About
Hello!
My name is Amy Jane Nosal (she/her) and I am a yoga instructor living in Ironwood, Michigan, within the treaty-ceded territories of Ojibwe tribes. Having explored various forms of yoga and meditation practices for over ten years, I became a certified and registered yoga instructor in 2020. I've trained with Yoga North in Duluth, Minnesota to study SomaYoga, a practice which blends classic yoga and Somatics for therapeutic outcomes.
Home Body Yoga is an evolving exploration into practices of awareness and relaxation. May we weave threads of curious practice to know home within ourselves!
Hombody: one whose life centers on home (noun; Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
home body: A publication of poems and drawings by Rupi Kaur (2020; Contains references to sexual and physical abuse)
i dive into the well of my body
and end up in another world
everything i need
already exists in me
there’s no need
to look anywhere else
– home
Language is an evolving, collective expression of the physical and beyond. It is the nature of language to change and consequently change how we see and relate to the world.
I experience soulful inspiration and gratitude when I read Rupi Kaur. In creating a pause between home and body, there is an invitation to deeply reflect on relationship between the two. The practice is confusing and uncomfortable sometimes. Yoga befriends all of our experiences with a mindful and intuitive embrace towards liberation in claiming right relationship with ourselves and each other.
Services Offered
Studio instruction
Private sessions
Community events
Private events
Practices for knowing and relaxing
SomaYoga is a form of asana (physical posture) practice which blends classic yoga and Somatics for therapeutic outcomes. That is, to feel more ease in our bodies!
Classic yoga is studied within an 8-limb framework and includes breathing, meditation, ethics, awakening and oneness.
Somatics is about re-educating different muscle and muscle groups in our body and how we control them.
Past Classes and Events
Resources for Learning and Community
Practicing yoga and exploring wellness is an individual and community endeavor. Below are a few of the folks that I enjoy learning from.
Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat Zinn (1990)
This book outlines the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program. MBSR was my first introduction into meditation and its healing impacts. The training is available for free at https://palousemindfulness.com/.
Lights on the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali by B.K.S. Iyengar (1993)
An essential read for yoga philosophy, this translation and commentary was offered by the influential and global guru B.K.S. Iyengar. I studied the Iyengar lineage with Felicia Santini and Larry Sands, both of whom teach at NRG Fitness (see below).
Somatics by Thomas Hanna (1988)
A foundational text in the field of Somatics and its sensory-motor awareness practices for regaining and maintaining physical health. "What physiologists see from their externalized, third-person view is alway a 'body.' What the individual sees from his or her internalized, first-person view is always a 'soma.'...The somatic viewpoint recognizes not only that human beings are bodily beings who can become victims of physical and organic forces, but also that they are equally somatic beings who can change themselves."
generative somatics is a collective infusing somatic theory into the development of social and climate justice movements.
"Somatics is a practice-able theory of change that can move us toward individual, community, and collective liberation through working to embody transformation. Somatics with a social analysis understands the need for deep personal transformation, aligned with liberatory community/collective practices, connected to transformative systemic change. They are inextricable and support each other. "
The Art of Holding Space by Heather Plett (2020)
"Holding Space is the practice of compassionately witnessing, accepting, and supporting someone without judgement, while retaining your boundaries and sense of self." I admire Heather's journey and continued commitment to instilling mutual-beneficial paradigms and practices for relating to ourselves and each other.
The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor (2018)
This book is an important example of the brave heart work required - and absolutely possible - in social justice efforts. Scaling back and forth through the individual to collective levels of our social systems, Sonya demonstrates the why and how to explore our understandings of ourselves as part of being the communities we want to live in.
Felicia Santini and Larry Sands are Iyengar yoga instructors who teach at NRG Fitness in Ironwood, Michigan. Healing Hands Therapy is Larry's massage and bodywork.
Gogebic Yoga, online SomaYoga classes and community led by Anna Wakefield, often in partnership with Ali Zuba of SOMALIVE
Serene1yoga, a variety of classes available periodically across the Gogebic Range by Serena Mershon Lohkamp
Rooted Soul Yoga Studio in Mercer, Wisconsin hosted by Amanda Easter
5 Koshas Yoga & Wellness in Wausau, Wisconsin offers a variety of in-person and online classes including practices of the gentle and focused Viniyoga tradition.
