March 2015

Well, I went from one extreme, hot jungles and beaches, to the next, snow everywhere.
I love vermont.
The ride up to Killington flew by with good conversation with open hearted Kristel and her spunky black lab pup Jersey.
When we arrived at 'The Good Commons' the beautiful location for our retreat we were greeted by owner Tesha and her baby and she gave us the history of the house that is now 180 years old. It has only had three owners and the big front room that is now a beautiful heated yoga room, used to be the town General store owned by a man in town who's presence may still have been felt in the house this weekend. Not to be weird and kooky but I'll leave it at, the house had incredible energy. The entire area does. And it's no wonder when you realize there's giant rocks with amethyst and healing crystals in it. The house is all run on solar energy and can hold about 30 people comfortably.
I would totally reccomend the good commons to anyone looking to stay near Killington especially a big group or yoga retreat.
We had our own in house masseuse and chef with amazing dinners such as coconut curry with chicken, spinach salad, chic pea salad and avocado chocolate mousse.
Days began with yoga, consisted of awesome snowboarding and long trails, followed by a beer at the long trail and then back to the house for evening activities. We toured brewery's, hung in the lodges by the fire drinking 'broken legs', did hikes, intention settling, art journaling and lots of stretching and creating SPACE.
Allie set making space intention of the weekend.
I've realized I feel very spacious right now.
I create space when I let go of what is taking up space that doesn't serve me.
When I create space there is room for more goodness go flow in. And that's what's happening.
So many new connections and opportunitys.
The last night Mia and I led the most beautifulllll Mala and Mantra workshop. Mia led us through meditation and I made a beautiful Mala with her beads and then I showed everyone how to use them by chanting 108 mantras by candle light. It was a powerful experience and I felt so privileged to be able to lead it!! I'm always the one being the student at these things, listening to other people's travels and being open to them sharing their experience. It was really cool for me to be giving girls travel advice, answering questions, teaching a new skill I learned there, and then leading a spirit ceremony like that. Talk about spiritual sunday!?! BOOM.
It felt so good to guide people into things they've never done before, whether it be a meta meditation, japa mala, or front bird !

Kristel made an awesome snowboarding partner and we bombed down the mountain together even if it meant facing double blacks. We had beautiful weather and conditions. We played in Killingtons awesome all natural terrain park where all the jumps and rails are made from trees and wood. I loved picos winding tree trails as well.
I am so happy to know Kristel and for her inviting me up here and experiencing two new mountains and 12 new friends!

Everything here is so fresh, the air, the food, and so connected to nature. Has me feeling like I could move to Vermont and do a winter being a ski bum. Great to get up here again.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

VERMONT

So many new connections.
So many new friends .
Feeling so grateful to Allie and Kristel for allowing me to come on the ItsWell and Grace and Glory Yoga and Ski retreat and giving me the opportunity to teach!
I officially taught my first ACROVINYASA class ! And it went great. Feeling so grateful to all the girls who were open to trying something new and came to my 8 am class yesterday even after a long night of wine and cards against humanity.

Rather than the popular hashtag #nonewfriends we've decided to #KNOWnewfriends ?✨?

Coming home has been quite the transitional experience .
From hot to cold, solitary to social, and so much more.

I've realized that if I tell my students in yoga to speak their heart and only accept what is the truth for them and what is best for them. I need to walk the walk. You need to be completely honest with yourself, about yourself and your life and what's happening, in order to implement progressive change into your life.

Change is a powerful thing, and usually leading up to a change I can feel it coming.
As I arrived home there was an extremely powerful shift happening astrologically. A super moon, a new moon and solar eclipse all at once, can be a special moment to ignite dreams and create. It is a symbol of new beginnings.

Beginnings and endings are vital and monumental for personal growth. When we feel one of these transitions coming and we fight it, we suffer.

I thought I was coming home, to allot of firmiliarity , allot of work, and the same old. But instead I implemented some of what I learned while away, to start a conversation with myself about facing some change I've felt coming for a long time, about really following my bliss and the first step to getting what I want, even if I don't know what it is, is getting rid of what I don't want. And this is in every aspect of our lives, friends, relationship, thoughts, jobs, foods, state of being.

So here I am, starting from scratch, new outlook, new tatoo ?, new work schedule, new plan, new self improvements, new habits. And the new will only allow the best. This is an ambitious statement of a paragraph to make but basically all Im saying is Im clearing out. Starting from blank I can create a canvas of anything I want. And I see that the more I close doors of insecurity, a million new ones open to thank me for taking that step. When you are moving from a place of love, the universe will support you with goodness and give you so many reasons to smile after one moment to frown.

This being said, I came home for one week, and began planning new things, one of the first things I have in the works that is announced is a 7 week workshop series at ItsWell Yoga in Wildwood.
This beautiful studio space is filled with such loving, happy, open students. And is created by my dear hardworking friend Kristel Fillmore. It is safe to say this studio is one of my absolute favorites I have ever worked with. ACROVINYASA goodness will be filling their walls every Thursday night soon!
And the day I reached out to Kristel to plan this, her husband found out he couldn't go on her ski and yoga retreat that weekend. So BOOM an available space opened up for this retreat leaving in two days, and the lift tickets, food, lodging was all set.
Here I am left with a blank work schedule, and an opportunity to ski again, connect with new yogis, and teach ACROVINYASA!!! Besides, it was still cold when I got home, surfings a while away for me, and I make do with it what I've got.
So DUH
Off I goto Vermont!

In other news, these few days home have been wonderful, seeing those of you who Id missed. I Got to see my city again and attend AC beer fest and Garden State Film Festival. Came home just in time to celebrate the love of one of my favorite couples kelly and Stephen, kuddos on following that bliss and making that change. And I am still feeling grateful to all of you who have supported this journey and this growth in anyway. I love you all!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Life treats me beautifully when I let go of my plans and adjust to the one already out there for me.
I am letting change flow freely and being open to what is ahead. I know the universe has my back.

w

Leaving training was a bit rushed as I tried to pack and take pictures with Honza and Claudine and say bye to everyone after the morning practice, closing ceremony, and breakfast. We were aimed to leave for 1230 but around that time I was just starting to throw things in my suit case in the unorganized way that I do especially after many arak cocktails the previous night. As I was cursing myself for celebrating my graduation and not being present at all, I went to check my phone to see if the driver had messaged. Dripping wet from the shower all over my phone I actually trickled water down into the outlet and electrocuted myself like the intelligent hungover human that I am. I felt a painful pang in my thumb and then this electric sensation run all through my body, every cell. It was actually kinda cool as my whole body shook for only about half a second it felt to me like time had stopped. I sware I felt like I was having an out of body experience just watching this happen to my body and thinking in my head, 'Wow, I am such a dumb ass am I going to Die? ' but then in an instant it was over. I didn't die, and I looked out at this beautiful view of the water in my open room in front of me and I took 10 deep breaths. Each breath feeling grateful for something, thankful to be alive, thankful for this life I live. And then I was able to slow down and move with presence again... Which is maybe why we didn't leave untill 230 ??.

After a long day of shopping and traveling I got to Canggu late at night. John and I found our friends Ryan and Ami at the Canggu Surf Hostel and stayed with them. We all met up with some others from training at Canggus ever popular bar 'Deus Cafe'. The set up is awesome, there's always live music and it's packed with absolutely beautiful people. Seriously like hipster, surfer, man buns everywhere and girls who look like they just stepped out of vogue. This gave me a good idea of what Canggu would be like, looks like a yogi surfer heaven, but is actually a bit too sceney , less friendly, and expensive for my liking.

None the less, I was begging for more than just my three days there. Savoring every hour I had left in Bali. I finally got really comfortable driving a motor bike around the busy streets and rice fields of Bali, of course right before I left.

Days in Canggu consisted of random meet ups with friends from training, an awesome surf hostel and group sessions at morning and sunset, followed by a shower and some drinks at old mans. My last day I had a great morning session followed by a bright pink nagga bowl and topped off with the ever famous 'Taco Tatoouesday' at Dues. Home of the 2$ taco that comes with a free tatoo. Enough margaritas to numb the pain and make for a good sleep traveling, but not too many to miss a flight. Life is all about balance right?

And so begins the journey back! See Ya soon Jersey!!

As the days went on in teacher training the physical and mental demand escalated.

While learning to teach some pretty cool Acro transitions such as half barrel roll, we also had practice teaches and observations.
We were broken up into groups based on home location and my group was all New Jersey friends and one goddess originally from Connecticut and now gone New Yorker. We were originally named the 'Big Apple Wanna Bes', thanks Honza. We grew as teachers together, learned from one another, and fell in love together and decided the name 'Tri State Terrors' was more appropriate for our bad ass group.
Such a privledge to learn from Laura and Her sweet husband Eddie (aka Acro Eddie) , encounter my soul sister Anna who works for wanderlust, to practice teach with John and bond with my Roomie Courtney. Who would have thought I'd travel across the world only to room with another girl from New Jersey!? We may change the garden state into the Acro state from now on.

Honza being the knowledgable perfectionist that he is would give us great advice on our teaching. We worked on filler words, presence, and really refinning our teaching. And I kept thinking how lucky am I to be learning from him. One of the co owners of Wanderlust Australisaia , founder of YogaBeyond and AcroVinyasa and he thinks I'm a great teacher!?! It really was the inspiration and boost I've been needing.

So many laughs in this lovely group of ours in the afternoons and of course night session meet ups and 'Cuddle Puddles' with our other fabulous groups such as the dirty down unders , or incredible intercontinentals. It was amazing to see two local indonesian teachers, two girls from Sweden, one from France, an amazing couple from Brazil and they all learned just as we did. Translating the whole course in their head to English. Every once and a while there may have been a misunderstanding or lost word, but the warmth of their smiles would smooth it over. Because little words are not important, but it's where these words are coming from. The feeling, intention and meaning behind those words. In fact often we connected by eye gazing techniques with no words at all, and through this you can say so much without saying any words at all. Throughout the week the eye gazing got harder as much more eyes were filled with tears. We shared lots of hugs and day by day as we shed layers and layers of ego, and stories of who we are, we could really see each other, more and more. And like it's said, no matter what the words or nationality A Smile is the same in every language.

The last day we spent Acro jamming at white sand beach and then had a big night out full of kareoke, awesome dance parties , and pool parties. So now we all finish together! We all made it! I am graduating with an excellent practice teach and a 90 percent on my test. And I am overwhelmed with joy and excitement! Feeling so honored to be one of the very first ACROVINYASA teachers in the whole world! Thank you everyone who made this possible for me. Thank you Claudine and Honza for such an amazing opportunity and experience .

From earth to air
-Rachael xo

Little dirty dancing action.