If there is one thing that Cavin Moore wants everyone to know is that yoga is not just for the, as she calls it, ‘young bendy’ people. Besides being accessible to everyone, she also wants to tell you that yoga is not about standing on your head.
Moore, who is Cambridge born and raised, practices what she preaches. And while the pandemic has put a crimp into bringing yoga to the masses, she is still confident that more people should embrace it in their lives.
As a trained dancer, Moore is all about movement. She attended the prestigious Sarah Lawrence College in NY, majoring in modern and contemporary dance, and has since then worked in film, videos, and modeling. She’s also been involved in local theater in Easton, Oxford, and Church Hill. “The dancing and movement training have always been beneficial to my acting. When you want to take on a character’s physicality, it becomes a study of people’s bodies. Yoga shows how we are connected to our emotions, how our brain, our breath, and our body are all the same.”
Five years ago, Moore received her certification to teach yoga and then opened a studio in Cambridge shortly after. The studio also offers Pilates, Barre, Dance, Piyo, and Meditation classes. Due to COVID, she teaches all classes now but hopes this will change in the near future. “My ultimate plan is to have different teachers at the studio, instructing various things like chair yoga, yoga for kids, dancing for kids, and other classes that help in healing. Yoga has always helped me. And I just want to share that with everybody.”
Sharing is why she’s currently working with Hamilton Garces, who uses her studio to conduct a meditative therapy known as a sound bath or sound healing, where he plays a variety of exotic instruments that help fight fatigue, depression, and stress. Garces, a combat veteran, also uses his creative and musical skills to provide relief to vets who struggle with PTSD.
Small connections such as this are huge to the outreach she wants to make. “I think the sense of community is really important,” says Moore, “especially now when we’re all feeling really separate from each other. I want us to find a way to be in community with one another in a safe way.”
Moore has many other plans. Some of it includes bringing yoga to young children at the pre-school and school level, helping them connect with their feelings. She’s also interested in older kids. “I would love to work with a group of teenage girls. There’s so much media in their face telling them that they’re not right for whatever reason. What the practice of yoga has taught me that I’d like to teach them is that you can be both strong and beautiful. You can be any size and be beautiful. It’s a lesson we all need.”
And a lesson, she says, that gets harder to communicate to adults. “I had a room full of adults that had never done any yoga before,” Moore says. “They were worried that they might be quote-unquote bad at it or were doing it wrong. I say, there is no wrong, there is no bad. It’s only what’s more beneficial for you and your body. It’s really hard to get people out of their judgment brain into a place where they feel safe to try something new. As we grow older, we get self-conscious, and if I can get people to try it, then they will see that yoga is for everybody.”
One of her students, who had been suffering from sciatica and asked not to be identified by name, agreed: “I was hesitant because I thought I was too old, too fat, and too out of shape. I was wrong. Cavin has guided me skillfully and carefully, and she has helped me increase my mobility, strength, and stamina.”
COVID has been hard for small business owners. But that doesn’t mean that Moore will stop broadcasting her message. During the shutdown last year, she made 30 to 40 video classes (still available), asking people to pay as they could and what they could. At the very least, she hoped people would share them with friends.
“Yes, I’m trying to run a business,” Moore says. “Yes, I do want to get paid. But I think it’s more important to me that I share something that has changed my life and hopefully will help others. I don’t want money ever to be the thing that discourages people from coming.”
This generosity fits well with the name of her studio, Anahata Yoga. Says Moore, “I wanted to name it something that would mean something to me, and could mean something to others. In Sanskrit, Anahata is your heart chakra; it’s the fire inside of you that keeps you moving forward, keeping you doing the work you need to do to make you a better person and make the world a better place. It’s the source of your power, the center of love.”
Whether she can safely reopen tomorrow or in a few months, her studio’s philosophy won’t change. As stated on her website, she wants Anahata to be a safe place for ‘community, healing, self-discovery, physical exercise, a place of stillness and quiet or maybe just a place where you can go for an hour and just be yourself.’
Anahata Yoga 212 Dorchester Ave, Cambridge, MD 21613 Facebook or Website:
Colleen says
So proud of you. Great job. ⭐️😁