Last week, I attended a beautiful meditation for world peace on November 11th, 2015. Two days later the Western world was rocked when the terrorists attacked Paris (I only heard about the earlier Beirut attacks after that).
It was so difficult to wrap my mind around. Violence in the Middle East always seems so far removed, but Paris…. I grew up learning all about France, in school, in countless movies and books, through the food I eat and the wine I drink. I have spent time there, and since I speak French, I feel a kinship with the place, in a way I don’t always feel with the far flung reaches of the globe where I’ve never been.
The news of the attacks hit me, and a whole lot of people I know hard. I cried, and wondered how it could happen, why and how could we stop it from happening again? What can we do? I became more educated about what has been happening in other areas of the world, the things our media doesn’t always report and my heart grew heavier still. Then people began reacting in fear, with many condemning the people who need our compassion the most and my heart felt like it might break.
I refuse to let this harden my heart, or to change what I believe. I know that peace is possible, but we will never defeat darkness and hate with more of the same. Only light can drive out the darkness and only love can conquer fear and hate. This world needs more love, not less. More compassion, not less. More understanding of each others humanity, not alienation and xenephobia.
These terrorists use, well, terror because their hearts are hurting so badly that lashing out in anger is the only thing that might bring them some relief from the pain of their lives. How many of us can even comprehend suffering of that magnitude. Their pain is immense and must seem practically insurmountable.
I, and so many of the people around me are lucky enough to have lives filled with joy and love. Our basic needs are beyond met and we have the room in our lives for fun, and creative self expression. Heck, I get to dance for a living, and dancing is my living praying. It’s how I connect with all that is. It fills me up with so much love and joy that it just burst out of me.
I am lucky enough to be able to facilitate this joyful movement for others as well. In my Hoop Flow class last night, our theme was Dancing Your Essence. We were moving with the intention of expressing our unique light. We moved through several exercises, including Sway and some blindfolded hoopdance, and went into a 25 minute dance journey with a wide variety of music, allowing our bodies to move and interpret the tracks in whatever way authentically arose. We moved through melancholy, desperate, sad music into the hopeful, happy and joyful. You could feel the energy in the room shift, and the happier the music, the higher the vibration. People were grinning from ear to ear, myself included as I felt overwhelmed with gratitude for this kind of healing tool .
After a short rest, we concluded our dance journey with a song dedicated to world peace. With our intention, we filled up our hearts with so much love that it just couldn’t be contained, and then sent it out into the world around us. This was the track we danced to: https://soundcloud.com/revolvr/youve-got-the-love-remix
We can begin to change the world by starting with our own hearts. First emptying them out, through our movement, sweat and tears. Then filling them up with so much love and light that it just spills out of you. Then from that place of fullness, you can go out into the world to do your work. Obviously it isn’t enough to just pray and dance. There is work to do on the ground. This is how I start though. This is how I do my healing work for my own heart, filling it with love, music, movement, joy, compassion, community and gratitude. This is also part of my work out in the world. Helping others fill up their hearts, filling up their cup so it’s overflowing with love, so they too can go out into the wider world and meet all those they meet with love as well, treating each person with dignity, respect and compassion.
It starts right here, and begins with you. Paraphrasing the wise words of Gabrielle Roth, healing happens when you lovingly move through your pain, sweat your prayers and let go of the past. Once we have done this, our hearts are open, full of love and we can work together to create peace on earth.
Another 21 day meditation with Oprah and Deepak, another transcendent experience on the first couple days.This journey is called Manifesting True Success. I think I made it there on the first try.
Seriously guys, it couldn’t have been any crazier. I went on an intense trip, beyond any non-hypnosis meditations I’ve done. I was not quite prepared for the all the awesome, nor did I expect success to look quite like this:
Day one”s mantra was Sheevo Hum, I am Infinity.
Here are the words I wrote immediately after my first meditation, while I was still flying high in an incredibly altered state of consiousness:
As I settled into silently repeating the mantra in my mind, I was immediately transported to a dimension where was consciousness without boundary. I became more fully identified with the infinite than I ever have before. It was…. all that is.
I first felt my being as I have felt it before, as a conduit to direct, focus and channel energy throughout creation. Then, I felt myself as the source of that energy. It was in the shape of a Torus field, constantly replenishing itself.
Then, I felt my consciousnesses outside of creation, outside of time and physical/mental/causal dimensions. Outside of it all. I was, with my cosmic breath, exhaling all of the multi-verse into being, and collapsing it into itself on the inhalation. Each breath cycle was epoch and eons of time. Trillions and trillions of years inside, yet I was outside of time, and experience it all simultaneously. The rise and fall of countless, infinite civilizations happening in an instant. I felt myself divided into each soul having an experience outside myself, and then returning to merge into oneness.
Each soul, my child, my brother and sister, father and mother and own self, expanding and contracting in awareness and essence.
Infinity, I am.
We are all that which is.
The separation between you, I and all that is exists only within time and creation. Outside of time, it is all just me. Just you. Just one singular oneness from which all is birthed and all shall return.
Source is us. We are here to experience creation on a smaller scale, to play, to learn, to live, laugh, love, grow and cry. To separate and return. To experience just for experience’s sake. Infinite truly is all that is, and you are all of that, but it is love’s essence. The love of a mother for all that is.
I should meditate more often, but then again, it’s perfect that I don’t, because each time I return to the practice I becomes far more intense as I bring everything I have experienced into the moment with me.
It is all perfect.
I now know truly, who I am. Who we all are. I am so blessed and grateful to have seen through to this level. To have felt it viscerally. My love for all of creation multiplied an infinite number of times through this experience. Whew. How can I feel anything but love now that I have felt that consuming, abiding love of source (my source, our source).
Damn, that was great Oprah and Deepak. I should send y’all a card.
Today’s mediation was Ahem Prema, I am love. When I closed my eyes this time, I spend a few minutes enjoying a fuzzy warm love bubble that surrounded me, before I slipped again into infinite consciousness. I was once again outside of the multi-verse, breathing it in and out of existence, but this time as I inhaled, and everything in existence contracted and was drawn into me, it was the most gloriously beautiful, ecstatic feeling. I had always imagined the eventual contraction and collapse of the universe as a cold and sad thing, but it was just the opposite. It is a joyous return to oneness! Every piece of matter and mind that was separate felt the yearning and the pull towards source, as it rushed in faster and faster. As we ultimately became one the feeling of wholeness was beyond anything I could possibly ever describe. That pause between breaths is perfection and lasted an eternity.
When I exhaled and birthed all the universes into form once again, it was in an exhilarating rush outwards, towards expansion, exploration and freedom. The overriding feeling behind every breath, every moment was of perfect love. I wasn’t prepared for another mystical experience before my morning coffee, however, I’m always grateful to be blindsided by the light and love of all that is.
So thank you Deepak and Oprah, for creating the space for me to experience Infinite Love As I AM, as we all truly are. It’s definitely redefined the definition of true success for me.
I got more work done on my cosmic ascension butterflies tattoo the other day (Butterflies with motherf***** stars in them, Yo!)
While I’m so happy to be putting this symbolic art on my body because it’s thrilling, exciting and awesome, it’s also kinda painful. That’s the beauty of tattoos. They, like so many other of the good things in life (the things worth doing) require some pain before you get to the beauty.
You have to suffer for this particular art, at least, a little bit.
It actually didn’t hurt as much as the first session, where one of the butterflies on my shoulder blade was right over a nerve bundle that made my leg spasm.
This was still a little unpleasant though, as repeatedly scrapping your skin with needles to inject ink tends to be. I wanted to be present for the process, rather than checked out, which was really my only option since I don’t happen to have any crazy painkillers (although if you happen to want to share, I can give you my mailing address).
Anyway, as I love to experiment (and had little else to do), I played with several different kinds of meditation and mental games to play with the pain.
I tried various relaxation, self hypnosis and breathing techniques which definitely helped, I did some Reiki on myself, which seemed difficult, and I also let my mind wander, which was the most enjoyable when I relaxed enough to really dive into my imagination. I wound up flying around in the field of stars that was being tattoo’d on me, but that only worked for a little while (it was fun while it lasted though)
My cosmic flight came to an end and I came back into my body when I needed to shift positions and stretch. I couldn’t quite get back there, and was wondering where else to visit when a mental picture of a friend randomly popped into my head. I spontaneously sent that person all my love both from my heart and from a cosmic source that’s easily tapped into. I saw them covered in these brilliant wavy cartoon like lines and triangles of light, and could tell they were just soaking it up.
Another friend popped into my mind and I sent them all my love as well, seeing it, and feeling it deeply. I noticed then that the pain had faded way into the background, as things are wont to do when you are no longer focusing on them.
So, I kept at it for quite some time, sending love and light to my family, my friends, different places and finally the whole world. As I was absorbed in my love, I barely felt the tattoo.. What I did feel was warm fuzzies, all over, like being cocooned in a love blanket.
I’m sure distracting myself in any way would help with pain, but sending love was more than just a distraction. It gave me something constructive to do, something to focus on. We all talk about love and light a lot. So much so, that I think it’s easy to forget their awesome power. I’m super grateful for this experience reminding me again, that they are the best drugs. As the master philosopher’s in The Beatles sang: Love is all you need. Unless you have access to good pharmaceuticals. They would probably help too.
Yesterday, we started working on a Tattoo I’ve been dreaming of for ages.
This is the very top of it. We’ll be working our way down, and I won’t unveil the rest until it’s completely finished, say 10 hours in the studio from now (who knows how many months that will be).
I’m so happy with it though I wanted to give you a sneak peak. You are those butterflies, with the stars inside, learning to fly. This tattoo represents all of us, and the cosmic greatness within that just can’t help but shine forth!
This morning, the last morning of this amazing year of transition, 2014, I received a message from the universe:
I want you to know, Kacie, that I’ve ordered up another year for you.
Think I’ll call it 2015.
I’m going to put most of the same people from 2014 in it, since you all think so much alike. But there’ll also be a few new, very cool cats coming to play – give them some time to grow up though.
And I’m going to have things start off pretty much exactly where they left off in 2014, for continuity’s sake. Flips folks out too much when I don’t.
All in all, 365 more days in paradise and only one request of you:
DREAM BIGGER.
Coolio?
Let’s do this,
The Universe
My dreams have already getting bigger and bigger, so it’s nice to know the universe is on my side. Honestly, I can feel it.
A week ago I closed one chapter in my life (quitting my serving job), to make room in my life for other opportunities to rush in. I had enough to teaching gigs as an Artist In Residence to keep me going for a couple months, and I wanted to devote the rest of my time my own business, Dancing Into Being Movement and Healing Arts. Within hours of giving my notice, I was offered a great gig for New Years Eve (Tonight, I’ll be dancing with Fire Inspired at Winston Churchill Square, come check it out!)
I also sent my desire to have two week long residencies a month till the end of the school year out into the universe a few days later. On Christmas eve, my wish came true (and I got a raise to boot, Merry Christmas to me!).
Once you make a decision, with a pure heart and pure intention, the universe conspires to make it happen.
This is creation magic that anyone can do. The universe is infinitely abundant, and just waiting for you to release your resistance so it can help you create every one of your dreams into reality. Throughout the year, I’ll be sharing as many tips and tricks for creation and manifestation as I can though this blog to help you create the life of your dreams. If you’d like more help, contact me at dancingintobeing@gmail.com to book a creation coaching session, available in person in Alberta, or via Skype.
from justjennee.com
Seriously folks, 2015 is the time to go for it! Dream big, find inspiration everywhere and have some fun with it!!!!
If you’re not already getting your own notes from the universe, you can sign up for your dose of daily inspiration at Tut.com
These are written by the universe’s mouthpiece (just one of the infinite number of them), Mike Dooley. His main premise is that thoughts become things, so choose good ones.
What are you choosing to dream and dance into being in 2015?
It’s dark so early here now. The sun was setting as I was driving home around 3:30pm yesterday. It’s probably not quite so drastic where you live, unless you are one of the few souls in the world who lives farther north than me (Edmonton is the most northern city of over a million people in the world!)
Anyway, this deepening darkness makes me sleepy. I feel this urge to slow down, to crawl under warm fuzzy blankets and hibernate, with cat/husband cuddles and Netflicks. I’m OK with this, especially now that I know that it’s only natural to have the desire to turn inward and slow down as we approach the darkest, longest night of the year. The challenge has been that my work schedule at the restaurant goes into overdrive at this time of the year with longer hours, crazier shifts, more hauling of furniture. It’s always tough, but this year, the light at the end of the tunnel has been that by the end of this week, I’M DONE and I never have to do it again!
I QUIT, I QUIT, I QUIT, I QUIT!!!!
2 more days, and I’ll be hanging up my apron and tie for good. I’ll be waking up on the morning of the Solstice no longer employed my favorite fine dining establishment. After 12 years in the hospitality industry in one form or another, working evenings and weekends, eating at odd hours, smiling outwardly while cursing the ignorance of some people inwardly, I’m finally moving on.
I still have my work as an Artist in Residence, with Dani Alitiere Inc, teaching gymnastics, dance and acrobatics at elementary schools in the city, which is part time, contract work, but now I’ll have the room in my life to focus on my own projects like finding a publisher for my book(s) and building my business, Dancing Into Being Movement and Healing Arts.
The timing could not have been more organically divine.
I wound up giving my notice on the last full moon without realizing it. The full moon is the perfect time to release any old energy, and to give up whatever is no longer serving you. This creates room in your life for all the fresh new energy and experiences you’re ready to bring in.
December 21st this year, my first day as a free agent rather than an employee, is also the perfect day to begin my new life. It’s both the winter solstice, with the sun and new moon moving into Capricorn. The solstice is a potent time to plant the seeds of what you want to create with your intention throughout the coming year, and the new moon is always a fantastic time to set your intention for creation as well. These two energies coupled with the earthy, builder’s archetype of Capricorn make for the powerful window for creation we’ve seen (and will see) for quite some time!
This all lined up for me without my conscious intention, which seems to happen more and more since my training with the elemental forces of creation as a coach and priestess with Lisa Michaels, who offers an amazing variety of programs sharing nature’s creation secrets for life and business success (hint: there’s lots of dancing involved) I laugh every time I notice my life is in step with the natural rhythm of the wheel of the year, because I felt separate from nature for so much of my life. Finding myself inadvertently in harmony with it all makes me feel divine, infinitely supported. Adding my conscious intention to these forces makes me feel like a magical being, it’s amazing what you can accomplish when you work with the elemental forces of creation!
To take full advantage of the power of creation during these next few days, I’m spending my time dreaming as much as I can about what I want my life to look like. Then on Sunday and Monday, I will take these dreams and turn them into seeds with my intention. I will plant them, my hopes, dreams, goals and wildest desires, deep within my heart and soul. Then I’m going to breathe, sing, and dance them into being using the ecstatic energy of the New Year’s festivities to add extra oomph to my creations. As the new year begins, I plan on ceremonially honoring my new life and all the gorgeous energy 2015 brings.
This next year is going to be a stellar one.
So even though you might be busy as can be this week, why not take advantage of these dark times and their potent creation potential?
Slow down as much as you can, dream your dreams in the dark stillness. See it clearly in your mind. Set your intentions; write them down, or draw them. Light a candle, drum or dance. Honor yourself as a vessel through which the universe creates beautiful things. Know that you light up the world with your radiance as you joyfully share your gifts! It’s time to let your light shine!
Me, being all shiny in Bali. Photo by Cadencia Photography
It’s probably no secret at this point that I love to dance (with or without my hoops), but I especially love to dance in gorgeous, interesting places. I often find myself inspired by my surroundings, moving in new and different ways! Well, last night I was lucky enough to shoot some promo material at the gorgeous Art Gallery of Alberta!
By WinterE229 (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia CommonsTalk about inspiring surroundings!!!
I am booked to perform at the upcoming Refinery: Shadow Play at the Gallery on November 15th, and the program co-coordinator (who happens to be a friend of mine) offered some time rehearsing in the space. How could I say no to that? I had literally dreamed of dancing in the space before and it was a great chance to collaborate with a fellow artist, photographer and dancer, Nixie Olivia from Sprite Photography.
Nixie captured this great shot of me in front of the mural in Manning Hall, Jill Stanton’s Strange Dream, a fantastic wonderland cartoon landscape that starts out in black and white, with just splash of color in the center. Dancing with the piece, allowing it to inform my movement, felt like a conversation between us, which I think the artist intended. The notes on the mural say “This strange and evocative landscape draws viewers into the space, inspiring questions of how we look at our environment and how our environment can affect one’s subconscious.”
Sprite Photography
Having the chance to interact with, rather than just view the piece gave me a much more visceral experience of the art itself, that completely changed my appreciation for the work.
If you’d like to see what I mean and come dance with this ‘ dense, immersive and dreamlike forest vista’ with references to ‘dreams, hallucinations and altered states of consciousness’, tickets are still available for the AGA Refinery. If you can’t make it, you can still view the exhibition until December 31st, 2014 (and as it’s in the lobby, it’s free to see!!!)
Well, I’m back from my Arizona adventure, which seems to be turning into an annual pilgrimage to Sedona. My husband put it best when he said last September, you know you’ll never not go to Sedona!
It was over the top inspiring as usual. I feel a peace and contentment as soon as I see the desert. It feels like home out there.
It actually is home to a dear chunk of my family, so I’ve been visiting once every year or two my entire life, which probably helps with that feeling. Sacred Circularities in Sedona is the perfect excuse to travel down and visit them and then head out for a dance, mediation and personal renewal retreat in my heart’s home, the land of the red rock, where all the vortexes swirl.
I’ll share more about the retreat later, but for now here’s a clip of some hooping on Bell Rock. I shot 2 minutes of video on our hike, and this is what happened. You’ll notice I’m a little conservative. That’s because tossing the hoops would have been a very big problem 😉
Well, it’s my classy new job title. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it.
I’m so excited and honored to be working with the amazing, hilarious and inspiring Dani Altiere, at Dani Altiere Inc, providing performing arts residencies at Elementary schools around the city. We offer dance, drama and gymnastics residencies and my focus currently is on the gymnastics/acrobatics side of things. I started shadowing Dani this week and honestly, it was even more fun that I had imagined.
I’ve only worked with kids occasionally, so this is a whole new experience for me, but Dani is so gifted with them and they love her so much, I’m just trying to absorb all her wisdom and energy (as well as the rhymes and funny voices). I have a couple more weeks training with her and then I’ll be unleashed upon the children of Edmonton all on my own (teaching Dani’s fantastic curriculum, with her support, of course)
Movement arts like dance and gymnastics enriched my life so much as a kid, I’m beyond thrilled to be able to share that joy with the little people who appreciate it most. Seeing the looks on their faces when they managed to do a roll or a cartwheel for the first time, the hugs they gave me at the end of the week and their shouts that gymnastics is the best, and I should come back and be their gym teacher year round made getting up early and immersing myself into morning rush hour traffic totally, 100% worth it.
I’m so excited to be moving in this new direction professionally, sharing the joyful movement revolution with the beautiful crystal and rainbow kids that are here to show the world how to love. My heart is exploding with gratitude for this opportunity.
All I had to do was ask for it.
Seriously. I literally asked the universe for a new opportunity to share my gifts with the planet and two or three days later, this is what it came up with, when I ran in to Dani at the Art Walk. It’s amazing how gracefully it can all unfold when you open yourself up to receive all the awesome that is your birthright as a being of light, dancing through life.
Teacher friends, if you’re interested in bringing a dance, theatre or gymnastics residency at your school, take a peek at http://danialtiereartistatlarge.com/
I spent last week in a jaw-droppingly gorgeous part of the Kootenay mountains,halfway between Nelson and Revelstoke, in a little town called Argenta for the Medicine Hoop Retreat hosted by Jen ‘Cookie’ Cookson. We were basically in the middle of nowhere. I don’t think I’ve ever been somewhere quite so remote… I drove for hours without cell service out (which definitely makes it seem like the middle of the wilderness). After taking a Ferry, I turned onto a secondary highway which was a little more rustic (ie- twisty, turny high mountain dirt logging road) that I expected. It was so gorgeous it took my breath away (it wasn’t the heights or the fact that driving off the road would mean instant death, I swear!).
Fortunately it was early in the day and the weather was clear, so I just slowed down and enjoyed the view coming with all the hairpin switchback turns. The lake, the forest, the mountains with the clouds nestled gently into them, the wild flowers, the random waterfalls. It was unreal. I couldn’t even listen to music, all I could do on the drive was drink in the gorgeousness of the landscape.
When I reached my friend Cookie’s house (an adorable log cabin, next to fields with cows and bulls), she was shocked to see me. I made great time she said. Apparently, most people take the main highway, and it takes at least an extra hour (and it’s paved, and goes through some beautiful towns instead of the wilderness). I, however, trusted google maps, and honestly, I’m so happy I did. It was totally worth it.
I spent the day with Jen, who gave me the tour of the property, taking me through the forest, by the river and through the fields. It was so peaceful, yet invigorating. I hadn’t seen Jen since Bali last year, so there was a lot of catching up to do and hugs to be had. We talked about life, love, food and the retreat we were hosting that weekend while we wandered.
The next day, as we were waiting for the retreat participants to arrive, I decided to dislocate my pinky toe by slamming it onto her staircase landing. I popped it back in place and thought it might not be so bad… It didn’t really hurt (yet), but all I had to do was give it a minute. I rarely take over the counter medication, but I always travel with some pain killers, so when I realized that yes, it was going to be incredibly painful I popped some ibuprofen with a muscle relaxer and asked Jen to make some coffee so the caffeine would kick it ASAP.
Bless her, she made me some rocket fuel and set me up outside, under a gorgeous tree in a zero G lounge chair with coffee, ice for my foot and the book ‘The Dalai Lama’s Cat’. I sat there, under the blue sky, looking at the trees and the mountain with the hint of cloud dressing it up like a fluffy fascinator and I felt no pain. Just peace. I was so well taken care of. If I had to injure myself, this was an ok place to recuperate.
Two of our guests (friends Cookie made in Bali, my new friends) arrived after driving up from the States, and we spend the afternoon getting to know each other, exclaiming at how beautiful it was and then heading out to a farm to pick out some veggies for the weekend. Later that evening, when our party was complete (just five of us that evening), we sat down to an incredible, mostly raw vegan dinner we made together, (Ok, Cookie did most of the work, I just cooked the green beans with summer savory and coconut oil), drank some wine and talked until we all crashed.
We had planned on camping, but the retreat turned out to be intimate enough that we could all crash in Cookies home. The bonus of the sleepover was waking up to fresh coffee brewing and and homemade spelt bread toasted with coconut oil and almond butter as well as each other’s company.
It took us some time to get going in the morning, but that was beautiful and relaxing. Once the 6th member of our tribe arrive, our Sacred Dance instructor, Bernice Raabis, we headed to the Argenta Hall. Another log cabin, this one with a wide open hall for hooping and with a kitchen, eating area and a lounge area for couches. It was perfect.
After a short and sweet opening circle that created this beautiful energy of connection and intention, we started our movement practice with my Hooping with Wild Abandon workshop, which was hilarious. I thought it would be the perfect addition to a retreat focusing on sacred play. The intent behind this one is to play with movements that don’t need a lot of technical expertise or flight time. I want to give new (and experienced) hoopers some ways of playing with the hoop to music that are easy and fun, but also kind of badass. Spoiler alert, there’s a lot of pelvic thrusting involved. It was a great way to start the day and everyone was a great sport when it came to all the silliness. I think they had a good time.
After that we sat down to some lunch, more amazing deliciousness courtesy of Cookie and her magical sunflower seed pate. We digested our food by taking a walk outside, looking at some property for sale behind the hall. My toe was black and blue at this point, but it only hurt when I had shoes on, so I got to walk through the field and forest barefoot, feeling the softness of the dirt, grass and pine needles under my feet. So good to connect with the earth like that.
While we were out walking, Bernice was preparing the hall for our sacred dance journey into the shadow side of Sacred Play. We moved and danced together releasing and honoring the blocks that we had about play and opening into the joy of movement and play for it’s own sake. Her music was so perfect and evocative.
After all that dancing, we were so ready to go on the shamanic drum journey with Cookie. We were able to lay down on the mats and couches, journeying together, finding our animal allies and totems and then sharing our experiences with each other.
Spending the rest of the afternoon jamming and drinking tea, we wrapped up early and headed back to Cookies abode to chill and relax. Everyone it seemed was just as interested in spending time relaxing outside and getting to know each other as we were in hooping. It was like reconnecting with old friends, even though we had just met and we were never at a loss for words.
The next day, we changed locations, to the Meadow Creek Hall, due to the Argenta Hall being needed for a celebration of life for one of their community members who was finishing his Earth Walk. I was so happy we were able to juice up the space with all the gorgeous energy the day before, so they could send him off in style. The Meadow Creek Hall was even more perfect that the last one. A larger, brighter space, complete with a two lane bowling alley!
We opened with movement mediation I facilitated, where I offered a guided meditation to bring love, light, appreciation and healing into each part of the body, then created space for free form movement, dance, stretching and an exploration of whatever our bodies’ needed at the time. We drew energy from the Earth and the Cosmos and reveled in our movement, honoring our inner child and the way it wanted to dance.
Breathless afterwards, we shared our experiences and the feedback from everyone, hearing what the experience let them tap into moved me to tears. There is so much power and healing in moving in whatever ways our bodies crave, I love it so much and creating a safe space for people to do that is one of my favorite things in the world.
After some snacks, we made our way back to the hall to experience an 80’s music driven journey through the chakras led by the hoop shaman and healer, our host Cookie. This was quite the sensory experience. I grabbed a huge hoop and spent the first few songs body rocking and giving my lower chakras a hoop massage as Cookie guided us through some dance driven chakra clearing. It was so good. As we moved up the chakras’s I picked up progressively smaller hoops, interestingly, and once we were in the head, I found I was off body hooping exclusively. Very interesting how that happened. I couldn’t always tune in to what Cookie was saying, as I was transported by the music and dance into another realm of existence. I really didn’t want to stop, but by the end of the hour, I was spent, sweaty and so, so happy. I felt clear, and light and ready for a shower, but we just had a late lunch instead.
Eating on the incredibly comfortable couches sucked the energy right out of us, and we realized that we were all quite spent and decided we would wrap up the hooping part of the retreat and do some exploring of the land instead. Best. Idea. Ever! I’m so grateful we had such a small group so we could be flexible with the schedule and respond to everyone’s energy levels and desires. It was so perfect.
We headed out to Duncan Lake, this crystal clear mountain lake that was almost as smooth as glass. It was cool, but not cold. Just borderline for skinny dipping, especially since we didn’t have towels. There is something about being buck naked out in nature, in a forest valley, surrounded by the elements. I felt completely safe and unguarded, like I was being cradled in mother nature’s arms. That’s the feeling I had the whole time in the Kootenays. The Rocky’s are so tall, wild and exhilarating, with this masculine, exciting energy. The Koots felt softer, far more feminine and gentle.
The whole time I was there, I was planning my return trip (next summer, but for longer, there’s so much more to explore). We closed the retreat by having dinner at Drifter’s, the only local restaurant around. The food wasn’t quite like the amazing local, organic food we’d been chowing down on all weekend, but the cook did mention she infused Reiki love into each meal she cooked (after asking us if we were having a goddess weekend!).
Cookie surprised us all with gorgeous handmade accessories, hair pieces and eyelashes, each lovingly crafted to suit us personally. This woman is so full of love, compassion and talent, it blows my mind. I learn so much from being around her, and I felt the same way about each woman I came to know and love at the retreat. Saying goodbye was hard, but it really was just so long, until next time my friends, because I know we’ll all be back to play and dance under the stars (Oh my, did I mention the stars??? You can see the starry bowl, with more stars that I’ve ever seen in my life!). Next year, I know there will be more of us, and it will be different, and amazing in it’s own way, but this intimate little retreat, which was just as much connecting with the land and each other, as well as our hoops, was perfect in every way.
![By WinterE229 (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons](https://dancingintobeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/art-gallery-alberta-edmonton-alberta-canada-03-a.jpg)
Dancing Into Being 
