I was hiking a trail with my husband in a wilderness preserve where the trails were only marked by cairns. It was awesome because we were the only ones on the trail. Several times we encountered herds of wild burros who looked at us with scrutiny because we were on their turf. Or maybe they just felt sorry for us thinking we were lost. To be honest we did get lost several times and had to backtrack because the trails were hard to follow. We trekked over very rocky trails, climbed over boulders, and had to squeeze by some extremely prickly succulents. I thought I was doing pretty well until I somehow caught my right foot on an embedded rock and found myself flying through the air toward a thickly covered cactus. I’m not sure how I did it, but my body had to make some crazy twists for me to pivot on my left foot to prevent me from falling right into my worst nightmare. I must have screamed because my husband came running back to see if I was alright.
When was the last time you had to make a quick move in another direction to keep from losing your footing, your mind, your relationship, or your business in hopes of landing on solid ground?
In the last year many of us have had to pivot in almost every aspect of our lives only to still feel like we are standing on sinking sand. At the time of this writing, it is still unknown as to when the ground will become stable again.
In the meantime, we continue to look for those cairns for direction, trusting ourselves to stay on a path of purpose.
Weathering the Covid Storm
I have weathered the Covid storm in my own way. I seem to have breathed in the uncertainty of the climate and embraced a new understanding of what my business was offering. As I added more yoga classes to my teaching schedule and increased my individual yoga practice, I began to absorb the connectivity of my mind, body, and spirit into my coaching practice. It wasn’t long before I knew that I needed to incorporate the two and pivot to a more integrated offering to my students and clients. Out of this Reconstruction Yoga was born.
What is Reconstruction Yoga?
Reconstruction yoga is where therapy and the practice of movement, meditation techniques, and breathwork join together to address physical, mental, and emotional issues. I developed a trauma-informed therapy integrating yoga to reduce anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms and help eliminate any stigma attached to them.
During lockdown I immersed myself into new trainings such as Resiliency and Healing Traumatic Stress with Yoga, and Yoga for Strength and Stamina, which proved to be cairns for my path toward pivoting to a fuller orbed offering for those who desire a deeper understanding of their specific condition.
So why call this practice Reconstruction Yoga. My husband and I also took advantage of the isolation period at the beginning of the pandemic by remodeling our kitchen. We tore out old flooring, cabinets, and walls down to the studs and reconstructed a kitchen that is much more functional, spacious, welcoming, and beautiful. It was quite cathartic as we channeled our fears, insecurities, as well as our hopes through that labor-intensive creation process.
As with material construction, our mind, body, and spirit have the capacity to reconstruct how they align with each other. I discovered this one morning as I placed my yoga mat on the floor of our empty, bare kitchen. As I stood in Tadasana I closed my eyes and felt the openness of the space and its willingness to be deconstructed, reimagined, and reconstructed into something unrecognizable from its former space. I used this energy and flowed through a yoga practice that fulfilled me and allowed my creative juices to flow in abundance.
Yoga is a powerful mind, body, and soul uniting activity if you are open to it. My work as a yoga instructor has proven this to me time and time again as evidenced in the stories my students share with me from their experiences with a consistent yoga practice.
Join Me
So, today, on my birthday, I share with you something I am proud to birth out of my experience of listening to my heart and paying close attention to the cairns that have guided me through the Covid-19 wilderness.
Feel free to visit my website for a schedule of classes. Or you can book a time with me right now – Click Here!