I TESTED FOR YOU – AU SHALA: the new place of well-being in the heart of Chalon – All the free news in one click

Vinyasa yoga classes, Irène Grosjean-style “crusine” workshops… Élodie Rodriguez created this place to pass on the keys to well-being on all fronts.

Élodie Rodriguez welcomes you with her warm smile at 21, rue de Thiard, in the city center. Trained in naturopathy in 2017, she realizes that well-being is a whole that does not stop at food. She travels to Indonesia where she follows a traditional teaching of vinyasa yoga: postures, massages and philosophy form an entity.

All the benefits of this versatility of its practices act in synergy for health. I thought I would only do one yoga session, but with Élodie, we don’t divide up well-being.

Prepare the body

As soon as I enter, I am invited to follow her to her kitchen area (photos below): as with our grandmothers who-knew-the-natural-secrets, the colored jars adorn the wooden furniture. They contain spices, plants, dried fruits… Each of the products, Élodie confides in me, is bought in bulk, preferably in an organic shop in Chalon.

She prepares us a tonic drink made from fresh fruits and roots with an extractor: orange, apple, lemon, carrots, ginger, turmeric. A delight! While sipping our nectar, she patiently explains to me the virtues of each of the ingredients before a yoga session.

The yoga session

The room is bright, the parquet floor brings its warm touch, like the candle, which offers its flickering light. There is a calming serenity there.

I arrived in flexible clothes, no need to bring a special outfit, as long as yours does not interfere with movement. The yoga taught by Elodie Rodriguez is called “vinyasa”, it is more intense than others. It is a sequence of dynamic movements, synchronized with deep breathing through the nose. The circulation of the breath gradually leads to the release of tension. It is the engine of energy, called “prana”.

I reassure you from the outset: the lack of flexibility, even the stiffness are not an obstacle to the practice of this discipline. I would even dare to say that on the contrary, it will be the ideal place to work on them.

Each movement has beneficial effects: strength, endurance and flexibility are called upon in all parts of the body.

Élodie performs them at the same time as me. If I don’t feel able to reproduce a posture, don’t worry: yoga is never about performance. On the contrary, it invites practitioners to listen to their body and its limits.

And this deep breathing takes me in a fluidity of movements.

Ah! I forgot the Tibetan bowl! It’s the final moment, relaxation: I’m lying on my back, each molecule at rest. I then hear resonating near me the singing sounds of the Tibetan bowl that Elodie moves around me. I really want it to last…

At the end of the session, a smile on my lips, I feel at peace with my body, I almost want to thank it.

Naturopathy

Back in the lair of the naturopath, Élodie makes in no time a light tasty snack: two medjool dates cut in half, coated with almond puree and covered with grated coconut. “Everything is ”raw”, she tells me, these are unprocessed products, therefore organic available for the body”. After the intense yoga session, it’s the best! I almost want to invite me to dinner!

It is on this joke that Élodie evokes her second well-being hat: naturopathy. A practice she learned to treat herself: “From my adolescence, at 14, I was in chronic fatigue, in deep exhaustion for 10 years. I had anemia that lasted 5 years, painful digestion. Medical examinations revealed nothing of the cause. It is undoubtedly for this reason that I trained in naturopathy, then in hygiene with Irène Grosjean. I am therefore a naturopathic hygienist approved by the FENA. I believe that the people who are trained in these practices are the ones who really need answers”.

Naturopathy saved her from these pains. At the Shala, she also offers “crusine” workshops and private consultations centered on the real needs of the body.

When I left, I said to myself that I would gladly return to this address, just to learn some of these “simple keys to good health”, as Élodie puts it with simplicity and conviction. “We should even learn them at school!” she adds. My tariffs provide formulas intended to make them accessible to a majority of people”.

By Nathalie Dunand
[email protected]

AT SHALA
21, rue de Thiard – Chalon-sur-Saone
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