the intimacy of at home practice
(newsletter decmeber 2020)
Here I bring you 2020 lasts newsletter and a short musing of several months only practising online and at home.
On Saturday I joined a virtual class with a teacher in England whom I am just getting to know, Naomi Absalom (check out The Collective Energies- it's packed full of spirit). Dressed in all black to reflect my mood, I rolled out my mat and tried to avoid looking at the camera.
In my vulnerable state, there was something so intimate about being held by this virtual space, whilst simultaneously being physically alone
As I breathed my way into the beginning of the class I was SO grateful to be in my own bedroom at home, and yet still I felt a part of something collective. I didn't need to hide. As we moved through the class I laughed, I sweat, I sobbed and I softened, even if only for the duration of the class. In my vulnerable state, there was something so intimate about being held by this virtual space, whilst simultaneously being physically alone. In this paradoxical reality I could finally drop the weight of everything I'd been lugging around with me. Damn, that lightness, that sweet relief cracked me wide open, right there in my own room.
Isn't that why we are doing this? Of course we can't expect a profound experience each and every time we roll the mat, but a regular practice is definitely setting us up with a tool kit for our times of need.
I'm so grateful for this experience, because boy did I need that over the weekend, but also for the reflection on it afterwards, as a reminder that what we are doing with these virtual classes is not a half-assed version of something else that we're used to, it is an all together new experience with it's own set of rules of engagement.
I know that some of you are feeling me on this because I've received such wonderful messages from you over the past weeks telling me how you notice your body awareness improving, or how much it means to you to have our collective meeting space as a part of your weekly schedule. I think it's ok to miss the in studio classes at the same time as rejoice our online class, it would appear that they are two sides of the same coin and I am eternally grateful for what we have been discovering this year.