November Featured Yogi: Coral Brown

For November, our calendar features Coral Brown. She is originally from Bird Creek Alaska where her parents bought some land in the late 1960s with a few of their friends. They turned the 20 acre plot of land into a thriving community that lived without electricity or indoor plumbing. They used the creek, which starts in the Chugach Mountains and flows to Turnagain Arm, for their water supply and refrigeration. Living in Alaska, their lives were very interdependent on nature, and each other.  

Coral's respect of nature continues and she spends as much time as possible outdoors, especially during fall, which is one of the most vibrant seasons that you can experience in New England!  

“This is what yoga means to me, to feel whole and connected, not just on the mat, but in my body, mind, in nature, and in community.” 

Coral and her family recently moved to the island of Jamestown, Rhode Island, where she purchased Island Heron Yoga with the mission to create connections between health, wellness, community, and nature. As part of their work at the studio, they partner with a nonprofit organization, Shri Service Corps, to bring free yoga to local middle school students as well as educators.  

Coral and her studio partner Jill Niedelman are bringing programming to the studio that focuses on understanding the fundamentals of yoga, as well as educational programs about nutrition, yoga philosophy, mythology and nervous system regulation. As a licensed mental health practitioner, Coral is passionate about helping people take back control of their nervous systems. This empowers individuals to use self-regulating strategies that provide them with the same feeling state that they get when they come to yoga.