top of page
Search

Pathways by SANAS: What if presence were intoxicating enough?

Pathways

(a weekly newsletter by SANAS)

Exploring the Elements Within & Without

A Quick Check-In

by SANAS Holistic Wellness

A brief pulse from my journey + what’s unfolding next.

When did caring for ourselves become another thing to get right?

What if you really need to give yourself permission to take a seat and watch a sunset...with a stray cat...and trust that that is also a form of

self-care.  

🌑 🌒 🌓 🌔 From the Mat 🌕 From the Heart 🌖 🌗 🌘 🌑

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the difference between caring for my body and trying to improve it.

As a middle-aged woman, this question is becoming increasingly personal. I’m having to accept that there are things my body can no longer do in quite the same way, not because I’ve lost the desire or the discipline, but because my body is asking for something different now.

I can’t always train as hard as I once did. I need more recovery. I have to be more thoughtful about how I move, how often I push, and when I need to back off.

I wish I could say I always receive this wisdom gracefully.

There is still a part of me that wants to override what I’m feeling, to follow the old formula, push a little harder, and prove that I can still do what I’ve always done. But I’m beginning to understand that listening to my body is not the same as managing it.

Managing says: How can I make my body cooperate with what I’ve decided it should be able to do?

Listening asks: What does my body actually need from me today?

And sometimes the thing that needs managing isn’t my body at all. It’s my mind, the part that equates slowing down with giving up, rest with laziness, and changing my approach with somehow becoming less capable.

This is one of the reasons my yin yoga practice has become so important to me.

Yin gives me permission to slow down. It offers my body a practice that doesn’t demand so much from me physically, while inviting me to become far more present. There is less striving, but there is still sensation. Less doing, but perhaps more listening.

And in that quiet, I’m learning that backing off is not the same as abandoning myself.

Sometimes it is the most honest way of caring for myself.

That is also why I love offering this practice to others. Yin creates space for us to stop managing the body as if it were a problem to solve, and begin listening to it as something wise, living, and worthy of our attention.

If you are someone who trains, pushes, performs, or regularly asks a great deal of your body, then tending to it cannot remain an afterthought. The body that carries you through all that effort also needs practical ways to recover, release, and receive care.

That is part of what inspired Touch Yourself, our first Holistic Happy Hour on September 4. We’ll explore approachable self-massage techniques you can continue using at home, not as another task to master, but as a way to listen, respond, and care for the body that does so much for you.

This Week’s Pathway:

Place one hand somewhere on your body, not where you think you need work, but where your hand naturally wants to land.

Before trying to soothe, stretch, release, or change anything, ask:

 

What would it feel like to touch myself without an agenda?

 

You don’t have to fix anything. You don’t have to force your body to soften, release, or respond in a particular way.

Just notice.

Sometimes caring for the body begins not with asking it to do more, but with listening to what it has been asking of us all along.

 

Walk With Me: Holistic Happy Hour

(A mostly, themed, alcohol free event.  First Friday of every month)

September's event: Touch Yourself

Touch Yourself

This is exactly the curiosity we’ll explore at the first Holistic Happy Hour: What becomes possible when touch is not about fixing, performing, or pleasing, but simply listening?

Danielle Olson and I will guide you through an evening of self-massage, ritual, release, and a little irreverent fun.

Friday,September 4 · 6–8 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

 

 

Part woo, part wow, 100% worth it.

Weekly classes in Puerto Rico:

Wednesdays: Sunset Hatha Flow, 6-7pm at Isla Verde Beach, (in front of Condo El Girasol) $15

Thursdays: Heated Slow Flow, 7:15-8:15pm at BodyWrk in the basement of Cobian’s Plaza, Santurce Saturdays: Essential Yin, 10–11:15am, Pahi Studio, Calle Loiza — $20 drop-in / $15 with class pack

Until next Wednesday

May you offer your body the kind of attention that asks for nothing in return.

 

 

With presence, Rhiannon Sanas Holistic Wellness

And I’d love to hear from you: If you take a moment in stillness, and tune into your body, where are you needing to receive touch.  Is it where you would have imagined? 

Reply and tell me.

I read every response.

Follow Me

Hato Rey Norte, San Juan, Puerto Rico 5035160809

Check out our site


 
 
 

Comments

bottom of page