The Shakti Shine - July 1st, 2019
Shakti Love Notes
We are always growing. I love that! And the more I grow, the more I recognize how important it is for us all to share what we're going through-- even (and especially) me.
So these Love Notes are a space for me to share with you each week-- about the studio, my life, how our community is growing.
I want Shakti to be a place of freedom.
When I was 9 my sister, mom, & I wrote a family mission statement. It's an acrostic, which was smart of my mom since I was nine & Molly was four, and it spells FAMILY and expresses what family means to us.
The first line says 'Freedom to be honest.'
I think the first time I felt what freedom feels like was when I was 15, and I broke up with my older, high school boyfriend who was going to college in the fall. Looking back I can see all the ways he was manipulative, monopolized my time & used affection as a way to try to keep me small.
Coming out of that felt like taking a breath of fresh air.
I hadn't even realized the air quality had been so harmful.
Another moment of felt freedom came when I was 21. I finally had a community where I started to really get to be me. The moment was during my yoga teacher training. At the end of an exceptionally sweaty practice the teacher led us through a visualization meditation -- there was a forest & a golden waterfall & the details are blurry because they don't really matter. But the experience...
I felt a chunk of wound-up grief from the loss of my Dad four years prior in my right shoulder melt away, and it felt like healing.
Fast-forward six years, and here I am writing this newsletter. And I keep coming back to our family mission statement. "F - Freedom to be honest." Freedom.
At 27 I think a lot about freedom.
What I've noticed about the experience of freedom in my life is that often I didn't know I wasn't free until I was finally free. Or in the moments when I realized I wasn't free, I was one choice away from being free.
So I wonder about what it would be like to never be free and never know freedom is possible, and I wonder what it must be like to know you are unfree and also not have the power to become free. Or I can't even imagine being told that I am free but not being allowed the choices of freedom.
I take a lot of personal responsibility for my freedom-- not that I caused it to happen, but for what I choose to do with it.
I am so grateful to have the privilege, experiences, and opportunity to own a business, to have the power of choice, to claim 'freedom to be honest' as a way I live my life because I feel safe to do so.
Some would say, though, that none of us are free until all of us are free.
If I'm being honest, sometimes I don't know what to do to work towards that, but I am doing my best and I always figure out something to do to stay in the work.
And for me, that work is also my job.
It's my job to be in the work about freedom.
I believe in Shakti as a space for Freedom--
Freedom to be honest.
Freedom to belong.
Freedom to move.
Freedom to be safe.
Freedom to connect.
Freedom to feel and grow and learn and see.
Freedom to wake up, fuck up, & move forward.
It's not enough for me to be free.
Here's to us all being free.
xx
Ruby
A Note from Kate Moore, owner of GetFit615
Kate is my friend, partner in the Duality Project, & soul sister.
I love Kate & how she uses her freedom to be honest to really be in the work. She wrote this for her gym's monthly newsletter today. It resonates with what I am passionate about, and I couldn't have written this as well as she did, so I'm sharing what she wrote here. Check out her newsletter, too.
xx Ruby
please read kate's newsletter on FREEDOM
Inquiry Corner w/ Emily: The Chakras
Hi everyone, Emily here! If you’re new to inquiry, this looks like moving through questions, prompts, activities, and conversations that help you learn more about yourself. I’m excited you’re here!
For the next eight weeks, we will focus on the chakra system, or the subtle/energetic bodies. This is an overview: The chakras are seven energy centers that sit along the spine of your physical body. The chakras start at your tailbone and move to the tip of your head: Root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, and crown. Each chakra has a specific location, energy, theme, action, color, texture, sound, and *quality*.
~ The Solar Plexus Chakra ~
(Manipura)
The solar plexus chakra, manipura, is the seat of personal power.
It's located in your belly, right behind your navel. It symbolizes fire, tapas, gut instinct, willpower, and tenacity. It's located amongst your organs, which break down and digest food in order to power the rest of your body. It's the seat of how we nourish ourselves.
The manipura chakra is the place where stuff gets *churned*.
In your organs, nourishment is taken in and converted into energy for the rest of your body to use. In that way, energetically, this chakra is the house of
intake --> integration --> export.
Inquiry:
+ How do you take time to integrate?
In other words, do you allow yourself time to process your day?
If not, what are some tools you can invite into daily practice?
+ Are you striving for a balance of energy in/energy out, or do you find yourself consistently drained?
How can you fill up the tank; how can you energetically make deposits?
Where in your life is there too much energetic withdrawal?
(If you'd like more information on the chakras, check out Shakti's IGTV.)
Finding Freedom
From Rachel Ricketts's monthly newsletter
more from Rachel here
Finding Freedom...
What does it mean to be free? Free from what? And whom?
Much like our health, freedom is a privilege that many who have the honour of holding it take for granted. So I want us to get acquainted + intentional with our sense of freedom (or lack thereof).
Exploration Q's...
#1 - When you bring the word "freedom" into your mind's eye, what words, thoughts and images do you associate with it? Why?
#2 - What freedoms do you enjoy (ex: time, financial, able-bodied, live in safe neighbourhood, job security etc.)? What freedoms do you lack? Are any of your freedoms inhibited solely because of your race and/or gender? Are any granted because of your race and/or gender?
#3 - How can you find more freedom for yourself this summer (ex: prioritizing your needs, exerting boundaries, meditation to quell self-criticism, morning routine)? What 3 things can you try this week?
#4 - How can you aid in creating more freedom for others, particularly BIWOC (ex: pay reparations, volunteer for BIWOC organizations, petition, vote and rally against pro-life laws and legislators)?
- What 3 things can you commit to doing to support BIWOC this month?