Honor The Beginning - A New Year's Message

*Beginnings can be delicate or explosive. They can start almost invisibly or arrive with a big bang.  Beginnings hold the promise of new lessons to be learned, new territory to be explored, and old lessons to be recalled, practiced, and appreciated.  Beginnings hold ambiguity, promise, fear, and hope

Don't let the lessons, the experiences of the past, dampen your enthusiasm for beginnings and your intentions for continual growth and renewal.  Just because it's been hard and often very painful, doesn't mean it will always be that difficult.  Don't let the challenges & heartbreaks of the past cause you to become cynical, close you off to life's inherent wisdom, magic & promise.  Open yourself wide to all that the universe has to say & offer.  Our struggles will continue to be our most valuable teachers.

Let yourself begin anew. Focus on "living with intention" as a daily practice with the bigger picture of life in mind, rather than striving toward a goal.  

Pack your bags.  Choose carefully what you bring, because packing is an important ritual. Take along some humility & the lessons of the past.  Toss in some curiosity & excitement about what you haven't yet learned. Say your goodbyes to those you're leaving behind, the ways of being within and without that you've outgrown & that no longer serve you. Try not to worry about who or what you will meet or where you will go. 

With right intention on the bigger picture of what is sacred in life, know that the path has been artfully prepared.  Trust in the universe illuminating the way. Chart your course with the understanding that where you are directed might be very different than what you might have envisioned or planned. Let a new journey begin. Let it unfold. Let it be. 

Most of all. . .continue to cultivate gratitude & focus on ways of being generous and one gesture at a time, offering small kindnesses with an open heart.

This New Year, can our intention be to simply love more? The world desperately needs it. . . 

Namaste, Shannah

* Parts of this passage come from an anonymous piece I had in my archives - the rest is mine.



Passing on the baton. . .

Dearest Nantucket Yoga Community,  

 

The law of “Dharma” is that: “Everyone has a purpose in life . . . a unique gift or special talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal.”

 

Over 16 years ago, my “dharma” was to build “The Yoga Room”, to provide an oasis for the study of yoga and the facilitation of health, healing and wellness for the Nantucket community. I am so proud and gratified by these past years of running this business and having witnessed the power of yoga to transform people’s lives. Even as my life has diverted me off-island now for many months out of the year, I have never wavered in my commitment to keeping The Yoga Room open year-round, growing and thriving with the help of many dedicated teachers and managers. 

 

But the only constant is change and “annica” or “impermanence” is an important tenant of the yoga tradition. Guided by this, I now find my dharma is shifting and I must make a change.  I am compelled to focus on what I am most passionate about and committed to which is being a teacher, continue my own studies,, working with and mentoring other teachers and spreading my wings to practice “Bhakti Yoga” in the form of music and chanting.

 

As of Labor Day, 2017, The Yoga Room will be put in the very capable hands of a wonderful new director, Carrie Seyer, who I have complete faith and trust in to uphold my vision for optimally serving the community.

Carrie has spent much time on the island in the last years while maintaining yoga teaching and managing/directing studios in Boston and who is serendipitously ready and willing to make a permanent move to the island. She is passionate about the practice of yoga, loves The Yoga Room and what I have created, and is committed to providing a diverse schedule of offerings which has always been a hallmark of the studio.   My dedicated and wonderful staff of teachers all are completely on-board to continue to teach and work with Carrie to keep the studio vibrant and alive.

 

My eternal gratitude to those wonderful teachers and managers that have helped shape the Yoga Room and shared their unique gifts throughout these last 16 years:  Ieva Aldins, Laura Anderson,  Amanda Beard, Bettina Broer, Susan Browne, Paul Bruno, Alexandra Catchpole, Sally Charpie, Sherry Copeland, Julie Dohrmann, Patricia Dolloff, Megan DuBois, Natasha Foy, Karen Gagnier, Debby Green, Frances Hickey, Carlisle Hodges, Kathy Holmes, Mary Howell, Jessica Jenkins, Kristina Kalolo, Annie Kay, Ariel Marcoux, Caitlin Marcoux, Evie O’Connor, Michael Rich, Anne Sherman, Meryl Sousa, & Clay Twombly.  You have been an inestimable part of creating community, espousing and maintaining the spirit of health & wellbeing.  

 

Carrie and I are working toward making this transition as smooth and seamless as possible.  She will be relocating in early August to spend the month before I leave to assimilate, work with the teachers and connect with the community at large.  I look forward to introducing you to her as much as she is eager to meet you. I ask for your continued support of The Yoga Room and your warm welcome of Carrie and all that she will bring to the running of the studio.

 

Rest assured, I will still be very much an integral part of The Yoga Room, returning to teach special classes and workshops in the off-season & continuing to spend my summers on Nantucket teaching & mentoring full-time. 

 

Thank you all for your deep appreciation of what I have created at The Yoga Room and for supporting my dream these past 16 years. Thank you for sharing your hearts and for being my greatest teachers. By the power of your example, you keep reminding me of what it means to be a human being.

 

My heart is full.  The next chapter begins.

 

Namaste,  Shannah

Thanksgiving/2016

For me, these days, living in gratitude means. . .

. . .caring less about what I can get and more about what I can give and the small ways I can be kind and of service to others. 

 

Living in gratitude means. . .

     . . .being a teacher, business owner, wife, mother, friend, with integrity so that what I say, what I do and

     who Iam at my core are aligned.

     . . .it is cultivating the courage to walk the walk of upholding my beliefs, values & principles

 

living in gratitude means. . .

     . . .with middle age and more than ½ of my life behind me, holding the preciousness of each moment just a

     little more and mercifully, sweating the small things that much less.

 

Living in gratitude means. . .

. . .coming to terms with my humanity, accepting both my vulnerabilities and my strengths and in turn, allowing and accepting the same in others.

To this end, I welcome and seek out any and every opportunity to know myself a little bit more intimately- I try to remain teachable, and in making mistakes,  learn from them, be accountable and say I’m sorry.

 

Living in gratitude means:

. . . having a.deep appreciation for all the ways life hasn’t turned out the way I planned, as the obstacles I encounter continue to be my biggest teachers and greatest catalysts for growth.

 I Honor my past that has delivered me to my present with new understanding & inspiration – I am grateful for all I have lost and all I have found which both remind me I can live with and live without.

 

     Living in gratitude means. . .

. . .being as mindful as possible, paying attention to the small in between places in daily life – the simple   pleasures of sharing a meal with my family, listening and being available to my daughter, taking unplugged walks with my dog, tea with friends, creating a home environment that is esthetically pleasing and comfortable – all this sitting side by side with spontaneous moments of laughter, moments of almost unbearable sadness & moments of unbelievable beauty.  

 

Living in gratitude means. . .

. . . appreciating and nurturing this body I have been given that allows me important physical navigation and powerful personal expression.

. . . cultivating a mind that chooses faith over fear, hope over despair & love over judgement & animosity

      . . . honoring a heart that can feel it all, that continues to break and mend itself over and over again.

 

Like yoga, gratitude is a daily practice

Like yoga, gratitude is a mindfulness practice

Like, yoga, gratitude is liberating practice

And like yoga, ultimately it is a transformative practice

 

I am grateful for the fullness of my life – for the heartwarming expression of life, that informs my days and illuminates my world. I wish the same for you all and for all human kind.

A Happy New Year

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Thoughts on Gratitude

In this devastatingly divisive world we live in with its many inequities, it is easy to fall prey to the mind states of negativity, cynicism, judgement and fear.  Life is hard, occasionally unfair, people suffer and things often don't go the way we plan. Steeped within this often harsh reality, we are offered a powerful and transformational alternative - living in Gratitude. Each day presents itself with a new opportunity to choose how we are going to live with ourselves and within the world.

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