authenticity + connection

I teach a couple times a month at TrueNorth Treatment Center and while it was my most humbling experience the first session 🤪 i would now say it’s some of my favorite shared time, for MANY reasons.

yesterday, I was leading the men thru breath-work, a mini meditation, energy work, movement with open dialogue for questions. i have found this format of curiosity offers a lot of empowerment and engagement and yet most of the time they just get into the zone and find their own pocket of zen. however yesterday, one dude stops me mid sesh and says “I bet you can get real firey” and I laughed. and truthfully wanted to hug his damn neck. he stumbled after as if he needed to apologize and said “you just move with lots of grace and you’re so calm, and i think that means you can get really fired up too” I stopped him from doubting and said you’re absolutely right! and then these words just fell from my heart and led my next session with the women.

anger is very much alive in me. and I appreciate your awareness to know that both can be living at the same time. it feels a lot like the grief wave that is so drowning bc the love is so mammoth. i am cultivating a life of peace and ease and grace to a monumental level bc the anger + sadness that also live in me is thick.

and to see and know and feel and SHARE that too, I just felt really seen in a space + from a person I least expected it. may or may not have been his intention, but hey, we don’t get to decide how people receive us and our words 😉

i continued to share how i have worked really hard to learn this and how and where anger (and other emotions) resides in my body and to find movement and breath-work and conversation that frees it up in healthy ways so it can then teach me what’s important - what boundaries have been crossed, where I’m not showing up in alignment, etc. - so i can move forward responding vs reacting.

the women were locked in and focused and i could feel a wave of connection thru lifetimes of suppression, not spoken just felt

we don’t show that
we swallow it
we will be nice and quiet
your comfort over mine

and thru a shared hope for allowing it to be alive just as much as ease can be alive in us too.

both can live here.

thank you for seeing me, my dude 🙌

and happy weekend friends, may your authenticity bring a wave of connection in this world 🌎 🙏

i ramble in my writing about anger often. and posted a recent one … bc I felt that comment and the way they responded to my response was a sign from the universe it needed to breathe beyond my journal. it’s now lives on the blog if you’re bored 😉

why we do what we do #4 ASANA

not quite done…