Please join us for this special event!
Introduction to Meditation with Avinash Ramakrishna
The date is set for our next Soul of Creativity event!
Thursday, November 2nd
Make plans to attend this year’s Soul of Creativity Event
Art, Music, Food, Community • Thursday, November 2nd
Join us in the Breezeway for the third annual Soul of Creativity. Many more details to come!
This year’s charity is The Butterfly Fund. This is a local charity for children’s cancer started by two women who lost their young daughters to the same rare cancer in 2008.
Non-Drug Therapy to Treat Back Pain
http://www.local8now.com/content/news/New-guidelines-outline-how-to-treat-back-pain-414637613.html
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – New guidelines from the American College of Physicians say the first line of therapy for back pain should be non-drug treatments.
Jay Dee Clayton finds peace from his pain through yoga.
“Whenever I start to feel a little twinge, I pull my knee out and stretch the area that’s giving me a problem and it dissipates. It goes away,” he said.
But, yoga wasn’t the first place he looked for relief.
“I took medication immediately after the surgery and I didn’t like feeling like my head was on a balloon string, so I looked for alternative methods of just managing through it,” he said.
Several months ago, Cecelia Aurand also went looking for relief.
“I’ve had spinal stenosis and back pain for quite a while,” she said.
She, too, first tried the prescription route.
“It didn’t really help. After I had the surgery it did help for a time but it didn’t last,” she said.
So, she turned to acupuncture where she says she saw immediate results.
“Within three sessions, I was walking normal again. It was amazing,” she said.
“Many people are able to reduce or completely discontinue the use of pharmaceuticals to manage pain because of acupuncture,” said Dr. Will Foster, an acupuncturist at Traditional Health Clinic.
The fact that both Clayton and Aurand were able to find relief outside of pain pills doesn’t surprise Dr. Samuel Yoakum.
“There are certain types of pain that pills treat really well. They don’t treat chronic back pain well,” he said.
New guidelines from the American College of Physicians back this up.
The guidelines say the first line of therapy for back pain should be non-drug treatments. For pain lasting less than three months, those include heat wraps, massage, acupuncture and spinal manipulation. The authors stress that clinicians should avoid costly and potentially harmful treatments like narcotics.
For pain lasting more than three months, treatments include stretching and strengthening exercises, tai chi, yoga, acupuncture, and mindfulness techniques like meditation to relieve stress.
If those fail, anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen should be considered first, then medications that can dull nerve pain, like tramadol or duloxetine.
“Be as active as possible. That’s what we take from these guidelines more than anything else,” said Dr. Yoakum.
Not all insurances cover alternate therapies. It’s important to consult with your physician or a specialist to diagnose what type of back pain you have and what treatment plan would be best.
Thank you to all who attended this amazing workshop
with Ramesh and Radhika.
Ramesh Bjonnes has been teaching yogic meditation for the past 35 years. He lived in India and Nepal in the 1980s learning directly from the traditional teachers of yoga and Tantra. He is the author of two books on yoga, Sacred Body, Sacred Spirit (InnerWorld) and Tantra: The Yoga of Love and Awakening (Hay House India). Tantric scholar and Professor of Religion at the University of Rochester, Douglas Brooks, says that “Ramesh Bjonnes is an important voice for the study of living Tantra.” Ramesh is the co-founder of the Prama Institute outside Asheville, NC, where he lives and teaches.
Radhika Banu Bjonnes is an experienced yoga and meditation teacher with a personal, caring, and friendly style of imparting her lessons. Radhika is part of the growing “slow yoga” movement, and believes that a gentle yoga practice reaches deeper, makes us calmer and stronger. She taught yoga at the esteemed Ananda Marga Yoga Academy (AMYA) in Singapore for over 10 years. Here, she immersed herself in the study and teaching of Rajadhiraja Yoga, a traditional system of yoga focusing on breath retention and deep breathing while holding poses for a certain period. Radhika holds a Registered Yoga Teacher certification (500 RYT) with Yoga Alliance; a 60 hour certification and a 400 hour Diploma in Rajadhiraja Yoga from AMYA, and a 100 hour certification in Yin Yoga from Victor Chng.
Cheri Pollack and Patty Dougherty, the creators of the Soul of Creativity Art and Yoga event.
THANK YOU! We were so very grateful to each artist, musician, yoga instructor, vendor, and attendee who joined us for this year’s Soul of Creativity event! Together we were able to raise almost $1,000 for the Cancer Support Community. We so enjoyed welcoming our Knoxville community to the breezeway and we look forward to seeing you all next year!
Introducing Acro Yoga at Breezeway!
Starting on the first Tuesday in November, we’re pleased to welcome Rebekah Luhrs to Breezeway for AcroYoga classes.
Rebekah is a certified yoga instructor who has been doing AcroYoga since 2011. After several years of teaching both in the US and internationally, she is excited to be offering weekly acro classes in Knoxville. Meryl Kerns will be joining her as assistant teacher.
AcroYoga is a dynamic partner practice that blends the wisdom of yoga, the dynamic power of acrobatics, and the loving kindness of healing arts. New content will be explored each week while reviewing components taught in previous classes and workshops, providing a space for students to form strong foundational skills. AcroYoga as a practice that is available for every body, age, and ability.
Namaste Knoxville!
Breezeway and Balanced You Studios featured in Cityview Magazine
Breezeway Yoga and Balanced You Studios were recently reviewed in Knoxville’s Cityview magazine. We were thrilled to see instructor Jill Bartine on the cover as she is such an amazing spokeswoman for our studios and for yoga. The article offers a broad view of the Knoxville yoga scene and the various great yoga studios within our community. Click the page at left to read the article.
Breezeway Yoga on WVLT
Video here. http://www.local8now.com/home/headlines/East-Tennessee-yogis-show-health-benefits-from–277048451.html
Knoxville native Patty Dougherty says she was unhealthy and didn’t want to age that way. Her practice began 15 years ago, it eventually lead her to teach and own two yoga studios in East Tennessee.
“That’s the great thing about yoga, it meets you where you are, whatever you abilities are, yoga enhances those abilities,” says owner of Breezeway Yoga Studio Patty Dougherty.
Bob Baker had a dozen major back operations in 7 years, each time he steps onto his yoga mat, he says his health improves.
Baker says, “I had polio at age 6, it was not debilitating, but it was none the less there and i was told in my low 30’s that i would have major back surgery later on and to hold off as long as possible.”
He says practicing yoga helps stop the stiffness and allows him to be more flexible.
Stretching, breathing, meditating all help Angela Rogers as she recovers from endometrial cancer, along with some other health issues.
“I started developing some digestive issues and I had asthma and so through the yoga and learning the teacher training it helped me to come off asthma medicine,” says Rogers.
Instructor, Tanya Kanczuzewski says, “You can easily see them (students) progress and go from ‘I can’t do this, to I can do more than this and they can take that out into what they do everyday.”
News from Breezeway
Breezeway Yoga Studio in the Knoxville News Sentinel
Article by Carly Harrington, Knoxville News Sentinel
Driving down Kingston Pike past the Kroger in Bearden, you may never notice the shopping center’s somewhat hidden breezeway connecting various businesses.
Just beyond Wigs by We3 and Roger’s Shoe Repair shop, Patty Dougherty said she found the perfect location to open her newest yoga studio.
“It’s right in the heart of one of the busiest parts of town, but it’s set away at the end of breezeway. I feel like you should have a yoga studio near where you live, and so many of my clients live in this area. It made sense for me to open the studio. The clincher was when I found the location,” she said. “It was such an ideal location that I was willing to make it work no matter what I had to do.”
Breezeway Yoga Studio, a cooperative of yoga instructors and therapists who offer various styles of yoga, opened in the Knox Plaza shopping center Aug. 1.
The studio is located just down the road from The Practice Yoga in Western Plaza, which recently closed. It was where Dougerty’s four largest classes were taught.
At the other end of Bearden, Dougherty, a clinical therapeutic practitioner, also co-owns Balanced You Studios at 6712 Kingston Pike with Rebekah Knause. It’s a smaller studio that opened two years ago and can accommodate up to 10 students or private or semiprivate instruction.
“The first business is great. It’s profitable. I just needed a place for a larger class,” she said.
Dougherty grew up in Knoxville, beginning her career working as a writer, producer and director at WBIR Channel 10. She was promoted to Chicago but later started freelancing, allowing her to travel around the world. She eventually made her way to Southern California, living on a sailboat for seven of her 10 years there.
At the time, her weight had topped out at more than 200 pounds. Dougherty had just started studying yoga and mediation when her doctor suggested putting her on various medications.
“I looked at this stack of prescriptions and said, ‘No way,'” she recalled. “Once I recognized how beautiful I could heal myself, that’s when I decided to start getting trained.”
When her father became sick, Dougherty began commuting back and forth to Knoxville. In 2010, she moved back, making Knoxville her home.
“My heart was breaking every time I left Knoxville,” she said. “I decided I wasn’t willing to leave my mother, so I just came here to stay.”
Breezeway Yoga Studio, which features cork floors, will offer classes that include yoga basics, restorative, vinyasa, power, flow and yin yoga. It will soon offer ashiatsu massage therapy, which uses feet to apply pressure instead of hands.
Business reporter Carly Harrington may be reached at 865-342-6317 or harrington@knoxvillebiz.com.
The planters are planted, the draperies are hung, the flowers are blowing lightly in the breezeway. Isn’t our entrance inviting? 🙂
We’re ready for your visit!
Bailey Wamp lead the first class at Breezeway with her Vinyasa class. Here she is signing in one of Breezeway’s first students!
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