Stopping and pausing to love those unlovable parts, welcoming and embracing those intense feelings, watching as they become my friends, no longer something I try to get rid of or ignore, busying myself to avoid. 👈🏼 All of this, even in the middle of the night, because we are the proverbial onion analogy and it’s not up to me when these feelings come. So, even when it’s most inconvenient, I’ll accept and love myself, and then wait for that second sleep... 😴 .
I taught a private @onwateryoga session yesterday and as I drove out to the lake, I felt thankful for this huge break I’ve had from the year-round push and non-stop classes. It wasn’t something I asked for or wanted, but as it’s happened, I’ve recognized it was something I really needed. So much has happened in the last year and a half 🔥 and this break allowed some new chapters to begin, and old ones to close. I’ve wondered what role SUP Yoga would play in my future, and I’m sure it will not be what it once was, instead, it will be better than before. 🌀 Stay tuned for some exciting news... 🏄🏼♀️ 🤙🏼 .
#onwateryoga #thisisredding #reddingyoga #whiskeytownlake #ptsdrecovery #ovariancancersurvivor #rapesurvivor #secondsleep #lovingtheunloveable #yinyoga #thisismeditation #nonattachment #Aparigraha #lovingembrace #selfhealers #makingfriends #carrfire #recoveryjourney #shastcounty #togetherwerise #welcomeitall #lovethehelloutofit #facingshame
When I lived with close girl friends and most of my friends weren’t married and didn’t have kids or serious relationships, this owner/operator business gig was a perfect fit: it provided a welcome balance to my active social life and gave me the individual, quiet, and creative time I needed. As my friends have gotten married, started having kids, moved away, and as I too have entered into a committed relationship, things have changed and I’ve been recognizing the need for a change in my businesses too. .
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Coming out of a 4-day, part 1, continuing education training in Mind-Body Skills and Trauma Recovery has me processing some new directions that have been stirring in my soul for awhile now... I’m stoked for what’s next... this training with @mindbodymed was such a gift, for the information yes, but more importantly for me: the connections to so many like-minded practitioners of this craft, (here in Redding!!) and for the required group classes that I will be leading as part of my training. .
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It can feel very isolating being in a small, conservative town, that’s the biggest town for 150+ miles, doing things that so many call “hippy-dippy-do” or “demonic.”
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Change, positive, life-giving, science-based, emotional, trauma-recovery-change is coming to you Redding, and I’m happy to be part of the force that is bringing it. 💥 .
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As I have since 2010, I’m teaching these very mind-body skills each week through various different outlets. Today starts a new venture with @blueshieldofca : Mindfulness Meditation classes at 12:05 and 12:35pm, available for employees of the Redding office. And a new Warm Vinyasa class at @balance.yogacenter at 6:15pm. Reach out to me for private yoga and yoga therapy in my private studio, your home, or on the water(!!) and see the link in my bio for other classes, workshops, and offerings. 🌀
#carrfire #carrfirerecovery #traumarecovery #ptsdrecovery #aces #mindbodymedicine #evidencebasedtraumaresearch #reddingstrong #reddingyoga #yogatherapy #reddingcalifornia #reddingca #thisisredding #shastacounty #balanceyogacenter #changes #growingwiththeflow
Last night I shared this analogy with this man: “Like I’m stepping out of long time patterns and traumas, I’m in a threshold where the old skin is peeling away and how I’ve always done things (teaching Vinyasa yoga classes in particular) no longer works.” .
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I’m teaching a Level 1-2 Warm Vinyasa class on Monday nights now and I realized that I used to feel such anxiety and pressure when I taught these classes in the past, not really believing I was a good teacher, and trying so hard to prove that I was. As I drove away from @balance.yogacenter last night, I felt the familiar anxiety and self-affirming story when I realized that I forgot a whole standing sequence on the left side... 🙄 This time, however, I let myself feel the depth of the let-down in the mistake, not as self punishment, but as a way to stop making myself feel better in a needless, insecure, self propping-up, “positive Polly-Anna” affirmation story of “Oh well, I inspired a home practice. We all make mistakes.” I am a good teacher, AND I let my students down because I believed I had to prove myself: it clouded my confidence, true nature, and gift. .
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And so it is, yet again, this beautiful practice and awareness of non-duality: I can be both humble and proud, imperfect and amazing, beautiful and ugly, new and old. And, stepping more and more into the fullness of who I am... 🤙🏼 🌀
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#sheddingskin #thisisredding #reddingyoga #balanceyogacenter #reddingcalifornia #reddingca #teachertruths #healingpasttraumas #anxietyhelp #yogatherapy #thisisyoga #thisismeditation #awareness #selfawareness #nonduality #selflove #selfrespect #meandmyboyfriend #lovehim #cancersurvivor #ovariancancersurvivor #traumarecoveryispossible #itsajourney #wholeness #teacherlife #yogateacherconfessions
👆🏼3 years ago today I was hiking along the sacred Camino De Santiago in Spain and leading daily yoga. Life has moved in such a different direction that it almost doesn’t feel as if this happened... it’s good to remember. Good to remind myself of what has happened, that shapes and marks me, and use these experiences to determine how I want to move forward. .
Today is the New Moon. 🌚 A time to do such things, shaping how we’d like this next cycle to be. A time of stepping back, taking stock, and celebrating all that has happened. Remembering... processing, resting... .
I chose to post this pic in part because I was deep in my Divine Feminine journey at this time, pushing through deeply held beliefs of how a woman is to “behave,” and finding my own way, trusting my feminine nature, in all its messy, full, and darkness... I’m feeling it’s time for another round of this. 🔥 .
Tomorrow marks the first day of Navarati in India. The only celebration in the world that takes 9 nights to honor the Divine Feminine, Shakti energy, as God. I’ve got some ideas of how I’m going to celebrate during this time, possibly even bringing back some daily dance videos: were you here for those 99 days??! I’ll allow for some cultivation of this energy tonight, on the eve of Navarati, in my Restorative & Yoga Nidra Workshop at @balance.yogacenter. Join us from 5-7pm, or during my next one on October 27. Details in the link in the bio. .
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#divinefeminine #shaktirising #shaktirisingnorcal #reddingyoga #reddingcalifornia #camino #caminodesantiago #leon #shakti #durgapuja #navaratri #celebratethefeminine #thisisredding #reddingca #shastacounty #celebratethefemaleform
Saturday’s New Moon is one that defines our future; potentially challenging energy, this is a time to make friends with our shadow, dark, and “unlovable” parts of ourselves, all to help us step more into our authentic selves. Take this time to give yourself love, all of yourself... and surrender, 🌚 allow some rejuvenation before the next cycle of things begins.
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I’ve got a Restorative & Yoga Nidra Workshop happening under this New Moon, 9/28, from 5-7pm at @balance.yogacenter . Full via the link in the bio, under Special Events. Together, we will tune in and learn about this specific astrological influence, relax, and unwind with 2 deeply healing yoga practices. 👉🏼There’s a discount when you pre-register. .
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Pic of the beautiful @earlymorningdancer showing us the bliss of restorative yoga... 🥰
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#thisisredding #reddingyoga #balanceyogacenter #norcallife #reddingcalifornia #reddingca #shastacounty #libranewmoon #newmoonvibes #yogatherapy #restore
After a much needed break (although I didn’t know I needed it at the time) I’m back to teaching Warm Vinyasa classes. 👏🏼 Today’s class focused on hamstrings and chest openers with peak poses of splits and wheel (with lots of modifications offered as it was an all levels class). Although no one in the class today was ready for anything like this,👆🏼so I didn’t offer it, I wanted to personally give it a try. A slight modification from @riva_g_ because of a herniated disk in my neck, however. So, this is my first #yogiseeyogido post. Much more quad work than I expected and my second side was much more challenging.👈🏼I suspect because of the tightness in my lower right abdomen due to an old ileostomy scar during my ovarian cancer battle.👈🏼 Still a work in progress/release, all these years later... it was reversed in 2002. .
Come join me, anytime. Link in the bio for details on all my offerings, locally and electronically. ❤️
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#thisisredding #reddingyoga #balanceyogacenter #ysyd #ileostomyreversal #ovariancancersurvivor #ovariancancerawarenessmonth #herniateddisk #yogatherapy #yogameetsuswhereweare #myjourneycontinues #behindthescars #slicedanddiced #anythingispossibletothosewhobelieve #mysticyoga #unitingbodymindandspirit #weareone #reddingcalifornia #visitredding #reddingca #shastacounty #redding #thisisreddingtoo #iloveredding
