As the year draws to a close, it’s natural to reflect on the experiences, lessons, and growth that have shaped us. The holiday season, with its moments of stillness and introspection, provides the perfect opportunity to take a pause and evaluate how far we've come. One of the best ways to close the year with intention is through mindfulness practices like yoga and journaling. Both offer powerful tools to help you reflect with gratitude and set the stage for a positive, purposeful New Year.

The holiday season is often filled with joy, but it can also bring a fair share of stress. From the pressure of gift shopping to managing family gatherings and balancing work with seasonal events, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. In the midst of all the excitement, it’s important to prioritize your well-being and find ways to stay grounded. Yoga can be a powerful tool to help you navigate the holiday season with calm, energy, and mindfulness.

Here’s how yoga can help you stay energized, present, and stress-free during the holidays:

In today's world, maintaining a strong immune system is more important than ever. While eating well and getting enough sleep are essential, many people don’t realize that yoga can also be a powerful tool for boosting immunity. Whether you’re looking to stay healthy through flu season or just improve your overall well-being, yoga offers both physical and mental benefits that support a healthy immune system all year long. This blog will explore how yoga can help strengthen your immune system and provide tips on poses and practices that can keep you feeling your best!  

Yoga has been around for thousands of years, yet there are still a lot of misconceptions about what yoga truly involves. For some, yoga is seen as just a series of stretches (I had a friend once say, “Yoga is just advanced stretching.”),  while others think it requires extreme flexibility or a certain lifestyle.  In this blog we are breaking down these myths so everyone can enjoy the benefits of this practice — both physical and mental. 

Have you ever been in a yoga class and wondered what the heck the teacher was saying when they used traditional yoga terms? It can definitely be confusing! However, understanding some common yoga terms can really enhance your practice. By familiarizing yourself with these words, you open up a world of deeper understanding and richer experiences in your yoga practice.

There are many benefits to incorporating regular movement into daily, or weekly, life during pregnancy and beyond. Prenatal and Postpartum yoga practices combine strength training, flexibly and range of motion stretches, and breathing and relaxation techniques. In this way, a balanced yoga practice offers a supportive approach to both the pregnant person and the baby’s overall physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing during pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond.

The world's pretty wild right now, right? For grown-ups and kids alike. Imagine juggling school, sports, trying to make friends, squeezing in time to play, and keeping up with everything else on your plate. Phew, it sounds exhausting. Thankfully yoga can help! Here are 10 reasons why yoga is great for kids!

Oh my gosh, I LOVE this question! I have been practicing and teaching yoga for so long that it has become such a huge part of my daily life and I take for granted how it has impacted me. So when someone at a networking event asked me this very question a few weeks ago, I was so excited to reflect back on all the positive changes throughout the last 20+ years! But you don’t have to take my word for it (I mean, after all I do teach yoga for a living!). Here are a few amazing responses from the students at Serenity Yoga & Wellness!

Transitions in yoga, and in life, are hard. We tend to want to push through the uncomfortableness of moving through something to get to the destination. But what if the destination is the transition? Here’s how to make the difficult transitions of your life a bit easier to manage.

I’ve been teaching yoga for almost 20 years, which means that I’ve been asked a LOT of questions about yoga.  But there are a few questions that tend to come up time and time again. So today I'm sharing my answers to the most commonly asked questions so that you can feel more confident and informed as you begin or continue with your yoga practice. 

Here we go! 

Medical journals, instagram posts, and everything in-between have highlighted the benefits of a regular yoga practice. Yoga can help improve strength, balance and flexibility. It has been linked to stress reduction, lower blood pressure, and a stronger immune system. But while these benefits are found across all demographics, statistically less than 30% of yoga practitioners in the U.S. identify as male. So guys….what’s it going to take to get you to a class Here are a few frequently asked questions that may help you decide to experience the benefits of yoga for yourself.

“I really regret going to yoga today …” Said No One Ever!

Although yoga has been around for over 5,000 years, and was actually introduced in The United States in 1893, it was the hippie and new age movements of the 1960’s that really popularized the physical aspects of yoga. Then in the 80’s and 90’s, the fitness craze and VHS tapes made yoga even more popular. Now, tens of millions of people practice yoga in probably just as many yoga studios across the U.S.

As yoga became more popular in the west, a variety of styles of yoga were created to meet different needs of the students. Now yoga studios and teachers differentiate themselves by styles of yoga all across the U.S. Unfortunately, all these different options can be very confusing for beginners! Today I’m going to share the main types of yoga styles and who might benefit from each so that you can choose the right style for you and get the most out of your yoga practice!

The summer is in full swing, and hopefully you’ll have a chance to enjoy some down-time and take a vacation! Whether you’re traveling or planning to stay more local, there are some great ways to enjoy your yoga practice even when you’re out of your normal daily routine. Steve shares some thoughts in today’s blog on how you can plan to bring your yoga practice with you on vacation!

The internet and social media would have you believe that yoga is all about tall, thin, hyper-flexible women putting their body in very awkward positions. Although we have begun to shift this perspective as an industry, it still irks me to no end that most people are still turned off by yoga because they just can’t relate to these images. And these people could most likely benefit the most from yoga! The number one response I get when I say to someone, “Oh you should try yoga!” is, “I’m not flexible enough to do that.” My response? “Exactly. That’s why you should do it.”

For a beginner, yoga can be intimidating and a bit scary. In fact, along with “I’m not flexible enough”, I also hear, “Oh I don’t know what I’m doing so I’d rather not take class.” I get it - I was once a beginner too! Today I’m going to break down exactly what you need to know so you can confidently sign up for your first class and begin to experience the health benefits of yoga.

When I first started practicing yoga in 2000, I can remember my teacher suggesting that we come to the mat with a “Beginner’s Mind” and thinking, “what the heck does that mean?” I wasn’t sure about anyone else, but I was there to master the poses and “win” at doing yoga.

Can you relate?

It took a few years, but I finally realized that the point of yoga was not to perfect the poses and get a gold medal. The point is to explore and enjoy the journey as it unfolds, and embracing a beginner’s mind is a key first step to achieving that. If that seems confusing, don’t worry! Today I’m going to share exactly what it means to have a beginner’s mind both on and off the mat so you can open the doors to all sorts of possibilities in your life and the lives of others.

As humans we are not meant to live in isolation - we are hardwired to participate in communities. Back in our cave-person days, your tribe was your survival. If you separated from your tribe, there was a good chance you’d be eaten. And although we have evolved beyond our cave-people days, the importance of community is still very much part of our DNA. Communities help us feel a stronger sense of personal identity as well as offer a sense of connection, empathy and mutuality. Here are some reasons why we think Our Serenity Community is so important!

Have you ever read a book that just sticks with you long after you finished reading it? Sometimes it’s a short story or a character novel that grabs your attention and doesn’t let go. And sometimes the books you read can truly transform your perspective and your life. Whether you are new to yoga or have been practicing for years, maybe you already have a yoga book or two that has transformed your experience. These types of books can influence how you think about your practice each time you get on your mat and maybe even give you a new way to think about life off the mat as well.

For the teachers at Serenity, we probably each have at least two or three (or more!) specific yoga books that have dramatically shaped our practice and our teachings. And today, in honor of World Book Day, we want to share our favorites with you!

You already know yoga is good for you. You may have even tried it a few times and felt the benefits! Maybe you got excited and told yourself this is going to be your new healthy routine! You may have even said, “I’ll definitely practice tomorrow!” And then...life happens. You have so many things on your to-do list that you never seem to get on your mat.

You are not alone - every single person that practices yoga has gone through this exact thing. In this blog Michele shares her tried and tested steps to start a consistent yoga practice with confidence and excitement so you can better experience the benefits of yoga in order to live a more balanced and happy life.

Steve Sampson guest blogs on Serenity’s Website in order to take a deeper look at what you will generally experience in a yin or restorative yoga class. While both forms of practice are similar in that they are relatively slow and passive practices, there are some differences in the intent behind that stillness.