Let’s think together.
As the first session of The Matriarchy draws to an end this week, I’ve been reflecting on the quiet magic that has happened in those classes over the last three months. I’ve learned a whole lot from my clients in our work together. Over the next few posts, I’ll be sharing my three biggest takeaways.
Takeaway #1: Grown-ups need space and permission to play.
If the messages of dominant culture are to be believed, "relaxation" means paying a lot of money to be in an exclusive, exclusionary space, usually lying in the sun with a drink in hand. It's a temporary escape. And those same messages say that "strength" means toughness, invulnerability, bulging muscles, hardness. And eschewing any relaxation outside of the prescribed resort vacations. Well, I call bullshit on all that.
External validation tends to be pretty sparse in the early days of a business. Most of the decision to keep going, the belief that there is something there worth building, has to come from within. That’s why this review of the first round of The Matriarchy, my small-group classes, means so much to me.
Self-study— svadhyaya— is one of the tenets of yoga that sticks with me the most every day. In that spirit, I did a little interview with myself to help me clarify my intentions for The Parents’ Place, and keep those intentions at the forefront of everything I do. It's kind of a fun little interview, so I thought I’d share it with you, too!
In this learning story, new is not new; new is clearing off some accumulated grime, making some repairs to the old foundation, and building up from there. And what’s great is that’s how our bodies work, too. We may have changes we want to make— to get stronger, to increase our physical and emotional stability, to be more able to relax. The ad line of “a whole new you!” can be pretty appealing, but it’s as flimsy as a house of straw.
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