*Photo credit: William Jenkins, Atamasco Lily
The next Osteoporosis and Yoga Workshop is Saturday, May 4th, 2024. Learn what postures to avoid and how you can modify postures to gain the same benefits and target, while being safe for your bones.
Heart of Wonder has a NEW fall date! Our third semi-annual art and yoga retreat will now be taking place on Saturday, November 9th. Enjoy the enchanting autumn backdrop of the NC Botanical Garden and embrace a sense of wonder towards life’s changing seasons. Art and Yoga Retreat: Heart of Wonder at the NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill in collaboration with Beverly Dyer. Join us for a day (8:30am-3:30pm) of creativity as we embody the meaning of WONDER in mind, body, and heart.
Studies have shown that engaging in a sense of wonder is supportive to our well-being, our mental health, and our connection with the world around us. Experiences of awe and wonder reduce activation of our sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight/freeze response), increase vagal nerve tone, and reduce inflammation and physical stress in our bodies. Mindfulness teacher Sharon Salzburg describes awe as “the absence of self-preoccupation”, ; thus we can open up to the world around us without so much self-criticism and comparison.
Our sense of awe can be experienced through all of our senses. Through what we see (a solar eclipse, or a beautiful sunset), what we hear (the sounds of the cicadas that I humbly look forward to this summer), smell (delicious freshly baked bread), sense of touch (the sand in our toes), taste (a spoonful of local wildflower honey). Spend time with a child and you will not be far from this sense of wonder and awe! We can cultivate this sense of wonder in our lives when we open up to the world around us. These kinds of experiences can be largely extraordinary or awe-fully simple. Psychologist and author Dacher Keltner describes awe as “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world.”
I invite you after reading these next words to take a moment to pause. Take one or both of your hands out in front of you and simply look at your hands, gazing upon them with an inquisitive eye and a loving heart. Notice the shape that your hand holds, the different grooves and lines in your hands (those you were born with and those that have formed after years of literally holding your hands. Consider all of the amazing things your hand does for you on any ordinary day, all of the things your hands can do and grasp and hold. How wonder-ful! Our sense of wonder is right there for us to grasp and notice. It simply takes us turning to it in the moment and opening up to the world around us.
What does Wonder mean to you? What does it feel like, sound like, look like? What strikes a feeling of awe in your body, mind, heart?
It is our hope with our next retreat that we get to spend the day together contemplating these questions and practicing opening our hearts and minds to what is present. We look forward to a creative day of playfulness, exploration, and connecting with one another.
We invite you to explore the Heart of Wonder this June, and deepen the practice of connecting to your own true nature in community in the beautiful Botanical Garden. Registration is through NC Botanical Garden! We hope you can join us.
Reach out to us with your questions 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.
