This summer, I decided to take some major downtime and visit my partner and friends in Boston. I love walking around a vibrant and beautiful city with all it's sights, sounds and great food. But there are things about home I dearly miss. One is my incredible yoga community in Hamilton, ON with all the hidden gems there including teacher Martha Shea. Martha has a way of delivering a yoga class that will kick your butt yet leaves you feeling supported and inspired by her beautiful words. Rarely have I had the pleasure of knowing someone that so deeply and authentically strives to live up to the messages she delivers. Today lucky reader, I am honoured to share one such powerful insight in a guest post from Martha.
It Only Takes One to Heal by Martha Shea
The other morning I was on my spin bike and was lucky enough to come across an Oprah Master class with Maya Angelou. Her words landed on me very powerfully. Maya said:
“It only takes one person to heal another. I have experienced a lot of clouds and rainbows in my own life, and our job is to prepare ourselves to be the rainbow in someone else’s clouds.”
This brought my thoughts to all of the beautiful rainbow women in my life who met me at different points on my path at just the right time, to help me heal during some major bumps on my road. Human suffering, sickness, the variation of clouds are endless and in my case it happened to be divorce.
I look back in fascination how I was there to help one of my best friends heal through a very difficult divorce. I literally walked by her side as she told her story, cried her tears as I prayed to find “just the right” words to say and not say. Little did either of us know that she was in some ways preparing me for what lay ahead on my own path of divorce shortly after, when my entire world went upside-down.
When this major storm cloud hit, I had a number of rainbow healers come to my side to help me along that stretch of road. Endless conversation, tears, wondering why and how, lap after lap, they held steady by my side. Some of these also unknowingly being strengthened and prepared for their own clouds further down their own roads.
It isn’t always divorce, but many of us have experienced an event in life that has brought us to our knees in one way or another, and we all have a story to tell. As women our natural tendency is to be a nurturer,
at the expense of our own self-care at times. Women are born with a bounty of empathy and when I see a group of two or more women walking, running together, or having coffee, I can’t help but smile, knowing that there is nothing like it. Women heal women in a very powerful way. There are few things more nurturing than the gaze held by another woman’s eyes that are steeped with compassion. That knowing gaze of a mothers’ loving eyes that can scoop up your soul. When tears fill my own eyes or I feel alone and just don’t know what to do next, I know that one of those incredible rainbow healers won’t be very far away. They will be relentless in finding a way to love me out of my cloud, and will hold a space of love until I see the beauty and strength reflected back to me from their own colourful radiance.
I am proud to be a Rainbow Warrior, a Woman, a healer because it only takes One.
Martha is a certified yoga teacher who has been teaching and practicing yoga for 14 years. Her unique combination of movement, music, and life work woven into her yoga will assist you in finding your inner Goddess both on and off the mat!!
Are you lucky enough to be in Hamilton, ON this summer? If so, join like-minded women for a day long retreat with Martha on Aug 23 including life coaching, yoga, raw food and sensual movement.
Photo Credit: Best Friends by Blondin Rikard