Why is a violence prevention organization having a yoga fest? “Yoga helps regulate emotional and physiological states. It allows the body to regain its natural movement and teaches the use of breath for self-regulation. Yoga teaches us that there are things we can do to change our brainstem arousal system, our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and to quiet the brain.” ~ Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Author of The Body Keeps the Score and Board member at The Avielle Foundation.
We will be holding our event on Saturday, August 24th from 9am to 4pm at the brand new Newtown Community Center in Newtown. Featured headliners this year are Stephen Cope and Felicia Tomasko.
The Newtown Yoga Festival team was formed as a holistic solution for anyone and everyone to join together through the transformative wisdom and practice of yoga. It is how we choose to honor lives lost, celebrate the strength and resilience that is human nature, and release the tensions and anxieties that accumulate in our bodies as a result of trauma. The festival itself offers a day of community, yoga movement, music, mindfulness and local wellness vendors.
Through our annual event, we have been able to make a positive impact on our community by providing the tools that have been proven effective in reducing stress and depression and a valuable mechanism for coping with physical and emotional trauma.
Comments from past attendees:
“Last year’s Yoga Fest was incredible, with great teachers attending from across the country. The wide variety of sessions catered to all levels of practice. The guided meditation with music was the deepest I’ve ever experienced.
Everyone in the world should practice yoga, this event is a great place to explore and begin your journey.” – Ian Hockley, Project Director of Dylan’s Wings of Change: www.dylanswingsofchange.org established to honor the memory of his son Dylan, who was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on 12/14/12.
“Sometimes, yes, we feel foundationed out and evented out, and it’s too much – let’s have another yoga day and another healing arts day,” – Dr. Jeremy Richman, a neuroscientist, who with his wife, Jennifer Hensel, also a scientist, started the Avielle Foundation www.AvielleFoundation.org, dedicated to brain science and programs to reduce violence, in honor of another child victim, their daughter.
One of last year’s participants said about the Relaxation with crystal bowls: “If there’s a heaven, that’s where she took me!” – Katerina K., Engineer
In order to continue our mission of sharing yoga movement, music and mindfulness through Newtown Yoga Festival, we need the continued support of the community.
— Karen Pierce
Co-Founder, Newtown Yoga Festival
