The American Heart Association dedicates February as a month to love and care for your heart health. I high five that. But, we need to love and care for our hearts from an emotional and spiritual aspect too.
That's why I designed my signature First Love Yourself workshops. These therapeutic workshops are my favorites. I have led them in-person from Utah to Virginia as well as for people around the world, on-demand.
Appropriate for people of all ages, each session includes restorative heart-opening poses, poetry reading, guided meditation, and introspective exercises. I treat all participants at my live events to a cacao ceremony, and often infuse the space with music tuned for the heart chakra.
Far more important than a valentine's card, roses or candlelight dinner is to First Love Yourself.
To me, FLY means freedom. Tenzin Rinpoche, a Tibetan Bon lama, in a talk about Dream Yoga, said freedom leads to happiness and you must feel free inside to feel contentment.
When I picture the word FLY I imagine a bird soaring, close to the heavens. Of course I also equate those three letters with getting on a plane and taking off. Traveling anywhere in the world at high speeds is an example of ultimate freedom in my mind. I consider travel, priceless.
When you get in the air and head to your intended destination, what happens with all your belongings? You pack one or two bags and leave the rest behind. At airport check-in, you say goodbye to your bags for the duration of the flight.
In other words, you LET GO OF YOUR BAGGAGE. Rid yourself of whatever is pulling you back, dragging you around, or weighing you down. Release what is not necessary, or healthy, so that you can FLY.
Many pieces of baggage are heavy, and hard to let go. Maybe we can drop them on the conveyor belt or store them in the overhead compartment. But as soon as the flight is over, we get nervous if they aren't right in front of us.
What kind of baggage is so hard to release? Low self-esteem, self-worth or self-respect. Nagging self-doubt, self-consciousness, or self-critiquing. Even worse is self-loathing. Regardless, we need to let go of all of that, and stop judging ourselves, or others. Plus, we need to ignore, or disregard what others may say or think about us. All these are requirements to FLY.
During the month of February, when your purchase a FLY workshop, 50 percent of the collections will go to one of my favorite charities: HIAS, or SPLC. These are two non-profits I support year in and year out. They work to combat racism, prejudice, and injustices against people regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or country of origin. Book now, or contact me for a private or small group session.