Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I wanted to explore the theme for May of sacred surrender
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and wise inquiry. So kind of blending yana, Yana Yoga and Ishvara Pranadhana.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so I thought we could start by
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): maybe sharing just a word or 2 words or a phrase of somewhere where we've
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): maybe experience some wisdom right? And it could be like anything. Anything can be an invitation to to wisdom. It could be
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): like the wise words of a friend or
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): wisdom that you read in a book.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): or it could be wisdom that you've come across just through your practice. So if there's been any like invitations into wisdom or into surrender into just like letting go
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): releasing. So experiences recently
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): with the wisdom and surrender. And if you're like, Oh, Susanna, I have had none of this. This is why I come to yoga class character to be like office hours for the courses. And you know all of that. That's great, too.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So you're you're more than welcome
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): to just be like Nope. Haven't had it so that so much but invitation to share aloud, or to drop in the chat.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hmm!
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): I will jump in if no one else wanted to to start. My name is Caitlin. I use she and they pronouns and my experience recently with
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): surrender and wisdom.
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): Has to do with a job a yoga job that I had. Actually, I missed the last office hours because I was in a meeting
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): having to do with this job and I in learning through this course, I've been bringing up with my colleagues some of these concepts and things that I've come to
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): start to. It feels a little conflicting in my mind, and
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): I think because of my ability to be vocal and to talk about these things. It actually created a dynamic at that job in which that I ended up being let go of.
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): And so I have to surrender. There's a lot of shame
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): about. I've never been like fired or let go of before, so there's a lot of shame that's coming up, so I need to surrender to my feelings, and also just try to step back and let the the wisdom of difficult emotions.
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): lead me to the next choice that that feels right, and that's part of what it was feeling off. And that's why I've been trying to use my voice
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): to be like this doesn't feel right, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. And in that process, yeah. So I've been thinking like doors and windows when a door shuts a window open. So that's been my experience of wisdom.
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): Surrender and wisdom. So thank you.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you so much for sharing, and I just want to say, like, I feel like getting fired puts us like among the badge of the. Now I see it as like a badge of an accomplishment, you know, almost like a medal.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): because when we're going in ways that sometimes are counterculture or raised up, you know, raising up critique of normative culture, whether that's heteronormativity or patriarchy or white supremacy.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I feel like it's like a badge of the fierce wild, you know, being to get fired. So I have also been let go from jobs both Yoga and in my teaching profession. A number of many of my friends have also, and it's almost always around, like we stood up, we voiced something for for equity, for justice, for inclusion. And then I was reflecting on most.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): This didn't happen recently, but it's like a full circle moment for folks who have privilege like my partner. Right? Who's a white man spoke up around. There was a time in his job a while ago where all the white men were getting promoted, but like the Asian women, because at his job it's a lot of white and Asian folks the Asian women were not, and he brought that up. And then, like 3 weeks later, he was let go
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): come full circle. He just got rehired. So this was a decade ago
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): by one of those Asian women who is now an executive right, and so it doesn't always work out so sweetly. This was a sweet one
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): in the decade of being let go. It was not sweet, and it but I also think sometimes like the
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): the getting let go or the sting when we're acting in allyship with communities beyond our own. It's like we're moving into that targeting. So some of those who are targeted can have a little bit more ease right? Even if not in that moment, like big picture. And and so there's a way that, like the suffering can be for a greater cause.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And obviously it's not always so neat, and it doesn't feel neat, and it doesn't feel like wrapped up in a little bow like the story that I just told, which only wrapped up in its bow.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah, that was 2015. So a decade later, yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I don't know if that's helpful, but it just felt felt like important to share.
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): Thank you. It is helpful.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then Juliana, surrendering to grief, related to family members who are going through sickness. Yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): feeling all of the things big Yoga practices coming into ground and reflect.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah, thank you for sharing that
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): so hard to when like, someone's going through something, and we want to fix it and change it, but we can't just have to be present with it.
Karen McMillan: That's actually what
Karen McMillan: I was. It's kind of a segue what I was. Gonna say, Karen, she her definitely a devotee of whatever Susanna and the ignite team is doing
Karen McMillan: happy to be here again very timely.
Karen McMillan: I was gonna say that it's surrendering to not doing anything right the Wu way, the
Karen McMillan: not fixing, not having answers. You know I'm the oldest. I'm used to handling things, and then you get into situations where
Karen McMillan: it's true surrender.
Karen McMillan: and you won't have control. You. You have to let go or or trying to control, and he messes things up, but just
Karen McMillan: surrendering to what is, but also knowing how to
Karen McMillan: not be strong, because strong tends to feel hard, but not
Karen McMillan: totally break down. So surrender without breaking, maybe, is what I'm feeling and thinking.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you, Karen, and so excited to see you here. Yes.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): we are launching sort of soft launching, not hard, launching, a little opportunity to do a Yoga social justice certification. So the 2 courses that lead into this office hours are Yoga class curator and embrace Yoga's roots, which some of you might be a part of. And if you're currently enrolled in both.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): you automatically get to be part of the Yoga Social Justice certification. If you're enrolled in one or the other. You can talk to Juliana or email her at Hello, at Ignite, be? Well, but basically, if, like, you're currently in
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): yoga class curator. Then you automatically just do the additional
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): course, and then you can be part of the certification. So just naming that, and maybe I'll drop the let me see if I can drop the link. Thank you, Juliana. And the reason I mentioned that we'll start like
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): our particular calls for this later in the summer, like kind of with the back to school time. But
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I've been feeling like it's helpful in the way that we have a yin or a trauma informed certification. We don't really have yoga and social justice certifications. So some of the work we do here is foundational, and then we'll go a little deeper into into that. So that's what that's about. And then the other thing. There's so many things right now I feel like I guess I'm in spring, and that's another piece that we'll talk about.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But the other thing I didn't want to forget to mention is, we do have an in person event happening an in person retreat besides the tours that I'm on, which is a retreat in La. So if anyone's like, Oh, I really want to come, experience this in person.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): You're more than welcome to do that. But absolutely no pressure. We will continue to gather live online. And
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): yeah, so just naming those those things, and also naming. I'm on tour. I'm at home for this week, but I was
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): just all the way up through the West Coast home for 5 or 6 days, and then I go to the East Coast next I leave on Friday until I'll be in Portland, Maine, Boston.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Rhode Island, New York and DC. I believe is, are the places that I'm going to be. So if any of you are there and you don't want to buy a ticket. Just please message me or Juliana. Actually probably be easiest if you message Juliana, and say, I want to come to this tour, stop, or this workshop, happy to get you on the list. For you know, a complimentary ticket, because I'd love to just see you
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and connect. So dates for DC, yeah, we got the dates. The dates are for DC. Are
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): are they not on there? That is weird? Wait.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): yes. Tuesday, May 27, th with Reggie Hubbard at Bhakti Yoga studio.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and then wellness refresh wellness. Collective. Wednesday, May 28, th so I'll be in 2 places. I believe one is in like maybe they're both in Virginia, because actually, DC, is so close to Virginia. So
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): yeah, those those are happening. And the one with Reggie is totally sliding scale like you can pay whatever. And then the refresh wellness again, there's like sliding scale prices. But there, it's not as cheap. It's like 40, 81, 20. I think
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): so. Just message us, if you're like I wanna come. But I don't wanna pay.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And if you can do a ticket, that's great, because
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): touring is expensive, but it's so wonderful, it's so incredible. I just like getting to be with folks in person, knowing, like
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): the one other piece before we get into the practice and the theme and see if anyone else wants to share is, there are people like us all over, and it's really lovely to get to meet and gather and be together with those folks, and then kind of like draw inspiration like it's the the wider Sangha across the United States. And really the world.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): But at this point I'm not going to travel internationally, because I'm concerned about coming back into the country, given everything going on in our our country right now.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Anyone else want to share on the theme of
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): yeah, I loved. And I just want to say Karen's phrase, surrender without breaking
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): or on the theme of wisdom and surrender.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Nice Caitlin Philly might be able to come to one of the Nyc ones. Yeah, I tried to come to Philly, but all the places you know, it's also like it's so much about who's there and what people are willing to do.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I thought I would have a ton of people in Philly. But all the places I emailed were kind of like, well, maybe we can fit you in. No, we can't, you know. So it just didn't work out. So I it's also interesting to notice like, and I don't take it poorly like, I understand people are busy. Sometimes there's energy for something reciprocal, you know. And then sometimes there's not. But in the future maybe I'll get to Philly and Hello, welcome.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): okay, yeah.
Karen McMillan: I just wanted to say thank you that it's always to have the. It's always nice to have the in person, saga, but it feels
Karen McMillan: like so necessary now
Karen McMillan: more necessary than ever. So thank you for traveling and doing all of this, and bringing people together.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah, thank you, Karen, it really does. It feels like
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): moving, you know, with the times and with with the moment. And what we need
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So we're going to explore a little bit of Ishvara Pranadana and like sacred discernment, right wise, wise thinking. And part of this is because
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): right now. So we just passed, I think, what date? What's the date today? Is it? Yeah, it's the 14.th So it was just Buddha Purnama, the celebration of the Buddha, and that particularly the celebration, is like the waking up right like waking up to our Buddha nature, that wise insight and Buddha is like a prototypical Yogi. He is one of the early.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): like Shamana practitioners, renunciate practitioners.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and then coming up, actually starting tomorrow and going through the end of the month through the 26th is Saraswati Pushkaram, which is a time of celebrating Saraswati, the goddess of learning, the goddess of creative arts, the goddess of inspiration, of kind of like the wisdom that comes through creativity, right? So you've got like discernment and creativity, and both of them
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): really invite us into surrender. They really invite us into like surrendering to what is.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so I thought we would begin with a little bit of a practice.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and to do that if you'd like. You can bring your pointer, finger and thumb to touch. So Gyan mudra
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): wisdom, Madra, and as you do that.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): allowing yourself to just kind of invoke. I am open to wisdom. I am open to wisdom.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and as you're holding your hands, I'll invite you to lift them up over your head
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and then exhale as you bring it down. I am open to wisdom, I am open to wisdom, I am open to wisdom, and then release, and you can keep the mudra.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): let it, maybe flipping your hands around and letting them rest on your own body or on the table or on chair.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): inhaling, rolling your shoulders back and down.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and then exhale. Drop your right shoulder towards your right ear.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So in that tramana rennanciate time there were so many traveling teachers and practitioners many different philosophies. And there's a story.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): The story goes that the Buddha once visited a village called Kalama.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and in this village people were really confused. Inhale, lifting your head back up, and then exhale, drop your head towards the other side.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Many teachers who came through Kalama were preaching and sharing different philosophies, and the villagers didn't know who to trust.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): inhale and exhale.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so they asked the Buddha, how do we know who is telling the truth.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and maybe even deeper right like
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): not just who is speaking the truth? Because they probably all believed
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): what they were saying. How do we know who to trust? How do we know who to trust?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Inhale, lifting your head up towards center.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): exhale, folding your head forward, a gentle
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): forward fold, imagining that it's a forward fold, just with your head, and if this feels like too much pressure pressure on your head or neck, you can allow it to just softly rest forward. If you want to bring a little more intensity, you can bring that mudra up, and then just let it kind of
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): let your hands rest on the back of your head. For a little more traction
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): the Buddha responded to the villagers in what became known as the Kalama Sutta, or Sutra.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): do not go by hearsay, by tradition, by what is written in Scriptures, or merely by the authority of teachers.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): instead, when you yourself know what is wholesome, blameless, praised by the wise, and leads to welfare and happiness.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): then you should accept and live by that inhale, lifting your head up.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): exhale, if your hands are on your head, bringing them down in front of you, or taking a moment to stretch them out and around.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): releasing your arms back down and letting the mudra go, or actually, maybe let's inhale it up one more time. And as you bring the mudra up above you, releasing it
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and releasing form, releasing attachment even to practices things outside of yourself, connecting within.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): knowing that, as the Buddha taught, he was encouraging us not to even follow him or the teachings without question.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): we'll inhale our hands up and towards the sky, and then gently side, bending towards one side instead. There's the invitation to trust our own experience. Sharpen our own discernment.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): listening to your own body. That intuition within mind and heart.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and then inhale up towards center.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Surrender doesn't have to mean abandoning wisdom.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): True, Ishvara Pranidhana isn't about blind faith
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): to Yoga itself, to a spiritual path, to a teacher, to a book, but more about humble inquiry, right curious inquiry.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And as you breathe here allow tension to melt away.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): trusting your deeper inner knowing, while examining what's really true for you inhale
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and exhale, releasing your arms, body down.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and now invite us into
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): a forward fold. So now not just your neck and head, but your whole body, any amount coming forward, maybe over itself, resting your hands on your thighs, or resting your arms on your table.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): deep breath in and full breath out.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): investing here, releasing with each inhale being open to insight.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): with each exhale surrendering what's no longer needed.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So during the same time that the Buddha was teaching, and even before the stories go, that the gods and goddesses lived among us, and they still do, and the goddess Saraswati flowed through the world as a river of cosmic wisdom. She speaks like a muse, whispers
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): in your ear to create music or song, or dance, or poetry, or any kind of creative expression.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and she brings music, speech, knowledge.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): all of these things to our world.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and inhale gently pushing into your own body or the table, and we'll move into a soft, flowing cat and cow, because we're moving like Saraswati, like the river, so option to inhale and send your face up towards the sky. Exhale round your back, tuck your tailbone.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so one day, as Saraswati was flowing, she encountered a sage who was performing a ritual.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and she, like, came in too powerfully disrupting his ceremony. Right? So like freedom, creativity interacting with form.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and the sage who was performing the ceremony, was really angry, and said, you need to change your path like don't flow this way. And at 1st she resisted because her flow is part of her right, but she appreciated the
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): the practice that the sage was doing. She didn't want to disrupt it.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): but rigidity of any kind, even for a good reason, was against her nature.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): It's like you're not wrong for the ways that you are.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and you can stay right here, if you'd like, maybe circling around and letting your spine jump, rope around in one direction and we'll do the other in a minute.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so in as the story goes, Saraswati surrendered even her form, and she became
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): that much more subtle, like a subtle river flowing underground, unseen, appearing when called by
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): those who wish to create, and when she was called with devotion and humility circling the other way.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And so the
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): moral of this story is, as we seek to connect with our creativity or Sarswati and muse.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): doing it not so much with force or control, right, but with surrender, with stillness, with reverence, and really just being present, like we might think, Oh, yeah, I'm going to be a poet. But who knows? Maybe the Saraswati comes through and is like you need to go sculpt right? Or we think I'm going to write this book, but actually becomes a screenplay. Or who knows? Right? Like we can't always control where our
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): power, our creativity, flows gently surrendering to our flow.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and knowing we have a direct relationship with wisdom.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): One more circle here.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): invitation to move your legs in any way you would like so option to like, even know if I can show you. But imagine this is my leg right? So cradling your leg and just doing a gentle circle with your with one leg
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): rocking the baby.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and then, when you're ready, placing that foot over your knee for figure 4 seated. Figure 4. You can stay right here or inhale, extend, exhale, fold forward over your leg, and allowing
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): a little bit of pressure and tension to melt the stress and the holding away through our thighs
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): as you breathe here, melting away the tension, letting go of the weight that you carry.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I like to rock a little bit kind of invoking that river energy, because, as I rock, I notice my back gets a little bit more ease
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): my hip. Different parts of my hip are releasing.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and then, when you're ready, releasing this leg towards the ground, lifting up your other leg, any amounts
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and circling your other leg I'm holding beneath my knee and beneath my foot, circling that leg around.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I was kind of cradling it like my leg is a little baby.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and then placing your foot on your other knee.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm leaning forward.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): This side is a different side. We're not always symmetrical, so not expecting it to be the same as the other side.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): We're rocking here.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and as we make space as we surrender, know that wisdom and clarity can come in
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): into that empty space.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): One more breath here, and then gently releasing
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): back to mountain shape and allowing
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): your right hand the tip of your index finger to roll to the root of your thumb.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and then your middle and ring fingers rest on your thumb, and your pinky is extended. So this is Ridaya Madras. So pointer finger base of the thumb
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): thumb rests on the pointer finger. So the gesture of surrender little S. Self to the big S self.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): These fingers come down, and our pinky is extended connection to space, to the divine.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and then your left hand can just
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): breath down, or, if you would like option to mirror the Madra on the other side.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and then let your hands rest
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): on the body or on the earth, breathing in breathing out, inhale into your heart, exhale, softening your shoulders.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): your jaw, your belly.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): What if you didn't have to hold it all
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): more? Practice the Madrid if you would like, or
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): you can release the Madrid. We'll practice with silence for 2 min.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): allowing yourself to listen to your own inner wisdom, and to let go inhale. Listen, exhale, echo.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'll guide you back with my voice. When it's time
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): holding the Madrid, it's softened, just allowing it to expand again.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Pointer finger curled to the base of your thumb.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): small as self, surrendering to the bigger self.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): middle and ring finger connected to the thumb, and pinky, extended gesture of the heart.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): used to support emotional release, heart-centered awareness, surrender.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): healing, grief, and connecting with our inner truth.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Close our practice with a mantra which you're welcome to say to yourself, if you
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): prefer to use sounds in English. You can.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): let's say, like I invoke my creativity, or I invoke my wisdom.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): If you'd like to use the Sanskrit, which I'll share, we're gonna do a mantra to
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Sarah Swati, the creative.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then the creative
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): intention and energy that moves through all of us. And I just dropped it in the chat. It's Ohm, I'm
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Sir Swattier, Namaha.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So we'll begin with Om, and with Om, and we'll chant 3 times if you would like to chant or receive
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): deep breath in full breath. Out, inhale to chants!
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Oh, I'm sorry. Swati! Namaha!
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Oh, my Swati! Namaha!
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Oh, I'm sorry, Namaha.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): continue breath in full breath out.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): connecting to the presence of wise knowing within creative energy and flow.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And as you're ready you can release the Madra, stretch your fingers out, maybe kind of scrunching them up like you're
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): scrunching a towel. You can do that with your feet, too.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): rolling your hands around and then bring them to heart center bringing. Actually, let's bring our hands out to about a foot apart, imagining that you've got creative surrender
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and creative insight and flow in one hand. Maybe your left hand, and then why is knowing discernment.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): bringing together your creativity and your knowledge as your hands meet
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and hold them together at your heart, rubbing your hands.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): letting those energies merge and intermingle, and then you can place your hands anywhere you would like on your body.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): your heart, your belly, move your eyes.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm receiving
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): gentle bow, and you feel called to your own and each other's creative and self-trusting wisdom.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hmm!
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I'm going to drop in a few questions for us to reflect on, and we'll take a few minutes to reflect, and then option to share out if you would like.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And oh, I had made a few questions, but I want to just give you 3,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): maybe 4,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): so you don't have to answer all of these, but maybe one of them or 2.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Where in my life am I trying too hard to control the outcome? This kind of brings us into like where we want to practice that. Let go that surrender?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): What would surrender look like if it honored my wisdom and my trust?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): What long had held belief or habit am I ready to question with compassion.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And how might I listen to the creative river within more often, and maybe listen to or like live from right like? Sometimes it's not so much like listening. It's more like, how can I live from that creativity?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So we'll take yeah, maybe 4 or 5 min. I'll play some music, and with no words.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): The then we'll share.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): You can journal into a chat. Just reflect whatever you would like
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): taking just a minute to finish up your writing and reflection.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hmm!
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): As we come back.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I want to invite you to just a little visualization with your inquiries, maybe imagining yourself sitting under the Bodhi tree, big, wide, trunked, leafy tree that probably right about now is
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): full of lots of green leaves fluttering in the wind.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and we're by the Saraswati River.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and imagine that if there are things that you're releasing, or things that get in the way of your creativity, or letting them flow away and down that river.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): or if there's things that bring in
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): inspiration, inner trust of your wisdom.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): they're falling like the Bodhi leaves into your lap, kind of a
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): affirmation of your inner knowing and your creative path.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And then, when you're ready, looking around you, taking in color and form, inhaling that clarity, exhaling surrender.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And I wanna invite us into sharing if you would like chat or out loud if there was anything that came forward.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Mine felt very simple, you know, like just really kind of trusting my.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): my bodily yeses and nos, and then also that creative river. A lot of it for me comes from like new experiences, putting myself in the way of like new things, doing different things
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and rest, being having rest. And that doesn't mean, you know, sometimes for me, I'll be in a period of rest, or even like a time where I'm very active. But creativity will will flow in. But often it's not when I expect it to. So just creating space. Those are some of my
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): my reflections, and really I do feel like creativity is like the ultimate act of surrendering control.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So if anyone would like to share. The floor is open.
Eva (she/her): For me. It was very interesting. I again with the work we begun. We began with
Eva (she/her): work. Sorry. So today. Last week I was offered to go work somewhere else in the same company, but to do a bit of a different job. And it's actually the job that I really like that I prefer
Eva (she/her): but I come back from being ill for over almost 3 years, and I was so focused on getting back to work the way it was that it was very difficult for me to actually go like, Oh, yeah, no, this is.
Eva (she/her): I actually would like this?
Eva (she/her): so with the surrendering and and yeah, letting giving that bit more space with this. Yeah, it was. It's okay to be said about leaving a place, even though I'm
Eva (she/her): actually happy that I'm going somewhere else. So yeah, it's it's the combination of both for me. That kind of yeah came out right now.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you so much for sharing anyone else.
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): I? I I wrote something in response to the 3.rd
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): Prompt. What long-held belief or habit am I ready to question with compassion
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): for most of my life I believed I had to choose in America. The choice was made for me. You are black, and I have carried that truth with pride, with power, with purpose.
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): but also, if I'm honest, with a quiet ache and ache for the parts of me left unnamed. As I travel the world. I meet others who live in the Liminal, who speak in 2 tongues, who are both bridge and border. In Vietnam a woman whispers the word Milai, and her eyes tell stories. Her mouth cannot. In Cuba mulatta hangs in the air like both prayer and poison. In Belgium. Matisse walks like memory through the streets, and I begin to wonder not whether I am enough of either, but whether I've been allowed to be both.
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): When I was 6, my wise white Jewish mother, a woman shaped by exile and ancestry, told me I could choose, and then, gently, truthfully, But the world will see you as nonwhite. She knew that her love could not undo a country carved by centuries of division. She knew her privilege would never be mine.
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): Still, I'm asking softly, bravely, what if choosing isn't the only way to survive. What if naming all of me is the truest way to belong? I'm not abandoning my blackness. I'm expanding the frame. I'm honoring the hyphen. I'm letting my lineage breathe. I am the daughter of complexity. I am the possibility of both.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Wow!
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I am so moved by that.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And just like, wanna ask.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): are you sharing your writing? Is this gonna be like? Is this part of anything that you're yeah.
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): I thank you for that question. I'm actually in the process now of writing a memoir. I have a literary agent and some of what we'll be exploring. For the last 4 years I've traveled to different nations every month, and
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): what I've discovered, what I've discovered about myself, and I'm I'm I've been raised as a social justice activist with a white Jewish mother and a black father who worked with closely with Dr. King. Is that
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): what I am most connected to
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): is the humanity between us, and it looks like a wide range of things. The Maori in New Zealand, the Embeda in Panama.
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): Afro, Scots in Scotland. And so I've really been deeply exploring, especially now in this nation, where we are called to be more divided, where we are asked to turn in our neighbor right? And so I've been really contemplating what it means, because in the rest of the world.
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): being mixed, race, particularly being black and white does not at all hold the same connotation as it does here. There are some similarities, some places, but mostly it's not, and I think a pivotal moment for me. I was in Honduras. I went scuba diving for the 1st time, and my guide, I'm always asking people what are we called here? And he said, I am called Indio.
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): I am called Indio, and that means that I am mixed race, he said, but we have people who are called islanders, and they are the ancestors of white British enslavers and African enslaved. And then he asked me, he said, Well, what are you called? I said. I identify as black.
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): and he said.
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): why and it was it was. It was just the way, and it wasn't. It wasn't biting. He wasn't being caustic. He was genuinely asking why? Just black? Was his question.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Question.
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): Why, just black, he said. Here you would be Indio. I get that a lot like you know, people would say, here you would be, whatever it is, but his questioning, and he said no one had ever asked him about being Indio. But we went all the way up the mountain while he talked about what heritage and culture meant in Honduras, and they have about 6 different words to identify mixed race people there. So it was also so much more expansive
Chevara Orrin (she/her) (shuh-VAH-rah): than what we have here. So thank you. Thank you, Susanna.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hmm!
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I love that. Why, like just the why, you know, without without judgment, without pressure, without expectation.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): No, that's profound.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Hmm, thank you so much, Samara.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Anyone else.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Time for maybe one more share.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And I just want to say, Shabara, like folks, are resonating in the chat.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Juliana shared appreciation and motive connection, and Karen
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): says, your story, your voice and book are much needed. They really are. I think there's, I think, about this. A lot like
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): some of us are bridges, you know, between between worlds, and whether or not we're mixed right. I think circumstance, circumstance can make us bridges as well. And folks who are mixed. We're sort of
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): invited to be bridges. A very, very direct invitation, and not everyone, you know, is a bridge in the same way. And that's part of the beauty.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah, invited exactly anyone else before we close.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): And I have a little closing blessing for us to say if you would like.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Okay.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): so this closing blessing is just to say to yourself, and I'll I'll say it out loud. You can repeat it in your mind.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): May I be guided by inner wisdom?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): May I surrender what no longer serves?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): May creative clarity flow through me, so I'll say it again.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): May I be guided by inner wisdom
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): may I surrender what no longer serves?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): May creative clarity flow through me?
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): May creative clarity flow through me!
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you to each of you for your presence, for your practice today. If there's anything you're taking out,
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): please do share in the chat. It's always nice to hear. That was Ridaya mudra or heart Mudra.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I believe. Let me just actually double check.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yes, retire.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): It's like a gesture of connecting to our spiritual heart.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So it's the deep surrender of the individual self
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): to the ultimate. And this is sort of like that antenna connecting us out and offering healing.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Yeah, so
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): a lot of the stories, you know, when you grow up in, like an Indian household which mine, although mixed, was kind of culturally Indian.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): The stories are just stories that you hear? Right? They're stories that are around, so that those particular ones
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): I don't have a bit a source
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): for the stories. There's a few books that I like
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): don't know if these particular stories would be would be in them. But, Raj, let me see if I can type in chat. So Raj
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Valkyran wrote a book called the Stories Behind the Poses.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and there's a lot of lovely stories there. But one of the other things right kind of connecting back to critical thinking is, the stories are going to be different. Some of the story, like. Sometimes my aunt will tell me a story, and then she'll tell me another story about Saraswati, and they conflict. They're different stories. And so it's part of, I think, being
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): part of an oral tradition. It was just sort of you're going to hear a story here. You're going to hear a story here, and after time they'll just kind of become part of that, like the landscape of the practice. And in Yoga class curator, there's a lot of those stories. I share a lot of those stories in the Dharma talks.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Those are some of my favorite places to to listen to and to find the stories
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): there. And yeah, it's oral oral tradition.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): and then, you know, trusting that, like the oracular right? Sometimes I pick up a book, and I just turn to a
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): happen to have my book right here, which is the turn to a page right? And then I read, and so maybe you're like, Oh, I'm interested in Saraswati. And so you just go a little bit searching for like stories about Saraswati, and then you find, and maybe it's the same story. Maybe it's a different story. But letting that letting that be like the river of creativity, and like trusting your own intuition.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): So yeah.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): enjoy everyone, and thank you again, sending you many, many joys and blessings, and then I will just say, I'll see those of you in Yoga class Curator, or the Yoga Social Justice training on
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): the 28th for our pilgrimage in Puja, and then also also
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): in June. So June 11th is our next office hours. See you there? Everyone have a beautiful day.
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): Thank you so much.
Susanna Barkataki (She/They): Thank you.
Caitlin / Rosie she/they (Lenape land): Take care!
Monica: Thank you.
Eva (she/her): Thank you.