Hello June! 🌞 June's Yoga Practice & Heart Openers

Hi friends,

Where are my fellow Geminis at? 👋🏼 June is my birthday month, and somehow it always ends up being my busiest month of the year. This year, I have a wedding and a week-long family trip on the East Coast, basically back-to-back. Which means lots of travel and lots of celebrating and being with family.

I've been reflecting a little on this past year, and mostly I just feel more open. More open to new experiences, new friendships, and saying yes to things that stretch me. A couple of months ago, I dove into an Ashtanga immersion and a 300-hour YTT focused on neuroscience (both things I genuinely didn't see coming this year). It's been a good year of learning. (I'm still a fan of slow flow vinyasa, but learning about ashtanga has me stepping into beginner shoes again, and it's so eye-opening.

And in the middle of all the busyness this month, I'm leaning on the thing I always come back to: slowing down. Slowing down in the middle of a busy day, slowing down and moving before and after flights, and slowing down when getting ready for the events. Finding time to breathe among the chaos. It doesn't always look like a full yoga practice. Sometimes it's just a breath and a reminder that I don't have to rush through my own life.

Anywayyy, enough about me. Let's talk about your heart. 🤍

💡 June's Yoga Practice: Heart Openers

June is heart-opening month in all of my classes: park, community, and online. And it's one of my favorite themes to teach! Personally, one of my most challenging areas. The chest and heart area is one of the most underworked and misunderstood parts of the body. We round forward constantly at desks, on phones, in cars. And over time, that posture starts to feel like the default.

Heart openers ask us to go against that pattern. And they can feel vulnerable, emotionally and physically. There's a reason we protect this area.

In yoga philosophy, the heart chakra (Anahata) is the center of love, compassion, and connection to others and to ourselves heart 💗. It reminds me to be kind to myself and others. When we work to open it, we're not just stretching the chest, we're practicing a kind of openness and softness that takes real strength.

The Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras both talk about kindness as a practice, not just a personality trait. Something you actually train. And the reason? Kindness toward others and especially toward yourself settles the mind. It's hard to feel at peace when you're constantly at war with yourself and others.

So on the mat, that looks like noticing how you talk to yourself when a pose is hard, or progress feels slow. Can you meet that moment with patience instead of frustration? That's the heart opening, too. We don't have to be perfect—it's a practice.

Here are 3 small ways to practice opening your heart this month, on and off the mat:

🩵 Let Yourself Receive
Heart opening isn't just physical—it's also about allowing. Allowing help, allowing rest, allowing good things without immediately questioning if you deserve them. Notice this week where you deflect or shrink. That's the practice.

💚 Soften Before You Strengthen
In class we often want to push harder to feel more. But with the heart space, softening actually gets you further. Try relaxing the chest and shoulders before you do anything else. See what's already there.

💗 Notice How You Carry Yourself
You don't need a yoga mat for this one. Just notice, are your shoulders creeping up toward your ears? Is your chest collapsed inward? One small roll of the shoulders back can shift your whole nervous system. It's a tiny act of openness.

🧘🏽‍♀️ Practice With Me on YouTube

A gentle heart-opening yoga flow to build space and softness: ▶️ Gentle Heart Opening Flow

And if you want to go deeper — a heart chakra meditation: ▶️ Heart Chakra Meditation

Where You Can Find Me:

🌳 Boulder Park Yoga - sign up
Tuesdays at 6PM @ Martin Park

I'll be there every Tuesday except the 2nd to last week this month. On June 23rd, the incredible Ciara of The Planted Yogi will be subbing 🤍 She teaches fun flows with hip hop playlists. Come show her some love! Any class sign ups, venmos, or funds, I will automatically send to her for that day!

💻 Online Yoga - sign up
Saturdays 8–9AM MST

Costa Rica Retreat info 🌴
We had a couple more spots fill up this week — there are still 7 spots left 🤍 There's a mix of ages and men + women signed up so far. Lots of solo retreaters, too. No pressure, just leaving this here.

▶️ General Info | Rooms + Rates

💬 Affirmation of the Month:"I am allowed to take up space and be soft at the same time."

Sending my best,
💛 Maria