I can't believe I almost forgot to post this on here. There is a link to my Facebook below (on the footer) or find me on Instagram (@coraleyl) to enter. Steps 1-3, complete with #'s, must be completed to be eligible (step 4 is optional but encouraged☺️)

Good luck!


#Giveaway time! Win this beautiful #Moltenlavamala by #malacollective by following the steps below:
1) follow @coraleyl on Instagram and/or Coraley Letcher Yoga on Facebook (it's okay if you can't do both 😘)
2) share this post to help spread the word
3) post a picture of yourself in a prenatal yoga pose (you don't need to be female or pregnant to do this) with the hashtags #prenatalwithcoraleygiveaway and #ferniestoke
4) (optional) share your birth story or how yoga helped to support your pregnancy/labour (birth partners - feel free to share your experience/perspective too!). Hashtag #empower #share #support (key themes in my prenatal/postnatal classes) if you choose to participate in step four.

Winner will be chosen at random on August 1st. Good luck!

Mid-January I took a break from yoga to get back to my dancing roots by helping out Shred Kelly with their new music video Sing to the Night. It was a super fun project to work on and I think they nailed the choreography, don't you? http://exclaim.ca/Music/article/shred_kelly-sing_to_night_video

I'm off tomorrow to start my 500h training in Edmonton.  I'm thrilled and I can't wait to share with you some of the inspiration and insights that I'll be all fired up with when I get back to Fernie next week! Until then, here's a little update on some of the exciting things that I've got going on.

Five punch classes for my regular, in-town classes  (check the schedule section of the website for dates and times) are on sale at an introductory price of $40/pass.  That works out to only $8 a class. No expiry.

Retreat to Nature at Island Lake Lodge
Join my June 16th to 19th at the amazing Island Lake Lodge for yoga, hiking, nature walks, fine food and more.  Pricing, details and tentative schedule available under the workshops tab of the website.  Limited space available for the standard room option - book early to avoid disappointment!

February 14th special class - TBA
I'm cooking up an awesome collaboration with a local business for an amazing Valentine's Day experience.  Check back soon for the details!

PS. Visit my Facebook page Coraley Letcher Yoga and click on the Retreat to Nature event page for a special offer.

This post will be short, not because I want it to be but because nearly EVERY post I've tried to write over the last few months has been deleted by my (much appreciated, but extremely frustrating) loaner netbook.  I've promised myself that for the sake of my sanity and my writing commitments, I WILL stop procrastinating and  buy an new computer ASAP. Anyway, I am persevering and getting a short but sweet update post to you (finally) - soon to be followed by more interesting posts, I promise.
I am so excited by all of the exciting opportunities I've been blessed with in the New Year.  I've got several collaborations with Fernie businesses in the works and will be teaching out of several new locations around town as well.  I'll be updating the schedule as details are firmed up.  For January so far you can find me teaching Vinyasa Flow Tuesday mornings 9:45-11am and a workshop series "Ignite Your Intention" Wednesday nights 7-8:30pm both out of The Arts Station. Drop in and punch pass rates available.
More updates on where you can catch a class with me and other exciting yoga news in Fernie coming soon! In the meantime, share with me your exciting news or adventures that you've planned for the new year.

As soon as I plucked it out of my mailbox, I began to read Angie Abdou's latest novel Between. In the  lead-up to the novel's release it was touted as being a book about Filipina nannies, gambling and hot yoga. It had all of that, and more.  Decidedly less yoga than other activities, including drinking, drugs, and a healthy dose of sex, but that was okay - Angie comes to my yoga classes and so I was happy not to see shades of myself splattered throughout the yoga scenes, though I've heard that you rarely are able to identify yourself in novels anyway (perhaps there are pieces of me in Roger, the middle-aged, hot short wearing, yoga teacher;-) Though it isn't a book about yoga, per say, I'd highly recommend Between to anyone looking for a good Can Lit read and a good laugh. And though the yoga takes a back seat to the other themes in the novel, there's some definite food for thought in the spaces between what's written and what we perceive about yoga. 
I've had Angie as a teacher for several university courses, I've been her carpool buddy, hung out with her for coffee and read to her from my deepest, darkest, memoirs during writing festivals.  She's a damn good teacher and a lover of all things literature -particularly good grammar and dark humour.  It's because of her hard ass approach to teaching the  English language that many a student has left her class with a much better grip on proper grammar. So it is fitting that this post about her book be shared with my promotion of Grammarly's Promote Literacy Program.
It just so happened that around the time Between was released, I saw a post on Grammarly searching for bloggers to help them spread the word about literacy.  I wrote to them right away saying I'd be keen to help them out.  It took a while for them to respond, but that's a good thing.  As it turns out, they have had such a great response to the program that it was taking a while to respond to everyone.  So what is the deal anyway? Grammarly, who anyone that happens to be friends with me on Facebook probably knows, is an awesome blog about grammar that posts even more awesome memes about grammar. Oh snap, my literary nerdiness is showing.  Their Promote Literacy Program(http://www.grammarly.com/blog/2014/promote-literacy-with-grammarly/) is a push to get the word out about the importance of literacy, not just for students, but for adults in the workforce too.  For every blogger that posts about the program, Grammarly will donate to a charity that works to alleviate illiteracy. Follow the link to learn more and if you have a blog consider participating.  In the high tech age that we live in, written communication is more important than ever before, together we can work to eradicate illiteracy (a feat that would make Angie very happy, I'm sure;-)

The black dust from the road floats up in plumes behind the car as Em coos "goin' to get huckles, Mom" from the backseat.  It's a hot July day and even though I've driven Coal Creek road a thousand times before I'm struck again by the relentless heat of the sun shining on the road, when only a few feet to either side the lush and thick forest rests.  The forest here is always at least a few degrees cooler than the temperature on the road, which carves through the forest floor like a long winding black scar amidst the vibrant shades of green.  Magic is the word I use most often to describe Coal Creek.  Call it a throw over from a childhood spent marveling at the knowledge that a town used to thrive here, where now only a few scraps of cabins and remnants of old mine shafts sprinkle the forest, invisible, save only  to those actively on the lookout for them, but I doubt you could spend a few hours fishing the creek, with its moss covered slabs of rock and trickling waterfalls, or hiking the impossibly green, thickly treed mountains that rise to either side of the coal dust road, like sentries sat guarding a treasure, and not agree with me.  From the giant ammonite hidden nestled in a drainage, to the rusty coffee tins and shards of plates that the creek drudges up to the surface each year after spring run-off, perhaps part of what makes this area so special is its secrets.  They whisper of a past here that we can only imagine now. 
We pull over to park and I get us set up, gathering the bucket and backpack together and fishing Em's hat out of the back seat.  He's picking raspberries from a bush next to the car, in awe at their presence, bright like shining red rubies amongst the leaves, and his luck at getting to eat them.  "Come on, lets get over to the huckleberries now" I prod, and he reluctantly joins me in crossing the road and climbing the bank. The last mine in Coal Creek closed down in 1958, but remnants of the community that existed here remain.  Every year the graduates from Fernie Secondary hold a grad party in the old football field.  The foundations from old bridges still lay to either side of the creek. Locals hike up to the old sealed mine entrances on a trail marked with collapsed mining shacks.
When I was young I would sit in rapture, eating baked goodies off of a fancy plate and sipping sweat tea while my Grandma Grace told stories about growing up in Coal Creek:  attending community football games, hanging out at the swimming hole, going in to "town" (Fernie) for a movie.  As a child the stories fascinated me because it was hard for me to imagine that the wilderness I had caught my first fish in once held an entire town, but as I've gotten older I've realized that all of her stories about Coal Creek held a common theme.  They all were woven together with an  undercurrent of community ties running through them, and when she told them, it was as though, even with the decades that had passed between, that community was still alive and strong. She passed a few years ago, but her stories and that sense of community they build are still alive and strong, I gleefully discovered, as I listened to a few of them through headphones, a picture of a young Grandma Grace from long before I was born next to the headphone wire, at the Fernie Museum in June.
It was the week after the Feel Good Fernie and community was definitely on my mind.  I was sad to see the festival end because throughout it I was wonderfully overwhelmed by the sense of community that had formed between the yogis from both far and near.  And so I found myself, as I squatted on the mossy forest floor filling my bucket, my toddler next to me gleefully munching on huckleberries and naming members of his family that he wished were there with us enjoying this moment too, thinking about Grandma Grace and her stories, thinking about huckleberry picking with my Dad and other family members when I was a little girl, and thinking of ways to capture and keep that essence of community the festival created.  A story seemed like a good place to start.

Were you at Feel Good Fernie? They are holding a contest for the best photos of the day! Check out their Instagram (@FeelGoodFernie) or their Facebook (World Record Attempt-Fernie BC) for details!

Teaching a yin and yang flow class this morning I was struck by how much I enjoy teaching that particular style of class.  Yin and yang has such balance that it can be hard to beat for an all around, feel good, yoga class and I more often than not find myself giving words on the importance of striving for balance and encouraging students to try and find it in their day-to-day lives as class ends. But as I left the studio today my thoughts on the beauty of balance slipped away.  I had, and have had, so much on my plate with the Feel Good Fernie festival coming up, that I've not been practicing balance in my own life.  From making time for family, to taking care of my out of class yoga responsibilities (this blog included) to making some me time, I've let it all slide. 
On my to-do list for the day was securing meeting venues for the upcoming volunteer meetings this week.  I was leaving the director of the Fernie library's office when she said to me "I really enjoy your blog.  Well, I was . You haven't posted much lately." As the excuses came forth, matched in measure by my own disappointment in my lack of finding the time to blog, I felt a memory stirring in the back of my mind from yoga teacher training.  We all have excuses and stories we serve up to ourselves and to others, but at the end of the day, what we do, or don't do has everything to do with us.  Couldn't I be taking the time for the other aspects of my life too? Has the universe withheld chances for me to look after myself, my yoga business, or spending time with my family? No.  Plain and simple.  I've chosen to put the festival first.  To take on more responsibility for it.  To handle spreadsheets, emails and requests for sponsorship  before giving myself a chance to blog, update the website, write an article or post to my followers on Facebook. 
So this afternoon, as my little one naps, I find myself here.  And you know what? The way my spirit feels, having made the choice to write instead of putting something else first, resembles the way I feel after teaching or taking a beautifully balanced yin and yang class.  Balance.  It's a beautiful space to reside in.