After taking Kitty Cavalier's beautiful Qoya class in NYC last week, a woman I've known for years asked me, "How are you Rochelle?" I responded, "It's funny how this life thing can be so intense sometimes, right?" We both laughed in recognition and shared a knowing glance. Yes, she understood. She had felt pain, betrayal, confusion and loss right alongside her dreams, savoring moments, friendship, gratitude and love. All the different aspects of life swirled together like some sort of assortment of ingredients from a frozen yogurt toppings buffet. Maybe those difficult and intense moments in life are like those crushed up oreo cookies, even if think that they are not "good for you," they can have their own medicinal quality. Also this week, a man I had been on a couple dates with (see last post of being reduced to eye candy only to receive fuel for re-branding femininism) asked me for an energy healing session. In the most tender part of the session, he said, "It's hard for me to go any deeper down this road, because I realize if I do, I will have to change my life." As he said it, I realized it was true for so many of us. I remember when I was in a relationship that needed to end and I was so overwhelmed by what staying true to my soul would entail. It would ask me to change everything. Lose my home, some friends, a sense of security and my dream of love. Sometimes the invitation to change is too great to accept right now.
Since healing and transformation is what many people associate me with, there are certain times of the year where I am the recipient of more than usual texts, calls, emails and requests for support. Where people "hit the wall" of their capacity and are forced to either grow and expand or contract and go inward. The last week has been one of those times.
The cultural tendency is "to do" something to change this feeling and the invitation here is to take a sacred pause.
"To do" the things that bring you into a truer state of being.
What if you could...
Take a Sacred Pause.
Just stop for a moment. Or two.
Just stay in for a night. Or three.
For today, stop trying to "figure it out" and let it be. Just for today.
Take a nap.
Take a bath.
Take a break.
Slow way down.
And see what is there.
What is asking for your attention below the busyness?
Below the doing.
What lives in the being?
I had my own existential crisis last week where in the depth of inquiry I felt like I couldn't access the wisdom, comfort and trust so normally embodied. What I was shown was that the ego mind is always activated in judging and analyzing the past or daydreaming and anticipating the future, but the expansiveness of the spirit/soul/truth/love is experienced in the present moment. I heard myself saying to myself what I often say to others while teaching Qoya, "Slow down. Take a deep breath and feel as much physical sensation as you can." No matter what you are doing, you can come into the present moment through the experience of your body. And when you do, even for just a second, feel that pulse of life, that life force that animates you and all things, savor it and honor it by just taking a Sacred Pause right there.
To expand your capacity to be still, because sometimes it actually takes practice to sit still, I'd like to share with you my morning breathing and meditation practice that prepares me for stillness each day. (Video links are at the end of this email!) The hardest part of stillness is quieting the voice that always feels like there is something "to do", that list to infinity of tasks that need managing. The completion of these tasks is a dependence on external validation. The invitation to be still and just be with yourself is a returning to an ability to self-source. To be able to get water from your own well and become empowered from your own inner validation. Your inner validation is the place where you are congruently aligned with all parts of your self; mind, body, emotions, spirit, soul and energetics. Often times our perceptions are being pulled in different directions. Thinking one thing, feeling a second, doing a third, soul yearning for a fourth. A stillness practice can feel like herding cats some days, but when fully integrating all parts of Self, a woman can step more into her feline nature like a jaguar, strongly intuitive, well rested and ready for whatever life brings.
When can you schedule some time to sit still? Today? This week? A certain time every week? Like you would schedule your morning run, can you make time to just be? To sit on the couch and just sit there? To stay in one night, have a bath and linger there for an hour or more? Can you prioritize your practice of resting into the acceptance of things as they are? I'd love to hear if you do and how it goes.
This is the message that came through so strongly for me this week and I hope that it can serve as a reminder in your own heart to take some time to slow down and rest too. I am so grateful for the life experiment/experience we are able to be living at this time and in the midst of so many changes, evolutions and revolutions within ourselves and our world. And it's important to take some time to slow down and (speaking words of wisdom) let it be. Blessings and gratitude to you for all you "do" to shine light in the world. May you also soften into the essence that you are and experience the power of yourself when you can just be.
Rest well,
Rochelle
(that rhymes!)
P.S. Would you be interested in a free energy healing session with me? For those of you who know are already planning on coming to the fifth annual Qoya Costa Rica Retreat March 29- April 4th, 2014, if you register this week, through October 18, 2013. I'll be offering a private session with me as a bonus to do a Shamanic Energy Healing Session, Despacho Gratitude Ceremony or Lifestyle Coaching in person, on the phone or via Skype. You can register here and Paypal is offering a payment plan for six months with no interest, and the retreat is just short of six months away! Would love to dance with you and share this sacred experience together. If you're looking for something sooner, there is also Qoya and Dolce Yoga Pleasure Retreat in Tuscany, Italy November 16-22, 2013 and Qoya anytime, anywhere with these free videos here.
Enjoy this Shamanic Breathing video. This is the practice I learned from my studies with the Four Winds Society and do most mornings.
This is my Shamanic Morning Meditation that I also do to access inner wisdom and prepare for inner stillness, also inspired by my training with the Four Winds Society.
Figuratively, I am inviting you to get your own one way ticket to paradise and join me. There is the paradise "out there". The paradise that seems elusive and temporarily experienced on a vacation, in the acquisition of a desire or in the daydreams and fantasies of the mind. There is also the paradise inside, that is available to us anytime regardless of external circumstances. It is the place where we feel ecstatic. Alive. Awake. Aware. Wise. Wild. Free. Ourselves.
Qoya is based on the idea that through movement we remember. We remember, as women, that we are inherently Wise, Wild and Free. Wise, Wild and Free are also the essence of the movement forms that influence Qoya. Wise comes from the wisdom of yoga. Wild is from the creative expression in dance. Free is from the pleasure found in sensual movement. The focus is less and less and less on how it looks and more and more and more on how it feels. When you're moving your body and it feels good to move, you're doing it right.
