A New Opening
Dear Friends,
Just touched down in Paris after a full and beautiful summer of retreats and travel – before many more unfold in the coming months. It feels amazing to be home for a brief pause (even if my suitcase is still half-packed on the floor)…
As I come back home, I’m reminded that the work doesn’t end when we hug our (tearful!) goodbyes. In many ways, this is when it truly begins..
“The Buddha used the Pali word ehipasiko – meaning “come and see for yourself.”
The teachings are not philosophical theories to be conceptualised, nor techniques to be perfected. They are invitations, inquiries, ways of looking that are meant to be questioned, wrestled with and eventually made our own.
In my view, gathering in retreat is not simply a time to repeat practice routines that are already installed and familiar. What ignites real growth is planting unknown seeds of curiosity, new perspectives, and deep inquiries – that continue to unfold long after the retreat ends.
“And like any seed, they do not take root, nor bloom instantly. They ask for time to sink into the soil of our own practice life.”
I often say that yoga is not about perfecting form, but about cultivating intimacy with process. Maturation on the path moves in a rhythm: we reach out to receive teachings and guidance, and then we reach in to reflect, digest, and integrate. This rhythm makes practice a living dialogue between the wisdom we encounter and the truths reviled through our own embodiment.
Retreats evolve our practice exponentially, but it is when we come back home that their true depths are revealed. Perhaps something that seemed small at first becomes luminous. Something that felt clear begins to dissolve, asking us to look deeper.
So if you’ve practiced with me recently – or will soon – I invite you to see this time not as a closed chapter, but as an opening. Notice:
What seeds were planted?
What stayed with you?
What questions linger?
Let them germinate in their own time. And when we meet again, perhaps another layer will fall away, and a new bud will open?
Thank you all for being here. With Love and Blessings
/kia, Paris September 2025