Coming home to Hot Yoga
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 07:48AM I left home 22 days ago and I found myself home, here in Florence and Rome.
As for my old home in New Jersey – I am home now but I am not going back. I am facing forward.
I am tossing out old maps that got me nowhere fast. ‘So what are you doing how? What are your kids doing now? Why isn’t your son going to college? How is your job? How is your money? Have you checked on it lately?' These swirling questions spiraled me into dead ends.
I came to Italy with a vague remembering of a young girl who felt at home with no plans, with a backpack, a bit of money, and a desire to see art, 30 years ago. I went searching through all the monuments and museums to find that person I l thought I had left behind; someone carefree and eager for life.
She was with me all along.
Being lost is exactly where I was supposed to be. It feels like home to have found my courage to be lost and found and lost again.
And to speak up.
The route is always clear: just walk where it feels good. I don't need a preplanned route. I am the map and the mapmaker.
Now I turning up the heat; I am asking myself to expand to fit the size of my dreams.
My touchstone has been yoga. For me, Hot Yoga has always been bigger than my body and my poses; hot yoga symbolizes life in alignment, my ability to move gracefully not despite the heat, but because of it. Heat is risk; heat is expansion in progress; heat is necessary. You can stretch in the heat.
I have kept the heat too low in my life or too many years. How about you? Ready for some hot yoga expansion? Anyone up for a 30 Day Hot Yoga Challenge perhaps? Or to commit to hot yoga three times a week to create The Cumulative Effect? What fire is burning inside of you that hot yoga can help you spark into reality?
Reader Comments (3)
Well said, and thank you for saying it. I really appreciate the sentiment. It is so nice to know who we really are is still with us, even if it gets lost in worldly commitments and duties. And it is really good to know a soul at any age, time, or place along its path can change, revert, switch it up, and just be happy. Sharing your story so eloquently is inspiring to those of us, (me) who are kind of on the fence, trying to determine direction, looking for the real motivations. And as you well know, hot yoga heats it up and brings all the "stuff " inside us to a nice boil and then a fine simmer so that it all looks and smells better, and just like a homemade soup it warms the body and the soul. Hot Yoga is adds a distinctly unique warmth and flavor to life!
Well said, and thank you for saying it. I really appreciate the sentiment. It is so nice to know who we really are is still with us, even if it gets lost in worldly commitments and duties. And it is really good to know a soul at any age, time, or place along its path can change, revert, switch it up, and just be happy. Sharing your story so eloquently is inspiring to those of us, (me) who are kind of on the fence, trying to determine direction, looking for the real motivations. And as you well know, hot yoga heats it up and brings all the "stuff " inside us to a nice boil and then a fine simmer so that it all looks and smells better, and just like a homemade soup it warms the body and the soul. Hot Yoga adds a distinctly unique warmth and flavor to life!
Thanks Susan! We miss your heat in the hot yoga room. Life has you cooking. I'm sure, but come back to us soon and do hot yoga with us. By the way - how did the healing you got at the Green Goddess Spa feel afterwards? Were you able to practice the Ask and Receive technique at home?