The past five months have been quite the chapter in my journey. This past week, my three year stint as the Mind-Body Program Manager of the Eisenhower Wellness Institute ended. I also taught my final classes at the Urban Yoga Center here in Palm Springs who provided us a place to practice after we lost the studio space where we had previously been holding classes. Both of these experiences came about from things that had changed and I needed to find a solution to the question of “what’s next?’. I have had some challenges along the way but it all seemed to be the soil in which I was planting the seeds for the next incarnation of my path.
And so here I stand, yet again, at the doorway to something new. When I found out that the program that I had been running would be coming to an end, I took several weeks to take a good long look at what I wanted to do next. It all felt a bit heady and, at times, heavy as I had expected to be in my role for a while longer. Some of the options on the table were to find a local established studio where I could simply teach classes. Another was to rent space within another business. Was this the sign that I needed to step into a completely new direction and try something totally different? Was this the time where Ed and I packed up and set off to travel the world? As I played with these questions and possibilities, I sat down one day and took out a piece of blank paper and decided to simply write down what I LOVE doing.
The list looked something like this:
- Travel
- Teach yoga
- Run retreats in beautiful places
- Support people to go deeper into their practices through workshops
- Teach others to become teachers
It all seemed fairly simple and straightforward. I have been slowly building not only a following, but expanding my own education over the past 10 years. I had students, I had interest and all I needed was a place in which to do it. So began the hunt…for a place that felt “just right”. It took three months of looking at local commercial properties in the heat of the summer until we came to find our new location that will become the home of Desert Yoga Therapy.
The new studio space has been undergoing its own transitions with changing out flooring and lights, adding some paint and creating a space in which everything feels welcoming, safe and beautiful. It’s on the cusp of being ready and barring any unexpected delays, we anticipate opening our doors in a few days.
In the interim, I am taking a short break. It’s been a big load emotionally over the past few months and I’m happy that we booked a trip to Iceland back in April before all of this began to unfold. So we’ll bring our warmest clothes, camera equipment and pack our passports to take a welcome hiatus from our “normal” lives. It’s time to go into stillness and hopefully see the Aurora Borealis. I’m ready to retreat for a few days, so like a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly, I’ll be ready to re-emerge into my next chapter.
Transitions are happening all the time…some huge and some barely perceptible. If we can stay in the space of being open and radically present, they have the power to transform us. These transitional few months have given me the opportunity to truly be in my practice and to experience the myriad of ebbs and flows. I believe that if this were happening to me some 30 years ago, I would have toppled over in some way and perhaps that’s what our life is there to do…teach us to manage the changing tides from a stance of steadfastness and equanimity. Okay…I’m ready for what’s next and on a deep level know that somehow everything will fall into place.
