Remember when you were a kid and Mom, Dad, or another adult taught you to say “Thank you”? Maybe some uncle or aunt gave you a small gift, like a piece of candy or a toy. Maybe a neighbor paid you a mysterious compliment, like “Look at those long eyelashes! You’ll be a heartthrob some day.” But you’re 4 years old, you don’t like sweet mint or that toy, you have absolutely no clue what eyelashes are, and frankly, heartthrob sounds really painful. While you’re trying to hide behind your parent’s legs, someone turns to you and says: “It’s polite to say ‘Thank you’. It’s the right thing to do.”

Fast forward 20, 30, 40 or more years and again someone is telling you to say “Thank you,” only this time it’s your favorite yoga teacher, trusted meditation instructor, or latest email from your local and truly beloved wellness center. Maybe because it’s “The Month of Gratitude” (aka November). Maybe because the latest research shows what the ancient yogis knew, that a gratitude practice results in better sleep at night and a host of other health benefits. Whatever the well-founded and valid reason is, here it is again: someone telling you to be thankful.      

Me? I hate gratitude! That is, I hate fake gratitude. I hate having to fabricate gratitude when I don’t actually feel it. I hate it when my mouth forms the words “Thank you,” but there is no resonance of gratitude in my body. I hate being forced to give thanks. It feels disingenuous, formulaic, hollow, and unnatural. I also really (and I mean really) hate gratitude by comparison. You know the kind, right? You’re somehow supposed to feel grateful cause your lot in life is comparatively better than someone else’s? I can still hear the echoes of an old childhood refrain from the dinner table: “You ought to be thankful and finish your plate! There are starving kids in Somalia.”

How on earth are starving kids in Somalia supposed to make me feel more thankful? Do you feel more thankful every night after you watch the news and learn of the recent tragedies that have befallen humankind? I don’t. Someone else’s misfortunes can never make me feel more happy or grateful. That just leads to sadness, inner turmoil, tension, and guilt. So no, sorry, I cannot feel gratitude for what I have just cause someone else doesn’t have it. That doesn’t work for me.

Which brings me to Thanksgiving. I believe there is a reason why Thanksgiving is in autumn, and it has little to do with pilgrims, harvest, turkey, and Native Americans. It’s because as we witness all the letting go of the season, truth is exposed (read: Fall is not about letting go!). As a tree sheds all its leaves, bare limbs are revealed. As we watch what no longer serves us release out of our lives, we’re inspired to feel and truly appreciate (i.e. feel grateful for) the bare truth of what is.

For me, it’s been more than a season of letting go. Try a year and a half of witnessing about a quarter of my body weight dissolve into thin air along with many long-held core notions of who I am in this body, in this life, and in this world. As I pass through the gates of loss and grief and witness this new nakedness, I am inspired to feel into who I really am and what I am truly thankful for. It ain’t big. I don’t feel thankful for months of trying to figure out what to eat or how fast to go on the treadmill or how to deal with the resulting stomach aches, back aches, and headaches (respectively).

Nope. I am thankful for the cozy little blanket that keeps me warm at night, not because someone else doesn’t have one but because I really love mine. I am thankful for all the support my loving family, friends, and practitioners have given me as my spirit took my body through a deep and cleansing initiation that is preparing me for what’s to come (don’t worry! I am healthy and well). And, I am grateful for all of you and the trust you literally place in my hands daily. How you allow me into your lives. How you share your biggest secrets and most harrowing moments with me and trust that I still stand, still smile, still receive you just as you are with an abundance of love in my heart.

Me? I love gratitude. Real gratitude. And I am so thankful for you, for life, for love.

• As in every November for the past four years, please enjoy an iRest Yoga Nidra meditation on gratitude for FREE throughout the month of November @ https://www.shiraozsinai.com/blog/in-gratitude1708804​.

 

• There are still some openings for acupressure on Veterans Day, 11/12 as well as Wed, Nov 21 and Saturday, Nov 24. Book yours and get much needed peacefulness as well as pre/post-holiday healing and restoration @ www.schedulicity.com/scheduling/SORJJM/services. 

 

• Lastly, many of you have been eagerly asking about Yoga Nidra sessions, seasonal retreats, and new workshops (thank you for the love!). I am one with you in wanting and anticipating these offerings, and I will soon unveil what I have been working on. I ask you to bear with me for just a little while longer as I await a few more scheduling pieces to settle and clear the way for new gems. Please and thank you, for real.

May shedding the no-longer-needed expose deep gratitude in the heart for what is,
-- Shira Oz-Sinai

Over the last few years, I've developed a tradition of sharing some special treat with you in the month of November as a way of saying "thank you." 

This November is no different. 

Please receive my deepest gratitude for YOU! For taking part in classes, workshops, retreats, and private acupressure sessions; for serving as my teachers; for your thoughts, questions, suggestions, and comments; for your continued support and love; and most importantly--for sharing with me your precious presence. 

You have filled my life with a vital richness that inspires me to do what I love most. For this, I am beyond grateful. Please enjoy a FREE iRest Yoga Nidra Meditation on gratitude, available below throughout the month of November. (Learn more about Yoga® Nidra HERE).

Looking for more holiday ease? Acupressure sessions continue regularly throughout the month with sessions available the day before and the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Learn more and schedule your session @ shiraozsinai.com/acupressure.


May feelings of gratitude remind you of the precious gift that you are,
-- Shira Oz-Sinai
​
I'M SORRY, this recording is no longer available. Please sign up to receive the weekly email updates (if you aren't already) to learn of FREE recordings and other goodies when they are released.

Fall is not about letting go, rather it's about witnessing what is already passing. Perhaps it’s a question of semantics, but I find the nuanced difference absolutely crucial in supporting us to move through autumn with greater ease.

The ancient Chinese scholars who studied the fall element must have seen much of what we’re seeing now: trees shedding leaves, migratory birds departing, flowers dying. Underneath the surface is an energetic impulse to draw in, to conserve, to release what no longer serves in preparation for the cold months ahead. No wonder it’s been characterized as the season of letting go!

While the mind might think that we can let go at will, we never actually make a decision to let go, do we? We don’t wake up one morning next to a partner whom we love and get along with perfectly and decide, “I want a divorce!” We don’t wake up to a fulfilling and truly rewarding job and decide, “I’m gonna quit!” No, we wake up to the realization that the relationship or job is no longer serving. There’s no decision making, there’s witnessing.

Witnessing means an honest look at the way things are, the natural cycle of life, how all things begin and all things end. When we witness rather than attempt to let go, a space opens up for us to tend to ourselves with great care. It’s an opportunity to see what’s departing and how it has acted in our lives, thank it for what it has given us, mourn its departure, and bid it farewell.

Painful? Very likely. But as recent news or events in life push our grievances up to the surface, the focus on witnessing keeps us in the seat of the observer. When we sit, as a friend, with the discomfort, agony, nostalgia, deep sorrow, and any other emotion that arises, deep healing takes place because we are meeting our experience from the warmth of our never-born, never-dying infinite presence. And that is key to finding greater ease in autumn, and in life.

Need support this season? Experiencing an ending? Want to sit together and tend to the emotions, sensations, and thoughts that are arising? I'm here. Email, call, or book a session @ schedulicity.com/scheduling/SORJJM/services. The next couple of days are fully booked, but there are a bunch of openings next week. See link to schedule. 


May witnessing what's being released reveal to you the precious gem that you are,
-- Shira Oz-Sinai

P.S. Please leave a comment and tell me how autumn is showing up for you!

When our hearts break, when our hopes and dreams shatter, we feel devastated. Crushed. Lost. There’s likely no one among us who has not experienced this. Perhaps a father who was emotionally unavailable. A mother too hurt to tend. A favorite pet disappearing into the night. A wanted job given to another. A 100-year-old tree cut off by the whip of a storm.
 
Our hearts break and break again from birth to the last of our days, from sunrise to sunset, from one moment to the next. Our hearts break and break again over big dreams and small hopes, over small connections and big loves, over big arguments and small silent retreats.
 
How do we live? How do we survive this? How do we find the courage to rise for another day, face potential heartaches, and keep on going? Howwwwwww?
 
Because our hearts break and break again in the wholeness that we are. Our hearts break but who we are is not broken. Our hearts break and break again but wholeness remains. Because. Because we are breaking in wholeness. 

May every heartbreak be embraced in wholeness,
-- Shira Oz-Sinai

The summer solstice is upon us! 

Traditional celebrations focus on cultivating a sense of connection and community with the shared warmth of gatherings, bonfires, merry-making, feasts, and picnics.

These events honor the life-giving force of the sun and the bounty it produces. They're a great reminder for how the warmth of connection heals our wounds of separation--both from ourselves and others. This is a gateway to feeling our always-present bountiful joy. 

Our hearts know this time well. Moved by the rhythms of the nature that we are, our hearts are naturally drawn to (re)connecting with others and ourselves, to unstructured play time, and that embodied fiery experience of being alive, open, and an integral part of the interconnected web of life. 

I find summertime in general, and the week of the solstice in particular, to be especially potent for healing wounds of heartbreak, for easing the rapid heat of anxiety, and for soothing the parts of ourselves that have felt alone for far too long. The way is paved by the gentle warmth of compassion and the safe fire of our presence. This is what guides us back to feeling love(d). 

If you're called to it, I suggest taking a moment to connect with your heart of hearts. Imagine yourself holding it delicately in the palms of your hands and nourishing it with the warmth of your attention, compassion, and love. 

May the peak of sunlight teach us about the peak of love that we are,
-- Shira Oz-Sinai

P.S. Still got my old address in your contact list? Please be sure to delete shira@awakenmyheartnow.com as I can no longer receive any emails sent to that address. Please replace it with info@shiraozsinai.com. ​

Summer's expansiveness and heat can bring up all kinds of feelings. Many of us vacillate between wanting to be on permanent vacation, not wanting to leave the house (ever!), and feeling consumed by anxiety of what exactly to do with our time and really, our lives. 

Chinese medicine points us to the connection between the summer season and the heart. This is not a reference to the physical heart but rather the energetic center in the middle of the chest. It is said that our energetic heart's "job" is to be at peace. Imagine if it were your job, your actual job, to be at peace. What would you do from 9 to 5? What would you need? How would you feel?

When our hearts are at peace, not only do we feel serenity but also joy. Why? Because it's simply so joyful to feel at ease, safe, and secure in your own heart.

We are actually quite lucky in that peacefulness and joy are not just fleeting experiences but innate aspects of being. They do, however, become veiled. We lose sight of our peace. We lose touch with our joy. We forget that we are ok, and we begin to believe that we are not. 

Meditative practices, like Chakra Tai Chi, offer us a place, a gentle way, to remember. Register now @ shiraozsinai.com/summer-chakra.

Can't join me for the class? Please let me know of your interest! It helps inform my future offerings. Also, I'm happy to offer Chakra Tai Chi private sessions and/or acupressure for cultivating joy this summer! So contact me and let me know what you think. 

May all beings experience the joy and peacefulness that they are,
-- Shira Oz-Sinai

I'm happy to announce that I have just added Thursday evenings to my acupressure schedule, starting May 24! 

If you've been unable to come in for acupressure because our schedules haven't matched, I'm hoping these Thursday evening hours will give you much more flexibility. As a special invitation, if it's been 6 months since your last visit, or if you are wanting to try acupressure for the very first time, please enjoy 25% off when you schedule for Thursday, May 24, 4-9pm. Book now @ shiraozsinai.com/acupressure!

If you're already a recipient of acupressure, then you know how much it supports you in meeting challenging thoughts and emotions as well as releasing physical tension. Regular sessions, whether once a week or once a month, give us an opportunity to work on the root cause of any symptom and invite ease into your body, mind, and heart. Now that's something we all need!

To assist you in making acupressure sessions part of your regular self-care routine, I offer package deals of 3 or 4 sessions with great savings. Purchase yours now @ shiraozsinai.com/store/c9/Acupressure_Sessions!

"I have personally seen Shira during times of difficult life transitions and I’m able to enter each session with complete trust in the partnership we create to help me heal from my physical and emotional pain." -- Natalie

Learn more and schedule yours @ shiraozsinai.com/acupressure. 

May all beings experience the healing of tender touch,
-- Shira Oz-Sinai

At the recent Befriending Yourself: Spring Meditation Retreat (pictures here), I shared with participants that to me the characteristic sensation of the spring element in Chinese medicine is discomfort.

It’s not the discomfort of hurt exactly. Nor that of an ache per se. It’s more the discomfort of having outgrown where you’ve been without quite being ready for what’s next. Not yet.

Many of us are experiencing such discomfort right now. The temperature goes up, then down. The winter coat comes on, then off. When is spring coming? Have we outgrown winter yet? When can I go out and play? This is so uncomfortable!!!

Perhaps when the decision has to do with whether or not to grab that winter coat, the stakes are fairly low. But when you’re pondering leaving your job, going back to school, having another child, taking on some new role, starting a relationship, moving to a new home, making a career leap… well, the gains and losses feel quite significant then.

How do we know when is the right time to make a move? To grow in a new direction? To leave what we have come to know and spring into the next… unknown… uncharted… big big step?

When discomfort arises, I like to remind myself that it's natural. It's natural to feel agitated, restless, and uncomfortable. This is a feeling tone that pulsates with a desire for change, for growth, to blossom!

So next time you notice discomfort, sit with it for a moment if you can. Tell the feeling you wish to know what it’s about. Ask it, “What vision would you like to share with me? What decision do you wish for me to make? What action are you pointing me to?” Listen intently and together you may find exactly when and how you grow. 

• To further this inquiry, please enjoy a FREE MEDITATION on vision @ shiraozsinai.com/blog/whats-your-vision.

 

• The spring element in Chinese medicine is all about movement. When this energy is challenged in us not only do we feel agitated but also lots of body tension, aches in our joints and ligaments, as well as difficulty making decisions and an overall feeling of being stuck in life. Acupressure alleviates physical symptoms, eases mental processes, and balances emotions, so consider scheduling your springtime renewal today @ schedulicity.com/scheduling/SORJJM/services!

May discomfort reveal to you the unfolding of your greatness,
-- Shira Oz-Sinai

Last week's email about how we replenish ended with this: "As we care for the water element in us, as we rest and repair on all layers of our being, we nourish the next element in the cycle--wood." In addition to giving our brains a chance to recuperate and our bodies a chance to destress, rest fundamentally nourishes our life force.

This is the vitality you feel after a good night's sleep. The pulsating sense of aliveness after a deep breath. The spring in your step after seeing a beautiful flower. It's also the renewed desire to grow, to express who you are to the fullest, and THRIVE!

As we make the transition from winter to spring, we still need plenty of rest and we may feel quite raw and vulnerable. At the very same time, that urgency to grow is beginning to thrum in our cells. What does your own power feel like? How are you wishing to grow? What do you need in order to stand fully in who you are and unabashedly proclaim to the world "I am ME!"? This is our springtime meditation, and here are two perfect places to explore these questions and more:

• Befriending Yourself: Spring Meditation Retreat, Mar 23-25, Annapolis, MD. With only 4 weekends to go and just a few slots left, I invite you to sign up now with a friend for a shared room and get $125 off each! Included are 6 retreat sessions full of Chinese medicine wisdom and mindfulness exercises, 5 plant-based, whole-food style meals, 3 Yoga Nidra healing meditations, 2 nights’ stay at a charming B&B, and 1 Chakra Tai Chi practice. Details @ shiraozsinai.com/spring-meditation-retreat.  

 

• Meditative Card Night, Thu, Mar 29, 6:30-8:30pm, Silver Spring, MD. The Spring Equinox on Mar 20 marks the astronomical first day of spring. Just as the trees and flowers start budding, we humans too are supported by nature to explore new ventures and renew our direction in life. So how about an evening of magic, play, and inspiration using oracle cards to call on the wisdom within? Register @ shiraozsinai.com/spring-meditative-card-night.

May rest transform your wildest dreams into reality,
-- Shira Oz-Sinai