Listen and Carry a Yoga Mat

IMG_3526I’ve shared that I’ve been lost lately — babies grown (not only grown: married! with a graduate degree!)…husband retiring…changes everywhere in my life with my 54th birthday looming in mid-December. So many questions about what is next.

But I am found when I practice yoga.  When I listen to my body and mind, when I keep an open heart for others, when I live in the present moment, breathe… I find peace.

But not a restful peace — oh, no.  This peace will involve some transforming, a vision and a big decision mid-December, according to my horoscope.  (Sometimes when you plug into the universe, the universe has big plans.)

Learn, Grow, Be

IMG_3570My cohort for the 300 hour teacher training at Tranquil Space was very small:  Suzy, Marjorie, Kelly, Kris, Sharlene and this beauty, Angela.  Found her mat right next to mine for Yoga and Meditation one Sunday this month and was transported back to a time when we spent long weekends immersed in the practice. Slowly, we dropped what we thought we should be and got to be our true selves.  We found that our vulnerabilities were embraced and loved.

I am grateful for this kind of community when I can find it.  Is it possible to build a community of yoga teachers and practitioners where everyone feels that they can learn, teach, grow and be accepted for who they truly are?

Getting Schooled

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I found myself on a beautiful crisp fall day with Julia Coney, a wise and joyous yogi and woman of the world.  She helped me start to unpack what true belonging in a yoga community would mean.  What would it look like and feel like if everyone regardless of income, race, ethnicity, citizenship status, gender, sexual orientation, gender identification, body type or physical ability felt that they truly belonged? What will it take? How will it come into being?  Who will be there?

After lunch, I found myself with a list of people and places to visit to continue my schooling — places that are vibrant, new, creative, inclusive.  Thank you, Julia.

All My Yoga Peeps

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What if the entire DC Metro Region was your yoga community?  What if you felt like you — the unique body, heart and soul that is you —  felt at home stepping into a new place to practice yoga?  That you weren’t just invited, not just welcomed, but that you really, really already belonged?

We all have our own yoga DNA from our studios, our teachers, and training…but we are also yoked by common threads.  We long to create connection. We desire to practice compassion for self and others, to honor the lineage and all the creative, vibrant expressions of the practice in the world. Our yoga peeps are all over this city, this region, this country, the world.

In August of 2017, my creative impulses were called away from the canvas and the pen and notebook by change.  This change wasn’t theoretical — it was really, really real.  My home yoga studio changed hands.  And with that change, I took a look around to see that landscape of the local yoga scene had been changing all along.

So, I did what I do every time I felt lost.  I got on with the business of finding myself here and now, connecting with self and others.  And I found the most amazing vision for our big community of yoga peeps and we worked to make this vision a reality.  Please see where we’ve been together at Yoga=Union.  Want to belong?  You are more than welcome and invited.  In fact, you belong already.

Join me in this adventure.