Over the last year we have all been forced to slow down. While shops closed and events were canceled many of us also lost our jobs and our purpose, or so we thought.
I went to the equivalent of working two full time jobs with a big community down to working from home and not really seeing anyone in person. I lost connection to the few close friends that I did have in the community that I built and connected with so dearly, to living in 850sq feet apartment working online from home and lost the sense of rush that I once had.
I'll admit, it wasn't easy, but at the same time it might have been the best thing that could have happened to.
Before the slow down, I felt like I had to stay busy. I felt like, if I wasn't busy, I would just be home doing nothing anyway... so why not work and support others in my "free time". What I didn't realize was that this was draining me. Add on the stress of an unknown pandemic beginning and I was ready to break. The slow down might be one of the best things that happened to me. I can't say that I fully believe that yet, as so many difficult things came with it, but there is something magical that came over the time I've had to slow down.
While the slow down was hard, the slow paced living is here to stay. The transition to being forced to do absolutely nothing to moving slowly to reintegrate into activities of my choosing is a novel one that not many get. The funny thing is how this process has also been experienced in my yoga teaching. I went from teaching packed rooms of 30+ people to being in a room alone teaching to a group of figures online, many of which ended up being little black boxes because people were hesitant to turn their cameras on. Teaching online is a completely different experience than teaching in person. Slowly as people started coming back into studio, I've gone from teaching 30+ to online only, to a lot of private lessons, to a place now where the rooms are starting to feel a little bit more warm and nearing groups where I'm back to teaching in a way that is to the group rather than to an individual or a black box.
Another change is that I've moved from teaching a lot of high intensity strength based classes to a lot more slow flow or deep stretch based classes. I used to love the energy of the strength based classes, and I do hope to one day get to a point where I can teach more of those again. However, I've grown to love the slower classes. I can recognize that the slower classes have so many benefits, and when going through challenging times when our nervous systems are already maxed out on high, the slow flow and deep stretch have the ability to nourish us in a different way than I realized before.
So.... Slow Flow is here to stay. It has become one of my favorites to teach and to practice myself. It's a class style that gets the full body moving to get the blood flowing, but it also gives us the permission to slow down and give our nervous system a break.
Have you tried one of my Slow Flow classes yet? Feel free to contact me to join your first class at CKE Community center with me for free. And... as a Thank You to all community members I will be adding a holiday sake price with 2 bonus classes for all class packs purchased until the end of the year.