Mindful Monkey brings yoga to kids in Rutland
Article originally published as “Mindful Monkey brings yoga to kids in Rutland” by Janelle Faignant Correspondent
December 5, 2022
Rutland Herald
What do you get when you cross red-light-green-light with tree pose? Mindful Monkey, the new kids’ yoga studio at 72 Merchants Row in Rutland.
The first class took place on Saturday, kicking off a business with the philosophy that even kids with their endless energy can be mindful, too.
“There’s a Buddhist thought that an unsettled mind is a monkey mind, so this was a play on words,” said owner Jillian Vitagliano, 41, about its name. “Children are lively, monkeys are lively, so now be a mindful monkey.”
The studio is full of fun things in every corner, inspired by toys from her childhood. “Things I remember from the Boston (Children’s) Museum — those big balls that you put your hands all around (with) electricity,” she said in an interview recently. “Toys make their practicing fun.”
A teddy bear with a peaceful expression hangs on a strap like a swing, meant for aerial yoga. “He’s a posable teddy bear, so he can practice poses with the kids,” Vitagliano said.
There are lava lamps slowly boiling, little bouncy birds that balance on your fingers, plastic spheres that contract and expand to mirror breathing, as well as a projection unit mounted on the ceiling that splashes games on the floor, like pop-up mice you can step on, and a desert scene you can walk through and see your footprints, all triggered by sensing movement.
“My fiancé and I were setting it up and we played on it for hours,” Vitagliano said. “A lot of these are toys I liked when I was a kid in the ’80s,” she added.
That playfulness complements the atmosphere you’re greeted with when you walk in — low lighting in an array of colors that immediately sets an upbeat but calm tone. All of these elements went into designing the space and classes specifically for kids.
Originally trained to teach Baptiste (hot) yoga to adults, Vitagliano decided to also get certified to teach children. Over a decade ago, she was starting a new career in sales and advertising that continued successfully until she realized one day that she had a vision of her own and the means to start her own venture.
“What I do for my (sales) job is research,” she said, “and I do this every day for somebody else. Why not put all that effort and the skills that I have into figuring out what Rutland needs.”
“I saw how my nieces and nephews were dealing with the pandemic, and I was at a time in my life where I had the funding to put it towards something that I thought was going to work, and I found a need here,” she said. “The ability to self regulate … is tough for adults so it’s even tougher on kids. That’s really why I did it.”
“It’ll be a mix of traditional and aerial classes with a hammock and some hybrid,” Vitagliano said. “We play a lot of fun games in the classes. It’s not expecting them to come in and be completely silent for 45 minutes. The concept is for children so it’s going to take some time to ease them into it.”
Relating the classes to a story or animal helps to keep them engaged beyond the traditional adult method of poses called out from the front of a class. In addition to classes, the studio offers private yoga sessions, therapy sessions, workshops and birthday parties, all designed with kids ages 5 to 17 in mind. There’s also a retail space where she’ll sell everything from books to kids yoga mats to hammocks.
Vitagliano also plans to work with local organizations like the Boys & Girls Club, local schools, day care centers, pediatricians and occupational therapists, who would bring their clients to work in tandem with her or separately.
“It’s been well received so far so I hope that it’s going to be here for a very long time,” Vitagliano said. “We didn’t have mindfulness or emotional awareness when we were kids (so) I hope that it’s more of a wellness center than anything.”
Visit www.mindfulmonkeyyoga.com to sign up and find more information.