Shine Your Sacred Self
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Last year’s Reiki Retreat was such a success that Paty Mariposa and I extended our stay by an extra day and night. This year, we will be at Kashi Ashram for 4 days and 3 nights from March 26-29, 2020. Click here if you want to reserve your space now.
Something powerful happens when we consciously gather in community to practice together.
It’s different than what you get from your personal practice and it’s different than when you roll your mat out to follow a practice from your TV or computer.
When you take the time to bring your body to a space to move and breathe with others, there’s a twining of intentions and a lifting of spirits that occurs, even if all you do is show up, do your practice, and go home.
I believe this coming together in community is important work, and that is why it is my mission to create small and large events, here in Tampa and outside in the wide, wide world for you to join with friends and strangers in a time free from digital distraction when you can fully feel your authentic self.
We had an amazing first weekend of the Essential You Yoga 200 Hour Teacher Training program, and I can tell that deep connection is already happening for this group of teacher trainees! It is exciting to see and I am honored to be a part of creating this sacred space.
Along with creating space for you to move and stretch and breathe, I believe it is important to create a space to soften and to heal. That is why I am so excited to pair with Jai Dee Massage and Yoga to offer monthly Reiki Circles on the last Friday of each month.
We’ll spend an hour together uniting our energy in a short meditation and then giving or receiving a Reiki treatment. If you are attuned to any level of Reiki, you are welcome to come and share your gifts. If you are curious about Reiki or simply want to feel rejuvinated, please come and receive a treatment. There is no Reiki experience required to attend!
Click here to add this event to your Google Calendar, and please feel welcome to join us this Friday at 6 pm.
If you are not attuned to Reiki, or simply want to refresh your connection with a second attunement, I am offering a Reiki One Training and Attunement on Sunday, April 28th at Jai Dee Massage and Yoga. I am happy to help guide you on this journey of connection and greater well-being.
I feel so blessed to be living in this time and age when science and the medical field are confirming what Yogis have been telling us for centuries – the practices of Yoga and Meditation have tangible and measurable benefits that can resonate in your life and the lives of the people you love.
In an article published today, neuroscientist Sara Lazar conducted an experiment on experienced and new meditators and found that meditating as little as 15-27 minutes daily created some pretty amazing results: brain scans showed that the Hippocampus and the TPJ thickened, creating better capacity for learning, memory, emotional regulations, and seeing things from other perspectives. The amygdala, associated with fear, anxiety and aggression, reduced, giving participants real results after just a short period of time. (8 weeks for some study participants.)
Dr. Lazar isn’t the only one studying mediation. The National Center for Complimentary and Integrative Health tells us that “meditation may reduce blood pressure, symptoms of IBS, anxiety, depression, and insomnia.”
Further, a study by Central Michigan University showed that introducing a Mindfulness Meditation practice reduces unconsciously held bias based on age and race, and a Harvard study suggests that regular Meditation can increase focus and reduce the brain’s propensity for distraction.
In my own life, Meditation is a tool that I use to feel more calm, focused, and centered. It always helps me return to my true self when the world around me is feeling chaotic.
Join me on the last Friday of the month for donation-based Reiki Circles that include a group meditation component. We meet next at 6 pm at Jai Dee Massage & Yoga on April 26th.
When I first began practicing yoga, most yoga teachers fit a stereotype. I bet I don’t even have to tell you what that stereotype is because you’re probably already picturing that yoga teacher: young, white, thin, North American, and super flexible.
Since that time, I’ve been lucky enough to teach, learn, and practice from teachers of all stripes. I truly believe that diversity in yoga is critical.
Why is that? Because that stereotypical yoga teacher often dissuades people who don’t look like her from coming to the mat.
Yoga is a practice that benefits all people: all shapes, all sizes, and all cultures. Because the practice gives us a toolkit to use in our most human moments to help us shine our most authentic, bravest selves, it’s a practice that speaks to each one of us by making us comfortable in our own skin.
Because of that, I am committed to bringing yoga out of the studio and into the community so that more people can overcome the misconception that yoga is not for them and can discover this practice and it’s profound impact on their bodies and on their minds.
It is with this hope in mind that I open up my Yoga Teacher Training to everybody. The more different sizes, ages, and cultures represented in yoga teachers, the better off this world will be.
It is important that people understand that nailing a handstand is not a pre-requisite to being good at yoga.
What is important is cultivating a connection to breath and movement, learning to slow down and embody an asana, or yoga posture, and embracing your body and Spirit as it is in this moment.
Yogic philosophy tells us that Maya is the name of the veil that sits between perception and reality. When we’re peering through this veil, we see things as we are, not as as they really are.
This happens because the human memory is a funny thing. When we encounter a person, place, or situation that reminds us of a traumatic event of our past, our Spirit naturally tries to resolve this trauma. It’s kind of like trying to retake a test that you failed, except, in reality, we aren’t resolving a past trauma, we’re simply confronting a new situation with a veil, and behaving as if that situation were the past.
For example, when I first moved to Tampa, I reached out to many different yoga studios, hoping to find the perfect space to offer my classes and workshops. One studio owner kept me waiting for almost two hours, which put a bad taste in my mouth for waiting for anybody. The next day, I had an appointment with another space, and when that person was 10 minutes late, I felt myself begin to get bristley. I had to remind myself that it wasn’t this person who kept me waiting so long the day prior, and that being 10 minutes late really isn’t a big deal, nor would it have normally irritated me to the level it did, because I was still feeling sensitive over having waited so long the day prior.
This is a small example, and the consequences were minimal, but you can extrapolate how this can become a larger issue if your Spirit is trying to resolve a big trauma over and over again at the subconscious level.
This is what we call shadow work, and it is possible to move through it with many different modalities. What I love about yoga is that we get a simple tool to shake stagnant energy off of our physical and mental bodies and allow ourselves to meet the world with clear eyes and an open heart.
The philosophy of yoga goes more in depth about how to peel away these layers of Maya, in part by naming the different layers of illusion and giving us very specific tools to see through each of them, such as using Mantra to break through psycho-social layers of illusion or Pranayama to release old emotions.
I’ll be digging deeper into this philosophy and more in the upcoming Essential You Yoga 200 hour Teacher Training, set to begin in just two weeks. You’ll also see elements of this in upcoming workshops and retreats!