Hello fellow friends and yogis,
I have some great news to share. Want to go on a retreat with me? Come to 💗 Soul-TREAT in Sedona in April! The single best decision I made in 2018 was to join The Wellness Universe. Why? The Wellness Universe is a community of open-minded people, healers and World-Changers who are full of wisdom and courage, who love deeply, are fearless and show up to lives calling. I take my goal seriously! For this year its: EMBRACE WHATS POSSIBLE! 2019 I’m ready! And believe me it takes my full commitment and love for live, myself included, to step up and do this. I will join The Wellness Universe retreat for Mind Body and Spirit in Sedona! 💗Soul-TREAT will be a magical + transformational treat for your Soul! When? April 5-6 2019! Check it out her: https://youtu.be/yKvQcasaiFc PLEASE KEEP READING. It’s going to get even better! Have you missed coming to my workshops? Would you like to practice with me at this fabulous location? And enjoy two days of more amazing teachers, healers and workshops to take care of you. The Whole of you? Dear Friends, ⭐️I am one of the presenters ⭐️ I will be offering my transformational mindfulness-based yoga workshop: Witness without Judgment Can you join me? Registration is open and you have first priority, because you belong to my tribe💚! It will go public next week! Check your calendars! Register here: https://www.thewellnessuniverse.com/events/soultreat-2019-guests/ I’d so love to give you a hug! Be with someone who makes you happy! Always with love, Manuela https://www.thewellnessuniverse.com/world-changers/manuelarohr/
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Be (with) someone who makes you happy. I have embraced these words for many years. It's how I live my life. Happiness grows from the inside out. There is no other way. There are no shortcuts. It's my Birthday. Happy Birthday to me💗 💗With love! Manuela PS: I'm creating mini retreats on the spot. I call them Tiny Islands. I invite you to join me. Hop on, stay connected, it's going to be an epic ride this year! AuthorManuela Rohr is a writer and Yoga teacher/therapist BDY/EYU, C-IAYT. With roots in Germany she now lives with her husband and daughter in Santa Rosa, CA. She is the mother of a micro preemie girl and shares her healing journey in her blogs and teachings. She shares her transformational Yoga and Mindfulness lessons in workshops and private sessions. Every year I'm choosing a word or two to expresses what I want to cultivate in my life. For 2019 I choose: EMBRACE what's possible. It resonates deeply with me this time of my life where my dream for an empty nest has not happened as planned. At the same time, I have not given up on what I know is my destiny: to share my gifts by teaching transformational yoga workshops and my story by writing my book. I love what Cheryl Strayed speaks so wisely off in her book Brave Enough: After destiny has delivered what it delivers, we are responsible for our lives. For me this has everything to do with what it means to embrace what's possible. For the coming months, we're prepared to hire live-in help. No, that wasn't the plan but it's what we need. For Sarina to get the guidance she needs and a companion to do things without us. For me to free up the much deserved space to do what I burn for and a chance to be the master of my own time again. And last but equally important for the health of my marriage. In a reflection of what it means to me to embrace what's possible I found it important to take an honest look at those questions:
So, the challenge is on. And before I end my inquiry let's hop on one of my Tiny Islands for a 20-second break and observe without judgment: 1. Pause 2. Notice your breath, relax your body with an exhale. Relax especially your lips and the back of your mouth. 3. Notice your feelings and your thoughts - what's happening right now? With an aha let it go with your next exhaling breath. 4. Accept what you noticed and choose an intention for the next step. My intention is to make my next step slowly. I have too much speed in my step 😎. I want to celebrate what I have. I don't want to rush and not notice it. I will set my steps with intention, feel the earth underneath my feet, open my heart and lift my crown to the sky and embrace what's possible. If you feel called write a note back to me. I love to hear from you. Either way find a few moments to reflect: Are you celebrating what you have? Do you embrace what's possible? With love, 💗Manuela This picture was taken just a second before the one I used above for my message. Our visiting friend from Germany Nadja took them at Bodega Bay and captured the magic moment of Sarina holding the wishing tree in the palm of her hand! AuthorManuela Rohr is a writer and Yoga teacher/therapist BDY/EYU, C-IAYT. With roots in Germany she now lives with her husband and daughter in Santa Rosa, CA. She is the mother of a micro preemie girl and shares her healing journey in her blogs and teachings. She shares her transformational Yoga and Mindfulness lessons in workshops and private sessions. Remember no matter where you are or how you're feeling, the next step, the next breath is always possible. The future is open - right? Find a TINY ISLAND below...they her best friends and life savers! My path is rocky, more so the last few days. I know it will pass. It always does. So here I am. I'd love to master it all, telling myself: "come on, just finally get this. You know of her challenges like no other. You got the tools, the awareness, the knowledge, the wisdom." With that, I mean the ability to keep a distance to my daughter's limitations, her triggers or chains if you will all to quickly can become mine. They are strong, they are mirroring everything I'm still learning. Yet, she doesn't function like us. Her brain understands the world differently. She takes me by surprise with all; her brilliance and limitations. Like on the spot, she withdraws and time doesn't exist. Something that worked a minute ago is gone now. I feel like I'm never prepared what comes next. And, don't we all have a craving for security, knowing it doesn't exist? I never know will she show up or not. I'm always the space holder, walking behind her, next to her and in front of her. All at the same time while keeping my own rhythm, my own sacred space in tact. That's the tough job of a special mom with a high-functioning autism daughter. "I should master this," I hear the voice say. "Be centered. Don't react. Stay calm. Keep a distance. Don't bite the hook." I do. I fail. I try again. I do better. And try again. There is a pain in the failing. A heavy cloud darkens our life. There is disharmony in my family when the dark escalates into black. Insecurity and fear find easy entry. They are suckers who want to win. I go to my Tiny Islands for help. Many times a day I choose to p a u s e to find clarity in my humanness. Nature is one island. It heals. So I went to my hill. Stood in silence and let the sounds of nature soften my grip, my fear of not being able to handle what was given to me. I opened my eyes to be in awe. I didn't look or search. I relaxed my eyes; I let my eyes receive and speak to me. The sky, the moss underneath my feet, the trees, the fresh and moist air on my skin. Life, life is breathing everywhere and filled my tired heart with trust, forgiveness and understanding. No feeling is final. I got this. Will I never be triggered again? Or course. It's how life is meant to be lived. But I can use my awareness to be present, honest and raw. Not filtered - not covered up - not diluted. TINY ISLAND Pause. 20 seconds. Breathe in and breathe out with a sigh. Notice
Breathe in and breathe out with a sigh. Remember: we can always do the next breath, the next step. The future is open. With love, 🌳Manuela PS: Joy is the antidote to defeat... AuthorManuela Rohr is a writer and Yoga teacher/therapist BDY/EYU, C-IAYT. With roots in Germany she now lives with her husband and daughter in Santa Rosa, CA. She is the mother of a micro preemie girl and shares her healing journey in her blogs and teachings. She shares her transformational Yoga and Mindfulness lessons in workshops and private sessions. THERE ARE NO ORDINARY MOMENTS! I took this picture today of our daughter Sarina on her morning walk. She has struggled lately with a lot of things, not getting up and in turn not having time to walk is a big one for her. This was her first walk for a few weeks. Everyone benefits from walking. In Sarina’s life attention and present moment awareness go hand in hand with the rhythm of walking. And the deeper breath. One cannot walk up a hill with the head in the clouds. She has to pay attention to her steps. Easy? Not when you have severe attention deficit. But – and that’s a hard truth, if she’s not self-motivated, it’s not happening. Her life becomes an obstacle course against time. I have seen this truth but have to surrender to the fact that she is now 28 and I can’t win every battle. Believe me I try! I have no choice but to let go. It’s a difficult ride for me. I keep failing every day and I keep going. And keep learning. “Acceptance is a small, quiet room,” says Cheryl Strayed. So, this was heaven for me! One moment that has the power to erase a chain of frustrations in my life as a special needs parent. As I watched her hike up the hill, the sky and the trees were hugging her and I thought: There are no ordinary moments. * It's easy to agree in a situation like this. Not so when beauty is absent, and we are hitting a wall. Many people live with limitations. Some visible some not. The path of a special parent is humbling like for all care takers. Decline of health or depression to name a few also put the breaks on. Special needs parenting is a life sentence. It’s not going to go away. We can fall into victim mode or learn to ride our horse instead. This week I’ll pin this photo on my desk. Relax the grip, breathe, accept and honor the present moment. Want to join? Print the photo or write yourself a note. It works. 👣 No time for a walk? Here is a Tiny Island** about a one-minute practice you can do on the spot including sitting down. If you can’t move, visualize yourself doing it. CONNECTING BREATH WITH MOVEMENT
NO ORDINARY MOMENTS! You can do this also in gentle running. The key is… do it! Enjoy it! Be grateful to your body moving and breathing. 👣Love always, Manuela PS: *Dan Millmann wrote a book called "No Ordinary Moments". It's a peaceful warrior's guide to daily life. I love this book like all of the books he wrote. It teaches us to live a life that puts you in the driver's seat. PPS: **Tiny Islands is a project I’m working on. To create more breaks, or even micro breaks in my day to fill up my cup. Using the tools from my yoga practice and life with my special daughter I’m collecting THREE-HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE, yes 365 of them! And share them in a book with you. 2019 hear me roar😇. PPPS: Remember... forgive yourself and everyone... Manuela Rohr is a writer and Yoga teacher/therapist BDY/EYU, C-IAYT. With roots in Germany she now lives with her husband and daughter in Santa Rosa, CA. She is the mother of a micro preemie girl and shares her healing journey in her blogs and teachings. She shares her transformational Yoga and Mindfulness lessons in workshops and private sessions.
December 3rd was an important day for my family. It was the International Day of Persons with Disability. I wrote a blog for this day titled: Different - Not less. http://bit.ly/2L10cfG People who have "hiccups" like my daughter Sarina says, need us to support them to reach a life of BELONGING not ISOLATION. Or like Helen Keller said... together we can do so much.... The blog was published by The Wellness Universe, a fabulous platform you have heard me mention offering everything we can learn about MInd-Body-Spirit-Planet. Through them, my message is available to over 100k visitors each month. I have been invited to be a core blogger for them and will do so starting in January with at least one blog or blog series published every months. Can you imagine how happy I am to have a platform like this sharing my writing and my story? Writing has become my second passion besides yoga and mindfulness on and off the mat. Both of them work hand in hand. Both of them fuel my wish to be well and resilient despite the challenges I face with raising and living with our special daughter Sarina. They both support my passion as a teacher as they let me share my tools with you... one breath, one word at a time! I'd be thrilled if you have a moment to read my blog for two reasons:
Thank you! And while you are there, check out what The Wellness Universe has to offer. I know you will be inspired! Manuela Rohr is a writer and Yoga teacher/therapist BDY/EYU, C-IAYT. With roots in Germany she now lives with her husband and daughter in Santa Rosa, CA. She is the mother of a micro preemie girl and shares her healing journey in her blogs and teachings. She shares her transformational Yoga and Mindfulness lessons in workshops and private sessions.
Gratitude. Hope. Trust. Rooted in the Now! Happy Thanksgiving,
🍁Always with love, Manuela PS: I'm very happy. My new blog was featured by THE WELLNESS UNIVERSE for Prematurity Awareness Day, November 17, 2018: SARINA - BORN A MICRO PREEMIE - HERE TO BELONG http://bit.ly/2A8wYGp I let this speak for itself: I know we're all affected by the tragedy of the fires unfolding around us. I want to offer to you what I have learned from Pema Chodron, American Tibetan Buddhist. Whatever form of kindness or compassion you give to yourself or others dedicate your practice to someone in need, to a loved one or a group of people.
Compassion for others always begins with kindness to ourselves. I created this poster on Sunday. I've found a great way to use my posters for my practice. I order two to three 4x6 prints online at my local pharmacy. It's 0,25c/copy. And place them around my house. Sometimes one goes on the dashboard in my car. They act as reminders and it works! I rotate them depending on what habits I want to strengthen. To flip the switch is powerful. Remember what we repeat seeds! After noticing the many moments where I caught some negative thoughts...boy there are plenty of annoying things going on...I decided to use this awareness tool again today. As I write my Wednesday Whispers to you so they pop up in your inbox tomorrow I'm thinking: How great would it be if a group of people does this together? A day of flipping the switch. Are you joining? You can also write out the quote on a piece of paper or write "flip the switch" on a sticky note. I sometimes even write a letter on my hand, in this case an "S" for switch to remind me. Anything goes. I imagine you will join and together we are creating a day of mindfulness for ourselves and others. Love that! That's yoga in action to me. 🌷Always with love, Manuela PS: I have created a free private FB group for special moms like me. Please share if you know someone who'd love support and inspiration. The link is below! Manuela Rohr is a writer and Yoga teacher/therapist BDY/EYU, C-IAYT. With roots in Germany she now lives with her husband and daughter in Santa Rosa, CA. She is the mother of a micro preemie girl and shares her healing journey in her blogs and teachings. She shares her transformational Yoga and Mindfulness lessons in private sessions.
The 20-second break is an awareness break. This simple practice saved me from burning up a healthy relationship today; one I didn’t want to lose. It’s simply stopping what you’re doing, thinking, saying, or being for twenty seconds, and then using that 20-seconds to notice what’s happening to you and around you. It’s similar to, breathing before speaking when you’re upset or angry, but this takes it a bit further. It takes presence to live your life mindfully. It’s much easier to react to situations as they come up. It happens to me, it happens to all of us. It’s easier to be the victim of circumstances than it is to choose the path that will make a difference. Awareness is a truth-finder. With awareness comes choice. Choice offers freedom. Stress has moved into most of our lives. It often takes residence like a family member you didn’t know you had. Stress can happen when we do more than we can handle, and when we feel things are out of control. The peaceful moments? Where are they? Add a life-changing event, and you are quickly put over the edge with stress. The 20-second break is a pause in the middle of your day. You can try one before you open the door when you come home or open the fridge before you grab something you really don’t need to eat. Use a break when you know a conversation or situation has the potential to rock you out of your calm. Try a break before you head into your day or go to sleep at night. 20-seconds is about as long as three to four breaths. It’s very easy to do yet very powerful. It stops the auto-pilot. It lets you notice if you are triggered. Here’s How I Used the Power of a Break Recently: I had to make a doctor’s appointment for my daughter. The staff always talks to her, not to me. Sarina is on the Autism Spectrum and often looks absentminded like her head is in the clouds. Nevertheless, she can speak for herself, but needs a bit more time to find her voice at times. Of course, she gets angry when she feels ignored. This office has been a gift to us because they don’t judge her. But not today. Not this week. On our last day in Germany, Sarina was bitten by a nasty bug. The swelling looked gross and infected. We went to the doctor. “Could be a tick bite,” he worried, and put fear on her face. “Get a blood test done when you’re back in the U.S.,” he said and gave her some ointment to ease the pain. Back home, I left messages with her doctor. They usually call back within twenty-four hours. It took four days to get the call back. I told them my story. The nurse wanted to order the test. A minute later, she called back. “Your daughter needs to be seen by her doctor. Call between 8:30-9:00 a.m. tomorrow and we will get her in for a same-day appointment.” At 8:30 a.m. I placed my first call to the answering machine and about thirty-three more calls in the next 30 minutes. I needed this appointment. At 9:10 a.m. a voice I didn’t recognize answered and cut me off before I could finish my sentence. Trigger #1. This woman must have been bitten by a bug herself, her voice was commanding, “You have to call at 8:30 sharp.” Trigger # 2 “Like instructed!” Trigger # 3. “Like everybody else.” Trigger #4. I forgot to breathe. This was a tiger, not just an everyday trigger. I got ready to win this fight. I didn’t. Instead, she up-leveled. “Ma’am,” (usually not a trigger, but today it fit the bill) “Call back tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. sharp.”Sharp? Again? That was trigger #5. I lost it. Shouting at her, I flew into a fit about my difficult life with my autistic daughter and the bug bite in general and hung up. Fuming like a tiger I spit out my bottled-up pain, my anger. My words hit the air like a tsunami. Finally deflated I said to myself, “We don’t have an appointment. We need a new doctor.” Sarina and my husband watched this scene. Sarina liked the action and for once did not comment. My husband had an idea, “Go there and talk to them directly. The Hell you raised on the phone is worthless.” I did. In my car, I recovered and hugged my wounded heart. I relaxed. Before I opened the office door I paused for my 20-second break. It was magic. It worked! The Magic Is in the Break: And this is how you do it…
The waiting room was packed. A familiar face behind the desk greeted me with a smile. The other looked grumpy and belonged to my trigger. I went straight to the smile. Loud and clear I told her what I needed. And finished, “I understand your stresses. The conflict with your colleague on the phone was not needed. I don’t appreciate her rude language.” I left with an afternoon appointment, our relationship intact. Without the 20 seconds, I would have stepped into the office with my loaded thoughts demanding my “right.” Ready to straighten out my trigger. Ready to take my daughter’s file to another office, causing more stress, of course. It takes courage to break free of old patterns and even more courage to let go and forgive when we hurt each other. Forgiving ourselves and the other is food for our soul. I learned about this little awareness gem in my Yoga Therapy training about twenty years ago. It had a profound and lasting impact on my life. It’s one cool tool to help me cope with stress on a daily basis. My teacher Michael Lee, the founder of Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy, introduced it to us as a way of creating the time to become aware. Without taking the time, we rush through life in a fog-like existence. A quote I heard, “awareness is the first step to change and a most important one,” stuck with me. This is what I love about this practice:
Awareness is not only your most powerful tool for solving issues, but it’s also your most powerful friend to get to know yourself better. What simple tools do you use in high-stress situations? If you’ve tried the 20-second break, how did it work for you? Please share your experiences in the comments section below! THIS BLOG WAS PUBLISHED BY THE WELLNESS UNIVERSE: https://bit.ly/2quto5a Manuela Rohr is a writer and Yoga teacher/therapist BDY/EYU, C-IAYT, PRYT. With roots in Germany she now lives with her husband and daughter in Santa Rosa, CA. She is the mother of a micro preemie girl and shares her healing journey in her blogs and teachings. She shares her transformational Yoga and Mindfulness lessons in private sessions.
Join her free FB group for special moms like her: https://bit.ly/2Js2nIl |