Why I decided to ditch the paywall for this series of yoga videos...
There's a new "yoga video" portal on the home page.
For the first few years here on substack I was just so excited to dive into writing. I felt like I’d come back home. If you had asked me as a ten year old what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have without even so much as a breath said -WRITER.
After a rejection from academia, I never thought writing was something I could claim, do, or be. Then it’s like the awareness fairy came along waved her wand and said poof - you are a writer, if you just start writing. Week after week I’ve hit publish to reconcile this creative urge, sometimes wrestling with words for days at a time. I’m still trying to find my voice somewhere between earnest and honest, but mostly humbly heartfully laughably relatable.
Burnt out from the weekly self-imposed deadline to publish, I had another awareness fairy moment. What about bringing it all full circle back to the yoga? Rather than writing about yoga and mental wellness, let’s actually do some yoga for mental wellness. June’s shares were all about getting into the embodiment of the practice. I’ve decided to ditch the paywall for a while so these videos are readily available for everyone. The Dharma Days home page even has a new “yoga video” category that will keep the collection together.
Many of you are already part of the movement membership with weekly live-streams and a loaded library of classes. But rather than overload YouTube with more free yoga videos, I felt like I wanted to keep things in the context of the sweet community. AND keep focusing on yoga as a means for tending to mental wellness and learning our own emotional language. It’s stressful out there. I feel it too. Every. Single. Day. Both yoga and ayurveda are how I manage or attempt to manage my moods. They are how I make sense of and give meaning to a messy contradictory life.
In case you missed them or want to revisit, here’s a table of contents for each class I’m adding to the video library. You can put them on rotation to create a weekly yoga practice for the next couple months or just focus on what you need as you need it! Take a few moments to connect to yourself through breath, with attention and intention. Let your body be the oracle of what you most need as you show up to the mat. Deep Breaths. Big Love. Om Shanti.
Leave any questions you have about these practices in the comments and I will do my best to answer them. This is meant to be a community of connection - so let me know what you think, what you want, what you need, how you feel …
A hip opening practice to release the psoas and increase pelvic floor awareness
In a perceived moment of stress, whether sitting at our desk attempting a mountain of work or in a real life emergency situation, our body contracts. Naturally, we hold the breath and grip the muscles in freeze mode. In fight and flight mode, the breath quickens and muscles activate. The sympathetic system is triggered. With repetition the cycle is in over-drive and conditions become chronic.
The key is understanding it’s all connected. Shift your awareness of any one of these components, you shift your relationship to the whole. You can choose your own healing pathway; body, breath, or mind.
Core Stability, Spirited Sovereignty
At times when I feel the most dispersed, I’ve learned the way back to focus is through the core. If I draw attention to the mid-line, I know I can reacquaint myself with an unapologetic strong center. My mind is gathered from the extremities and collected from the drama. It’s an inner alignment that I crave right now. I need that rooting and grounding so my personal power no longer feels diffused.
When temperaments move into restless, anxious places - feeling the visceral engagement of muscles stabilizes us. Hugging the muscles to bone, knitting in to support the spine, feeling the feet root to rise; it’s physical poetry to steady us when overwhelmed.
A gentle chest/heart opening practice; the giving and receiving breath; music meditation.
If you’ve been following the last couple weeks, you know I am in a process of undoing. My work is to release the pressure valve and soften into a life where there is less pushing, striving, trying. Some of you recognized this need for yourself. We can do this together!
Summer is ripe with this very calling. She has lessons for us to loosen our grip. We need a spaciousness beyond words. Fill up with playful joys. It’s time to take care of our hearts. The practices are all about mending and tending to the heart. If the heart is tender, heavy, broken, protected, hardened, weighted, closed tight, too open - F.L.Y. ~ First Love Yourself.
Release tension from your shoulders and connect to a quiet place that whispers - undo.
The world right now is a perfect storm of syncopated stress. We’re out of rhythm with the natural order of things and have had to train our nervous system to expect the unexpected. As we carry the weight of this world on our shoulders heavily every day, burn out and compassion fatigue wait for us.
They wait, not with a “sweep the leg Johnny” kind of vindictiveness, but more like a friend - gently grabbing you by the shoulders, looking you in the eye and telling you “it’s okay to stop doing and feeling so much.”
Exhale.
I love this and you. One day at a time. 🩵