not everything you do has
to be self-improving
you are not a machine
you are a person
without rest
your work can never be full
without play
your mind can never be nourished― Rupi Kaur, balance
Don't forget to slow down this season.
Don't forget that you're more than the gifts you give, or the end-of-year reports you make, or the number of holiday parties you're invited to.
The end of the year is not a race to the finish line. It's a slow sail into the harbor—a homecoming. After a tumultuous year, you deserve to come home.
Are there things you can do now to begin that process? Can you let yourself surrender to the last few weeks of 2021 without forcing, fixing, or rushing so that when you make it to the end of December, you're not utterly exhausted?
If the week between Christmas and New Year is the week of rest, think of December as the month of pre-rest. What is a non-negotiable that will support you during this time of year? So that when you make it safely into the harbor, you can enjoy the view.
Maybe it's warm drinks, hearty soups, flannel sheets, and cozy clothes. Maybe it's cooking at home or lighting a candle. It could be an abhyanga ritual and a warm bath. It might also be a few hours of silence—no distractions, notifications, or external stimulators.
Do you ever think about the irony of it all? Of all of nature around us slowing down while we humans speed up?
December is filled with doing and efforting. We give ourselves that last week of the year to slow down before we jump right back into doing once more—the doing of new year's resolutions and goal-setting.
Is there a way you can get closer to the systems that have been in place long before all of this?
Maybe it's eating seasonal and nourishing produce or setting your alarm just a little bit later so that you might wake up alongside the sun. Maybe it's a yoga nidra practice, a sound healing session, or another practice of rest to assist you towards a deeply meditative state.
Maybe it's actually an active form of movement to shift extra energy, like rocket yoga, pilates, a strength class, or a dance party. Maybe it's a long hike in nature or an extravagant holiday party with great friends.
Slowing down doesn't mean that you have to move slowly through everything or that you should sit around and do nothing.
Slowing down means taking time to pause, reflect, and focus on what matters. Slowing down means creating space between all of the doing so that you can listen to what you want to do rather than what the world is telling you to do.
In a season of peak consumerism, can you remember what it means to be you—just you, instead of a consumer, instead of a worker? You don't have to buy your way to your well-being—to your homecoming. And you definitely don't have to work your way to worthiness.
You're more than the gifts you give and the end-of-year reports you make.
You're you. Beautiful, limitless, perfect-as-you-are you. ✨
✨ 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 ✨
Practice with me online this week!
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.
I also have loads of pre-filmed classes so that you can practice with me anytime. Here are a few suggestions for this week:
15 min ✨ Build the foundations
15 min ✨ Strength for crow
15 min ✨ Flowing through crow
45 min ✨ Rocket-ish flow
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 SisterLove, a women-centered HIV and sexual and reproductive justice advocacy organization in the US and South Africa. Black people are 3.3 times more likely than white people to die from pregnancy-related complications, and reports have shown that most of these deaths are preventable.
SisterLove provides thousands of free HIV tests every year, conducts community-based research programs with the world's leading research institutions, and empowers and equips women living with HIV to conduct programs in their local communities. The non-profit also advocates and fights for policy change at the state and federal levels for women's rights, women's reproductive justice, LGBTQ rights, rights for incarcerated citizens, access to healthcare, and ending the epidemic of HIV/AIDS.
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 something you learned last week. What about it resonated with you? How might this learning influence your worldview? (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 ✨
You can't have it all (Poets.org)
The opposite of toxic positivity (The Atlantic)
The first wave of digital nostalgia (The New Yorker)
We're logging off until social media is safe for all (LUSH)
A young woman refugee on what it's like to cross the channel (Refinery29)
Forty-nine years was long enough that she had started to think of herself as a full member of the body politic. She had begun to feel that she would definitely be able to use medical science to avoid dying. She had watched people be born during that time who did not know what it was like to be anything other than a person. (The Washington Post)
On repeat: Moi by Lolo Zouaï (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!