Welcome

I'm so happy you are here! We are building a community for those who are striving to maintain presence and peace in their daily lives, in a society that tends to value busyness over balance.

Wondering if you've landed in the right place?

Have you ever wished you had more white space on your calendar? Or, felt that life was a bit out of balance, and you weren't truly living in the moment because there was so much on your to-do list or running through your mind? Maybe you wanted some simple self-care practices to put in place and weren't sure where to start.

I get it!

My conviction is that all deserve to live in peace. Small steps can result in large gains. Even with only a few minutes of your time, there is a mindfulness and/or movement practice that can support you in restoring balance and peace to your daily life.

Yoga

Yoga not only encompasses poses that we tend to associate with it in the West, but is much more expansive, including our sense of integrity, self-discipline and spiritual observances, postures/poses, breath, withdrawing from outside stimuli, concentration, meditation or contemplation, and a state of ecstacy.

Living your yoga both on and off the mat is a gorgeous experience!

To learn more, search Patanjali's 8 limbs of yoga.

Qigong

Translations of this ancient Chinese holistic practice (pronounced "chee-gung") include "art of cultivating vital energy" and "energy cultivation."

The practices of qigong offer gentle movements that can leave us feeling balanced, grounded, and peaceful, while cultivating energy and allowing us to release stress. These practices are very accessible and can be done almost anywhere, inside or outside, standing or seated, in any type of clothing.

Qigong may not be as well-known in the West as yoga, so try a class and see if you can feel its benefits!

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the act of being in the present, truly noticing what is happening right now, in this very moment. We can strive to be mindful throughout our days, with a multitude of practices.

While the words mindfulness and meditation are often used interchangeably, they are not quite the same, and they work together beautifully. Your mindfulness practices will benefit your meditation practices and vice versa.

Meditation

The state of meditation is a "happening" not a "doing," and it occurs in the space between thoughts.

There are many styles of meditation practice and not all of them include sitting in silence, cross-legged on the floor. They can be done seated, standing, lying down, and even walking or moving.

Meditation practices give us an opportunity to be with all aspects of ourselves, as witnesses, not as judges. Welcome these aspects into your meditation practice (thoughts included!).

Upcoming Opportunities

Join us for an evening of conversation, guided mindfulness, qigong, and learning practical tools that you can utilize to cultivate peace and contentment during the upcoming holiday season. We will end with a beautiful candlelight mantra in the Chapel.

This is a free event. In lieu of a registration fee, donations will be requested at the door to support Operation Sunshine.

https://operationsunshinenc.org

The evening will be led by Kathryn Lloyd, Certified Yoga, Mindfulness, and Qigong Teacher and Leslie Veach, Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor.

Leslie and I enjoy co-facilitating programs that offer participants simple mindfulness tools to utilize in their daily lives to help increase groundedness and awareness in the present moment. We believe in the power of mindfulness and personally use these tools to increase our own self-compassion.

To register, email kathryn@simplymindful.yoga by Tuesday, October 31.

Book recommendation

Soulful Simplicity, by Courtney Carver, is a book I have returned to a few times, and it reminds me how much more beautiful life can be when we simplify. Carver's writing is vulnerable and relatable. It's not just a book on getting rid of our stuff (although that is discussed), but about making space in our lives for that which is most important. Carver really embodies the idea of living our yoga "off the mat."

Excerpt from Chapter 36: A Simple Life Is Not the End Goal

"A soulful simplicity is not about living with the least amount of stuff, meditating the longest, or being in a competition in any sense of the imagination. Sometimes simplicity and other major life changes look like that on Facebook or other social media streams, or even in our own minds, but really it's about you - your heart, your soul, your life. What works for you may not work for someone else. There isn't one solution. With all of the focus on minimalism, simplicity, decluttering, and capsule wardrobes, it's easy to believe that a simple life is the dream, but a simple life is not the end goal. We don't remove the clutter, reduce the stress, and boycott busyness to have a simple life. We do it to have a life."

I hope you enjoy!

Sign up to receive email about upcoming offerings!

Kathryn Lloyd
Certified Yoga, Mindfulness, and Qigong Teacher

Mailing Address:

2120 E. Fire Tower Road; #107-29

Greenville, NC 27858

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