When I was depressed, isolated, lacking direction, I took the advice of a high school friend, Mark Wagner, and went on a week-long yoga retreat at Kripalu Center in Lenox, Mass. I did six hours of yoga practice a day. It transformed me. I laid awake in the men’s dormitory that week experiencing an abundance of energy, a completely positive mindset, a renewed spirit. The healing power of yoga seized me and made me whole. I knew then I had a new direction in life. I would become a yoga teacher. It changed the trajectory of my life for the better. When I discover something in life that is so extraordinary, my first desire is to share so others may have a similar experience. In 1995, Block Islanders were offered a tool, a resource to transform themselves if they so choose - year-round yoga classes.

I obtained my yoga certification and asked the Rev. Ray Kehew if I could offer yoga classes at Saint Andrew Parish Center. Kehew understood the potential benefits the islanders could gain from the practice of yoga as a community. And so began the practice of yoga as a community on Block Island. But the question remained; how much interest would there be in this ancient practice originating from India?

I sent out a notice to all the post office box-holders offering yoga classes and the response was a resounding yes! Seven percent of year-round residents, 56 islanders, signed up for a series of eight classes: Mary Donnelly, Joanne and John Warfel, Linda Closter, Sue Littlefield, Pam Gasner, Gail and Gerry Pierce, Jiff Blansfield, Fr. Ray Kehew, Charlotte Herring, Lonni Todd, Chris Littlefield, Lyn Brown, Kathy Ernst, Mary Anderson, and Nancy Pike, to name a few who participated.

The April 22, 1995 edition of The Block Island Times published an article elaborating on how islanders were benefiting from yoga. “Several claimed that it improved their relationships with their spouses and friends, making them less likely to snap during a trying moment. Others insisted that it curbed their appetites and improved their reasoning abilities.”

In the spring of 1999, I decided to continue my search for a deeper understanding of my own purpose in life. I left the island for New Mexico to study all aspects of yoga, chant, and meditation with my teacher Sonia Nelson and made seven pilgrimages to India over the next two decades to enrich my inner life. It was in New Mexico that I integrated the subtler aspects of yoga with Centering Prayer and Christian meditation. I was invited to teach alongside the leading contemplative Catholic teachers of our time, Fr. Richard Rohr and Fr. Thomes Keating.

Before I left, I wanted to ensure that the practice of yoga continued on the island. I chose Sue Littlefield—who had shown the greatest enthusiasm as my student— to continue the teachings as she emerged from student to teacher.

-Jim Reale

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The first time I experienced yoga, Jim was leading a pre-certification practice session at the Warfel’s, before his training at Kripalu. He invited us to fold into a forward bend, head below heart. As I experienced this change of perspective, focusing on physical sensations instead of mental thoughts, I was hooked. We were taught to turn towards our bodies and breathe with care, to deepen our relationship to what we discovered internally, to listen to the inner wisdom and most importantly, to practice self-compassion. The first yoga series Jim led at St. Andrew Parish Center started on my birthday in 1995. I have practiced ever since.

Continuing Jim’s tradition, I became a Kripalu certified yoga teacher, offering sessions year-round, so that all could benefit. Block Island Yoga classes became a refuge for islanders in the off-season when the population, employment, and day length dropped to the low point of the year. We gathered in the back of St. Andrew Parish Center with the folding door closed, looking through the sliding doors, soaking up the beauty of the winter sea and seals. During the summer, islanders snuck into early or evening classes between multiple work shifts. Summer residents, weekly renters and even day-trippers made it an annual tradition to attend classes. Parents invited their sons, on leave from active duty in the military, to join in the practice of inner peace. Hikers taking a hiatus from the Appalachian Trail, dropped into stretch and rest. Children invited their parents to try yoga after being introduced to the practice at school. Loved ones from around the world, gathering on family holiday, joined class together.

Throughout the 28 years of Block Island Yoga offerings at St. Andrew Parish Center, participants found community and healing after traumatic losses, personal and family tragedies, local and national crises. Community members sought support and guidance before and after surgery. Others benefitted from the practice by finding presence for their beloved during their dying journey.

Yoga was brought into the Block Island School, in health classes and for 20 years of sixth grade Roots and Wings retreats. A teacher told me, “I have never seen them be this still in the seven years I have known them”. A yoga CD, entitled, “Tidal Flow” was released in 2007, and beginning in 2008, weekly, year-round classes were supplemented with bi-annual, daylong restorative yoga retreats on the island and in several locations in New England.

After leading classes for 23 years, it was time for me to pass the teaching torch. In 2019, Gwendolyn Alker stepped up and has continued the tradition of Block Island Yoga practice at the Parish Center. Jim, Gwendolyn and I are so grateful for the generosity of Father Kehew, Father Protano, and St. Andrew Parish for welcoming the yoga community to the Parish Center during all these years. Please join us on August 21st for closing activities for Block Island Yoga (information on our website, www.blockislandyoga.com). We shall see what the future holds.

World peace begins with individuals planting the seeds of self-love and self-compassion and relating and taking action from there. May the practice of yoga offer peace to all. -Sue Littlefield

Block Island Times - https://www.blockislandtimes.com/news/the-history-of-block-island-yoga/article_e8e3be2c-5c0f-11ef-8f67-c763093ddc35.html