January Newsletter

Dear Beloveds,

I am just returning from co-leading the Guatemala Magic Women’s Yoga & Healing Retreat and I am still glowing and soaring from this experience. What a Treat this Retreat was!

What I am first present too, is the cohesiveness my dear friend and co-leader, Lauren Leduc, of Karma Tribe Yoga, and I had. This was a our 3rd year leading this retreat together and it felt like it deepened and flowed in a way that it never had before. (3rd times a charm, right?) I think what showed up was the work we’ve both been doing on ourselves, softening down into our bodies and following more of the feminine principles of allowing and trust. Not to mention, we both we’re just in a much better place in our lives.

I had two major shifts happen for me while I was there. The first was during our Mayan Fire Ceremony lead by a Native Shaman. We had written what we’d like to burn and bless on papers, and he came around giving us a bowl full of sand, rocks and wood to put the paper in. We were to go up to the fire and put the contents into it, giving it away.

Well, I couldn’t exactly see what was happening or how to do this as I was sitting directly behind the demonstration. So when it was my turn, I went up and said a prayer of gratitude and poured some of it in. I went to hand him the bowl and he motioned for me to dump all of it into the fire. I immediately laughed because this was an exact representation of my nature. “You want me to let go of all of it?!” I said softly and chuckled out loud. Wow, received that message from Spirit and how I continue to hold onto things in my life, thinking I need to learn through suffering. Not knowing how to let go. Ha! Well when I realized this I threw the rest into the fire and said to Spirit, “I get it, lol, this is comical. I can be so unaware of how I just naturally, and automatically hold onto pain in my life. I can just let it go and choose to have fun!”

It was one of those moments that was truly an alchemical process. I literally was changing matter into smoke, air and ether by burning these items, caught myself in the act of hanging on, and got to laugh it out – the laughter and playfulness of it lifting the heavy frequency to a higher vibration. I immediately felt elated after and continued to choose living, learning and being from a place of joy the rest of the week and not from pain and suffering. This is a huge new discovery for who I’ve been in this life, I would especially say since the age of 23, and I don’t just feel it in my head. It not only resonates as a knowing, but as an embodiment as well. I can feel the change in my body energetically. A shift from living in fear to living in love.

The second major shift that happened for me, that I believe was one of the products of the first shift in the fire ceremony, was all of this playfulness, expansion, and adventuress side came out of me. I was being fun and exuding it everywhere. Laughing and playing around. I felt joyful and was offering that joy to my interactions, with humans and non.

Even some of my fears faded and I went running and jumped off a high dock into the lake! Didn’t even think or stop to hesitate. It felt amazing to soar through the air and splash down into the water. Screaming in delight and basking in the cold water. I got into the lake again later that week and went swimming, something in past years has deterred me by the low temp of the water and murkiness of the lake. I adverturessly explored hiking around the retreat center. I could just feel more of a playful, bold and daring side of me take hold and express itself with less fear than I have had in quite some time. I have always had this side to me, but a lot of it got lost in pain and suffering for over a decade. A decade where I learned a lot, but was finally ready to move on and let go of.

I have got to say, it feels so good to have this part of my self back. I missed her and look forward to seeing what other fun she has and how she chooses joy, love and expansion….and anything else she’d like to feel and embody.

I got to see the sisters on this retreat open to this too. To witness them blossom from matter to energy as the week went on and we worked our way up the Chakra’s and elements from Earth to Ether. To see them undergo an alchemical process themselves. Transforming what has made them most heavy, to what makes them most light.

That is the process we are all undergoing, whether we’re conscious of it or not and no matter at what pace. It took me quite a while of sludging around in the mud, thinking it was mine to hold onto and I needed it to learn, to finally see that we all have a choice. Yes, we all can have extreme experiences in life that can take us down and break us at the knees; and we get to choose what we make of them. How we learn from them and if we choose to turn that pain into our passion and purpose. To light us up and fuel our desires.

This is the alchemical process of learning to listen from our hearts. By making the trek from living in our heads, to being in our hearts.

PS: Stay tuned to my Instagram @lisalolaliving + Facebook Business Page Lisa Lola Healing Arts to see photo’s from this amazing retreat! The pic above is from Villa Sumaya, the retreat center where we stayed. I HIGHLY recommend this place for groups or even a private writing or couples retreat. You will not be disappointed. Check out their website here: Villa Sumaya

With joy, love and expansion,

Lisa