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Overview


 

Haven Yoga and Counseling

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Overview


 

Haven Yoga and Counseling

A place to reclaim the beauty and wisdom of your perfectly, imperfect body.

Hi, and welcome to Haven. 

We're really glad you're here. 

 

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Titles


Titles


Your body is more than an image. It's more than an object. Your body is your home.

At Haven, we believe bodies—all bodies—are elegant and wise. We practice yoga and engage in counseling to re-remember how to inhabit ourselves.

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Stats


Stats


Hi! It’s your local body, soul, psyche healers 👋🏼We’re back on Friday evening for our monthly workshop: Sacred Body, featuring movement, meditation, massage, and ritual. This month we are tackling the problem of pain in the body. How are we to be in relationship with our body when we are suffering? Join us if you need an injection of kindness in the midst of the chaos of your world. Only four spots left! Follow the link in my bio to sign up.
I’m doing last minute overview and prep for our Body Reclamation for Reparations workshop, soaking up the sunshine while I can. I’m humbled and terrified and exhilarated to get to do this work. Thank you to my co-facilitators, @emma.s.anway, @luminary_healing_arts, and @make_rituals for collaborating with me to bring this vision to life. Thank you to all the participants who are making intentional strides to combat systemic racism and to inhabit their bodies differently so that we can stop perpetrating the cycle of complicit silence, and step into the discomfort of reality in order to fuel real change . A reminder that we fell forward an hour today, so if you’re attending make sure your clock is updated 💞
Breath. It's really a little miracle within your body. It's the only semi-autonomous function of the body, which means that it both operates automatically, without any conscious intervention, and we can also choose to manipulate and control the breath. We can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, the branch of the nervous system that helps us to feel safe, and allows us to both rest our body and digest our food. Breath is the bridge between the conscious and unconscious, between the mind and the body. . There are lots of ways to manipulate the breath in order to soothe the nervous system. My favorite is to focus on completely emptying the breath. On your next exhale, pour your breath out of your lungs past comfort. Imagine pulling your belly button towards your spine and up behind your heart in order to use your muscles to help empty your lungs. Then, instead of forcefully drawing your inhale into your lungs, allow yourself to sit back and watch how your lungs will spontaneously fill on their own. Allow your breath to pour into your lungs as much as it wants to, and when you feel done breathing in, deliberately begin again to push your exhale entirely out. If you ever begin to feel a sense of panic, this is evidence that you're being a bit too forceful with your breath. . Your breath is the physical manifestation of kindness. If you feel like the experience of loving yourself is far away, taking a few deep breaths is a practical place for you to start practicing self love. #paultebbott
“[Young girls] are taught to not see, and instead to "make pretty" all manner of grotesqueries whether they are lovely or not...This early training to "be nice" causes women to override their intuitions. In that sense, they are actually purposefully taught to submit to the predator. Imagine a wolf mother teaching her young to "be nice" in the face of an angry ferret or a wily diamondback rattler.” - Clarissa Pinkola Estes . Have you been taught to be nice, polite, and domesticated above all else? I was. I never saw the cage I was in while I was growing up, and now as an adult I'm horrified at the ways I was taught to separate from the wisdom of my body. My body was seen as something I needed to hide in order to protect myself from men. Not as a precious aspect of myself to be in communication with. Growing up within the Christian church I was taught that every signal of my body was evidence of the sinful nature of my flesh, that should be ignored and bound up at all costs. Even now, after years of working to rewire the pathways in my brain and body, I still find myself prioritizing niceness over truth telling. Saying 'no' is insanely hard for me. I say it! But man, it feels excruciating. Like my no is going to cause someone else to fall apart. I've been conditioned to prioritize others' wellness over my own sense of well being. This work of reclaiming our instinct is real, hard excavating work. I'm in it with you. . Today, may you trust the wisdom of the sensations of your body. Trust that a shrinking inward is a no. Trust that a warm expansive feeling is a yes. You can trust the yes's and no's of your body. They will lead you back to the self you were taught to leave behind. .