This month we focus on how to know whether it’s time to rest or play? In March’s online gathering for this series I posed the question, “How do you know when you need rest?” The answers were awesome… “I get grouchy.” “I feel stuck.” “I want people around me to just be quiet.” I know in my previous life, I wouldn’t know I needed rest until I was completely burned out, mad at the world and exhausted beyond belief. Is this new world I have created around me, I rest all the time and it’s very disconcerting to many around me. (I think they might be jealous … or maybe they just need me to reply to an email or text and I am REALLY slow)!

Often when we do stop to rest (or even follow our hearts to do what WE want to do), we hear these unspoken messages that have been sent to us since birth. We hear- “I am lazy.” “I should be…” “I have done all the things, now I am worthy of rest.” What if instead, we flip the script and say we are divine and worthy of rest as our birthright? This is the message of Tricia Hersey’s book “Rest Is Resistance.” Her book will turn you on your head and invite you to dig deep into your heart, your humanity and rest as a form of healing for ourselves, for our communities.

What is rest? At times in my life, I remember needing to get away to a foreign place with no cell service, no kids, and no responsibilities to rest. Or other times I remember just wishing for a broken bone or (slight) illness so I could lie in bed for a while. These days I have built my life differently. Rest is an integral part of my week and it’s not quite what I thought it was a decade ago.

I feel like the Grinch or Scrooge as we begin 2024. When I hear “Happy New Year!” my inner reply lately is “Bah Humbug!” I spent yesterday, the first day of 2024 trying to figure out why I was so crabby. I think my issue is two-fold.

Last week, I was being mentored / coached to complete my training with Martha Beck. Carla asked me, “How do you want to close the year?” The answer came so quickly… cozy and warm. Her reply was, “Well then, do nothing else. Only do the things that make you feel that way.” So simple, so profound.

As we close the year, it is important to complete our theme “Riding the Waves of Change.” For this, we land in Square Four of our change cycle. A group of us came together in October to honor this square which holds the mantra, “Change is always happening… And that’s okay.” Square Four emerges when you have launched the dream, shared the vision. You are living it! You know there are tweaks that need to be made, but they are small and often external moves. Mostly you are flying free and enjoying the ride!

Below is a newsletter and podcast from one of my favorite teachers, Martha Beck. She shared this in episode xx of the Gathering Pod and resent in her October newsletter. It’s too good not to share. It also reminded me of why we changed our classes to Inspired Flow… yet another reason to breathe deep and get inspired!

Our theme this year has been Riding the Waves of Change. A year to follow the change cycle from cocoon to chrysalis to emergence to flight. Little did I know, my life would follow the squares of change so closely each season. I’ve kept you at an arms length just sharing each part of the cycle with no personal relevance. It’s time to let you in.

As we learn and grow together this year, we continue to follow the metamorphosis of the butterfly. We began our year in square one, a space of death and rebirth, grieve and disbelieve, rest and renewal. Then we moved on to square two, the space of dreaming without rules and limitations. As we move into square three, this is about external shifts to bring those dreams into reality.

As we learn and grow together this year, we continue to follow the metamorphosis of the butterfly. We began our year in square one, a space of death and rebirth, grieve and disbelieve, rest and renewal (see previous post). We gave ourselves time to cocoon and to turn our attention in. You may notice as you gave yourself permission to rest, you noticed things in your life that aren’t quite congruent with who you’d like to be. You may notice little whispers of “there must be something else.” This means it’s time to move on.

Nature has so much to teach us humans. We tend to think everything must grow bigger, better, faster. Always an upward trajectory. But truly we have to learn to let go a little more and ride the shifts, circles and spirals as they appear to us so we can transform into our essential selves. As we learn and grow together this year, we will follow the metamorphosis of the butterfly, “Riding the Waves of Change.” The work offered this year is what I have been learning in Wayfinder Training with Martha Beck. This work seems deceptively simple and it something every human might need to know as change is always happening. If you are ready to fall more deeply into your life, join us for this transformation as we grow together in 2023.

This year we offered a studio-wide challenge of “Let’s Grow Together.” We got quiet through the restful time of winter. We built energy as the seeds began to germinate and grow. We rested as Mother Nature did her thing and our seeds burst into life. In fall series, we have taken time to take stock, to grieve, to celebrate. The last piece of this puzzle is to let it all go!

When grief arrives, it takes over. You are not in charge. I think permission to just let grief lead sometimes is a big, big, big part of the healing process. I know from my experience not giving myself permission in those early years that it can be really damaging… That’s the thing about grief. It doesn’t always show up as sadness and wailing and depression. Sometimes it’s just love and peace and inclusion. ~Marisa Renee Lee, Grief Is Love

September came and went in the blink of an eye. Our focus in September was one of taking stock. Once we see where we are with clear eyes, we can see where we need to grieve, where we can celebrate. Only then can we let go of both equally.

This is going to be a good one! It’s that time to return to our challenge theme of 2022- Let’s Grow Together.  In winter, we got quiet and still to listen to the call of the heart.  In spring, we got up at 6am to prepare for the push of new growth into summer.  In summer, we took a sacred pause to rest and lean in to what is.  Now we turn to fall, the time to let go.  This will be a different kind of “challenge.”

If you, like the rest of us, are feeling burned out with a low tolerance for the difficult people or situations in this moment in time; this may be your soft place to land and your place to grow through to the other side. Instead of some grand challenge of 30-days to a new you or 600 classes in 60 days… what if we do something different? What if we just remind you the gifts of yoga and invite you to join us when you can with a few little gifts to say thank you for being here? How does that sound?

Ted came to us and said something like, “I figured I’d either drink myself to death or try this yoga thing.” And try this yoga thing he did. He came five days a week in the beginning. We all thought he had a crush on his teacher, Janice. But even after she left, Ted kept showing up. He loved yoga so much he went to Asheville to attend a 200-hour yoga teacher training with Janice’s beloved Iyengar Yoga teacher. He would come tell me all the details about the participants and how many chairs and blankets and blocks it took to get him propped up. He loved the attention. It was about that time that he started telling me how to teach and what I was doing “wrong.” Luckily, Ted was a pretty lovable guy so it mostly made me smile. He kept showing up and then decided to attend a second 200-hour yoga teacher training. This time with me, here at Greenville Yoga. This is when Ted became thoroughly enmeshed in our community.

“Let’s Grow Together”… the theme of 2022 for Greenville Yoga. To begin the year, we gathered for a season of Wintering. This was a time of deep rest, hibernation and percolation of what seeds we hope to nurture and grow for the year ahead. Now here we are in the season of Spring. This is a time of emergence, friction and rebirth. This is a time when the spring winds come to push us, cleanse us and prepare us for the fullness of summer.

As we close our winter challenge and the wintering turns to spring, we arrive in a space of liminality. The liminal space is the time “betwixt and between.” In older societies, it was a time after a ritual had occurred and before the person re-emerged into community. How true this is for the entire time of 2020-present! Maybe we’ve all been in the liminal phase of being. Maybe we’ve been suspended here for some time. Maybe the Winter Challenge invited us into the liminal phase of things as we dug a little deeper. Either way, here we are and it’s a bad news / good news kind of thing.

You’ve done the work of winter. Your roots are strong and your tender shoots are safe to emerge at the just right time for you. (No rush… we aren’t quite into spring yet!) We are approaching the liminal space, the in between time. Let this weekend’s Yin class carry you through.