Hello lovely humans

I write to you from my usual Sunday spot, curled up in an armchair, wrapped in blankets with a warm drink within arm’s reach, always. I write my blog in this way each week and I relish this quiet hour. I so wish I could stay this way for longer periods of my day but alas, that is not the life I have chosen for myself, not what I have, when I stop to reflect, ever actively worked to manifest. Perhaps that can be part of what comes next for me… manifest cosy time! It doesn’t feel like it should be too much of a challenge but knowing myself as I do, it certainly could be.

The weeks pass by in lockdown here in the UK. Somehow, for me, it feels that this happens very quickly. That may be down to the noise and activity that accompanies my life pretty much constantly inside the walls of my home… children and pets and always music and movement. I will admit that I am looking forward, very much, to my children breaking up for half term at the end of this week. It’s been a really interesting experience to support them through working on the activities and lessons they have each been set by school. But one we all need a rest from. More time to get out in nature. More time to just be. We all seem to have found a natural rhythm to our days, and exist relatively peacefully when the requirement to be prescriptive about how our time is spent is able to soften.

Something I have begun work on is the next set of 10 affirmation cards for a workshop I plan to run in early April called I Am: Creative. I’m in the process of planning the content for that workshop and am curious about if those of you who read this blog and my newsletter have ideas for what you would like me to cover. The focus will be on posture, breath and, of course, intention. But I am open to getting more practical too. I get a lot of questions about my processes and tools for creating my content and I am wondering if I should give space to talk about that a little too? Or perhaps that could be something separate to the workshop? I’d love to know what you think.

On Friday I posted out all of the packages for my upcoming workshop, I Am: Safe. I feel proud of what I have created and am so looking forward to sharing the workshop next Saturday. If you did not book a place, I do plan to put it on again in the not too distant future so let me know and I will make sure you hear about it first.

‘Please don’t hate me…’

I had a hilarious time at the post office this week. When I arrived it was empty and I breathed a sigh of relief. I had 26 packages to send and I wanted them each to go tracked. I approached the counter, smiled to the young man who greeted me and opened with one of my most used phrases… ‘Please don’t hate me, but…’

It’s interesting, isn’t it? How we can so easily assume that we’re a nuisance for just being. For asking. For, in this case, using a service for exactly what it is inherantly for. He met me with something of a sigh when I revealed my two bags-for-life full of colourful parcels. Why would he not? I’d given him permission to show his disdain, after all. Of course, the queue built up quickly behind me. I mouthed ‘so sorry’ again and again to the humans waiting patiently behind me. After about 20 minutes it became too much for me to bear, I felt like such a pain in the ass, so I offered to pay up to where we were and then move to the back of the queue. This is, I guess, a generous gesture. But it did also give me pause to reflect on aspects of myself that I continue to work through.

Classes This Week

This week I teach my free class at 8am on Wednesday morning which you can sign up for here. These have been one of the best things I have done during lockdown, by far. It’s incredible to have so many of us coming together for a gentle reset at the start of the day. If you come, do consider joining a little earlier than the 8am start time so we can have a chat. It’s so lovely to build community. To have some human interaction at the start of the day!

I am also teaching at 7pm on Thursday and 10am on Friday. You can book those classes here. I am currently not teaching in person (for obvious reasons) nor my 10am Wednesday class as I am on homeschool duty at that time.

Beyond that I have a couple of really exciting and creative projects in the making at the moment that I am working on in the background and I really look forward to sharing more with you in coming months. I am also working on the exam for a training I recently undertook, which is hugely important to me. It’s a big topic: addiction and anxiety recovery, and I find myself spending lots of time reflecting on it in the stillness that comes in my early morning hours… hours that I tend to spend alone (my family are all night owls and I am a consistent early riser!) For my exam to do the training justice, I have made a commitment to myself to give the process the presence and the love it deserves. It’s taking a lot of hours but it is worth every second.

The soundtrack of my life…

Something that’s been a challenge for me as a teacher is music. I have written before, although perhaps not on this blog (and I will do) about my journey with mantra. But beyond mantra, when it comes to choosing music for my classes, I will admit I have been quite hesitant and uncertain of myself.

I have begun to find my feet (or should I say my ears) in this realm. Part of what I found tricky was that the music I adore, the songs that have accompanied me through my own story, and most of what I could easily identify as being very ‘me’, tends to include a huge amount of… well, story! I love storytelling through music and the bands and the singers that I adore all tend to weave stories through their lyrics in ways that mean they can be rather distracting when used in combination with breath and posture.

One of the bands that mean a huge amount to me is Belle and Sebastian. This week I have found myself hugely soothed by reconnecting to some of my favourite songs from them. I have quite interesting stories about my own experiences with the band… I have adored them for a long long time and they opened me up to many brilliant experiences and people. But, over the last 12 months, their music had begun to fade from my life. It’s been so fascinating to begin to introduce them back and find that many of the songs have been given new life and meaning. And comforting to find they can still accompany me on my journey. That opening up to new perspectives doesn’t necessarily mean closing doors to past comforts and aspects of your life that bring you solace.

Belle and Sebastian have long been ‘accused’ of being twee. A funny little word. I don’t know if I believe it to be a ‘fair’ label. But what I do know is that their music speaks to me in a way few others ever have.

The lead singer of Belle and Sebastian, Stuart Murdoch, has started to teach free meditation classes via Facebook over the last 12 months, which are a real joy. If you look up Belle and Sebastian on Facebook and like the page you will be notified when Stuart goes live. I think he does it a few times a week. Recommend!

I have a playlist of some of my favourite Belle and Sebastian songs on my Spotify, where you can also find all of the playlists I create for classes.

I haven’t read anything this week, other than New Scientist magazine and the manual for the teacher training I finished last week. But I have a ‘to be read’ pile calling for as soon as my exam is done and will be updating you on what I am reading next week.

Until then, have the most gorgeous week and I hope to see you on the mat in one of my classes, if you feel called.

Loads of love

Sara-Jayne
Xxx