JUST. HIT. POST.

A year ago yesterday - 4/17/18, a cool and rainy April day in New England - I arrived home from a long day of work and - as though I had been body snatched - set up my iPhone on a tripod and filmed a yoga video. I wasn’t a “real” yoga teacher (although I had been informally teaching family and friends for years), I was just playing one on the internet.

I worked on my laptop late into the night creating a YouTube channel, and the next morning posted a link on Facebook with the intro “JUST. HIT. POST.”  Yup, definitely had been body snatched.  Fearlessness (abhaya) swept me up on a magic carpet ride that is still carrying me today.

Abhaya - a Sanskrit word meaning “fearlessness”

The Abhayamudrā "gesture of fearlessness" is a mudrā that is the gesture of reassurance and safety, which dispels fear and accords divine protection and bliss.

Those 3 words - JUST. HIT. POST. - have an entirely different meaning now.  

Instead of them being accompanied by a sense of contraction and dread, I feel (mostly) light, expansive, and more excited than I ever have about a professional endeavor (don’t get me wrong - it’s not all sunshine ☀️and rainbows 🌈 over here - the vulnerability and visibility hangover is coming, I’m sure).

That fateful April morning in 2018, as soon as I was exposed to - what felt like - the entire universe, I literally wanted to crawl under a rock and die. I am (was?) not one to post on social media.  Pictures of my kids on the first day of school was pretty much the extent of it.  So, putting myself out there on an amateur YouTube channel with a B-grade video (and that’s being generous) was sooooo out of my comfort zone, you have no idea.  Or maybe you do?

I know now that this ‘ridiculous’ YouTube channel was the catalyst I needed to take action. It raised my energy sooooooo high (JUST. HIT. POST.) that it forced my old, no-longer-serving-me story to crack and reform as a better, stronger tale.

And, oh, how the plot has twisted - for the better! - over this past year.

After decades of seeking, I have finally FOUND. 

I am excited, thrilled, and honored to share the gifts of yoga - on and off the mat - with you.

I don’t know what the destination is, but I am sure I’m on the right journey, and I’m so happy you’re coming along with me.

So, tell me, when have you tapped into abhaya (fearlessness)? What opportunities have resulted? How about challenges? I invite you to celebrate it ALL.

I hope you share.

xo,

ilana