Meet Jillian Seamans and Jessica Smith of Rooted Community Yoga Project in Gilbert and Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jillian Seamans, Jessica Smith.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Jillian and Jessica. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In 2016, my sister Jessica Smith and I founded the Rooted Community Yoga Project (RCYP). We are both certified yoga instructors on a mission to bring the healing benefits of yoga that so greatly affected our own lives into our communities.

Today, our goal is to make yoga accessible to all by offering affordable community classes in local businesses, schools, museums, and parks. Specialized classes are offered for targeted demographics including children, older adults, inmates, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and first responders.

In addition to community classes, we have also combined our love for yoga with our passion for giving back by volunteering to teach yoga to inmates in Arizona State Prisons. Free yoga is also provided to homeless and low-income veterans during Arizona StandDown events and monthly charity classes are held to raise funds and awareness about local non-profit organizations.

100% of the proceeds collected during charity classes are donated to the event’s featured non-profit. Some of the local charities that benefitted in the past include: House of Refuge, Colleen’s Dream Foundation, Friends for Life, Mindfulness First, Raising Special Kids, Ryan House, Hope Through Hollis, and Ophelia’s Place.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Jessy and I have encountered a lot of learning opportunities along the way. In the beginning, we struggled to find that balance between building our organization and being mothers who both have other jobs as well. We were lucky to have our community open its arms to us, but  with that, came a lot of opportunities that we didn’t want to miss out on. However, over time, we’ve gotten better about not spreading ourselves too thin and have learned how to better manage our time and energy so we can be most effective in our mission.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Our primary goal is to make yoga accessible to all. Jessy and I have both dealt with autoimmune disorders and anxiety. Discovering yoga and meditation, and the lifestyle that comes with it, was a game changer for us. Yoga helped us in ways that we never could have imagined which instantly made us both so passionate about sharing what felt like a secret gem with others.

We noticed that yoga studios can be very pricey and sometimes intimidating. Additionally, we too often see images of yoga in the media presented by extremely fit and good-looking people in unusually difficult poses. This is not what yoga is really about and these images often make the everyday person feel like they are not fit or flexible enough to practice it. The truth is that yoga is for everybody! It doesn’t matter what your abilities are, how old you are, where you come from, etc. The benefits of yoga can help us all.

We thought that if we began offering classes in easily accessible environments such as parks, restaurant, and schools, for the affordable rate of $5 per person and free for anyone with an income barrier, that the community may be more likely to give yoga a shot. Additionally, we made it a priority to make the classes comfortable meaning that we take the time to greet and talk with students, we use kind and accessible language (as opposed to yoga terms that only few would understand), and we keep our classes at all-levels offering modifications and props to assist students with poses.

For us, yoga is not a workout, it is a way of life. So, RCYP classes are about much more than just the poses. We include meditation and breathwork and offer information and practices that students can utilize to combat stress and chronic pain, and boost mood and increase overall health.

Nothing makes us happier than when students tell us that they now feel like they too can practice yoga and how the practice has improved their lives.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Jessy and I have been very lucky to have several selfless mentors who have helped guide us along this journey.

First and foremost, our husbands and mother have always supported us and been our sounding board for our ideas and issues. They have also volunteered their time to help with the logistics of many of our classes and special events. We have also benefited from many mentors including other yoga instructors, our yoga teachers, students, Jonathan Negretti of Negretti & Associates and from the wonderful ladies who founded an incredible local non-profit called Mindfulness First.

We are also very grateful for the owners of Uprooted Kitchen, Joe Johnston and the other folks from Barnone who took a chance on us and let us host our first classes on their beautiful property. This class still continues to be our most popular class. The staff at the Duce, the Vig, the Heard Museum, Lorna Jane at San Tan Villiage, Thrive Coworking Space for Women, and many others supported our mission by opening their doors and letting us use their space to hold classes.

Pricing:

• $5 per person for class
• Always free for first responders and anyone with an income barrier

Contact Info:

• Email: RootedCommunityYogaProject@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootedcommunityyogaproject/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RCYProject/

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