Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.
— Rumi
I've written a bit about happiness. How I used to wish for happiness on birthday candles and wishbones. How I've learned since then that happiness isn't the point. How the point is to live fully and feel fully and how that sometimes includes sadness.
All of those things are true. Happiness isn't the point. It's not an experience we can keep throughout our lives because the human experience is rich and complex. It's extraordinary and unfair and depressing and really beautiful along the way. We are always going to find ourselves, at times, wading through the thick of it with one eye in the mud and another eye on the horizon.
But I worry that I've also deprioritized happiness in the process. Yes, happiness is not the point, but it is a defining component of the lived experience. Joy is a birthright. We all deserve to live joyfully, and we are all capable to do so, even as the weight of the world weighs heavy on our shoulders.
To lean into joy. That's my 2022 intention.
This isn't a toxic positivity, love and light kind of happiness. This is happiness as a discipline. Joy as a question that I say yes to every day in big ways and small ways.
I, like many of us, have just gone through one helluva year. And I'm fortunate to have been able to process, sit with, and love that pain. But that part is by no means over just because I bought a new calendar. I'm still on the same journey, but I'm ready to take each step forward with joy.
To lean into joy—in big ways and small ways.
Lately, leaning into joy looks like being busy. It's filling up my days with work that excites me and friends who love me. It's waking up early so that I can take care of myself first before adventuring into the day. It's confronting social anxiety and going to that party.
Being happy looks like being seen and heard. It's having that tough conversation or sharing what's weighing heavy on my heart. It's finding a pocket of lightness and following that feeling. It's asking for help and loving others as unconditionally as I desire to be loved.
Joy isn't always accessible, though. I know that. It's not something we all can just switch on and then the heartache simply melts away. Some of us are struggling more than others and we need more support. That's okay. Know that we love you, we're here for you, and one day, joy will find its way back into your life. I promise you it will.
This time last year, I was flying to see my dad in the hospital, and in a week, it'll be a year since he died. In some ways, it feels arbitrary to commemorate something 365 days later. What difference is today from yesterday, yesterday from tomorrow? But then I think that there are larger forces beyond my understanding and maybe it all makes sense from some other vantage point.
What I do know is that there is power in joy. Joy is healing. In the new friendships, in the big belly laughs, in the intimacy of our close relationships, in the vulnerability of letting ourselves be seen—that's where we heal.
The lived experience is rich and complex. We can be broken and healing at the same time. We can be hurting and happy at the same time. We aren't either/or, we're all of the above. So take that step forward, listen to what joy feels like in your body, and follow its path. ✨
Happy full moon in Cancer—I hope you have a lovely week ahead. ✨
✨ yoga etc. is my newsletter on yoga, social justice, collective wellbeing, and collective healing. Every week, I share a piece of me—a weekly dose of mindfulness—hoping it resonates. The best way to support my work is by sharing this newsletter with those you think might find a piece of them. ✨
Yoga of movement ✨
My class schedule for this week is below. Tuesday's class is now in the mornings at 7:30 am GMT for my little morning birds (as always, you can catch the recording later in the day, if you prefer)
Tuesday 11th January ✨ Rejuvenate ✨ a dynamic flow with options for all levels to ignite creativity, fire, and confidence (book)
Sunday 16th January ✨ Sunday Soul ✨ an invitation to slow down, rest, and restore through gentle movement, yin, breathwork, and meditation (book)
Please try to sign up at least 3 hours before the start of class, and if you can't make it in real-time, you'll get access to the recording.
And lastly, a few recordings for you to try out on your own time:
15 min ✨ Yin For Outer Hips
45 min ✨ Good Morning Flow
75 min ✨ Soothing Lunar Flow + Nidra
Series ✨ Beginner Friendly Flows
I'm also available for private and corporate classes, and I offer complimentary private classes to nonprofit and not-for-profit organizations. Reply to this email if you're interested!
Yoga of action ✨
I'm tithing 10% of my income from my online yoga classes to organizations that fight against white supremacy. Every month, I'll pick a new organization and highlight it below. If these organizations call to you, please consider contributing (no matter how small).
My December donation will go to Survival International, a global nonprofit and movement decolonizing conservation and supporting tribal peoples’ rights.
80% of Earth’s biodiversity is in tribal territories. When indigenous peoples have rights over their land, they protect the land at a fraction of the cost of conventional conservation programs. Still, governments and NGOs are stealing vast parts of land from indigenous communities under the claim that this is necessary for conservation.
Survival works in partnership with tribes to amplify their voices on the global stage, stop human rights abuses committed in the name of conservation, and put indigenous peoples in control of wildlife protection.
Have a suggested organization? Leave a comment to share.
Yoga of words ✨
Grab a pen, grab your journal. Have a seat somewhere comfortable. Close your eyes, take a breath in, and let it go. Your weekly writing prompt is below.
Write about a memorable moment in water. (15 minutes)
Feel free to share what you've written by clicking the link below. But, of course, you’re also welcome to keep this practice as just yours.
Other musings ✨
Body love/body hate (The Isolation Journals)
How to welcome bad weather (Ask Polly)
Cooking classes taught by refugees and migrants (Migrateful)
Ketamine therapy is going mainstream—are we ready? (The New Yorker)
Tumblr’s very status as a relic of the Internet—easily forgotten, unobtrusively designed, more or less unchanged from a decade ago—is making it appealing to prodigal users as well as new ones. (The New Yorker)
On repeat: Entity by Tora and Merryn Jean (Spotify)
I'm here for you—for class, advice, or anything you need or would like to share. Always a phone call/text/DM/reply button away.
LBC ✨
P.S. If you like this newsletter, please share it with your friends! And if someone sent you this newsletter, you can subscribe below!