by | May 31, 2021
When I moved to Los Angeles from Ireland, I found that I was missing friends, floundering in my life and having no real direction, and in short, I was depressed.
They say you find your teacher at just the right time, and I stumbled upon a donation studio and started going to the 7:00 am yoga class three times a week, with the most wonderful teacher. I realized I was not alone, I had community, and that my ‘thoughts’ were not to be taken so seriously. Overall yoga helped me become more awake to myself.
Eventually I did my 200-hr Teacher Training and started teaching yoga. I had first come to yoga in the late 90’s in NYC, and it intrigued me, but it didn’t give me that ‘aha’ moment you hear people talk about, and I guess I longed for that.
As much as I have loved the physical yoga postures, meditation practice has been such a challenge over the years. Even when I had the opportunity to be in India, and found myself sitting by the banks of the Ganga, I still had a really hard time calming my mind.
Then I found yoga nidra! It has been such a beautiful gateway into meditation and stillness. I feel so at ease with myself and the world around me when I practice. Along came Jennifer into my life with her incredible Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra Teacher Training. I am so happy that I took the time to do her training. I feel so much more confident in my ability to bring deep rest into my classrooms both in-person and online. Now I have so many more tools to share with my community.
The main focus in my teaching and continuing yoga education has been on restorative forms of yoga. I’ve been lucky to have some incredible teachers, and yet I still felt like there was more I that I wanted within my own practice, as well as more depth that I wanted to offer my students. I am so happy that I found Jennifer and Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra.
It has already been such a gift to share yoga nidra with my students, community, and family. And what feels even more important is how it has expanded my meditation practice. Yoga nidra also has helped me in my daily life, off of the mat too. For example, when I can’t sleep, I guide myself in the body scan, and it helps to calm me, and often put me to sleep. And if I have an argument with my partner, I can feel how the body scan helps me to stay grounded and embodied.
I am so lucky to live in Ireland where I swim outdoors in streams a few times a week, in every season, including winter. We have incredible hikes right outside our door, and yet my yoga nidra practice has enlivened my senses, making me feel even more awake and alive when I’m in nature, and my life. Now I feel like my whole life is my ‘aha’ moment: moment to moment as I live it.
by | Apr 30, 2021
As I reflect back over this past year of changes that Covid has brought into our lives, the one thing I attribute to making the most difference in my life is Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra with Jennifer.
I’m prone to stress and worry, and have tried many ways to cope over the years. I started meditating when I was 23 years old, and have practiced various forms, as well as trained in two styles of meditation. After dabbling with yoga for many years, it’s now become a regular practice for me: focusing on breath helps me to slow down. I love to dance, and walk as well, and all of these practices have helped to tame my IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), manage my anxiety, and keep me resilient. Until yoga nidra took me to a whole new level…
I met Jennifer at Kripalu Center a few years ago and took a couple of yoga classes with her over the weekend. I loved her warm and easygoing presence, and immediately signed up for her newsletter. When Covid hit, I began attending her online yoga nidra classes – and have been with her ever since! In the beginning, I did about five classes a week – her voice melted me! I was hooked. I found such peace and utter bliss each time I did it, I just wanted more.
Being a yoga practitioner and daily meditator, I thought I knew what relaxation felt like in my body, until I found deep healing bliss with Divine Sleep ® Yoga Nidra. During the practice, I find I am extremely relaxed, yet aware, as Jennifer guides me through all the different layers of my being – body, breath, senses, with contrasts like hot and cold, and her beautiful journeys filled with imagery – all while feeling safe and secure.
I often doze off and Jennifer explains that this is quite common, and that ‘my body would get whatever it needed’, and so it does! She said this deeply relaxed state was the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the body’s relaxation response to stress and is crucial for healing. I feel an inner sense of calm that I had never truly experienced before.
Practicing yoga nidra with Jennifer continues to be a blessing! I have several of her recordings on CD and listen to the Insomnia Track to put me to sleep almost every night. No matter what my day has been like, hearing her voice relaxes me, and makes me feel peaceful inside.
Jennifer is gifted, and I’m so grateful she chooses to share her gifts with me and so many others in person and now online. Her yoga nidra has been my refuge and anchor this past year and has become such an important priority in my life, and I can’t imagine that ever changing. In fact, I took her Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra 40-hour online training in January as a 70th birthday gift to myself, and I can’t wait to share it with others in my community.
My daughter is in Guatemala, so sharing yoga nidra with her online is a great way for us to connect now.
I look forward to taking more of Jennifer’s workshops. I love her relaxed teaching style. She radiates compassion in every class and makes learning fun! From Five Element Yoga® and Immune Boost Mondays, to Mudras and of course, Divine Sleep®, I’ll be there with her as my guide. Her classes are always informative and interesting, and it always helps keep me balanced and healthy in body and mind.
My husband said to me the other day, “You seem happy almost all the time now…it’s really nice, and I like it!” He’s not one to give compliments, so that felt big! And my favorite yoga teacher in my area has said to me several times that I’m her ‘poster child’ for being positive through Covid.
I guess I have weathered this year well partly because I accepted it, as it presented itself, one day at a time. I’ve found that I enjoy being more introspective. And I believe Jennifer is part of the reason. Her positive, generous spirit is contagious. She’s so welcoming and gracious and brings joy to others. So thank you Jennifer, for being my guiding light this year.
Clare Harlow, MSW, Career and Life Coaching
www.itsyourlifemakeitwork.com
by | Feb 16, 2021
In 2020 I experienced deep fear, anger and grief – along with renewed appreciation for human connection, and the little things that added sweetness to life. My physical ailments intensified, like allergies, eczema and an infection that required three months of antibiotic treatment.
During the antibiotic treatment, I found myself feeling weak, foggy headed, tense and anxious, with pre-existing chronic digestive issues getting worse. I had just moved into a new home with my partner, and was out of work, only teaching a few yoga classes a month on zoom. Feeling unfulfilled and ‘not good enough’, I fell hard into an old habit of perfectionism. I felt critical of myself and my partner, and I found my yoga practice becoming more and more rigid. I’d only been teaching a year, and I felt I was already losing my enthusiasm for it.
Fortunately, that’s when I found Jennifer’s Five Element Yoga®️ once again. I had received an introduction to her yoga during my 200-hour yoga teacher training. I knew there was something special about it, and wanted to learn more. Over a year later, I cam across her website. Not coincidentally, she was offering training in less than a month!
I took a few Five Element Yoga® virtual classes before confirming my attendance. It was so balancing and grounding, and I began to experience spontaneous joy again. I wanted more! I registered for the upcoming training.
Jennifer truly is a master teacher. I find her classes work on the subtle level, guiding me to explore my body, mind, and spirit with curiosity, playfulness and unconditional love. These qualities which I cultivate during class, have naturally moved ‘off the mat’ and into my daily life.
Since graduating from Five Element Yoga® Teacher Training I feel more balanced. My sense of grounding and security has deepened. I find I treat myself and others with more gentleness. An overall sense of spaciousness emerged, which has helped me to navigate life’s ups and downs with grace.
I find I have an overall sense of spaciousness of time and in my days. I also feel more energized and have a rekindled my sense of purpose, creativity and joy. My physical issues have definitely improved: the eczema cleared up, my tensions dissolved, and my digestion is stronger than it’s been in many years.
My partner, relatives and friends have noticed and made positive comments on the changes they’ve seen in me since the training. My relationships have improved, and I feel more at ease and accepting of myself.
One of the greatest gifts is that I am LOVING teaching again! I just finished guiding a 5-week series, and the response was so positive, I’ve decided to expand my offerings. I’ve also finally started working on the yoga website I had wanted to make for months!
This message came to me from my heart during the journaling portion of Jennifer’s Uplift Your Gracious Heart Workshop.
Spend more moments loving,
forgiving misunderstandings,
practicing kindness.
Keep checking in with me
and opening to my wisdom.
It will lead to freedom,
freedom of the heart.
Thank you Jennifer for sharing yourself and your teachings of Five Element Yoga®️. I look forward to deepening my practice and sharing it with others.
With love and joy,
Amanda
by | Feb 15, 2021
I had suffered with daily physical pain for 26 years. And as for many, 2020 has been physically, financially and emotionally challenging for me. My business was closed for almost five months, and I am now only slowly regaining clients. My stress levels were on the rise with health issues.
On top of it all, my daughter was in a serious moped accident that required her to be air-lifted to Boston for treatment. While she was recovering, and also when she slept, I would play Jennifer’s Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra recordings to help her to heal and to be peaceful.
Originally, it was my friend Ellen, who’s been to Jennifer’s retreats, recommended I practice her Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra. And now since March 2020 and Covid 19, I have been practicing WITH Jennifer live-online three times a week! On the other days, I listen to her recordings.
I love hearing Jennifer’s calm, soothing voice taking me on incredible journeys each time. Our new rescue dog Bindi benefits from the sleep nidras. Often I awaken to find her curled up near me.
Not long after my daughter’s accident, I fell down the stairs at her apartment and suffered severe bruising, but thankfully no broken bones. Practicing Jennifer’s Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra was the only thing that could get me feeling comfortable in my body again!
I recently had tailbone surgery for the cause of the daily pain that troubled me for half of my life. I listened to yoga nidra with Jennifer as I was driven to the hospital, then again as I waited in pre-op, and many times each day while recovering. I’m glad I know what helps me get through challenges: Jennifer Reis! She allows me to find my calm abiding center again and again, with the ebb and flow of life’s challenges that have come my way.
My mom has dealt the tremors and anxiety of Parkinson’s disease for eight years. When I see her, I play Jennifer’s yoga nidra once, and sometimes twice, and I’ve found, it’s the only thing that calms her tremors so she can fully rest. That is so heartening for me to witness my mom settled and asleep. I set it up for her to practice Jennifer’s yoga nidra everyday on her own now. She loves Jennifer’s voice. She tells me how light and calm she feels after.
I love practicing with Jennifer! During some of the yoga nidras I felt like I fell asleep, then wake up at the end, feeling completely transformed into bliss! Once I sat up, instead of lying down, and I was able to stay awake through the entire time. Each time I practice yoga nidra, I feel nurtured and grounded. I feel I am cultivating a deeper connection to my inner peace. I love nature – especially water and flowers – and love how each of Jennifer’s journeys takes me outdoors to experience the five elements.
I am grateful to have found Jennifer and Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra. I highly recommend her to everyone! I’ve been suggesting to my doctors, and also family and friends going through challenges, or just looking to feel whole, neutral and grounded. It is the best way to start or end your day.
by | Jan 3, 2021
My husband was diagnosed with ALS in 2007. In the face of this terrible tragedy, my step-daughter Tamara was always serene while I felt frazzled and fragmented, uncertain of how to deal with my emotions. Watching her practice daily yoga on the porch or in the yard was calming as well and inspirational to me, and obviously was keeping her calm and balanced. She spent as much time as she could with us, helping me to take care of him for seven years.
Many people have a special teacher or mentor who has had a positive effect on their lives. I have been blessed with two special people who have guided me on my yoga path. The first was Tamara who started practicing yoga 20 years ago, and loved it so much she became an instructor. She has trained all over the country and now holds her RYT-500 certification. But more important than all of the hours she has studied and practiced yoga, she lives her ‘yoga’ walking the walk.
Over the years, she has helped me more than she will ever know simply by leading her yoga-inspired life. Although I’ve always been a dancer and enjoyed working out, somehow yoga never became a part of my life until I was in my fifties when my stress levels were through the roof, plus I was always exhausted and sad from taking care of my terminally ill husband.
Tamara gave me mantras to focus on: “Where am I?” Answer- “Here.” And “What time is it?” Answer- “Now”. We also did some simple yoga postures together. But since she lived for most of the year on the other side of the country, we were unable to really work together for any length of time.
As a Pilates and Dance instructor I was pretty flexible and strong, but yoga was a challenge for me. People often say to me “Oh, you teach Pilates, so you must be good at yoga” as if yoga were a sport. Although there are similarities on the surface of the two, they are essentially very different. And yoga was a stumbling block for me. I would try a few local yoga classes from time to time, but most of them were designed as “exercise classes” and that was not what I was looking for.
After my husband died, I was devastated and adrift. But one day I remembered that Tamara had gone to a place called Kripalu for some of her yoga studies, and had loved it there. I decided to be very brave and give it a try. I am by nature a shy person and an introvert and I’ve learned how to pretend that I am an extrovert – so this wasn’t easy for me. But somehow, I knew instinctively that Kripalu was a place that I would be able to be myself. I signed up for a four day retreat and that is where I met my second special teacher/mentor: Jennifer Reis.
I arrived at Kripalu full of trepidation that I would not be ‘good enough’ to participate in the classes. But I felt at home immediately, and I could feel my shoulders relaxing, even as I walked around the building and grounds, exploring. Being outdoors is a big part of my life and I loved walking the woods and nature there.
I met Jennifer on Thanksgiving Day, 2016 when she taught Water Element yoga workshop that morning and I continue to give thanks for having met her. Finally, I had found someone who taught yoga with a spiritual component, similar to Tamara. I still have my notes that I jotted down after Jennifer’s class and they say, “Excellent! Love her! I feel so nurtured.”
Being at Kripalu helped me deal with my grief from the loss of my husband through yoga, workshops, and simply being in a place where I could begin to think about moving forward. Meeting Jennifer inspired me to go deeper into yoga studies, and that’s when I began a small home practice of yoga and meditation. My confidence grew and I even began to think about perhaps one day dating again.
I joined a trivia group that met weekly at a local restaurant where I met a wonderful man named Marc who was even shyer than I was. In fact, he was so shy that I never thought we would develop much of a relationship. But, when I heard there was a free yoga class for faculty and staff at the University where I taught, I began attending, and to my surprise, Marc was in that class! Now we have been together for three years and we are keeping each other sane during this crazy pandemic. Yoga has brought me to happiness in a new relationship as well as all the other benefits it has given me.
A year ago, I created my own home studio so I could practice yoga in a setting more conducive to what I was trying to attain. I read lots of books, tried a few more local classes, and even tried an online subscription yoga class but still struggled to capture what I had found in Jennifer’s classes. I continued to practice yoga on my own. I even keep a yoga mat and props at my son’s house in North Carolina so I can practice during my visits. On my last visit, my six-year old grandson decided he wanted to practice with me, so we had a lively, laughter-filled outdoor yoga session together.
Kripalu is such a special place that I made a promise to myself to return at least once a year. I have twice brought friends with me so they could experience it too. On one of my visits, I took a five-day Five Element Yoga© retreat with Jennifer and I was hooked!
Each of the elements and their corresponding yogic postures and mudras made so much sense to me. Five Element Yoga made me feel as if I had discovered something magical. When Jennifer began offering online classes and workshops during the pandemic, I signed up for a few of them and they were wonderful. It was so much fun to ‘see’ Jennifer right in my home studio!
As my confidence and my practice grew, I decided to take her live online Five Element Yoga© Teacher Training in November. It was the perfect antidote to my pandemic-induced sense of lethargy and what people are calling ‘Groundhog Day Syndrome’.
Thanks to Jennifer, I had a purpose and a goal that was challenging to both my body and my brain. The two weekends flew by. Each weekend was so filled activities and camaraderie that made me feel so alive and happy. The women in our group were amazing and so encouraging and supportive that I felt confident enough to lead simple classes with my partners.
Jennifer inspired our sessions with her grace, gentleness and humor. During the week, I worked hard on my homework and class designs, determined to understand and experience Jennifer’s lessons to the fullest. I am pleased I did because the result is that in my own yoga practice, I now have a clear focus. The Five Elements resonate deeply with me, especially Earth, Air and Water. Not surprising, considering the amount of time I spend outdoors each day at the creek behind my house, at the Lake Erie beach, and hiking or snowshoeing in the woods with Marc and friends every weekend.
This training has given me the confidence to continue my studies and go deeper. I have a connection to Jennifer and to my physical environment through the five elements that I know I can tap into whenever I might need it.
I give thanks daily for my dear step-daughter Tamara, who led me to Jennifer and who continues to inspire my life with her serenity and amazing yoga practice. And I have deep gratitude for Jennifer who has changed my life in such a positive way and has given me the confidence to go farther than I ever thought I would.
The main focus in my teaching and continuing yoga education has been on restorative forms of yoga. I’ve been lucky to have some incredible teachers, and yet I still felt like there was more I that I wanted within my own practice, as well as more depth that I wanted to offer my students. I am so happy that I found Jennifer and Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra.
