Sonya Taylor Yoga, Highland Park, IL (2026)

04/07/2023

What’s next on your journey of personal, professional, and spiritual growth?

Official details soon!

01/03/2022

Manifestation is a Purposeful Process 🧘

In my Yin + Yoga Nidra you will be guided through mindful

✨Manifestation✨

💠 Re-connect with who you are
💠 Release tension + patterns
💠 Nurture + nourish
💠 Heal at a soul + cellular level
💠 Return to your natural expression of Self

Friday, January 7th, 6:30p CST

🔗 Link in Bio

12/16/2021

Our soul experiences through our body.

The somatic experience of hiking 30 miles in four days through the mountains of Arizona was some of the best yoga I’ve practiced in years.

With each sensory organ heightened, I remembered what it’s like to feel.

To stop resisting and be drenched in the human experience.

From a gentle breeze, to the scratch of a cactus. Scaling a rock face that seems it couldn’t really be the trail, to vast vistas and piercing blue skies. Red rock mountains, gentle raindrops, and trickling streams. A pounding heart, working muscles, thirst.

Using my body to navigate, balance, push, pull, and release.

Attending and attuning to each experience.

Yoga doesn’t need a mat or a posture.

Simply a soul in a body open to experience💙

12/03/2021

Trust the Universe 💫🪐

But what does this really mean and why would we want to do it?!

Without any substance behind it...

Is telling someone to ‘trust the universe’ + dismissing = invalidating their experience?!

Trusting the Universe involves...

🌏seeing the world as a friendly place

🌏faith in your ability to choose how you respond to whatever life hands you

🌏privilege of culture, family, income, race, sexual identity, etc.

🌏accepting and embracing the paradox of chaos and reliability

🌏maintaining a constant conversation with the universe by accepting all parts of yourself

🌏seeing that nothing is all good or all bad, but meaningful

🌏observing the pattern of setbacks that ultimately open you to breakthroughs

There are many ways to build your trust including meditation, yoga, journaling, getting into nature, counseling/psychotherapy, travel, selfless service...

Finding Trust in the Universe will impact how your life unfolds, how you interpret what happens to you, and how likely you are to embrace whatever comes your way.

Photo cred: .west.photo

11/21/2021

S e l f M a s t e r y is a journey of recovery.

In the process of actualizing our fullest potential we must embrace *reclaim* all aspects of who we are.

Only by accepting the rewarding and problematic aspects of our caregivers can we accept and integrate the good and imperfect aspects of ourselves.

It’s often difficult to acknowledge the problematic aspects of our childhood, yet doing so free’s us to fulfill unmet needs and process unresolved emotions.

When we deny our human experience, clouding it with debris and rejection, invalidating our experiences…

we loose our creative power and ability to feel whole.

Take a moment to pause and turn inward.

Interlace your fingers opening the thumb and first finger into a diamond shape.

Practice gentle Self-Inquiry👇

Can you see and accept the things you both like and dislike? Can you see in yourself the things that make your blood boil in others?

What parts of you have been covered up or buried due to overt or covert childhood messages?

A deep soul level sigh of release comes in the moment where we claim our human-ness with all of the beauty, pain and imperfection.

11/14/2021

H O P E is E S S E N T I A L 💖

Most of us have felt hopeless in our lives.

The pervasive social and political unrest + the global health crisis + systemic racism have made it even more difficult to find a sense of hope.

The emotion of ✨Hope✨ involves
💠Pathways Thinking, or the ability and willingness to think of many ways of doing something
💠Agency, or being motivated and feeling confident, actually believing we can achieve our goals

People who experience consistently higher levels of hopefulness in their life possess better overall well-being...

So, how do we consciously instill the practice of HOPE into our daily life?

1. Notice when you are jumping to conclusions or making a negative prediction about the future.
2. Seek out inspirational books, poems, media and people.
3. Take action in small steps to create change.
4. Join a class or online course that allows you to learn, grow and get support from others.
5. Start a yoga practice to build H O P E is E S S E N T I A L 💖

Most of us have felt hopeless in our lives and, indeed, at many times in the past eight months the social and political unrest + the global health crisis + systemic racism have made it even more difficult to find a sense of hope.

The emotion of ✨Hope✨ involves
💠Pathways Thinking, or the ability and willingness to think of many ways of doing something
💠Agency, or being motivated and feeling confident, actually believing we can achieve our goals

People who experience consistently higher levels of hopefulness in their life possess better overall well-being...

So, how do we consciously instill the practice of HOPE into our daily life?

1. Notice when you are jumping to conclusions or making a negative prediction about the future.
2. Seek out inspirational books, poems, media and people.
3. Take action in small steps to create change.
4. Join a class or online course that allows you to learn, grow and get support from others.
5. Start a yoga practice to build awareness, confidence and healing., confidence and healing.

Hope bring Healing ❤️‍🩹

11/07/2021

When we create bodily sensations through movement…

We allow ourselves to F E E L…

to listen, attune with, reconnect and begin processing the feedback from our bodies…

when we breathe slowly and deeply while feeling and attending to our bodily sensations…

and we begin to H E A L

This communication is often referred to as ‘bottom up’ and it accounts for 80% of the communication in our nervous system

Bottom up communication through breath and gentle movement tells our brain we are safe and loved… allowing us to heal our emotional pain and trauma.

Many of us have a hard time connecting with our emotions OR are constantly flooded and overwhelmed by an onslaught of feelings.

I notice both at different times and 👆affirmation + movement + conscious breathing have helped me start to reconnect, recover, and nourish.

Dm me for ideas or to book a private session tailored to your unique healing needs ❤️‍🩹

11/02/2021

There is an essential emotionality to being human.

We all experience emotions… allowing them to lift us up, drag us down, steady us, or light us on 🔥

The third layer of our being consists of psycho emotional imprints created by every feeling we experience.

Yoga invites us to move through each sheath from the gross or physical, to the energetic, emotional, knowing , ultimately resting in our true nature

Here we realize that every emotion is essential to feel yet doesn’t determine who we are.

5 Tips for Emotional Differentiation

💚 Practice Breath Work (pranayama) to regulate and move from reactivity to observation 👉 did you know that alternate nostril breathing is proven to end a panic attack?!

💚 Label the Emotion (angry, sad, anxious)

💚 Reframe your Thoughts (new perspective, what else might be true?)

💚 Boost your Mood (exercise, yoga, meditation, breath work 👆 )

💚 Surround yourself with individuals who will provide unconditional positive regard and truthful reflection west.photo♥️📸yoga 🧘🏻‍♀️💖

10/24/2021

✨Shraddha✨

A deep sense of faith, trust, and inner wisdom.

A place of sanctuary and shelter within.

A connection to our essential nature.

But how often do you feel you are living from 👆and how often do you notice you are living according to external messages, conditioned patterns + values + beliefs or emotional reactions?

Through physical asana breathwork and talk we begin to move away the debris and uncover our deeper layers allowing ourselves a connection to our wisdom body

To quickly re-set and re-focus, re-orienting to your inner wisdom, practice Palli Mudra

Swipe ⬅️ for a visual cue 🤍🖐🏻
west.photo 🪄📷

10/17/2021

When we stop externalizing the dynamics of our relationships, we empower ourselves to change.

For many of us it’s difficult to start following our own agenda, to care for ourselves first, prioritize our desires, goals, and fill our own needs.

We externalize by focusing on how other people are impacting us or need to change.

To work on your self-concept and personal agency try these practices to balance your Manipura Chakra 💛👇

♥️Physical - core work + twists
🧡Energetic - breathe horizontally into the sides of the waist expanding with your inhale + contracting on the exhale
💛Emotions - how to you want to feel in this moment or in relationship to this person
💙Wisdom - notice your actions and how you might change them to be more apt Ed with your true self
💖Core Self - how can you fill your own needs and create balance

Chant 🗣 Ram, Ram, Ram

10/10/2021

1 in 5 Americans struggle with Mental Health

12.8 million adults in the US suffer from severe Mental Illness

Mental Health and Substance Abuse conditions have risen 13% Worldwide

Most of us have experienced difficult times where we couldn’t cope with our emotions and needed help.

Emotional Fluency + Emotional Regulation are powerful tools to help us accept and explore our feelings without making them an illness.

Try the Wave Mindfulness Meditation technique by finding a comfortable seat and orienting to the space around you. Settle your eyes or allow them to close. Notice your breath, your natural inhale and exhale.

As you inhale imagine an emotion, like a wave coming toward you, cresting. As you exhale the wave of emotion recedes and you no longer feel it. With your inhale another emotion arises, and just as quickly dissipates and moves out to sea as you exhale.

Continue watching and observing the natural flow of emotions until you are ready to move about your day.

You are Not Alone and getting help can be scary + confusing —>

is a great place to start finding the help you or a loved one needs

https://www.nami.org/help

Sonya Taylor Yoga

04/07/2023

01/03/2022

12/16/2021

12/03/2021

11/21/2021

11/14/2021

11/07/2021

11/02/2021

10/24/2021

10/17/2021

10/10/2021

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