Yoga at 151 in Three Dimensions, Five Senses
By Theresa Shay
In January, February, and March I taught a group of 8 students in person at 151, the space my husband and I (really my husband) are renovating. Across Harter Road from our late 1800’s log home, 151 is a plank house of the same era, offering a long view up Georges Valley, south of Muddy Creek.
When Glenn and I bought the house in December 2023, the vision for the space was not firm. We knew that Glenn was the one to pull the beauty of the house forward: 150 years of shine buried by decline that paralleled that of the previous owner. Lifting the house back up (literally, in many places) has been Glenn’s work for more than two years.
What started as a renovation project has evolved into a vision for connection, a way to respond to the fractioning of the world. 151 will gather the TriYoga community, the scoliosis community, the neighborhood, the Valley, the friends and family, and all the people who will arrive to rest in the beauty, nature, peace, and intentionality of the space.
These past three months I met the yoga space at 151 more intimately as I taught my friend Jill’s weekly in-person class while she was away. Yoga in three dimensions and five senses feeds the soul, and 151 provided a nurturing space for our bodies and souls.
Each Tuesday evening, I headed down the hill 210 steps. I turned on lights, tidied the bathroom, swept away lingering construction dust, and vacuumed the yoga room.
Students arrived, usually by carpool, from east Penns Valley, where most of them live and typically flow with Jill at Aaronsburg Community Center. I heard their cars pull into the driveway, their footsteps cross the deck, their chatter and laughter rise up the stairs ahead of their coats, shoes, bags, and blankets. The markers I set out to show mat spots became obsolete as the group familiarized themselves with the room, as did I these past months.
I learned how to lead sequences that require specific configurations: Extended Mountain, ¼ turns, Extended Penguin. I figured out how to tuck myself at the wall with precision so that my head landed exactly between the middle two windows when I sat for Butterfly. I found places to set Kaliji’s picture and Ming, our resident plant from Deanna, depending on which series we were doing that night. I discovered how to tuck the drape around the doorframe after one of the students gifted me a curtain in the exact gold of TriYoga of Central Pennsylvania’s logo.
After six years without teaching any weekly in-person classes, I returned effortlessly to hands-on assists and alignment assistance, practices impossible on Zoom. I slipped in between mats, sometimes addressing neighbors who needed the same cue. I learned bodies and encouraged openings.
If I could crawl through the Zoom tiles, I might be able to help Mountains rise taller, limbs get longer. In the room I saw hips square and shoulders broaden. Torsos lengthened, necks aligned, ankles centered, sternums lifted. I placed pillows under people and blankets over them. We hummed like a perfect fifth, a resonant chord under the twinkling lights I string wherever I teach.
After all the moving and aligning, we settled into the stillness of Deep Relaxation. This, very likely, is the biggest gift of in-person yoga. Physically journeying into Yoga Nidra together far exceeds what is possible for Deep Relaxation on Zoom, when the energy at each house may or may not hold stillness. By the last March class, deep relaxation throbbed with presence as the sun set upon us, the peepers sang, the frogs trilled, the breeze refreshed, and the magnolia bloomed. Stillness would have felt heavy in our hands if we’d reached out to hold it.
Like a boat with more oars rowing, deep relaxation and meditation drop in with less effort when we are together, sailing us into the subtle plane where it is easy to remember who we truly are.
Pandemic life changed much about TriYoga of Central Pennsylvania’s offerings of the practice. What has been made possible by Zoom, I never imagined, and I treasure deeply.
Now 151 is making possible what I could not have imagined, and what I treasure deeply. All who enter feel like friends I am welcoming into my home, even if we’ve never met before. The space gathers us with a warm, comforting embrace.
The most beautiful space I have ever called a yoga hOMe nourishes our world. I look forward to sharing it with you.
Keep an eye out for stories from yesterday’s gathering at 151, when we gathered to honor the birthday of Yogini Kaliji, the founder of TriYoga.
The next in-person event at 151 takes place April 24-26, Foundations of Scoliosis Wellness. This weekend workshop for those with scoliosis may be enjoyed in person at 151 or online.
Theresa Shay is the founding director of TriYoga of Central Pennsylvania, where she teaches weekly yoga and meditation online and trains others to teach TriYoga®. Each week, she shares wisdom cultivated from decades of TriYoga study and practice.
Learn more about her here. Theresa can be reached at Theresa@PennsylvaniaYoga.com. Find her on Instagram @theresa_of_triyoga for more inspiration and light.