VALERIE SONNENTHAL

I Found More Joy and Calm in My Life With Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra

by | Jun 16, 2017

I grew up with a great deal of family dysfunction around food. It was not until my mother passed away fourteen years ago that food became an issue that I have truly struggled with. In the last couple of years, I have participated in dietary cleanses to reboot, and this has helped, but I was still slipping back to unhealthy ways more than I wanted to. I was searching, and one of the things I found was yoga nidra with Jennifer Reis on Martha’s Vineyard a couple of years ago.

For the past few years I have focused my life on becoming a Sound Practitioner, which is someone who utilizes sound, from vibrational instruments, to calm the body and mind through the nervous system. I wanted to add ways of guiding people into relaxation to mix with sound and found Jennifer’s training. Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra is the most extensive yoga nidra training I found offered.

I have been having the best year of my life as I head towards my 60th birthday in September, but I continue to struggle with eating: whether it is consuming too much sugar, or overeating. What I was not prepared for was the deep transformative power of Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra and the amazing way it would affect me during the teacher training at Kripalu in spring 2017. Also the amazing prepared food offered at Kripalu was a vital support for me during the training.

When I returned home, I have been able to continue on a path of calmness around food, and have felt confident enough to trust myself with one piece of dark chocolate daily! My Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra allowed me to come to a place of understanding and letting go, and I believe this practice will continue to support me moving forward.

The training covered so many things that I am so grateful for. Jennifer also taught us about mudras, shared chanting, and Five Element Yoga. It was an extremely peaceful week for me. I noticed that after each yoga nidra journey, I was able to more easily accept the things in my life that I hold sadness around. I began to feel a profound sense of release from deep within my body and past experiences.

Since graduating from the training, I have continued Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra as a daily practice using Jennifer’s fantastic CDs, my own inner voice, as well as lead it for others followed by a Sound Bath/Meditation (healing sound using instruments like singing bowls, crystal bowls, monochord and chimes). I hope to do her Five Element Yoga Teacher Training next year.

I continue to feel a greater sense of joy and calm daily. I remain grateful to have Jennifer as a teacher who has generously shares such a variety of deep yoga practices. She is a teacher who endeavors to make sure each one of her students succeeds. I got great feedback from my first offering of Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra and that makes me feel empowered to doing more! The Divine Sleep graduates have group discussions that have provided a welcome and supportive forum for me to grow as a teacher and become a part of the community fostered by Jennifer’s light and heart.

KAYLA KOPF

Major Life Transformation with Yoga

by | May 18, 2017

Before I practiced yoga I was not active, mindful, or passionate about anything. I felt like I was just going through the daily motions, always looking toward something that was going to happen in the future, and never fully living in the present moment.

I gained a lot of weight throughout high school for a variety of reasons – high school pressure, depression, and health issues. The heaviest I weighed was 225 pounds. And I found I could not drop the weight for anything! I tried going to the gym, swimming, running – you name it – I tried it. I took my first yoga classes when I was fourteen and really loved how I felt after class, but found it hard to remain consistent.

When I was seventeen, I decided to get serious with yoga, because I thought that at least I would feel good mentally from the yoga. I took a few hot yoga classes and loved how much stronger I felt in my body every time I practiced. Eventually I began practicing yoga at home, but really it was just me rolling around on the floor having fun!

I finally started dropping weight because of yoga! It allowed me to feel so comfortable in my own skin. After a few years I am now down to 135 pounds. I was truly shocked at how much not only my body had changed, but also mind and spirit.

I wanted everybody to feel this comfortable with themselves, so I signed to become a yoga teacher! It was during my teacher training I felt like I ‘woke up.’ I feel so fortunate to have found yoga at the time I did because I went through a lot of losses within a few short months, and times were hard.

With the support of all of my newfound yoga friends in the training with me, I truly found lifelong friends. I had always found comfort from yoga practice, but when I met all of the beautiful people on this journey, that’s when I became very interested and curious to learn more.

From a young age my goal has always been to help people. How I’m able to do that has changed over the years with each training that I do. At first it was more about how yoga could help my students physically, but I learned that there is so much more about health, happiness and wellness and now I realize you can get so much out of yoga depending on how much you are wanting. My aim now is to help students feel truly happy, as well as union within themselves.

‘Yoga’ actually means union. Union with mind, body and spirit. For me that is enlightenment, and not in the sense that everything is positive, but real. Taking a real look at everything, the good and the bad, and I know that everything happens for a reason. It is truly feeling at one with yourself, within myself. You and I cannot have light without shadows!

I’m also now trained in Aerial Yoga which utilizes the props of silk hammocks and is so creative and so much fun! I was recently certified in “Yoga to Transform Trauma”. This certification helped me recognize how in fact everybody goes through trauma, and that there are different types of trauma, how it can show up in our bodies, among other things.

I’m super thrilled to now hold Circle of Hope yoga classes that are donation-based, confidential classes that combine a supportive, group sharing experience with a gentle, trauma-informed yoga practice. These classes are two hours long, include circle talk and listening and yoga practice.

I recently attended Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra Teacher Training with the wonderful Jennifer Reis! This amazing training absolutely floored me. I gained much more knowledge than I was expecting for sure.

I have always had a hard time meditating, and this was the best, easiest meditation I had ever done! I absolutely love leading Divine Sleep for my students who always come out of the mediation so relaxed and peaceful. And they are loving it too!

Jennifer is a wonderful teacher who is full of much knowledge. She is very kind, down to earth, and it was shown through her manual, resources, and teachings that this is truly her passion. I love how Jennifer also taught us how to make yoga nidra trauma sensitive, so now I can incorporate it into my Circle of Hope classes! From organization to information, Jennifer is on top of her game. I would absolutely love to attend more trainings and workshops with her in the future.

I feel like my eyes are wide open and I see the whole world in a new light! I am very grateful to be on the journey I am on and I have just turned 21! I hope that I can make a difference in someone’s life, and maybe they will make a difference too, creating a ripple effect. Now, I am very happy and grateful for whatever happens in life, even if it feels difficult or I may not understand it at the time. I have met so many wonderful souls throughout my trainings and in my personal life, and I wouldn’t be the person I am now without each and every one of them. The light and spirit in me, sees and honors the light and spirit in each and every one of you! Namaste. Thank you so much.

JILLIAN DOWLING

by | May 1, 2017

I am busy mom of two boys and have been working as a holistic sleep consultant for the last five years. I’m always searching for ways to help myself, my family and my clients relieve stress and bring peace and calm into their lives, which in turn, helps to improve sleep.

A few years ago a friend suggested I try using yoga nidra with my clients and it was then that I discovered Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra. I started using Jennifer’s CD’s one-on-one with my clients. Because it was so helpful to them, I searched for and found Divine Sleep classes in my area and became a regular student! It had been helping my clients to sleep better, but I was amazed at how much it helped me as well.

I don’t struggle with sleep issues, so to be honest, I didn’t think it would do much for me. I was wrong! I started to notice a deeper sense of calmness within that I had never felt before. Things that normally stressed me out were becoming easier to face. For example: when working with particularly high anxiety clients I can often take on their stresses and make them my own. When I was able to help myself be more calm I immediately started to see how it helped my clients also be more calm!

I hosted a retreat and within it I led Jennifer’s Divine Sleep script from her website. After the retreat I received an email from a student who found the yoga nidra was her favorite part of the day, and that she wanted to join my class! I wasn’t teaching classes yet, but it sure made me want to. Because of its effectiveness for my clients and myself I wanted to share Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra with as many people as I could! That very day I registered for Jennifer’s Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra Teacher Training at Kripalu.

Interestingly, again I thought I was going to receive a certification that would help so many other people, without realizing what a transformational experience it would be for me personally. For example:6 straight days of yoga nidra brings you deeper and deeper each day into what your heart’s longing actually is. I thought I knew what it was when I arrived at Kripalu but it was completely different by the time I left. I left with such a greater sense of self, it was life changing.

When I got home I played Jennifer’s Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra For Children CD with my boys before bed one night. The next morning my son told me that he had to get up during the night and he was a bit scared but he imagined his magic blanket was wrapped around him and he felt safe (that  actually happened :))

Jennifer is an amazing teacher and I could feel how authentic she is. The program was so thorough and I left feeling confident that I now have all of the tools to start my own journey with Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra and take it out into the world to help people become more calm and serene, foster healing within, and of course to sleep better!

CARSON SMITH

Kicking Addiction in the Asana

by | Apr 4, 2017

Hello! I’m Carson Smith and I am a grateful recovering alcoholic/addict and yoga teacher! What does yoga have to do with recovery? It had a lot to do with my recovery and I’d like to share my story with you.

Growing up, I felt I was trying to fulfill the expectations of family and society, but never felt like I fit in. I was told I was too sensitive, too idealistic, and too much of a ‘dreamer’. Also that I needed to become more thick-skinned and assertive if I was ever going to be successful. I also experienced psycho-emotional trauma.

I couldn’t figure out how to be my true self, nor fit the mold my upper-class parents groomed me for: prep school, the expectation of an Ivy League alma mater, and finally a professional career. I attended a state university, much to the chagrin of my family’s Princeton legacy, then flip-flopped between white collar and blue collar jobs.

I had attempted to fit into what the world seemed to be telling me to be. That led to alternate periods of what is considered outward ‘success’, followed by bouts of depression and continued sense of worthlessness. Decades of a chameleon life going between these two worlds, along with becoming increasingly separated from my authentic self, resulted in becoming an emotionally disconnected, spiritually adrift man with two failed marriages, a third on the rocks, chronic pain from a work-related injury, and an addiction to alcohol and prescription pain medication.

It’s sometimes said that things get worse before they get better, and that was true in my case. I tried yoga in a desperate attempt for anything that would relieve chronic pain from a back injury. While it seemed to help the physical ailments, it was the spiritual and meditative aspects of my practice that began to help peel back layers of my armor, walls of defensiveness, and the many masks I had worn throughout my life.

Yoga both soothed me and healed the spiritual void in my life, as well as healed my earlier emotional traumas. Though it was a scary and painful process because I was finally able to feel, yoga practice supported me in dealing with the wounds of my past and at the same time discovering my true self. I don’t think without this support I would have been able to brave the journey.

After practicing yoga at home for four years, my former wife led me to the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health for an R&R weekend. I felt very guarded when we arrived on a Friday, but didn’t want to leave by the time we checked out on Sunday! As it happened, one of the most profound classes I sampled during that weekend was Five Element Yoga and Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra with Jennifer Reis.

Still battling my demons, the R&R weekend I had at Kripalu convinced me I had found something profoundly grounding and centering that was missing in my life and I wanted more. I had a compelling desire to attend yoga teacher training! I enrolled at Kripalu, not really anticipating becoming a yoga teacher, but wanted to deepen my own practice through the training. I knew this would nurture the seed planted by the amazing faculty there.

At 50 years old and a bit out of shape both physically and spiritually, I didn’t expect to get accepted. I was! I took a deep breath, said “Okay life, here we go!” and leapt into my future! Kripalu Yoga is the yoga of compassionate, non-judgmental awareness, and that was exactly what I needed.

The month-long training was the most rigorous, challenging, scary, yet also fun, nurturing and empowering experience of my life. It was great to spend an entire month living and training at Kripalu which allowed me to practice and learn from amazing teachers. By the time I graduated, I knew I was destined to share yoga with others and felt driven to attend more trainings.

While at yoga teacher training I had the opportunity to reconnect with Jennifer. Her Five Element Yoga and Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra gave me the most profound sense of calm and relaxation I had ever experienced. I was eager to learn more! Just three months later I was back to take her Five Element Yoga teacher training. Then a couple years later I returned for Jennifer’s Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra teacher training. It changed my life!

Besides how good Five Element Yoga and Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra made me feel, I really like the fact that they are both rooted in ancient yogic science, and confirmed by modern western medicine. I found as a person who has wrestled with psycho-emotional trauma compounded by substance abuse, focusing on the five elements became part of my healing process. It works on harmonizing within and bringing one back into balance from the imbalances of modern life with its unruly pace.

Now I not only practice these modalities for my own well-being, but I incorporate them into the recovery-based yoga program I founded in 2015 called Recovery Warrior Yoga – Kicking Addiction in the Asana (if you are interested, ask me about it on facebook).

The difference yoga has made in my life – especially Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra and Five Element Yoga – has been life-changing. Prior to practicing yoga, I looked outwards to people and other socio-economic aspects of life to validate my sense of worth and safety. And since change is the only real constant in life, I found myself forever being buffeted by the winds of change and drowning in the stormy seas of my own inner uncertainty and fear.

Now, with almost a decade of a consistent yoga practice and coming up on three years of continuous sobriety, I have found my true, authentic Self and an inner sense of the Divine which allows me to harness the winds of change in order to sail forward with courage and the ability to surf the waves of life with a sense of wonder and adventure.

MICHELLE CUNNINGHAME

Mother and Daughter Healing From Trauma

by | Mar 1, 2017

When I was a kid, my Mom was crossing the street downtown in a city nearby where we lived and was hit by a car, was severely injured, and she almost died. At that time I was only twelve years old myself and had two younger siblings.

Needless to say, our world was turned upside down, especially my Mom’s. She was told by the doctors that she would never walk again! And although her pelvis was crushed, and her leg and shoulder were both broken in several places,  she did not believe it and knew recovery was possible.

With immense hard work and determination, after a year and a half, she did walk again!  And although she has lived with pain in her body on and off, she has found ways that she can move her body, feel joy, and thrive in life and share her interests with her family and friends.

My Mom and I were able to go to Jennifer’s Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra and it turned out to be one of the highlights of the year for me! It was special for so many reasons. My Mom and I live in different states and only get to see each other a couple times a year. Spending an entire week together in such a peaceful place as Kripalu Center, with Jennifer, was a dream!

The reason I bring up the story of my Mom’s accident, injury, and recovery here is because I wanted to share about the powerful experience that I had during Jennifer’s yoga nidra. My Mom and I together were led very deeply within the levels and stages of yoga nidra.

It was something we could do together to foster even greater healing and integration. It was unique because finally I could be with her during her own healing and I felt just how potent that was for myself to be with her during that deep process. I truly felt being with her dissolved my own trauma around the incident.

Because of the levels that are guided, I felt a variety of parts of myself were able to awaken during Divine Sleep, and with Jennifer’s focused and insightful attention, that I could see through our physical bodies to the deepest layers to meet all of the experiences that were inside. This left me feeling very integrated and whole.

During the retreat we were skillfully guided in Five Element Yoga. Jennifer and her assistants were very sensitive to my Mom’s needs, taking time and care to show her modifications so that she could participate in everything we did. She felt the benefits of this beautiful practice, and she also felt affirmed that ‘Yes! I CAN do yoga too!’ Because of this level of care, it left me free to fully practice yoga myself without needing to worry about my Mom’s needs and experience.

Now, after practicing Five Element Yoga, when I am out in nature, I notice the surroundings in a new light, slowing down to notice how everything is connected. And that makes me feel connected to nature, to my body, and to myself. I am so grateful for this practice and knowledge of the elements. It has inspired my everyday life and that makes me want to share everything I learned with my community.

We both look forward to reconnecting within ourselves, with each other and with nature in Jennifer’s retreats in the future. Thank you to Jennifer and her wonderful assistants in making this retreat an unforgettable experience for my mom and I!