Helen’s dance residency at LA Dance Festival and the ebb and flow of the creative drive. Her piece was shown on June 9th, 2021 but you can check it out here: https://vimeo.com/557479295

Danielle’s new found love of minimalism and reframing our consumerism mindset

Coffee! Danielle’s new love and Helen’s nearly lifelong love.

Helen’s fondness + Danielle’s skepticism of astrology 

Danielle’s tiny house dreams and how we psych ourselves up for major life decisions

The beauty + privilege of stepping back from your life to find your center

https://www.helenduros.com

https://www.danielledoyleyoga.com

https://ladancefest.org

Ryan Cunningham (they/them) is a Boston-based yoga practitioner. Their practice arises from the view that yoga is both an experience of, and a path towards cultivating wellness through the practice of embodiment, meditation, prayer and reflection. 

Ryan has been influenced primarily by two Boston area teachers — Barbara Benagh and Tom Alden. They spent many years attending Barbara's weekly teachers' class as well as her course entitled "The Art of Teaching". Over the past 7 years, Ryan has studied primarily with Tom Alden in a one-on-one mentorship format, specifically focusing on dharma, biomechanics and yoga therapy. Ryan is deeply interested in the intersection of hatha yoga and dharma and continues to practice and study in various dharma communities. 

Ryan's primary focus has been teaching students the skills and understanding that enables them to practice for themselves. Apart from group asana and meditation classes, Ryan works with students 1-on-1, offering instruction, discussing, manual therapy and mentorship. 

Ryan serves as the Managing Director of the Boston Meditation Center, is a faculty  member at Berklee College of Music and is the host of Unrolled Podcast with co-host Kate Robinson.

You can learn more about their teaching at www.ryanyoga.com.

Episode Notes:

• The birth of Unrolled: Ryan’s podcast (with Kate Robinson) and how their podcast journey has evolved over the past 6 years
• Teaching yoga during the pandemic + constantly witnessing ourselves in this new virtual world + transitioning back into in-person work
• A bird's eye view of Ryan’s 14 years of teaching yoga + leading yoga teacher trainings in the Boston area
• How an unexpected injury while studying music in college led Ryan to start a yoga practice, beginning with Bikram yoga and eventually finding their teacher with Barbara Benagh
• Where modern yoga may be headed in the Boston Yoga scene and beyond
• The balance between business + integrity in the yoga industry

https://www.ryanyoga.com

https://www.ryanyoga.com/unrolled-podcast

https://bostonmeditationcenter.org/

Some folks that Ryan mentions in the interview:

• Kate Robinson (Unrolled Podcast co-host)
• Barbara Benagh (Slow Flow Yoga Teacher)
• Tom Alden (Bodyworker/mentor)
• Fez Aswat (yoga/meditation teacher)

Mercedes (Didi) von Deck, MD is devoted to helping people reach their full potential.  She has spent much of her life studying the human body from different viewpoints through her career as an orthopaedic surgeon as well as as a dancer, yoga teacher and Feldenkrais practitioner.  Movement has always interested her, and she uses her knowledge and skills to help people of all ages and backgrounds function and feel better. Her love of movement and dance contributed to her decision to become an orthopaedic surgeon.  She found orthopaedics to be a satisfying way to help people recover from injuries and regain lost function.  However, in some cases, surgery, medications and standard exercise didn’t seem to be enough to relieve pain.

Early in her medical practice, Didi realized that a patient’s attitude and resiliency is important to the success of medical treatment or surgery.  Sometimes patients need to learn they can go beyond self-imposed limitations. Sometimes patients have developed habits of tightening muscles to help decrease the pain of an injury and they are unable to let go of these habits after they have healed. Didi finds that yoga and the Feldenkrais Method can help.   These practices create a concrete experience of how to change muscular patterns that are hindering function.  And when the body changes, the mind follows to enable people to find their optimal health and become their optimum selves. Using the Feldenkrais Method and/or yoga, Didi can help people feel better in their bodies, help people recovering from injuries or living with disabilities, help relieve chronic pain and anxiety, and enhance performance in athletics, yoga, art, music and dance.

Didi can be contacted at connectingbodyandmind@gmail.com.  She lives in Newton, MA with her husband, cat, and two bunnies.  She is the proud mom of three creative and capable daughters who are passionate about what they believe in.  Didi hopes she has been successful instilling in them the belief that anything and everything is possible if you follow your heart.

Episode Notes:

• Didi’s pull toward exploring movement through modern dance and switching between competitive ballroom dance and school during her med school years
• How a burgeoning love of dance and movement led Didi to a career in orthopedic surgery
• Finding Ashtanga yoga after her 3rd child and feeling an instant connection to the practice
• The shift away from needing a guru in modern yoga culture and seeing ourselves as our own best teacher
• The incredible healing power of Feldenkrais and “somatic re-education” 
• Didi leads us through a 7 minute Feldenkrais exercise (at around the 32 minute mark)

https://www.downunderyoga.com/boston-yoga-teacher/didi-von-deck