It’s been another busy week for me. Indeed, with three children, three cats, a dog, a partner and a very messy house, every week is extremely busy. And it’s a good thing. I love to be busy.
This week has involved a lot of catching up. Work, emails, laundry… life! Coming slowly ‘out’ of lockdown (although my local area is going back in to a partial one this week!) I have realised how very many things I have been just a little tooooo laid back about since March. Why do laundry when you can be in a yoga class? Well, turns out, when life begins to return to normal, that stuff becomes pretty essential again. Well, parts of it. It’s been interesting to see which parts of lockdown life I want to keep around. Turns out, if I had my way, pretty much all of it!
I came home from the school run the other day and had a little moment of reflection as I looked at our, now very faded, tissue paper rainbow in the playroom window. It feels like a long time ago that I enthusiastically got to work on homeschooling back in March. It was, in many ways, a very beautiful time.
Classes this week:
On Tuesday, my classes begin at Bantock House Museum and Gardens. Because of the challenging times we live in right now, this has involved buckets full of one of my least favourite pastimes: admin. Ugh. I am getting so excited now for the classes, though, the COVID questionnaires and risk assessments and measuring of mat space etc. will no doubt all be worth it. I am closing bookings for this first class, which begins at 10:15am on 22nd September, later today. I have a couple of spaces left if anyone would like to join us for the first class. Otherwise, booking will still be open for the 29th onward.
Online classes are also on this week. Monday evening at 7pm and Wednesday morning at 10am. First class is free. You just have to fill out a simple form which you can find here.
RADIANT WELLNESS
One of the things I have been busy with this week is putting the finishing touches to some of my first videos for a new membership website I am part of, Radiant Wellness Club.
I am really thrilled to have been asked to be a part of this.
Launching next month, Radiant Wellness Club is an offering for women who want to unlock their inner radiant power. It is going to have absolutely loads of content, from teachers all over the world. It’s very collaborative and brimming with divine feminine energy.
I will post more about it when the site launches officially but, for now, if you want to know more you can sign up to the email list to hear about what is on offer and meet the teachers, myself included!
I had so much fun recording my first three classes for Radiant Wellness Club.
As well as making more videos for them, I am hoping to start recording videos for my own Instagram and, possibly, YouTube too. If you have ideas of what you’d like me to cover in video classes do let me know!
What I have been reading this week. First, We Make The Beast Beautiful
First We Make The Beast Beautiful by Sarah Wilson is a lovely, lovely book.
I will say from the off, that it isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking for a practical guide for overcoming anxiety then it may be that this isn’t your FIRST resource. It has a complexity to it, a realness, that I find to be very welcome and also very beautiful.
No book is perfect, but what I love about this is the very real feeling of someone grappling with the fractured, lonely, intense and pretty shitty reality of anxiety.
Sarah Wilson is very honest about the minds, the way our minds can play with us, the inconsistencies, the lack of logic, and shows how by choosing to acknowledge that and choosing, still, bravely, to do the work, bit by bit, imperfectly, you can make positive change.
I have read some more negative reviews of this book, many about the complexity of her approach – but that’s one of the things I really enjoyed about it.
Many books are too ‘neat’ for me. They don’t deal with the messier elements of change, nor with the body, mind, trauma connection. They don’t speak to my soul. And this book does!
As I have said before, I am also extremely nosey, and the honesty in this, being let in to the details and reality of another human’s experience of anxiety, is an honour and, also, I believe, of value to the anxious reader.
It is also a very beautiful object. I find my eyes land on it often and I always take a moment for a long deep inhale and exhale when they do.
I am looking for new book recommendations so if you read this and have any for me, do let me know!
Cacao, Affirmation and Open Hearts
After today, I only have one week left of the absolutely stunning, wonderful, magical, beautiful, soft and gentle, warm embrace that is the 5 part Prayer Workshop with Carolyn Cowan. I MUST stay in the moment and enjoy today (and next week) because I am going to be emotional when this is over.
I cannot think of anything else I have ever done, in my life, that has made a Sunday evening my favourite time of the week.
Last week we explored affirmation. Presence. We were taught how to prepare ceremonial Cacao with a little cook along (something I have done before but, somehow, with Carolyn’s guidance, it was the best and most delicious cup I have ever made!)
We also did many wonderful practises that took me to an inner place that I can’t begin to describe. Soooooo relaxed I did not want to move for hours afterwards. I just wanted to relish the feeling of complete, magical, softness and calm.
Here’s a little selfie I took at the time. I look a bit drunk. I don’t drink. Who needs alcohol? Definitely not me. I felt much more amazing than I ever did when I did drink. Just full of heart energy and entirely safe. Magic. Magic. Magic.
Carolyn has announced she’s doing this again in December/January. If you are interested I really cannot recommend this enough. It is one of the best things I have ever ever done. And all from the comfort of home.
As always I could write allllll day but I have classes to plan and uniforms to wash and all kinds of Sunday admin to do.
I hope to see some of your either in person or online this week in class.
If you have any questions or responses to anything do email me: sarajayneedwards@gmail.com
All my love
Sara-Jayne