Registration is open for the Fall Session!

Sea Shell Yoga

What better way to celebrate the summer with than with Sea Shell Yoga! 

It was a fun filled hour and a half of under the sea themed yoga inspired by Eric Carle's book, "A House for a Hermit Crab" - exploring the challenges of growing up, facing change and the practice of non-attachment...just like hermit crabs! Throw in some Crab Tag, a Sea Glass Meditation and some shell painting and you've got Sea Shell Yoga!

Down Doll Yoga

Grab your favorite doll and decorate a mini yoga mat for her! Prepare to practice side by side with her! Learn partner yoga poses that you can practice at home as well as bitty balances, tiny twists and mini meditations to do with your doll! Top it off with a Tea Party and Down Doll Yoga is complete! 

Sea Shell Yoga

Peace Love and Lemonade!

Join us on Saturday, April 28th for our PEACE, LOVE & LEMONADE Stand! Cranford will be holding their annual "Town-Wide Lemonade Stand" in support of the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life and the Alluem Kids will be setting up a stand outside The Mill! The stand will be up from 9:30am-2:30pm. Be sure to stop by!

We Are Who We Are!

Now that's what I call a Yoga Birthday Party!!! Yoga fun and games, movie, snacks, lavender eye pillow making, restorative yoga, into a 7 hour savasana (deep peaceful rest)!

Soccer Yoga Workshop

Calling all soccer players ages 7-12!!!!! Soccer Yoga is next Friday, September 24th - 7:30-9pm!

Yoga is a great compliment to any sport - improving focus, concentration, felxibility,

endurance - the list goes on and on!!

Grab your teammates and sign up today on our website:

http://www.allueyoga.com/ - workshops tab

To learn more about Soccer Yoga, read the previous Soccer Yoga article:

Soccer Yoga - For the Love of the Game

Music Fest and Yoga

Looking for something to do this weekend? Head on over to the 4th Annual Centennial Village Music Fest - featuring Alluem Yoga!!! It's a big weekend! In honor of National Yoga Month, free classes are going on nationwide, such as the free classes Alluem Yoga will be giving at Music Fest outside at Lincoln School on Centennial Ave!

Saturday, September 18th

Adult Flow with Gina - 5:30-6:30pm

Kids Yoga with Karen - 5:30-6:30pm

Not local to the Cranford area? Check out yogamonth.org for an event near you!

Live the questions...like the L M N O Peas.

"We are peas - alphabet peas! We work and play in ABCs.

We're acrobats, artists, and astronauts in space.

We're builders, bathers, and bikers in a race.

We're painters, poets, plumbers fixing leaks.

We're pilots, parachutists, we're peas and we're unique!

We're weavers, wishers, and x-ray doctors, too.

We're yogis in a pose, and zoologists - that's who!

We are peas from A to Z.

Now tell us, please...who are you?"

"Who are you?" When I came across Keith Baker's book L M N O Peas, I immediately used it in a lesson with my Alluem Little Kids, asking the children - "Who are you?" With adults, this question often brings on a pinch of anxiety, but with kids - they embrace it! They love this question as they are continuously exploring everything around them. What do I like to do? What do I like to play with? Where do I like to go? Who do I like to be with? What makes me happy? What makes me feel loved? What brings me peace? What brings me joy?

As I approach the 30th year of my life, I discover that I am still on my way to finding my answers to those questions, as I believe the questions never stop. That is the beauty of life. We live the questions. This Friday, September 10th, brings me closer to living that very question that I have been asking for quite sometime now. Who am I? Having graduated from college with a BFA in Illustration and spending much of that first year post college trying to self-promote as a freelance artist, I struggled. Finding a part time job with a major retailer and quickly moving up the ladder to the corporate ranks, I still struggled. Commuting in and out of New York City everyday for the past 5 years living the corporate life, I continued to struggle - constantly asking the who am I question and all the questions that follow.

On September 10th, I will be trading in my 6'x8' cubical with the 5th Ave window for a 2'x6' yoga mat with endless possibilities. As the students and teachers at Alluem Yoga celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the studio, I am more then honored to celebrate with the growth and expansion of the Alluem Kids program. In addition to the current Sunday classes, we will be adding 4 weekday opportunities for the Alluem Kids to grow their practice, along with welcome new and younger yogis to the studio! Here you will find fun and exciting workshops and events for kids, like the upcoming Soccer Yoga Workshop on 9/24 and free lessons at Cranford Musicfest on 9/18. You'll even run into Alluem Kids at your local Barnes & Noble for the upcoming Yoga for Students and Educators on 9/11-9/12. And you may even find me in your classroom for Yoga in my School lessons this school year. The list goes on and on!

I am unbelievably grateful to be so supported by the community, my friends, my family, and by Alluem as I make this transition in my life. Yoga is a practice in which we constantly grow, constantly change, constantly discover new things about ourselves and those around us. When I started practicing yoga 8 years ago under the loving instruction of Clarissa Alliano, I never would have believed it would have brought me to where I am today. I can not thank her and my classmates enough for planting the seed of possibilities of where this practice could take me. After going through my first year of teaching children's yoga, every time I'm greeted by a studio full of students, my heart goes out to the most amazing children's yoga organization, Little Flower Yoga, of whom I trained with. Founder, Jennifer Cohen, and director, Kate Reil, have been such a light to me and so many of the trainees that have crossed their paths. They will touch more lives than they will ever know. And given the opportunity to share the wealth of knowledge they have provided me with, would not have been possible without the dream of Gina Pachkowski, owner and founder of Alluem Yoga. I am very lucky for our paths to have crossed just as her dream was taking form in the beautiful Old Mill on the Rahway River that has become such a sacred space and sanctuary to so many adults and children alike.

I feel so blessed to come to this point of my life as I live the questions and learn to embrace them. My mother often reminds me that everything happens for a reason. With the love that she and my father have instilled in me and the strength that they both show everyday, I am encouraged and ready for each new day with all it has to offer. Everyday will bring a new outlook, a new challenge, a new opportunity. I believe I am at this point in my life for a reason and I welcome this opportunity to grow with open arms. And of course, I will continue to live the questions...just like the L M N O Peas!

Alluem Kids Movie Night

Join the Alluem Kids for Movie Night

Friday, August 27th from 7:30-9:30pm

Featuring Disney's Mulan

Drop the kids off at Alluem and enjoy two hours to yourself on a Friday night!!!

Your kids will enjoy an enlightening Chinese-folktale that celebrates honor, courage, and the importance of family!

$10 entry fee

100% of the proceeds go to Off the Mat into the World Global Seva Challenge.

Entry fee includes snack, drink, and a chance to win prizes!

You do NOT have to be a registered student to attend. ALL CHILDREN ARE WELCOME!

Sign up online at www.alluemyoga.com - workshops tab

Please make your donation at the door. Thank you!

Sing Yoga

View Video on YouTube:

Sing Yoga and Alluem Yoga Join Voices

This past Sunday after a wonderful Flow Donation Based class with Clarissa Alliano, Alluem Families joined their voices with Sing Yoga for a family kirtan. With the beautifully talented lead, Nancy Corrigan, Sing Yoga of Staten Island, is an all ages folk-chant sing-a-long musical project designed to raise money for the Bal Ashram Orphanage. The Bal Ashram is a safe home for children who have no means to further their lives. They are provided with love and care, yoga, meditation, and an education. At these donation based events, Sing Yoga raises money for the abandoned children of the ashram in Varanasi, India so that the children will one day be able to thrive. Baba Harihar Ramji (Babaji), Guru of the SonoMa Ashram in Sonoma, CA, envisioned this safe place as an inspiration for many - not only the children themselves, but also the surrounding communities, as well as the yoga communities abroad. People from all over the globe have visited the ashram to support, share their talents and gifts, and simply practice seva. People such as Sing Yoga and the Alluem Families that came out to the studio this past Sunday, are also able to practice seva from their own home towns thanks to Babaji. We have been touched by his mission, his teachings, and his kind heart.

Along with the money raised this weekend, Alluem Yoga will be sending the children of the Ashram drawings and mandalas (being created in the picture below) as well as a generous donation of 55 new picture books from Barnes & Noble to help build the library of the ashram. The Alluem Kids were inspired by the bright faces of the children's pictures they were shown and learned of their culture by hearing what a day in the life of an ashram child is like - from waking up at 4am to meditate to going to school and playing games just like themselves. And while the Bal Ashram is a beautiful, safe, and nurturing environment, all realized how lucky they are to have families and home to call their own. One of the 4 yr old's main concern - "Do the children had enough food to eat?" Their hearts are huge.

Thank you, Sing Yoga, for bringing us the gift of sound, togetherness, love, and light. And thank you to all the families who came out to support. Your generous offerings are ever so appreciated. Blessings to you all!

Memorial Day Tribute

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvVShrvCaU0

Memorial Day marks the start of the summer, but it's not just about BBQs and the beach. The Alluem Kids recognized the soldiers who serve our country and the fallen soldiers who fought with honor.

They are our heroes.

For them we are grateful.

Welcome Alluem Yoga!!!!

Join us this weekend at Alluem Yoga! New to the Cranford, NJ scene at 347 Lincoln Avenue East, otherwise known as The Historic Droescher's Mill on the Rahway River, is one of the most beautiful historical buildings you may ever stepped foot in. It's naturalistic feel emits peace and serenity unlike any other stand alone yoga studio I've seen. And not to be partial since I'm one of them, but the teachers who will be instructing at this studio are all simply amazing human beings. Owner, Gina Pachkowski, has truly pulled together a great group to help create a supportive and nurturing environment for all of the future students!

The Open House begins tonight from 5-8pm with a Free Chair Yoga class from 6-7pm with Eileen Michie. Tomorrow the building will be open to view from 10am-2pm with a free Vinyasa Flow style class from 10-11am with Gina. Sunday will be open the same hours with a free Kid's Yoga class from 10-10:45am with me!. So stop by whenever you can this weekend to tour the studio, meet the teachers, and to take a free class!