featured teacher of the month, jenna brown

#yogahomies, meet Jenna Brown. Jenna has been with Yoga Home since day one. First as Work Exchange, then studio manager, and now teacher. Jenna teachers a variety of classes on our schedule including Prenatal, Basics, & Vinyasa and is also the teacher for some of our Yoga for the Whole Family Programming. You’ll find Jenna on the rooftop at Whole Foods all summer long teaching the $5 Community Class at 9am every Sunday this summer starting Memorial Day Weekend!

Through your work as a yoga teacher, what impacts would you like to make on the world?

I am a deep believer in yoga as a self-awareness practice. My own experience with the practice as a healing and connecting force is what eventually inspired me to teach – it is palpable. Through teaching yoga, if I can hold space for even just one individual to reintegrate and experience the growth that is possible when they are fully themselves, then I have done my job. That person’s experience will radiate out and have a ripple effect, and that is how yoga can change the world. 

Why were you called to be part of From Home to Haiti and what are you most looking forward to as you prepare for the trip?
 
I think the amazing thing about embarking on an endeavor like From Home to Haiti is we don’t always clearly understand why we are called to it. We don’t know what we don’t know, and so we take on the opportunity to learn. I am very excited to connect to the Haitian community we will be working with in November and I am equally as excited for the learning that will precede that trip. The way that this service learning project is designed is so unique, and I am looking forward to, and deeply grateful for all of the mental, emotional, and energetic preparation that will go into it. This isn’t simply a “let’s go help and then leave,” trip, which I have seen before. This also isn’t a “good luck, you’re on your own!” trip, which I have experienced before. From Home to Haiti is a real chance to dive into the discomfort of what we don’t know yet, with meaningful support bolstering us and holding us up. I can’t wait to see the Yoga Home community get involved!


How has your work as a doula impacted you both personally and professionally? 

The choice to become a doula was really a continuation of both my ongoing self-awareness practices, and my desire to be of service to others. It felt like a very natural addition professionally, as my favorite elements of teaching yoga are holding space and education, and both are also integral to birthwork. When I founded Love Over Fear Wellness and Birth  I knew I was stepping into my purpose in the best way that I possibly could. Right now, I am fully immersed in study, practice, and conversation related to being a doula, both in my personal and professional lives. It has completely consumed me in the best possible way. The beautiful thing about studying and experiencing birth – and the processes that surround it – is that it reminds us of our humanness. It is another way of reintegrating, or remembering who we are. I have grown so much since I began my doula journey, and am excited to see where this continued growth takes my career and my life. 

What is your favorite part of teaching Childbirth 101 and Yoga for Labor and Birth?
 
I see an enormous need for perinatal education in communities throughout the US, and it is an honor to fill even a portion of that need in my own community. I think my favorite part of teaching these workshops is watching others have “aha! moments.” That realization that you have autonomy in childbirth, or that your body KNOWS how to do this, even if your mind is unsure… is truly magic to see. I try to give plenty of space for those big takeaways to land as we go through material. The incredible way that yoga movement, breath, and philosophy can be used to facilitate a labor experience that is powerful and liberating cannot be understated. Also – if you haven’t heard – I’m a nerd when it comes to the human pelvis, so it is nice to have a room full of people engaged in my emphatic pelvic education. Haha!  


Of all Yoga Home’s core values {Connection, Acceptance, Love, Community, Growth} which do you connect with most?

Growth! If my answers so far haven’t shown, I LOVE how dynamic my own human experience is. I relish settling into the discomfort that comes with growth and change, whether that is professional or personal. I have been with Yoga Home in some capacity since opening day, and recently I wrote a reflection of the growth that I have experienced and witnessed in the last four years.  Four years ago I had no idea – no idea – where I would be now. There has been such tremendous growth and tremendous loss in my life. Yoga Home has been a catalyst for some of that transition, and a safe space to make sense of much of it. There has been such tremendous growth and tremendous loss in the Yoga Home community, as well. This practice, and the practice that is our lives, gives AND takes. This cycle of shedding and gaining will repeat indefinitely, and has immense purpose. It can be so disruptive. It can be so painful. It can be so inspiring, too. Through all of the highs and lows, it is immeasurably important to have a place to grow your roots – a space, whether physical or energetic, where you feel grounded. Yoga Home has been that for me. Even at times when my comfort hasn’t been found in the physical studio space, it has been found in community members, or the wisdom of teachings I discovered through the studio’s classes and programming. The gratitude I feel to have a space that welcomes and celebrates me – ME – for exactly who I am (no matter how I might change or grow) is difficult to put into words, but it reminds me that there is so much good in this world and so much good in humanity.