I’ve always felt like an odd bird. We moved when I was 10, and I remember starting a new school in an area where everyone seemed to know everyone else…the stress of it all caused blisters to erupt on my face in the fifth grade. Looking back, that was my first glimpse of the body-mind connection. Imagine being 10, the new girl, with multiple visible sores around your mouth and chin that nobody could explain. YIKES.

In high school, I said decidedly “weird” things to my lunch table. I asked “too many” questions. So, I continued my deep dive into the dance world, a place that welcomed my weird and allowed me to channel it into works of art. In college, I would’ve much rather read books, held gatherings under the full moon, danced, and had deep conversations than “go out” and party.

I’ve never had an issue making friends or socializing. It’s just - in truth - I’ve hidden the depths of my weird. In fact, I always say to Eugene, “…if they only knew the depths of my weirdness…” But, that very thing - my longing to connect over the great questions of the Universe, the mind-body-soul continuum, birth and life transition portals, dancing and travel, stepping outside of the “normal” way of living, questioning everything about how we do life-work balance, questioning everything about the way we lead and heal…it’s what makes me me.

And, I suspect it’s why you’re here. Why you read these letters or take the classes I teach. Why you’re intrigued in my work whether or not you’ve ever made a purchase from me. There’s a weirdness, a questioning, a longing for something different that’s alive within you, too.

***

In the last few months, I’ve joined two containers (i.e. programs) that have been life-giving. Both have been significant investments in time, energy, and capital. One is a somatic childbirth education series with a small group of women based in Rhode Island. The other is an accelerator program with a group of 10 women around the globe committed to doing business differently. In both, we are able to speak freely about our deepest desires and fears. We are encouraged and gently pushed to step fully into worthiness, vulnerability, and beginning to recognize that there is value in our stories and our skills. We are learning to embrace our weird…and that perhaps it’s actually not weird, at all, but rather a label society has given us to keep us tame.

I don’t want to be tame. I’d much prefer wild and weird.

When you start and deepen a yoga practice, you go into spaces of yourself that you might’ve locked down a long time ago. That’s where many stop. That’s where the yoga becomes “too hard.” That’s where we seek yoga that’s “just for the body.” Impossible. That wouldn’t be yoga. When we couple this with Ayurveda, its sister science, we are re-invited to connect with the natural world and the innermost, sometimes primal parts of ourselves. Yoga + Ayurveda were meant to be practiced together. This becomes even more powerful when we connect with a Sangha, a spiritual circle and community who “gets” it. Right?

What communities, programs, containers, and circles allow you to show up as all of you?
Who are those individuals in your life who do not shy away from your weird, but embrace it?
Are you allowing yourself to express freely or do you feel yourself holding back in some environments or with certain people?
Who is supporting you in your healing journey, recognizing that we’re all healing all the time?
And, do you even want to explore and expand into the beautiful, perhaps odd bird that you are?

Sometimes these people and communities just show up, but I’ve learned we have to ask for them, seek them out, invest our time/energy/dollars, and open ourselves to receive their wisdom. This means that we might need to disrupt how we have been living (likely too fast) to fully embrace the “weird” little inner child that is longing to come out and change the way we take care of ourselves. This is living with intentionality.

And, this is where I’ll be taking you soon within a brand-new mentorship program that will shake up and wake up everything you thought you knew about yoga and Ayurveda.

***

Photo by Werner van Greuning on Unsplash

I’m not so sure we need more yoga teachers getting more “training” and receiving more knowledge right now. What we need is more embodied practitioners, more individuals willing to take this work in its truest, rarest, and life-giving forms into their homes and workplaces and LIVING it everyday (not just on a yoga mat). We need to understand not just poses and philosophy, but how to live it and embrace our longings/weirdness wholly.

While I’m not ready to share the details yet, this mentorship will look like community and connection. It looks like vulnerability and courage. It looks like intensive self-study and investment over many weeks. It looks like you finally breaking free and fully aligning yourself with your longings, loving your weird, and allowing your deepest, darkest questions to receive answers from the body. It looks like an infusion of yoga therapy frameworks and Ayurveda awareness that will lead to life-changing moments and reflections.

And, now I KNOW that’s what’s been on my heart for a few years is exactly what’s needed. Because, I’m receiving that from the communities I’m a part of now. The proof is in the pudding. I look forward to further conversations about this experience.

I’d love to hear from you on this one and all the ways you feel/have felt weird. Do you feel like the odd bird? The weird one? Have you ever? Looking forward to hearing from you and sharing more.

With love,
Leanne

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