All Aboard!!! This week, I taught a kids yoga class to a full room of 4 to 8 year olds a couple of times, and let me just say that I am learning a lot, not only about what kids are going through during this season and how they really are small, little adults in so many ways, but also about how much energy it takes to fly like an eagle, swim like a fish, climb a tree, and peddle a bicycle continuously with people who are, *ahem*, several years younger than you. Through it all, I am constantly reminded of the hope and optimism that soars through little souls and is bounded up in the hearts of little minds, bodies, and spirits!!! While I have been teaching kids yoga, I am reminded time and time again about the importance of self care. For me, this means a steady yoga practice, not only to stretch out my legs after hopping like a bunny and hosting a free spirited dance party in my kids yoga classes, but also to nourish my mental, physical, and spiritual needs on a much deeper level. I have also been going on long walks, a.k.a. the lengths that I used to run when I participated in competitive foot races, and let me just say that the lengths that I need to walk vary on my internal emotional, mental, and spiritual landscape on any given day. I am fortunate to have enough privilege to be able to participate in all of these activities, especially in a time when others are mourning the loss of loved ones or wondering how they are going to put enough food on the table for their families. Even as a 'newly strengthened by fire yoga instructor,' who is still learning the ropes and moving into new styles, techniques, and modalities on a regular basis, it is not lost on me that there are countless others who would love to be able to eat, work, and live in the level of comfort to which I have been blessed to be accustomed. Self care also means a steady meditation practice, although meditation has come to mean different things for me during this time. Sometimes I fall asleep listening to More Myself, a book by Alicia Keys, while the piano riffs lull me into sleep as I dream of achieving my personal best version of myself and dreams, and other nights it is all I can do to listen to Glennon Doyle's new book, Untamed, in her humble, vulnerable, and compassionate style of writing that not only speaks to us as women, but to all souls on the human planet of existence. In an effort to master meditation, I have been offering a couple additional meditations to what I hope is the populations that need them most, both medical professionals and teachers in the latest series that I have shared on Insight Timer. Although it would be lovely to say that I will come out of this quarantine with a strong handle on how to teach every unique and varied hue of meditation, for now, I am focused on first offering what I know and secondly and slowly, little by little, attending new workshops and seminars and adding additional repertoire to my knowledge base. Most importantly, I am focused on providing what little I can, when I can, to allow my light to shine on those who no longer remember what their flame looks like, so that together we can grow an eternal fire that brightens the path of everyone whom we encounter in this beautiful, and sometimes messy, awe inspiring journey that we are always blessed, even though it sometimes may appear otherwise, to call life!
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AuthorValerie Ellis, who is in alignment with the Black Lives Matter Movement and everyone whose life is impacted, now or before, by times of social injustice. Archives
July 2022
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