Restful Birthing of Spring

If you want to heal the world, slow down. I call it living in the “Pace of Grace.”

In the frenetic daily rushing, you outrun your own spirit. Our poor heartbeats cannot catch up to the pace of a thirsty mind lost in survival. The world is spinning even faster, and technology has moved us into overwhelming fear. The fear of not being enough, not having enough, and not being able to catch a breath.

Our infrastructures are breaking apart, busyness is a cultural disease, and we believe the voice that says, “you don’t have time to rest”. If you lose your health, you will find more than enough time.

Everything in our life is a matter of care and priority. We choose what to find time for. Closing your eyes and going inside with a long exhale breath will release tension, even for a few seconds.

Can you imagine living a life of sustained ease and being able to rest that chattering, abusive mind? It takes a commitment to the practice of asking yourself, “What nourishes me?” To be willing to drop the armor of our learned habits of distraction and create a sacred ceremony birthing your new life. Not physically, if your mind still struggles to rest. Your nerves are still frayed. Your spirit is still weary with worry.

It’s honoring renewal, letting go of the guilt and shame of how vital rest is for gathering your soul. Make these things your lifestyle: retreat, respite, solitude, and contemplation. Let your mind fall in love with the ease of the breath as you delink from all the adrenaline tasks of striving, doing, and getting.

Our constant task master creates an existence that is harming our health. Embrace doing less as a human right; exhaustion is not a joyous way to live your miraculous life. We are human beings, and nourishing the soul sustains all life.

The world is suffering from the breakdown of our physical bodies, and millions struggle to rest. Let us gather the integrity of a new foundation, and maybe our best life will be restful. Feel the sweet pace of our gentle kinder voice, which says, “I am enough. I do more than enough as my light, love, and existence are valuable.” I rest in this truth and feel the beauty of an open nourished heart.

If we want to heal the world, stay still, and listen to the birds this Spring. Notice the buds, the small plant growth pushing through the earth, the longer daylight, and the sweet scent of birth. March is the month of Spring and a time to celebrate all life. Please honor your sweet soul.

with love and light,

Laura Jane

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!

---

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