Time Spent Elsewhere
For the majority of January, I was living at a cabin in rural Arkansas with my husband and our 2 dogs. I took this opportunity to unplug. I used these 3 weeks to stay off of social media and it was incredible. It was like a breath of fresh air. There was a weight lifted to not make content constantly, but simply take pictures and videos for myself. There wasn’t any time I had to carve out for writing captions or planning what was next. And best of all, I wasn’t scrolling and consuming aimlessly.
Being in a new setting gave me this new sense of Self. I felt more calm and free to take my time with things. Especially when working from home. I have this internal feeling of constantly getting work done from breakfast to dinner time. But being surrounded by nature with the simplest things in our space, it felt like a nice reminder: you don’t need much to feel happy.
I was noticing the difference in where my time was spent too. We were closer to family so we had more family meals and time with my in-laws. My husband and I had more time to connect because there wasn’t a barrier of me being on my phone or laptop constantly. There was the option to go for a walk in the woods or drive out to a lookout and watch the waterfall. Every moment out in nature felt breathtaking.
What You Can Expect Here
In this time away, I started to dream of what I wanted to offer in this space. She Breathes Easy started as a brand for me as I built my career as a yoga teacher. I started offering donation-based Zoom classes in the thick of the pandemic and it transformed into me creating content and advertising myself on online platforms. But we’re not in 2020 anymore, and a lot has happened since then. I find myself planning for the future and wanted to keep you in the loop.
I plan to continue writing blog posts to give you information that you can take on and off the mat. I will keep the SBE community connected through sharing playlists, sequences, meditation, and journal prompts on various platforms. I will create more content that helps you be mindful over mindlessly scrolling.
For those in Charleston SC, I’m intentionally not teaching any group classes at the moment. I’ve decided to take a break from teaching public classes and dive deeper into private sessions. In a few weeks, I’ll be beginning a new training where I’ll learn the mechanics behind sequencing a creatively-driven class in a variety of ways. I cannot wait to focus my energy on my craft and fully show up for you in a 1:1 setting.
Ways I Stayed Consistent With My Practice
One of my goals for 2024 was to practice yoga every day. This isn’t exclusively asana, the physical postures of yoga, but it includes, mediation, mindfulness through yogic values, studying yogic texts, and pranayama, or breathing techniques.
Being in a new setting created more obstacles, as I didn’t have the space I’m used to in my home. But these are the ways I continued my daily practice. I hope they can help you find your practice more this year too.
Schedule Time Out: I live by my Google calendar and my planner. We all have different ways we live our life but if you’re like me, write down when you plan to practice. Whether it was at the start of the day or the end of my day, I knew what to expect, planned for it, and by the end of my practice, I was so happy I made the time to get on my mat. I also took it as a promise to myself, it’s in writing - it’s happening!
Align Your Flows: I align my flows with my menstrual cycle and it continues to be my guide when it comes to the movement I take. When I first got to Arkansas, I was towards the end of my bleed so I did Yin yoga most nights, pranayama or a short meditation in the mornings, and allowed myself to move slowly throughout the day. A few days after my bleed was over, I began to do more strengthening flows. Nothing crazy but I did a couple of sun salutations and held postures for a longer period of time. Once I was fully in my follicular phase, I leaned into doing more fast-paced flows and adding in extra drills to build strength. This is also a more creative time for me so I’ll explore certain transitions or practice arm balancing and inversions.
Set Yourself Up: I had my mat, my space, and my clothes laid out so I was ready to go. Having my mat in the room and the space already clean, there’s less resistance for me to get my practice in. I love to lay my clothes out too so I don’t need to think. I just get dressed and put my Airpods in. That’s it.
Set Your Intention: Something I’ve been enjoying is thinking about my intention before I get on my mat. This can be a physical intention, like focusing on opening my shoulders or building strength in my glutes. Or it can be something spiritual or personal, like giving myself more compassion and understanding or letting myself play and have fun! If you enjoy doing yoga on an app or a class on YouTube, this is the time to pick your class too. Again, there’s less resistance because it’s already set up for you. You just find the class and hit play. If you don’t like taking a class online and like to free flow, maybe you get a playlist ready - this adds another level of excitement because you want to listen to the songs or feel the music guide you through.
If there’s anything I’ve learned over the years of getting on and off my mat, it’s that the excuse list can be endless. But your decisions are what drive you to where you want to go. If you want to do more yoga, do more yoga! If you want to dive deeper, dive deeper! My books are open for private sessions - if you’ve been thinking about working privately with me, don’t wait. Go to my services page and book your first free call with me now. No pressure, just a free call to talk through what we can do together. I’ll see you on the mat soon <3