Palo Santo.
Good morning!
Tonight we are offering an immersive slow flow yoga experience with an added ritual of Palo Santo smudging.
While the evening will include a thoughtfully planned array of practices to help students move out of thinking and into feeling, the ancient & sacred ritual of smudging with Palo Santo will be something that everyone can take home and practice as a way to continue to cultivate presence, release negative energy and begin again.
Dating back to the Incan period, Palo Santo comes from the tree native to Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Peru and Venezuela, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Honduras, Ecuador and on the Galapagos islands. The sacred wood from this tree is known to cleanse, clear and release negative energy as well inspire creativity, bring a deeper connection to the divine, and help in physical healing.
Meaning "Holy Stick" in Spanish, the Palo Santo that we will use tonight has been ethically sourced and has been harvested through sustainable and ethical means. In honor of the tradition and the cultural history of Palo Santo, we engaged an IBY student from Peru who has grown up using Palo Santo to clear negative energy, soothe stress and intentionally invite in the good. She shared many stories of smudging as a way her family would move through difficult moments and clear the energy to invite the good in.
As we will practice tonight, an important feature of smudging is presence and intention. Practiced with an open heart and a willingness to be fully in the moment, smudging can move us towards an uplifted state as well as encourage a feeling of being grounded and expansive concurrently.
Smudging can be done for ourselves, another person, a space or even an object. Simply lighting the Palo Santo with intention, allowing a flame to occur and then blowing it out, a smoke remains. With the smoking stick and intuition, you can move the smoke over and around the body, a space or home or anything you wish to clear.
We hope you can join us tonight for this special experience and even if you can’t make it, consider your own research on smudging with Palo Santo as a ritual to help you gain presence and approach this upcoming season with an open heart.
We need practices that bring us back to ourselves over and over again - in all times and in all places. We always have our practice of breath and movement to help us turn inward, and smudging may be another way to return within and anchor in the moment.
Maybe I will see you tonight!
Big love, Tammy