Connecticut

Instructor Highlight Rebecca

Rebecca

We have had a number of instructors join our team, so we thought it would be worthwhile to help you get to know them with a little instructor highlight. Currently, Rebecca teaches for Personal Euphoria in Wethersfield on Tuesday nights and Rocky Hill on Thursday nights.

The Questions & Answers:

When you aren’t teaching what are some of your favorite ways to move?

Dance and Zumba!

What song motivates or picks you up the most?

“Handlebars” by The Flobots. This song came out the year I graduated high school, and always remained on my personal playlist. It can be perceived as having dark imagery, but it’s a reminder that anything is possible whether it’s used for good or evil. I still love that heavy, driving beat.

Favorite Food?

Anything using avocado

Time you normally crawl into bed?

Never soon enough, it seems!

What skill would you like to master?

Pressing up into a handstand.

What would be the most amazing adventure to go on?

For me, photographing new born seal pups in the Arctic! They’re so cute!

Favorite season? Why?

My favorite season is fall. It’s as if nature is revealing her canvass of colors then.

Best advice you’ve ever gotten?

“By failing to prepare, you […]

Instructor Highlight RebeccaMaggie Downie2018-02-14T15:58:37-05:00

Lyme Disease in Connecticut

Getting preachy about how to treat disease isn’t my thing, so I’m just going to share my story. When it comes to what is happening in your body, you need to make the best decision for yourself. It can be hard in a world with so much information and so few answers. Everyone has their own opinion. I’m one of the many cases of Lyme Disease in Connecticut this year already, and I think it easily could have gone undiagnosed. That concerns me for others who may have Lyme disease, too.

I work with a naturopath and a medical doctor. Years ago I thought naturopaths were a little whacky. I went to one out of desperation because I was really sick and no one could figure out what was wrong with me. My naturopath figured out I was hypothyroid and had Hashimotos. These are not that hard to diagnose. My PCP at the time denied it (she’s no longer my PCP). An endocrinologist confirmed the situation and wanted to put me on levothyroxine. I was hesitant to take medication and read going gluten-free could help. I went gluten-free and my Hashimoto’s antibodies dropped (a good thing) and my thyroid numbers went […]

Lyme Disease in ConnecticutMaggie Downie2018-02-14T16:38:25-05:00

Tree Swallow Cruise–Connecticut

The tree swallows in the sky along the CT River.

Some friends and I went on a Tree Swallow Cruise with RiverQuest down the Connecticut River last week and if you can arrange it you have to go. It’s really reasonable ($40 per person) for the time (3-3.5 hours) and what you get to see (half a million to a million tree swallows flying around at dusk).

It was incredible, and if you live in Connecticut it is right here for us. So often when I want to see something naturally cool I feel like you have to travel to see it—Mexico for the butterflies, New Zealand for the glowworms, etc. But this is right here.

You bring your own drinks and snacks and board the boat by the Goodspeed Opera House. It takes about an hour to travel downriver to Old Saybrook while Mindy and Mark, your hosts, point out all different birds and information about the river along the way. Shortly before sunset the birds start to trickle in—a few at a time, then a few more, than hundreds, then they […]

Tree Swallow Cruise–ConnecticutMaggie Downie2017-10-25T14:24:29-04:00

The Manchester Road Race

I ran the Manchester Road Race for the first time. I’d planned to dress up as a turkey, which seemed fitting, but when I got there I soon realized that what my costume provided in warmth, it lacked in creativity. My favorite costume was a group of guys who dressed up as different Robin Williams characters—Aladdin, Mork, Mrs. Doubtfire and Patch Adams. There were considerably better turkeys too.

The Easter Bunny & a Turkey run the Manchester Road Race

Matt, my beau, went as the Easter Bunny. The crowds loved him. People stopped him for a photo-op, a high-five and even a shot. If I ever lost him, it wasn’t long before I’d hear from the crowd a roar of excited children and adults explode with, “The EASTER BUNNY!” I only had one crowd member react to my tailored turkey. I was right behind Matt when a little girl excitedly let out the reaction of the day, “The Easter Bunny, “ she proclaimed eyes wide and full or wonder, “And a turkey.” It wasn’t said with disgust as much as utter disappointment […]

The Manchester Road RaceMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:14-04:00

Meditative Gongs

Last week some of the PE staff went to a meditative gong concert at the Conduit Center in East Hartford. I’d been wanting to try it for months, but all day, I kind of felt like it was going to be lame and that I really didn’t want to meditate for 90-minutes. How was the girl whose record meditation is 45-seconds going to lie there for 5,400-seconds? That’s a lot more seconds.

Then I walked into the building, went up the stairs and immediately felt good. I saw the familiar faces of our staff and was hit with the feeling of warmth and comfort. Granted it was 30-degrees outside and they had the heat cranking, but they had the heat cranking and it warmed the cockles of my heart. They had me at heat.

The room had an option for chairs or lying down with blankets. I went for the floor and colorful […]

Meditative GongsMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:34:29-04:00