Saw this today in the Hartford Courant and thought I’d share it here… For more info about the yoga studio go here.

By SARAH CODY, FOX CT 6:01 a.m. EDT

 September 19, 2011

I look like a skunk and I get winded walking the trash can up to the street.

Translation: I desperately need to find an hour to get my hair done and start up a membership at the gym. I love summertime. I truly enjoy taking my sons to the pool the beach or the museum. But those two months are all about them. So once September hits, I’m ready for some me-time. “There’s finally a little breathing room,” says Kristyn Zalota, a doula and yoga expert from New Haven. “Once they’re in school, find the thing you love to do, whether it’s yoga or going for walks or both.”

This mother of two will be running a class Oct. 22 at EcoYoga in Durham titled “Yoga for Moms: Your Time to Transform & Renew.” She will teach poses that strengthen the abdominal area of a postpartum body while also giving tips about relaxation and meditation techniques. “Even if you have 5 minutes of quiet time, you’re thinking about what you have to buy at the grocery store, the fact that you haven’t signed him up for swimming lessons or whatever. There’s always that junk,” she says. So Zalota will encourage participants to enjoy one afternoon while letting go of those daily stresses. “Let it be quiet,” she says. “During the class, I don’t talk much. I keep saying, ‘just breathe in, breathe out’. Get in touch with your body and yourself.” Zalota created this concept with the help of Virna Lisa Steele, the owner of Eco Yoga, who named her studio due to her concern about the environment. She truly believes this 5,000-year-old practice, which blends breathing with poses to improve flexibility and strength, can be a way of life for mothers and fathers. “How can I prolong my health and longevity?” she asks. “What’s the fountain of youth? This is kind of the fountain of youth.”

The workshop will also teach women how to establish a consistent time for exercise during their busy weeks and how to develop the long-term physical endurance to keep up with growing children. Cultivating a little time for our self-preservation will improve our spirits in a variety of ways. We will have more patience, says Zalota. “You’ll sleep better. You’ll be able to let things slide a little bit more if you’re not carrying around all that tension in your upper body.” And, you don’t have to be the perfect athlete to give yoga a try. Zalota thinks even the simplest stretching maneuvers are beneficial. “You owe it to yourself and you owe it to your kids. We have to be healthy, right?” says Zalota. Oh, working, tower building, goal defending and dish washing, I’m not very good at at making me-time a priority. But if yoga teaches us anything, it’s that we must find balance.