Friends,
For the end of 2020, I decided to do a little math. Check it out.
Mar-Dec 2020
Zoom classes
Bang classes with Holly and Meg: 108 classes, 198 participants
Yoga with Holly: 72 classes, 152 participants
Yoga with Arlington County’s Healthsmart program: 40 classes, over 100 participants per month
Yoga for Ft Lee Army Logistics School PT Training Group: 9 classes, 89 participants
Bang Practice: 3 classes, 20 instructors
Beer Yoga with Abella Yoga: 7 classes, 39 participants
In-person classes
Warm Weather Outdoor Yoga: 21 classes, over 55 participants
VETOGA Teacher Training: taught and mentored veterans, military to teach yoga. 25 hours, 18 participants
In-person studio classes: over 70, to over 100 participants
I’ve taught and helped host 255 zoom classes and 100 in-person classes in 2021 for up to maybe a thousand participants during this pandemic.
When I reflect on this I start to well up with gratitude and joy.
I’m so thankful for each of you that have shown up for me this year to give me the opportunity to help and serve. Your gift of showing up has helped me to heal as well. Some of my most joyful moments of this year have been dancing, moving, and breathing with you.
I tend to keep important and personal things to myself. I’m wondering if I should start to change that habit in 2021.
Here are some personal things that happened to me in 2020:
- I rededicated myself to my daily morning meditation practice.
- I spent the 2-year anniversary of my husband’s death walking with a friend across the Wilson Bridge. I stopped for a moment during the hour he died, looked over the water and felt calm, peaceful and happy.
- I end this year feeling closer to my 16 year old daughter. And we have had our moments for sure.
- My father passed away in June. At the time I only shared this with a few close friends. There is only so much grief a large community can absorb from one person so I kept this mostly private until recently. My dad and I were super close and I felt so much love for him throughout his last few years, days, and hours.
- I got out of a relationship that wasn’t working. I had an engagement ring on my finger, and one day I took it off. We kept trying, and a few months later the relationship ended.
- My graphic design business thrived during the pandemic. It felt like a miracle.
Aparigraha is one of the 8 limbs of yoga that I practiced the most this year. It means letting go, non-possessiveness, non-grasping and non-attachment. And I realized that letting go of all these attachments has the benefit of enabling us to see ourselves better, without all the people and things and labels to shape our perception. Without attachments, our definition has to change. It becomes more accurate. And it requires some close and sometimes uncomfortable processing and thinking. It creates space for intuition to take over and serve as our guidance system without interference.
I always remind myself that everyone is going through something almost all the time. It gives me peace and purpose and allows my heart to lead the way forward.
Mark Vonnegut (son of writer Kurt Vonnegut) once said: “We are here to help each other through this, whatever this is.”
Ram Dass said almost the same thing when he said: “We are all just walking each other home.”
Let’s keep moving, dancing, breathing and lifting each other up into 2021!
Happy New Year everyone & see you soon!
Holly
https://linktr.ee/hollyhalvorson