Connectedness
Do you have summer time off or a vacation planned? Or how about a moment to turn your phone off for a mini "staycation" where you can get connected with yourself and just feel yourself breathing. I hope you do.
Given how fast paced life is and how over stimulated we are by social media and everything around us, it is becoming more and more important to have practices that keep us connected to ourselves. Join me online with zoom yoga & mediation classes or at Ascend Center and Ful- Being Collective for yoga therapeutics or private sessions with The Yoga Wall.
What does it mean to be connected to yourself? It means you always have a way to recharge and rejuvenate yourself no matter how crazy life may get or how stagnate you might become. Becoming connected is about finding your center, your source of inner power by being with yourself and by yourself. And sometimes there just might be 25,000 other people connected too, dancing with you to the same beat, feeling the same energy of the band sharing their living connectedness of creative play of music with you in the heat of the moment, like I felt this past weekend at the Peach Music Festival. In reality the connection I had to myself gave me the opportunity to be fully connected through the music and experience of moving my own body and breath with others.
Connectedness could also mean connecting with your soul’s purpose (Dharma) I feel this when teaching the intersection of creativity and self-expression through Heartful Yoga art making workshops, especially when people are hesitant to make a mark onto the canvas for whatever reason … then the light bulb goes on for them that there is no wrong or right, just a feeling, that doesn't have to be with any end game or reason, just the moment of the mark making process connection.
When you strip down the yoga asana practice, what is it teaching you? CONNECTION. It is teaching you to be in the now of being connected with your body, breath, mind and emotions in the present moment as you try to navigate and mold your body into a sometimes crazy looking shape. It’s teaching you to be connected to all of your inner landscape sensations, feelings and mental fluctuations of being human.
Connectedness could also mean truly connecting from the heart with those you love & know like friends or family, or with the people around you like at a concert or festival dancing to the same music in that specific moment. Or what about the connection you have to a yoga studio or community? It could also mean connecting with nature as you weed your garden or plant seeds in a flower box on the fire escape, or soaking your worn out feet in a cold babbling brook on the way down from your hike or standing in the ever-flowing tides of the ocean watching your feet sink and get pulled off balance. It could also mean connecting with spiritual principals or ancient wisdom texts that are meaningful to you as you read and annotate them, truly digesting them. AAHH CONNECTION
Whatever it means to you, connecting to yourself enables you to recharge your batteries, ground yourself with what’s truly important to you, no matter what is happening in the busyness of day-to-day life. Connectedness for some might not happen easily in mini moments, but rather by setting yourself up for planned moments like a summer vacation, or disconnecting from technology for a “staycation”, hiking in the woods, or lighting a candle to sit with just your morning coffee, or taking a nap in the hammock or maybe taking a yoga retreat.
If you are looking for a weekend yoga retreat—- I am hosting one OCT 27-29 in the Catskills.I am heading back to the artsy farmhouse on 15 acres in Windham,NY. It was such a success … some former retreaters already booked ! Here's what some retreaters are saying:
Dani’s energy is contagious in all aspects of a yogi’s world. She sees things in us that we tend to be immune to or keep deep inside. She has a special way with words and gentle corrections, on and off the mat, are life altering. These energies intertwined through her classes or entire retreat, have trickled down into my daily family life. These retreats allow me the opportunity to see the “whole” Dani not just the flicker within a class! She is a gift.” Jenn
“Dani’s Heartful Yoga Retreats are like none other!!!
In a few days you feel as though you have been reunited with yourself a feeling of calm, ease and peace. Her voice, words, the music and art are genuinely a unique experience. It’s playful!!! As we should be in our daily lives, even with all of life’s ups and downs. I leave her workshops walking on air. The experiences stay with me and are relit when I wear the Heartful Yoga pants we created during the retreat, use a bag with her signature yoga poses or my eye catches a piece of her artwork in my home. I hear her voice and I feel the place and time we were together with Dani doing her magic “ Noreen
The schedule :
Fri: Check in 1:00-3:00pm , Restorative & Yoga Nidra, Dinner, Dharma & Satsung
Sat: Light Breakfast, Yoga Workshop, Lunch, Free time, Pranyama & Meditation Workshop, Dinner ,Yoga Dance Party
Sun: Vinyasa Yoga Class, Meditation, Closing Circle,Brunch, Check out 12:30 pm
***Heartful Art Making integrated in workshops
*** Gourmet farm to table meals created by Dani
(reason enough to book if you haven’t eaten her cooking )
The Cost: $786 /per person all inclusive
Limited Space Available- contact DANI ASAP
We will focus on specific yoga practices of asana, pranayama, meditation and journaling & art integration as tools for heartful healthy holistic living that you can take with you for your home practices long after the music is gone, the beach chairs are stored in the shed and the mats rolled up from the retreat.
Having the ability to connect to yourself and those around you on retreat is important because if you don’t you run the risk of ending up running around doing a bunch of things on your never ending to do list without being present as to the WHY you are doing them or if you really need to. We all need to stay grounded and connected to ourselves because that inner “voice “ that knowing that we try to listen to in our mediation and yoga practices can actually have the center stage for us to actual hear it when we are connected to ourselves and deeply listening. We can catch ourselves long before adrenal failure or burn out. Connectedness is like silencing your cell phone at the concert so you can hear and feel the music in your dancing bones. The beat will linger on… and on… long after the festival or retreat has gone.
Your connection to your self will also reveal the starting points for truly connecting with others in your life – something that is immensely important to us human beings.
Stay cool, hydrated and connected .
OM SHANTI
Dani
If you are looking for a longer Yoga vacation experience—- Reserve today for the Heartful Yoga MEXICO RETREAT ! March 23- 30, 2024 in Puerto Morelos !
