🌿 Slowing Down to Wake Up: Lessons From YTT, Yin, Nidra & Everyday Life

The last couple of weeks have felt like a whirlwind in the best way. I completed my Yoga Teacher Training, a milestone I’m still processing and finally enjoyed my first free weekend in a month. It was beautiful outside, and spending time with my family felt like a deep breath I didn’t know I needed.

Declan, especially, brought so much joy. He’s running circles around all of us now tall enough to reach counters, clever enough to open every door, curious enough to get into everything. He’s always moving, always exploring, always fully alive in the moment. Watching him is like witnessing life in its purest form.

We took him to a holiday bazaar, wandered the booths, soaked up the festive energy, and enjoyed just being together. It felt grounding… real… necessary.

🧘‍♀️ An Invitation That Arrived at the Perfect Time

Just as I was settling into the afterglow of completing YTT, something unexpected happened:

I was invited personally by our lead teacher to return the very next weekend to begin a 300-hour module in Yin & Yoga Nidra.

This meant more to me than I can express.
She is an incredible curator of space, someone with a magnificent heart, a calm grounded presence, and a rare ability to teach in a way that feels both expansive and deeply safe.

Her invitation felt like a blessing, a sign, a nudge, an affirmation.

I had been quietly contemplating continuing my yoga education sooner than planned, feeling intuitively that now might be the perfect time in my life for deeper learning. When she reached out… it was the exact “yes” I needed.

Deepening my practice feels right not just for my own growth but because becoming a more embodied teacher means bringing yoga to more people in a meaningful and accessible way.

🌙 Yin & Nidra: Breakthroughs in Stillness

What I didn’t expect was how much this module would shift me internally. Yin slows you down sometimes without you realizing how deeply until afterward.

Yoga Nidra goes even deeper, unpacking the layers we carry around simply because we never slow down long enough to see them.

We live in a culture of go, do, achieve, and push through.
Even our “rest” is often numbing Netflix, doom scrolling, gaming escapism disguised as recovery.

Yin and Nidra are the opposite.
They are invitations inward.
To presence.
To honesty.
To softness.
To truth.

Declan teaches me the same thing every day.
He doesn’t worry about tomorrow or relive yesterday.
He just is.

Maybe the goal is to be present like a baby…
but with the wisdom that age brings.

🌿 The Art of Holding Space

The biggest takeaway from these past two weekends has been recognizing the importance of holding space:
for myself,
for others,
for what is unfolding,
and for what is healing.

To hold space is to witness without fixing.
To allow without pushing.
To breathe instead of bracing.

We cannot hold space for others if we do not first learn to hold it for ourselves.
And many of us resist slowing down because slowing down means we finally feel everything we’ve been running from.

I’ve caught myself doing something often:
working hard to get into a good place mentally and then acting as if that state is a destination somewhere I can “arrive” and retire the practices that got me there.

But wellness isn’t a place you reach.
It’s a place you return to.

✨ Showing Up for the “Future You”

When I do the things that ground me meditate, practice, breathe, slow down, care for myself intentionally I feel aligned and whole.
When I don’t, I know it immediately.

Self-care isn’t about indulgence.
It’s about investment.
It’s tending to the future version of yourself by nurturing who you are right now.

When I hold space for myself, I become a better mother, sister, daughter, co-worker, teacher, and human.
I show up whole instead of depleted.

The world doesn’t need more people who are constantly running on empty.
It needs people who are awake in their own lives.

🌞 Final Reflection

I’m still integrating so much from YTT.
I’m still absorbing my experiences in Yin and Nidra.
I’m still learning how to move as both teacher and student.

But something beautiful is unfolding
a deeper awareness,
a deeper peace,
and a deeper commitment to presence.

These practices have helped me stitch together the many parts of myself I’ve collected over the years. And I’m grateful, deeply grateful for the opportunity to continue growing with teachers who see me, guide me, and hold space with such wisdom.

Here’s to slowing down so we can finally wake up.
Here’s to holding space for us and for others.
Here’s to living more fully alive.

🌿 May we all learn to live like Declan: fully here, fully now.