It’s been a busy summer bringing new things to light. I love creation and have been thinking a lot about how creativity is a really long process that gets most of the attention at the end. It’s so easy to honor and celebrate the finished products and hard to see the months and years of work that back those creations up. Not just the work itself but the time to gain whole skill sets to even do the work. I think of this often in social media where time lapse videography is used to keep the viewers interest and reduces the time it takes for something to come to life from the real hours, days, and months, into a gloriously perfect 30 second clip. There is no problem with showing it this way, as long as both viewer and creator we acknowledge that it isn’t reality to move so fast and it’s not real to have that easy looking perfection in any process.
If you happen to be a person (like me) who tends to be working on about 10 big projects at a time, the real, slow, and imperfect journey can create a lot of not so awesome feelings along the way. I tend to want everything done, now, or perhaps yesterday. Yoga helps me with this, and some times so does something else…
I had the good fortune of getting sick a few weeks ago. I say good fortune with no irony. I did at last get covid and it was mild in the general scheme of things. My symptoms were (on paper) classified as mild, yet my high energy self found this sapped ALL of my energy and 5 days laying in bed was a huge set of brakes on all the things. I honestly thought when I was in the beginning of it that I would catch up on all my reading, maybe watch some movies, and pound out some behind the scenes computer work. And my body was like “nah”. I’m conservative on this and took my isolation seriously – from my own family and everyone else. I didn’t leave my house until the 10 days I was probably contagious were up, not super fun. Even less fun was my inability to do ANYTHING of what I would call value for 7 days. I couldn’t even seem to follow TV that had a plot. I watched an absurd amount of bad reality dating shows and I may have tried every filter on Instagram. I’m not proud, but I do now know which “meme cat” I am, who my Disney parents are, and what I would look like as Captain Jack Sparrow.
Beyond all that not-so-deep knowledge I gained, the good fortune part was that I was supposed to be on vacation two days after I tested positive, and while a cancelled vacation isn’t by default “good”, the fact that I had all my classes already (and no events) covered meant I didn’t have to stress. And with three retreats, a mentorship program, a ton of special workshops and events, and a yoga teacher training all coming up in the next few months there honestly could not have been a better time to be sick. True story – I would much rather miss a vacation than miss any of these other things. And the even better part was although I was sad and frustrated (and definitely threw myself a pity party) it gave my mind a break from the squirrels that run through it seemingly without end. I was, in no small part due to years of yoga and preaching/practicing the resting side of it, able to accept it and settle into being still and letting myself rest.
The best part is now that the fog is lifting I feel like I’m on fire. I feel like the clarity I needed arrived while I was busy doing nothing. While my to-do list is legitimately taking up a large amount of space, I don’t feel overwhelmed. Instead I feel excited that I get to do so many things and to be of service in so many ways.
So here’s a little bit about what’s coming up for and with me:
Yoga Teacher Mentorship Program: this is one of those things I’ve been talking about for at least a year and it’s been through so many possible iterations and now it’s finally HERE! This is my 10 week mentorship program for people who completed a 200 hour yoga teacher training, and for any number of reasons didn’t transition from the training to teaching, or haven’t grown in their teaching the way they want to. If you (or someone you know) might be interested reach out to me or read the full description here. We start on August 22nd.
Malas are doing amazing and Kat and I have sold more than we would have even thought thanks to the amazing support of Elohee (one of my fantastic retreat locations that now carries our one of a kind creations in their gift shop). We’re also thrilled to be offering our mala making workshop on August 27 from 12-3pm at the Alpharetta Wellness Collective. Details and registration are here. If you’ve been to a workshop before, and didn’t quite finish, reach out to me about dropping in during the second half for some bonus support!
The Amsterdam retreat has one space left (it’s not to late to make it yours – you’ve still got a month to book flights!) and I am absolutely giddy about this retreat and getting back to Europe.
If you missed my Book to Body pranayama practice and talk on ‘Breath – the New Science of a Lost Art’, it’s coming back on Friday, September 9th at Sunny Street Yoga, and the yoga practice and talk on ‘Soulful Simplicity’ by Courtney Carver will be there in October.
And HELLO Yoga Teacher Training! I’m beyond thrilled to have joined this amazing set of teachers as a part of the YTTCollective offering both a 200 hour yoga teacher training starting in September and a 300 hour training starting in 2023. This offering is headed by Kim Saunders and is centering absolutely fabulous teachers in their area of expertise to create a truly one of a kind program. There is an information session this Saturday (8/13) at Gruvn yoga at noon, I’ll be there with Kim and Heather to share more about the program.
Looking ahead into peak leaf season and October in the north Georgia Mountains, My Fall Women’s 4-day retreat at Heartwood (Blue Ridge, GA) has one room left and the (co-ed) Oya Fall weekend retreat at Elohee is going to be amazing, and if you are dreaming of fall in the mountains this is your chance to pair it with yoga, a fantastic spa, a gorgeous waterfall, and amazing food!
There is so much more coming, I hope to see you somewhere fun over the next few months. I’ve got more events bubbling up over at A Mindful Movement, I’m now subbing classes at Gruvn yoga, and I’m taking time for myself for a deeper dive into Yoga Nidra with a weekend at Kripalu followed by an intense 5 day training in October. I’ll also be journeying back to Asheville, so let me know your favorite things to do there (since this last trip I didn’t make it outside of the 2 block radius of the Love Shine Play Festival)
Alison