New Developments

Hello ~

Was just feeling grateful about this weekends events and wanted to share these feelings

Organizing the studios first join class with Wanli we had a class filled with smiles

Before starting the class I was not sure what I was going to teach

Then I decided to let go of an idea about how the class should turn out

In that moment the stress left and the excitement of seeing what will be came

Have you ever felt this way before? when we try to control a situation everything that goes against our plan feels like a personal setback but when we are meeting the situation as it rises and responding to it unexpected turns take a friendly face.

Really enjoyed holding with class with everyone .

Thank you for all of you that make the studio what it is

Much Love and light,

Em

Inner world

For a long time I was wondering what the best job to start would be?

What would make me happy?

When I was thinking about this choice I was being very careful with where I put my energy.

The thing I realised was that I didn’t know what I liked and wasn’t trying things out either.

So nothing was moving very much, the fear of ending up doing something unpleasant stopped me from experiencing new things and cause my present moment to be a bit unpleasant!

What I was trying to avoid was what I was creating for myself.

In one of my relationships, the fear of loosing the person caused me to try to distance myself from them. As you can imagine that made me feel disconnected and didn’t help the relationship!

It seems to me that we end up creating a lot of difficulty for ourselves when we try to avoid something.

At a lunch someone pulling faces at his food was asked why he was eating his meal, it was obvious he did not enjoy it.

“My mom always says that if you don’t like something that is precisely why you have to do it!”

We all know moms everywhere are enlightened beings that are underappreciated.

But what his mom told this person has stuck with me, without really understanding it it seemed right.

The way i understand this is that we make up a story in our mind. It’s going to be convincing as we are all great story tellers. There might be a lot of truth in it too but this story stops of from being able to experience things as they are. So we become disconnected from life.

By challenging our stories we can create richer dialogues and maybe next time we might just find out that it was only part of the truth.

From your massage therapist,

Em

Everything is interdependent!

How much pressure is enough?

Hello there,

Em here sharing a about my massages experience

When in Thailand there are many teachers each with their own ideas.

One of them who I look up too always gave massage where the client would be biting their lips and tapping the floor as if this was a wrestling match.

Naturally I asked if the pain was necessary?

He told me that he could see where the body was misaligned and he was only making the changes needed to move things back into balance.

To me this gave me the impression that change is painful

Then later I came across someone else who told me that there should be no pain, when massaging someone you should respect the body and listen to it.

that was before he taught me therapy treatments and I was doing the same tapping and lip biting dance as everyone else after!

So i surmised that therapy was painful

Still later I found a teacher that never used strong pressure but kept the body in motion.

its a from of fluid and dynamic massage that resembles a dance.

When practicing it with clients I found that it the mind was relaxed.

Everyone has told me they felt reborn, a complete change of energy overcame them.

so far this is the style the I prefer but it is not so applicable to specific problems so if you tale a therapy massage with me expect a little pain and lip biting!

Also this week we have a shiatsu master that will work in the studio

send us a mail if you would like to book a session with them or myself

EM

Decison to write

Writing has never really been my thing, but today I feel like giving it another go

Like old photo albums that everyone enjoys flicking through, I imagine that this will prove as rich a log of the events now as I see them ~

Hope my future self will find delight in the me now ;)

This entry is being written by Em

The massage therapist of UrbanLeaf and its owner

I’ve been looking after the garden at the back of the studio

the salads have been shooting off

It’s be a rewarding time being out in the garden.

Working there is a meditation. By that I mean I can watch my thoughts as I’m working. A lot comes up during gardening! feels like my mind relaxes a little and thoughts just come pouring out.

Not paying attention to them too much and enjoying just doing something with full focus.

That time of precious.

I’d like to take this opportunity to also invite anyone who might wish to do some group gardening with me.
Everyone is welcome to create this garden project. On Saturday I’ve kept a slot open (10 - 12) but I’m there most days.

So send the studio an email if you would like to do some gardening here too. Your company would be cherished

some days take you by surprise

The garden is part of the studio in that it represents what the studio values.

It was called UrbanLeaf because I wanted the studio to be a place were natural grow could take place in our urban city. This would be growth of people through self discovery and grow of an ecosystem of people connected to the studio. It represented a community that was self supportive, each member being a vital part of the whole. Like each plant is to its own ecosystem.

So far, thanks to everyone that has supported UrbanLeaf we have been able to bud out even through tough times ~

Thank you to all of you

For your local plant lover,

Em