Navigating the Waters and Winds: Kindness, Strength, and Light
“I am strong enough to be here now. My courage is celebrated quietly, and I am proud of this version of me. I will continue to shine my light with trust that it always reflects brightest where it's needed most.” – Grace Selene
Hello everyone,
This week, there’s no extensive blog, but I do have a couple of offerings in-studio and online that I would love for you to join! I’m teaching in-studio on Mondays and taking some time off from online teaching next week into the new year. If you’re looking for respite on Christmas Eve, join me for a special Sanctuary Restore tomorrow at 5:30 PM PT.
As we move through the holiday season, I am attuned to both the waters and the winds. The waters mirror our internal sea of emotions—joys and griefs—and how our moods shift dynamically, like the ocean’s waves. The winds bring me to life force and prana: what inspires us as we inhale and what we release with each exhale. Together, they symbolize the interplay between emotions that rise to the heart and the breath’s power to cradle and befriend what rests and what lingers. What needs to be held. What is ready to let go.
I'm brought to the words by untamedhero @hannahrowrites:
"I used to separate good days from bad until I thought of myself as an ocean. I used to split times I felt strong from when I felt weak until I imagined myself as the sea. Calm and rocky, wild and soft, still and powerful and vast and more than any one thing. In the ocean it’s hard to divorce one mood from another, one wave from the next. Now, on my worst days, I think of how good life is too, how I still can greet joy while swimming through grief. How fragile strength feels. How I’m not any one thing in any one moment on any one day. I’m all of it, and all of it is me."
As Morgan Harper Nichols so beautifully reminds us, sometimes strength is simply taking a deep breath.
Let yourself be you. Grounded. Trusting. Presence.
This week, I offer practices for the waters and winds as we head toward Christmas and into the quiet shadows of wintering and year's end. Let’s remember to be kind to ourselves as we connect with others, indulge, and reflect on the calendar year coming to a close. To honing our strength, our trust, and ultimately our light—letting it shine forth.
Here with you in practice.
In Love & Light,
Maya
In-Studio @ Yoyoyogi
Mon @ 6 PM – Mellow Monday: A 75-min integrated yin practice. here Tues 12/24 @ 5:30pm - Special Xmas Eve Sanctuary: 75 min gentle restore.
Online via Zoom
Tues & Thurs @ 8 AM PST / 11 AM EST – Gentle Morning Yoga: Rise, Move, Pause : 30 min Pay What You Want here - Off 12/26, 12/31 & 1/2
Yoga Therapy
Complimentary discovery, intake, and 1st session here
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