Cultivating health and harmony at RNH

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Every Saturday morning, a group of Riverdale residents gathers at the Riverdale Neighborhood House (RNH) to take part in a hatha yoga session.

Program Coordinator Rob Adelman described the approach to the class as “one size fits all.” The class caters to everyone from absolute beginners to more experienced practitioners.

The yoga sessions are part of RNH’s Health and Harmony program, a slew of classes aimed at boosting participants’ spirituality and physical and emotional wellbeing. The program started in October 2015 with a weight loss class.

Classes cover a wide range of activities, including meditation and coping with grief.

Mr. Adelman, who runs the weekly meditation group, was drawn to the practice seven years ago because of his stressful job. He said finding meditation “changed his life” as he became  “calmer and happier.”

Through taking and attending different meditation gatherings, Mr. Adelan eventually met Dan Eudene, RNH’s executive director.

Mr. Eudene said that Mr. Adelan came to him full of ideas, and that is how the program developed into what it is today.

The director went on to say that RNH is open to all members of the community and that their goal is to serve residents with the facilities and programs they need. 

Next month, the Health and Harmony program will introduce a new workshop called Masks of Love and Loss. Mr. Adelman, who has taken the class before, said that the idea behind the workshop is to help people deal with all types of loss, not just the loss of a loved one. 

“I went through it myself. The workshop involved discussion and at the core was a blank mask. The idea was to create an expression mask of the loss you were dealing with,” he said.

Mr. Adelman added that he used the workshop to help deal with a goal he never achieved, saying he broke down in tears at one point. The experience made him aware of how attached he had been to the goal, he said.

“It’s all about expressing the inexpressible,” explained Mr. Adelman. “It was an unforgettable experience.”

The Masks of Love and Loss workshop will run on Saturday, June 18.

Riverdale Nursing Home, Yoga, Jennifer Purdy

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