Southport Magazine

While looking through the Oak Island Recreation Center’s upcoming offerings, I noticed a workshop called Soothing the Space that was described as using yoga to help deal with grief and loss. I was intrigued. I was familiar with yoga as a relation technique, but not with using it to help handle grief. Everyone, to some extent, is dealing with loss right now, even if it’s just the loss of what used to be our normal world. 

I decided to look into it and met Meredith Wray, the teacher of Soothing the Space, in Middleton Park, where she was teaching an outdoor yoga class. While watching her class and taking some photos for the article, I realized that maybe there was something to this. I wasn’t participating, but the class was comforting me. Just being there put me in a happy head space. And, apparently, moved me to use terms like “head space,” so there’s that as well. Anyhow, I reached out to Meredith for details about herself, yoga in general, and her classes. 

What’s your background as a yoga instructor?

This all started with pilates, lol. I was encouraged by my instructor at the time to become Pilates Mat Certified. I did that in 2007 and started teaching pilates. This gave me a great background and appreciation for teaching as well as

core work — core work being one of the best things we can do for ourselves physically. 

When we strengthen our core (specifically transversus abdominus) we protect our lower backs as well as create a great foundation for ourselves. I focus on the core in yoga — it’s like our second backbone. When we have a strong core it takes some of the load off of our lower backs. 

It was at this time I met my good friend Andrea. She was a pilates and yoga teacher who taught at College of the Albemarle. She had gone through training at Asheville Yoga Center in 2006, its first intensive training for yoga teachers.  

This program became known as one of the stellar yoga training programs on the east coast, founded by Stephanie Keach (that story is a good one in itself…. she and her husband Sunny came to NC from California and started what’s now the yoga center.) 

Sooooo in 2010 I took the plunge. I had saved up enough money to take the training. In the meantime, I was teaching pilates and gaining much-needed experience as an instructor. Andrea eventually left COA and I took her position teaching the mat pilates class at the college. 

In July 2010 I headed to Asheville for a month alone to train to be yoga teacher. This is what is called an intensive training, 230 hours in a month. It was intense and it was life changing. My teachers, Stephanie Keach, Shala Worsley, Michael Johnson, Libby Hinsley, and Joe Taft are still the ones I look up to and still go to for knowledge and wisdom. 

It was around this time I learned that I wanted to be a teacher, not just an instructor. To me an instructor is one who

leads a class, while a teacher leads and instills more of the why, passing on yogic knowledge, not just calling out poses.

In 2010 I received my 230 hours of yoga training through AYC, RYT-200 (Registered Yoga Teacher) is the designation. As I taught more classes I became an ERYT-200 (an educator). In 2016 I decided to take the plunge and go for my RYT-500 and further my knowledge. It took me from March of 2016 to July 2020 to get 300 more hours through Asheville Yoga Center, traveling back and forth, but I did it! So now my qualifications are RYT-200, ERYT-200 and RYT-500. It is my intention to keep learning and keep passing on that knowledge through my teachings. 

How did you discover yoga yourself?

When I was 24, I was living in Charlottesville, Virginia. I developed panic disorder that was so crippling I could no longer function without anxiety and crying. My psychiatrist at the time suggested I try yoga to relieve some of the symptoms. I did and the light was then cut on for me. It was at that time I knew I wanted to help others with panic, depression, and anxiety. I didn’t know how this would come about, but had an intention at that time to ease the suffering of others.  

Can you tell us a little about Pink Moon Yoga with Mert?

Pink Moon Yoga with Mert is my yoga presence. It includes all of my class offerings. I am not a studio, rather I am a resource for yoga and meditation practices to help people feel better and give people hope. My teaching is not limited to one place.  

What do you offer?

Indoor and outdoor group classes and private sessions around the community as well as on Zoom. Zoom is incredible as it allows me to be able to reach people near and far. I can now reach people who are not living on the island full time — Brazil, Tunisia, Nova Scotia, Minnesota, Virginia, even Charlotte, NC!

Why a pink moon?

I’ve always connected with the moon. It’s feminine and soothing but also strong and full of light, ever changing. She is the essence of strength and ease. 

How long have you been working with the Oak Island Recreation Center?

About five years 

How did you get together?

I was already teaching somewhere else on the island and at the same time I started by subbing yoga classes there to get to know the community. Then the two senior yoga classes became available. I was asked, I was honored and I stepped in to teach. It has been this class, the people in it, the losses, that have inspired Soothing the Space.  

What are the advantages, both to you and your students, of working through the Rec Center?

The Rec Center is one of the easiest, most accommodating places to teach and learn. It’s where I started yoga here on the island, so it’s pretty special to me. The environment is very community-oriented and uplifting. I believe the staff sets that tone. The prices are good for those on a fixed budget. All of the teachers I work with there are the best at what they do 

What have the challenges been as the pandemic has forced your classes online and now, at least in a limited way, outside?

Initially I had no intention of offering online classes, I had no interest. I believe part of that was fear. Then I realized I was keeping up with my personal practice via Zoom and wondered how were my students to keep up with theirs. People started asking, so I finally took the plunge. After a week, it was definitely a learning curve with the lighting, sound and technology and having the right space that looks nice…it worked! I was still able to connect people but it just “looked“ different now. That was in March, this is August, and the offerings are still there because people keep coming. The park classes offered by Oak Island Parks and Rec have been such a gift to us. Just having that human, in-person connection again feels grounding and good.

How has yoga helped you deal with the world lately?

Yoga gives me an opportunity to create some space between thoughts. When this happens, I/we relax, we feel more at ease, more connected. There are also the obvious physical benefits to yoga. One of the biggies for me is that it keeps my heart open. It allows me to handle difficult situations with more grace and ease. 

The workshop scheduled for September, “Soothing the Space,” is a grief workshop? I think people will be familiar with yoga a stress reliever, but maybe not expecting it as a technique for dealing with grief and loss. How does it help?

There is a ton of anxiety and sadness in grief; yoga and love can ease this. Soothing the Space will use the lens of the chakras as a tool to identify areas of grief (attachment) in the body and mind. Then we will soothe those areas with breath work, meditation, chanting, and various gentle forms of yoga including yoga nidra. Grief over the way life used to be is huge for us right now. We are all feeling that loss.  

Can you describe what people can expect in Soothing The Space?

I believe it’s important for people to know they are not alone. First is that important connection of coming together, just being in that same space with us. I will use the seven energy centers of the body, the chakras, to help people identify where they may be holding grief and anxiety. Then I will gently lead a yoga practice (poses, breath work, meditation) to ease and sooth the rough and raw edges that may be there to sooth that space, replacing pain with love and anything else that individual needs to heal. It will give them an opportunity to really look inward and see and heal. We will move and breathe with the intention to heal and soothe

Will you be carrying on any other workshops as well, such as the one outside that I visited?

Yes! Right now, while the studios are still closed, I have yoga in the Park on Tuesdays at 7:30 am. I have my regular zoom classes and I add in special classes and workshops from time to time. I also have an outside space overlooking the ICW that I will start using next month.  

How can people sign up for  your Recreation Center classes and workshops?

My workshops are typically through Pink Moon Yoga with Mert. Facebook is my largest presence right now and I am in the middle of building a website, www.yogawithmert.com, that will eventually have all of my offerings in one place.  

The first Soothing The Space workshop will be Sunday, September 27, 1:30 – 3:30 pm.  Soothing The Space will be virtual, which offers people more privacy and allows them to be in the comfort of their own practice space. They can text 252-435-7223 or email me at yogamert@gmail.com to sign up. The price will be $20. 

What do you offer outside the Rec Center and how can people join you for that?

When the studios open back up I will be teaching at the Rec Center, Rebel Soul Yoga, and other studios around the area. 

I offer Zoom classes right now which can be found on the webpage. People can sign on and make a donation. This is all still new to me, the learning to build a website, etc.