Integration

Thank you for your understanding regarding the studio cancellation tonight. It felt important to stay aligned in message with the rest of the studio and not have this class when the rest of the classes were cancelled in solidarity with #blackoutTuesday.

All the work we are doing on the mat is practice for when we step off :) So I’d invite you to really feel what you’re feeling - whether that’s understanding, compassion, joy, frustration, irritation, heartache, alignment, whatever. Dive into the sensation(s) and let it (them) speak to you. Often times there is an important messenger waiting there for you, offering itself to you - inviting you into a deeper intimacy with yourself…and in that way, into a deeper intimacy with the world around you.

Since we’re missing class tonight - I’ve uploaded last week’s practice in the WEEK 5 section. Please do reach out if you have questions or requests. I know it has been a really intense week in the world - reeeeeeeeally intense and connection might be the balm you need. The studio is open as usual tomorrow and on-goingly. I’ll have the team put a free class pass on your account (tomorrow - wednesday) if you’re not a member and maybe that will give you a chance to pop into another class this week.

This week in class:

• You will have more quiet space in the meditation to choose how you’d like to meet the emotion you’re working with (opposites, witnessing awareness or proactive engagement.)

• There will be time to share and for any reflections and/or questions.

Homework:

Continue to meet emotions in your life as they arise. This is an ongoing and moving meditation. When a strong, confusing or repetitive emotion shows up, pause, employ your mantra “feel, feel, feel, feel, feel” and see what it has to share. Meeting your emotions in the moment and responding spontaneously through the wisdom that is arising allows for a great deal of authenticity and freedom. It might not always be easy or pleasant, but in the end, I believe you’ll find it to be worth your time and effort. And if you happen to let this go, let it all slide, fall back into autopilot and reactivity, it’s okay, it’s human. Forgive yourself immediately (if that’s needed) and simply start over again.

Thank you for sharing your practices with me! It has been an honor and a privilege to be on this journey with you.

Love After Love By Derek Walcott

The time will come

when, with elation

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here.  Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was yourself.

Give wine.  Give bread.  Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf

the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit.  Feast on your life.

Entrance Ranier Maria Rilke

Whoever you are: step out of doors tonight,

Out of the room that lets you feel secure.

Infinity is open to your sight.

Whoever you are.

With eyes that have forgotten how to see

From viewing things already too well-known,

Lift up into the dark a huge, black tree

And put it in the heavens: tall, alone.

And you have made the world and all you see.

It ripens like the worlds still in your mouth.

And when at last you comprehend its truth,

Then close your eyes and gently set it free.