Welcome to February JOY!

This month is all about taking agency over your own joy. This can be hard. Many external factors affect how we feel, how we connect, and how we create our identity. With close attention and awareness of our personal needs, we can find joy, and spread it around!

This month will start with internal joy. We will cultivate the intention to connect to personal awareness and happiness. The weekly themes of Connect and Align will be attention-based yoga with time to digest.

In the second half of the month, we will bring the energy outward. Expect lively, energetic practices to inspire joy in yourself, and those around you. The themes of Space and Shine will be fluid and spacious sequences to build heat inside and out.

Yoga embodies opposing and balancing elements of energy. And each of us needs a different balance, at different moments. We will bring awareness to this concept throughout the month.

Week 1: Connect

Connect to yourself, your place and your relationships.

An important part of finding happiness is to find awareness and connect to each moment. Tapping into your well of joy also requires feeling comfortable in your place and seen in your relationships. Finally, joy means having the agency to change anything that is not aligned. To do this big work, you must have a feeling of security in where you are and who you are. One of the best ways to feel this security and enhance it, is by connecting to the earth with intention.

We do this in every yoga class, because it’s so important. We remember where we are, and give attention the ground beneath us. This isn't just ‘yoga talk’ but rather, a daily practice in place-making. The more you carve out a place, and feel balanced in your energy - the more contentment you can access.

This is long-term work, and it requires daily maintenance. The good news is Connect is also your exhale. And you exhale every couple seconds throughout your life. When you remember, pay attention to your exhale. Feel it soften your body, and draw energy to the ground. Feel your feet on the earth and the support back to you. Connect.

Week 2: Align

Align means your body. Making sure you are taking care of it and using it to be both strong and soft. That you are starting with your feet and balancing on your foundation, while staying long and spacious in your trunk. You’ll feel this in the yoga this week, alignment is the basis for all the yoga we practice.

Align means your energy. Listen to what you need, and take care of yourself. Do something you love every day. Surround yourself with people, energy and work that keeps you vibrant and calm. And when you encounter energy that is not in alignment with your energy, give yourself extra space so you can decompress, relax and return to energetic alignment when you can.

Align means your values. Matching up where you give energy and where you receive it from. Money is energy, people create what you buy, just like you are paid for the work you do. As your money and intentions flow, make sure they are in alignment with your care, your values, and your expectations for the world.

Week 3: Space

Expand from the inside out to make more space and feel free.

Making space from the inside out. This week we are starting to transition energy from inward (the first half of this month) to outward. That means we are shifting energy, bringing more flow, more space , more FREEDOM. This week I ask you to place your attention on the INHALE. The expansion. The movement from your center outward and back again.

Taking up space allow us to feel seen and present. Creating more space gives us agency over how we feel.

Week 4: Shine

This week is about bringing your internal energy outward and shining it on others. When you share your unique gifts in a positive way, it can help you feel fulfilled and joyful.

It is certainly possible to give too much, and drain yourself for the needs of others. But with careful attention to your personal sources of energy, you CAN cultivate enough joy for yourself and to share.

Every person in this group has brilliance and brightness in their soul. And I hope that this message and these movements will help polish that light so you can shine even brighter.

I want to remind you, as we close this month, that if you are not feeling joyful, for whatever reason - that’s OK! Take time to focus inward (and bring in your external support system) to take note of what needs balancing. You got this ♥