Dear URY Community,
Im writing you all with some tender emotions. As you may know, UpRising Yoga will be taking a temporary pause as we decided to take a break from our direct services in order to regroup, heal and recharge. Let me explain to you what that looks like and where things stand. I'm pleased to report that the community yoga classes we established will be continuing on and SBCC will be scheduling them. The Probation Department decided to pause the yoga program at Central Juvenile Hall to respect the process of our transition and honor our commitments we established early on. I am working on this and yoga will return to incarcerated youth very soon! As far as URY itself, we will continue to focus on the important stuff: self-care, healing for the healers, social and juvenile justice, prison reform and leadership initiatives. I will be working with the Board to determine how it can be structured more sustainably to meet its mission and collaborate with interested parties aligned with our cause. Please reach out with any ideas! This has been a challenging process for me and for others, both emotionally and physically. It would be impossible for this to occur without some kind of apprehension moving forward. But I believe it is the right thing to do. URY will evolve into a better place regardless, but to me its more important that the movement that we started continues on. And it will. In your thoughts, in your words and in your actions. Thank you all for your dedication and support for all that we do! Please stay in touch while URY is on sabbatical, and you can find me here or at Yoga For Healing Trauma. With this program I will be holding trainings and I have several upcoming speaking engagements to carry on our good work! Gratitude and thanks to all of you who believe in me. With much love and many blessings, Jill Marie Ippolito Body, mind, and spirit. In an ideal world, each would be precisely attuned to the others, operating in perfect balance with one another. But more often than not our minds tend to dominate, overpowering the yearnings of the spirit and the whisperings of the body. That’s why we do yoga. In yoga, we use the external self as a gateway to the internal self. We sweat, breathe, twist and balance with such intentional focus that our mind is forced to release us from its vice grip, if only for an hour. By the end of class, we’re so physically exhausted that we can no longer get in our own way — we let go completely and enjoy a few blissful minutes of savasana.
Our next Trauma-Informed Yoga Training is set for June 24-25, 2017!
D’Lita Miller, expert in human trafficking and Founder and CEO of Families Against Sex Trafficking, will be joining us as a presenter at our next training. She will be sharing her personal story and work against human trafficking, as she has made it her mission in life to free those bound by sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. With extensive knowledge of sexual exploitation and human trafficking, D’Lita aids communities through engagement, education, and empowerment. We are honored to have this amazing soul educating and empowering us. Space is limited. Reserve your spot today here. ![]() Please meet URY Teacher and Volunteer, Fitzjoy Hellin, who has been working with URY since 2012. In a sea of all female URY teachers, and a fairly female dominant profession, Fitzjoy makes a statement. Arriving on his motorcycle and leather jacket, he teaches almost every single week at Central Juvenile Hall. Fitzjoy offers the boys unit a sweet mix of masculinity, strength, and power in a way that is grounding and nurturing, a much needed dynamic in our culture, especially in our education of young men. We are so lucky to have him. Q: How long have you been working with URY? Fitzjoy H: I started working with URY a few months after completing a 500 hr. hath yoga training in September 2012. Q: What is your favorite quote? Fitzjoy H: "There are those who give with joy and that joy is their reward." by Kahil Gibran Q: What is your spirit animal? Fitzjoy H: I relate to elephants :) Q: Who is your greatest teacher or mentor? Fitzjoy H: My greatest teacher has been Tony Sanchez whom took me out of the heated yoga studios and took the mirrors away for practice. Q: Tell us about how you began your yoga practice? Fitzjoy H: After knee and back surgeries about 10 years ago, my running and martial arts practice routine did not seem appropriate anymore. Q: What’s your mission as a yoga instructor? Fitzjoy H: To bring enlightenment and some feeling of peace and easy to people's lives. Q: Who are you trying to reach and why? Fitzjoy H: I love beginners. They have no idea what they're getting themselves into... just getting one new yoga student to start a practice is the most important gift you can give any individual. I believe this creates a start to a better environment to live in. Q: What life experiences have you gone through that influences your teaching the most? Fitzjoy H: One is personal injury for sure, but equally important is the realization of self where you can find joy just being with self, and all the while being of service to others. Having worked in leadership in very stressful environments it is important to feel at peace when everything around you is not. In this state can you trickle that energy down to others around you. Q: What do you love most about teaching yoga? Fitzjoy H: That moment where someone gets a posture or understands what yoga is all about. This is a moment that is unexplainable in the curriculum of joy, which is why I love teaching yoga. Q: Why is yoga so important for the times we’re living in? Fitzjoy H: People need to take a step back once a day to come to self and realize all the noise is not that important. By taking a step back you can actually move forward towards the achievements you are trying to get to. A few months back UpRising Yoga (URY) was the happy and thankful recipient of Lululemon’s Here To Be Grant, which is a community-based social impact program to create access to the healing benefits of yoga in underserved communities. We are excited to announce that with this grant we will be offering a new weekly yoga class in East Los Angeles at Centro Maravilla Community Center beginning March 7, 2017. As always, our community yoga classes are completely free and open to the public. You don’t need to sign up or even bring anything. All you have to do is show up! We provide the yoga mats, Spanish translation, and a warm and trained URY teacher to guide you through your practice. We are proud to partner with Los Angeles County Centro Maravilla. UpRising Yoga's office in East Los Angeles gave us a community to know and love and we are very excited to share our yoga program with this great group! Join us on March 7th for this kick off class with Founder, Jill Marie Ippolito. This will be a special class and we hope to see you all there! Thank you to URY Ambassador Brent Laffoon, Jackie Koch and Monica Currier from LuLuLemon Brentwood and Chloe Abraham and Julia Bowman from LuluLemon Malibu for their support our mission. It is the support of others generosity and kindness that allows us to do this work and impact the lives of others. Print the flyer below and share with friends! ![]() Please meet URY Teacher and Volunteer, De Jur Jones, aka “The Lavender Queen,” for her prolific and soothing use of Lavender. She teaches both at Central Juvenile Hall and many of our Free Community classes throughout Los Angeles. De Jur has been working with UpRising Yoga since 2012, and teaches a relaxing Yin/Restorative yoga that is sure to melt your heart and soul. De Jur has a strong commitment towards healing, community, and volunteerism. In addition to her work with URY, she also works with Accessible Yoga, International Association of Yoga Therapists, Yoga and Body Image Coalition, Love More Movement, and Prison Yoga and Mindfulness. Q: What is your spirit animal? De Jur J: French Bulldogs! I feel such a sense of happiness when I encounter them. Please don’t tell my feline, Simba. I don’t want her to feel jealous. I have met a fair amount of Frenchies at LAX and on my flights. Looking their unique features and cute ears sends me over the moon. And, of course, there is the obligatory selfie moment. I have quite the photo collection with them. Q: Tell us about your interests/talents outside of yoga? De Jur J: I love going to plays. It’s not New York, but Los Angeles that has really great theater. Although productions in big, grand theaters are great, I enjoy the intimate environment of 50 and 99 seaters. My Mom and I will be going to see 946: The Amazing Story of Aldolphus Tips later this month. It was based on a children’s book. Another interest of mine is music concerts. I absolutely LOVE the Hollywood Bowl and every summer I can be found there for the many excellent concerts offered. I pack picnics and sit under the stars and get my soul restored musically. Q: Tell us about how you began your yoga practice? De Jur J: I had major surgery in 2001 and a friend suggested that I use Yoga as a therapy system to rehabilitate and get back to my long-standing career as a flight attendant. I never stopped. Over time, I felt better than ever, got fit, let go of some not so healthy habits, improved my diet, and learned how to cope differently with stressful situations. I love Yoga. It has saved my life in many ways. I had no intention of becoming a Yoga teacher…but here I am spreading the word of its multitude of healing benefits. Q: What’s your mission as a yoga instructor? De Jur J: My intention as a Yoga Therapist is to facilitate a healing process for those suffering from chronic stress and complex trauma. To show my students what self-care can look like and how Yoga Therapy can help us cope with and possibly alleviate many ailments and challenging health conditions. Q: Who are you trying to reach with your yoga and why? De Jur J: I want to reach people that are underserved, those living with depression and complex trauma, victims and survivors of abuse and poverty, those with low incomes, those in the justice system, all races, those that feel no hope, those who are under-resourced, those that are differently-abled, people of size, all ages and fitness levels and those that feel they have been marginalized. They are not “seen” in the mainstream Yoga world that I move in. I want them to know that I see them, they are welcome, I have experiences like theirs, I stand with them. I want them to know that there is a movement evolving to shatter the mainstream image of a Yogi in which Yoga really is for everyone and every body and does not require a costly studio membership …that Yoga is so much more, I want to serve them Yoga that represents “the rest of us”. Q: Tell us about a difficult or challenging time you experienced and how yoga help you? De Jur J: Every day at my other job, Yoga saves me. Being a flight attendant is very fast paced and can be arduous. Any job working with the public and self-managing all of the different personalities is extremely demanding, but add working in tight, crowded spaces where there is nowhere to “go” until back on the ground can sometimes overwhelm. I use breath awareness, chair Yoga, lots of water and stretches throughout the day helps me stay calm in the chaos…self-care at work. Q: What is your definition of healing? De Jur J: I think healing is setting aside a regular schedule for a non-negotiable, proactive plan to bring back a feeling of living in our bodies, overall peace, feeling connected, wellbeing, safety, joy, a zest for life and believing in limitless possibilities despite how things look. Q: What do you love most about teaching yoga? De Jur J: Having students communicate how differently they feel after class or how their lives have changed since they began their regular practice. I love when they share with me that family relations and dynamics have greatly improved with better communication, patience, kindness and renewed cooperation. Please meeting UpRising Yoga Teacher and Volunteer, Laura VanDenBergh, who has been working/volunteering with UpRising Yoga since October 2015. She teaches both at Central Juvenile Hall and many of our Free Community Yoga classes throughout Los Angeles. Not only is she an amazing yoga instructor and warrior for UpRising Yoga and our mission, she is also a Writer, Film Maker, and Doula! Check out her website here and read her interview below to learn more and her interests and her work. Q: What is your favorite quote?
Laura V: I’ve been teaching private yoga lessons to this kid for the past 3 years. He’s 12 now, but when he was 10 years old, he said this to me: “I’ve been contemplating life a lot lately and I’ve decided it’s most like a Jolly Rancher... You can never have it back once it melts. It's sweet while it is happening, even though it’s hard. It never lasts as long as you think it will.” Q: Tell us about your interests/talents outside of yoga? Laura V: I’m a writer - and actually, I’m currently turning one of my scripts into a reality! My web series DILF Diaries is coming out this summer. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/dilfdiaries. I run a camping group for womxn (trans and cis inclusive), called The Sisterhood, that involves a lot of giggling and even more wood chopping. I hike, I bake bread, and recently, I’ve been practicing my Spanish as much as possible. Q: Who has been your greatest teacher or inspiration? Laura V: The youth!!!! I can’t tell you enough about how much I love the youth. They give me so much hope for the future. Kids will drop profound wisdom without even trying - like the quote from the 10 year old I posted above, or the time that one of our incarcerated youth defined integrity as “Always working hard to do the right thing, even if others don’t see it that way”. You have to really be with them, believe in them, and trust them in order to receive their wisdom though. They know if you feel superior to them, or you’re scared of them, or you’re suspicious of their motives, and they’ll shut themselves off to you if they sense that. Just be open to the youth, and you’ll learn so much. Q: Tell us about how you began your yoga practice? Laura V: When I was 7 years old, my mom got this yoga VHS - Ali McGraw: Yoga Mind & Body. I would always spy on her when she would practice in the living room, and it would totally throw her off. One day, she said, “Look, Laura, you can come in here and do yoga with me… but NO interrupting, and you’ve got to stick to the instructions.” I was hooked. I actually memorized every word to that video. I have childhood friends who still remember me begging them to do yoga with me when they would come over. Q: What’s your mission as a yoga instructor? Who are you trying to reach and why? Laura V: My mission is to offer radically-inclusive, body-positive, trauma-informed yoga. I want to reach anyone who has been turned off by the media’s portrayal of yoga, but who still wants to reap the benefits of the practice. A huge part of that, I think, is for those of us who are overrepresented (young, thin, white, able-bodied, cisgendered) to step aside and create more space for instructors who don’t look like us. I plan to spend more time standing behind, and taking classes from, instructors are a lot less likely to get the spotlight they deserve. Q: Tell us about a difficult or challenging time you experienced and how yoga help you? Laura V: Ever since I was a teen, I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression. I go through periods where getting to a yoga class can feel walking through nearly-dried cement. There have been times where all I can muster is breath work. But I always remember how it feels to open my eyes after Savasana, and I always come back to the practice. Simply knowing I have that refuge within keeps my darkest days from blacking out completely. Q: What is your definition of healing? How does yoga align with this? Laura V: To me, healing is the process of learning how to carry your pain. I was sexually assaulted as a teenager, and I’ve carried that pain in different ways and capacities, and for different reasons, for the past 15 years. It helps to remind me that there is still a lot of fighting we need to do to eradicate misogyny. I think you’ve started to heal once you’ve learned to use your pain to gain strength. Yoga aligns with this because it teaches you to breathe through the difficulties - and once you can breathe through the difficulties, you become resilient. Q: What do you love most about teaching yoga? Laura V: Being able to share the tool that has saved my life over and over again is what I love most about teaching yoga. |
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