Tula Yoga Studio

Healthcare is expensive. Getting sick is expensive. And sometimes the hardest things to live with aren’t things that can be “fixed” with a prescription or procedure.

Chronic pain. Persistent back or neck pain. Fibromyalgia symptoms. Arthritis. Chronic stress. Difficulty sleeping. Fatigue. Anxiety. A body that simply doesn’t move or feel the way it used to.

These are some of the places where yoga therapy can be incredibly valuable.

Yoga therapy is not simply taking a yoga class when you don’t feel well. It is individualized work designed around *your* body, your health history, your symptoms, your goals and what is actually happening in your life.

A session might include very small or supported movements, breathing practices, somatic awareness, relaxation, mindfulness, strength or mobility work and often a simple practice to take home with you.

The goal isn’t to replace your physician, physical therapist or other healthcare providers. Yoga therapy can be another part of the care team: helping you learn how to work with your body, regulate stress, move with greater ease and develop tools you can actually use between appointments.

And sometimes that matters enormously when you’re living with something chronic.

This is our private Yoga Therapy room at Tula. It doesn’t look much like a typical yoga studio and that’s kind of the point.

Yoga therapy is yoga from the inside out.

This arrived in the mail today: **Applying Therapeutic Yoga in Integrative Health** by Optimal State By Amy Wheeler Amy Wheeler and Marlysa Sullivan Marlysa Sullivan and it feels especially timely.

Lately, I’ve been working hard to bring yoga and yoga therapy **beyond the studio** and into assisted living communities, healthcare organizations, and other spaces where people are navigating stress, illness, aging, caregiving, and change.

One of the challenges I continue to encounter is that yoga is still often understood primarily as fitness.

And yoga can absolutely be fitness, but it can also be so much more.

Mindfulness, breath, embodied awareness, gentle movement, interoception, and nervous system regulation can all play a meaningful role in supporting health and well-being. I want to help build a stronger bridge between these practices and our more conventional healthcare and helping professions.

One step I’m taking: Tula is preparing to apply to become an **Illinois Social Work Continuing Education Sponsor**, so that we can eventually offer education to social workers interested in thoughtfully incorporating these practices into their work.

I’m also exploring the possibility of offering Social Work CE hours for selected modules within our upcoming **200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training, beginning September 30**, pending approval.

For me, this is part of a much larger question:

**How do we take the deeper practices of yoga out of the studio and give them a meaningful place in the way we think about health and well-being?**

That’s work I’m very excited to keep doing. 🕉️✨

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A new Wednesday morning meditation practice ✨

Beginning this Wednesday, join me at **8:00 AM** for a 30-minute drop-in meditation practice **in studio or live via Zoom**

We’ll begin with a few minutes of gentle movement to settle into the body, followed by guided meditation with intermittent periods of silence.

My hope is that this becomes a simple midweek ritual — a way to start your day with a little more steadiness, clarity, and connection, and perhaps begin building a meditation practice that feels sustainable in your everyday life.

Meditation has become an important part of my own yoga practice, and I’m excited to create a space where we can practice together.

*Wednesdays | 8:00–8:30 AM**
In Studio + Virtual
**Dana / Pay What You Can — as little as $1**

Simply come to the studio or register to join us on Zoom.

And if you can’t make it live, the meditations will be recorded so members can return to the practices on demand anytime.

No experience needed. Just show up. 💜

for the win! Students can now check themselves in using ‘kiosk’ mode! Even if they are not registered - they can type their phone number in. Even if they haven’t paid, they can scan the QR code and pay. Brilliant! ✨💪🙏

HUGE thank you to Kara for lending us the chairs to support the training that we hosted! 🙏 Logan Square yoga studios unite💪

I’ve been wearing this small red string on my wrist since completing the Dharma Yoga Mindfulness Training at - over 2 years ago!

It has three knots.

One for the Buddha — the possibility of waking up.
One for the Dharma — the teachings, the path, the truth of things as they are.
One for the Sangha — the community of practice.

As Tula reopens on Monday, July 13, I’ve been thinking a lot about what these three reminders mean for our little studio.

Tula has always been a place to practice, but I hope it continues to become something deeper than a place to take class. A place to return to the body. To steady the mind. To remember the heart. To practice together, imperfectly and honestly, in community.

The thread itself is simple. It will eventually loosen or fall away. But what it points to feels lasting:

practice as refuge,
teachings as guidance,
community as support.

As we reopen, this is what I am carrying with me.

May Tula continue to be a place where yoga is not something we ‘do’, but something we live, study, question, and practice together.

We reopen Monday, July 13. I’m so looking forward to welcoming you back. ❤️🕉️

We’re so happy to introduce **Supported Practice + Sound Bath** - a gentle, accessible class for anyone wanting a slower, more supported way to practice.

This class is inspired by the Accessible Yoga Training with Jivana Heyman, which I recently completed. The training affirmed something we believe deeply at Tula: yoga should adapt to people, not the other way around.

You are welcome to practice in a chair, on a mat, or with a combination of both. We’ll explore gentle somatic movement, accessible yoga postures, breath awareness, meditation, and simple yogic teachings woven into the practice.

And we’ll end with a **harmonized sound bath** - intentionally created to feel soothing, spacious, and supportive. Rather than using strong dissonance or intensity, the soundscape will be harmonized, gentle and calming, offering time to rest, receive, and let the body settle.

This class may be especially supportive for older adults, people navigating injury, chronic pain, fatigue, balance concerns, stress, or anyone who wants a softer entry point into yoga.

No experience needed. No flexibility required.
Just come as you are.

**Supported Practice + Sound Bath**
Sundays 9:30am
Starting July 19

Register through tulayoga.net 🕉️

At the beginning of May, we celebrated the graduation of our newest Yoga Teacher Training cohort (number 8!)and my heart is so full. 💜

It is always moving to witness students step into this work with sincerity, courage, curiosity, and care. Yoga teacher training is not just about learning to teach poses. It is a process of deep study, self-inquiry, practice, relationship, and transformation. I am so proud of this group and excited to see how each of them carries yoga forward in their own authentic way.

As you may know, in past years, we have often been able to offer a donation-based graduation weekend and create opportunities for new graduates to be added to our sub list. Because of the changes and transitions happening at the studio this year, we are not able to offer that in the same way right now.

That said, these new teachers are ready, thoughtful, and deeply committed. If you are a studio owner, wellness space, community organization, gym, school, workplace, or anyone looking for dedicated new yoga teachers, please reach out to me. I would be so happy to help connect you.

✨Please join us in celebrating these beautiful graduates and the next step on their teaching path. 🙏