Winter Hibernation?

The seasons have changed, and with them the inner world has shifted. It is deep winter here in the north: snow on the ground, aurora sometimes overhead, and we are entering the time for hibernation. The time to feed the slow burning heart fire that warms soul and body both through the long cold. 

For me, the last workshops of the year have culminated. Frontline Wellness was a true honor and a joy to teach.  The group of providers who joined me on this first journey inspire me in so many ways. They are brave, vulnerable, strong, smart and gifted. Their experience has enriched me, my teaching, and this program they helped me to pilot. 

I spent the early part of this week in Anchorage sharing yoga wellness practices with a room full of vibrant, courageous women who work as legal advocates. ANDVSA (The Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault) hosted a conference addressing topics on legal advocacy and wellness. I had the opportunity to bring the Frontline Wellness workshop tools and share them with these inspiring women.  

With this cycle of workshops finishing, and the winter fully present, I have the chance to breathe deeply into my own practice, and let that feed my weekly teaching. In FW, we talk about the idea of practice, as something we return to, as something to cultivate. Teaching is, in many ways, my true practice and I am learning to bring ever more authenticity to those moments when I speak from my mat to that of a student. Winter is a time of drawing in, turning inwards and of diving deep, and as a teacher it is a time for me to both bring back what I find there, and create the space for my students to dive down deep into their own selves. 

What is winter's hibernation for you? 

Frontline Wellness: an offering

 

This is a state that is attainable for everyone.  In every day and in every moment, it is possible to practice peace.  It is even possible to reside in peace while listening to someone else's trauma, while caring for the sick, for the dying.  It is possible in the ER.  It is possible.  Even if you experience it for only a moment.  Day by day, those moments add up, and a habit grows.

That is why I am offering "Frontline Wellness: a Yoga Workshop for Care Providers," to offer skills to help create those moments of peace that add up to a lifetime of wellness.  

Fairbanks, and the interior of Alaska, sees more than its fair share of depression, alcoholism, and trauma.  This workshop is my offering to those people in our community who work every day to heal the scars of mind, body and heart that the people of Alaska carry.

May we all send a moment of gratitude and appreciation to the healers, the care providers, the health care workers in our world.

Gratitude Practice: Thankful Thursdays

Today I am grateful for a gift of time.  For the dropped-in-my-lap chance to take my own teachings to heart.

I am grateful for a husband who will let my over-tired, under-rested, rather anxious self lecture him ad infinitum about tropes and character types in historical romance novels ... and still look me in the eye and tell me I'm amazing and he loves me.

I am grateful for the best sort of friends...  both far and near.

I'm so grateful.  so overwhelmingly, full-of-awe, grateful for the manifesting of a vision I've been holding for a long time. 

I'm grateful for dreams.



*Thankful Thursdays are my weekly gratitude practice.  They follow the gratitude meditation which ends my Thursday night Kripalu Yoga class.  A gratitude practice, positive thinking, an abundance mindset.  All of these are practices which increase vitality, invite positive transformation, and allow happiness and fulfillment to exist in the here and now rather than in the someday-when.
(Always cross-posted to BunchberryFarm)

Gratitude. Or, Thankful on a Thursday.

I am grateful. so grateful.  I just am.

I'm grateful for the man, patiently waiting for me.

I'm grateful for love.  For the many paths and ways the universe opens for me to share, support, hold, cherish, nourish, cultivate and experience love.

I'm grateful for rainy cool days.  I'm grateful for a summer of sun.

I'm grateful for the art of others.

I'm grateful for my own, sadly neglected, art.

I'm grateful for teaching.  So so grateful for teaching.  Grateful to be able to give the world what is sitting in my heart and longing to be shared.

Introducing "Frontline Wellness: a Yoga Workshop for Care Providers"

I am excited to announce the dates for the pilot series of my new workshop "Frontline Wellness: A Yoga Workshop for Care Providers"!!!

This seven week workshop will be held at HeartStream Yoga and Wellness, off of Airport Road.  It will be held on Sunday afternoons from 2-4 pm beginning September 29th to November 24th.  Due to scheduling conflicts in the studio space, there will be two "break" weeks.  I invite you to utilize these "break" weeks as a time to integrate the practices into your daily life and as a time for reflection on how these practices are serving you.  Perhaps you will choose to come to one of my regularly scheduled yoga classes on Wednesday or Thursday evening to help support you in this process.

Please see the "Frontline Wellness" tab above for more information.

~ ~ ~

Dear Provider,

You care about the people you serve.  You are passionate about helping others to live a better life.  You are committed to your work, your career, and to caring for the people of this world we share.  Imagine holding yourself with the same compassionate, unconditional regard that you offer the people you work with.

I am honored to invite you join me in the pilot series of "Frontline Wellness: A Yoga Workshop for Care Providers."  This seven week, evidence-based transformative workshop is designed specifically for front line care providers who face burn-out, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma. These are three silent killers that go mostly un-recognized in our personal lives and under-reported in our workplaces.

• Do you find yourself so drained at the end of the day that engaging with your family, cooking dinner, or spending time on a hobby seems like an impossible demand? 
• Do you feel like no matter how much you give, or how hard you work, you are still not doing enough?
• Do you find it difficult to focus, listen, and care about the daily concerns of your family and friends?  Do they seem almost trivial compared to the issues you face at work?
• Do you question whether what you're doing is worthwhile?  If it’s even making a difference?
• Are you always tired?  Do you have trouble relaxing even when you have time to?
• Have you watched colleagues suffer burnout and quit their job?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, this workshop is for you.  Yoga teaches the skills to build resiliency and to cultivate capacity.

I worked for years as a victim's advocate, and yoga allowed me to rejuvenate my mind, my body, and my emotions when I faced burnout.  Yoga kept me resilient and able to be fully present with each person I served.  My friends and family definitely noticed a difference between when I was practicing regularly and when I skipped my practice.  I designed this workshop in order to share some of the life skills that yoga taught me. 

Each workshop session is two hours long.  The first hour will be a complete Kripalu yoga class, including asana (postures), breathwork and meditation.  The yoga component is suitable for beginners; each week will build on the week before to provide you with a foundational practice you can return to in your daily life or as introduction for other yoga classes.  The second hour of the session will be focused on a single topic designed to provide you with a discrete practice or approach to cultivating resilient wellness.  Topics include meditation, conscious communication, gratitude practice and yoga nidra.  Each session will provide time for integration and skillful relaxation.

The series will be held on Sunday afternoons from 2-4 pm at HeartStream Yoga.  The first class will be on September 29^th, and the last class on November 24^th.

For more information please visit my website (jjohnsonkennedy.blogspot.com) and click on the "Frontline Wellness" tab.  Feel free to email me (jjohnsonkennedy@gmail.com) with any questions.  I hope to see you this fall.

May your inner light shine brightly,

Jai Baghwan,

Jasmine Johnson-Kennedy

RYT-200 Kripalu Yoga Teacher

Thankful Thursdays: A Gratitude Meditation

Today I am grateful for my students, for seeing learning and listening on the faces of others.

I am grateful for sister souls who share my path.

I am grateful for ripening berries.

I am grateful for steady work and constant inspiration.

I am grateful for home and for a patient husky.

I am grateful for chanting.

I am grateful for risks.

I am grateful for love.

Thank you Beloved.

*Thankful Thursdays are my weekly gratitude practice.  They follow the gratitude meditation which ends my Thursday night Kripalu Yoga class.  A gratitude practice, positive thinking, an abundance mindset.  All of these are practices which increase vitality, invite positive transformation, and allow happiness and fulfillment to exist in the here and now rather than in the someday-when.
(Always cross-posted to BunchberryFarm)

Thankful Thursdays: A Gratitude Practice

I am thankful for dreaming together.  I'm thankful for the rain.  For grand plans and little steps.

I'm thankful for the hearts innate capacity for healing, for breath and blood and bone.

I'm thankful for friendships.  For family.  For those taking great leaps into new places on bright scary paths.

I'm thankful for flowers blooming, for herbs eaten and dried and growing in pots.  I'm thankful for good greens to eat and meals to share.

I'm thankful for the lives that sustain my own.  I'm thankful for inner listening, for dancing with joy, and for crying my heart out.





*Thankful Thursdays are my weekly gratitude practice.  They follow the gratitude meditation which ends my Thursday night Kripalu Yoga class.  A gratitude practice, positive thinking, an abundance mindset.  All of these are practices which increase vitality, invite positive transformation, and allow happiness and fulfillment to exist in the here and now rather than in the someday-when.
(Always cross-posted to BunchberryFarm)