Prairie Yoga

08/27/2025

Last days to register for two of our upcoming 250 hour Foundation Yoga Teacher Trainings!

Balance Yoga + Pilates

08/25/2025

Good post about how you can choose different yoga shapes to affect your nervous system.

Adding breathwork: A focus on inhales tends to stimulate/energize, Focus on exhales tend to calm.

Being able to "switch gears" is a powerful skill. It means you can calm yourself when stress spikes or find a boost of energy when you feel drained.

While classical yoga ultimately aims to still the movements of the mind (citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ), the path begins with awareness—of breath, energy, and the shifting states of the nervous system.

Your body has two main modes: your "go" mode (Sympathetic Nervous System) and your "slow down" mode (Parasympathetic Nervous System).

Noticing whether we’re activated or withdrawn allows us to choose practices that support balance.

🔺 Upregulation builds focus and vitality—through backbends, standing balances, and energizing sequences.

🔻 Downregulation invites calm—through forward folds, supported twists, and slow breathing.

The goal isn’t to feel one way all the time. It’s to recognize what’s present and respond with discernment. Over time, this becomes the foundation for steadiness and the deeper stillness that yoga points us toward.

📥 Save this post to incorporate into your practice or teachings.

08/24/2025

11 things I have learned from almost 3 decades of practicing yoga.

1. When you don't know what to do - practice standing poses. You get a lot of bang for your buck as they work the entire body.
2. You don't need yoga clothes to practice yoga. You don't need anything really except a mind and a body that can breathe.
3. But you will learn more if you use props. They are teaching tools and bring awareness to our blind spots.
4. Alignment based styles like Iyengar Yoga will help you learn details about the practice and really train your mind to focus.
5. Vinyasa type styles move the whole body and help you integrate the details.
6. It is helpful to learn a variety of styles. Avoid cookie-cutter teachings.
7. I have learned a lot from some really great yoga teachers. If possible, study with a really experienced teacher who is rooted in tradition. You will benefit from learning traditional yoga even if you choose to practice more modern forms.
8. Teachers will come and go from your life. They move, they change the focus of their teaching, you become interested in something else. Sometimes it is you who needs to let them go.
8. No matter how long you practice, you will have physical limitations. I still can't do full lotus on my right leg and have a tweaky right hamstring. Instead of forcing, I take care of it.
9. If you are super flexible in an area of your body, back off of your full range. Your body will thank you later.
11. Yoga friends are the best of friends. I love my yoga peeps.

If you have been practicing a long time, what are some of the lessons you can share?

08/20/2025

I did it!

Back in my early days of yoga*, our teachers used to tell us that all we needed was yoga and that cardio and weight lifting would make us stiff. They were wrong.

As a 62 year old woman who loves yoga and weight lifting, and slacks at anything fast paced, I have been listening to the science on women's health informing us that short bursts of higher intensity cardio are beneficial, especially post menopause. It's been a few years, but I used to go to the track and do a variety of foot movements including stair runs. Today it was finally cool enough to give it a try. I am feeling great afterwards!

Now yoga is still my mainstay, but I am feeling very good by adding in other forms of movement to my weekly routine.

-2 days of Hatha Yoga/Natural Movement
-2 days of weight lifting
-2 days of some form of cardio - biking, hiking, golfing, and now adding some short bursts of higher intensity
-1 day of Restorative Yoga/Natural Movement. Sometimes I don't do anything but rest and chill.

Now I am not perfect and some weeks I don't follow this exactly but this is my plan and I pretty much stick to it most of the time.

Moving in a variety of ways makes my yoga practice all the sweeter as that is when I return "home", check in and connect with myself.

Are you feeling the push/pull of yoga versus other physical activities? You don't have to choose - you can do both!

08/19/2025

Our Fall 2025 Yoga Teacher Training Program at Balance Yoga + Pilates starts in September! This program meets every Wednesday afternoon from mid-Sept to early April.
Train with proven, industry professionals, and become a certified yoga teacher with us! Balance Yoga + Pilates, in partnership with Prairie Yoga Institute, offers a foundational 250 Hour Yoga Teacher Training program. Our teacher training program is known for its high standards, deep curriculum, and is designed for aspiring yoga teachers as well as individuals who want to deepen their own study + practice.
For more info:
https://www.balanceyogapilates.com/teacher-training-yoga

Our Fall 2025 Yoga Teacher Training Program starts in September! This program meets every Wednesday afternoon from mid-Sept to early April.

Train with proven, industry professionals, and become a certified yoga teacher with us! Balance Yoga + Pilates, in partnership with Prairie Yoga Institute, offers a foundational 250 Hour Yoga Teacher Training program. Our teacher training program is known for its high standards, deep curriculum, and is designed for aspiring yoga teachers as well as individuals who want to deepen their own study + practice.

For more info:
https://www.balanceyogapilates.com/teacher-training-yoga

(pictured: last year's YTT's, mentors, teachers, and studio owner!)

08/18/2025

We have 3 Foundation yoga teacher trainings starting in September.

-Wednesdays at Balance Yoga + Pilates in Glen Ellyn
-Weekends at the Theosophical Society in America in Wheaton
-Specialized Training - Yoga for Mental Health - Weekends at Torus Center in Batavia

Last day to enroll and get the early bird price is Friday, August 29! Click on the website to get all the details. Comment below or DM with questions.

Midwest top yoga teacher training known for non-dogmatic and authentic approach. 250 hours, registered 200 hour Yoga Alliance School.

08/17/2025

INTENTION

To wonder. To wonder with no plan
for where it might lead. No strategy
for arrival. No finish line. No pot
of gold. No perfect score. No striving for.
To wonder. To wonder the way a small child
might wonder when seeing a roly poly for the first time —
oh, look at all those legs. Look at how
it curls! Look how it moves again. Feel
how light it is in the palm. Feel how
it tickles as it moves. Imagine
an awareness that new meeting a life form that old.
Can I be that new as I meet this infinite world?
To wonder not just with my mind
but with my belly. To let every neuron
spark. To notice where there is a channel
and imagine the great wing of life
is scraping it clean so the stream might flow
in new ways. To wonder beyond the edge
of the known, and in that spaciousness, play.
~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Do you set an intention before your yoga practice? Typically, I prefer not to. But if I am a student and the teacher asks us to set an intention at the beginning of class, I ask myself to be curious and open to whatever arises. ~ Lori Gaspar

Poem text and context: https://www.themarginalian.org/2025/08/11/intention-trommer/Music: "Reverie" by Claude Debussy, performed by Simone Renzi (public dom...

08/12/2025

Yoga teacher training isn’t just about earning a certification—it’s a personal journey that deepens your understanding of yourself, your practice, while gaining the skills to guide others. Balance Yoga + Pilates is offering our 250 Hour Yoga Teacher Training beginning in September. To learn more about this exceptional program, register for the Wed 8/13 Virtual Info Session or Thu 8/14 Sample Class and Info Session in their Glen Ellyn Studio. Use this link to find out more and register bit.ly/BalanceYTT.

Balance Yoga + Pilates, in partnership with Prairie Yoga is offering a 250 Hour Yoga Teacher Training beginning in September. To learn more about this exceptional program, register for the Wed 8/13 Virtual Info Session or Thu 8/14 Sample Class and Info Session in the Glen Ellyn Studio with me. Use this link to find out more and register bit.ly/BalanceYTT.
Tricia
Balance Yoga + Pilates Prairie Yoga

08/11/2025

Want to learn why many consider Prairie Yoga one of the best yoga teacher training programs? Join us Aug 13 or 14!

Interested in exploring what our Yoga Teacher Training program might entail? Join us on August 13 or 14 to learn more!

Balance Yoga + Pilates, in partnership with Prairie Yoga offers a foundational 250 Hour Yoga Teacher Training program. Our teacher training program is known for its high standards, deep curriculum, and is designed for aspiring yoga teachers as well as individuals who want to deepen their own study + practice.

We offer a contemporary approach based on current principles of biomechanics yet deeply rooted in the ancient wisdom of traditional yoga. Our multi-style teaching integrates techniques from alignment-based yoga (Iyengar), vinyasa flow, restorative yoga, Ayurveda, and yoga therapy.

Learn more here: https://www.balanceyogapilates.com/teacher-training-yoga

Tricia Fiske

08/06/2025

The essence of yoga practice is basically:
paying attention,
connecting to how it makes you feel/think,
choosing how to respond or not,
absorbing the effects of your choice.

We use yoga techniques - postures, breath work, and meditation to connect inward. We learn to pay attention to how we react so that we can make better choices over time and live life more joyfully with less distraction.

Once you understand the key principles, you start to apply them to everything you do. If you are washing dishes, you pay attention to washing the dishes, notice where your mind drifts, perhaps choose to return back to focusing on cleaning dishes, then notice how staying present makes you feel.

If someone says something that aggravates you, you pause to notice how it makes you feel, choose how to respond or not, then notice the effects of your response. Did it make the situation better or worse?

Over time, you start to participate in more and more activities that bring you joy and you let go of things that cause agitation. It is a real gift to learn and practice all 8 limbs of yoga.

~Lori Gaspar

08/02/2025

Join Tricia Fiske on August 13 or 14 to learn more about our 250 Hour Foundation Yoga Teacher Training hosted at Balance Yoga + Pilates!

Interested in exploring what our Yoga Teacher Training program might entail? Join us on August 13 or 14 to learn more!

Balance Yoga + Pilates, in partnership with Prairie Yoga offers a foundational 250 Hour Yoga Teacher Training program. Our teacher training program is known for its high standards, deep curriculum, and is designed for aspiring yoga teachers as well as individuals who want to deepen their own study + practice.

We offer a contemporary approach based on current principles of biomechanics yet deeply rooted in the ancient wisdom of traditional yoga. Our multi-style teaching integrates techniques from alignment-based yoga (Iyengar), vinyasa flow, restorative yoga, Ayurveda, and yoga therapy.

Learn more here: https://www.balanceyogapilates.com/teacher-training-yoga

Tricia Fiske

07/30/2025

"In these chaotic times, it is so easy to lose your center of gravity, to outsource your equilibrium to the phone in your hands.

The world is fast, loud, and engineered to commandeer your attention. Which is why centering isn’t some nice-to-have; it’s a lifeline. Without it, you’re basically a sock puppet for your anxiety, your temper, or the latest alarming headline."

According to Buddhist nun, Ayya Anandabodhi, here are four simple ways to reclaim your center:

1. Be in nature (and remember you are nature). Most of us know, whether from personal experience or the mountain of research, that spending time in nature can help reset your system. But if you’re stuck inside (say, mid-panic on a flight, as I sometimes am), Ayya says even remembering you’re made of the same elements as the earth can shift your state.

2. Drop into your feet. There’s a reason “grounding” starts with the ground. Shifting attention to your feet—where your body meets the earth—can help you get out of your head. As Ayya says, “There are no thoughts in the feet.”

3. Breathe into your belly. When we’re anxious, the breath stays high and tight. Ayya recommends resting your hands on your belly and breathing deeply into the center just below your navel—a grounding point known across multiple traditions.

4. Pause and feel your feelings. When you're overwhelmed—by panic, anger, fear, or just the chaos of the world—Ayya suggests starting with a pause. A pause can feel tiny, but as she puts it, it can help you “feel a feeling, know a thought as a thought, and not follow it.” In other words, it’s where your agency lives—the space between trigger and response.

"You literally can’t hear this enough. I think of it as Mindfulness 101. Instead of running away from difficult feelings— self medicating with booze, shopping, denial—the move is to feel them fully, let them pass, and make a sane decision on the other side. Respond, not react. A decent recipe for becoming at least 10% happier."

Four ways to stay centered