Dear Positively Positive tribe, how I have missed you!! I have been on the go. Gone for fifteen days, leading workshops in London and a retreat in Massachusetts. I am here, home in Los Angeles, for just a few days before I head to Atlanta (March 8) and NYC (March 21st) to do workshops.
Breathe in.
And out.
I’ve missed you guys – this community.
I wanted to thank all forty-five women who were at my retreat this past weekend, at Kripalu, in western Massachusetts. It truly is magic there. Magical, magical Berkshires.
As we sat in the room and wrote our hearts out, the snow fell outside and robins stopped to pause on the bare branches to peer in at us. We peered back.
We paused.
This past weekend was a pause button.
We paused and watched snow and listened for clues on what was coming next in our lives. But the only clues were this: Listen. Love. Pay attention.
So we did.
We listened. Loved. Paid attention.
It’s a remarkable thing what happens at my workshops, and my retreats and yet it’s not – it’s what’s always possible if we just let it.
So this past weekend was a letting.
My life isn’t perfect so don’t pin that story on me.
But what you can pin on me is that I have found something I’m good at and I made something happen with that. I’ve found a way to bring groups of people together and have them feel safe. I’m good at bringing out the best in others. I’m not so good at a lot of other things.
But what I want to say is this: if we listen and love, and pay attention, life gives us so many moments to pause and see the beauty.
That is what I mean, by the way, when I say beauty hunting (the title of my book.)
Someone at the retreat said that she loved my quote “At the end of my life, when I ask one final ‘what have I done?’ Let my answer be: I have done love ” – but that she also wanted to say at the end of her life she would like to say “I have done life.”
There was so much trust in that room where the snow was flurrying outside. Can you imagine that?
I hope so.
Because that’s how I got there. That’s how we all got there.
We imagined it first.
We thought about what it would feel like to share our stories and not give a flying rat’s ass what anyone thought of us.
And we did something about it.
So we ended up, through planes, and trains, and buses, and cars and long winters drives, in that room downstairs at Kripalu. And we said, “This is just how I imagined it would be.”
And it was beautiful.
I hope you can imagine that feeling too.
We also sang, and danced and cried let the snot fly.
This is why hitting the pause button is so damn important. We need to remember what is possible. We need to laugh and cry with each other and share stories and look out the window at birds and snow and do nothing. We need to take time to live life, to have “done life” as my retreat goer said, and that means putting down the phone and the newsfeed and the instagrams. We need to stop hurrying so much. We need to be here. Now.
So, that is why I am here writing to you. I am pausing in the midst of my travel schedule to take a few days, and meditate, and drink coffee, and sit quietly and listen. I am pausing and connecting, with you, with myself.
Thank you all, dear readers and dear retreat peeps. This past weekend, if it reminded us of anything, it’s what we already know, but what we may have forgotten, and that’s this:
There’s so much that’s possible. So much. @JenPastiloff (Click to Tweet!)
I will see you this weekend in Atlanta followed by NYC, Princeton, Philly (April), Dallas, Chicago etc. All workshops listed here. I am doing TWO Tuscany retreats in 2015, which are both almost full.
My retreats/workshops are NOT your typical yoga thing-a-majigs. They combine yoga and writing and you do not have to have any yoga experience. Just be a human being with a body. But mostly with a heart! Read this to “get it. All info here or email info@jenniferpastiloff.com. Make sure when we meet you tell me that you are from The Positively Positive tribe! xoxo Love you guys! Come hang with me on instagram at @jenpastiloff as that is where I am most days!
Jen leads retreats that are a combo of yoga/writing and for ALL levels. Read this post to understand. Check out manifestationyoga.com for all retreat listings and workshops to attend one in a city near you (Dallas, Miami, South Vancouver, NYC & London are next). Jen is the guest speaker 3 times a year at Canyon Ranch and leads an annual retreat to Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health every February, as well as an annual invite only retreat to Tuscany. She is the founder of the popular The Manifest-Station website. Jen is leading Other Voices Querétaro in Mexico with authors Gina Frangello, Emily Rapp, Stacy Berlein, and Rob Roberge in May . Follow her on Instagram and Twitter. You can also find her at BeautyHunting.com.
