Science tells us that a useful way to slow down, de-stress, and self-regulate is through extending the exhale. This month I’m offering a way to check in with your own tools of self-awareness, including self-regulation, through a four part Intro to Breathing & Meditation Course.

We will meet on Zoom on four Thursdays, Sep. 9, 16, 23 & 30th from 6:00 – 7:15 PM Pacific/8:00 – 9:15 PM Central to explore a range of breathing and meditation practices.

The Intro to Breathing & Meditation Course is open to new and experienced practitioners, and we will cover a range of topics, including:
-finding your seat (or not seat)
-grounding meditation
-release valve breath
-sensing your body as a whole meditation
-balancing heart mind meditation
– 4 levels of mind: understanding your mind/thoughts and why you are not them
-gentle yoga for mindfulness practice

REGISTRATION: Please contact me if you’d like to register. The cost is $150, payable via Venmo or Zelle. As always, if you want to practice and are requesting a sliding scale please let me know. Zoom info will be provided to all attendees upon registration. If you register for the Course and are unable to make a session please email me and I’ll send you the recording.

If you are new to the sangha please also fill out this form.

Venmo @justinefanarof
Zelle justinekerri@gmail.com

All the things, here and now.

feeling breath

feeling love

feeling equilibruim

practices to nourish the heart, this month y siempre

The American Psychoanalytic Society’s COVID-19 Advisory Group has issued an important statement on Pandemic Trauma and Stress Experience, PTSE. Read the statement to learn more and gain a deeper understanding of the individual and collective trauma and stress experience of our time.

Two palms together dear ones.

Like many of you, today I’ve been taking the time to sit with Dr. King’s teachings, including the I’ve Been to the Mountaintop address, which was given a day before he was murdered in Memphis, TN in April 1968.

Dr. King was in Memphis supporting the efforts of the sanitation workers who were striking in response to the workplace death of two of their colleagues, with demands for fair pay and humane working conditions. If you’ve seen the I AM A MAN poster, you may know it was used by those marching.

As we sit deeply in this moment of reckoning, I continue to struggle with the system of whiteness that was created to enslave, imprison, murder, and subjugate millions of people of color. I vow to keep listening, acting, and participating. I vow to stay aware, awake, and connected to community, even as we struggle with isolation during the pandemic.

This is the practice of yoga on the mat and into the world.

I am ecstatic this week our world will see a man of faith and principles and a woman of color and clarity, both compassionate, wise, and experienced, lead the USA. May we step forward into a new space. May we continue to see the stars!

Watch me first:
The Root: 1,300 Men: Memphis Strike ’68

Listen to me next:
Dr. King’s I’ve Been to the Mountaintop address, Memphis, TN, April 3, 1968

Get involved now:
Marjorie Joseph, ED Houston Coalition Against Hate (HCAH) and I wrote a letter May This Moment regarding the insurrection at the Capitol and next steps for moving forward. We encourage you to read the letter, and to get involved. If you’re able to donate to HCAH, please know we appreciate any amount.

Intention, Practice & Sangha for an Energetic, Grounded & Flexible Year

A fun series with a focus on sankalpa (intention), sangha (staying connected to spiritual community/social justice), pranayama (breathwork) (pranayama), qi gong (energetics), gentle movement, and other practices for personal inquiry and expansion.

In December, I am offering a grounding and nourishing 3 part Yoga Nidra series on Zoom.

I offer yoga nidra in a way that is appreciative of ancient tradition, and also unique to my experience as a practitioner and student of yoga and energetics.
Info below. All are welcome. Please email me if you are joining!

Sliding scale and scholarships available.

We were, We are, We will be…this past week I participated in an anti-racism training  with the Oregon Women Lawyers. As part of our Structure for Engagement, rather than ground rules, we agreed to Reject Fear and Scarcity Thinking. One of the trainers taught us of the destruction of Celilo Falls on March 10, 1957. Nch’i Wana, known in colonized language as the Columbia River, was home to an ancient cultural and trade centers. With the construction of the Dalles Dam, in 4.5 hours this place of deep community was put under water. Tribal members watched as 10,000 people celebrated.

The destruction was, and still is, a tragedy of immense proportions. And also, tribe members today teachthey can still see, feel, and hear the community gathering and interacting at the river. This teaching of We were, We are, We will be feels extraordinarily poignant at this moment. 202 has brought so much loss, transition, disappointment, and change to so many. AND yet, without minimizing the human or economic toll of the pandemic, we are able to ask, what will we be?

How do we, on both the individual and population level, extricate ourselves from fear and scarcity thinking? As the prophet Bob Marley called out to us, how do we emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, how do we free our minds? Do we look at this time only from the limited lenses of disappointment and discontent, or can we understand that everything is always changing, that we too are that which changes.

As the holiday season approaches and as we move into the deepest days of winter, may we consciously hold the memories of our ancestors close, while we diligently work to create a more free and liberated future for ourselves and all beings.

May we see, feel, and hear the heart of humanity beating and calling forth a new way of being.

May we transform and celebrate, perhaps quietly and in deeper solitude, those true things for which we are most thankful.

May we celebrate this moment, this breath, this small offering of presence and kindness.

May we reject fear and scarcity thinking.

May we truly feel abundantly grateful, may we share this feeling, and may we understand it.
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I offer this teaching from the native land of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs. If you are interested in learning where you sit, you can put in your address here to learn more about our land.

August is for Self-Care

Wherever you are, honoring the heart is always a lovely practice.

Sending peace and care.

Justine & Lulu Jai