A Summer Solstice Note from Michelle
Trigger Warning: This post briefly mentions emotional addiction, depression, & heartbreak.
This summer, I celebrate 12 years of teaching yoga and almost 20 years of personal practice. Yet, in all of that time, it’s rarely been about the fitness, the flow, or even the fancy postures. Sure, those things are certainly pleasant perks of the experience, but my personal practice was and always will be a love affair with listening to my body.
I first fell in love with yoga after falling out of love. In the wake of my first breakup and drowning in withdrawal from an as yet unnoticed love addiction, I could barely bring myself to eat, let alone do my usual workouts. Still, I knew on some level that movement would help me to feel better, physically and emotionally. So I dusted off an Intro to Yoga DVD I’d purchased in high school—back when all the teen mags were calling it Madonna’s new thing. At the time, I’d watched the video maybe twice, deemed it “glorified stretching," and went back to my dance classes. But in the undertow of my post-breakup depression, that DVD became exactly the life raft that I needed.
It was a simple video with only a few basic postures. The creators had labeled it intermediate at the time, but in today’s fitness culture it would definitely be deemed beginner. In fact, the hardest pose of the series was a sustained hold in triangle—which was fine by me, since my draw to the practice wasn’t about a physical challenge. In fact, in my weakened state, I wouldn’t have been able to sustain anything more. This was about healing. So when the short video came to a close and the instructor’s voice gently guided me to “rest in the seat of your heart where there is peace,” it planted the seed for a lifelong practice.
I wasn’t there for the fitness—though my body felt better with each viewing. I was there for the peace.
Even as my skills have developed throughout the years with teacher trainings, Instagram challenges, and playful inversions, there are still days that my entire practice is just laying on the floor, breathing in and out for 40 minutes, and slowly navigating my way to that place of peace. Those moments, combined with learning to energetically self-heal a few years later (a practice you can learn with me in July!), have been the base upon which all other aspects of my practice, my teaching, and my self-confidence have been built. I now equate how ready my body is for anything by how easily I can tap back into that place of loving peace.
My wish for you is to approach your “summer body” with the same mindset.
Join me for a peaceful Summer Solstice Flow in Winnemac Park this Sunday, June 21st at 10:30 am.
