She’s the yin to her yang
MOTHER-DAUGHTER DUO OFFER FREE YOGA CLASS AT WESTERLY YMCA
On a Saturday morning in mid-September, the yoga room of the Ocean Community YMCA is filled with yoga-goers of all backgrounds and ages. Some are in their 70s, while others are as young as 7. Some have come alone, and others with their friends and spouses. And some have come from Mystic, while many traveled from towns throughout the region. They are, however, gathered in the name of one thing — free yoga.
And it was this blending of people from different backgrounds and socioeconomic status that Mystic-based yoga teacher Annie Chapman, 50, and her daughter Maggie Skinner, 19, were hoping to bring together in their class.
“This is really a dream come true,” Chapman tells the students before starting the class with sun salutations.
Their inspiration for offering free yoga is based on the desire to help “under-resourced families who need it most,” Chapman says. “I know that not everyone can afford a $30 yoga class. I want my yoga class to bring everyone in a community together. And what better way to do that than by giving free yoga classes?”
The class will be held at the Westerly YMCA at 11 a.m. every third Saturday of every month and will include free child-care for the duration of the class, and a free meal afterwards.
The idea for free yoga, food included, arose after Skinner went on a two-week yoga-teacher training trip to Nairobi, Kenya.
There, Skinner participated with other American yoga students in the training. Their newfound skills were used to conduct their own yoga classes to as many as 400 Kenyans at one time — a feat that Skinner says was exhilarating.
“They asked us who would like to teach the first class, and I immediately raised my hand. I knew that I wanted to do it. And I taught my first class to 400 students, but I wasn’t nervous, I was excited,” she says. “All of it was just an amazing time.”
The experience of going to Africa touched and changed her life, she says.
“Yoga can really make positive, significant changes in the lives of people. I’ve seen it in myself and in my mother. I feel more powerful now. Before I used to let people walk all over me, but now I am able to stand up for myself. Yoga helped me with that,” she says.
It’s precisely this feeling of empowerment that Skinner hopes to bring to people here, she says.
“I realized that, while it was amazing to go to Africa and be of service to those people, the people in this area need this, too. There are people here who are suffering as much as people in those countries, just in different ways. Yoga can help them, too,” Skinner says.
Skinner proposed the idea to her mother after returning from the trip in May, inspiring Chapman to turn into a “powerhouse,” as Skinner puts it, to set the idea in motion. The two soon went to the Westerly
“It's not about how you look while doing it. It's not even about the poses. Yoga is really just about breathing and being authentic.” — MAGGIE SKINNER
YMCA to propose the idea.
“This is a completely sustainable idea,” Chapman says. “Not only does this yoga class contribute to the mission statement of the YMCA, but the teachers are free and it helps local restaurants in the community.”
The free meals are possible in part due to a local private donor who will give money every month to pay a local restaurant to cater the meal.
“Having a free meal after the yoga class was one of the ways in which the yoga program I was with was able to draw locals into trying yoga,” Skinner says of her time in Kenya. “It was more than just giving them food, however. It turned into a huge celebration afterwards, and everyone was filled with joy and love. I hope that our classes can turn into something like that, too.”
Instructing yoga classes seems to be a natural calling for Chapman, who is energetic, peppy and assuring to anyone who might feel out of their element. Skinner, on the other hand, acts as natural counterpoint to her mother's energy — serene and calm — creating a metaphorical yin and yang harmony throughout the class.
“I'm a yoga teacher, but I can't touch my toes,” Chapman tells everyone with a laugh at one point. “Yoga isn't about being perfect, and I want everyone to know that.”
As a single mother of four, three of whom are adopted, Chapman says that yoga has helped her to feel at peace with her life and herself. Feeling empowered and in touch with yourself is the cornerstone of what yoga can bring to an individual, Chapman says. But just like anything else, outside influences, such as magazines and Instagram, have painted an inaccurate picture of what yoga is.
“It's not about how you look while doing it. It's not even about the poses. Yoga is really just about breathing and being authentic,” Skinner says.
“And being authentic means just being your messy self,” Chapman says.
“I tell people to get messy in their tree, for example. Everyone can do a tree, but I told them to get messy — like my minivan. Yoga is not perfect, it's a practice. You don't have to be any shape or any flexibility. It's about opening your mind. And you say, ‘Well, I can't do that.' But through the practice of yoga, things begin to open up, and things begin to loosen up, and that's when real positive change can happen from within and healing begins.”