Black Whole~ and upcoming alterations

Included inside: a wk of closures, additional slots opening for life design, a publication, soft opening at eldo, Patreon update, new youtube videos, a poem, and a hug

Dear friends~

What a week.
This last Thursday, we did a meditation on the natural phenomenon of the black hole. Its miraculousness, as well as the parallels it draws in this brain here, have been bouncing around ever since. That place where science (and a rudimentary understanding of it at that) meets my imagination is a beautiful playground of wild understanding. I’ve danced on the notion of the gravitational time dilation - that place approaching the event horizon where, to a distant observer, a thing would appear to slow down. The events of covid have brought about a certain timelessness- even if you’ve been busied as I have through this period, no matter- busy or slow, this has certainly been another dimension of time. As we all look inside ourselves and into the culture at large, to feel into what hasn’t been voiced or held or heard for years, the inevitable phase of resistance and kick back arises… before we reach that point of no return and are sucked down, crushing all of our mass into a single point. The “singularity” of the black hole, as it is often referred- the place of no differentiation, might just be a scary thing… until it isn’t. In our culture and in the practice of yoga, we approach this event horizon, sometimes with trepidation- this place in our practice where the ego is “spaghettified” - shred into threads- only to be applied to the bigger tapestry of the One. In Sanskrit this timeless moment of singularity is called Ekagrata.
In the singular there are no differences.
We have known for a long time that trickle down is lacking in effectiveness. Looking around, I am moved by the places that are course-correcting- expressively and expansively trickling-up and trickling-wide- with greater examples every day of how we can care for one another. It seems to me, it is affecting the systems on high. How is it I can come closer to equanimity within myself and with my fellow humans- each and every one of them? And at the same time contend with this broken heart? Hold the pain and the ache of what has been? And help make up for lost time or wrong doing? where can we find a level of care whose gravity is so strong that nothing can escape it?
Sometimes that work exists on a level of policy and heroic acts, no matter how small and quiet, in our day to day living, and sometimes it requires that shift of consciousness that Einstein spoke of. To hold our shadows, collectively and separately. To listen and to wait. All of it.
The beautiful spinning mass in our heavens might just be an in-road- to contemplate our way into another realm of understanding, and feel the black hole-ness and wholeness of our own hearts. .

I have been grinding it out since the beginning of quarantine and am in need of a little restier respite. That and i’ve got a couple decisions glaring me down that I need to sit with, so I am headed to the hills- the higher hills- to go into retreat. I also want to implement a few new things to make classes a better experience for y’all, so will be taking some time to tweak some of that.
Many of y’all know that I had some respiratory challenges along the way, so practice for me, will remain predominantly. virtual, although we will be adding a gentle soft-opening for a few outdoor events and classes in the sculpture garden at Eldorado Springs Art Center- i’ll be sending out another email with those details at the end of next week. Additionally I will be holding a slimmed down schedule upon return for just a few weeks, so that I can be with a writing project that desires completion. And so…. a few adjustments to the schedule of Living Room Yoga:

NO CLASSES for the wk of June 21-27.

We will jump back in for STORYHOUR on June 28th.

Temporary slimmed down classes after June 28th will be as follows :

Sunday- STORYHOUR- 5pm
Tuesday- MIDDAY MEDI- 12pm
Wednesday- CREATIVE VINYASA FLOW- 9.30am
Thursday- RESTORATIVE/ YIN YOGA MASH-UP- 6pm

I continue to love connecting with you all in this way- the vulnerability, the strength, the tears and the joys. Please keep writing in with feedback and requests… I want to learn every day how better to serve you, I am humbled by your presence, and i’d really like to hear from you any needs or shares you may have. And keep surprising me with new faces! It continues to be the biggest gift.

Also, if there is anyone you think might benefit, please spread the word! We need a place to be in stillness, togetherness, and in kind care of these bones for the work that our world is requesting.

In the interim- do make good use of the youtube channel. I added a couple new videos (including a Miles Davis meditation that we recorded on his bday back in May), and will do again every couple months.
Or you can join Patreon where I continue to post weekly all of our classes together and write up the little bits that have inspired the practice. There are 5 levels of patronage that you can join with - one of them as low as $7 a month- based on income levels. I know some folks have been hit hard economically so that is there for you. I was never one for the glossy flawless yoga videos- I love them, but my experience has just been a bit messier than that, and so I continue to love LRY in all its glorious imperfections. I pasted some notes about this below.**
See here for details and to sign up.

COACHING ~ LIFE DESIGN

I’ve also opened some more slots for Life Design after June 28th. I am doing the first of these sessions sliding scale- $50-125. I still recommend a 3 session launch and then monthly or quarterly follow-up as needed, but if you’d like just the one, or if we’ve worked together in the past and you’d like a refresh, our first session will be made affordable to you, whatever your circumstance. I don’t profess to have any of the answers, but I am aware that we are all leaning into new edges and other-worldy horizons and the space sculpted out of the meeting of two can be most generative.
Read testimonials and more about Life Design here. Schedule your session also on this page.

**A note about LIVING ROOM YOGA on Patreon~

Through the years, I have gotten inquiries about doing a manual or training for the postures that come out of this practice, because many of them do not come from a lineage yoga as such, but came about rather from necessity- healing after a surgery for many of my cancer folks when I did a lot of that work, sports injury, or just patterns seen in the culture at large. 
Moreover, this practice, for me, comes down the gauntlet, fresh as a daisy every time- like the trumpet player jumping in on a jazz jam- each note a surprise- improvised in such a way that it rather finds itself- completely indifferent to the player, but spilling out into the night, of its own accord. So too does this practice, these shapes, move into and through my body. And so, in many ways, LRY may just be the best and only way to pin it down. 
All the idiosynchrocies of a family living room are there, and it is anything but perfect or polished. You may be privy to neighbors coming in, phones ringing, dogs barking, garbage trucks dumping- a living breathing thing... life in all her faults and foibles... and somehow, I could have it no other way. I will offer everything I know, in one way or another. The structure of the class is my favorite way to share content and to share in the practice, as it facilitates relationship and an ongoing ability to track bodies through time, to lean in to what is topical and inspiring, be it current events, architecture, science, or art, and it cultivates friendships! 
Students, feel free to follow along and enjoy. Teachers, feel free to observe and breakdown the postures as well as the sequences for ideas to share with your own students. If you study these for a while, you will start to see certain patterns emerge. Other things may come as a surprise- as much to me as to you :) 
Whatever the case may be, please enjoy them to the utmost. I wish you joy and awe and increased reverence toward this body and this life as you explore the pages of these practices. They are for you.

Thank you so much for your support. 

_________________

It is a great honor to have been included in the summer publication of Adyashanti’s Peace Room Project Quarterly. Read article here.

___________

Core by Kerrie O' Brien

you need to be very still
to hear the concert of your body
to think about what you contain
salt and water
knows what it’s doing
renewing itself
back to earth
it is a quiet thing
this is where our riches are
we are all red inside
brimming with love
all fluid and quiet and fire.

______________

Please take good care of yourself.

”Everything is urgent. Slow down.”
~Bayo Akomolafe

If this week taught us anything, it was to keep on dreamin! (YEAH dreamers!! :))

With deep love and respect and continuous hugs with invisible arms,

Julia