Any Body Yoga & Wellness

Any Body Yoga & Wellness Trauma-informed somatic yoga & wellness practice in Harvard, MA. Yoga, TRE®, Neurogenic Yoga™, Buteyko Breathing, & meditation, in-person and online.

Nervous system regulation for adults, including women in perimenopause & menopause.

This is me and Aly, a lovely resident from the Harvard Alpaca Ranch. Look at her smile! She’s so special. I’ve driven pa...
07/29/2026

This is me and Aly, a lovely resident from the Harvard Alpaca Ranch. Look at her smile! She’s so special.
I’ve driven past the alpaca ranch dozens of times wanting to stop, and this past weekend I finally did.
I visited because I finally had a “valid reason” to - my bestie in from out of town, kids needing an adventure, perfect Sunday weather.
But let’s be real for a moment. I could have stopped any time I really wanted. I just did not give myself permission to. There was always something more important to do.

And… 30 minutes wandering among the alpacas, asking our guide questions (thanks, Riley!), noticing new smells, looking at these fuzzy faces, wondering if alpacas spit like camels and llamas (yes, they do, but thankfully not on my visit), was exactly what I needed to relax and just BE for a little while. The constant to-do list running through my brain went blissfully silent.

This is what I mean when I talk about nervous system regulation. It’s not always breathwork and tremoring and sitting with discomfort. Sometimes it’s stopping at the alpaca farm, finding the whimsy, doing the fun thing you’ve been wanting to do for months when life had more serious things to do.

Life always has more serious things to do. Stop anyway.

What’s your alpaca farm?

🪷shaileen🪷
Shaileen Patton


07/27/2026

This is Little Ben. He came from a leaf pruned from Big Ben, my 8ft tall fiddle leaf fig that couldn’t move with us to Massachusetts. Little Ben struggled after our move. I finally pruned him.
Within a week - three new leaves. I’m sorry I waited so long to help you out, Little Ben.
Sometimes we have to remove what is draining us before we can grow. Is your energy going to old growth or new?
🪷 shaileen 🪷

Virabhadrasana 3/Warrior 3 asks something deceptively simple: stand on one leg, extend the other behind you, keep everyt...
07/24/2026

Virabhadrasana 3/Warrior 3 asks something deceptively simple: stand on one leg, extend the other behind you, keep everything parallel to the floor. However, the upper body and the standing leg get all the awareness in this pose. You feel your arms, your shoulders, your gaze point. You feel your foot and ankle wobbling precariously. You steady your gaze to maintain your balance. Meanwhile…

The lifted leg is doing whatever it wants, at whatever height it fancies, with toes pointing somewhere between 3 and 7 on a clock face.
Most of us hold Warrior 3 significantly lower than we think we do. Hip height is the goal. Most bodies land somewhere around knee height and are convinced the leg is too high. Proprioception is off.

The toes are a separate conversation. Pointing toward the floor is correct (as I was trained), but the rotation that gets the toes pointing there needs to come from the femur/thigh bone, from the hip socket, not from the ankle. Rotating at the ankle to aim the toes downward bypasses the hip entirely and sends unwanted work to the knee, which, as we have established in this series, is a hinge joint that does not rotate without complaint.
Rotate the whole leg. Femur, knee, ankle, toes, all turning together as one unit. Your body knows the shortcut. The invitation now is to find the long way instead.

Suggestion: Start in table top pose (hands and knees) and lift one leg behind you. Look under the body or over the shoulder at your leg. Is it hip height? Where are the toes pointing? Adjust as needed, lifting and rotating the entire leg. Now pause and feel. Notice what this (possibly) new sensation feels like. Memorize it. Now come up to Warrior 3 and replicate that feeling. Use a mirror or another human gaze that will be honest with you. Where is that lifted leg now? Just notice. Breathe. Adjust as needed.

Happy Friday, lovelies. Rest well this weekend.
🪷shaileen🪷
link in bio
Shaileen Patton

You’ve woken up at 3am. Again.You lie there running through the list. Did you eat too late? Too much screen time? Is it ...
07/20/2026

You’ve woken up at 3am. Again.
You lie there running through the list. Did you eat too late? Too much screen time? Is it cortisol? Is it menopause? Is this just your life now?
Here’s something most women have never been told: your breath may be waking you up.
During perimenopause and menopause, progesterone, a hormone that directly stimulates the drive to breathe, becomes erratic and eventually drops significantly. Less progesterone means shallower breathing overnight, more frequent pauses in breath, and a nervous system that keeps pulling you out of deep sleep to say: Hey, breathe!

A pause or cessation in breathing during sleep like this is sleep apnea. (For my fellow etymology lovers: The word apnea comes from the Greek “without breath”.) Sleep apnea exists on a spectrum. At the severe end is the version most people recognize: loud snoring, gasping, a CPAP machine on the nightstand. But at the subtler end are brief pauses in breathing that trigger just enough of a stress response to lift you out of deep sleep but without obvious snoring and gasping. Just a 3am wake-up that makes no sense.

Ladies, our risk of sleep-disordered breathing like sleep apnea increases by 200% by the time we hit menopause officially. Most women are never screened for sleep apnea because nobody thinks to look.

The Buteyko Breathing Method (BBM) improves carbon dioxide (CO2) tolerance, meaning the nervous system becomes less reactive to the drops in CO2 (thanks, progesterone) that trigger arousal from sleep. Better CO2 tolerance means fewer micro-arousals. Fewer micro-arousals means more uninterrupted sleep. BBM has proven in studies time and again to improve if not eliminate sleep apnea no matter the cause. Look up the research.

BBM is not a quick fix. It is a training process. And it works.

Curious about the Buteyko Breathing Method? DM me or schedule a free consultation.
link in bio
🪷 shaileen 🪷

Virabhadrasana I, Warrior 1, used in Sun Salutation B and most flow classes. It looks deceptively simple. One leg bent, ...
07/17/2026

Virabhadrasana I, Warrior 1, used in Sun Salutation B and most flow classes. It looks deceptively simple. One leg bent, the other straight, two arms straight up to the sky, face forward. How hard can it be?
I’m so glad you asked!

The pose asks for squared hips, meaning the pelvis or hip points should face directly forward, like headlights on a car. Your back foot should land at roughly 45 degrees, or if you’re working on a mat, pointed toward the long side. That’s the instruction.

And yet. The body, ever resourceful, will quietly rotate the hips open to make room for that back leg to extend further. It feels better. It looks more dramatic. Look how far back you can now reach that back leg! AND it is, technically, a different pose.

Your body will always take the path of least resistance. 100% of the time, without fail, without apology, your body will do what’s easiest first. Squaring the hips is not easier for most of us. The rotation required to turn that back foot out comes from the hip. When the hips are squared and that rotation is restricted, the body looks for it elsewhere. The rotation SHOULD come from the ankle. If your ankle won’t turn (that’s a whole other post), then the body will push that effort up to the knee. The knee is a hinge joint. It flexes and extends. It does not rotate except under duress. If you feel discomfort in the back knee in Warrior 1, it’s because the knee is doing the wrong job, and it is protesting the work. Instead, bring the back foot forward until you feel no discomfort. Shorten your warrior. The back foot stays at 45-ish degrees. The pelvis faces forward. Everything gets harder. (You’re welcome.) Breathe through your nose here. This is yoga - not what the shape LOOKS like but what it FEELS like in your body, in this moment, today.

Also while we’re talking anatomy, shoulders away from the ears. Yes, again. This is a theme.
Happy Friday, lovelies. Rest well this weekend.
🪷 shaileen 🪷

2 spots left! When: 📅 Saturday, July 18th 4:00-5:30pm ET Where: Zoom, 5 spots maximumInvestment: $25 How: Link in Bio🪷 s...
07/15/2026

2 spots left! When: 📅 Saturday, July 18th 4:00-5:30pm ET
Where: Zoom, 5 spots maximum
Investment: $25
How: Link in Bio
🪷 shaileen 🪷

Light. Slow. Deep.That’s it. That’s the Buteyko Breathing Method (BBM) in three words.This is not about bigger breaths, ...
07/13/2026

Light. Slow. Deep.
That’s it. That’s the Buteyko Breathing Method (BBM) in three words.
This is not about bigger breaths, more breaths, breathwork that requires props, a special posture, or thirty minutes of uninterrupted quiet. Just nasal breathing that is lighter than you’re used to, slower than feels natural at first, and deep enough to engage the diaphragm rather than just the chest.
The Buteyko Breathing Method is suitable for all ages, all fitness levels, and all bodies. The exercises are graded, meaning we start exactly where you are. There is no baseline requirement. There is no wrong body for this work.

BBM helps with:
- asthma and allergies
- anxiety and panic disorder
- sleep-disordered breathing and snoring
- brain fog, fatigue, and chronic stress
- breathing pattern changes that come with hormonal shifts across a woman’s lifetime
- athletic performance
- work-place efficiency
- simply feeling less like you’re running on empty all the time.

A note on contraindications: some health conditions require a modified approach, such as first trimester pregnancy, recent cardiac events, or very low blood pressure. If you have anxiety or panic disorder, we start gently, because air hunger can feel threatening at first. That’s not a reason to avoid this work. It’s a reason to do it with someone trained.
If you’ve been wondering whether Buteyko is for you, it probably is.
Curious about the Buteyko Breathing Method? DM me or schedule a free consultation.
link in bio
🪷 shaileen 🪷

Adho - downwardMukha - face or mouthSvana - dogAsana - poseDownward Facing Dog is one of the most recognizable yoga pose...
07/10/2026

Adho - downward
Mukha - face or mouth
Svana - dog
Asana - pose

Downward Facing Dog is one of the most recognizable yoga poses these days, and I’ve had many students keen to get this shape in particular “right”. Leaving aside the vexed question of what is a “right” asana, I will say that a lot of the anxiety people bring to this pose is misdirected. “Where should my heels be? Should they touch the floor, how close are they to touching the floor, will they ever touch the floor…”
Here’s the thing: whether your heels touch the floor in Down Dog depends almost entirely on the length of your calves and hamstrings and other issues related to your superficial back line of fascia, not your effort or how long you’ve been practicing. You are not a bad practitioner of yoga if your heels don’t touch the floor. Some bodies get there over time. Others won’t, and that’s just anatomy, not failure.
And while you’re focusing on your heels, the upper body is doing something genuinely interesting. Well, it could be, if we stopped staring at our heels. Spread your fingers wide. Press the floor away. Draw your shoulders down from your ears and feel your shoulder blades slide toward each other. The rhomboids, serratus anterior, triceps, and rotator cuff are all available to you in this pose when you focus on your upper body.
There is a whole conversation happening above the waist. Engage in that conversation and just let your heels land wherever they want.

Happy Friday, lovelies. Rest well this weekend.
🪷 shaileen 🪷

It’s that time of the month again: Group TRE! If you already know what it feels like to shake, then next Saturday’s grou...
07/08/2026

It’s that time of the month again: Group TRE! If you already know what it feels like to shake, then next Saturday’s group session is for you.

If you’ve tremored before, either with me or another TRE provider, this is your invitation to come back to the practice in a small group setting online.
There’s something different about shaking with other people, even over Zoom. The nervous system knows it isn’t alone.
If you haven’t worked with me before, drop me a DM about your TRE experience so far before booking.

When: 📅 Saturday, July 18th 4:00-5:30pm ET
Where: Zoom, 5 spots maximum
Investment: $25
How: Link in Bio

Tonight’s the night. 🪷I Just Need to Vent, 7:30pm ET over Zoom. I still have room. Come as you are. If you’ve been holdi...
07/07/2026

Tonight’s the night. 🪷
I Just Need to Vent, 7:30pm ET over Zoom. I still have room. Come as you are.
If you’ve been holding something, come put it down for an hour.

I Just Need to Vent is a free community circle for women navigating perimenopause and menopause. No advice. No fixing. No agenda. Just space to be honest about where you actually are. TMI is most welcome.

Link to register in bio.

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