To our beloved teachers, students, friends, and ICY community,
C.S. LEWIS shared, "You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
John and I have embraced this idea throughout our lives together and we are embracing it once again in 2021. We recognize that our lives (and our bodies!) are yearning for a change, so we decided to dream a new dream!
We all know that change happens. It is not only inevitable, but always happening. When we truly embrace that change is constant, we learn to journey inward, embrace our essence, let go, grow, and trust the source that keeps us grounded through the many seasons of change. Keeping a healthy, balanced attitude helps us navigate change with grace.
We are excited to share with you that last Friday we sold Bear Mountain Ranch, our home for over 20 years. Many of you have been to our property, embracing our love for the mountains and sharing meals, music, hikes, yoga practices, labyrinth walks, ropes courses, overnights, and even forest bathing! We have invited you into our home, into our lives, and shared our love of yoga with you. We have helped join students in holy matrimony and provided a peaceful resting place for your loved one’s ashes. And now it is time for us to begin a new journey.
We are moving to the South. Most of my family lives there and I have been away from them for half my life while John and I fulfilled our dreams together in Colorado. John’s neurologists have advised him for years that a lower altitude with less intense barometric changes would help lessen his chronic pain, migraines, and tinnitus. The pain has increased over the years and he is ready to make a change.
We will be leaving many things we cherish: our son and his family, our neighbors at Bear Mountain Ranch, hiking, snowshoeing, incredible mountain vistas, and breathing with the trees…and we will be leaving YOU, our beloved yoga community.
Thank you to all of you who welcomed us and have remained a part of our ICY family for many years. The faces of the people we won’t see in our beautiful space anymore keep appearing in front of us as we joyfully recount many stories of travel, teaching, and sharing the practice of yoga together. There are countless individuals who have found something special within these walls and this wonderful community we call Inner Connections—countless people motivated by love, hope, and peace and the earnest desire to grow as a human being, or to help others grow and to walk in their highest good. Thank you. Thank you for this experience and embracing us for many years. Thank you for giving us safety, a home, a community, and the lessons of a lifetime.
We are blessed to have shared our sacred space with all who entered our doors. Whether our front desk was found down a long hallway or at the front of the building, we were honored to see your faces light up when you entered the studio and shared with us “I am home.” Or the countless times you floated out of classes and had to return to collect mats, water bottles, and even car keys! Many who came to yoga for a class left with lifelong friends. Seeing our entryway filled with coats and shoes and hearing singing bowls resound from the classrooms or chants of OM joining you in peace warmed our hearts. We were honored to have you participate in great trips we took together to Brazil, India, Honduras, Fiji, Costa Rica, Peru, and more! It was a privilege to have the trust of students who began their yoga teaching journey by certifying with Inner Connections and who grew into amazing teachers and enlightened beings. Think about the many people you have inspired through sharing “your yoga” - you are the light - building community and inspiring people to walk the path of enlightenment.
YOU are what made ICY so special for all these years, a place that people called home. Teachers, students, volunteers, all of you are filled with joy, peace, and light of the sacred practice of Yoga. And now the studio will carry on with new owners, new guides to inspire you, uplift you and teach you these sacred teachings.
Yoga is our passion. Yoga is our teacher. Yoga has been a lifeline to many beautiful, wonderful life experiences and helped us to view life in a new and healthier way. In yoga sutra, 1.2, Patanjali defines yoga: Yoga chitta vritti nirodha. “Yoga is the individual discipline that leads to the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.” Mukunda Stiles translates the next sutra (1.3) as: “When this happens then the Seer is revealed, resting in its own essential nature, and one realizes the True Self.” By studying the nature of the mind, we understand that we are not our thoughts. We can see that something much more vibrant, steady, and joyous exists beyond the mind that is molded from our conditioning and habits.
My dream of yoga is finally coming to fruition. As a high school teacher who studied yoga, I believed that yoga should be offered in every school, to every child, teacher, and parent. It truly is the Science of Self Realization. When we can understand ourselves better and why we do what we do, we can become better citizens of the world.
I met with a friend for lunch yesterday whose daughter is now an administrator in a school in Colorado. She has been introducing yoga to children and teachers for a few years. My friend told me that there are now new positions being created to bring yoga into schools to help teachers and students with focus, concentration, relaxation, stress reduction, post-traumatic stress, and more. Research shows that Yoga improves both physical and mental health in school-age children (ages 6 to 12). Yoga improves balance, strength, endurance, and aerobic capacity in children. A growing body of research has already shown that yoga can improve focus, memory, self-esteem, academic performance, and classroom behavior, and can even reduce anxiety and stress in children. Full circle of a dream.
Thank you for being part of a dream to create a place of health and healing that John and I had many so years ago. The dream moved us out of our professions and into Inner Connections Yoga & Wellness, ROCK Salt Therapy and CommuniTEA. Our small community has changed hearts, minds, and lives in beautiful, positive ways and it will continue to do so with new owners.
“Yoga is a light, which once lit will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter your flame.” ― B.K.S Iyengar
*Watch the video below to understand our heart-move to the South