** All April 1st Classes are happening as regularly scheduled: 9:30am flow, 1pm Nidra, 6pm Restorative.  **

Below is the main excerpt from our weekly Love Note. Click here to see our full Love Note with class and workshop announcements.

This Love Note Newsletter is a little different because in the past week I’ve had 7 different conversations (SEVEN!) around this concept of Living the Dream and Following your Bliss. So I thought instead of telling you about all the wonderful things coming up at Love…(scroll to the bottom)… I’d share my thoughts on this, and a few other relevant quotes … because it has in fact had a lot to do with the reason we have Love Yoga today.  I now look back and see that the desire to believe in that possibility is largely what drove me to keep searching.

Follow Your Bliss . . .

and other seemingly cliché pieces of life advice I’ve thoroughly investigated

1. Follow your Bliss
2. Go with your gut
3. Don’t stop Believin’
4.  Do what you Love
5. Live your Dream
6. see below

People tell me all the time how lucky i am to be ‘doing what I love’. And in my mind I immediately ask myself . . .  Am I really though?  Of course I am… living the dream.  I’m self employed. I make my own schedule. I practice yoga for a living. I meet and connect with the most amazing people every single day. Much of my work can be done from my phone, my house, a coffee shop, my car, the coast.

I spent 35 years in various fields searching for ‘my thing’.  Do you know how many people told me… ‘not everyone has a thing’. Or, ‘stop trying so hard and just enjoy life’.  Or, ‘you’re never gonna be happy with the way things are.’ Or, ‘Albany is never going to support a yoga business’. Or my favorite…. ‘What’s the big deal about yoga anyway… it’s just fancy stretching’. ; )

Deep down, I knew. I knew I wasn’t here to sell advertising, insurance, melamine or mortgages. ( or rainbow vacuums, discovery toys or insect repellent ).

When I first discovered yoga – thankfully it wasn’t a completely woo woo, chakra cleansing, mantra chanting, sage burning experience or I’d have run for the hills. (all of which I’m semi okay with now ; ) (We’re all about the frankincense!)  No, this yoga was simple, sensible and I could do it.

It was an immediate sense of calm along with the surprising relief of chronic neck pain. I was intrigued by the subtle sense of spirituality and the gradual and complete elimination of anxiety. I could hear myself think and I slept all night for the first time in years.

The longer I practice, the less I need to. I don’t mean that I don’t need to practice.  I mean that if I don’t practice every single day… I don’t lose those feelings. I still get on my mat almost every day for one reason. I care about myself.

I want to connect to that calm feeling. I want to hold still and be quiet and hear myself sort things out. That’s my meditation. And that’s when all the good ideas show up.  Things like softer floors, colorful curtains, Portland yoga tours, yoga nidra classes, Tee Shirt ideas, training activities, workshops, writing this newsletter, holiday campaigns, 70s playlists, LOVE stickers and more!

It’s also the space that helps me sort out running the business. It’s SO much harder than I expected. This ‘living my dream’ also includes balancing books, consistent scheduling, maintaining marketing, insurance, certifications and regulations. Writing this newsletter, making payroll, taxes and giving up all the security that comes with a job like benefits, vacation time and a paycheck.

So to clarify… I’m not specifically LIVING MY DREAM or FOLLOWING MY BLISS.  But clichés or not, all five quotes have had a tremendous impact on me.

I AM GOING WITH MY GUT that yoga can help everyone as I’ve seen it happen with myself and many, many, many of you. I have never felt this happy, this healthy, this strong and this brave. I care about this on a level so deep that I know I will NEVER STOP BELIEVING that I am suppose to be providing space, conversation, exploration and healing that comes with this practice.

And # 6:  DON’T GO IT ALONE. If it weren’t for our amazing Love Crew, ALL of you, Some incredible support and encouragement… we wouldn’t have made it past the first ‘Namaste.’

So yes, I found my thing. My passion, my purpose, my people. And it doesn’t matter if I’m  loving what I’m doing every second… because I care so much more about what it’s becoming.

But to be honest… if I were truly DOING WHAT I LOVE . . . I’d be this generation’s Dr. Seuss.

You matter to me
You really do
You matter to me
And I matter to you
We matter, we two
We really do
I matter to me and
You matter to You.

I breathe slow
Wherever I go
It keeps me strong and smart
It frees my mind
from things unkind
so I can follow my heart

And what about this 8 minutes or less thing??
CLARITY IN 8 MINUTES OR LESS . . .

Clarity comes in the quietest or least distracted moments. When you’re brain is not embroiled in problem solving or planning.  When you’re showering, vacuuming, fishing, running, painting, knitting, writing, meditating, etc.  When you let go of trying to ‘figure things out’ and put yourself in a state of flow…. often while doing something you enjoy that takes all your concentration.

In that state… focus on just one thing. Ask yourself ONE question.  ‘What do I want?’, ‘Who am I?’, ‘What now?’.

Usually the complicated part of this… is that it takes about 8 minutes to get your mind to quiet and your nervous system to relax.  This is when you can completely focus. Figure out for you…. what are you willing to do for 8 minutes to get your mind into a state of flow.

Do that. And then listen closely.  Read more…

Believe with all your Heart

I had a teddy bear named Omar when I was young.  (no idea why). I distinctly remember talking to him as if he could understand me. I believed that wishing wells and wishing on a star mattered. I practiced magic tricks, telling jokes and taking pictures. I had a Kodak 110, a disc camera and a Kodak Colorburst Instant camera. I don’t know why I’m not a photographer. My point here is that I did not understand how these things worked and I believed in them whole heartedly . . . a lot of things that seemed like magic at the time.

Yet, I’ve always looked at Yoga through a very practical and scientific lens. Finding and exploring yoga as an adult seemed like a very ‘woo woo’ thing to do. So I’m always looking for the science behind the magic. I’ve spent the last 8 years presenting all the evidence as to why it helps, why it works and why it feels so good. And then Harvard wrote a book to support my efforts. Sweet of them.

(Every one of our teachers has this book – you’re in good hands. Scroll down for the latest schedule and check them out!)

We discussed this in teacher training over the weekend…how yoga has for centuries been a practice for overall health, wellness and peace of mind. Centuries! Without any medical research to back it up.

As yoga evolves and is integrated into the health and wellness industry the research just keeps rollin’ in! Lower blood pressure, boosted immune systems, lowers stress, increases circulation and bone density, better breathing and balance and the big one…LONGEVITY…because we are born proficient procrastinators and welcome an opportunity to procrastinate the inevitable!

BUT WHY does it matter? To me?  It doesn’t. Not anymore. I woke up this morning feeling amazing. Again. Happy, Healthy, Strong and Brave. That’s all the evidence I need. Magic or no magic. Stars, teddy bears, instant cameras…and yoga. I believe in all of them with all my heart.

Suzanne Davis circa 1978

Quote from linked article: “It may sound like magic that posing like a proud warrior or a crow could have such extensive effects, but it’s not magic.  It’s neurobiology.  This next statement may sound to you either profound or extremely obvious, but it comes down to this: the things you do and the thoughts you have change the firing patterns and chemical composition of your brain.  Even actions as simple as changing your posture, relaxing the muscles on your face, or slowing your breathing rate, can affect the activity in your brain (beyond, of course, the required activity to make the action).  These changes are often transient, but can be long-lasting, particularly if they entail changing a habit”.

Alex Korb, Psychology Today
Yoga. Changing the Brain’s stressful habits

Next Up: Maui!

8 days of getting a healthy and empowering yogic start to your day of pure island rejuvenation. Contact Suzanne or Cady Campbell for more info. Details on our website and the FB event page.

IF YOU’RE COMING TO MAUI WITH US PLEASE LET US KNOW! Email Love@loveyogastudios.com with any questions or concerns! Deadline for reserving your space is Feb. 14th!

This is a RELAXATION RETREAT with Suzanne (relaxation guide) and Cady Campbell (adventure guide). There are plenty of adventurous opportunities if you’d like them…and/or plenty of beach/pool time if you prefer. Every morning offers an all levels yoga  & meditation class, any level, every level.

Why this title? Because these are the last two Love Notes we sent out and I forgot to post them here on the website. I try to make our Love Notes entertaining as well as educational and engaging to some degree. I try to find songs and videos that relate to the topic. I try because I think myself to be fairly clever and creative and it’s fun!  ; )

So if you haven’t seen our past few Love Notes (weekly newsletter from Love)… here are the links. You can also sign up from these newsletters to get future ones. We make them brief and we only send them out once a week – occasionally twice – if we have an update or a special event. We promise not to inundate your email with fluffy memes and yoga photos. That’s what Instagram and Facebook are for!

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL OUR PAST ISSUES & SUBSCRIBE IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE

Or copy and paste this link: http://bit.ly/2DB6vVV

When you subscribe to our newsletter you’ll get a welcome email from me…Suzanne…that tells you a little more about why we’re writing these Love Notes (basically to keep you in the loop and stay connected). I really do hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

With Love,

Suzanne

We are compiling a list of all the events we know are coming up for 2018.

So far we’ve gotten through March. We might add a few things as we go along because sometimes opportunities come up that are just too good to pass up!

So definitely stay connected to see what’s happening each week. In the meantime, here’s a peek at what’s coming up in the next few months.

This way you can save the dates for the events that interest you the most. We’ll have the dates for our Solstice parties, book clubs, workshops, teacher training dates and our Maui Retreat in November this year! Aloha!!!