Hello! My name is Kate.
I don’t remember where I was or what I was doing when I first felt the tug. It was the feeling that I was missing something–but not the everyday feeling of forgetting something like your keys. This was a sinking feeling that I was really missing something. Maybe I felt it because I could no longer deny the fact that my marriage was ending. Maybe I felt it because I was getting older and starting to ask myself the big questions in life. Maybe it was because I’d spent years practicing yoga and wondered why I struggled to feel the same sense of peace in my life as I felt on my mat. Maybe it was all of these or none of these at once. But yet there was this tug, and the more I tried to ignore it or rationalize it away, the more I felt I had reached a turning point.
In the self-exploration that followed, I realized that I wanted to be more present in my life. I wanted to act with awareness and intention instead of reacting out of old habits and fears. I wanted to spend less time worrying or caught up in my head and more time experiencing the moments in my life. I wanted to risk sharing more of myself with others, but first I needed to rediscover who I truly was.
This process is hard work, because the answers are not out in the world but inside of us. We have to turn inward and find the courage to be still and to listen, to accept and withhold judgment, to feel and let go. It can be intense work, but the reward is being able to live in agreement with your values, to be more present in each moment, and to forge a deeper connection to yourself and those you choose to share yourself with.
In my experience, yoga has been a critical piece of this process. And while I am only beginning my journey, I am drawn to share what I have learned with others who feel the tug, who want to live more fully.
The title for this site comes from the poem “The Sunflowers” by Mary Oliver. The first time I read the poem, I was struck by the imagery of the flowers uprightly burning. I still am.