As we move into fall, I have been thinking deeply about renewal.
Not reinvention.
Not becoming a better version of ourselves.
But returning.
Returning to the body.
Returning to breath.
Returning to the quiet intelligence within us that can sometimes become difficult to hear beneath the noise, responsibilities, expectations, and sheer momentum of life.
This feels especially present for me right now because I recently learned of the passing of one of my earliest and most influential teachers, Rima Star.
I first studied with Rima nearly thirty years ago. She was known by many as a pioneer of water birth, but what she gave me reached far beyond birth itself.
She taught me about water.
About the intelligence of the body.
About trusting processes that cannot always be forced or controlled.
About creating the conditions in which something new can emerge.
Looking back now, I can see how much of what I have spent my life studying was already present in those early teachings.
Birth. Yoga. Bodywork. Somatics. Developmental movement. Fascia. Breath. Watsu. Water.
Different doorways into the same essential inquiry:
What happens when we stop imposing ourselves upon the body and begin listening from within?
Yoga Renewal
This is the heart of the work I call Yoga Renewal.
Yoga Renewal grew from decades of teaching yoga and working therapeutically with people, and from my studies with teachers including Donna Farhi, Lisa Petersen, Amrita Choudhury and others who have profoundly shaped the way I understand movement and embodiment.
It is yoga, but perhaps not in the way many of us have come to think about yoga.
We slow down enough to notice.
We explore breath, alignment, developmental movement, natural spirals, embodied anatomy and the subtle relationships between different parts of ourselves.
Instead of asking the body to conform to the shape of a posture, we become curious about how movement might arise from the inside out.
Sometimes the work is surprisingly simple.
Feeling the ground beneath you.
Finding your center.
Allowing the breath to move through you.
Discovering where effort is necessary — and where it isn’t.
Remembering that your body is not an object you have to constantly fix or improve.
It is something you inhabit.
Something you can develop a relationship with.
And I think many of us, particularly as we move through midlife and the many transitions life asks of us, are hungry for exactly this kind of relationship.
So this fall, I am inviting people to work with me through Yoga Renewal — privately and in small, individualized series.
You do not need to be flexible.
You do not need to be “good at yoga.”
You can be returning after years away, recovering from change or injury, navigating pregnancy or postpartum, entering a new stage of life, or simply realizing that the way you have been moving through the world no longer feels sustainable.
We begin with the body you are living in now.
And we listen.
And then… what if we took renewal somewhere deeper?
There is another invitation I am very excited to finally share.
In October 2027, I will be bringing this work to the island of Cozumel, Mexico for a Yoga Renewal retreat.
October 18–22, 2027
Four nights surrounded by the Caribbean, with sunrise meditation, yoga twice daily, time to rest, explore, swim, breathe and reconnect with yourself away from the demands of ordinary life.
There is something about water that changes us.
Perhaps that is one of the oldest threads running through my work — from Rima’s early teachings about birth and hydrotherapy, through my years supporting mothers and babies, to Watsu and the aquatic somatic work I practice today.
Water asks us to yield.
It holds us while inviting movement.
And on an island surrounded by one of the great reef systems of the world, I cannot imagine a more beautiful place to explore the practice of returning to ourselves.
This retreat is not about escaping your life.
My hope is that it becomes a way of returning to your life more fully.
More embodied.
More spacious.
More able to hear yourself.
Perhaps renewal begins this fall, here at home.
Perhaps Cozumel becomes the deeper journey.
Or perhaps simply reading this plants a seed for something that is beginning to change within you.
Either way, I would love to have you with me.
Individual Yoga Renewal — Austin
Private therapeutic yoga and individualized series available this fall.
Yoga Renewal Retreat — Cozumel
- October 18–22, 2027
- Four nights at the InterContinental Cozumel
- Sunrise meditation + yoga twice daily
- Breakfast and lunch included
- Rates currently begin at $1,920 per person sharing a room.
Retreat information and registration:
https://renavira.travel/destinations/cozumel.html