Tag: Support

Emerging Form

Emerging Form

Amber_Young

+ 30 Days of Self Care Practices

Summer certainly brings different rhythms.

Every season does when we pay attention – I don’t think you needed me to write that, I just like to be reminded that I get to shift my rhythms with the wisdom of the natural world around me. I realize every season opens the doorway for something different inside and asks for a different kind of tending.

I wonder in time as my kids grow up, potentially moving away from our nest and the days of high school travel behind us how summer will continue to evolve and change form. This also brings to my heart how this is happening in our world with the climate crises, each season will continue to shift and change and we will need to adapt and consider more deeply our responsibility and relationship with our environment while we’re here.

I’ve been working a lot this summer, a little busier than normal, which I feel the contrast to the spaciousness of my boys within our intimate living space. I’m trying to continue with my responsibilities within the work I love, yet also enjoy these lazy days of summer before fall routines reappear in our lives.

It’s certainly been the dance of my summer.

I also recently returned from a powerful few days at Brooksong, my first time co-facilitating a full weekend retreat. It was powerful, and an incredible honour, a deeply personal and intimate few days.

Being a witness at these retreats changes me, in unexpected ways every time I make the journey.

Emerging Form
Shift
Internal excavation
In the maze you will not find what you are looking for
It’s in the untamed forest
That lives within your body
Under fallen trees
Where the death and decay of old life
Has nourished the soil
In its disintegration
Feeding the earth of your body
With what no longer supports life now
But is needed
Reforming
Emerging from the depths
Nourished by the quiet, deep in the darkness
Alchemy asks for time
Patience
For careful and gentle tending
To move into the shadows and breathe
Feeling how here too
You are held
Layers deep within
Every breath stretches the scars
Tearing tissues
Every opening
Urging new life
Form Emerging
From spaces forgotten
Spaces unknown
Until Now

-Amber Young

Before I close I wanted to share the 30 days of self care practices I created for the Brooksong summer fundraiser, it’s been an amazing process. This was my second year taking part in this initiative. My offering holds the intention of extending my hand as a form of community support and along the way includes streams from my own lived experience with cancer, and a tribute to a community and a place that has provided me and countless others with incredible opportunities for healing.

The links to 30 short self care practices are below for you (ranging from 3 – 17 minutes), I made them as a free gift for community, and you my love, are part of my community.

If you choose to move through this self care journey with me (through these recordings), may you find support, inspiration, and a reminder that you’re not navigating this human journey alone. Exploring songs, poems, breath practices, guided rest, reflective practices, and movement – weaving the threads of a beautiful tapestry together.

With so much love

Amber

Day 1Grounding and settling in together

Day 2 A breath practice

Day 3 I am connected – Song

Day 4 Grounding with movement

Day 5 A reflection – reading by David Whyte

Day 6 Tree of life meditation

Day 7 Welcoming in the thread of community

Day 8 Bumblebee breath

Day 9 We are created by sound – Song

Day 10 Movement within the community of your body

Day 11 A reflective practice

Day 12 A guided relaxation with a special guest and the medicine of gongs

Day 13 Welcoming in the thread of healing and being held

Day 14 A breath practice with Donna – honouring our new thread

Day 15 Rock Yourself by Jody Vyner, singing with a special guest

Day 16 Havening as we honour our midpoint, held within these healing practices

Day 17 A walk in the forest

Day 18 A guided relaxation

Day 19 Weaving in a new thread of Integration and Alignment

Day 20 Exploring a physiological sigh

Day 21 Singing for healing

Day 22 A gentle movement practice of integration and alignment

Day 23 An expressive arts / reflective practice

Day 24 A guided practice, pondering our relationship with the land, with a special guest, Jay

Day 25 Weaving in a new thread of Joy and Play

Day 26 Breath of Joy

Day 27 Fiddlehead Song

Day 28 Tapping with Miriam, exploring joy and play

Day 29 A reflective Practice with Patty

Day 30 Our closing circle + I will rise up with you

This offering was orginally posted on my Substack, I’m aware some of you already recieved this.

Substack is where free subscribers get a monthly reflection, and paid subscribers receive a weekly mindful minutes practice and reflective writing.

I will continue to also post here through the seasons

Grateful to be here with you.

Brooksong Summer Fundraiser – No One Walks Alone

Brooksong Summer Fundraiser – No One Walks Alone

Amber_Young

You might remember, around this time last year, joining me for 30 days of summer practices dedicated to Brooksong Retreat and Cancer Support Centre, based out of Haliburton, Ontario – helping to support people across Canada.

Each summer the Brooksong community comes together for our annual Summer Fundraiser which celebrates the many ways we can nurture wellness and connection. Inspired by Move, Create, Connect, participants are encouraged to engage in activities that support physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being in ways that are meaningful and accessible to them – and doing it together in community as a beautiful way to support eachother. 

It is our hopes through this inititative to not only support folks to nurture wellness within themselves, but to also help spread awareness and raise funds for the incredible care Brooksong offers through retreats and programs for folks living with cancer; both for those with a diagnosis and for caregivers.

How did I become connected with Brooksong?

In 2022, I was diagnosed with a rare presentation of Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and was first introduced to Brooksong through a friend during the early days of my own healing journey with cancer, which continues.  I feel very fortunate to have been able to attend some of Brooksong’s virtual programming, as well as an in person retreat with my husband. These experiences were both life affirming and life changing. We were held, offered space to explore movement, found comfort and understanding in community, ate nourishing foods, dove into creative practices and experienced deep support through reflective exercises, land connection and drumming.

Our retreat weekend was held with love and compassion by an incredible team who helped us to feel safe to explore our healing process in the ways we personally needed.  

Brooksong is incredibly special, and has become very dear to my heart. The Centre is located on a beautiful expanse of land surrounded by ponds, open spaces and forests. In my experience, every time I make the journey, I feel how incredibly healing it is just arriving there.  

 I am deeply honoured to now be a part of the facilitation team offering care and support at some of the in person retreats.  

Cancer hits you hard; physically, emotionally and financially.  This I understand.

The ability to go on a retreat focused 100% on your healing isn’t often accessible financially, coupled with all the changes during times of illness.

I am in awe at how everything Brooksong offers is free of charge to participants.  All programs and retreats are funded through generous donations by amazing people and organizations who are able to comfortably offer this type of support, who care about the mission of Brooksong and the work that is being done.  

I’ve been excited all year for this years summer fundraising event that runs from July 1 – August 31 annually and celebrates the important health benefits of moving our bodies in whatever ways we are able as well as taking part in creative practices, while aligning with and nurturing the vision and mission of Brooksong Retreat & Cancer Support Centre.

I believe so strongly in what Brooksong has created and have felt the impacts personally in my own family. I am excited to join this community challenge for the second year in a row.

How will I help support this years fundraising initiative and give myself daily time to move, create and connect?

I’m committed to a daily tending practice over the summer months, which I’ll be recording 30 days of my community challenge sharing short tending practices with you.

I hope you’ll join me through yoga, song, meditation, creativity, journaling, breath and other practices to help us tend to our inner gardens through the summer months. Our tending needs us to start with how we offer ourselves care – nourishing and considering the ways we care for our body, mind and spirit. In this act of nurturing ourselves we are also supporting the momentum of something meaningful in our world.

The practices I’ll be recording and sharing start July 20th and run through to August 18th and are inspired from my time at Brooksong as well as my tending your inner garden offerings, a program born through my own cancer journey in 2023. 

I took this photo during a trip to Haliburton last May, 2025, when I was offering massage at a Brooksong retreat. This beautiful sculpture is from the Haliburton Sculpture forest, another incredible place. It’s named the Sleep of the Huntress and was birthed by Doug Stephens . She is very special and offers me a deep reflection on how I tend to my own inner garden, honouring our need for rest and renewal.

I invite you to view my fundraising page if you’d like to make a donation directly to Brooksong.

Amber’s Fundraising Page

Where can you find the recordings for the daily practices starting July 20th 2026 ?

I’ll post them on my fundraising page

and

you also have the option to register to receive the daily practices with a short message, directly in your inbox, by clicking on the link below to sign up:

30 Days of Tending Practices Directly in Your Inbox

Registering for the practice videos is free for everyone, making a donation is 100% optional.

We’ll explore themes such as: Grounding and Presence, Community, Joy and Play, Healing, and Integration.

You’re also invited to a free virtual restorative class on Monday, July 20th at 7:00 pm EST.

 I am deeply grateful for your support and hope you’ll join me in any way you’re able for this fun and nurturing initiative. 

We’ll be learning with eachother and definitly leaning into joy along the way.

Don’t hesitate to reach out at any time.

Together we can create a huge impact through simple acts of kindness, this kindness starts with how we tend to ourselves.  

Here we go!

Lots of love,

Amber

Photo above, me, Spring 2023

photo of me from a few years ago – drinking in the trees, the wildflowers, and the healing rays of the sun

Love and Gratitude

Love and Gratitude

Amber_Young

This morning when I sat at my alter and lit my candle, I said a prayer for each of you – one of compassion, of loving kindness, of peace, and wishes for your happiness.  

I want to offer you deep gratitude for being with me on this journey, moving through the seasons of our lives and giving ourselves pause for reflection.  As we approach the transition from one year to the next, I pause for deep reflection of what is needed these days, and I feel in my heart how this will be different for each and every one of us.  

Your presence in this world and your openness has great meaning to me.  I just want to say thank you, it’s truly an honour being here with you during these times in our world.  

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,

May the clarity of light be yours,

May the fluency of the ocean be yours,

May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow wind work these words

of love around you,

An invisible cloak to mind your life.

~ John O’Donoghue 

Much love for the days ahead, Amber

Butterfly and flowers
Gentle Spaces For Self Exploration

Gentle Spaces For Self Exploration

Amber_Young

I love this sacred window of time, as I close my eyes and imagine all of us, sitting together in circle, honouring the evolution and unfurling of who you are, who we are – moment to moment.  

Thank you for inviting me into your inbox, you give me inspiration to keep doing this work, and I am grateful.  

Earlier this month I celebrated 20 years as a Registered Massage Therapist, I can’t believe it’s been over 20 years since I started doing this work. My first experience was a training at the Mueller College of Holistic Studies in San Diego in 1999, later becoming Registered in British Colombia in 2004. That feels like a lifetime ago. I guess in many ways it was, thinking about how much I’ve changed over the years, and also how much we are continually learning about how we heal.

As I reflect on all of the care, the trust and the stories I’ve been honoured to hold for people, I am in awe. It is an honour and a privilege to do this work in the world, spiraling deeper and exploring different ways to hold healing space for folks.

We are a complex interconnection woven from our anatomy, the DNA we carry, our families history, our ancestral lineage lines, the experiences we carry in our hearts, our energetic bodies, the health of the Earth and the elements, spirit, the ways we are affected by the collective, our individual beliefs – and so much more. I’m curious how people are able to focus their attention on a presenting lesion or pathology, becoming trapped within a diagnosis and forgetting to consider all the factors that contribute to our wholeness.

In my heart I feel how much we need gentle and accepting places to explore ourselves, now more than ever.

I was having a conversation the other day about pain cycles, specifically the cycles of anxiety and stress many are presently living with. These states bring our body into a sympathetic state – which is indicative of energy expenditure; rapid breathing, increased heart rate, muscular contraction – often referred to as the “fight or flight” response. We can become overwhelmed by our thoughts which can manifest as physical tension and disharmony in our bodies and our minds. Thanks to the work of Stephen Porges, Deb Dana and many others, we are also learning more about our nervous system’s survival response of freeze, a dorsal vagal response, where we can feel stopped and shut down out of a visceral reaction where our bodies are in actuality trying to keep us safe – our bodies are always trying to keep us safe. This response is like pushing a pause button and is our nervous system’s attempt to conserve energy. These reactions, both a result of stress, live in our bodies and require somatic explorations to support our unique pathways to healing, releasing, and integrating. We need to cultivate and nourish our bodies and our minds with experiences and practices that help us to feel safe, daily.

It’s important to take time to move the heaviness we’re carrying through us, not needing to cognitively understand or be required to explain ourselves, but rather to have the space to feel – to be quietly witnessed.

May we all have places and people where we can put down our defenses, allow tears to flow, honour our cracks, and explore who we are under all the layers we often carry.

In service to the sacred threads of life

Love Amber

As I celebrate my 20 year massage anniversary, I have welcomed in some supportive spaces to offer care:

Monday’s: at the Centre For Health Innovation located in the city of Ottawa at 429 MacLaren Street. To see me at this location you can book directly through the Centre.

Tuesdays, Thursday and Friday’s I practice massage therapy and sound therapy in my private forest studio, nestled amongst the white pines, cedar and birch trees.

Send me an email if you’d like to book in my private forest location. Booking is directly through me. amber@suryadaya.ca

I teach weekly online zoom yoga classes Thursday mornings from 11:00 – 12:00 am EST, you can join from anywhere (live or with the recording).

Consider upgrading to a paid membership, created with the intention to offer guidance whenever you need a little extra support. Enjoy a weekly email, free access to my monthly bedtime yoga class and special practice recordings. Memberships range from $6 to $38.

Let me know if you’d like more information amber@suryadaya.ca

The Ways We Care For Ourselves

The Ways We Care For Ourselves

Amber_Young

During my chemotherapy, the book Between Two Kingdoms written by Suleika Jaoud was recommended to me (by Lisa Patterson during one of her healing yoga classes). This was the first time I truly felt like someone understood.  Reading her words was like reading my own thoughts in a way I couldn’t articulate. I find myself now living between two kingdoms, inhabiting my body and the space I exist in the world in a very different way. Through this process I was introduced to the 100 day project, a creative dive for 100 days, which has been and continues to be, paramount in my healing and my daily life.  

The ways we care for ourselves matter immensely, starting with the small things; offering ourselves rest when we’re tired, hydrating our bodies, eating nourishing foods, being gentle with the messages we send ourselves.  

 I realize for so much of my career as a massage therapist and yoga teacher,  I have focused on how I can best care for others. Over the past few years I have grown into a more truthful realization of what that actually means.   The answer is found in how I care for myself, in the small simple ways of ensuring I’m okay first, only then can I start to look outside of myself. 

Last week I was privileged to sit in circle with a group of incredible women, it was my first in person Tending Your Inner Garden session.  9 of us gathered to hold space for eachother exploring what the act of tending to ourselves feels like, being held quietly in community as we moved through gentle practices.

In my own personal tending, I started painting bees and flowers to tap into that well of energy and joy that lives inside of me, with the intention to support my healing.  Through this process I have become connected with all the parts of me, parts of me that I didn’t even realize I contained, parts of me that have been numb for most of my life – or that I kept very small out of fear of judgement.


These are created from my heart, for my heart.

I had never painted before and now it’s a non-negotiable part of my life.  Many things have become non-negotiable for me; unrolling my mat for my body and my spirit, picking up a paintbrush with no expectations or judgement of what comes through on the canvas, dancing and singing, picking up my guitar or playing my drum as my boys play piano and their guitars.  This is therapy for me, part of the tapestry of my wholeness.  

I wonder what’s one small thing you can do today to offer yourself gentle care, tending to your own inner garden?

 
I offer you this with deep respect and gratitude.

Love, Amber

If you’d like to practice yoga and movement classes with me I teach weekly online zoom classes Thursday mornings from 11:00 – 12:00 am EST, you can join from anywhere (live or with the recording).

Once a month I also hold yoga and sound therapy at the Cedar Hill School House, Pakenham. These classes will run through to October.

If you’d like extra support you can find different video membership options , created with the intention to help you whenever you need a little extra guided support through a diverse collection of offerings ranging from 5 minute wellness capsule, mindful minutes practices, to 60 minute yoga and movement practices. Memberships range from $6 to $38.

Let me know if you’d like more information amber@suryadaya.ca

I’m dreaming about our next Tending Your Inner Garden offering, starting in the fall of 2024, stay tuned for dates and more information.

Practice Updates

Practice Updates

Amber_Young

Hello Dear Ones, this is a practical piece, just updating folks in the area about my massage therapy practice as I’ve had quite a few people reaching out.

After my personal healing sabbatical, I’m so excited to be moving forward in my work. It’s been wild returning to hands on work, after receiving so much care myself. I definitly feel a new appreciation for the healing potential when we’re held with compassionate care and clear healing intentions.

The last few weeks I have noticed an expanded capacity and renewed strength inside, feeling into the shift into summer. I am still taking it slowly, and sense this is the way forward for me, a pace I much prefer.

I can’t believe this August I’ll be celebrating my 20 year anniversary as a Registered Massage Therapist, and yet I feel like this is just a beginning, I think in many ways it is.

I’m excited to be welcoming in some supportive spaces for me to offer my care, and I feel so lucky to practice alongside some incredible and gifted humans. This July I’ll be joining The Centre for Health Innovation (formerly Ottawa Integrative Cancer Centre), located in the city of Ottawa. For 20 years I have focused much of my care (and training) on individuals through their cancer journey; diagnosis, treatment and beyond. Life handed me my own personal education in the school of real world cancer, which has better equipped me to understand the effects of treatment, the emotional effects, the toll on one’s energy and how the experience changes you.

I’m looking forward to holding this space once again, but with a new perspective, an empathic heart and a deeper understanding.

The outstanding care I received at the CHI, during my own cancer treatment, is a big inspiration for me joining their team. I will be practicing there on Mondays, starting July 15th. Please reach out to them directly to find out more details and to find a space in my schedule, as they handle all bookings within their centre directly.

CHI booking page

I’m also so excited to be joining another space in the fall, which you’ll receive more details as things are clearer.

For those of you who see me in my private space, I will continue to offer healing sessions out here in my forest studio, on this sacred land, nestled amongst the trees. I offer Massage Therapy as well as sessions infused with Sound Therapy and Energy Modalities. If you’d like to see me in my private space, located near Almonte, Ontario, please send me an email directly to book. amber@suryadaya.ca

Honouring the chapter I’m in now, and feeling how important it is to continue my work, in service to life.

If you’re new to me, and are curious about my work and experience, you can explore my website, or check out my bio on the CHI site.

It is a privilege and an honour to do this work in such a supported way. Holding the vision of a world where we all have the support we need to thrive in my heart.

Much love,

Amber

If you’d like to practice yoga and movement classes with me I teach weekly online zoom classes Thursday mornings, and a new monthly in person offering of yoga and sound therapy at the Cedar Hill School House, Pakenham, On (this next offering is scheduled for July 18th)

I also have several different membership options with an ever expanding on demand video library offering you supportive practices whenever you need them through a diverse collection of offerings. Depending on the support you need, memberships range from $6 to $38.

On another note, I’m so excited and dreaming about our next Tending Your Inner Garden offering, starting in the fall of 2024, stay tuned for dates.

Tending To Your Inner Garden

Tending To Your Inner Garden

Amber_Young

The place that lives inside of you, hoping you’ll visit often.  The place that needs to be nourished with all the things that feed your soul, on a daily basis.  The place that longs for your truth and needs to be held with love, care and compassion.

Join me on a 6 month journey, created for you. A place to tend to your inner garden; nothing to prove, no expectations, simply a space to show up exactly as you are. 

Together we’ll be tending to ourselves in cycle and in resonance with the rhythms of the earth.  Remember we’re not alone on this wild human journey, and there is a special magic that happens when we come together in like hearted community and engage in healing practices.  

Our time together begins this fall, as the leaves drop away dancing in the wind and we practice putting down what no longer serves us. In this letting go, we create fertile compost for the earth, and for ourselves – this letting go is a gift. The autumn is also a potent time to set intentions and to nurture your foundation to prepare for the coming months of deep nourishment and darkness. 

We honour the cocooning of the winter months, a time to rest, restore and look within for renewal, our seeds resting in the earth. 

Together we’ll create a warm, inclusive, and powerful – yet gentle container, with the invitation to reclaim the parts of ourselves that often get lost in the day to day of our human lives. The parts of us that thrive on grounded practices that connect us to beauty, wonder and peace in our own inner being.

As the wheel turns, savoring a slow  emergence with the spring, feeling into your own unique process.  The spring heralds a time of new beginnings if we allow it, the bubbling of energy and the stirrings of new movement – in the world within our inner garden and within the world around us.

Through each month we’ll explore different aspects of ourselves and our process:

November – Grounding and Creating our safe container

December – Softening and Letting Go

January – Visioning and Receiving

February – Healing and Being Held

March – Integration

April – Joy, play and wonder

In each of our sessions together we’ll explore:

Grounding Practices, Breathwork, Gentle Movement, Poetry, Song, Journaling and Meditation.

Each gather will also include a guided relaxation and healing sound practice.

I offer you this as an invitation to come home to yourself

You belong here.

  I invite you now to take a few breaths, notice what arises. Give yourself a moment to simply pause. 

If you’re feeling the call from deep within you to say yes to this invitation, simply click on the link below (with the option that suits you best) to register for this nourishing exploration together. Please note these sessions will be offered online through the zoom platform.

I look forward to spending these windows of self care time with you.

Choosing the payment option you are able to manage in the spirit of reciprocity:

Cost:  $300 plus HST (this works out to $25 +HST /session for 12 sessions)

Reduced Rate (Tiered Pricing) $180 plus HST (this works out to $15 +HST/session for 12 sessions)

This includes 12 live 90-120 minute virtual sessions, downloadable recordings of each session so you have lifetime access, poems, songs, journal prompts, plus other bonus’s and access to special classes.

If these payment options are not accessible to you at this time but you hear the call, please send me an email at amber@suryadaya.ca and we can discuss options.

Sliding scale and limited full scholarships are available as no one will be turned away due to finances.

Please note: Your camera can be on or off for our live sessions, there will never be any expectation to share, this is intended as time for you to go within.

If you can’t make a scheduled gather, no worries, Each session is recorded and sent out to all registrants within 48 hours of the live session. You’ll receive a video link to revisit our time together as often as you’d like, with the option to download for unlimited lifetime acce

Start date: My November 2023 offering is full and registration is now closed

Upcoming dates: New session starting November 2024, let me know if you’d like to be notified when dates are posted.

I also teach a weekly online gentle movement and relaxation class Thursday mornings from 11:00 – 12:00. You can check out my schedule here

Click here to learn more about my rates

To register, Simply click on the dates you’d like to join me and fill out your name and email, or you can send me an email with any questions at amber@suryadaya.ca

“A reminder: You are not a Before and After story. You don’t need to turn every experience of your life into wisdom, or prove to anyone how far you’ve come, or rush your way toward some other version of yourself. You don’t need to dissect yourself endlessly in order to extract your life for the consumption of others. You don’t need to be a beacon of hope or an example of overcoming. You don’t need to minimize your struggles OR your joy for the comfort of someone else’s story of you. You don’t need to bypass what’s true and real by performing what you think you’re supposed to be. You don’t need to be beyond what you teach or what you share, what you offer or what you give. You don’t need to deny when things are hard OR when things are easy, or when things feel right in the middle. You can let yourself be human, no matter what roles you play or what identities others hold you to, no matter what others expect of you or anticipate from you. You get to be human. You get to be human. You get to be human.”

Lisa Olivera

Autumn Equinox Blessings

Autumn Equinox Blessings

Amber_Young


The Autumn equinox is a time of transition, as we move through the next few months preparing us for a time of deep rest and nourishment in the cycle of the year.  A time of balance between the light and the dark and the contrasting energies in each of us. Accepting all these parts as integral to who we are, necessary in our growth and our becoming over our lifetime.  Resting in the ground of holy hereness, honouring where you find yourself right now – at this time in your life.  

We are also moving through a time of harvest, as we witness and celebrate the growth of the seeds we may have planted in the spring, witnessing this miracle of creation.  A time of gratitude for these miracles, for being here and also for the ways we are supported. 

The Autumn is also a time that we consider shifting our self care regime, honouring the changes in the season and allowing ourselves to live in resonance with our natural world.  Our self care routines are a way to build our own self trust.  When we show up for ourselves, it changes us.  We question ourselves less, we hear our own voice as important, and we thrive – so we can be who we truly are in the world.  If we can’t trust ourselves and listen to the wisdom within us, then what’s the point. This life is not a dress rehearsal.  Take time for yourself, everyday, honour yourself and show yourself the gentle care and love I sense you offer out so easily.  It has to start within. 

 Contemplative and introspective practices, including quiet time in nature, gentle movement, meditation and yoga, will allow us to work with sensations in our bodies and patterns we witness in our mental and emotional bodies through the changing seasons.  Through these practices we learn to trust ourselves, we learn what self love feels like, and we also start to understand what is necessary to put down and no longer carry forward.  


I have been quiet for the past year, out of necessity.  Honouring my own self care needs and offering myself love so I could heal.  This year I have traveled through the darkness cancer brought me, and also through the light.  I am so grateful for the ways I have been held in community, and for the ways I showed up for myself.  This is how we heal, and this looks differently for each of us – healing is not a cookie cutter recipe for everyone, it starts with listening within. 

I sense it has been an intense year for many, I feel that.  It’s important to mark transitions in a way that has meaning and makes sense for you. Autumn is a time in the cycle of the year that is so potent for marking these transitions in our lives.  We shed the layers we need to shed, we acknowledge who we are now, we give thanks for the growth and the healing, and we prepare for yet another cycle.  

During this chaotic time in in the world, we are all being reminded of how precious life is, can we hold ourselves and eachother with kindness and love in these changing and vulnerable times.  If perhaps you don’t feel that, then let me remind you how precious and fragile life is – and that you matter. 

I feel through my cancer journey I have been opened to a deeper calling of greater service to a world that desperately needs gentle places and healing hands.  Together we build our resilience, we can support one another to soothe and strengthen our nervous systems and to take time alone and together in community – honouring the need for balance. 

I no longer want to be resilient.  I don’t want to simply bounce back from things that hurt me or cause me pain. Bouncing back means returning to where I stood before.                                           

Instead, I want to go beyond the hurts and the darkness. The first step from genuine healing . . . when I came to trust and believe that there was a beyond.  

Now I reach for beyond every day, in every encounter, in every circumstance.  I seek to go where I have never travelled.  

I wake with the vision of a purposeful day, filled with adventures and teachings.  

Then I take the first step and try to make it beyond.

– Richard Wagamese

I look forward to meeting you in the beyond.


With So Much love
Amber 

faceless woman with basket of spilled apples
Photo by Елена Кузичкина on Pexels.com
We Begin

We Begin

Amber_Young

Were do we begin from? When life offers us opportunities for transformation and growth, how do we crack out of who we were to step more fully into who we are – now, through the evolution of a lifetime.

We begin by listening to the whispers of our inherent capacity to rise . This gives me goosebumps. YES – can you be quiet enough to listen to those whispers amidst the busyness and the energy spring brings.

What are your most recent opportunities to step more fully into who you are now? Take a moment to think about this..

It could be a simple conversation that you noticed yourself speaking words that weren’t actually in alignment with your truth, or the truth of who you are now. You know those conversations that may find patterned responses coming out with the sound of your voice. Or maybe that opportunity came in the form of that fire inside of you igniting in response to something you care about, you know those moments when your heartbeat quickens and your moved from deep inside into action and knew you needed to do something – did you? Other times we’re handed these opportunities through loss, or challenges to our health or that of someone we love.

These experiences are opportunities for us to grow, to pause and consider our words and our actions, our way of being in the world. Opportunities to consider if we’re showing up first for ourselves, independent of how others perceive us or past expectations. I wonder if you can look at these opportunities to also reflect on what you’re able to invite in, to shed, and to truly come into alignment with yourself.

Remember these experiences change us.

This time of year often brings about an awareness of patterns, some super helpful and others that drain us. I’d like to invite you to start fresh. To pause before you engage and ask yourself is this actually true for me NOW, or is this a patterned way of being in the world that is no longer supportive.

As the Springs tides wash over us and we find ourselves here at Beltane, the midpoint between the spring equinox and the coming summer solstice, we can allow the waters to wash away anything we’ve outgrown and to be bathed in all that we welcome in. As we celebrate Spring at it’s peak, and look around at the emergence of the trees and the flowers after a long slumber, can we hold ourselves with that same energy – a slow tender emergence as we reveal ourselves now – with wonder and curiosity.

I seem to be more aware of patterns as I emerge after the winter of my life, moving through 8 months of healing, shedding layers, inviting in new experiences, and pondering all the learning from my own opportunities for growth, which came in the form of cancer.

I came across this piece the other day and it is so resonate with my own process, perhaps it will spark something for someone else too, perhaps you.

Now is not the time for apathy or regret, not the time for keening in sorrow. It is time for swift feet and gentle fingers. Time for cracked open hearts and wild tears. Time for delight and determination to twine back together, eyes open to where we are and what can still be done.

We begin – like the crow daring to peck away at what confines us, cracking out of the shell, persistent in our knowing. We begin like the snake, feeling the tightness that no longer suits us, stretching beyond our edges until we shed our shape and become reborn. We begin with a smile, with tears, with blood and possibilities, we begin by listening to the whispers of our inherent capacity to rise.

Molly Remer from her piece titled Beltane, from We’Moon 2023

This human journey can be utterly confusing, painful and layered, and at the same time beautiful, tender and so very sacred, AND Every moment allows us the opportunity to begin again, with eyes and heart wide open.

Sending you Beltane Blessings, wrapped with so much soul support and love, as you begin

Till next time

Amber

Stay tuned for some future practice opportunities, as the tides wash in waves of inspiration, after a long healing sabbatical.

shallow focus photography of bird
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Soul Seeds

Soul Seeds

Amber_Young

What does 2023 have in store for each of us? For some folks we look at the New Year starting at the end of October/early November – with Samhain, offering us the transition of autumn into winter; to let go, compost and rest in the season of hibernation – when our dreams start to take form. For others following the solar calendar, January 1st beckons us to a new chapter with greater clarity, a fresh canvas, welcoming in the energy of a New Year.

I’m not one of these people that’s going to ask you your new years resolutions, but I am a person that will ask you what pulls you forward, and how can you listen to the urgings of your soul.

The last day I worked, before my life took a bit of an unexpected turn, was ironically a day retreat about self love and self care – I think a wee bit of an omen for my own journey. An important and beautiful day, a day held in love.

Can you honestly say you love yourself? Your whole self?

Can you honestly acknowledge that you ensure your own needs are met first before looking outside of yourself? When you move in this way, you actually have so much more to offer the world and the potential to enjoy the journey more fully.

How often do you do things you love, just for the sake of doing something that feels good?

A very special group of souls gathered that day, on the land at Carp Ridge. We moved through the forest, walking mindfully and honouring the sun, we respectfully explored the way our breath and bodies flow and move, we journaled, welcomed in healing foods, held safe space nourished by sound and relaxation practices, and we planted some seeds of our own that afternoon.

I wonder, wherever you are in cycle, what feeds your soul? This isn’t just something we should consider once a year, at the threshold, but it’s something to anchor you on a daily basis. We planted 9 seeds that day and imbued them into a mala, holding the energy of our commitment to offer ourselves experiences on a daily basis that feed our souls.

What makes your life worth living??

What rituals or practices do you do on a daily basis that help you to remember that you belong, that help you to feel at home in your body, that connect you to what matters in your life?

For some these questions may be really hard to answer, hold that with gentleness. I urge you to give yourself space and patience to explore and understand what it is you need.

What experiences make your life worth living??

I wear my mala everyday, and hold my own seeds in my hand knowing that I have the power to hold them as simply great ideas, or to take action to welcome them into my life. To live with passion and wonder.

When did we get so busy in our lives? So distracted?

When did we stop having enough time for ourselves?

Since being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer this past October, I’ve learnt alot – and yes, that learning will never stop. It shouldn’t take getting stopped in your tracks to TRULY start listening to the longings of your soul and to honour what brings you joy. Often it’s the most simple acts that feed us the deepest – as simple as your morning coffee or tea.

Now when I unroll my mat I do that with an increased awareness of every sensation in my own body, and every single sacred breath – it is one of my soul seeds, my daily yoga. That time everyday is teaching me to love my body and all the layers of my being, it is undistracted time to simply listen deeper within – and to practice the act of listening within first. My yoga practice has changed considerably since my surgery, and I think the most important change is the gentleness and tenderness I now tend to myself with – not for my students or planning my next class – but for myself. We are constantly evolving, and with that evolution the seeds that feed our souls, and the way we approach those seeds will also out of necessity change, remember that.

Blessings to each and every one of you during this season of introspection and hibernation, so grateful to be on this wild human journey, filled with mystery and opportunities for growth. Thanks for sharing my thoughts.

‘Till next time

Love Amber

Photo by Pixabay

Just a note to remind you that all community classes and healing sessions are temporarily on hold while I navigate my own healing journey. Stay tuned for updates, I look forward to holding healing space for you in the not to far away future.