Talitha • LIGHT WAY BEING

We are ✨

We do not become healers.
We came as healers. We are.
Some of us are still catching up to what we are.

We do not become storytellers.
We came as carriers of the stories
we and our ancestors actually lived. We are.
Some of us are still catching up to what we are.

We do not become artists. We came as artists. We are.
Some of us are still catching up to what we are.

We do not become writers.. dancers.. musicians.. helpers.. peacemakers. We came as such. We are.
Some of us are still catching up to what we are.

We do not learn to love in this sense.
We came as Love. We are Love.
Some of us are still catching up to who we truly are.

~ Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

[Art: Secret Art / Lobsang Melendez Ahuanari: lobsangsecretart.com ]

Keeping myself entertained while waiting for baby girl
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I love picking up little earth offerings when I visit places, the playful things that she lays out for us to marvel at and amuse ourselves. Just like a mother does...
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And how perfect for a lovingly made birth shrine, with offerings from my women-clan and sisterhood combined with small treasures. Precious stones, my mamma's earrings, some wood to burn and all manner of shells, rocks, seeds and even a wooden twig mamma holding her moss baby
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Just a small reminder what abundance we are surrounded by without the need to buy, new, consume. There is already enough, too much even. I loved making time to relish our natural, playful and abundant mother 🌿❄⚡🌤

○ I've learnt a lot about leaning into experience, getting out of the way and letting life - in whatever form it comes in - flow through me. Sometimes that comes in the form of joy and lightness, but often it comes in gnarly, despairing or frustrated forms, with resistance and futile control. Oh how this baby girl is teaching me ⚡

The times we are in is a huge and challenging lesson in this. Why? Why would we want to lean into anything difficult? Why would we want to release the reigns that keep us 'safe'?

Our experience takes a life of its own, and wants to move through our bodies, mind and emotions in different ways. We can let go of control and allow the experience - through mindful allowing and sensing, guided or intuitive movement, in creative expression and sometimes even righteous rage. And if it's peacefulness or joy, that needs to be celebrated! Not hidden. A thread of compassion can run through it all.

In Feb I will be running a weekly mindfulness session and my last women's circle until this little sprite is born, look out for details coming soon x 🌿○

These two magic beings and and team happened to pull together a safe and beautiful Portugal retreat amongst all the worldly chaos 🌟 gratitude and respect!

Feeling very blessed to have spent this time to feel into and heal our bodies, lift our voices and open our hearts. This to me is what retreats are all about, a brief hiatus in normal time to remind ourselves that we are in fact a real and alive community, able to raise our vibrations if we choose to step into our higher selves 🌟

So many thanks flowing from me to you all, and for these beautiful moments captured by the amazing group. I hope to bring some of these sweet vibes into my work in the coming weeks. The embodiment journey is here waiting for you with all these amazing guides and practitioners and I welcoming you, get in touch 💛

○ I'm going to be offering a special session on Sat 10th at 9:30am BST in honour of World Mental Health Day 🌍🌿

You are warmly invited to spend an hour with me to experience yoga as a movement medicine, as a mindfulness practice, as a tender exploration of our compassionate nature, a space to re-ground and nourish.

Everyone is welcome whether you ever explored yoga and movement in this holistic way or not. Why not try it, it's sure to bring a little light into your day and on onwards ⭐

I am deeply invested in mental health with much faith in our own inner resources of curiosity and openness to bring awareness and balance. I am a trained Mental Health First Aider, and incorporate my training in Mindfulness & Compassion and Psychology into this session.

Payment by donation, www.lightwaybeing.one/yoga for registration ○

Hi sweet souls. Now that autumn is here and stronger lock-down measures look imminent, I decided to start my week in the best way for physical and mental health through movement and mindfulness. I'd love you to join me! Yes waking up early on Mondays to take care of yourself is 🦋🧡🌿🌠⭐🤗

MONDAY MORNING MOVEMENT
Explore strength and balance through yoga movement and breath-work
Intentionally restore through presence and compassion

All welcome

ONLINE WEEKLY MON 08:15 - 09:15 BST • £5 per household
www.lightwaybeing.one/yoga

This year I'm adding to my bow a teaching qualification for Mindfulness and Compassion. Of all the transformational work I've done for my own life and in helping others in ways that is immediately felt, Mindfulness practice has been the strongest. Jamie and Rosie are brilliant and knowledgable people so I highly recommend this for today!

We () are hosting a talk about how mindfulness can power you to change the world, with & from the Mindfulness Institute, Sept 15th, 5pm, Zoom. Free, sign-up below! “Inner transformation & social change need each other” https://www.thealternative.org.uk/dailyalternative/2020/9/5/elephantmeets-mindfulnessinitiative-rosie-jamie

“Inner transformation & social change need each other”. Come to our Zoom “Elephant” meet on mindfulness and agency, with Rosie Bell & Jamie Bristow, Sept 15th — THE ALTERNATIVE UK After the summer break, our Zoom series  The Elephant Meets… - featuring those who are building the next system we need - recommences. At Tuesday 5.00 - 6.30pm, September 15th, we invite you to hear and talk with Rosie Bell and Jamie Bristow from the Mindfulness Initiative (fr

Today I'm delivering a workshop on how to approach curating a workshop or retreat to a group of yoga teacher trainees. I was taken back to our beautiful New Year retreat at the start of this year in South Africa 🦋

Little did we know what was to happen when we all got home. It makes that time of connection, playfulness and exploration even more special. Such a warm feeling to remember all the sweet participants and beautiful Bodhi Khaya.

Ole from Norway read us this poem around the fire,

It Is That Dream
It is the dream we carry
that something wonderful will happen,
that it must happen –
that time will open,
that our hearts may open,
that doors shall open,
and the mountain shall open
that springs will gush forth –
that our dream will open,
and that one morning we’ll glide
into a cove we didn’t know.

Olav H. Hauge

Beautiful art by 🖌 New blog SOUL WORDS is live • see www.lightwaybeing.one/soul-words for fullness ✒ I hope you enjoy

In honour of the full moon and the start of a new season I wanted to share with you here some of the books and teachers that have had a profound impact on me in the ways described below 🌕

Like all of us, I have been through periods of loving, losing and learning that have seen me alternatively soaring, to on my knees and everything in between.

Though you may have found, like I have, that once any pain has subsided the learning can be a seismic shift of perception, a bold awakening, a rebirth into new understanding of the self and our part and path in the whole. I have found a deeper connection with the divine, a revealing of the people in my life that form my utmost supportive community, and a new paths of inspiration, creation and work. Sometimes what is found is a quieter inner stillness, a contentedness to be in the present, in tune with my body and what it is showing me, a release of the perceived judgements of others on my life.

For the past four years I have been deep diving into my living experience in mind, body and soul, soaking in the wisdom of others so that I may find comfort, heal and grow. And this path brought me to study a psychology degree, and here I am about to enter my second year. My hope is that I can eventually help others find comfort, healing and growth through their own unique path, their own inner guidance and a trusting of their own essence and value.

This weekend I had the honour of bringing to life my dear friend's vision for her Mother Blessing, as she is soon mamma to be. Beautiful practices that would help her move from maiden to mother, a deep transition that is rightly honoured 🦋

We brought together women of the family and friends, shared stories and poetry, blessings and advice. We shared homemade treats, threaded beads so that Hayley could have a talisman of love near her while giving birth. We gently danced and moved to honour our bodies, giving her space to appreciate the strong, capable feminine form, and applied oils to make our bodies and the space feel sacred and yummy 🌺

I'm honoured that she asked me to facilitate, truly one of the most special and joyful days I can remember. I can't wait for my fairy godchild to arrive now!

If you would like a ceremony or ritual for a special transition or occasion, get in touch.

In these strange times, we managed the space so that it could also be virtually streamed to those afar. The new normal! How are you finding managing this new online world?

Taking every opportunity to be outside while the summer lasts. There is much about now that's really difficult ○ but with a lens of gratitude I'm really happy that we have all been forced to be outside more. There's more breathing space, room to move and more exploring areas nearby with trees to gaze at lovingly and water to play in.

I 💚'ed sleeping beside the fire last night with this fun, creative, barefoot river crew (even being woken up with gentle rain tapping my face, in my dream it was a kitty licking me, haha!)

Have you found any beautiful places near you?

This year my heart was yearning to get onto the land. After lock-down in the city, pouring into my books on psychology, ecology and mindfulness this felt even more urgent. I needed to feel the deep earth systems in my body, and be a real part of it again. I dreamt, I put out the intention to the universe, I prayed and I manifested.

Here I am in Wales in a sacred national park, growing food, building structures out of larch timber, taking cold baths next to my forest bed and feeling my body root and ground again. No doubt this manifestation was born out of GRATITUDE ~ for where and how I stand in relation to this earth, to how I contribute to this (now shifting) system we're in and mostly for the wisdom of my body, for holding space for this adventurous unfolding of life.

If you'd like to explore GRATITUDE of the earth body more, then I'd love you to join mine and Mujo's workshop The Body that Reconnects • online workshop series, starts 23rd Aug.
Much love to you all x

OPENING WITH GRATITUDE - SESSION ONE •

We begin the journey by rediscovering our earth-bodies. By slowing down to sense and develop a heightened awareness of our connectedness with other beings. We open with gratitude, coming back to our source, to who we are as embodied beings, and expressing our love for life on Earth.

Mindful movement practices, movement meditation, spontaneous writing, reflection and inquiry.

I taught my first live online yoga class to my sweet colleagues at Publicis, from my bedroom 😁

I really enjoyed the connection and the learning. I'll definitely do more of this uplifting experimentation of virtual yoga.

And friends I'm planning one for you too! Watch this space 🌿🦋

Stay well and strong in your isolations dear ones 🙏🏼

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. One fancies a heart like our own must be beating in every crystal and cell, and we feel like stopping to speak to the plants and animals as friendly fellow mountaineers. Nature as a poet, an enthusiastic workingman, becomes more and more visible the farther and higher we go; for the mountains are fountains — beginning places, however related to sources beyond mortal ken" John Muir 🍃

As seen on Brainpickings ✒

One of Chiura Obata’s paintings of Yosemite 🖌

Great advice for psychological resilience during these times.. May you be happy, healthy and at peace 🌿

FACE COVID - How to respond effectively to the Corona crisis - by Russ Harris, author of The Happiness Trap .pdf

Soul Words by ~Kitty O'Meara'~

Keep safe and help each other

••• 20022020 • These numbers look young to me, underdeveloped and full of potential. No hard edges with space to grow. And they look futuristic , almost unreal in their analog simplicity but they are real and they are now. This is real, this is now and what are we going to do about it? I'm going to get up, put my dreams down on paper, pray for guidance, bless everyone I meet today, earn my keep and then end the day with a sweaty medicine dance ••• Let's not forget we are here to live our best life whatever that looks like to you 🎶

📸 Is from our Bodhi Khaya retreat sound session

••• Big news ⚡ This week I ended my 11 year relationship with full time, corporate employment to pursue what is meaningful to me so that I may bring whatever light I can to the strands of life that I feel need me, strands that call my gifts to the fore and have an impact on the progress and transformations that are needed within ourselves and out there on our beautiful earth. I am so excited! And scared! Yet already calling in and manifesting exciting things. May this evolve to a place where this light is activated in a big way. I hope we meet on this journey •••• Here's to an open heart, feeling hugely blessed that this road is open to me 🖤

• • • This Jan I ran my first retreat in South Africa. It was my most adventurous undertaking yet and because of that, so very daunting! It was a huge leap of faith, to be brave enough to follow my intuition and very strong calling to create this week of travel, adventure and practice of yoga in my home country.
• • •
Souls from all over the world gathered for this journey of yoga, meditation, movement, ceremony, sound, singing, ritual and connection to nature. It was a wholly creative undertaking and I couldn't have done it without my amazing friend and co-teacher Yoga with Ellie Ramsby, who has been my teacher and partner in retreats since 2017. Special thanks to Joe for bringing the music.
• • •
I first found Bodhi Khaya when looking to attend a new year retreat myself two years ago, and when I couldn't find one in South Africa I decided to run one myself. I just felt Bodhi would be magic, and my words and pictures can't do it justice. The stillness, the birdsong, the diversity of plants, the butterflies and trees and water and air, the community and healthy, lovingly made food. Uplifting in all the ways!
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And I will be doing this again next year. All the details will be up on my page soon which I will share.
• • •
Starting the year with compassion, love and intention. I feel utterly blessed. Thank you to everyone who came on the journey, and sending love to you all, Talitha 🍃🦋

🍑 Shout out to my beautiful friend Tara The Playful Vegan who made us this incredible vegan picnic on Clifton beach in Cape Town, as part of our tour of the city. I hadn't seen her in years and found her on a glorious, white sand beach with sparkling blue sea in the background, and a basket full of lovingly hand made and DELICIOUS vegan treats, including a vegan 'melk tert' a South African traditional dessert with her sassy twist. If you are in Cape Town look out for her workshops and yumminess! 🍒

•• Seven intrepid, openhearted souls from Europe decided to join me on a four day tour of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Cape Town, before we started our retreat.
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This was my first foray into tour guiding in my home country and I just knew that everywhere I took these darlings would be incredible. In South Africa it always is!
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We whizzed around the historical inner city sites, saw penguins and swam on Boulders Beach, saw seals and ate chips in Kalk Bay, climbed Lion's Head for this amazing view of Table Mountain, drove through the epic Chapman's peak, played African drums, at samp & beans, and even went wine tasting in Stellenbosch.
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I am so grateful to my home country for pouring it's beauty and sunshine forth, for my amazing crew for being so easy and fun to be with and for trying something so new and so big. I learned a lot and feel my shoots growing back into South Africa with joy.
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Thanks for this amazing pic and for our retro taxi

Someone read this piece out in our Active Hope ○ The Work that Reconnects training. The power of these words shake me.

• We Were Made For These Times • Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.

What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these - to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.

Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.

There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.

The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.

Full piece here www.grahameb.com/pinkola_estes.htm

Sending love, Talitha

~ My sweet, kind ma made me this yoga mat bag • She had this beautiful pink linen from Oman, some caramel corduroy and my black strap. My sister made the plaited drawstring as a teenager and here it is, the best mat bag I've ever seen and my new favourite thing ~ Thanks Marmee ❤ If you want one, we can take an order 🦋 Modelled here on the stoep (porch) of the meditation hall here at

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Quiet majestic beauty. Seen from our 2-hr silent walk this evening in the African forest at Bodhi Khaya. No flashlights, just the light of this shining ball of bliss leading the way for us. Only one retreat participant went missing, but we found him again 😅.... Thank goodness....

Photo credit by Miss Talitha Gammarof.

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● And then she came up over our silent walk at dusk • Abundance is ours • So much 🖤