share in their love and passion of healthy loving, birthing, parenting and lifestyle.

We started out as a studio with intention of offering yoga for all who desired this sacred space and the teachings along with the support of the family starting with birth. World Peace begins in the wOMb was the mantra. We offered a couple prenatal and mom & baby clasess because I know that is the foundation for bringing that mantra to fruition. And for reason unknown to me at the time, we began to grow as a prenatal studio. The women started coming from all over, to receive the teachings of what it means to have a natural, empowered, and if choosing medication, an informed birth. Read my article on  "World Peace Begins in the wOMb

As I began to study the progress and the theme that was bringing these beautiful women and families to the studio, I realized, as always this was the work of the divine. If you read my earlier post featured A Journey Toward Opening you will see that I was guided to this beautiful space as I surrendered to what the plan was supposed to be, not what I wanted it to be. Upon further exploration, I began to understand the direction in which my physical studio faces (west, that of the mother, the water, feminine, fluidity) and that the direct view east (the tradition direction to face while practicing yoga) was that of Cowles Mountain (an indiginious birthing mountain to our area). So with that understanding we went from having 2 prenatal, 1 mom & baby and 3 childcare classes a week to over 27 classes a week including 5 mom & baby, over doubled our child care hours and all classes are prenatal accommodated + family yoga now on Sunday's, the family day! Our studio is currently undergoing expansion physically as well as a new website that is under construction. This is amazing growth that I never expected in such a short period of time.

I first give all thanks and praise to the guidance of the divine and to my ever present desire to only follow what the divine has to offer me so that I may offer to others. I also give credit to those whom I surround myself with. The amazing group of women and men who have decided to also trust the path and share their love and talents with this community. I also place a large amount of the success with the companies that I choose to partner with. When I talk about community, I mean community!

We are very enthusiastic for this Autumn and  the launch of so many new and exciting programs. We have workshops to support some of our sponsors and products as well as exciting contests with giveaways that you could never imagine to be true. What would you most desire to WIN as a baby product?

New Mama welcome goodie bags

One of our newest programs that we are also passionate about and has already shown much success for those who have participated, is our Hot Mama Yoga New Mama goodie bags. Our intention for launching the sought after New Mama goodie bag was that we had so much information to offer, from placenta encapsulation, to prenatal massage, birth photography, chiropractic care, doulas, etc. We decided that since we couldn't inform the mamas of all this information at once at the end of a class, we would give it to them to review at their own leisure. And there it was! The Hot Mama Yoga New Mama goodie bag was born! Our practitioners and vendors are already seeing an increase in their business from the referrals just after 1 month of distribution. This makes me so happy for the mamas to have this information from these vendors that are Hot Mama approved!

I look forward to much more time spent with each one of you. To broader relationships with baby and family friendly products so that we may further educate and support the growing families in our community. I look forward to seeing you all in class and at our special functions where you too can receive the benefits of not just yoga but of our loving, growing community.
Much love & Namaste
Jolie

Namaste!
December. The last month of the year, a time for rushed days and chilly nights. The time when no matter how conscious you are all year, some sort of old way slips in, a time when consumption overloads consciousness.

I personally feel like December presents me with many challenges to remain on my path and I accept that as a gift. A gift of that dark side I always talk about. If December (the holidays to be specific) didn't offer all these challenging moments then we may not appreciate the New Year ahead of us.

Last year I chose to take a different approach in the month of December. I chose December as the time to reflect on the past year and to write my proclaimations for the coming year instead of waiting for the New Year like I always did. It served me well. Well until the end of this year when I recognized that I failed to hold true to most of my proclaimations. For this I am not sad yet I am proud! The fact that not a day went by that I was not aware of my promises to myself, kept me in the space of acting as a better woman. I may not have been perfect all year, but I sure did make effort and succeeded in many areas. So needless to say I give myself an "A" for effort in the year of 2011.

December. A time to move inward and renegotiate the way you move forward in life. May you move forward in 2012 being true to yourself, better toward others and may you start and end the year with effort leading to ease in all that you do.

May all beings who need and desire this sacred space find their way here!

And just in case you need directions:

~visit the Hot Mama Schedule here

~ Visit here for adult schedule


I am signing off this year with my very full report card for 2011 with straight A's! Come on in for a class, workshop or free group and let me put a few A's on your card because I think you too are worth the effort!

In peace, love, juiciness & holiday ease
Jolie

The process of bringing the vision life

If someone would have told me 15 years ago it was going to take 15 years to get where I am today, I would have gone ahead with the plan of offing myself. Instead, I took the place of pathetic child with no self esteem and some unknown lack of desire to get out of bed each morning. Well, here I am 15 years later and making a difference but not really in the way I thought possible.

Along the way, I became a yoga teacher, because spirit gave me no choice. I hit the earth in a downward spiral to be picked up and literally shown a sign to yoga. Literally! A sign on a building that said "YOGA". So I figured what did I have to lose. Life pretty much sucked as it was, yoga couldn't be any worse. So I did it. I took the class and remembered thinking in the first 5 minutes how annoyed I was that I wore the wrong outfit. By pose 3, I was in tears and that didn't end until I was lying in svasana thinking to myself, WOW! and this is good for you?

Next thing I know I am teaching a final exam to become a teacher and I don't remember a single thing that came out of my mouth. Spirit guided that class that night as I just allowed as a good vessel does. I was unaware at the moment, but when class ended, I didn't really know what had happened, or at least how to explain what had happened. Being an entrepreneur, it was nearly impossible for me to do anything without creating a business around it. Back then yoga wasn't quite the business it is today and it took a lot of focus to make it happen. And there it was the start of Nature's Whisper Yoga.

NWSY has a deep focus and commitment to the empowerment of all beings through the teachings of authenticity and using all of life's lessons & pleasures for spiritual growth. Today Nature's Whisper Yoga has taken on the form of a school. Nature's Whisper School of Yoga consists of 3 levels of learning:
~the inspired practitioner: offering group classes, workshops & retreats.
~the serious student: offering Yogic Life Coaching, Life Trainings, 200 hour yoga teacher Trainings & Business of Yoga Mentoring.
~the professional teacher: offering additional trainings to accomplish 500 hour credentials & Mentoring Teacher Certification.

NWSY has focus on the empowerment of women and children & believes that world peace begins in the womb. In order to make this belief a reality, NWSY founded Sassy Seva Sisters, the philanthropic division of the school. SSS is currently awaiting its non-profit status and supports womens shelters, homeless schools, homeless in San Diego and local families in need.

Jolie is an advocate for natural birth, attachment parenting and co-sleeping as tools for empowering our youth. From this advocacy, Hot Mama Yoga, Buddha Baby Yoga, Vinyasa Mama Yoga, Mommie Time Yoga with Kids Space and Rug Rat Yoga were born as important programs in the curriculum at Nature's Whisper Studio in University Heights, San Diego. All forms of introducing and sharing Yoga with children whether in the belly or in arms. NWSY is the first Yoga Studio in San Diego to offer a space for children to indulge in yogic play while their mom (or dad) practices yoga in the next room.

Jolie's mission, which has been adopted by NWSY, is to hold the space and facilitate the opening of the body, heart and mind so as one, we may move forward in life without obstruction and become a filter for others to see the light of spirituality.

It has been through vision and passion that this has all come to life. The vision continues to grow and shape shift to accommodate the needs and desires of the community. I invite you to join our growing community.

Namaste,
Jolie Cash
founder Nature's Whisper and Hot Mama Yoga
director Nature's Whisper School of Yoga
President Sassy Seva Sisters

Autumn Happenings at Nature's Whisper School of Yoga

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Autumn-News---Updates-Trainings--Workshops---Studio-Info.html?soid=1011211969129&aid=TIDVqTSiJ_8

Hot Mama Yoga YTT~What it's all about

“Hot Mama Yoga is about empowering woman, their changing bodies, and through them, their partners and children. By empowering woman in their bodies during the most important time of their life, I feel that I can bring the consciousness back to the support of the sisterhood. Hot Mama Yoga is about bringing women back to the source of spiritual experiences through pregnancy and birth.

A time in life that has been forgotten where women support women, where women sit in circles of women and remind each other of themselves when they forget. “ ~Jolie Cash

Hot Mama Yoga began with Jolie’s vision of empowering the children. Jolie believes that world peace begins in the womb and in order to reach the children, Jolie began with the women as the main caretakers. Jolie also believes that all women deserve an empowered birth and through the understanding of their body and the energy that moves through them, that they can have a natural empowered spiritual experience through their birth.

Jolie's teaching focus is on the integration of wisdom and intuition, in order to release the old to make room for the new. The process of birth as a right of passage is a beautiful expression of this. She teaches a fluid style of yoga creating a garland of postures with the breath and sound. Prenatal classes include the use of sound as a way to connect the perineum with the palette as a main flow of energy in the birthing process (or the jaw with the hips for a more physical approach). By sharing sound with movement in a sacred space, the women become less inhibited during the birth process and more willing to follow their body along with the baby through the process.

Just as Hot Mama Yoga focuses on supporting pregnant woman as they venture into the right of passage of becoming a mother, Buddha Baby Yoga (postnatal with baby) shares the qualities of yoga for awareness of moms new body as well as bringing awareness to mom about baby through infant massage, mom and baby partner poses such as baby flips. Hot Mama Buddha Baby yoga supports the changing female body and encourages playgroups as an outlet for connecting with other mothers.

Jolie Cash, the director of Nature’s Whisper School of Yoga, the home of Hot Mama Yoga, is a DOULA (labor and birth support) that believes in natural birth, the experience of "natural" right of passage and supporting birth choices. Many of Jolie’s Hot Mama’s refer to her as the “Baby Whisperer” for her natural and intuitive ability to soothe a fussy baby. Jolie loves to focus on the digestion of a new baby and to share with the Mama’s ways of relieving an uncomfortable infant through baby massage, movement & nutritional support ideas.

Jolie’s mission is to hold the space and facilitate the opening of the body, heart and mind so as one, we may move forward in life without obstruction and become a filter for others to see the light of spirituality.

When Jolie isn’t teaching Hot Mama & Buddha Baby Yoga, she is training others how to teach yoga. She is a natural birth advocate, an author, inspiration speaker of empowering women and all around baby lover. Jolie also teaches regular workshops, Teacher Trainings

and retreats throughout the United States.

Nature’s Whisper School of Yoga is located at 4205 Park Blvd, San Diego. For complete class schedule and studio details visit www.natureswhisper.com. To contact Jolie directly about the upcoming Hot Mama Yoga Teacher Training, or to book her for an event at your location, you may contact Nature’s Whisper School of Yoga at yoga@joliecash.com

Vinyasa Mama

Vinyasa Mama, a time of practice set aside for the attachment parenting kind!

Veronica & baby Ilo will lead you through an all levels Vinyasa Flow class offering up the spaciousness to tend to your child if needed. This class is mama focused, unlike Buddha Baby Yoga (mom & baby yoga), but children of all stages are welcome to attend.

Worried that your child wil be too much of a distraction for your yoga practice? Perfect! Use this time as practice for life. Life as a mother can throw many distractions your way, so what better way than to work them out on the mat with the support of a loving mother herself!

Veronica, a new mother to a magical and lovable baby boy, Ilo, strives to synthesize her passion for yoga and cultivating peace with nurturing her child, a synthesis she is thrilled to be working towards. When Veronica is off the mat, besides being a mama, She loves to travel & nourish inner, interpersonal and international peace through their writing. Veronica has worked with local teenage girls through photographic narrative camps and finds passion in teaching yoga to at-risk youth. Most recently, while in Sierra Leone, she had the opportunity to facilitate yoga with at-risk youth in Freetown. She is also one smart cookie! Veronica graduated summa cum laude with All College Honors, obtaining her B.A. in both Psychology and Philosophy as well as graduating from the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace and Justice Studies as a Gandhi Fellow to earn her M.A.

Join Veronica and Baby Ilo for a peaceful time of focus and fire with Vinyasa Mama Yoga while finding that inner peace within your mama-hood!

Vinyasa Mama Yoga with Veronica & Baby Ilo every Tuesday 9:15-10:30am
Starts September 20th



Daddy's Welcome
Brent & Thea

Because sometimes
Vinyasa Daddy is just
better than Kids Space!


Not interested in practicing with your child on the mat, then try
Mommy Time Yoga on Wednesday's & Friday's 9:30-10:45am with Kids Space
for the children to "play" yoga while you enjoy your practice in the next room.

There! now you have no excuse not to indulge in your practice of yoga.
Namaste

Ashley Finally Graduates!

Ashley Llano~Nature's Whispers newest graduate!

The first weekend into the training, a Bhakti Yoga Module (devotional yoga) and Ashley conceives! Something about those offerings to Shiva, the masculine, the creator (and destroyer) of energy, that can bring on devotion to the lover..........

Ashley already has 2 little ones and to her delight, baby number 3 was on his way. But not before she finishes a 200 hour yoga teacher training. Let me clarify "Finishes" as in the hours attended. The OMwork? Now that's another story.

A few months later, Ashley called to ask if she promised to finish her OMwork, would I allow her to attend an advance training on teaching Hot Mama prenatal and Mom & Baby Yoga. Of course! How does one say no to such devotion. Remember the Shiva thing. The only confusion on my part, was the lack of question (or was it the desire to not know?) as to WHEN that OMwork was going to be completed. Honestly, I didnt really care because I knew she was a natural born teacher and quite honestly, I knew my training wouldn't be the same without her, nor would the experience of the others had they not had Ashleys humor, quick wit and ability to withstand fierce devotion to the task at hand. She balanced the training(s) as well as her husband, 2 children, a pregnancy plus a family business, even if it was monkey business. Beside my own trust and understanding of her process, I could see her own trust and HER understanding of her process.
So 1- 1/2 years later, 2 trainings later, many optional hours of monitoring my classes, student teaching public classes and a healthy baby boy, Ashley completed her forever dreaded task of completing her 200 hour yoga teacher training. In her words, "Once I put it to the task, it wasn't even that hard."
Her work was superb, she kept her eye on the prize even if it meant that she had 3 babies hanging off her legs between each paragraph of the carefully constructed commentary on the yoga sutras, or the making of snacks in between testing out class plans or the satisfaction she served up her hubby when he got home from a long day at the office.

What I see in this completion is Ashley's feirce devotion to becoming a teacher, whether it be on the mat or in the toy box. I see devotion to herself, a challenging accomplishment for a mother, and a desire to step up to the next level simply because she has a passion, a love of herself. A love on so many levels, and I'm not taking just about yoga poses!

Ashley, you inspire me and I am honored to announce that you are a graduate! I am honored to have you as a part of Nature's Whisper School of Yoga and Hot Mama Buddha Baby Yoga. May all who come into your presence be graced with your gifts as I have in these past few years, and then some.

I love you!

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA
Namaste, Jolie