Depending on my environment, who is around me and what is happening I can show up gregarious, defiant and rebellious or muted, meek and reserved and everything in between. The polarity expressions are my coping strategies for the freedoms that have been taken away from me. One is preventative, fiery and proactive, the other protective self-preservation.
Right in the middle of these two versions of me, neither too far one way or the other, is how I show up when I feel safe, when I have autonomy and when I have freedom. Quietly confident, comfortable, trusting, loving, open but with healthy boundaries and a strong voice.
Autonomy and freedom are so damn important to me and I am always working to ensure these qualities are respected in the classes I offer and spaces I hold.
This is why in my classes everything is an invitation and you always have my full and explicit permission to do WHATEVER you want (as long as it's not hurting anyone including yourself obvs!) throughout the duration of the class.
You can follow the invitations to movement as loosely or closely as you want to, you can move less, move more, lie down, run outside and do a cartwheel. Whatever you want, whatever you feel.
A woman who's been coming to my classes for years once said to me... 'You never give me the chance to rebel because you never tell me I have to do anything'. As a person who HATES being told what to do this was the ULTIMATE compliment.
These sessions are an invitation to explore the subtle impulses to movement or stillness that might be drowned out by the mind’s ideas about the form a pose should take.
An invitation to trust your inner knowing, respect the well of wisdom you hold within and honour your cyclical nature.
Join me?
Carly x
www.moonforestflow.com
Photo: @ellieindyablack 2019
