Written by Ainslee Cunningham
Therapeutic Yin Yoga for Any-Body Lunchtime Learning continues this week with a deep dive into Shoelace and Dragonfly. Feel free to sign up for just this week or any of the other remaining sessions. Learn more on our website.
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We invite you to join us June 19- June 23rd for Service Week to support the LGBTQ Center of Durham. Participating by attending a group yoga class during the week. Feel free to use the sliding scale to increase your impact. This is one way for our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) statement to be more than words. We strive for everyone to feel respected and supported, to be treated equally, and to be celebrated for who they are. Learn more about the for LGBTQ Center of Durham at https://www.lgbtqcenterofdurham.org/
Celebrate the Summer Solstice with the Dogwood Team June 21st for Mindful Movement and Yoga at 10 am In Person at the Parlour or Online!
I invite you to think back to the beginning of the year. Perhaps you attended our “Love and Light” event in January, and set intentions for cultivating light in your life or identifying where in your life and body you held light to guide your way. How has this light, along with the light of the Sun, grown in your life? How does your inner light shine outward into your space, your routine, your community? How do you let the light in: are your body and heart open to the nourishment of the season?
Join the Dogwood Team on Wednesday June 21 as we hold space for these inquiries in a special Mindful Movement class to mark the Summer Solstice.
We will gather in community to celebrate this day of the longest light in the Northern Hemisphere. Throughout human history and across cultures and societies, this day has been honored and celebrated globally. This day is a reminder that we are all connected by the rhythms of the Earth, of the Sun, and of the seasons. Even those who live in the Southern Hemisphere experience the opposite but equal phenomenon: the longest day of dark. Thus, we are living on a planet that is inherently balanced, always oscillating between opposite but equal forces.
On June 21st in the Northern Hemisphere, the Earth’s axis is at its greatest tilt towards the Sun. We are, quite literally, leaning-in to the Sun, leaning towards the light, as a planet. And much as the Earth leans into the light, us Earthlings can lean into the light: leaning into community, into joy, into the life that is bursting in celebration around us. The word solstice breaks down into “sol” meaning “Sun” and “sistere” meaning “to stand still.” Thus, as we lean into the light of the season, we can also find stillness and silence as we reflect on the seasons of the year so far.
Wherever, and however, you are as we approach this day of reflection is wholly perfect, acceptable, and worthy. The true gift of the season is to see things as they are and greet what is shown (shone :D) with acceptance, with reverence, with the wisdom that all is impermanent. It is challenging to ignore even the most evasive of details when the light shines so directly. Furthermore, the closer we get to the Sun and the light, the longer our shadows (don’t forget that it is the day of longest night in the Southern Hemisphere). Can we take this moment to be still with what arises, to be still with the Sun as we orbit into this moment of transition?
The solstice marks a precipice, a turning point for the balance between dark and light. Join us as we honor this transition in community and in practice, as we reflect on our own inner light and how we have grown as a person.
All of our group yoga and meditation classes are a few clicks away. Sign up using the calendar on our class sign up page.
If you have questions, reach out to us at info@dogwoodstudioyoga.com. We are here to help.
Ainslee Cunningham is a 200 hour registered yoga teacher (RYT) who is deeply inspired and influenced by nature. Ainslee aspires to support people with the mind-body connection of yoga, especially those affected by addiction and trauma. She is committed to exploring how we embody the elements of the natural world and how we can deepen our connection to the Earth’s natural rhythms.
SAM Sather, founder of Dogwood Studios, is a certified yoga therapist (C-IAYT) and an Insight Yoga Institute (IYI) endorsed teacher. She individualizes the yoga practice with appropriate modifications for participants’ unique bodies and medical histories with a focus on finding calm and improving health. She offers several live, online and in person yoga classes as well as private sessions so you can focus on your needs one-on-one.