Hello everyone,
I hope this email finds you well. We are certainly living in unprecedented times with so many unknowns.
What I’ve found to be helpful this week:
Virtual parties. Yep. So I actually have a shower, put on a dress and I’ll put a whole face of make up on and heck maybe even some French perfume on and then I’ll saunter to the lounge for a Zoom phone call with friends who have also dressed up. SO fun. And we play games such as ‘Would I lie to you?’….so we all get to tell a story - a funny, fascinating or a terrifying story. Whether it’s true or not. Everyone else gets to question you on the story afterwards and then they have to decide whether your story is true or a total lie. If you guessed right you get a point, and so it goes and the person with most points is the winnnnneeerrrr. It’s hilarious - try it out! You get to find out amazing stories about your friends that you never knew about!
Other things that have helped - repeating this beautiful mantra given by my teacher Shanti to use while meditating:
Other things that help - dancing. Always. Doing a few yoga poses always leaves me feeling soothed. Stopping what I’m doing for a minute and breathing in deeply and out and checking in with myself. Burning some Palo Santo and watching the smoke waft in the air - LOVE IT!
Anything that soothes our nervous system will boost our immune system - so let’s all promise ourselves to carve out a chunk of our day, every day focused purely on doing what feels soothing or comforting for us. We owe ourselves and everyone else this right now.
Next week I’ll be doing a workshop about finding our inner peace with yoga, meditation and breath work - tomorrow at 9am CST and on Wednesday at 7.15pm CST. This is a 90 minute workshop and it’s interactive via Zoom. This is great as it means I can answer any questions you might have. Zoom is free for you to download and you’ll get your Zoom Meeting Number 20 minutes before the workshop starts. I did the very first virtual workshops last week and it worked really well, there was a beautiful sense of connection between all of us from all over the U.S - just beautiful!
The tickets for the April workshop on lillierinyoga.com are up and running too. If you book the Monday series (4 workshops) - you get $5 off and if you book the Wednesday series (5 workshops) you get $10 off! You just need a iPhone, iPad or a laptop, a yoga mat (or a towel) and some comfy clothes! You could also dim the lights, light some candles and maybe put the diffuser on or light an incense before the workshop to set the ambience. Look forward to connecting with you next week!
Book your ASL Yoga workshop tickets
— March —
Monday workshop 9am-10.30am (Central Time)
Wednesday workshop 7.15pm-8.45pm (Central Time)
— April —
Monday 9am-10.30am (Central Time)
BOOK MONDAY SERIES OR WORKSHOP
Wednesday 7.15pm-8.45pm (Central Time)
BOOK WEDNESDAY SERIES OR WORKSHOP
Private virtual classes
I also have private classes available - for six people for instance, it would be $10 each for a 60 minute class. I also have a donation-based 45 minute class on Friday evening at 7.30pm via Facebook Live/Instagram Live..still working out which is the better platform - i.e it won’t cut me off halfway like it did last Friday :o) …! Lots of options - please reach out if you’d like a private virtual class.
Yogic Philosophy of the Week
Yoga is an eight-fold path and the second of the eight limbs of yoga is called Niyamas. Niyamas are how we are to act. The fifth of the five Niyamas is Ishvara Pranidhana. It translates as the practice of surrender and being on the path of peace. Surrendering to a Higher Power of some sort - Love, God, the Universe, the Great Mystery, Mother Nature, Science. The deep knowing that there is something bigger than all of us. Remembering the Divine. How do we practise Ishavara Pranidhana in difficult times? Meditating, chanting mantras, communing with Nature, saying a prayer, lighting a candle at a homemade altar, setting an intention, expressing gratitude. Anything that fills up your soul and makes you remember the miracle of life once again.
Pose of the Week
The Goddess pose is a grounding pose and a fortifying pose. Research shows that when your arms are up as in the Goddess pose, a victory pose - testosterone floods your brain and cortisol is reduced meaning that you feel stronger, more confident and less stressed. Give it a try, stay in the pose for five full and deep breaths breaths and see how you feel afterwards!
