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Monique Minahan

this is not a dress rehearsal

My Books

The Unedited Heart: Letters on Loss

The Grief Practice: Stories of Surviving Loss & Practices for Supporting Loss

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#WriterMo

if you know what it’s like to live on the edges of mortality or humanity or spirituality sit by me . if you know what it’s like to witness a first breath or a last breath or hold your breath in delight or horror sit by me . if you know what it’s like to place each brick under your dream and when the world tears it down begin again sit by me . if you know what it’s like to crave the unbearable lightness of being and to choose the earthiness of being human sit by me . if you know what it’s like to honor an old story while living a new one sit by me . if you know what it’s like to untangle your love from your fear every night and dress your heart in it again every morning sit by me . if you know what it’s like to hear the news and lose all hope and hear children laughing and remember there is hope sit by me . if every day your heart breaks open a little, from love or pain or laughter or kindness sit by me
My favorite variation of Virabhadrasana III. Crossing the midline of the body (cross-lateral movement) and moving opposite sides of the body at the same time (contra-lateral movement) are great ways to invite the left and right hemispheres of our brain into more fluid conversation. Balancing brings the additional element of equilibrioception into play, recruiting the body’s natural righting reflex. This is a sweet-deep-direct route to mindfulness through movement, inviting us closer to dharana, the 6th limb of yoga, because it demands we *pay attention* to what’s right in front of us. See you @gatherencinitas today at 5:00 for some fun whole-brain yoga as always.
Reposted photos by: @yogaisdeadpodcast and @susannabarkataki . Comments by me/mo/moi: A few uncomfortable questions and concepts I’ve been sitting with in my effort to be a responsible yoga teacher and walk my talk of questioning everything, including what I participate in and subscribe to. I have loads of respect for anyone who is using their voice to speak their truth, especially when it’s not mainstream. . I’ve grown up with a fair share of white privilege and am finally beginning to appreciate the role it plays in understanding trauma, teaching yoga and being human.
A few of the things we cover at my Grief-In-The-Body workshops. Our body is a treasure chest of resources that can help us survive, contain, bear and even befriend the overwhelming experience of grief. We find these resources through physical experience but they affect psychological health. Our inner experience affects our outer experience. We can shift our inner experience but not until we know what’s going on. And maybe most importantly, community changes everything. Together we can carry what we cannot bear alone. . Upcoming workshops: Sat, Sept 21, 2-4, Santa Barbara @yogasoup Sat, Nov 9, 1-3, San Diego @woven_weare __________________ @thegriefpractice __________________ #griefisapractice #healingisanart #grief #sandiegoyoga #santabarbarayoga #traumainformedyoga #sandiego #lajolla #delmar #encinitas #leucadia #oceanside #encinitas #yogaforgrief #yoga #polyvagaltheory #thebodykeepsthescore
When he found her she was unconscious, turning blue with a plastic bag over her head. . It’s one of the few times I’ve seen my dad cry, standing outside the hospital telling me how helpless and scared he felt to find her unconscious and unresponsive. . It is one of the few moments I felt like we spoke the same language of being human. I also knew what it felt like to find someone unconscious and unresponsive, to call 911 and to not know if they would be okay. . It was amazing she survived. If they had got there a few moments later or not got the phone call to check on her for no reason she would be another suicide statistic and hole in my heart. . To me mental illness is no different than physical illness. If you’ve never gotten physically sick then maybe you have a chance at never getting mentally ill. But chances are you’re human, and so am I and our minds can be dark, desolate, desperate, lonely places hard to fight or feel our way out of. . Here’s to humaning on, through the tragedies and the celebrations, through the traumas and the healing-from. Here’s to the people, pets and places whose presence bridges both worlds so we can find our way to and from hope and hopeless without shame. . 📸my dad and me circa 1976 ____________________ #suicidepreventionday #thisisnotadressrehearsal #mentalhealth
I’ve been making space for him since he was a hope in my heart, then a life in my belly, then a cry in the middle of the night, then an extra plate at the dinner table, then the middle man in our morning hug, now the sweetest little office partner. . I’ve been wanting to rig up my office Katy-Bowman-style for years, and him starting kindergarten was the perfect time. Low desks make things less comfortable. Hooray, I have to move when I get uncomfortable! My spinal muscles have to hold me up, my posture has to shift ten times in an hour, I have to get up and down and use different mental and physical muscles to do it. It sucks and I love it! . Now I just need some monkey bars on the vaulted ceiling and I’ll be good to go.
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