Living in the Heart of Yoga

My intentions for this month are to build on loving and staying in a state of balance. Connection to nature and remembering who I am as the essence of being alive. These are very lofty ideals, and yet, this is how I thrive in a world that presents so much fear and pain. I go to the opposite of what my eyes see, my ears hear, and my mind witnesses that I can choose another thought. I practice my yoga.

This February, the month of heart, let’s come together and support each other on this crazy journey of living. We have so many opportunities to practice together as the studio is finally bringing students back into our sweet space.

We are once again experiencing community as the great healer. Laughter and shared friendships begin as we spend time in the studio together. It’s a joyous gift to have kept our space open through all the challenges of the past few years.

I am celebrating 25 years of signing my lease here on Forest Ave this month. Yes, in 1997, I envisioned offering yoga in a space that could host a shared intention. Learning these tools of yoga is an opportunity to nourish friendships.

Yoga Among Friends was always a desire for community. To welcome and meet anyone where they are. It was about taking layers off, revealing the true gift of being seen. To belong and feel the comfort of support as we grow and learn to be better human beings. Not striving to be perfect but to feel safe enough to be vulnerable and alive. To offer a shared “hello.”

I always ask myself, what is the next right action? Am I fit for the next right action in my thoughts, my words? Are my thoughts healing or harmful, so my actions can be healing? I know I have a choice, yet I must know the difference. What might have been healing before is now possibly harming.

I broke my knee this past summer and had to be in a brace for six weeks. I still practiced yoga but with a new understanding of what I should and should not do. A profound acceptance of limits, and yet, my knee today is fully healed because I shifted my practice. I honored the process of the miracle of healing, and I let go of the bully in me as I cultivated patience, forgiveness, and acceptance. Wherever we are on our life path, these tools can only assist us as we heal. Yoga is a journey of living life with grace.

As we move into a new chapter at YAF, I will forever be grateful for the souls that shared their gifts: our exceptional teachers over the years, the students that came through our door, the stories we have shared, and the loving hugs that we gave each other in gratitude for friendship. Let’s keep growing together—welcoming!

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This weekend we participated in Downtown Downers Grove’s Annual Ice Fest by having gorgeous ice sculptures made to kick off our 25th anniversary. Stop by and have your picture taken with them. Then take a walk downtown to see all the other beautiful sculptures lining the streets.

SAVE TUNED!

25th Anniversary party coming in April!

Life is a profound journey of healing as we embrace the entire glorious, horrific story

Delight and devastation. We belong to both sisters of the same. Moving through and between. Moving like rivers toward whatever is next and trying not to attach to any of it. Life is a profound journey of healing as we embrace the entire glorious, horrific story. We feel the fear, yet we must move in the direction of the heart. Do it! Live it.

I love the quality of faith rather than the need to hold a belief. Belief implies a preconception about the way reality should be. Faith is the willingness to experience reality as it is, including the shit and the shine of acceptance in the unknown. Belief may impede spiritual unfoldment since my intellect never gets any of this. Faith arises from my heart with its profound broken moments revealing its fragile humanness.

I’m a lesson in vulnerability. To begin to feel the full effect of my crash, life is a moment-to-moment experience in acceptance of uncertainty. I have faith in my healing, yet I don’t believe how this amazing life unfolds. I know. I can not control it, but I can influence my response.

Consciousness is a full-body phenomenon beyond the limits of our small brain stem. There is beauty in the form of the flower, its essence is its scent. What is our essence as human beings? Perhaps it is pure love.

Beyond my thoughts of having to prove my value, maybe my acceptance of other human beings’ cruel actions arises from the fear of letting go. Just hold a puppy, a kitten, or a baby and notice how the limbic system slows down. Touch, feel, and notice how love recomposes the brain.

This has been a harsh year of healing, yet my heart is full of the wonder and the miracle of living it. Pain is not something to avoid; sitting is discomfort, and notice the mind running to get out of it. Breathe into the discomfort and forgive the attachment to fixing; accept the transformation process.

All around me, structures are shifting, bones are breaking, and foundations are asking to be re-rooted in greater integrity, support, and stability. Be still and notice the mind’s need to control the outcome. To avoid the fear, we overdo, push, and bully to survive. This is our human nature, and yet our true essence is greater.

War and peace are the same coins, the inner battle between our little mind of survival and the greater Self of our soul. My mind can be my best friend or my worst nightmare.

The beauty of witnessing my thoughts, words, and actions arise when I CAN SIT. I practice not feeding those thoughts and focus on the vibration of my inner sound, my breath. My pain, my doubts, and my need to fix is my habit.

In the forgiveness of my learned mind, I witness, and maybe, just maybe, I can move in another direction. I can move inward with my mind and establish a relationship with my deeper self. I am love; I am this.

I might never believe it, but this “knowing” leads me to something greater. I can hold the opposites and be aware I have a choice. I choose to love, laugh, and heal my heart one moment at a time. Celebrating new beginnings, grieving endings, and living in the space in between.

This last week, our sweet Joyce fell and suffered a broken femur and is currently in a rehabilitation facility. It would be so healing for her to hear from any of her students. She will be out for a long while so please send your cards to the studio, and we will make sure she receives them. Many of you know that Joyce is also turning 82 on Saturday, January 14 so birthdays cards are also appreciated!

Joyce Eickmeyer Owens

c/o Yoga Among Friends

4949 Forest Ave.

Downers Grove, IL 60515

Love and light,

Laura Jane

Make the Time & Space to Practice Gratitude

Welcome as we enter into the Season of gratitude. Let’s practice the gifts of being alive in the abundant energy that arises when we make an effort to nourish our inner light. It’s the harvest season of gathering and celebrating our bounty.

In our troubled world today, we are seeing the struggles of conflict and the collective distraction of feeding fear and anger. Now my teacher would remind me that I am just being foolish to hold on to my habit of worry. Clinging to worry and doubt, I just deplete my nervous system, which leads to exhaustion and loss of my joy. It takes great effort to move inward and link to my breath when my little mind is distracted by all the noise around.

My inner mantra today is to thank myself for making the time to share these words, “today, focus on what is beautiful. Free your heart from judgment, live simply, give more, expect less, and notice the light in someone’s eyes. Smile and offer to listen with the intention of being present.” These are just words to the mind of intellect that is wired to protect the self-preservation of one’s identity.

We are human beings moving too quickly as the adrenaline pushes us to do more. Pause, put your hands on your heart and just observe the beating. Is the pulse too fast? Slow your breath and just feel the air meeting your nostrils. Notice a simple shift and how it changes everything. Maybe not in the outer world, but something internal has shifted. Now add a thank you. Inhale and say to yourself, “thank you,” and on the exhale, again whisper, ”thank you.” This is the small, conscious choice of welcoming in gratitude for your life.

It is not what you do that defines your self-worth, but living in the awareness of an appreciation for who you are. Being kind and being your own friend opens your heart to the world. It takes effort:

• to move in the direction of the heart,

• to focus the mind in the direction of observing the feeling of the breath,

• to meditate on the profound wonder of being present in life itself,

• to make an effort to move away from the habit of creating distractions,

• to make time and space to celebrate a practice on a daily basis.

The collective energy to make a commitment to go inward on a daily basis is a great offering we can do for humanity. It is not easy, and we need a collective community to cultivate these tools.

YAF, together with all our teachers, is sharing in the abundance of this life energy as we say “THANK YOU” for being a part of our collective journey. The path of healing and nourishing the inner light is in all of us. May we come together this Season by sustaining these thoughts, as my mentor, Joseph Campbell, would inspire, “Be the JOY in the sorrows of the World.”

Blessings,
Laura Jane