ABOUT
THE PROGRAM
Finding Freedom
Through Your Body
is a Practice
ABOUT
THE
PROGRAM
Finding Freedom
Through Your Body
is a Practice
I know you know that life is beautiful.
Yes, hard stuff has happened to you over the years, but you’re no longer wasting your time on what could’ve or should’ve been.
Instead, you’re focused on living true-to-you, from here into the future.
Your approach to fitness not about …
– Having a perfect looking shape, it’s about having a wonderful feeling body.
– Getting hulk-like power, it’s about getting refined strength
– Becoming the fastest, but about becoming a living embodiment of grace in motion.
And it’s no longer good enough to just keep stress at bay…
It’s about cultivating a sense of peace so deep that it calms the madness around you.
It’s about feeling great in your body and FREE to redefine wellness and beauty for yourself.
It’s about finally finding a deep trust in the bones, muscles, and skin you’re in.
So, how do you get there? Especially when the fitness industry doesn’t quite fit you…
With classes that push too hard and move too fast. Or programs that are too slow, mild, or boring. Or messages that shame you into “getting in shape.”
There is *another* way.
You can experience whole-body fitness and freedom in your physical form. And I want to help you get there.
My personal mission is to help you become EMBODIED. EM = IN, BODIED = YOUR BODY.
By taking my embodied approach to fitness, you will craft the strength, ease, grace, and calm in your body that is sustainable over time. Setting you up to continue your beloved adventures on planet earth well into the future.
The EMBODIED with Ariel Program blends:
Meditative awareness
practices
(breath, grounding, intention-setting)
Refined strengthening exercises
(derived from yoga, physical therapy, dance, somatics)
Relaxing regeneration techniques
(deep stretching, gentle flowing movements, self-massage)
To make a mindful movement practice
that meets you
where you are,
and takes you where you want to go....
Testimonials
In the EMBODIED program I am becoming more keenly aware of how each muscle and bone is connected. Studying our own architecture helps us to map out our steps and place in the world.
Ariel is like no other in her tenacity and curiosity. She plays light but cuts deep. She shares her boundless energy and motivates us to come back each day for more.
Debbie M.
I came across Ariel’s classes by chance, but soon found them to be extremely valuable. I’m in my later fifties, now, but have regained a lot of the flexibility, balance, and core body strength that I think I’d lost over the years.
More than this, the classes are fun, and have a real sense of bonding or shared experience, even though they are virtual and attendees are scattered around the globe. You just end up feeling better – more able to cope with life’s slings and arrows, to feel okay about myself at tough times, and about life, too. I think the classes help one to just get out into the world with a level of confidence and happiness – a connectedness with the world, if you like.
Bill H.
My mind/body/life now crave this hour Mon-Fri as a way to stay centered and open to all the wonder the world has to offer. Not to mention the physical strength I have acquired as a 51-year-old woman. I seriously can’t imagine life without Ariel!
Claudia P.
It is truly mind blowing how much better I feel – emotionally and physically – when I commit to Ariel’s EMBODIED program on a daily basis.
Erica F.
The overall benefits of this are twofold:
Enjoyment of simply being alive in your physical form
The confidence to go out and live the way you wish
Do you want to experience inner freedom and longevity?
My Rocky Road to Embodiment
Teenage Obsession to Hollywood Dropout
As a teen, I was fixated on being slim and attractive.
I recall… waking up early before high school to get in two workout videos, going as long as I could before eating anything to avoid the calories, and then running cross-country after school.
I knew there was something magical to be found in physical fitness, but I was totally misguided as to what it was.
I thought if I worked out hard enough, and looked a certain way, I’d feel really good. That feeling wonderful was achieved through a certain physique.
This obsession got even more intense when I started working as an actress at 19. Every role I went out for was supposed to be “beautiful” or “sexy” or “pretty” in the most typical ways.
I remember trying out for a small role in a big movie and my agent passed on the famous director’s professional concern, “But, would she look hot in a cheerleader outfit?”
Thankfully, I chose not to roll over for the expectations of the industry, and quit acting at 21, at which point I completely ditched trying to reach the ‘perfect’ looking standard.
I chopped all of my hair off in front of the bathroom mirror of my Hollywood studio apartment before driving back East. I ate whatever I wanted on the road.
And when I returned to Vermont to hole up in the family home I went to Ben & Jerry’s literally every single day. Exercise? Hell no.
For the first time in my adult life, I learned what it felt like to just let go.
Deepening My Education
Since that summer, I’ve gone through quite a few fitness phases while figuring out a healthy relationship to my body.
From running on treadmills to running a marathon, from personal trainers to personal dance parties.
I flogged the hell out of my body in power yoga classes and experimented with the subtlest possible movements in therapeutic classes… and pretty much everything in between.
Furthermore, after professionally shifting into teaching full-time, over the past decade, I’ve trained in many movement styles and taught many groups.
- I was a signature program designer and spokesperson in Regeneration for Equinox Fitness Clubs and traveled the world leading trainings for the company.
- I became a lead teacher trainer for Tune Up Fitness. I co-designed and led a 200-hour yoga teacher training for four years. And did a full cadaver dissection lab.
- I enrolled in a three-year Somatic Experiencing trauma resolution training and have done immersive trauma healing work with individuals since then.
- I’ve taught mindfulness at Yale University and stress-relief techniques to Harvard Med students and achieved plenty of glitz, glamour, and career accolades.
But really, all along, I’ve been seeking the same thing I was seeking way back in my teens – I just want to feel confident and amazing in my body. And I want to feel free in my life.
The Birth of EMBODIMENT with Ariel
Happily, I can now say that I found what I was looking for all those years ago. Through trial and error, I’ve found the magic of embodiment.
And it’s so much simpler, and kinder to oneself than I used to think.
Embodiment is the feeling of fully inhabiting your physical self, of being able to sense your bones, muscles, internal organs, and myriad other inner structures. It’s the confidence that you have the strength to do all the things you love, the flexibility to reach for what you want, and the calm to stay true to yourself throughout life’s challenges. It’s the wondrous feeling of being able to sense and trust your instincts and intuition.
My EMBODIED program represents what I learned over those years, and what I love most about mindful movement…
Knowledge. Refinement. The wise use of props. Flowing, elegant (yet accessible) sequences. Play. Humor. And always introspective awareness and gratitude for the gift of this life.
This is what I want for you too, and why I created EMBODIED with Ariel. It’s such a joy to share the very best of what I have learned with you.
Testimonials
I feel stronger in my core, and that my overall posture has improved. The classes are so fun and easy to fit into my schedule that I never miss them, and that’s helped maintain my awareness of my body, so that I just naturally live in it better. Also, the self-massage classes are such a relief. It’s amazing what you can accomplish in just a few minutes.
I’ve been practicing yoga for 20 years and with many teachers, and I still discover new things in Ariel Kiley’s classes. Her workshops have helped me deepen my understanding of poses I’ve been practicing for years — sometimes poses I’ve been practicing with a few bad habits that I’ve finally managed to break. She leads thoughtful, intuitive meditations, and she’ll make you laugh. Enjoy her goofballery, but don’t be fooled by it — she’s really smart about anatomy and alignment, and you’re bound to learn a lot.
Ariel’s program is great in-and-of itself for keeping me strong and aligned and mindful, but it’s also the perfect compliment to whatever other athletic pursuits I happen to be playing with alongside it.
Lauren A.
Ariel's Bio
Ariel Kiley is a certified Yoga Therapist (by the International Association of Yoga Therapists/IAYT). Also a Somatic Experiencing® (SE) trauma resolution Practitioner. For the past decade, Ariel has taught thousands of yoga and therapeutic yoga classes in New York City and Los Angeles.
She has designed programming and led teacher trainings in therapeutic yoga, trauma-informed yoga, and fitness therapy for Equinox Fitness clubs, Tune Up Fitness, Dou Yoga, Prema Yoga, and more. She designed and starred in the Yoga Fundamentals program on Daily Burn.
She has also educated on techniques and methods for stress reduction and trauma resolution for Harvard Med Students, numerous corporations and workplaces, and at Yale University. Ariel’s ongoing mission is to awaken her students to the extraordinary potential of embodied wisdom.
