MY FIRST RETREAT🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴😛🌴
MY FIRST RETREAT🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴😛🌴
hi again, to my community new and old.
November!
We are growing! Praise to the most high. In a time in which many things can be true, and when fear overpowers love, I lean into my community and my practice. I am learning to not question, challenge or deprive myself of feeling - no matter how bizarre, euphoric, or frightening. In my classes lately I have been teaching meditations around śūnya, which in Sanskrit means empty, void, or zero. The root word śvi, means hollow. While some feel satisfied with being alone, rarely do we enjoy feeling lonely. There is a way in which we as practitioners have to seduce ourselves and each other into keeping up, calming down, and actualizing loving awareness in the in-between. Pleasure is our birthright and in it, as with everything, there is a paradox at play.
Having practices that are ritualized and without prescience allows me to orient myself on a map - and to know when to stop, go, or change direction. Lately I have been doing a ton of housekeeping; literally and metaphorically, cleaning out the inboxes, the camera rolls, and choosing what’s worth keeping and throwing away. The same goes for situations, relationships, and old storylines or narratives that stick to us like white on rice. At the beginning of fall I was riding the late summer high, and by mid month the reality of time started to get to me for various reasons both personal and professional. I felt my anxieties creeping up again and couldn’t sleep. I noticed a change in appetite and overall comfortability. With change can sometimes come more responsibility, bitterness and dread, especially when not immediately addressed.
I love being a student and have been taking advantage of new and unexplored free time by going back to things that I’ve lost and now found. I have missed my weekly museum trips, putting phone calls and dates on my calendar that I want to have, and not cancelling them for fear of missing out, being judged, or quite literally acting out of scarcity or fear that has no tangible life-force to accompany it.
Last week i had the opportunity to attend a lecture led by Eddie Stern & Deepak Chopra, incredible teachers and facilitators within the vast vortex of consciousness seekers. for the first time in a long time was I eager to just be a witness (I forgot my pen and was forced to listen instead - crazy) but I did end up recording the talk (shh) and I’ve listened to it a few times this week. On the topic of meditation, Eddie explained the word dhyana, which is contemplation and meditation as a means to samadhi (a state of consciousness - for the newbs) and self knowledge - versus dharana which is loosely translated as the collection or concentration of the mind (that is joined with the retention of breath). I was blown away as I was never exposed to the distinct differences between the two. Deepak then dissected both words on a worldly and societal level for us to understand and question as a group. He explained what happens when a cancer cell becomes egotistical within the framework of whatever it becomes attached to - basically feeding and wanting to live forever - so as a result it destroys the host, not understanding that it is apart of a whole. Ultimately, cancer is the loss of the memory of death. Death makes life possible and although it is a human construct, we do identify with and from it. Still with me? Ok!
Humans need food, sex, money and water. These are our basic needs. What we feed will flourish. In theory, most of us want the same things - financial freedom, unconditional love, unwavering focus, environments and the like. In time, through self-study and reflection do we come to realize that our feeling is always apt to change, with our circumstances and according to who we are, not who we were or who we are becoming. It is the soul that remains steady, the spirit content. It is not personal, but rather rooted in principle. When we meditate, life comes to us, not at us. We can forgive, create, and renew. In conversation today, my teacher said, “Pray for the world, and then become the answer to the prayer.” This week, in practice, with every trigger and challenge, I opened my arms, my voice, my eyes, ears - and watched my heart bounce with and through the void, into the unknown. It felt like flying.
A gorgeous fall plate and date with a friend.
my teacher and my mentee.
Magic at the MET (who remembers my Cloister days?!)
today I woke up and drank water as soon as I woke, and felt the sensation of nourishment while empty. while teaching, I laughed easily, hard and with. My cafe offered me a free coffee. today while walking, without headphones and in the world, I watched leaves changing color, falling and whipping with the wind. I heard them. And then I found $14 on the street. Grace.
that’s it! I think I am quoting Jeff : ‘no drama but a lot of Rama.’ Love and miss xx
practicing
watching
reading
studying
listening
digesting
teaching - new weekly zoom on Saturday’s at 11A EST through SKYTING TV - code is CHELSEY for one month free. I am teaching on THANKSGIVING DAY at 10am - 90 minute practice in-studio that will be streamed online.
open to adding a personal weekly zoom if there is interest! Message me with q’s related to private practice virtually and/or in-person. Sliding scale always always available.
So excited to announce my first retreat of 2024! Costa Rica! May 28- June 2 2024 with the radiant Francesca Valarezo - Francesca is a powerhouse leader and pro. I can’t wait to learn and teach together! More information is included in the link attached. Please email me or contact me if you are interested in joining us.
6 day, 5 night accommodation
deep practice with Francesca & I twice a day
Norte NOSARA is within walking distance to magical beaches on the Pacific. There is an insane catalogue of activities, meals, and connection. blue zone baby!