Hello Fellow Body-Mind-Hearts –

I am struggling to find the words that might be useful at this time. I am riding a wild rollercoaster ride of sensations and emotions just as I imagine each of you are doing. Last month I skipped my post (the first time I have missed a month in many years of newsletters and blogs) and now here we are in the midst of a world topsy-turvy. I am grateful for you, who share my passion for presence and my love of aliveness. You, who are my community and family.

This post doesn’t really have a theme other than wanting to connect and touch base. We need us right now. I need you. You need me.  We need us. Now. We are being asked to hold the terrible beauty of life, moment to moment, and not loose the capacity for love and presence. Can we honor the fear and frustration and still be kind and generous? This is the time we have been practicing for.

Physical touch is a key element for a child to thrive during development and beyond. We need contact as a way to meet and be met by the world. And here we are being asked to significantly reduce our interaction with the world through touch. Yet, we can still be touched by another’s words, gestures, listening, and presence. It is essential for us to continue to be awake to being touched by the world and each other daily. We may not be able to hug our family members or to high five each other but we can choose to touch others consciously with our presence and to allow ourselves to be touched by the world around us in fresh and enlivening ways. We can also explore the practice of consciously meeting ourselves with self-touch…a hand on the heart, a hand on the belly, palms together…in order to be in the act of touching and be touched. Try it and let me know what you discover!

I would very much like to ‘stay in touch’ with you during these times. I am offering not only personal sessions online (something I have done for quite awhile with great effect). I am also expanding the number of spots reserved for sliding scale for these sessions. These Resiliency Sessions are a great way to learn potent tools to support yourself during this time and to refine any of your tried and true practices.

I am also offering online yoga classes through Seattle Yoga Arts (Monday 10am) and Two Dog Yoga (Sunday 10am) and through my own auspices (Thursday 5:30pm). The theme for these practices is Restoring Your Rhythms and Resilience. Please see below for Upcoming Online Practice Opportunities to register.

I would so love to support you and help you find your capacity to meet these wild times with grounded and bright presence. The challenge of these times is that we cannot meet in person and enjoy that special kind of resonance. Yet, the gift is that we can connect across time zone and landscape. It would be so lovely to practice with some of you in places far from my home base in the Seattle area.

Blessings to you all at this New Moon and Equinox time. May you find sustenance and capacity to meet the coming season with presence and patience.

Practice Prompts:

• Take a walk outside daily, whatever the weather. Gaze around and drink in the shapes, the textures, the light and shadow. If you are unable to go outside then take some time to gaze out a window and do the same.
• Take regular technology breaks…a full day without a news check or a Zoom meeting or an email check can go a long way in restoring your rhythms and your soul.
• Each day offer yourself a simple, quiet moment of self-contact. This is especially important for those of you living alone. Place a hand on your heart or some other part of our body. Take a moment to be in your hand and receive the texture and contour and temperature of your body as this place. Drink yourself in. Then shift your awareness to the place receiving the touch, perhaps you heart, and notice the weight of your hand, its shape and temperature and allow yourself to receive the gift of be met and touched. Stay here as long as feels nourishing.
• Book an online Resiliency Session with me. Sliding scale available upon prior agreement. Please allow me to support you in reclaiming your resiliency.

Upcoming Online Practice Opportunities:

• Monday 10-11:30am All Levels Yoga
• Thursday 5:30-6:45pm Conscious Movement & Meditation
• Sunday 10-11:30am All Levels Yoga
• Yoga Nidra Practice…Sunday, March 29, 5:30-7pm
• Continuum Inquiry Playshop…Monday, April 13, 7-9pm
• Full Moon Mandala Practice…Thursday, April 9, 7-8:30pm

Inspirational Wisdom:

A Great Need 

Out

Of a great need

We are all holding hands

And climbing.

Not loving is a letting go.

Listen,

The terrain around here

Is

Far too

Dangerous

For

That.

~ Hafiz