18 years ago I stepped into my first yoga class at L.A. Fitness. I was faithful at working out to stay in shape, and to relieve stress from my social work career, but something about the dim lit yoga room drew me. I was feeling a shift at 30 years old. Priorities were changing as we thought about starting a family. I longed to try something new.

The yoga class was powerful, sweaty, and challenging. I totally felt at home! I was in tune with my breath, focused inward, and all the unnecessary layers of the outside world vanished. During the final resting pose, savasana, I felt so alive, calm, clear, and balanced. I felt like the true me — unmasked and unbound! It was love at first savasana. ❤️ Yoga continues to be my moving meditation as I connect daily on the mat — body, mind, and spirit.

In yoga asana, we participate in savasana, or corpse pose at the end of each practice. It symbolizes our death as we lie down, and new life as we arise — listening to new insights about our connection with the body, mind, and spirit. Make time to JUST BE and listen to the still, small voice inside. Accept yourself for who you are outside of your life roles, responsibilities, and contributions. Rest times provide valuable insight. They allow us to put to death what no longer serves us, being able then to fully experience the joy and liberation of new life.

I release all that no longer serves me to embrace positive change in my life. ❤️

In This Moment, by Clive Fogelman (adapted)

In this moment invite stillness
With each breath let tension melt away
Give yourself permission to be here
Let the earth receive you

In this moment surrender the body
Float into effortlessness
To spaces unknown
Know that it is okay to let go

In this moment no solutions are needed
Allow the journey to unfold
As you travel through your inner landscape

In this moment breathe into your potential
Imagine yourself unmasked and unbound
Connect with your heart voice
Offering up yourself to the world

In this moment you are free
Feel gratitude for all that you are
The potential that lies within and outside
Let this be the beginning of something new

Revelation, by C. JoyBell C.

I am like a diamond
Born to the earth
The years have covered me in
Grime and mud
Filth and stench
Dirt and dung
But now is today and
I will dance and dance
I will dance and dance
I will dance and dance
I will dance and watch the dirt fall off
I will dance and watch the mud crack
And drop
I will dance and all the filth and grime
Will float away into the air
And I will see myself again
And so will you

May you put to death what no longer serves you and begin to experience the joy and liberation of new life!