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So there I was, slowly making long, wide turns as I skied down a slope in Bulgaria on my honeymoon over New Year's 2012. I was trying to keep up with my new hubby Sean (a professional snowboarder) on my first ever powder day. I was — at the time — a novice skier who grew up skiing on tiny hills in central Wisconsin. After meeting him, let's just say my learning curve was steep. I'd just barely come to a stop next to him on the side of the slope before the words escaped my lips: My quads are on FIRE! His response stuck with me all these years... "Mollie... that feeling you have in your legs? We like that feeling." And with that, he rode off — effortlessly — through the choppy, powder-mogul-covered slope. My quads hummed, but I laughed as I considered whether or not this was a feeling I could ever... enjoy? I repeated that phrase like a mantra: WE LIKE THIS FEELING! Flash forward to today: YES! I do — in fact — love that feeling!  That was one of many lessons I've had in perspective. We only see our life through our own lens of experience. Being a relatively unexperienced skier at the time, that was all I knew. Until Sean did what he always does (and what I love him most for as my partner in life)... he encouraged me to try something new. Something different. He helped me see something from a different angle.
That's the thing about perspective... it's always relevant. In every situation, no matter what. We only see the world through the lens through which we've created for ourselves. To someone, life circumstances are hard. To another? Those same circumstances are a gift. To some, -20 degrees outside might feel like a nightmare! To me here in the arctic? Just another day. In this way, truth is bendable, based on your vantage point. And we don't get truth from someone else, just because we say so. Or just because they say so. If I said to you, "-20 degrees is warm! That's the truth!" You might call me crazy. Although it's a bit of semantics, I would call that a belief. Because something you believe can also be disbelieved. From the yogic perspective, we don't discover truth by believing or disbelieving. We don't discover it by merely writing something, or listening to a teacher, or reading a book. We discover truth through our experience... our actions. You cannot "untruth" something you've experienced. Your experience is what it is. What can change — and WILL change — over time is the value and quality of that experience. Your vantage point changes. Your perspective changes. And because of this — if you're open to it — you learn. This is what Yoga Hive is all about — and that's why you're still reading this email. Because you likely understand that truth isn't just what I say here, because I say it. Or because I was taught that by my teachers. Truth, from our perspective, is based on what we have intimately experienced within our own lives — from the best powder days, to a powerful breathwork practice, to those earth-shattering moments in life that shape life as we know it. And that experience is what we hope to share with you, every time we see on on your mat — virtual or in person! So... what do you have to lose? Come experience some of these amazing things we have for you this month:
In truth and perspective, Mollie
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MollieOriginally hailing from Wisconsin, Mollie is a cheesehead transplant to Northwest Montana, with degrees in Retail and Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Today, she lives off the grid, half the year in a Tiny House & half the year in a yurt — both of which she and her husband, Sean, built by hand. Nonprofit Executive Director by day, Mollie also owns and teaches at Yoga Hive — a chain of community yoga studios in the valley. Archives
October 2023
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