Today I have an announcement. I have some reservations about posting it here because, while it is a professional announcement, it is also a personal one, and I wasn't sure at first if this had anything to do with what we normally post on the Aquin Yoga blog. After some reflection I've determined that it is an example of what we share here, so here goes.
As of June 1st I am officially giving up my license to practice Acupuncture. I have clocked well over 2000 client visits since I began in 2009 and am very proud of the work I have been able to do with the people who took themselves and their health seriously. Chinese Medicine is a beautiful, holistic medicine with a rich and extensive history. Personally, it has seen me through a number of my own health issues including debiliating migraines that had previously landed me in the emergency room. Studying Chinese Medicine was an enormous shift that took me out of life in the music industry and placed me into the classroom. I can't imagine what my life would look like now if I hadn't taken what felt like a crazy leap into the unknown. Almost everyone around me braced for impact as they watched me throw away a hard won career path. Some of those same people will no doubt brace once again at this news.
So why the change? Honestly, the last 10 months have led me to think more deeply about the potential of one life. I have always been fairly content to teach yoga and treat clients with no future plan in mind. But with all the forward momentum and consistent progression I am surrounded by (most noteably by the Project One participants), it feels like now is the time to explore my own direction.
One thing I talk about constantly in my yoga classes is that we often don’t know that something is possible until the moment we are doing it. Most people do such a good job at talking themselves out of their own potential that they don’t dare bother to step off the tried and true path. The funny thing is, I don’t actually believe that you can ever step off “the path,” you instead create it with each step. Every life choice you make defines what options you will have at the next fork in the road. That is the exciting part of life. You can’t know what future potential options await until you are faced with them.
Right now, I am at a fork in the road, thankfully not brought on by crisis or upheaval, but by love and opportunity. I have the option to continue on the incredible track I have been on, supported by an amazing community of family and friends, clients and practitioners in this awakening city. I have another option, to take a few months off (for the first time since I was old enough to work), travel, write, develop, and expand my teaching and my own practice in new places. It was difficult to choose between these two wonderful things, but the decision I have come to is to step in the new, probably less comfortable direction and see what is possible.
After weighing pros and cons, and going back and forth a hundred times, the bottom line is that life is short and sometimes you just can’t risk missing an opportunity to see what you are made of once you exit the comfort zone. I hope you will join me for the journey and together we can find out.