MEET JEN, THE ELDER FLOWER
The Elder Flower is a soft place to land.
We explore the wild, community, creativity and all eight limbs of yoga to create our most beautiful lives, free from the suffering of addiction.
The Yoga House started as my home and sanctuary. It wasn’t long before it filled with collaborators, teachers and people sharing their recovery, helping each other heal and experience belonging.
The online studio provides free resources and helps to fund the free live classes with pay-what-you-can offerings and workshops.
Hi, I’m Jen!
I’m an elder flower too, the name hinting at my delight in my life stage and sharing a connection to a medicinal plant that grows on this land.
I am not sure if I fit into an “about me” box. Do I compartmentalize my life into neat and tidy bullets, while the reality is a mixture of messy and successful, gutteraly painful and brilliantly joyful?
When I put down my glass of wine in 2016, the veil dropped on a host of ‘monsters’ staring at me, and I had to face them, one at a time.
There they were: a dysfunctional marriage, self depreciation, over functioning at work and in relationships, disordered eating, I could go on.
I refused to be the stereotypical person in recovery, barely holding on to that styrofoam cup of coffee in a church basement. “Conquering” was what I was used to. Making peace with my beasts, that took getting used to.
I insisted on building a life full of depth & connection.
All of the beauty was there, just out of my view because when I live in the “spin” of addiction, my aperture narrows, and I obsessively live in my head. I do not notice the wonder that I am a part of.
All of my effort and energy were focused on survival. I was applauded for my resilience, I was the one who could do it all but inside I was suffocating under the pressure.
How could I make the changes I needed and still provide for myself?
How could I let even one of the dozens of spinning plates I was trying to maintain fall to the ground? When they start falling (as they do when one woman tries to hold up the whole world)
How does one go about creating a beautiful life?
While speaking at a real estate conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia I rented a car to do a little solo travel. I stayed at the most darling inns along the way, but they all catered to couples & drinking culture.
I thought: “There should be an Inn for Tired Women” where the book collection was curated, yoga was offered, there were art supplies, a crackling fire, soft blankets and a tea bar.
One of my wise friends Erin tasked me to create that inn for myself first.
And I did. The Elder Flower was born.
I wish I could promise a life free from suffering, but alas, I can not. What I can do is share the journey with you.
What’s different about this approach is that I see recovery as a life hack. It’s among my most treasured accomplishments and has brought bottomless abundance, meaning and depth to my life. I enjoy rich connections, sacred time in nature and am deliberately creating an abundant life.
And yes, I still struggle. I don’t crave a drink anymore, but I actively navigate ADHD, catastrophic thinking and overwhelm using the tools found in yoga.
Yoga has taught me that the practice is the point. It’s the MIDDLE that counts, not the very end. Decide for yourself if you would like to add beauty, ritual and CELEBRATE the journey of recovery you are on.
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“I had dabbled in yoga before but was unfamiliar with the concept of recovery yoga when I had my first experience at Elder Flower.
It not only offered physical movement; it created a warm, welcoming space and invited me to inhabit my body, quiet my restless mind, and reconnect with the essence of myself. Meeting me exactly where I needed to be met emotionally and gently nurturing my spirit, I found a sense of peace, gentle restoration, and a feeling of belonging.”
- THERESA