women's yoga & meditation retreat

Women’s Yoga and Meditation Retreat
Led by Sarah Bowker

Join me this fall in beautiful Kentucky for a weekend of yoga, relaxation and meditation.

It’s hardly a secret at the studio that Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. It is a yin time of year.

It’s cooler, crisper temperatures.

It’s leaves turning colors and falling into crunchy piles.

It’s all things pumpkin, squash, apples, and cinnamon.

It’s football on TV and earlier sunsets.

It’s building fires, and snuggling into soft sweaters.

It’s the beautiful transformation Mother Nature makes as she prepares for winter.

And it’s the perfect time of year to retreat.

I have found the coziest old house where I would love for you to join me and Misty Pittman, fellow Barefoot Works teacher, for a weekend of yoga, relaxation and meditation.

It’s just outside the small community of New Haven, at Bethany Spring, just a mile down the road from the Abbey of Gethsemani.  

It’s a quick 90 minute drive west on the Bluegrass Parkway from Lexington.

The rooms are clean and comfortable.  The grounds are beautiful with plenty of trees and a lakeside view.

It’s a perfect space to spend a weekend away from Lexington, celebrating the shift in season, and deepening your yoga and meditation practice.

We’ll practice restorative, yin, and vinyasa yoga.

We’ll take time for ourselves – to nap, to journal, to dream, to just be.

We’ll breathe.

And we’ll meditate, together with other women.

Won’t you join us? Sign up here: 

Space is limited to only 8 women, so register early to claim your spot.

Dates: October 11-13, 2013 (begin at 6pm Friday and end at noon on Sunday)
Cost: $300 if registered by 9/13 and includes room, yoga and meditation instruction and meals from Friday dinner through Sunday lunch.

weathering transition

A beautiful blog post by the soul-full Meredith Swim. I'm breathing a little easier now and I hope you will too after reading her words. xoxo, Sharon

Prayer ~ Belleruth Naparstek

Just give me this:

A rinsing out, a cleansing free

Of all my smaller strivings

So I can be the class act God intended,

True to my purpose,


All my energy aligned behind my deepest intention.
And just this:

A quieting down,


A clearing away of internal ruckus,

So I can hear the huge stillness in my heart,

And feel

How I pulse with all creation,

Part and parcel of Your great singing ocean.
And this too:

A willingness to notice and forgive

The myriad times I fall short,

Forgetting who I really am,

What I really belong to.
So I can start over,


Fresh and clean,

Like sweet sheets billowing in the summer sun,

My heart pierced with gratitude.

After the initial thrill of finishing undergrad at UK, I fell into a limbo like state and haven’t felt centered during these rather radiant summer days. Frankly, I’m mad that I feel off-centered. This emotional state reflects the transitioning (Yes, hello, Change) taking place right now in my life.

I’m transitioning from being an undergraduate to an adult like person in the workplace. I’m moving out of my beloved cherry red room that was a sanctuary during my college days and back to my childhood home. I’m clearing out old essays and organizing clothes and books while struggling with the stress and lack of confidence that habitually bubbles up for me when I am in the midst of a grand, elegant mess (anyone out there good with organizing clutter? I’ll pay you in lattes for help).

In a tearful breakdown to my mom, she gave me familiar advice: “Breathe Courage.” This was my mantra for June, but it seems to have vanished into the rainstorms and heat waves of July. I blinked, a bit shocked and agitated to hear my lost Higher Self’s words of wisdom.

“You already have the answers,” she soothed. 

My mind revisited Naparstek’s poem: a willingness to notice and forgive/the myriad times I fall short.

So, here I am noticing that I feel ungrounded these days, more sensitive and reactive to others and to myself. I notice the resentment and judgment I feel toward my sensitivity and the rhetoric from childhood claiming I am too soft and incapable for the hustle and bustle of the “real” world.

I notice the small, but significant moments when I do not harshly judge myself and choose to channel compassion and forgiveness for self. Noticing.

Perhaps at this moment of change, simply taking note and forgiving whatever emerges will be the remedy for weathering this transition, or as Sharon beautifully put it, transformation.

Wherever you are in this moment, blog traveler, take a moment to Notice. Greet whatever emerges with compassion and include some forgiveness.

We all fall short, but we also can rise.