Health + Yoga + Community
My favorite new spring dish: chopped collards, green onion, garlic, purple cabbage, roasted chickpeas w/ hot lemon + ginger water.
Hey y’all! Spring has sprung in the High Country, and it’s feeling more and more alive each day as the sun sets later. I’m feeling blessed for my healthy family, my healthy body, this new generation, this gorgeous town, my connections, and the roof over my head.
I once decided that I would intuitively practice yoga, and that unplanned plan led down a wild path that I have enjoyed observing and studying. Moving intuitively (aka 10 mile runs through Moses cone, or spontaneous climbing adventures), eating intuitively (throwing out veggies and proteins and letting the children decide the meal), and intuitive relationship building (knowing when it’s a healthy relationship and when it’s not). My takeaways from self-observation are : Sleep, diet, movement, environment, and relationships. They are the foundations of raising a healthy family. Trust me, I’m not always doing it right. I keep messing up…… and listening.
Being a mom of three children with a busy schedule is no joke. I have no clue how people do it without a yoga practice. My children are accustomed to walking into the kitchen with me in a handstand or flying pigeon pose in-between flipping oatmeal pancakes, or suddenly deciding with 48 hours of no rain we need to go camping ASAP! We try to live minimal, but we love to play! The floor stays dirty even though it’s swept one million times a week. The car rotates between rock climbing gear, bikes, paddle boards, snowboards, skateboards, yoga mats, book bags, water bottles, and coolers. Living in the High Country is a full four seasons, and if you’ve ever lived them, you know what I mean. Each season is filled with festivals, concerts, sports, kids + more kids, friends, and all things mountains.
Sometimes as a yoga teacher, I think everyone assumes I walk around eating lettuce and meditating with my children on a clean yoga mat in our very simple home. The truth is, it’s a LOT more complicated than that. Usually, I do yoga in my pajamas, outside in jeans with mom’s at the park, move furniture around in arctic temps to just get my own yoga in. I make it happen, because many moons ago I decided to commit to yoga. Not take it on like this hardcore discipline. It was more like I let it move through me, yet approaching it with some daily discipline, because I knew the cause and effect.
Mudita (in the High Country)- the practice of having immense joy for the success of those around you. Healthy relationships affect our mental and physical health and that’s one thing this community has. Integrating community with business has been exciting and fulfilling as I’ve never imagined. Everyday it seems I’m sending clients to Ayurveda specialist at High Country Ayurveda, to Wildwood Community Market for fresh goods, to The Care Collective for bodywork, or to my favorite coffee Joint, Mountain Grounds. I love to see my bachelorette groups spontaneously drop into Reids for dinner. Part of being a healthy community is supporting each other’s business and clients feel that here. They leave our mountain towns knowing we are a family, we problem solve, and we flow together in the valleys and mountain tops.
As the busy summer mountain season approaches, I hope you all take time this spring to practice self-observation, mudita, and connect with the community wherever you are.
What a gift it is to love where you live.
Namaste,
Jenna, Founder of Avery Community Yoga