Carin Yoga’s mission is to empower people through yoga and mindfulness to be healthy, happy and resilient in their lives. We provide professional resources to individuals and organizations who support the social, emotional, cognitive and physical wellbeing of children and adults. Our sustainable programs are successfully implemented worldwide.
About:
Sole Luna Massage & Meditation Studio is unlike any other in Provincetown or even the Cape Cod area. When you enter the studio for a massage, guided sound bath meditation, or yoga session you can expect to feel held, nurtured, and cleansed.
Founded by experienced healer Olivia Bazzano in the wake of the pandemic, Sole Luna is here to help you slow down, go inward, and rebuild.
Olivia Bazzano is a Cape Cod Native. She always knew she was meant to do Massage Therapy. Starting at a young age playing sports, she would “push” on her shins to make them feel better before every basketball game. Learning from her family friend about a career as a Massage Therapist, she looked into top schools in the States. Seeing that Bancroft School of Massage Therapy was right in Worcester and its repertoire was wider than other schools, she commuted from the Cape for her certification, graduating at age 20.
After opening her first Massage Studio in Dennis Village, she learned what it took to be successful and closed to join The Spa at Chatham Bars Inn. Once she gained over 10 years of Luxurious Spa Services and trained in a variety of modalities, she was ready to share her knowledge and expertise with the Town of Provincetown.
In 2017 she took a course in Healing Crystals and instantly felt the gravitation to how they work. That course was how she created a Healing Crystal Harvest Scrub, that was then acknowledged by Brit+Co as they wrote an article about the service.
That winter in 2018 she continued her education in Thai Massage, becoming Level 1 certified through Thai Transformation, where she has continued to work with Jeanne by planning a trip with her to Chiang Mai, Thailand to become Level 2 certified. Her trip in 2022 has been canceled due to the Pandemic but plans to travel in the near future to complete the curriculum.
In 2019 as the Lead Massage Therapist at The Spa, she traveled to the main headquarters of Naturopathica in Chelsea, New York to experience a massage. From their training and inspiration, she trained the staff on the Nirvana Stress Relief Massage that she showcased in a spa suite.
During the wild mayhem of the pandemic when the world shuts down in 2020, Olivia is enrolled in a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training, giving her amplified time to focus. In 2021 she became certified in the power of Himyalayan and crystal bowls as a Healing Sound Practitioner. She connected with Nicole Harrison, the Personal Trainer at The Spa and collaborated on the Wellness Experience combining Yoga, Thai Massage and Healing Sound Bowls.
(508) 292 5965
2025 Chaneyville Rd.
Owings, MD 20736
phone: 443-951-8194
We don’t believe in levels of yoga. Come as you are and see what’s possible.
810 Route 82
Hopewell Junction, NY 12533
Edited by Tashya Knight
PROFILES
We are so excited to chat with Maureen Benedict, the owner of Red Tail Power Yoga in NY! You can catch the full interview via our YouTube link, and here is an excerpt of our fun IG live chat we had about what it is like owning a yoga studio, surviving the pandemic, and great things coming up in 2023!
Iana
We are chatting with Maureen, owner of Redtail Power Yoga here in New York. Yoga Love magazine is based in New York City so we love supporting our local studios. It’s never easy as a small business owner but it feels extra challenging now.
Maureen, tell me about your studio. You’ve been open for a few years before the pandemic hit, so at least you had a couple of years to get your bearings before the pandemic. What was that transition like for your studio?
Maureen
We opened here February of 2018, and we had pretty much just celebrated our second birthday and then March 2020 hit. We were already live streaming from here because I had a friend and colleague who was the original brainchild of Vivaya Live and had this idea probably two years before the Pandemic hit to have an interactive wellness website, and she asked if I would help launch it. So basically in 2 hours, I had every single class up and live streamed.
Iana
You’re the first studio owner I’ve spoken to who was set up basically before everything happened. I feel like in 2018, people would have been like live streaming yoga? That sounds odd. And I love that you were open to this new idea and embracing this technology to reach your community.
Maureen
Yeah, it was really interesting. She had this idea, and I told her, well, I teach through the body, is that okay? We don’t put a mat down and demonstrate. It’s just the nature of how we teach with our eyes and our words and often our hands. So I taught live classes. I would teach the people on Zoom and the people here. Then I realized my teachers also had to stay healthy and connected to the community, and the community would miss them, too. So they learned to teach live. And so when it was that we weren’t really coming back into this physical space, then it was “from our home to yours.”
I moved the furniture, the dining room out, and that was the yoga studio. My old golden retriever, he would do savasana every time. My cat would do meditation every time. We did that pretty effortlessly. And then in June, I got a permit from the town because I knew these humans needed to get together in the community and right up the road there’s a park. So we taught outdoors four times a week. Even when we were outdoors, we still live streamed the class.
And then in August, we were back in the studio with the restrictions that New York State had, and we thought, what can we do to keep people healthy? What can we do to keep people connected? And so we still live stream every class, every single class on the schedule has the option to choose in person or view broadcast.
Iana
I love that that’s still being offered. Did you find that a lot of your community moved away during the pandemic? And have they come back or have most people stayed?
Maureen
I think in the beginning, everyone was so connected and together on the screen and really in support and then when it went on a little longer, people tended to drop off. I think in yoga in particular, there’s so much about community and connection and togetherness. We put the zoom classes on gallery view and then they were socializing and introducing their pets. When we came back in, there were still people online socializing. I think people are really ready to be in community, in connection. So, it’s been an interesting challenge.
Iana
When things got challenging, how did you get through those moments? Was there a person, a mantra, a pet, something that helped if you felt overwhelmed in that moment?
Maureen
There were definitely moments, lots of them, lots of emotion. It feels a little like despair, right? A lot of people would say, “oh, it’s so great you could keep your studio open when so many closed.” It was a conscious decision to keep the studio open. I was here to be of service for my community and my teachers, and so whatever it took to keep this place open, which meant balances on credit cards and financial commitment to hold the line.
So what was my mantra? What was my guiding faith? I have “Walk With Grace” tattooed on my arm. I actually got it for my birthday last year, because the Red Tail Hawk is my spirit animal and he always tells me to rise above, to look at the big picture, and that this too, shall pass. And that in the moment, I wanted to believe it. We’re spirits having a human experience. So to allow this human and all of the humans to have whatever experience they’re having right now is what I felt was my calling to just be space for them of love. Space of love for every human to go through whatever their human journey is taking them through right now.
“So what was my mantra? What was my guiding faith? I have ‘Walk With Grace’ tattooed on my arm. I actually got it for my birthday last year, because the Red Tail Hawk is my spirit animal and he always tells me to rise above, to look at the big picture, and that this too, shall pass. And that in the moment, I wanted to believe it.”
Iana
That’s so beautiful. And that faith, that feeling has to be so strong within you to keep moving forward, and that’s why you’re still here. It broke my heart when I would hear of a studio or a partner that had closed. It felt like a punch in the stomach every time I heard about it. And then the ones that did stay open, it was like this joyful release.
With everything you went through, and then you turned around and supported our business, which was amazing. Our business only survived, because you paid it forward and supported us. So thank you for doing that and for continuing to be that. It feels like a miracle!
Maureen
It is a miracle, right? Every breath we take is a miracle.
Iana
How has your personal practice changed in the last couple of years?
Maureen
I love getting on my mat with my teachers. We’re a family of teachers. We’re a team. So every teacher here is trained by me personally and then by each other, and they usually rise up through the community. We don’t do teacher training as a regular money maker, but we do two teacher trainings a year. I’ll do teacher training when I have people that come to me and want to give back to the community and they want to share what yoga has done for them. In their classes I show up as just love and support for them in whatever stage they are in their teacher training journey and their teacher journey.
I did an apprentice program with two people recently that also allows my teachers to step into leadership as a mentor. So I’ve gone from studio owner, mentor, and now I’m a professional life coach. I’ve stepped into those shoes this last year as well. It just was the natural evolution of me.
Iana
What did you do before you owned the studio, what was your previous life?
Maureen
It’s so funny because I like to say that I’m a cat, so I’ve had so many lives. I started as a young person in fashion sales in New York City for one of the biggest manufacturers. I was a sales executive for Liz Claiborne back in the day, and then I raised three sons. I made the conscious choice to stay home and raise my boys. During that time, I had a boutique baking business, and then I worked for a nonprofit, the Eleanor Roosevelt Center up in Hyde Park, New York. It’s the nonprofit arm that does international girls leadership and I was the assistant to the director, and then I was a yoga teacher who taught from here to Stanford, and was a Lulu ambassador for two terms. I’ve had a lot of lives.
Iana
What would one piece of advice you would give someone that’s maybe looking for a little bit of guidance to get towards their dreams or their goals? One quick piece of advice you could leave them with.
Maureen
One piece of advice for anyone that they can use at any time to move forward: Your path is where your feet are. It’s today, the present moment. If I’m opening my eyes, I’m actually focused on the present. The possibilities are there. If I’m not in fear of the future or regret of the past. Your path is where your feet are right now.
“One piece of advice for anyone that they can use at any time to move forward: Your path is where your feet are. It’s today, the present moment. If I’m opening my eyes, I’m actually focused on the present. The possibilities are there. If I’m not in fear of the future or regret of the past. Your path is where your feet are right now.”
Iana
Thank you for chatting with us this morning. Thank you for supporting us and helping us continue the work that we’re doing as well. I’m so happy to hear all the amazing things you have planned.
Maureen
Thank you for the good you guys do, and I’m honored to be a partner.
Keenly interested in health and exploration, Donna (Amrita) Davidge is a highly experienced 500 E-RYT yoga teacher. She received her Masters in Nutrition in the late 70s, then acted and modeled (living in Europe from 1982-85) from the mid 80s into the early 90s.
In 1985 Donna discovered Kundalini Yoga in New York City, practicing and studying this form as a powerful tool for healing and personal growth.
Her teacher Ravi Singh encouraged her to begin teaching within a year. Pursuing yoga avidly, she became certified by 3HO and Yoga Alliance.
She has been a full time yoga and meditation teacher ever since and can be found in NYC during the winter months when she’s not at Sewall House. She has taught tens of thousands of hours in New York City in groups and privately, as well as workshops in the Northeast, Canada, Italy, and Costa Rica.
Her first yoga teacher was Yogi Bhajan, who gave her the spiritual name Amrita (nectar) in the late 80s. She has studied Ashtanga with Eddie Stern since 1999, Dharma Mittra since 1999, and Iyengar with Genny Kapuler since 2004.
Donna’s learning and teaching continue to evolve. Having broken her back skydiving at age 22 and getting hit by a cab on her bicycle in NYC in the mid 90s, her exploration of yoga started as a self-reflection tool leading into an integration tool for body, mind and spirit through her various teachers, students and life experiences.
She views yoga as a way to grow from within and study the physical and emotional marks our life has made on us. Her teacher Yogi Bhajan said happiness is our birthright so she explores ways to serve her students in a manner that can aid them in finding health and happiness in their own lives.
She purchased the Sewall House in 1997 to keep the home in her family and to keep the legacy of her great grandfather’s life and love of nature alive.
Sewall House offered its first Yoga Teacher Training by request in 2009, with a small group of committed students.
Donna has appeared in print, on radio and television, including Martha Stewart and Good Morning America. She has produced two yoga videos; The Challenge was chosen top ten by Yoga Journal in 2000. In 2004 Donna produced two Kundalini yoga DVDs, the Awakening and Flexibility and the Spine, available on ihanuman.com. Donna has also produced two audio classes in Kundalini Yoga, with a booklet for one, and most recently a Yoga Nidra.
Share with us what you love about what you do:
I love seeing people deep dive into their mind, body and breath, connect and communicate and heal on a DEEP level.
Share with us what you have learned about LOVE:
What I have learned about LOVE is that it is the MOST important energy in life period, whether at work or play. Sewall House is blessed to have a team of LOVING karma yogis who understand the love you receive from selfless service to others self growth.
What inspired you to support Yoga Love Magazine?
I support those of us who offer yoga from a place of sincere caring to communicate and share the wonders of yoga. We know you do that and we LOVE what you share!!! Thank you for BEING and for offering all you do to the world- making us aware of other practitioners through your magazine. We are all in this together!