! KEITH O’CONNOR NATE BLAIS
Heartsong YO G A
A
fter two difficult pregnancies, Sheila Magalhaes, owner of Heartsong Yoga, turned to yoga - a mind and body practice with a 5,000-year history that encourages you to relax, slow your breath, and focus on the present - to return her body to harmony and balance. “Both of my children were preemies. When my second child, Libby, was born in 1990 she was 11 weeks early and spent three months in the hospital. When she finally came home, Nicholas was two-and-a-half years old and I found myself stressed and anxious from the inevitable challenges of being a new mother, health concerns, the classic challenge of balancing work and home life, and caring for others while neglecting to care for myself,” said Magalhaes. Fortunately, today both are healthy, thriving adults, noted Magalhaes, adding that a friend suggested yoga to her back then to help deal with the challenges she was facing.
“I had tried yoga before and didn’t like it. It seemed too hard. But my friend suggested the Kripalu style of yoga, known as the Yoga of Compassion, which she said would help to calm my nervous system, quiet my mind, reduce my anxiety and worry, and just make me feel better. And, immediately from the first class, it did,” said Magalhaes. “I found it to be for me a restful, accessible form of yoga. Even more importantly, yoga helped me to recognize and savor the goodness in my life, learning to do my best and to find gratitude,” she added. Magalhaes, now beginning to feel more ease in her life once again, continued to practice weekly and began to “love it so much” that she wanted to share yoga with others who could benefit from it. “People travel all over the world to study Kripalu Yoga, yet here I was lucky enough to have a school practically in my own backyard in the Berkshires, GOLOCALMAGAZINES.COM 23
