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Mid-Summer Greetings, We’ve passed the first wave of heat here in the Willamette Valley, with about ten days to go until the day of longest light, Summer Solstice. I’m already noticing plants around me responding to lack of rainfall, and feeling the onset of a familiar distress. I know there will be many hot, dry days to come before the return of the rain. So here we are. Biological bodies dependent upon circumstances — the weather, relationships with other people, our health — that we can’t directly control. It’s a little uncomfortable, isn’t it? Or maybe you’re dealing with discomfort in the body all the time. What then? Just to be transparent, I lived with chronic physical and emotion pain for a couple decades. I’m intimately familiar with this experience, and I know how incredibly tempting it is to want to escape. Sometimes we want to get away from ourselves or our lives even without chronic pain! And society gives us plenty of options to do that. But we all know getting away doesn’t solve our problems. Escaping into the mind doesn’t heal the body. Finding a way out of the inherent discomfort of being physical — in my experience — requires one thing: going deeper into the body that feels it. Going deeper involves making discoveries. The body is home to a wide range of sensations, even in the midst of pain. We just need to become better attuned to our senses in order to feel them. Increasing our capacity to feel opens up new patterns, possibilities, and ways of being. With sustained exploration, these new sensations can show us the way out of old habits that exacerbate our current conditions of discomfort. So friends, come join me! The upcoming Saturday workshop, Movement Fundamentals: Walking is an excellent opportunity to immerse yourself in relearning how to inhabit your body in motion. In October I’ll be teaching a Movement Fundamentals II (details coming soon!), so if you’d like the option to attend that workshop, take the prerequisite now! In other news, I’ll be teaching a special outdoor Qi Gong class at Bald Hill Farm on Wednesday, July 2, 2025. We’ll be practicing a short, potent form called Marriage of Heaven and Earth, and I hope to see some of you there. As usual, Monday night Qi Gong Foundations is your weekly opportunity for gentle movement practice focused on deepening the experience of being well in your body. You can sign up online at Heart of the Valley Yoga or show up a little before 6:30pm to register. We’re running the AC to help cool the room after hot yoga, but please bring a water bottle! If you have your own mat or blanket to stand on you’re welcome to bring that, too. So here are the offerings. Take one, take them all. There are many paths into the body. I’d love to help you find one. Warm wishes, Georgia
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