Welcome to CENTRAL MASS YOGA AND WELLNESS, INC. founded in February 2000 by Lucy Cimini, Registered Yoga Teacher, 500 hr. CMYW is a school and resource center for wellness, as well as a flourishing yoga community for all ages and abilities. We are perfectly situated next to the beautiful Wachusett Reservoir in the Causeway Crossing Professional Building, 45 Sterling Street, (Route 12) 2nd floor, #28 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Parking is abundant in both the front and back lots and our yoga studio is accessible to the handicapped through the back entrance ramp. We have three clean and peaceful spaces for your practice. Our heated studio has recently been renovated with a lovely wood floor. All three studios are fully equipped with props which provide helpful spinal extension. Central Mass Yoga’s teaching community has depth as well as breadth.
Our classes include: gentle, beginner, moderate, advanced, vinyasa, heated, heated core, power, women’s, teens & tweens, kettlebell, prenatal, restorative, Yoga Warriors (for combat veterans), kripalu, meditation, yin yoga, prenatal and so much more! Students look forward to our weekend workshops and events on a variety of themes. CMYW offers a 200 and 500 hour yoga teacher training approved by the National Yoga Alliance. We also enjoy a yearly retreat to the Maine coast. Retreat registration is limited and open to all students of yoga.
CMYW classes draw from three traditional lineages of yoga: Hatha, Iyengar, and Ashtanga. By combining the strengths of each, we have created programs that offer the best yoga available to beginners and advanced students. Our classes safely offer students greater and longer lasting benefits.
Our certified and experienced teachers bring significant talent and spirituality to their teaching. The discipline and philosophy of each instructor will be different as yoga is a personal thing. Even instructors who have been certified from the same institution often have different approaches, personalities, and teaching styles. At Central Mass Yoga And Wellness, we have certified instructors who bring significant talent and spirituality to their practice. All of our teachers are certified yoga teachers at the 200 and 500 hour level. Learn more about them by reading their brief biographies or taking a class with them.
YOGA WARRIORS INTERNATIONAL
Lucy Cimini is also the founder of Yoga Warriors International™ (2005) and the subject matter expert of the published Iraq study,Jan. 2012; American Journal Of Occupational Therapy.
Yoga Warriors International (www.yogawarriors.com) is a movement-based program that integrates treatment principles from the field of neuro rehabilitation and cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Yoga Warriors incorporates evidence-based treatments for PTSD (Kirkuk, Iraq study 2009 , Published in the Journal of Occupational Therapy, Jan. 2012). The Iraq study was a formal collaboration between Yoga Warriors (Lucy Cimini), the US Army Institute of Surgical Research, and Major Jon Greuel, USAF, Principle Investigator.
The yoga classes include slow, rhythmic yoga movements to calm the mind, breath work to reduce hyper arousal (which is the hallmark of PTSD), and affirmations/guided relaxation techniques adopted from cognitive-behavioral therapy. Using an interdisciplinary approach enables us to tackle the problem of combat stress and PTSD from both the bottom-up (i.e. body affecting the brain) and top-down (i.e. brain affecting the body).
Classes are currently being taught throughout the United States and Canada as well as overseas to deployed military from more than 250 certified Yoga Warriors teachers.
Mission of Yoga Warriors International™
To alleviate symptoms of combat stress (COSR) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and increase the resilience of critical task performers working in high stress environments, including affected caregivers and family members by providing evidence-based yoga practices.
PERSONAL WELCOME FROM LUCY
Discovering yoga while in college, it truly became the forefront of my life in the early 1990's after relocating to the enchanting seaport, Cape Elizabeth, Maine. It was here that, while foraging through used bookstores, I found many classic books on yoga philosophy. These revered masters included Swami Rama, Rudolph Ballentine, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, and more. This proved to be a most fortuitous discovery since it led to my first classes at Portland Yoga Studio. Elaine McGillicuddy was my first and still most influential teacher. She is, indeniably, a true "master". It was through her that I learned and brought the Iyengar influence into my teaching.
Realizing the life-changing potential of yoga, I knew right away that I wanted to become a teacher. I enrolled in the Teachers Training Program at the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Philosophy and Science (www.himalayaninstitute.org). The commute from my home in Maine to the Institute was over 8 hours. While inconvenient, I recognized that it was necessary in order to obtain the very best training in Hatha Yoga.
In your journey with Central Mass Yoga And Wellness, my wish is that you find more than you initially sought; not only relief from your back pain, arthritis, or healing from depression, but a path that leads you into your own soul... into the deep depths of grace. And within this still point, may you find peace.
Namaste, Lucy
