Community Highlight: Elly R.

Q) How may trips have you taken with Brockell and WW?

A) Only 1. Costa Rica in 2019 but I hope to attend in 2021.

Q) What was your favorite thing about the Costa Rican retreat that you attended?

A) It is impossible to identify one favorite… so I’ll give them all.

1) Being part of a women’s community
2) Being given techniques that allowed my body to achieve the pose with modifications
3) Feeling accepted ( Even though I have done yoga since the 90s, I never felt the internal realignment of my thinking and soul till I began participating in retreats).

Q) Do you have any kind of a daily practice routine or ritual? (It’s ok if you do not, just curious)

A) On good weeks I can do 2 classes, but usually one. But in my mind I’m practicing many poses.

Q) Can you share a challenge in your life that you have learned and grown from?

A)When my first marriage failed, I returned to NYC with a 5 month old daughter, and no job as Al Shanker had all teachers on strike. I worked selling wigs in a department store. After 6 months I did find a teaching position and stayed for 3 years. Then moved upstate NY and pinched every penny I had to give my daughter all the extras I could (sometimes out of guilt) and put myself back thru graduate school earning a CAS in Adult Education & Gerontology. Even though it took me many years to complete all the course work, I found a strength in knowing I could achieve my goals. Using my gerontology knowledge I have started working with Seniors (and of course that’s me too) in guiding them to write their own story for their families. Along with this, I started a blog, Everything You Didn’t Learn In Kindergarten… that is a capsule of some insights and experiences I have had.

Q) What are you doing currently for self-care to resource yourself and stay grounded in the current state of affairs with COVID-19?

A) I have increased my walking almost daily and am blessed to be in FL where the weather has been gorgeous. I am a news junky but I’m staying away from being completely absorbed. I choose to take the afternoons, to practice the keyboard, do Zentangle or coloring books, and of course there’s always a junk drawer to be cleaned out.

Q) What advice do you have for others right now in this unprecedented and challenging time?

A) I would say more than ever I speak my emotions, or lately cry them. I’ve been running the highs and lows everyday. There are even times that I forget why I’m home so much. Then there are other times that I reach out and talk to a GF or just pick up the phone and say hi to a close one. Don’t let yourself feel alone. For me, as a people person, when I do go out, I talk to strangers while distancing myself in line. Finding that almost always, people want to talk for a minute also.