Kitten Yoga Makes for a Purrfect Afternoon at Live From Love Center

Sweet, tiny kittens jumped over bolsters and crawled through bent limbs during kitten yoga at Live From Love Center in Bremen on Sunday, Nov. 30.

The event was made possible by a combined effort between the center and Midcoast Humane, with all proceeds going to assist the shelter in its mission to protect and care for animals in need.

The collaboration was born when Jessica Amsden, steward of Live From Love Center, connected with Midcoast Humane while attending an adoption event, and asked about teaming up to offer kitten yoga in her studio.

“One of the values we have in the yoga philosophy is Seva, so selfless service, and so we do a lot in terms of diversity and equity and inclusion and accessibility, but this is … no pun intended, a pet project for me,” Amsden said.

The class served as an opportunity to support the shelter, practice restorative yoga, and most of all, enjoy the abundant cuteness of 2-month-old kittens, Amsden said.

Throughout the class, Amsden made ties between yoga philosophies and the kitten’s behaviors, encouraging participants to tune into their own playful and peaceful kitten-like instincts.

Jackie Ferlito, community engagement manager at Midcoast Humane helped manage the event and was in attendance Nov. 30 to help wrangle the curious kittens as they explored the studio.

Ferlito said the Midcoast Humane’s goal is to get animals out of the shelter and into good homes as quickly as possible.

“As much as we make the shelter a welcoming environment, it’s really a core of our philosophy that it’s still confinement, and confinement is tough on anything.” Ferlito said.

All of the kittens at the event found homes, Ferlito said.

Amsden herself even wound up adopting a little bobtail kitten named Buddha after the center’s first kitten yoga class, back in April. Amsden said Buddha won her family’s heart when he spent the class lounging on the rocks below a Buddha statue in the studio.

Ferlito and Amsden hope to team up again soon to offer puppy yoga, which they explained was a very different experience.

“We don’t put you on your back when we have puppies,” Amsden said with a laugh. “Puppies are crazy!”

“Puppy yoga is always a rambunctious good time,” Ferlito said.

At press time there is no date for when the next collaboration will take place, since events like kitten and puppy yoga take more behind the scenes preparation than most would imagine, Ferlito said.

“We get animals from a ton of different places, so the population (in the shelter) fluctuates quite a bit,” Ferlito said.

According to Ferlito, especially with young animals, medical holds to ensure safety for the animals mean the timing of any encounters with the public has to be planned precisely.

In the meantime, Live From Love Center will continue to offer the extensive services it has provided since its grand opening in March.

“We weren’t sure how it would go, we’re kind of remote here in Bremen,” said Amsden.

Thankfully, the center found and fostered community.

“It’s been wonderful.” Amsden said with a smile.

Live From Love Center offers Vinyasa, beginner, restorative, and Yin, yoga classes, sound healing, Reiki meditation, expressive dance, and both full and new moon healing series.

Additionally, the center offers space to host retreats, a hot mineral spa, and a sauna.

They also have a massage therapist who offers Shiatsu, a form of Japanese bodywork which utilizes the practitioner’s bare feet, Amsden said.

“You’re lying on the ground, a soft, padded ground, and they use their feet, which sounds weird, and let me tell you, it is some of the best body work I’ve ever personally experienced,” she said.

Amsden said Shiatsu offers “a deeper pressure, a more concentrated pressure, but you also feel kind of like realigned or reorganized when they’re done.”

“We all need stress relief, who doesn’t?” she said with a laugh.

Amsden said because of her core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the center provides classes at a tiered level.

She explained that options to pay include tiered levels entitled “take a hand” and “lend a hand” which allow participants to give or receive funding for class fees.

Amsden said the center has “an incredible community of people who sustain the space,” with many opting to “lend a hand” so that all can participate and instructors can be paid a livable wage.

“Very often wellness spaces can be unaffordable for some families, and I never want money to prevent people from showing up for themselves,” Amsden said.

According to Amsden, the center has become a home for a “wellness and spiritually minded” community. She said she believes people are looking for a return to connection.

“Stressful, challenging times are rife with opportunity,” Amsden said.

As a self-described “long time hippie,” something Amsden is especially proud of is the center’s Peace Project.

Amsden said the project asks participants to pledge half an hour to an hour a week to meditate or devote time to “being present in the frequency or vibration of peace.” The pledged time can be spent in many ways such as doing dishes, dancing in the living room, or spending time with a pet.

“It’s just the intention with which we engage,” she said.

Participants meet monthly to discuss how they’ve seen “ripple effects” from their commitment to peace, said Amsden.

Amsden said that though people often think of yoga as pretzel-like bendy poses, the practice of yoga is “ultimately about loving kindness” and spreading compassion.

“It sounds very idealistic, but I think just like darkness is contagious, I think the light can be handed forward,” Amsden said. “The physical practice of yoga changed my body, but the practice of yoga, in its wholeness, really changed my life.”

For more information about Live From Love Center, go to livefromlovecenter.com or call 441-1105.