Jennifer Reis Yoga

Elyse transformed feeling small into knowing her radiant true infinite self through the practices of yoga and yoga nidra. I think she’s always had that beautiful big smile though! Please enjoy her story.

When I was a child I received verbal and implied messages from my father that “children should be seen and not heard” and “you don’t need a college education because you’re just going to get married and have children.” He was born in 1913, and his beliefs came from that era. Message received loud and clear! Whispers followed me: ‘Be quiet, stay small, think small, do as your husband says’.

As a child, I was an introvert and sometimes stuttered. I married, had children and I loved creating a home for my family – but I had stayed small. I brought the limiting beliefs from my childhood into my adult life and relationships, and especially into my marriage.

With the tools I have learned from my yoga nidra practice, I have been able to see more clearly my limiting beliefs and then the practice helped me move beyond them. Now I have better esteem and interpersonal relationships, including my marriage. It’s possible that without the practice of yoga nidra, I might not have been able to stay in the relationship and become happily married, for 26 years.

I discovered during my yoga nidra practice that truth is in the heart – and my truth is in MY heart. Only after peeling away the layers, and moving deeper into my inner stillness, did my heart speak truth to me, and I found that I am so much bigger and wiser than those limiting beliefs had me believe.

I had changed, and perhaps he had changed too, but as my father’s caregiver in his final years, he had become the most adoring and loving father anyone could wish for and it was a challenging time to let him go.

I attended Jennifer’s Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra training in Virginia this spring. Dream Yoga Studio provided a beautiful space to learn, practice and bask in the sweetness that is Jennifer. Her teaching style is nurturing, and the training brilliantly planned to allow each student to truly discover and understand all the components of Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra.

Each day we experienced Divine Sleep and yoga according to the daily theme led by Jennifer. In addition to learning and leading each stage of the practice with each other, I found out more about hand mudras, unique breathing practices, meditations, and mantras – the complete whole picture!

Jennifer’s Five Element Yoga guided me deeply within. I got a ‘feeling sense’ in my body that created space within me. I felt like the practice polished the window of my heart, so light could shine in and radiate outward! It also prepared my body and mind to relax so I could be fully present during the yoga nidra that followed.

During one particular yoga nidra practice, I started out with my heart’s longing ‘sankalpa’, which actually somehow was formed by my mind, not my heart, making it not really my ‘heart’s’ longing. By the end of the yoga nidra, Jennifer guided us back to heart’s longing and a different statement arose — my true heart’s longing, my personal truth, bubbled up and it said “I AM ENOUGH!”

 

These three words have changed my life! How liberating and incredibly joyful! Now my body and mind sigh with relief every day. I experience ease most of the time. My daily-ish practice listening to Jennifer’s CDs makes me feel connected, loved, relaxed, and so full of joy.

As a teacher who guides students through this practice now, I see my student’s faces, and I hear their stories, and I know that Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra is powerfully healing! The first time I led it, one student opened her softened eyes, looked at me and shook her head saying, “Wow.”

I am so grateful and excited to share this healing practice with others as well as to know I can pop on one of Jennifer’s CDs and let her take me on a journey. Namaste.