Things to Inspire You
This beautiful poem which I have been reading at the end of my events and some classes has touched so many people. I often get asked for a copy so here it is for all to enjoy.
Breathe by Becky Hemsley
She sat at the back and they said she was shy,
She led from the front and they hated her pride,
They asked her advice and then questioned her guidance,
They branded her loud, then were shocked by her silence,
When she shared no ambition they said it was sad,
So she told them her dreams and they said she was mad,
They told her they’d listen, then covered their ears,
And gave her a hug while they laughed at her fears,
And she listened to all of it thinking she should,
Be the girl they told her to be best as she could,
But one day she asked what was best for herself,
Instead of trying to please everyone else,
So she walked to the forest and stood with the trees,
She heard the wind whisper and dance with the leaves,
She spoke to the willow, the elm and the pine,
And she told them what she’d been told time after time,
She told them she felt she was never enough,
She was either too little or far far too much,
Too loud or too quiet, too fierce or too weak,
Too wise or too foolish, too bold or too meek,
Then she found a small clearing surrounded by firs
,And she stopped…and she heard what the trees said to her,
And she sat there for hours not wanting to leave,
For the forest said nothing, it just let her breathe`
~ Becky Hemsley ~
Moon Milk Recipe
Moon Milk is always a popular option at the end of my retreat evenings. Mugs full of warm oat milk laced with deeply nourishing herbs and spices send my yogi students off for the best nights sleep.
It contains turmeric a lovely inflammation soother, cardamom believed to lower blood pressure and aid breathing and cinnamon which is a super spice with anti bacterial, gut health boosting and cancer fighting properties. Nutmeg is a natural sleep aid and ashwagandha, an adaptogenic root herb, is a friend to the nervous system and particularly great at easing you to sleep. Ginger helps speed up your digestion so all the goodness gets into your system quicker and the whole mix helps sooth a racing, restless mind. So much goodness in one little drink.
I’ve been asked a lot for my recipe so here it is. Based on a lovely recipe from @bonappetitmag - enjoy!
Tip: make a batch as it keeps well in a sealed jar for you to scoop a heaped spoonful out each evening.
Serves 2:
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground ashwagandha root powder
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp black pepper
Milk of your choice
Honey to taste
- Warm the milk
- Stir / whisk in the mix (ideally cook the milk and mix in a pan for 10 minutes on a low heat)
- Add honey just before serving
I have this stuck into the front of my journal, in fact each journal I start has this taken from the last one and reglued inside my nice new shiny journal. I have long forgotten which magazine I cut it from and sadly I cannot trace the author, but this passage is one that sets my heart alight and often if I am not careful leaves me with a lump in my throat when I read it out loud on my retreats.
Yes, you were made for more. But maybe it's not about more tasks. More work. More responsibility. More consumption. Ever think that, instead, you were made for more laughter? More spontaneous fun. More sunshine on your face. More ice cream. More feeling at home in your body. More swims in the ocean, free, limbs exposed to the open air. More love. More long, lingering dinners with conversations that take on inspiring thought provoking tangents. More deep talks. More depth in general. More days lost in a book or a life. More smiling. More joy. More warm evenings that are punctuated with contentment. More sighs of relief. More pasta. More bread. more food that you love without any guilt. More hugs. More of that feeling you get when you are hooked on a new book and feel ravenouse to finish it. More of life. More of you being exactly you. More enjoying. So much more of the enjoying!
Recently we have been looking at Santosha the Niyama that asks us to find contentment and gratitude in ourselves, to stop looking outside ourselves or looking to distance goals to bring us happiness. The following two poems have struck a chord in class so I share them with you here x
Trading Places by Becky Hemsley
If one day we swapped places
I was you and you were me
I wonder what it is that both of us
Would actually see
I wonder if you’d notice
How your smile lights up your face
How when you walk into a room
You brighten up the place
I wonder if you’d see the way
You always make the time
For those who seek you out because
You’re patient and you’re kind
And maybe I would notice
How I always stand my ground
And how I lift up those I love
When they are lost or down
Perhaps I’d notice how
I’m quite content all by myself
And how I’m always there for others
When they ask for help
And if you felt your patience
And if you could see your smile
If I could help myself
And feel my kindness for a while
Then maybe we would understand
We cannot be defined
By all that we fixate on
In our mirrors and our minds
Yes, if we both swapped places
And had someone else to be
Perhaps we’d come to realise
There’s so much we cannot see
And maybe in the moments
You were me and I was you
We would see why people love us
And we’d learn to love us too
Your Home / You're Home by Erin Hanson
If there’s one thing that I may tell you,
Let it be: You are your home,
Your body is the only house
That you will truly ever own.
Maybe it’s got some broken windows
And there are tear-stains on the floors,
Maybe you lock the things you wish weren’t
Behind its many doors.
But there is wisdom on its bookshelves
And a laugh to light the rooms,
There’s a vase upon its table
Where the love you’ve grown all blooms.
Dreams sit on the mantelpiece
Next to kindness and your trust,
Where you use them all so often
They have no time to collect dust.
So please don’t look at mansions
With that envy in your eyes,
There’s more that makes a home
Than its appearance or its size.
Your body is your shelter
So you deserve to love it all,
Don’t let the world stand round outside
And tell you how to paint your walls.
How lucky that you have somewhere
To protect you from the night.
And if there cracks left from the past?
Well then they just let in more light.
While exploring poems to support my class theme in June of getting out of our heads into our bodies I came across these poems. Enjoy x
my brain and heart divorced
a decade ago
over who was to blame about how big of a mess I have become
eventually, they couldn’t be in the same room with each other
now my head and heart share custody of me
I stay with my brain during the week
and my heart gets me on weekends
they never speak to one another
– instead, they give me the same note to pass to each other every week
and their notes they send to one another always says the same thing:
“This is all your fault”
on Sundays my heart complains about how my head has let me down in the past
and on Wednesday my head lists all of the times my heart has screwed things up for me in the future
they blame each other for the state of my life
there’s been a lot of yelling – and crying
so,
lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my gut
who serves as my unofficial therapist
most nights, I sneak out of the window in my ribcage
and slide down my spine and collapse on my gut’s plush leather chair that’s always open for me
~ and I just sit sit sit sit until the sun comes up
last evening, my gut asked me if I was having a hard time being caught between my heart and my head
I nodded
I said I didn’t know if I could live with either of them anymore
“my heart is always sad about something that happened yesterday while my head is always worried about something that may happen tomorrow,” I lamented
my gut squeezed my hand
“I just can’t live with my mistakes of the past or my anxiety about the future,” I sighed
my gut smiled and said:
“in that case, you should go stay with your lungs for a while,”
I was confused – the look on my face gave it away
“if you are exhausted about your heart’s obsession with the fixed past and your mind’s focus on the uncertain future
your lungs are the perfect place for you
there is no yesterday in your lungs there is no tomorrow there either
there is only now there is only inhale there is only exhale there is only this moment
there is only breath
and in that breath you can rest while your heart and head work their relationship out.”
this morning, while my brain was busy reading tea leaves
and while my heart was staring at old photographs
I packed a little bag and walked to the door of my lungs
before I could even knock she opened the door with a smile and as a gust of air embraced me she said
“what took you so long?”
~ John Roedel
Get Out of Your Head
Caught in a whirlwind, mind spinning round and round,
Overthinking every moment, till silence is the only sound.
Ruminating on the past, in memories we're bound,
Worrying about the future, in thoughts we are drowned.
Get out of your head, let your spirit fly,
Don't let the beauty of life simply pass you by.
Opportunities knocking, don't let them die,
Overthinking, my friend, is the joy's goodbye.
Pondering and planning, lost in your mind,
The perfect words elusive, the right actions hard to find.
While you're trapped in thought, you're leaving life behind,
Overthinking, overanalyzing, shackles that bind.
Take off the chains, let your heart be free,
Dance to life's rhythm, be all that you can be.
Don't overthink the steps, just move with the melody,
In the dance of existence, find your harmony.
We're dying from overthinking, thinking, thinking,
The human mind's a trap, it's slowly sinking.
To think too much is a disease, it's a ticking time bomb,
While you're busy overthinking, life's moving on.
The sharpest minds can ruin their lives, lost in the next step,
While the simple souls win the race, with not a single misstep.
If we could just think, not overdo the prep,
We'd be smarter doers, living life with pep.
Don't dwell in thought, embrace the feeling,
Life is for living, loving, healing.
Overthinking is a thief, it's joy it's stealing,
Get out of your head, start seeing, start being.
I've learned my lesson, overthinking isn't right,
Creates phantoms of fear, shadows in the night.
We thank you, life, for this precious insight,
No more overthinking, just living in the light.
©️ Grade A Cue
I want to age like sea glass - Bernadette Noll
I want to age like sea glass. Smoothed by tides, not broken. I want the currents of life to toss me around, shake me up and leave me feeling washed clean. I want my hard edges to soften as the years pass—made not weak but supple. I want to ride the waves, go with the flow, feel the impact of the surging tides rolling in and out.
When I am thrown against the shore and caught between the rocks and a hard place, I want to rest there until I can find the strength to do what is next. Not stuck—just waiting, pondering, feeling what it feels like to pause. And when I am ready, I will catch a wave and let it carry me along to the next place that I am supposed to be.
I want to be picked up on occasion by an unsuspected soul and carried along—just for the connection, just for the sake of appreciation and wonder. And with each encounter, new possibilities of collaboration are presented, and new ideas are born.
I want to age like sea glass so that when people see the old woman I’ll become, they’ll embrace all that I am. They’ll marvel at my exquisite nature, hold me gently in their hands and be awed by my well-earned patina. Neither flashy nor dull, just a perfect luster. And they’ll wonder, if just for a second, what it is exactly I am made of and how I got to this very here and now. And we’ll both feel lucky to be in that perfectly right place at that profoundly right time.
I want to age like sea glass. I want to enjoy the journey and let my preciousness be, not in spite of the impacts of life, but because of them.
Butterfly by Christine Evangelou
Sometimes we bend ourselves so out of shape
That we look in the mirror and we aren’t clear on who we see before us
We place ourselves in a cocoon
And close ourselves off from our authenticity
Because there is a shallow comfort in safety
But it all starts to feel too tight and restricting
Your soul awakens, and all you want to do is fly
Then something just clicks
We spend so much time dressing ourselves in other people and their preferences
That we forget that we have our own unique taste of clothing
Our own sense of self
A fearless and undeniable sense of self that embodies every amazing thing
The yin/yang and our whole being in its entirety
Why have we hidden all our innate beauty?
To feel safe, loved, accepted
Or to stay under the radar
Afraid and anxious of what people may see when the mask falls off
But you only need to accept and love yourself
There is beauty both inside and outside of the cocoon that pushed you to grow
Through darkness and dysfunction, depth and despair
A vivid light splits through and steals you away
When you get comfortable with your own messy and beautiful self
Nothing and no-one can block you
You finally see your truth
You fall in line with the beat of your own vibration
You come out of your cocoon
A gorgeous butterfly
