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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


Fixation on changing your body is a clever way of avoiding the pain of how you’ve been made to feel about your body. Because it is likely painful to have your particular body. Your body was too chubby for someone, or too tall for someone, or too skinny for someone, or too alluring for someone. For someone else to tell you that your bodies is not good enough (either directly or indirectly), that is a curse that sinks into your bones. When we fixate on changing our bodies we are fixated on relieving the anxiety of our bodies being potentially unacceptable to other people. We misdirect the pain of having our body assaulted by someone else’s expectations, towards ourselves. No body is wrong. Bodies are different. In order to get to body love, we have to feel the pain of being othered. This will suck. There is no getting around it. But you were designed to not only feel pain and love, but to become whole inside of it (this last line is totally stolen from @glennondoyle via Love Warrior…which you should all run out and buy immediately). When discomfort and disgust towards your body emerge, try not to see this as continued evidence of your body being wrong, but as an opportunity to watch the old story rise up to the surface and to witness it with compassion until it feels the satisfaction of being paid attention to. Whenever we feel pain or disgust or hatred towards our bodies, these are not direct reflections of the reality of our bodies, but are stories of wounding that are asking to be told. 💃🏻❤️⚡️✨🙌🏽#goodbodyyoga #longlivethebelly #yourbodyisahaven #havenyogaseattle #glennondoylepleasebemybff #yoga #healthateverysize #haes #yogabodyimage #yogabodylove #bodyimagemovement #bodyimagecoach #bodyimage #bodyimageawareness
This magic body is all yours. You are the owner of this skin, and all the goodness inside. . You can learn to speak the language of your body by learning to listening to its ‘yes’ and its ‘no’. Your body is saying ‘yes’ when you feel open, safe, and warm - like your heart wants to burst out of your chest, or you feel your body magnetized towards someone or something. Your body is saying ‘no’ when you feel closed, withdrawn, and guarded - like there is a protective shield around your heart. . Listening to your ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ is how you begin to belong to yourself. No one else can tell you who or how to be, only you know what is right for you. . Your body is for running and jumping and feeling the sun on your skin and tasting strawberries and watching fire dance and tickles and cuddles and breathing in deep slow breaths. Your body is how you get to enjoy the world around you. It isn’t for anyone else’s enjoyment. You get to decide when this body of yours makes contact with any one or any thing. Hugs, kisses, and cuddles are yours to give when you WANT to give them. Touch is the physical manifestation of love, and you get to decide when you give your love and when to keep it for yourself. . All the parts of your body make you, YOU. There will be some parts of your body that you love, some that you don’t mind, and some that you hate. But kiddo, you are perfect in your imperfection. It is your humanness, your messiness, that makes you relatable and lovable. When you notice a part of your body that feels like it isn’t quite right, you might feel shame. Shame feels like you want to disappear, or throw up, or squirm right out of your skin. Or all three at once! Shame is like a bodyguard that tries to protect us from losing connection with the people we love. We learn to feel shame when other people teach us to feel ashamed. There will be people who will tell you or show you that your body is wrong. It’s ok to let these experiences hurt. The hurt doesn’t mean they are right. The hurt means they want you to hurt as much as they do. These people don’t know about the magic of bodies yet. Your body, when it is fully alive, is pure magic.
Soon after I arrived in NYC I fell into the opportunity to lead a yoga class for #Freetoo: a healing space for POC who are survivors of sexual assault led by the brilliant Naimah Johnson. As an empath and a therapist -- I am accustomed to intuiting and containing emotional experience. I made the assumption that I would be able to contain the felt experience of the room. I was wrong. What I felt in my body, as I felt the individuals surrounding me, was unlike any pain I've come in contact with before. It was a piercing, soul splitting pain that dripped with the rage and despair of violation. I had to drop my ego of being able to hold the room on my own, and @naidaspy called us to hold it all together. Together we felt the bigness of all there was to feel. We united our breath and our presence, and cultivated a power that was bigger than the pain. When @naidaspy and I asked the students to breathe for the pain that was in the room, and I felt the uprising of powerful loving presence that can only be cultivated by exquisitely strong humans. I left that evening in awe and forever changed. . To the POC who are reading this, I want to say: I'm sorry. I didn't know what you were holding in your body. Intellectually, I knew, but now my body knows an echo of that pain and it is a cavern of violence. Thank you for the internal strength you've cultivated that has gone unacknowledged and for the ways you've learned to stay kind and angry in your fight for justice. I am here to learn from you. . To the white people who are reading this: We must reckon with the fact that our history affects our present day. The laws and invisible structures of this nation are founded on racism, and we have to do as much as possible on a grassroots level in order to influence change on a national level. Today I ask that the grassroots action you take is to offer financial support to #Freetoo. @naidaspy needs additional financial resources in order to do the life changing work she brings to the world. Will you donate with me to keep this healing work in motion both in NYC and nationally? We cannot do healing work alone. The only way through, is together. Link to donate is in my bio.
There are a never ending supply of odd, beautiful things on this island.