I just completed 10 days of teaching a Qoya Teacher Training Intensive and our annual pay-what-you-can retreat outside Woodstock, New York at Menla Mountain Retreat Center. It is one of my favorite places to bring people in the world because you can feel the sacredness of the land that was commissioned by the Dalai Lama, stewarded by the Thurman family, and part of Tibet House honoring the powerful presence that he embodies: sharing his message of love and compassion.
Yesterday, I got to have an amazing experience teaching Qoya to a group of teenage girls who are chapter leaders for an organization called I Am That Girl.
When we are conscious, we can be present with others respecting their unique experience, and at the same time be aware of the part of ourselves that they mirror to us.
Being a dancer, I have a thing for musicians. On one fall day a few years ago, I had plans for a date, and this particular musician pulled a Houdini - or as the New York Times recently referenced, he "ghosted" me. Like Houdini, he disappeared, and only the ghostly, intangible, untouchable idea of him remained.
Luckily, my friend Kassidy Brown (co-founder of We Are the XX and birthday girl this weekend) was around to console me. After crying and collapsing into despair, I had an idea. What about catharsis?
When I'm leading a Qoya retreat or just hanging out with my friends, I often warn people that whatever question they ask me, I will often answer with, "What feels right in your body?" Fearful of sounding annoying or repetitive, I share that this question is meant to be empowering and a gesture of implicit trust that if something truly feels right in your body, that it is the right thing to do - not only in Qoya, but also in life.
“High degrees of self care will put you in the relaxation response or the terrain of magic, mystery, and a nervous system that feels the unity consciousness of two worlds, the one you can see and the one you can’t, but can feel – the ephemeral.”
—Dr. Anne Davin
It takes a lot of courage to be in a body. For my blog today, I'm sharing writer, yoga teacher and mind, body & soul coach Allison Richard's experience of her first Qoya class. I know in my own practice, it's amazing how the simplest little thing that I do or don't do in my body can reveal a life-changing metaphor if I'm willing to integrate it. Read her story below, and I invite you to join me for a class in New York this Saturday or in Woodstock in October for our annual pay-what-you-can retreat.
“Do you really want to look back on your life and see how wonderful it could have been had you not been afraid to live it?” —Caroline Myss
If you're feeling the existential ache, you're not alone. What the hell is going on in this wise, wild and free world?
As I scroll through my proverbial rolodex, I think of the people I know who have the strongest life force: passion in the eyes and fire in their will, so much so that you can hear the drum beat of their heart.
These people have connected to the calling within that is seemingly impossible until you begin. Once that first step is taken, though, doors appear where there were only walls. A sincere pursuit receives the reward of miracles, and as they individually transform, the world outside of them does as well.
Have you ever thought, "What if I'm wrong?" What if, at the end of your life, it turns out you weren't supposed to prioritize love? What if you weren't supposed to trust yourself, and you definitely were not supposed to be dancing?
Sometimes there are no words to express the depth of a feeling. We try and the attempts create so much beautiful art in this world, but instead of speaking, we can also dance as a way to communicate.
You know that saying, "calm seas don't make strong sailors"? For many of us on the journey to continue to choose love, we face many challenges. If you're paying attention, life can break your heart every day. Unrequited love, the job you wished for, the "what if?" things so different than how things really are - as well as the beauty of the sunlight coming through the trees, her smile, his laugh, all of it.
I just finished teaching at the Reveal conference at Kripalu alongside Meggan Watterson, Christiane Northrup, Kate Northrup, and Maya Azucena. It was an incredible honor to reveal our souls in sisterhood, and the wildest thing happened: I danced for everyone. I dance all the time, but I haven't danced for a group of 100+ people in 15 years since college.
Today, June 11th, is my birthday. Deep breath. Deep sigh.
Life.
Such an adventure it is to be embodied. As an eternal soul, we each take a temporary form and explore the separation of individuation on a journey to remember the reverence of our oneness.
I wish I could tell you that it will be easy. I wish I could tell you that inner and outer resistances won't be a challenge; however, that wouldn't be fair. You wouldn't be well-equipped for the journey ahead if I did.
What I can tell you is that this ― the journey of living according to the truth that you feel in your body, remembering your body as the address of your soul in this lifetime, and aligning with this truth will fulfill you. It will nourish you in a way that nothing else can.
Sometimes letting go isn't active; it's simply realizing what is already gone. Sometimes it requires great effort to take a reflective inventory of what nourishes you and what depletes you, and then make a conscious choice to release what does not bring you joy.
This free Qoya 15 minute movement ritual is titled "Get Back in Your Body" because I truly believe that when you can take a deep breath and feel your body, you connect to your intuitive wisdom to guide you, you connect with your creative authentic expression that happens in the moment, and you are able to receive more of life's gifts because you are being present. You remember your essence is wise, wild and free, and you feel it as truth in your bones.
The force of the feminine is not linear.
It doesn't have a strategic plan that forces the flow. It is a path of soulful surrender and creating space for whatever is authentic to REVEAL itself.
I'm so honored to be supporting Meggan Watterson's courageous work at her soulful event alongside Christiane Northrup, Kate Northrup Watts and Maya Azucena at Kripalu, June 12th-14th, 2015.
"In the end, everything will be okay. If it's not okay, it's not yet the end." ~Fernando Sabino
Whether you follow astrology or are just living a human life, the last month or so has been...a lot. A lot, a lot.
