Yoga can be for everybody at Color of Life

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
COLOR OF LIFE YOGA STUDIO — Registered Yoga Teacher Becky Feaser offers classes for all ages and abilities at her Color of Life Yoga Studio at the Union Square Mall in Dover-Foxcroft

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Having grown up in Dover-Foxcroft, Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) Becky Feaser lived for a time in Arizona where, on a whim at the age of 39, she decided to go through yoga teacher training at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in Tempe. In 2013 Feaser moved back to Maine, where she began to teach yoga classes before opening her own Color of Life Yoga Studio which offers classes for all ages and abilities.

Feaser said she grew up with a passion for gymnastics and began teaching the sport at 18. She would later discover yoga, finding the discipline to have some similarities to gymnastics but being kinder to the body.

“Then I moved to Arizona and gymnastics went by the wayside,” Feaser said, saying yoga was also put on the back-burner while she was working.

“I never intended to be a yoga teacher,” Feaser said. She studied holistic nutrition at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts “and I didn’t want to leave.” She said at this time she got involved with yoga again and, “It just hit something with me and I really loved it.”

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom TREE POSE — Becky Feaser demonstrates the tree pose with the aum symbol on the wall behind her.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom STUDIO SPACE — Yoga class participants can lay their mats out on the floor as they go through their various poses.

Upon moving back to Maine, Feaser served as a yoga instructor at the Piscataquis Regional YMCA while working other jobs. In 2015 she opened her own studio at the Union Square Mall, starting on one side of the building before moving across the hall where she has more space for the various programs. Feaser said yoga classes are offered at a few other locations across the region, but hers is the only studio in the region

Feaser said the studio name refers to the colors of the chakra or “energy centers through your body” which are displayed with symbols and corresponding colors on several banners hung at the studio. She said with holistic nutrition she teaches “that you eat the colors of the rainbow to get all your nutrition and this transitioned to yoga.”

The current chakra at Color of Life Studio is that of the heart, which is green in color. “We work our way through all of them, twice a year,” Feaser said. She said the physical aspects of the heart chakra include the heart, lungs, shoulders, arms and chest, and mental components are giving and receiving love, balance, healing, charity, compassion and self love.

While Feaser said she is a firm believer in the chakras, she does not try to be spiritual in her classes. She simply has her students be more aware of the energy around them, “Just thinking a little beyond what you normally do.”

“I teach all the classes myself,” Feaser said, with sessions offered for all ages and abilities. “I want everyone to be able to do yoga. No one who has ever left a class has felt worse.” She said classes usually have two or three participants and a session with five to seven taking part “is my large class.”

The current schedule has classes throughout the day Monday through Thursday and on Saturdays, with each session usually lasting for an hour. Feaser said the first class is free to enable someone to try yoga.

Feaser is also available for private – one to two people – and semi-private – three to five participants – classes created specifically for those taking part.

The Color of Life Yoga Studio beginner classes are designed to those new to the discipline or with restricted flexibility while all class levels feature a mix of easy and challenging poses with beginners welcome. “It doesn’t matter what class you do, I modify it,” Feaser said, as about those trying their hand at more advanced sessions.

She said the chair yoga classes feature participants using a chair for assistance in modified poses and can be for those with limited mobility or who may not be comfortable going to the floor.

Core yoga is aimed at this part of the body, and the rest and relax classes are aimed to restore. Prenatal classes features yoga modified for pregnancy.

“I have lots of props,” Feaser said. Mats and blankets help yoga participants feel comfortable as many poses are performed on the floor. Blocks and straps are also used. The straps can help extend a reach “just to make our arms a little bit longer,” she said.

Feaser said her “Lil’ Yogis” classes are a fun way to introduce yoga to children ages 3-5 as parent and child can spend quality time together. Free childcare is offered for some classes and can be arranged on other dates and times with advance notice.

Classes are also offered outside, weather permitting. Feaser said she has sessions at Kiwanis Park on Wednesday mornings and offers roof yoga early Tuesday mornings at the Center Coffee House rooftop seating area.

“I take suggestions,” Feaser said. “Someone said ‘I really want this class’ so I said OK I will make this class for you.”

In the near future Color of Life Yoga Studio will begin offering barre classes. “It’s more like ballet, it’s all legs for the work,” she said, with a ballet barre used for support.

Color of Life Yoga Studio is located in the Union Square Mall at 64 East Main St., Suite G in Dover-Foxcroft. For more information, please call Feaser at 279-9070 or go to coloroflifestudio.massageplanet.com or www.facebook.com/coloroflifestudio.