11/02/2025
Sequoia Sunrise 2025 - a festival for friends, by friends 🏕️
It’s always a gift to offer my Liberating Yoga Class with music by in a festival setting. This was extra special, surrounded by the trees and flanked by the Kern River.
There are seven types of rest (as laid out by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith), and spending time in nature last weekend, completely disconnected from technology, dancing into the wee hours, and playing with friends deeply allowed me to experience several of them. I know I desperately need extended breaks from my phone and laptop, and all screens.
I’ve been exploring the idea of aliveness with my spiritual mentor and yoga teacher. Questions like, What am I doing this for? Who am I? What makes me feel most alive? What fires me up and turns me on spiritually? How can I best serve from a place of devotion and integrity? How can I serve more? How do I receive nectar, wisdom, and guidance from the Divine, from Beloved?
One aspect of aliveness for me is laughter. I love laughing and making others laugh. This past weekend, there were moments and stretches of time where we were all doubled over, wheezing with laughter, tears streaming down our faces. Where making eye contact with someone else resulted in more howling and belly-aching laughter.
I smile even when recalling those moments.
Life is difficult for many and exacerbated by systems of oppression, by the Trump administration, ICE, the UAE, and Israel. Something else I’ve been continuing to speak on with my yoga mentor and teacher has been how do I make a difference? What is the balance between focusing on my own life and speaking up, donating, volunteering, doing something, anything?!
This continues to evolve and I continue to struggle.
May we find ways to connect to our aliveness.
May people be allowed to live with dignity.
May we have people around us we can authentically be ourselves.
May we laugh throughout the day, expanding our hearts.