Mandorla Yoga Institute

05/29/2026

We celebrated my daughter's 10th birthday this week and I found myself reflecting on the journey my body has been on these past 10 years. Recovery is HARD and it's ok if you find yourself hesitant to take the next step because moving through pain is even harder. My rectocelle injury is not something that, as a hypermobile person, I am able to make go away but I have found freedom in my body again and I wanted to share with you a bit about my journey.

For me, postpartum injury became a decade-long lesson in pain, adaptation, fascial compensation, and nervous system protection. What I continue to learn is this: relief and recovery are not always the same thing.

Sometimes healing asks us to move again—carefully, consistently, and without the protective strategies that once kept us safe.

If you live with persistent pain or compensatory movement patterns, I see you. Healing is rarely linear.

Healing is not always about finding the right practitioner or the perfect treatment. Sometimes the first layer brings relief—but the next layer asks us to relearn how we inhabit our bodies.

05/19/2026

Join Stefani and Jessica Huss for an incredible evening... (30 minutes of your session are insurance billable)

Relax together in comfortable restorative yoga postures while practitioners provide focused massage and stretching to areas that commonly hold tension, such as the neck, shoulders, back, hips, face, and scalp.

This format allows clients to receive shorter, effective treatments more regularly while keeping sessions affordable. The shared setting often creates a deeply restful atmosphere where the nervous system can settle, and the body can release accumulated tension.

Community massage + stretch is ideal for those experiencing stress, desk-related tension, fatigue, or simply needing a moment of restorative care in the middle of a busy week.

05/15/2026

One of the greatest misunderstandings in modern yoga culture is the belief that adaptation is somehow “less than.”

That using props, altering shapes, changing tempo, reducing load, or adjusting expectations means the practice has become weaker or less legitimate.

But adaptation has always been part of the tradition.

In Somatic Embodiment Yoga, we view adaptation as relational intelligence. It is an ongoing conversation between the practice and the person. A skilled practitioner or teacher learns to work with the body and nervous system that is actually present — not the one they wish was there.

Sometimes the medicine is activation.
Sometimes the medicine is restraint.
Sometimes the medicine is stillness.
Sometimes the medicine is expression.

This is not about making yoga smaller.
It is about making it more precise, responsive, and human.

05/12/2026

Trigger ⚠️

I spent so much of my life trying to make myself smaller.

So much of my life focused on taking up less space, eating less, and ultimately living less.

Believing that smallness was wellness. That being thin made me more acceptable or allowed me to belong. Or that this was somehow an indicator that I was doing it right.

Hours spent weighing myself. Staring into the mirror, assessing every angle.

Hours on a treadmill chased by the cruelty of the voices in my head.

My healing is not something that you can measure, but perhaps you can feel it in my presence. There is a gentleness there now. Kind voices fill my head. I feel a deep permission to take up space, to BREATHE with ease... to be here. I hope that you can have this too.

Love,

Stefani

05/06/2026

May at Mandorla...

Join us for some special events this month, including...
Community Acupuncture with Dr. Erin
The Elemental Body with Stefani
and Community Massage + Stretch with Stefani and Jess Huss, RMT

An invitation into grounding, rest, movement, and nervous system support this spring.

05/04/2026

A little peak behind the scenes of yesterday's Embodied Teaching Workshop. It was such a beautiful conversation that I thought I'd bring it to you!

Here are the main things we discussed...

There is a time and a place for all types of yoga.
There are appropriate times for more direct language and there are times when we need to use embodied language to support self inquiry.

The difference between Somatic Yoga and other approaches is that in Somatic Embodiment Yoga, instead of teaching an asana, we invite you to experience a sensation within your body through asana families to support choice, self inquiry, and attunement to the needs of your body and nervous system.

I'm curious about what you would add to the list and what you are interested in for future workshops?

05/01/2026

Ways to increase Earth for nourishing your nervous system:

Recognize resistance in your body, those moments when you are struggling to "make" yourself do something. This is Earth wisdom letting you know that you have been going too fast and doing too much.

Does your body feel tired but your mind is racing?

Put what you are doing down and give yourself permission to rest. No screens.

Spend some time unlocking your diaphragm by intentionally pressing downward as you breath in and letting your exhale slowly out through your nose. Hold the inhale stretch for as long as you can to release the fascia around your diaphragm and lungs.

Give yourself time to digest all the things.

If you are worried about time, play some music and tell yourself you can stop when you are done.

Even better, take this practice outside and lay in the sun.

Once you start to feel unstuck, if you can make the time, go for a SLOW walk and pay attention to EVERYTHING. Take in the details and allow nature to replenish your tires eyes and mind.

In Somatic Yoga Therapy, we don't force the body or the nervous system to do what we want. We don't hack the system. We collaborate with what the body is asking for. When needs are met, your body feels safe enough to let go.

04/30/2026

Your body is already communicating with you.

In this gentle and accessible Somatic Yoga Therapy series, we explore the Ayurvedic elements through movement, breath, sensation and rest to deepen your ability to understand AND respond to what your body has been asking for.

This is a 5 week series that begins on May 13 on Wednesday mornings from 9:30 am to 10:30 am with Stefani.

No yoga clothes or yoga experience required. This is a deeply welcoming space. Please wear whatever you feel comfortable in.

04/30/2026

This work began for me in high school through my theatre arts program that was deeply rooted in somatics. It carried me through those years and inspired my studies in University. It's a beautiful integration of so many threads that all speak to the same truths...

There is a baseline that we all have - a deep instinct and we weren't meant to heal alone.

We weren't meant to do any of this alone.

This is the work of RE-

Villaging
Humaning
Storying...

I am so honored to walk with you, to lead from my own intuition and knowing.

I consider myself your doula so that you don't have to do these things alone.

Come have tea with me.

04/25/2026

Hear me out.

I'm not saying that we should become out of control and become perpetrators of harm...

But I also don't think we are meant to control our nervous systems in a way that tells our bodies to act like we feel safe, when we are clearly in a space that isn't safe.

I am tired of hearing wellness spaces tell you that they are a 'safe space', when this is something that no one gets to tell you.

Your body decides on its terms. Safety is something that you perceive. You and you alone.

And honestly, you feeling dysregulated when safety isn't available to you is 💯 appropriate.

This is how your body alerts you to threat.

There are times when the appropriate response isn't rest, but to RISE, to ACT.

And for those moments when you can't turn the threat response off, what if we taught you how to remember nervous system fluency instead? A way to recognize safety, to slowly learn how to dial your nervous system like finding the right musical note that harmonizes with your surroundings that are available to you.

Today's thoughts on a blustery Saturday morning that feels dysregulating as I look out my snowy window.

Your nervous system isn't something to control. Your body isn't something you are meant to dominate.

This is YOU. It's about relationship and learning how to communicate with and collaborate with.

Love,

Stefani

04/23/2026

There is space for you if you would like to join us this for the Embodied Teaching Workshop on May 3.

Online or at our studio in Calgary, this is a beautiful course for those interested in deepening their teaching, for those who already teach yoga, and for therapists who facilitate group work.

YACEP credits available on request.