WAKING UP ON PURPOSE: A 5-DAY INTENTION-SETTING MORNING SERIES WITH KRISTI + TERRI COLE
as always, included for members
“If it is impossible for you to go on as you were before, so you must go on as you never have.”
-CHERYL STRAYED
I'd be so honored for you to join me for this 5-day morning series. My hope is that it is an inviting way to begin your way. Months—er YEARS—in the making, and now it is here!!
A BIT OF BACKGROUND… In October 2018, my Mom and I attended a training with Tias Little that changed the trajectory of my teaching—and life—forever. In this powerful week, we were guided into deep listening. We practiced attuning to the biorhythms of our body and appreciating the beauty of space. I grew increasingly intimate with the present moment while simultaneously distancing myself from my inner striver. Each practice simply begged to be experienced fully, not won or accomplished. It was scary at first. I gripped for the security of an outlined path. Through repetition, however, I learned to trust myself and ultimately found my own way. My greatest desire as a teacher is to provide a framework for students to blaze their own path. This offering is an attempt at just that.
Each day will have moments of familiarity and moments of freshness. Through powerful movement and meditation, we will dive deep into concepts of listening, honesty, openness, bravery and a right + sustained effort (tapas). Allow each day to open you in new ways with a greater sense of awareness to your inner world, outer world and how these two weave together.
Inspired heavily by teachers who have lit a new path for me to explore. To all my seekers, I encourage you to spend some time with the readings from Mark Nepo, Tias Little, Morgan Harper Nichols, Cheryl Strayed and Ralph Gates. Full reading list referenced at the bottom of the page.
Follow day-by-day or at your own pace. Repeat lessons as often as necessary until you feel them weave into the fabric of your very being.
DAY ONE: BEGIN YOUR JOURNEY INTO LISTENING
“To enter deep listening, I’ve had to learn how to keep emptying and opening, how to keep beginning. I’ve had to lean into all I don’t understand., accepting that I am changed by what I hear. In all, it’s been an exciting journey, one that’s made me more alive.”
— MARK NEPO
DAY TWO: CONTINUE YOUR JOURNEY: FROM DEEP LISTENING, RAW HONESTY EMERGES
“Consider it a natural thing if this way of living takes some patterning or getting used to, for this an unfolding of a novel-length awakening of seeing what has always been calling you.”
— MORGAN HARPER NICHOLS
DAY THREE: FROM A FOUNDATION OF TRUTH, WE OPEN TO THE POSSIBILITIES
“The answer to most problems is more often than not outside of the right-wrong binary that we tend to cling to when we’re angry, scared, or in pain. We are complicated people. Our lives do not play out in absolutes.”
— CHERYL STRAYED
DAY FOUR: TODAY WE STEP INTO OPEN SPACE BRAVELY
“On a path, you are meant to meander, to enjoy each footfall. Every ascent and descent is part of the journey. And there may be moments—days, weeks, months—when you feel totally lost. A path winding and the experience of losing your way is part of the way. ”
— TIAS LITTLE
DAY FIVE: WITH A RIGHT + SUSTAINED EFFORT, WE FIND OUR OWN WAY
Tapas is the spirit of inquiry; it is about having the heart of an explorer. It is the willingness to work hard in practice, the desire to know oneself, the will to be honest. But all of these virtues are predicated on a genuine desire for spiritual health. This desire will give us consistency. We will have good days and bad days when the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, and days when the opposite is the case. Years of consistent practice are not built on rigid self-discipline; they are built on the desire to know more.
— RALPH GATES
READINGS
Seven Thousand Ways to Listen Mark Nepo
Book of Awakening Mark Nepo
The Practice is the Path Tias Little
Yoga of the Subtle Body Tias Little
All Along You Were Blooming Morgan Harper Nichols
Brave Enough Cheryl Strayed
Meditations from the Mat Ralph Gates
“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.”
— CYNTHIA OCCELLI