I’m over the moon and the recent eclipsed sun to share this with you. I’m also a bit petrified. Because this is new ground for me. My heart is shaky and my throat thick because it feels like I’m stepping off of terra firma. Interestingly enough, offering this program is MY baby step. My unease with venturing into the unknown tells me I’m on track. There is a magnetism I am feeling to share tools of ease and settledness more broadly – tools that allow us to be in the thick of it and still taste joy. I think that statement sounds like a paradox to my rational brain – to be in the thick of it and still taste joy –  and yet my experience tells me it is totally possible. For all. And so I take a deep breath, exhale, and open my heart and creativity for you to consider.

Ready for our baby step? Join an online practice with me:

Embrace the Space –
40 days of body tending

What is it?
A 40 day practice exploration. A weekly 10-15 minute video of a handful of therapeutic yoga explorations for you to repeat as prescribed by you throughout the week.

Each Sunday morning for six weeks, you will receive a 10-15 minute video clip. Depending upon the week and what’s up for me, I’ll pull from my bag of tricks including unique ball work, my signature small range of motion movements, sneaky hard movements in traditional asana, breathwork, reflex integration, rhythmic movement (excellent for anxiety), desk yoga, and pelvic floor / core integration.

More to come below on this next piece but you pick realistic frequency and days for your practice that week. You pick time of day. YOU enter it on the calendar. And you honor it.

You’ll also have the opportunity to make comments and ask questions below the video clip. I will send regular group responses either via email or by new video post to themes that arise in these comments / questions. These posts will act as ongoing support and encouragement for you through connection with fellow students and ongoing guidance from me.

When is it?
Sunday, October 8th – Friday, November 17th

Including regular answers to questions and messages of support from me to the full group of students by either email or video message.

Finally, there will be a small group meeting on Saturday, November 18th from 3:30-4:30 p.m. at Long Life Wellness Center in Cary to discuss what you noticed, what you learned, and any questions as you move forward with your own personal home practice. My homemade chai tea will be in abundance to share! If you live outside of the Triangle area, we’ll have a 15 minute phone call instead. Sadly, it will be sans chai (unless I make my own cup and you make your own).

Why now?
Because I miss seeing you guys in group classes. And because it’s NOT New Year’s. Allow me to rant for a moment… New Year’s is a bust of a time for me to make change. You (meaning cultural norms YOU) want ME to swing from gluttony into purity? Want to see an awesome crash and burn? Just watch this girl with a New Year’s resolution. Or not. Because I don’t really do them anymore. Instead, I use a time when I know things are shifting just a tad already. Like the change of seasons that invites a different pace but not quite as much of a 1000 volt to the heart “CLEAR!” shock to the system. [Close rant.]

Why 40 days?
Because 40 days is the traditional timeline in Ayurveda (an ancient and sophisticated mind-body health system) needed to rebuild tissues or to “set a new groove” (my terms).

Anything else?
Yes. You’ll be accountable for your practice. I can structure the tools for you to utilize but you have to own this change for yourself. I can’t want it more for you than you do.

Here’s how it will go:

Each Sunday morning when you receive your weekly “Body Tending” video link, you’ll look at your calendar for the upcoming week, consider all the things going on in your week, and decide what a practical daily commitment is for you for that week.  Whether you think it is practical for you to do the 10-15 minute practice all 7 days, 3 days, 1 day or anything in between… the point is that you make a date on your calendar for times you know you can honor. You’re making dates with yourself and you’re building a relationship of trust and accountability in your ability to S L O W   D O W N. The key is to make your plan realistic and doable.

Next, you will actually make calendar entries for your practice on the days / times you’ve chosen in step #1. You can do this on your electronic calendar but I’d also like you to write it down on a hard copy paper calendar that I’ll send to you. You’ll block the time off – send an invitation to yourself electronically if you want to make it a real date! This “calendaring” is key to success because you will be experimenting with a new habit and old habits feed on “I’ll just fit it in on the fly.”

New habits grow in the space of a clear plan like, you know, a scheduled realistic commitment on a calendar.

Now you’ll hang up the paper calendar where you will see it every day. Don’t skip this step.

Every day after you complete your 10-15 minute practice, cross that day off on your paper calendar (like my 7 year old does when he is counting down to a lake weekend).

The following Sunday, you will start again at step 1.

IMPORTANT: Take it one week at a time. You might be pulled to say at the start, “I will do this 5 times per week for the entire 40 days!” Pause. Breathe. Step back from your awesome driven self. And go week by week. Please trust me on this piece.

At the end of the 40 days, you’ll pop your archaically awesome paper calendar including crossed out days and all into your bag, and we’ll meet and chat about how it went.

What is the cost?
The cost of the program is $79 including a 10-15 minute weekly video (and all prior videos for the term of the program totaling roughly 90 minutes of content), regular check-ins from me, and the final 60 minute group debrief.

That’s it.

That’s your commitment. Make a personalized plan for your therapeutic home practice each week. Like ACTUALLY enter it on your calendar.  Then, set your alarm (bedroom or phone) for your times. Get up and do the practice clip for that week. Cross off the day on your calendar. Ask questions and make comments as you go along below the video and receive group guidance by email and video message on how to keep chugging along. Debrief with me at the end of the 40 days either by phone for 15 minutes or in a small group setting with fellow Space Makers (oh… you have a group name now!). And you’re accountable. To me and to yourself.

In more concise terms:
Make YOUR plan.
Follow YOUR plan.
Refine and repeat.

Practice is required to gain competency in anything that we do. That holds just as true for the practice of embracing space. I have absolutely no doubt that you can change your story. That you can find more ease and less effort. That there is S P A C E available to you. And that it is closer than you think.

I’m quite excited to work with those who are ready to step up and out. Like my heart is literally pitter pattering as I write this. There is always more. Email me to signup.

Be well,
Rachel