Sacred Waters Yoga & Healing Center Opens at Mill Falls

Loft Studio for Hot Yoga and Aerial Yoga

The Inns & Spa at Mill Falls is proud to announce that it is expanding its services once again, this time by offering guests a new way to relax and unwind at Lake Winnipesaukee—with a beautiful new yoga and wellness studio, aptly named Sacred Waters.

The new studio just opened its doors this week in the building previously occupied by The Christmas Loft, located next to Church Landing. Sacred Waters will be run by Christina Alexa, who is master certified in yoga and healing therapies and draws from 28 years of personal healing and practice, as well as over 14 years of teaching and healing work. Christina has moved her classes and healing services from The Practice Room Center for Yoga & Healing in Meredith to Sacred Waters Yoga at Mill Falls.

“We look forward to growing our student base in our new location,” says Christina, “offering expanded services in an exquisite space!”

Sacred Waters will feature two large instructional rooms, two treatment rooms, and a new state-of-the-art loft studio for hot yoga. The class offerings will be quite diverse, with gentle and all-levels yoga, hot Vinyasa, aerial yoga, and even paddleboard yoga, which will take place on Meredith Bay with paddleboards from EKAL Activity Center!

“Opening this yoga studio on site, and working with Christina to create a healing and peaceful environment, enables us at Mill Falls to offer another exceptional service to our extensive list of guest amenities,” says Gail Batstone, General Manager of The Inns & Spa at Mill Falls. “As a yoga student myself who took classes at The Practice Room with Christina, I believe this yoga and wellness center will perfectly complement our offerings at Mill Falls and be a welcome addition for our guests as well as the lake community.”

Sacred Waters will be celebrating its grand opening over the weekend of February 22^nd – 24^th. For the event, Mill Falls and Church Landing are offering special accommodation rates for guests who stay Friday, Saturday, and/or Sunday night. Special passes are available to attend yoga classes, workshops, and musical performances by local, regional, and national instructors. Sacred Waters’ grand opening festivities will include musical talent Audra Drake, Kirtan Deva Irene Solae Antonellis, International Instructor Ellen Heed offering workshops on Functional Anatomy for Yoga Instructors and a 3-hour Chakra Anatomy workshop, Susan Barton from Amala Wellness with an Ayurveda 101 workshop, Back Bay Yoga in Boston at the Lake yoga classes, and Christine Myachi with an Intro to Alignment-Based Yoga. In addition, there will be numerous yoga and meditation classes offered by the Sacred Waters staff instructors.

Sacred Waters Yoga class in session

“We are very excited about our move to Mill Falls and we invite everyone to visit us during our grand opening weekend to see the facility and enjoy the music, workshops and, of course, yoga and fitness classes we will be hosting,” says Christina. “Joining us will be Cascade Spa therapists who will be offering free chair and hand massages. Collaborating with Mill Falls on this center has been a fantastic marriage . . . we have such an amazing location on the lake, a beautiful new facility to call home, and we are proud to be part of a very special team of hospitality professionals.”

“Sacred Waters will offer not only our leisure guests with another way to relax and unwind at the lake, but also our business and meeting guests can use the center for team building exercises and workshops as part of their conference or meeting program,” adds Gail. “We are thrilled at the creative and dynamic energy this will bring to Mill Falls, complementing the services we already offer at the Cascade Spa and the EKAL Activity Center.”

In addition, Sacred Waters will be a center for education—for yoga professionals as well as students. “The heart of what we offer is the yoga . . . but part of what we offer is exposure to regional, national, and international experts in the field of yoga philosophy, healing, and music (Kirtan),” says Christina. Another part of the studio’s yoga operation is the yoga teacher training programs; Sacred Waters Yoga will soon be a registered yoga school through the National Yoga Alliance, so that students in the 200- and 500-hour Yoga Teacher Training programs can be accredited RYTs (Registered Yoga Teachers).

The name of the new studio holds a lot of meaning for Christina. Sacred Waters “speaks to the water element (the lake) and is a wonderful companion to all of the other businesses associated with the Inns that also have reference to water in their name (Cascade Spa for instance),” she explains. “It is also tied to the Divine Mother concept of unconditional compassion; for instance Kwan Yin, an Eastern representation of the Divine Mother, is often depicted holding a vessel in her hands, sometimes tipped down. This vessel holds the tears of the world, which the great mother collects through her infinite compassion; when the vessel is full she tips the vessel to pour out these waters, which become sacred and healing through her love, and the vessel can then be refilled. I am happy with this name because it embodies the spirit of the lake, the essence of what we do, and the compassionate waters to which I was referring.”

In the spirit of its name, Sacred Waters will also offer chakra readings, intuitive healing therapy, movement therapy, nutrition and wellness counseling, psychotherapy, hypnosis, and Reiki. “Some of my favorite work is in the realm of healing,” Christina says. “We will also be working in conjunction with Cascade Spa, and this is exciting because we will be able to create an even better-rounded menu of self care for our clients through massage and spa body care. We provide a very balanced approach to healing the body, mind, heart and spirit. Additionally, through Sacred Waters we will be offering wellness retreats that incorporate all of these offerings and more, and that is very exciting for us—to become more of a destination-location for people from all over who want to come into a beautiful environment that skillfully incorporates wellness and healing!”

SWY entryway and community kitchen

Art exhibits and concerts will also be featured in the peaceful space. “We have a really beautiful community kitchen, and we offer refreshments,” says Christina. “It’s all complimentary, supplied with donations . . . so when students come in they can help themselves to tea as they would in their own kitchen. Sometimes we offer potluck dinners. It’s a beautiful, relaxing environment. The kitchen is the heart of the home—we put it right out in the main area so that people can feel really at home. It’s a nice energy.”

When asked what at Sacred Waters Christina is most excited about, she replies, “That’s a tough question to answer! I am excited about every aspect of this move. I am excited to be teaching in such a beautiful environment with an amazing staff and expanding our community of students. I am also excited to be part of an organization, through my association with the Inns, that I respect and that is top-notch . . . I am excited to bring the heart of what we offer, through yoga and through various healing modalities, to the Lakes Region and beyond, because I believe that if everyone can learn to relax, or to take a deep breath at the moment it is most needed, it helps our community (whether our local or world community) to become stronger, brighter, healthier and more connected. Combining this with the pristine energy of the lake right here in Meredith Bay strikes a deep heart cord for me because I moved to this town in 1978 and I still remember my initial view of the Bay. It has always been a special place for me and I think for many of us who live in this area. It is a slice of heaven on Earth.”

Carrie Reed
The Mill Falls Blogging Team