Happy New Year!
The last few years I have created a theme for our studio: Time to Grow, Riding the Waves of Change, Rest & Play, Better Together… today I realized I hadn’t created something new for the year! As luck would have it the Lunar New Year began Tuesday and inspiration struck. Thank you Fire Horse!
This year at Greenville Yoga, I would like to extend An Invitation to Awaken.
What does it mean to awaken? We awaken to remember, to heal, to grow, and to align. We awaken so we can live with greater presence in our bodies, in our relationships, and in our community. Below are a few ways I see those little shifts in each of you and the people I coach each week. Maybe this has slowly been occuring for you, but you felt lost or alone. Maybe the words will loosen the knots and invite you in to a more spacious, open way to live.
Awakening to Remember Our Dreams: Often times it feels like we simply live on autopilot. For many of us we began by following our parents’ dreams - go to school, get married, have babies, rinse and repeat. At some point there’s a little nudge from the universe saying, “there must be more than this.” Some of us tell that voice to be quiet and we just keep trudging along. Some of us listen to the pull and we blow up our lives to begin again, this time listening to our own inner voice and its dreams (sometimes leaving chaos in our wake). Some of us are more gentle and find a softer way to begin again. Whichever way is your way, the idea is the same. We stop listening to the pull of the EVERYBODY (our social self) and we tune into the soft animal of OUR BODY (our essential self). We wake from sleepwalking to remember the truth of who we are and who we long to be in this world.
Awakening to Befriend Our Thinking Mind: I know you all know what I am talking about or you wouldn’t be here. You’d be practicing a different kind of yoga at a different studio. You are here because you heard the call. Maybe it was the moment after yoga class that the world somehow looked different. Maybe it was the space you had between your thoughts and your actions where you noticed you took a different path. Maybe it was the voice in your head that got quiet for a moment or maybe the voice even became gentle and kind. Whatever it was, you have already started this jouney of awakening and it has already begun to nourish and heal you from the outside in. What began as a physical practice slowly worked it’s magic so you can feel your mind in it’s natural state, vast like the sky.
Awakening to Open Our Hearts: Often the teachers I love have been over coals and fires and still find a way to grow through it all. The life experience becomes the grist for the mill. When we awaken, life happens for me, not to me. We stop being a victim of life. Awakening asks us not to change our lives, but to shift our perspective. Shifting from lack to abundance, from anger to compassion, from fear to love. When the world feels heavy and hard, we can show up fully awake. We can grow our capacity to hold the duality of both / and. Yes, the world feels heavy and hard and there’s not a whole lot I can do. Then we can choose to align our inner vision to see kindness, love and community. We can align by choosing love over fear. We can choose this day to be our peaceful day. Through each choice, we align with the highest version of ourselves and wake up to the interconnectedness, beauty and complexity of our world that has been there all along.
Awakening has many meanings, many purposes. I truly believe that if we want to live in a different world, we first have to believe it is possible. I believe if we awaken collectively we will hit that tipping point and be able to change the world!
So… this year Greenville Yoga invites us to awaken layer by layer through presence, practice, reflection, and shared wisdom; embodying the fullest expression of who we are. The world needs YOU awake and aligned! Throughout the year, we’ll explore awakening through meditation offerings, seasonal yin practices, soulful study, and community connection. Each class and workshop offering invites you to return again and again to your Self. Welcome home!
