adaptations:

living through fast and furious change

Greetings Friends,

I hope this newletter finds you safe, healthy and well. I've just returned from a month nestled between two salt-water rivers that meet the Atlantic ocean in Brittany. Even sheltered by majestic pines with daily tides bringing in the breeze and a sense of daily renewal, the temperatures soared as never seen before in this region. The lack of rain turned most of the grasses to a crisp, and the once flowering pinks of the hydrangias were brown, burned and tarry. It did finally rain, and with it came a flooded house of epic proportions.

 

Despite the heat, days were filled with long walks along the coastal paths, swimming in the sea, sailing, kayaking, playing the guitar, painting, and of course, an adapted yoga practice. Taking a break from routine and changing locations returns me again and again to a beginner's mind. There is time to remember the basics, time to play. The resident donkey and two goats often showed up during my practice, never failing to remind me not to take myself too seriously, or to feed them!

 

Despite the beauty of the place and the romantic notion of a simple life by the sea, I had glimpses of deep sadness within me. There was the nostalgia of the passage of time, remembering childhood memories sailing on the Chesapeake in a very different era, summers on the Severn River with family...but mainly the sadness came from a deep grieving for the state of Mother Earth and the world we have created, all played out daily in the news (depending on what you read, of course).

 

Mother earth is acclimatising to human-created climate change. We've known about climate change and the interconnections to politics, diet, industry and travel for the better part of two hundred years*, but doing anything about it? Well, it turns out to be rather inconvenient.
 

In the book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer writes:
 

“Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.”

 

Of course, we all love the earth. I don't know anyone that would say otherwise. But how many of us daily contemplate the earth loving us back? If we knew the Earth loved us back, would it be as easy to drill, clearcut, burn, rape, pillage, dump, drain and destroy Her?

What would a day of deep knowing that the Earth loved you look like?
How would it be different from any other day?

 

Climate change is Mother Earth's way of adapting to human behaviour. She is changing. But will we?

"You are not living on Earth. You are Earth. Nature is not matter only. She is also Spirit." Carl Jung 

*

*Meet Alexander von Humboldt, the first person to understand climate change

*Climate Change and the Refugee Crisis

*Seven Ways the War in Ukraine is Changing Global Science

*Fuel Poverty, the Cost of Living Crisis and Climate Change

*How do Diets need to change to meet climate targets?

*Change how you travel to help climate breakdown

London Workshop: September 18th, 2-4pm

 

Adaptations: Through the
Changing Lens of a Yoga practice

 

I hope to see you in London later this month. At this stage, I am not planning other events or workshops in London. If you can make it, please come along for this two hour practice. I would love to see you in person.

 

The subject of this workshop is very much alive within me: namely, how can a yoga practice be sustained over time in a changing body, changing circumstances and environments? How does a practice support these changes and act as an embodied thread to being in touch with oneself and the earth? How can we learn as practitioners, to conserve energy, to intuitively understand which aspects of practice are most powerful and important for our individual and collective wellbeing? How do we find joy and happiness in a changing world that is seemingly on the verge of collapse?

 

Expect a practice that encourages thoughfulness, connection with your unique body, a sense of play and nourishment through your whole being.

book now

Yoga in Surrey
Classes in Frensham resume on Monday, September 12th
9-10:15am (Frensham Church Hall)

 

For those of you living in Surrey and looking for small group mindful movement classes, you are welcome here! The aim of this Monday morning class is to help you arrive at a in-the-present relationship with yourself - one that honours your body, explores an opening to spaciousness, encourages a balance between effort and ease, and inquires into a healthy relationship with discipline and play.

 

With 8 people maximum and heated floors, all props are provided except the yoga mat - so please bring yours along (let me know if you need one and I can bring an extra along for you.)

book now

Rolfing in Surrey
Frensham, Thursdays and Fridays, 8:45-4pm 

Rolfing can be an experience that is difficult to describe. At it's core, it releases tension strains in the body that appear in the fascia, or connective tissue. But how do these strains come to be, in the first place? All tension strains come from some kind of imbalance or misuse. This might be due to an injury or from over-use, but it may also be that the body is held in a certain way due to habit, or based on how we feel.

 

All Rolfers work a little differently bringing various skills, experiences and interests to their practice. While I am fascinated by anatomy and movement, I am equally interested by the habit patterns, beliefs and emotional lives that appear in the body over time and play a role in how we relate to gravity. Most importantly though, I am here to meet you as you are, to see your possibility and work with the intention and needs you bring to the session.

book now

Compassionate Inquiry: a psychotherapeutic approach to embodiment

 

As I near the end of the year-long training with Gabor Maté, I've started the mentorship program. I'm now offering two types of sessions:

-Free Sessions in exchange for a consent to record (for the sole use of discussing my role in the session with my mentor and deleted thereafter)

-Regular online or in-person sessions for a suggested donation on a sliding scale.

 

If you notice that you are stuck in old patterns and beliefs that are not serving you or your ability to be present, consider having a session. I am also able to put you in touch with other CI therapists if you'd prefer to work anonomously.

book now

"You are comprised of: 84 minerals, 23 elements, and 8 gallons of water spread across 38 trillion cells. You have been built up from nothing by the spare parts of the Earth you have consumed, according to a set of instructions hidden in a double helix and small enough to be carried by a sperm. You are recycled butterflies, plants, rocks, streams, firewood, wolf fur, and shark teeth, broken down into their smallest parts and rebuilt into our planet's most complex living thing." -Aubrey Marcus

If you haven't read them yet, please check out these two life changing reads:

 

This book is not easy: it contains no quick-fix plan for a better, brighter tomorrow, and gives no ready-made answers. Instead, we are presented with a challenge: to grow up, step up, and show up for ourselves, our communities, and the living Earth, and to interrupt the modern behavior patterns that are killing the planet we’re part of. Even if you choose to read it as a book rather than using it as a diary, it is a brilliant and provocative read.

 
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Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botonist and storyteller. As a scientist, she has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science, but as a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two ways of knowledge together. It is part memoir, part essay, part reminder about how to live in harmony with nature. It's a modern classic everyone should read.

 
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There was a time, and it was many years ago now, when I sat hiding under my grandfather’s desk. The desk was covered by an enormous Persian rug that covered the four corners of the table, draping endlessly onto the floor. In that study where he used to spend countless hours, more hours than the day and the night seemed to hold, there were books. Books above and books below. Books neatly lined-up on bookshelves, books stacked on the floor. These books intimidated me – not simply because they were too dense or because they were mostly legal texts (my grandpa was a judge). But in hindsight, what got me hiding was the fear that I would not measure up to the goals and aspirations contained in those texts.  


The Sanskrit word śāstra comes from the root ‘sās’, which means teach, instruct, correct. Śāstra is defined as instruction, rule, manual, book, work of authority, scripture. Śāstra is the study of ancient scriptures as well as the Sanskrit language.
  (by Rima Rani Rabbath, Jivamukti Focus of the Month) READ MORE

Tilford, Surrey
07964015081

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