Curiosity and The Desire to Learn

“Mindfulness without curiosity is impossible. When we turn toward our present-moment experience we do that in order to learn about it, to perceive it fully. When we are on autopilot there is no space for curiosity. We can explore how being curious changes our perception of the moment. It’s the antidote for autopilot and boredom. We can become curious about anything if we choose to, asking questions like: “What is here that I’m not yet aware of?” or “What is this?” ~ Christiane Wolf, MD, PH D and J. Greg Serpa, PHD

 

Curiosity is an attitude that shines naturally and brightly in our pets and small children. When my youngest was very little, the question I heard often was: What’s next? Getting in the car after school: Mom, what’s next? We’re driving home. When we got home before getting out of the car: Mom, what’s next?  We’re going to open the door, get out of the car, open the gate, walk into our yard and…you see where I’m going with this? It’s no wonder I was on bedrest for the last two months of that pregnancy. I was carrying a tiny human who to this day, at age 17, is looking at the horizon and planning what’s next. 

There is nothing wrong with “What’s next?” We can invite the attitude of curiosity into our questions, wondering, planning, dreaming, imagining with the desire to learn and cultivate understanding about what it is we are creating. Curiosity into fielding the question of, What's next? A question that is naturally full of curiosity and wonder!

Curiosity as antidote for autopilot. When we find ourselves on autopilot, in this day and age, that might be the automatic pick up of the phone to check and see what notifications are on the screen and click, click, click. When this happens, we can pause. Take three slow breaths. Feel our feet touching the ground, breathe into the heart and inquire, is this really necessary or can this wait? Is there anything urgent that really needs tending to or can I put the phone down (or not pick it up for the moment) and be. Be what? Present. Maybe something else is more important. Like picking up Ollie and continuing to trim her hair while I await response from the vet about her next hair cut. Which will be done by the time he replies by the looks of it. Curiosity to notice what else is here. In this case, something -- someone -- else needs my attention more than my phone.

Curiosity as antidote for boredom. Interestingly, boredom is also known as a portal to creativity. When my kids were younger and our goddaughter lived with us, I left them all a note one day: “No screen time. Let yourselves get bored. It’s the portal to creativity.” No one burnt down the house or died of boredom that day. When I was growing up, there was almost a fear of boredom, an instilled belief that boredom was bad or dangerous, a time when kids got into trouble. I’m sure the message I received growing up came from somewhere and I value that for what it was. And, in meditation, we are always looking at the relationship. How we are relating to our experience, moment to moment. Relationships change. When boredom is present, we can pause and notice what it feels like and be. Be what? Aware. Aware that boredom is present and how we are relating to boredom. What do you do when you feel bored?

 

As a friend recently wrote to me about curiosity, "It keeps us awake and engaged. Looking for answers. And finding questions we have in the back of our minds, but never had a form until we see something that reminds us it was always there." The question, 'What’s next?' just might be another way of saying, 'What is here right now?' Because no matter how much we may wish to slow down time as our lives speed by, there is no going back. Years go by, hair turns gray, kids grow up and the next breath – as long as we are alive – is going to happen and then the one after that and so on. We only get so many breaths each time around.

Curiosity as gateway to presence. A desire to learn offers an opportunity to experience the moment with a little less forward motion and a little more width and depth to notice what else is here that we may not have noticed before. This moment is brand new. The next breath has never happened before. No matter how many times I’ve sat in this window seat, written on this computer, sipped coffee from this mug, felt the south sun warming my back, this is the first time today. That makes the experience brand new. Ignites a curiosity to open to what else is here. Within and around me. 

We can invite curiosity to the familiar and unfamiliar and tap into the magic as well as the mundane. There is no separation between the practical and the mystical. To be deeply aware and fully present connects us to all that is here. Curiosity is infinite in its ability to teach us even when it feels unavailable or like curiosity has taken a nap. As a student shared in class yesterday, we can be curious about not feeling curious. And we can do this while remembering the two wings of mindfulness: non-judgmental awareness and compassion. Heart qualities soften our experience and remind us whenever possible, to hold our experience lightly. Let it be what it is and remember, this too will change.

Curiosity as pathway to rejuvenation. Openness with fresh perspective can rejuvenate and revitalize our relationships with ourselves --- bodies, breaths, minds, hearts --- our loved ones, the less than favorite ones, art projects and the laundry, gray rainy weather to hair blown windy days and the sunny still days in between. This moment is vast and every moment is brand new. As curiosity grows within the relationship with ourselves, we can expand curiosity into our relationship with others.

 

As we moves towards closing this piece, a reflection: Is there any place in your life right now that could feel enlivened, rejuvenated, revitalized by inviting the attitude of curiosity and desire to learn into this relationship? A place, a creative endeavor, the relationship with yourself, another person, group, the earth?

In any moment, we can invite the attitude of curiosity and the desire to learn. In our ever changing world and as we become aware of our differences, we can desire to learn about each other with the intention of understanding one another better. We can celebrate our different backgrounds, cultures, geographical locations, socioeconomic status, orientation, identities, dreams, aspirations, likes and dislikes by slowing down, stepping back and perceiving what is in front of us with fresh new eyes and the desire to learn. We only know what we know and there is so much more to learn and ways to grow.

May your curiosity be bright and desire to learn remain awake.

Humbly yours,

Tehroma

 

Hokusai Says by Roger S. Keyes

"Hokusai says look carefully.
He says pay attention, notice.
He says keep looking, stay curious.
He says there is no end to seeing.

He says look forward to getting old.
He says keep changing,
you just get more who you really are.
He says get stuck, accept it, repeat
yourself as long as it is interesting.

He says keep doing what you love.

He says keep praying.

He says everyone of us is a child,
everyone of us is ancient,
everyone of us has a body.
He says everyone of us is frightened.
He says everyone of us has to find
a way to live with fear.

He says everything is alive–
shells, buildings, people, fish,
mountains, trees, wood is alive.
Water is alive.

Everything has its own life.

Everything lives inside us.

He says live with the world inside you.

He says it doesn’t matter if you draw,
or write books. It doesn’t matter
if you saw wood, or catch fish.
It doesn’t matter if you sit at home
and stare at the ants on your veranda
or the shadows of the trees
and grasses in your garden.
It matters that you care.

It matters that you feel.

It matters that you notice.

It matters that life lives through you.

Contentment is life living through you.
Joy is life living through you.
Satisfaction and strength
is life living through you.

Peace is life living through you.

He says don’t be afraid.
Don’t be afraid.

Look, feel, let life take you by the hand.

Let life live through you."

Roger S. Keyes

 

Humor and The Party in My Heart

  “Life is way too serious to be taken too seriously.” Jon Kabat-Zinn 

If you are new to my writing and life, a little about me so we can get to know each other. Originally from Oregon, I've lived in Baja California Sur, Mexico in the small beach town of Los Barriles for thirty years. I am beginning to transition from living full time in LB to little bits of time on our Rancho el Aventadero. I recently retired from the high pressured and deeply rewarding livelihood of architecture and business shared with my engineer husband for twenty five years. 

This year, our youngest will graduate from high school. An empty nest on a knoll awaits us part or full time.

I teach yoga and meditation full time now in my Sukhasana Studio in Los Barriles. Thai Massage & Reiki Healing, compliment the group classes and private sessions I offer. And, this month, I will graduate from the two year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program. 

Every week, I choose a theme, an attitude, a word. Something I can delve into, develop and share in my classes.

This year is full of big transitions in our life. 

Inspiration to start the year with Humor and a light heart. 

New Years Day, for the first time in a long while, I wrote a poem titled, 

The Party in My Heart

Leaps of joy,

tiny bursts of happiness.

That is the up,

uplifting of my soul.

Balanced by

the drops

of sadness,

inner decent

into the knowing

of letting go.

Trusting this inner

dance, the music

within this container,

this body

my feet to carry me,

this face to face

the world.

The courage to

all the while

feel the party

inside my heart.

 

My relationship with humor and comedy goes back to remembering laughter with my parents as a child. Spans to laughing with my family. With two children – now ages 25 and 17 – living on one piece of property, a husband and our circus of pets, the quirks of each individual family member, the aging dog who runs into our legs and so we move with care, the younger energetic Ollie and three cats, I find humor to be a lifeline in the crazy wonders of sharing the daily existence with so many as we dance around each other, hang together and give each other loads of space. 

When I was eleven, my parents separated and during that summer, I spent a lot of time at a friend’s house down the road where we lived in Crescent City, California. My friend’s parents would let me stay up late while everyone slept and I would watch stand up comedy on the tv in the living room. The healing power of laughter during a time of sadness and confusion when the world I knew had ended became a lifeline. A way of coping. Remembering then and onward into my life that when all falls apart or changes and uncertainty settles in, finding humor in the little things helps bring light to the dark corners of the heart. Humor as a lifeline and reminder that, as Jon Kabat-Zinn’s quote reminds us above, “Life is way too serious to take too seriously.”   

Humor is one of the foundational attitudes of Mindfulness. And the more we practice Mindfulness Meditation, the more we can notice the interplay of all the attitudes and how they support one another.

When I worked long days at a desk and from deep inside my imagination, drawing and designing custom homes or special spaces for our clients, sometimes, I would get stuck. Frustrated. To clear my mind, sometimes I would leaf through design books, or stand up, take a breath or break and one of my go-tos was again, comedy. Laughter reminded me to loosen my grip and let go a bit so I could dive in and continue on.

My favorite comedians share the same characteristics as my favorite meditation teachers: they are wise and insightful, down to earth, kind and compassionate, truthful and share how they don’t take themselves too seriously. They share depth, as well as, a light hearted sense of humor which comes from experience and humility.

Through mindfulness, we can become aware of when and where there is a struggle or suffering and when possible --- and appropriate --- remember the possibility, the invitation to recognize our humanity with humility and humor for this human predicament.

 Reflections from class this week:

• Where is humor inspired in your own life?
• Where does humor naturally arise for you?
• Where might a little more humor – when and where it is appropriate – fit into your daily life?

The healing power of laughter is at the heart of my home and family. Humor arises when I share with one of my kids, “I had a terrible dream last night.” And the response with a smile is, “Did you have another dream about teaching, Mom?” And the reminder that in all my years of high stress design-build work, I never had so many nightmares. The humor of a terrible dream being, I fell asleep while I was teaching and all my students left the room. The humor in remembering the years ago when I regularly attended a weekly yoga class and see my reflection in the mirror, a red faced strained warrior II pose and then remember to lighten the grip and relax a bit. How serious does a warrior pose really need to be? The humor and tenderness in moments walking on the beach before dawn with my husband during a particularly challenging period of raising a teenager and through the tears, saying, I know, the primary message I’ve given my kids is: ‘Be who you are. Don’t let anyone tell you who you are. Discover for yourself.’ And the humor when I realized that meant I had to change to adapt when I thought I had thought of every possible scenario and my imagination ran short. And through the tears, I let go and laughed. The compassion and kindness of my husband holding space for my tears and my laughter and letting me have my experience without trying to change what I was feeling, how I was relating to the changes in our lives or even the shift from tears to laughter and then tears again.

Life will fill space with unimagined wonder. Curve balls will fly. People will die. And life will go on. We cannot wait for better times when the clouds are overhead or darkening our heart. There are times when laughter is easier to access than others.

Humor doesn’t have to result in laughter. Humor isn’t always the answer. Or even appropriate. When I was preparing classes for last week with developing the theme of humor, I realized I wasn’t feeling very funny. I found humor in that. And the reminder that taking life a little less seriously doesn’t mean we have to laugh about it. Or even smile. Or find anything funny. Letting our experience be what it is and our feeling states to be as they are – irritation, anger, sadness, whatever is there – and holding it lightly is a way of taking life a little less seriously, struggling and suffering a little less. And every bit of letting go and letting be can lead us to more ease and increased capacity to be with this moment-to-moment experience of being fully human.

Humor arises from humility and connects us, reminds us of our shared humanity. Wherever we are, however we are, we are not alone.

When humor arises and laughter bubbles up and I feel happiness, I give gratitude for the gift of remembering and knowing, this too will change.

May your heart be light and your humor kind.

Humbly yours,

Tehroma

 

 

So Much Happiness

By Naomi Shihab Nye

“It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.
With sadness there is something to rub against,
a wound to tend with lotion and cloth.
When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to pick up,
something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs or change.

But happiness floats.
It doesn’t need you to hold it down.
It doesn’t need anything.
Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,
and disappears when it wants to.
You are happy either way.
Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house
and now live over a quarry of noise and dust
cannot make you unhappy.
Everything has a life of its own,
it too could wake up filled with possibilities
of coffee cake and ripe peaches,
and love even the floor which needs to be swept,
the soiled linens and scratched records . . .

Since there is no place large enough
to contain so much happiness,
you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you
into everything you touch. You are not responsible.
You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit
for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,
and in that way, be known.”

I am here

I know I am here

When I can feel the rise and fall of 

life flowing through me,
When I can hear my own breathing
In concert with the sounds around me
Birds, the multitude
Of songs, wings flapping
A cow in the distance
The soft rustle of leaves
In the trees
Sheltering doves
Cooing
Cows mooing
When I can see
Light sparkling
Through branches
Onto stone and brick,
A chosen place for
The cat to lay on
His side and curl one paw
As he too listens to
The sound of birds
Singing, flapping wings
A dog barking in the distance
Purple flowers moving,
Bobbing in the breeze
Clouds in light gray
Hovering over bright
Morning sunlight peeking
Through palm fronds
Reminding me
The warmth of day
Motivated me to get out
Of bed to enjoy this
Cool window and when
The sun shines down
It will be time
To move
Knowing, appreciating
This time
Gifted for the dust
Of my mind to settle
Waking with vivid dreams
And mundane things
Concerns and wonderings
The murk, the inner
Gray clouds
And light to shine
On sparkling gems
Found
Along sandy pathways
Of a beloved mind, lived with
Breathed with
Everywhere I go
Knowing, remembering:
I am here.

Tehroma Lask

June 2019

Mindfulness of the Body

 

There are many ways of describing mindfulness and meditation. In this piece, I’ll be sharing one perspective, one voice and encouraging you to cultivate and deepen your own. This is not a “how to” article or exhaustive definition of mindfulness or meditation. It is simply a personal share with one of the things I love most: personal stories.

I like to imagine mindfulness as an ongoing awakening of the senses and through this awakening, a deepening in presence. 

And I like to remember meditation as a natural state of being. Being aware of where and how I am moment to moment, day by day. As many moments as I can. And with as much curiosity, openness and non-judgemental awareness as possible. 

It feels as natural to connect with my five basic senses and a myriad of ways of being in this body as it feels normal to become distracted and forget where I am and momentarily what is real. 

All of the above is constantly changing. My inner world evolves as much as the outer world that surrounds me. 

Two of my favorite teachers, two humans I’ve learned a profound amount about being human are my two children. They are grown and growing. I continue to learn and grow as I watch them learn and grow.

When my firstborn came into the world, I was twenty-two and ten years away from stepping foot into a yoga class and even longer before sitting down for formal meditation. I was young and beginning to learn how to care for another human being’s heart, body, mind and soul. It was a time of intense focus to build a home, a life, a family. I was the company’s bookkeeper and found comfort in long hours at the office spent plugging in numbers and coming up with reports. I spent a lot of time in my head. 

As I watched my son discover the world around him through his senses, I slowly become more connected with my own. I saw him studying toys and anything in front of him with a curious gaze. This brought awareness to see with more curiosity. I saw him smell everything he picked up – the pediatrician asked if he was putting things in his mouth and I said, no, he brings things close and inhales. I paid more attention to my sense of smell deepening my love for plumerias. When we attended children’s parties, he would slowly make is way into the crowd. Taking in the sounds, sights, surroundings. This made me more aware of my own sensitivities to external stimulus. Especially sound. When he was two, he discovered how to turn on the hose and feel the water flowing out. Cool water running over his hands, his small feet connected with the wet earth. This deepened my awareness of sensation, touch, something as simple and wonderful as cool water and how it feels on the skin. And, when he was tired and ready to leave a gathering and pulled on my skirt, I remembered where my body was in space: proprioception. Sight, smell, hearing, touch. Tasting new foods always came after smell, making the experience doubly rich to witness and I imagine to experience.

Towards the end of my twenties, I found myself at home on bed rest awaiting the birth of our second child. This experience brought me deeper into connection with my own body. To be still out of medical instruction and necessity. After two weeks of climbing the walls – I was not accustomed to long periods of stillness – I surrendered. A voice deep within me said, who knows when you will experience this much quiet again? Sink in. I learned to be still and feel my body from the inside out: interoception. 

A few years later, I found yoga, bringing me deeper into my sense awareness, proprioception, interoception. Later, meditation and mindfulness of the body, breath, thoughts and emotions. 

As I continue to grow as a mother, formally and informally in yoga, meditation and mindfulness, my connection to this physical form becomes more alive. Embodied awareness. 

While much is uncertain in this life, I can count on this body to be right here, right now for as long as I am alive and breathing. Moment to moment reminders of where, how and what I am. When I look in the mirror, I see gray hairs and reminders of life passing quickly. I don’t want to miss a moment! I want to live and be as fully present, alive and open to this life I am experiencing. And in the moments when I feel overwhelm, my thoughts racing, worried, sad, angry or anxiety rears its familiar head, when I feel overwhelmed, I can pause. I feel my feet touch the ground, I can see what is front of me, breathe in the air and listen to the rise and fall of sounds, I can take a drink of water and notice how this moment feels, cultivating a sense of being at home in this body. Just for this moment. And the next. I can slow down the racing thoughts, cultivate compassion for the worries and anxieties I notice, I can steady my heart and mind. One moment and breath at a time.

“It is a strange and wonderful fact to be here, walking around in a body, to have a whole world within you and a world at your fingertips outside you. It is an immense privilege, and it is incredible that humans manage to forget the miracle of being here. Rilke said, ‘Being here is so much,’ and it is uncanny how social reality can deaden and numb us so that the mystical wonder of our lives goes totally unnoticed. We are here. We are wildly and dangerously free.” ― John O'Donohue

Diversidad e Inclusividad en Comunidad

Queridos amigos, familiares, empleados, colegas, alumnos, miembros de comunidad y humanos divinos que son:

Me gustaría compartir con ustedes algo importante para mí, tanto en lo personal como lo profesional y sobre todo: humanitario. Comparto lo siguiente en calidad de compartir, invitar, ofrecer. Si algo resuena contigo, bueno. Si no resuena contigo, bueno. Nada a la fuerza. Sin juzgar. 

“Los problemas de las diferentes capacidades o limitaciones físicas no se tratan solo de adaptarse a las necesidades individuales de las personas que experimentan esas limitaciones.

Es un problema para todos nosotros, particularmente porque todos seguramente sentiremos heridos, enfermedades e incapacidades en algún momento de nuestras vidas.

El sexismo y la violencia hacia las mujeres no solo involucran la experiencia de las mujeres, particularmente cuando los perpetradores no son mujeres. Nos involucra a todos.

La homofobia no es solo un problema para los gays, lesbianas, bisexuales y personas transgénero o sin género.

El racismo no solo afecta o involucra a las comunidades de color.

Todos estos problemas requieren conciencia y participación de todos nosotros.

Así es como estamos interrelacionados.

Como escribió el Dr. King, "Requiere conciencia de todos nosotros".

La creación de la paz en el mundo, que tan desesperadamente la necesita, no es diferente a la creación de la paz dentro de nosotros mismos ". ~ Larry Yang 

DEIA = Diversidad, Equidad, Inclusividad y Accesibilidad es parte de una formación y especialidad que estoy cursando desde Febrero 2021-Febrero 2023. El DEIA cae bajo una formación de maestros de meditación -- MMTCP = Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program -- con maestros reconocidos a nivel internacional: Jack Kornfield y Tara Brach.

Esta formación recibió más de 6,000 aplicantes, de las cuales quedamos en el programa 2,500 alumnos y practicantes de meditación de 75 diferentes países a nivel mundial. Es profundamente gratificante haber quedado en el programa, estudiar con maestras compasivos, con experiencia amplia y con compañeros diversos de diferentes partes del mundo. He conocido a personas con diversas culturas, creencias, niveles socioeconómicos, orientación sexual, identidad de género y así sucesivamente. Sirve recordar que formamos parte de un mundo amplio y diverso. Y mientras podemos leer sobre la diversidad y sirve, vivir la diversidad e incorporarla en nuestra vida cotidiana, es normalizar la diversidad. Es celebrar nuestras diferencias y reconocer que cada persona aportamos algo único, bello y vivible a esta experiencia humildemente humano, divino y compartido.

Dentro del DEIA, un área importante para mí apoyar es la comunidad de LGBTQ y en especial dentro de la misma comunidad, las personas que se identifican como transgénero o no-binario. Cuando una persona, joven o de cualquier edad, vive en experiencia propia la transición o evolución de identidad de género afecta profundamente a toda la familia. Hay herramientas para apoyar tanto a uno mismo como toda la familia. Así, vivir la transición con menos estrés y más tranquilidad para todos.

Si algo me ha ensenado esta pandemia es: El cambio sucederá, si me gusta o no. Sufro menos cuando apoyo mi bienestar para fluir con los cambios. Sufro menos cuando apoyo al prójimo y respeto su diversidad. Sufro menos cuando bajo la resistencia. Sufro menos cuando abro mi mente y corazón a aprender. Sufro menos cuando practico humildad y compasión.

Dependiendo de donde vivimos en el planeta y otros factores, tenemos diferentes derechos para decidir como fluir con los cambios.

¿Como quieres ser tú en este tiempo de evolución?

Que elijes: ¿Resistir los cambios? ¿Aprender algo nuevo con humildad?

La elección es tuya. Toma tu tiempo. Nada a la fuerza.

Que tu elección sea tuya, curiosa y compasiva. Sin juzgar.

 A continuación, se encuentran los acuerdos para interacciones multiculturales que usamos como base en nuestras reuniones del DEIA y Meditacion de Atencion Plena.

 Tan solo leerlas, en mi opinión, ayudan a abrir la mente y el corazón, tanto como poner los pies sobre la tierra.

 

Acuerdos para interacciones multiculturales de EBMC

(East Bay Meditation Center)

 

Pruébelo: esté dispuesto a "probar" nuevas ideas o formas de hacer las cosas que podrían no ser las que prefiere o con las que está familiarizado. 

Practique el enfoque personal: preste atención y hable sobre sus propias experiencias y respuestas. No hable por todo un grupo ni exprese suposiciones sobre la experiencia de otros. 

Comprenda la diferencia entre "intención e impacto": intente comprender y reconocer el impacto. Negar el impacto de algo dicho centrándose en la intención suele ser más destructivo que la interacción inicial. 

Practique "Ambos / Y": Al hablar, sustituya "pero" por "y". Esta práctica reconoce y honra múltiples realidades. 

Abstenerse de culparse o avergonzarse a sí mismo y a los demás: practique dar una retroalimentación hábil. 

Acercar / Retroceder: Fomente la participación total de todos los presentes. Toma nota de quien está hablando y quién no. Si tiende a hablar con frecuencia, considere "retroceder" y viceversa. 

Practica la escucha consciente: trata de evitar planificar lo que dirás mientras escuchas a los demás. Esté dispuesto a sorprenderse, a aprender algo nuevo. Escuche con todo su ser. 

Confidencialidad: llévese los conocimientos adquiridos a casa, pero no identifique a nadie más que a usted mismo, ni ahora ni más tarde. Si desea hacer un seguimiento con alguien con respecto a algo que dijo en esta sesión, pregunte primero y respete sus deseos. 

Derecho a pasar: puede decir "paso" si no desea hablar. 

 

Gracias por tu tiempo valioso y por leer este mensaje. 

Con amor, compasión y humildad,

Tehroma Lask

Ser Humano

Madre

Esposa

Hija

Amiga

Arquitecto

Maestra de Yoga & Meditación

Terapeuta de Masaje Tailandes y Reiki Master

 

 

 

A Fresh Beginning

When lockdown began in March of 2020, I was four months into a record short retirement. After twenty plus years of working in the field of construction, I was working full time teaching yoga & meditation to group classes and private sessions; offering Thai Massage and Reiki treatments; working with others to continue our healing modalities and classes in HWHC. I loved the work I was doing and I deeply missed the creative vision, process and manifestation of architectural design; seeing these imaginings become buildings or spaces people would live in. 

With a world at home on lockdown, I realized people might be rethinking how they live in their homes; ourselves included. The spaces we dwell in naturally evolve to accommodate how unfolding times inspire us to live. 

During uncertain times, I felt fortunate to step back into a line of work that would help provide income for our family, office staff, workers, sub-contractors and contribute to our local economy. We could be of service and flourish in times that were and continue to be uncertain; when others might be losing the only line of work they had. Or find themselves struggling to keep a business afloat amid the challenges.

Javier and I stayed at HWHC with our office staff until a year into the pandemic. As therapeutic treatments were coming to an end, it became clear that a five-studio building with courtyard in the center was more space than required to run our design-build business. All we needed was an office with a reception. Staying on would not fulfill the potential this space had to offer. We’d had our time.

During a visit with my mom, she asked if we wanted to move back into our old office. 

The yoga studio was open at the time. We had reopened in September of 2020 following all the safety protocol. Closed in January when case numbers spiked. Reopened in March when the numbers dropped. I had had my eye on the patio above Galeria Los Angeles for teaching yoga. Outdoors, fresh air, connected with nature. Being outside felt like the safest place to gather small groups of people for classes. When I heard that a hotel was being built in front of HWHC, this confirmed what I was ready to accept.

It was time to move. So, we did. As you drive up the Delegation road, you can see how we revived the building where Galeria Los Angeles remains; memories of art classes and coffee with our unique, beautiful, livable design-build office in the back. My mom, Sally, who owns the building gave me cart blanche in the renovation. I chose the colors from memory and long walks in Santa Fe: Soft adobe colored walls and lively periwinkle iron grates adorn the building. A stunning combination of colors. Tin roof over the patio for yoga and classes. A view of the Sea of Cortez.

Starting in May 2021, I began teaching yoga and meditation upstairs on that patio. At that time, I posted a picture of the Healing Winds building on IG and FB, one of my favorite features: the traveling pool of light in the center of its central courtyard: 

This building has been one of my greatest and deepest teachers. From the moment the yoga studio opened in 2009 to the unfolding realization of the healing center it became in 2013 to the full circle of offering our core work in design and build and staying strong through the surprises of 2020. And every breath in between. I have worked in every one of its five studios. I know this building inside and out. Every inch that was born in my imagination to every inch I’ve breathed in. Heart, body, mind and soul. The deepest learning has been in relationship with the people I have met, shared space with, learned, grown and healed with. Laughed and breathed with. My connection to the building runs as deep as the one I feel with any building I’ve designed, built, created and then some. And my favorite feature, the one I’ve photographed infinitely is the opening to the sky, that fascinating pool of light that is constantly moving and changing. Even when it feels still. And sounds of silence. In between the cars and life passing by outside the courtyard. The opening of gratitude and infinite possibilities. An openness to all that was, is and will be. Filled with curiosity for how much space a place can breathe life.

One person’s transition affects the lives of others. With that awareness, I want to say thank you with my whole heart to all who were part of the Healing Wind’s experience; may the learning, growing and healing continue to nurture our hearts, bodies, minds and souls, wherever our lives may take us. 

When you drive up the Delegation road, past our current location, towards what used to be Healing Winds, you will see the building’s new vision coming to life through Juan Jose Gomez, Luis Villavicencio and building’s new name: Plaza Buenos Aires. These two fine men have partnered up and rented the entire building. JJ and Luis have a great vision that will continue to fill the space with good energy and people. 

For every fresh beginning happening in our community, near and far, my wish is for health, happiness, peace, success and fulfillment: heart, body, mind and soul.

“When the heart is ready for a fresh beginning, unforeseen things can emerge. And in a sense, this is exactly what a beginning does. It is an opening for surprises. Surrounding the intention and the act of beginning, there are always exciting possibilities. Such beginnings have their own mind, and they invite and unveil new gifts and arrivals in one’s life. Beginnings are new horizons that want to be seen; they are not regressions or repetitions. Somehow they win clearance and become fiercely free of the grip of the past. What is the new horizon in you that wants to be seen?” ~ John O’Donohue