Welcome to the New Year, Friends! I hope your holiday season was filled with connection, love, and abundant joy.

We find ourselves now in the liminal days after the winter solstice, progressively moving toward the light, toward the freedom and outward expression of the long, warm summer months.

While it might be tempting to burst into the New Year and head toward these brighter days with goals blazing, I invite you to take a different path than you may be used to. I invite you to begin 2025 by slowing down. Nature reminds us that the time of Doing and Big Growth does not truly come until the spring. These winter months are a season not of action but of being.  for deep cocooning within the warm womb of the earth (or our homes). The dreamy, snow-blanketed hours of the coming days call us to cocoon within the warm womb of our homes, families, and friends. It is a time meant for rest, restoration, connection, and reflection.

We all learn differently, so feel free to read more about this week's practice below and/or enjoy this quick (one-minute!) video guide.

Pratyahara: Cultivating The Light and Peace Within

This season is your opportunity to deeply regulate as you sink into the rhythms of your Self. In the liminal weeks of mid and late winter, after the flash of festivities fades, we can finally wrap ourselves in the safety and spaciousness of quiet grounding. We can turn fully inward and deeply reflect. We can listen. We can observe. It's only after cultivating deep, inward focus and connection that our later dreaming, planning, and doing truly align with our most authentic being.

In yoga, such inward turning is known as Pratyahara. This practice is so important to those seeking enlightenment that it takes up its own whole stepping stone along the 8-Limbed Path.

So, before you jump into any 30-Day Challenges, New Year's Resolutions, or Goal-Accountability Pacts this month, I encourage you to indulge in this richness of Pratyahara. Over the next few weeks, make space. Get Still. Go within. Gently release the overstimulation, overindulgence, and overconsumption of the holidays and connect inward. Settle into the quiet, restful reflection that lives under the busy surface layers of life. This deep and silent soil is where we gain clarity and the capacity to release what is no longer needed in our lives. It is where we open space for all that might be.

One Mindful Minute Practice: Mantra Chanting - Asato Ma Sadgamaya 

Om Asatoma Satgamaya

Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya 

Mrityorma Amritamgamaya

Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

This beautiful Sanskrit verse is from the Upanishads. In English, it translates to:

Oh, Great Consciousness, from the phenomenal world of the unreal, take me toward the real.

From the darkness of ignorance, take me toward the light of knowledge.

From the world of mortality of material attachment, take me toward the world of immortality and realization

Om, Peace, Peace, Peace

The meaning behind this chant is profound. It's a call to move from the false to the true, from darkness to light, from the transient to the grounded and unchanging. Chanting as a whole is a powerful practice. It helps us to focus, softly ground, and create a vibration of peaceful presence within and around us.

How to Practice

Find a quiet space where you can sit comfortably. Begin by taking a few deep breaths, allowing yourself to settle into stillness. Close your eyes and turn your awareness inward. 

When ready, slowly chant the mantra 3-5 times. Try chanting on your own or follow along with our video guide above. As you chant, fully drop into the vibrations of sound within your body. Then, turn your awareness toward the gaps, the pauses, the silence between each word and each line. Finally, feel the abiding stillness deep within you from which all sound and vibration arise. Chanting and reciting mantras has nothing to do with performance or external aesthetics. We are not singing or attempting to sound pleasing. The goal is to create focus and attunement with our highest, most subtle awareness. The steady and intentional honing of our conscious experience is where the magic of practice lives. 

As we enter this New Year, let's not make our usual mistakes of rushing, hustling, and cramming ourselves into externally imposed forms. Instead, let's bravely slow down, turn inward, and move toward the light in mindful alignment with our higher callings. Instead of Resolutions, let's start this year with Revolutions of love, wisdom, and authenticity.

With warmth and light,
Nichole

Upcoming Offerings

The New Year's Revolution Workshop

Lead Your Life With Clarity, Power, Self-Trust, and LOVE
January 11,  9-11 AM  $55

🔥 Sovereignty Begins Within. Align, Embody, and Thrive in 2025. 🔥

The New Year’s Revolution Workshop isn’t about setting resolutions you’ll forget by February. It’s about reclaiming your power, connecting with your inner wisdom, and aligning your actions with what truly matters to your spirit.

Join me for a transformational 2-hour experience where you'll break free from external validation, leadership, and goal-chasing and learn how to step into the year ahead with clarity, power, self-trust, and love.

💥 What to Expect:
✨ Somatic Embodiment Practices to ground and awaken your body’s wisdom.
✨ Guided Reflective Workshopping to uncover your personal patterns and truths.
✨ Tools for Tapping Into Your Intuition and aligning your actions to move forward with purpose and efficacy.

🌿 Create Your Personalized "Sovereignty Map" 🌿
A powerful take-home tool to help you:
✅ Identify your core values.
✅ Recognize your intuitive signals.
✅ Map out aligned actions for the year ahead.

This isn’t just about what you want to achieve—it’s about who you are and how you want to show up.

➡️ Reserve your spot today and step into 2025 with confidence, connection, and deep personal alignment.

Silks + Sound + Reiki - Moonlit Serenade

Embrace Your Inner Light

Jan. 17th, 6:30-8:30 pm $49

Sigh and sway beneath the symbolic glow of a full moon.

This workshop combines gentle somatic movement in the silks with soothing sound baths and Reiki energy. Be enveloped in a serene, moonlit environment cradled by soft candlelight, meditative chanting, and hypnotic Northern Lights projections. Invite deep reflection, renewal, and energetic alignment for the New Year.

Here’s what awaits you:

• Somatic Movement with Yoga Silks 
• Crystal Bowl Sound Bath and Chanting
• Reiki and Relaxation Massage 
• Soothing Multi-Sensory Journey