The Year of Yin

2023 is the year of yin. I knew that this was going to be the year of yin personally. A gentler year than the ones past. It had to be. What I didn’t know is that collectively it would be the year of yin. Talk about trending. Doing anything collectively does make sense at this point. I mean we have collectively participated in and/or observed the world spinning into an oblivion for the last couple of years so does it make sense, yes, sense it does make that we would yin collectively.

I didn’t know it was official until a friend of mine sent me a screenshot of an article she had read about the Chinese New Year and Chinese Zodiac. She highlighted a part in the article that said “That makes 2023 the Year of the Water Rabbit. Gui Mao Rabbit year is quite a special year when all the elements in a year are yin.” She wanted to make sure I paid extra special attention to the yin part and so she circled that word and sent it to me.

First off, lets talk about friends who love you and not only are they as excited as you are for all your new amazing beginnings but that they screenshot, highlight, and circle the word that in so many ways (connected to many other things) has made your past year worth it. Then they send it to you because they believe in you and see you. Enough can’t be said for this friendship and the love and appreciation I have for her.

2nd, the elements of yin,

What is the Chinese zodiac forecasting? The article (which will be biblio’d below - read it) says “The Year of Water Rabbit is going to be a gentler year. We’ll have time to take a breather. We’ve been in a tunnel for the last few years, and the light is getting bigger now.”

Words that will put you in the mindset of Yin: cultivate, dissolve, gently, ground, open, soften, earth, hidden, calm, still.

Now you can’t yin without yang and the article speaks to other rules that may apply and of course there is the light with the dark but that is where I could come in an introduce a yoga aspect. Imagine being able to embody a regular yin yoga practice and truly embrace 2023 and beyond. Don’t just imagine it, come do it.

There is so much that can be said about Yin Yoga. There is so much that has been said about it and figuring out how to summarize it has been a task that I haven’t taken lightly and I have probably been in my head too much in regards to it all. I think some of that comes from still being in process and in training and wanting to relay all of the information I am learning, to you all. The other part is wanting to convey to you how delicious a regular guided or not, Yin practice can be.

My Heart Says:

Yin is a practice that allows us to pause and nourish ourselves from the inside out. It encourages us to breath and to honor. It expects us to explore the spaciousness in our bodies, in our minds, in our lives. Allowing us the time to tune in to our senses, and to listen. It allows us to feel. It does for me anyway and it absolutely can for you too.

The facts:

From Paul Grilley, A practice that focuses on exercising muscles and moving blood is yang. A practice that focuses on connective tissue is yin. When we are moving and bending our joints doing yoga postures, both muscles and connective tissue are being stretched. The muscles are yang because they are soft and elastic, while the connective tissue is yin because they are stiff and inelastic. All forms of yang exercises, such as running, weightlifting, and swimming, alternately contract and relax muscles. Muscle tissues respond very well to rhythmic yang exercises. Exercises that create a gentle traction of the connective tissue are yin. It is not muscular strength that gives us the feeling of ease and lightness in the body, it is the flexibility of the joints. Yin yoga postures gently stretch and rehabilitate the connective tissues that form our joints. If we want to maintain our joints flexibility, we must exercise them but we should not exercise them like muscles, we must exercise them in a yin way. Balance baby!

Dense connective tissues do not respond to rhythmic stresses the way muscles do. Connective tissues resist brief stresses but slowly change when a moderate stress is maintained for three to five minutes. With persistent practice the fibers of connective tissue will grow and realign to allow for a greater range of motion. Also, learning to relax in poses helps us to identify and release tensions that are deep within us not just in the skeletal muscle.

There is truly so much that can be said here but what I want to communicate to you the most is to come try it out. Just come and see for yourself how it makes you feel. Come into a pose, feel what you feel, find stillness, a pause, explore your edge, nourish, and then receive and restore.

Article: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/chinese-zodiac-predictions-2023-hnk-intl/index.html

Book: Yin Yoga Principles & Practice by Paul Grilley

Happy New Year… Week, Day, or Moment

I love a fresh start. So much that I view everyday as one. Maybe that’s because I have needed so many.

11:50 p.m. on December 31st is no different to me than 12:01 a.m. on January one. Usually November and December are so busy that I need January to be a constructive rest type of month. January is the yin to December’s yang. It’s like the vacation after the vacation. A time to wake slowly instead of quickly to a loud beeping alarm. January is the invitation to move different, setting the tone, making the intentional plans while I am quietly tucked away and in February I’m ready to make moves. This isn’t something that I planned on doing it just naturally started happening, February became a better month for me to start something new, to add something different or expand upon an already fresh start. January is the month I taketh away and February the month I try to thoughtfully add to. It could be considered the lazy man’s way or with a nice illuminated twist, the following my natural rhythms and timing way. I choose to describe it as the latter.

So it only made sense to ask you to join me in February. Join me in the blooming of this lotus, come to my soft opening at Peaceful Heart, Yoga Studio where I will begin teaching Yin Yoga classes. And of course with this invitation comes the realization that you may have already begun your resolutions for the year and by the time these classes begin your abs may be tighter, your booty higher, and diet cleaner. You may be 20 books in, have run 22 miles toward your half-marathon goals, or dryer than my house during the winter when the heat is on. If so, fantastic and if not or you opted to take a break from resolutions this year, also fantastic, every moment offers us a chance to have a fresh start and the right to try something new or old that’s new again, make a change or add to the musings and/or enchantments of our already established routines and lives, thoughtfully.

Understanding that what I want for you will never out weigh what you want for yourself but what I will say is that I don’t necessarily want these yoga classes to be a new year’s resolution for you. They don’t need to align with your goal of losing weight or achieving yoga arms. What I hope for you is exactly what I hope for me and that is to start yoga this February to explore wellbeing, to explore the act of a pause, to explore being nourished from the inside out, to explore feeling restored.

Soooo recap:

• Every moment offers us a chance to have a fresh start

• January is for rest - constructive rest (for me. Can be for you too)

• Thee Wild Honey (that’s me) will be teaching Yin Yoga classes @ Peaceful Heart Yoga Studio starting in February of 2023

• And you are cordially,

  invited

  encouraged

  emboldened

  … to attend.

P.S. What? (is Yin Yoga), When? (exactly) Where? (is this studio), How? (is it different and do I sign up), and Why? (should I attend) - Well stay tuned because I can’t wait to share more.

Pause. Nourish. Restore

Hi. testing this thing out. Is it on?

Everything over here in this world is very much in process, even the blogging. It’s evolving, growing, and, yes coming along but definitely in process or progress. I digress.

I have some big news that I would like to share with you all. I did finish my 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training with my teacher Matece at Nourishing Heart Yoga School in Bloomington, Indiana. 200 hrs from September-November. Whew! I finished up just in time to celebrate the coming of my 41st year, on this plane, in this time. It wasn’t planned that way but it feels pretty significant when I think about where I was a year ago and what I spoke out into the seen and unseen then.

It feels good to be done with this part and also I was sad to see it come to an end. It was intense but lovely. A challenge yet freeing. If you know, you know.

There was a routine in all of it that I desperately needed. The routine of being a student and intentionally learning about something I love. The routine of taking care of myself and loving myself out loud.

The routine of

144,

time with my teacher,

asana labs,

Soma Coffeehouse & Juice Bar,

Feta Kitchen,

Yin Class & Seasonal Flow,

Bryan Park.

The routine of family coming over to my house for a few hours or more and taking my shift so I could hop into my car, hit the road to Bloomington, tune out to the world and into my soul. I loved it so much and I just tried to soaked it all in. I enjoyed it, truly.

Ironically, the part I struggled with the most, the hardest part for me was when I had to take all that I had learned and on 3 to 4 separate occasions, stand at the front of the room in front of people and teach yoga. The exact thing I was learning to do. That I couldn’t wait to do. The whole “why” I was there.

Here I am studying yoga in a YTT program of my choosing something I have always wanted to do, a 1:1 ratio, Matece and I. A dream of mine that was coming true.The perfect situation really and I am terrified to teach all that I have come to learn. Like forget my words and where I am standing, terrified! What?!

Turns out, this journey if you will, this path was less about learning how to teach yoga and more so a spiritual journey. A journey to unseen parts of myself. And therefore it felt very personal and unprocessed and I felt imperfect and raw out in the world. I wasn’t perfect and don’t expect to be but also I wasn’t ready.

Each time I wasn’t ready, and through my own hesitance, I ushered in a crowdless room, each time luckily for me one person would show up. And no this isn’t that type of love story… it was a different person every time, someone seeing my teachers bat signal who would come in and sit with me (pause), let me talk to them and breath with them (nourish), and they all shared their own experience of a time when… and these acts of kindness and showing up (restore) would allow me to move into the space of trust and teach asanas. I am so thankful to those ladies and a whole page of other people whom helped a dream of mine come to fruition.

But it doesn’t stop there right, because I still have to go out into my community, into the world and teach yoga if I want to change the world or pay the bills. Which I truly want to do. So here I am in mid-December and I am still in process… intentionally.

Here I am sitting quietly with myself, intentionally, continuing to pause, nourish, restore and weigh my impact, while I integrate the beauty of yoga into my life fully and study the parts that I believe are calling to me because of me. And that reminds me of a story (yes a story within in story, ha! I am known for it).

I was reading last spring the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and there is this part in the book where Elizabeth writes “ you’re not required to save the world with your creativity, your art not only doesn’t have to be original, in other words it also doesn’t have to be important. For example, whenever anyone tells me that they want to write a book in order to help people, I always think, ‘oh please don’t. Please don’t try to help me. I mean it’s very kind of you to help people but please don’t make it your sole creative motive because we will feel the weight of your heavy intention, and it will put a strain upon our souls.”

When I read that I was like laughing, clapping, and wildly shaking my head yes all at the same time. Thank you Elizabeth Gilbert for saying it! I very humbly want to help others. It is innate within every fiber of my being. Sometimes when I move from that space I forget what it is I may need or want and/or what it takes to restore me. I often feel depleted, tired, sometimes hurt, and even used and I am not sure the other person or persons were helped. So through my turtling and tortoise pace I have realized what I need (currently) and I am being called to take care of myself and it turns out that what I need most is what others have needed too. So I can take care of me and still serve another purpose and I love it. I know that there are times when I step on to my mat not having any clue what it is I may step off with but it is always exactly what I need that I didn’t even know I needed.

All of this to say, I have bolsters. Yeah, yoga bolsters and I have some good stuff coming to me and to you in 2023. Stay tuned.

Love,

Jennifer

Tell me what is it you plan to do…?

Jennifer receiving Thai Yoga Therapy, taken by Matece Skow, June 2022.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?

Who made the Swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean -

the one who flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down -

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

-Mary Oliver

Does Mary Oliver’s poem bring anyone else to tears?

On the most normal of feeling days when it seems as if every emotion is in check and there couldn’t be one reason why you would feel the need to cry.

On my most well put together days, this poem can bring me and everything around me to a full stop. It isn’t until moments later that I realize by the movement of tears behind my eyes that nothing actually stopped, I was just awarded the blessing of being fully present.

The Summer Day, really holds meaning for me as the summer winds down and I reflect on the things that define this summer for me or at least the ways it will go down in my writings and history.

After a dim spring that included, opening myself up to the feelings that were washing over me, self-reflection, and learning how important it was to stay present, a summer, well…

A summer where I quite literally faced the question, What will I do with my one wild and precious life?

Wild Fern or Wild Honey, I think both. Wild heart and wild hair, leading the way. Here is where I have planted, and I use that term loosely because this is a beautiful start but just like a fern I will continue to cultivate and grow wild and free, dispersed by the wind.