Let’s do a quick episode recap. Two posts ago, I told you how I crashed and burned in an overdose of vacation and family. Then, in my last post, we started into how I find my feet again after a bout of instability. I talked a bit about how feeling into the tired – and not ignoring it – allows me to respond more accurately to what my body is requesting from me. And thus to feel so much more joy in my life.

Rest and reset time isn’t the only key to what I’m discovering is a lighter and sweeter way of living. Another core component is that of embracing the web of support that exists for me. I’m a master of doing and achieving on my own. A part of me believes that if I don’t do it solo, then it doesn’t count. And another part of me (the part that is quieter and more loving and easier to hear when I am rested), knows I am not meant to do this on my own. That connection and support is an inherent part of my experience as a mother, a daughter, a teacher, a friend… a human.

When thinking of this post, I immediately thought of a photo from our wedding day in which my new husband and I stand surrounded by every guest at our wedding. Friends, family, absolutely everyone. It hangs in my bedroom and when I choose to really see it, it reminds me of how full life is. How much support exists when I choose to embrace it. To feel it. To live hand in hand with it. But unfortunately I thought it unlikely that I could get photo releases from over 100 people for this post. Instead, I’m representing my web of support with this beautiful image of my sister and me. Support to me feels like the qualities of this photo. Light, unfiltered, steady and soft. And it can come from so many places. Not just what you might initially think.

Allow yourself to feel support in your world. Let it pour over you – names, faces, roles. Support may come from your family, friends, colleagues, physicians, nurse practitioners, therapists, animals, yoga teachers, the nail technician that gave you a pedicure last week, your massage therapist, or your acupuncturist. Those whom act as part of your web. Those who give you a soft space to land and to be you just as you are. Those who hold you. Those who give you safe ground to be you. Unabashedly. Honestly.

Try this. Perhaps now and then again on your mat next time you’re in class or practicing at home.

1. Feel you now. Head. Shoulders. Belly. Hips. Knees. Feet.

2. Now. Feel your support. Close your eyes, see the faces and perhaps envision them surrounding you or even standing behind you. Whether 1 person or 10 people, just see them.

3.  Take 5 breaths just feeling and seeing the faces. Release thinking or analyzing.
Just breathe and feel.

4. And now, feel you. Head. Shoulders. Belly. Hips. Knees. Feet.

5. What do you notice?

As my Teacher recently said to me, you must live this life on your own. You must own your actions. You must make your choices. You must discover your results.
But you do not have to do it alone.

It takes a village. Feel your’s.

Be well,
Rachel