A Recap Of Healing With SynchroniCITY Pop-Up Series On The Bowery
Doing Living Founder Juliet Silva-Yee, Healer + Comedian Kate Wolff, and Oprah and Marie Claire select Rockstar Shaman Alyson Charles debuted their synchroniCITY series this past August and I still find a prayer in my pocket or stardust in my hair every once in a while.
Whether you're a fan, family, friend, foe, or foreign to New York, we can all agree that leading with our hearts and staying fully present here is a luxury—no matter how many commas in your bank account. But for about 8 hours each Saturday, a private little respite of a Bowery rooftop penthouse held out its hand to those in search of reconnecting—within, with others, with divine. The full mind, body, and spirit pop-up retreat was complete with, weak-in-the-knees-raw-organic LuliTonix + Beyoncé blessed WTRMLN WTR, and Silva Yee's Apothecary Pop-Up—a consciously curated, luxury, organic spread of beauty vendors—and many more.
By the light of over a dozen teachers, healers, coaches, and green beauty gurus, drawing on over thousands of years of ancient international wisdom, learning through their own spiritual awakenings, and personal journeys, gave us permission to be vulnerable enough to show up and reassess ours.
On the very last day, during the very last class, I put on the headphones, walked up the stairs, and past row after row of guests being seemingly, silently guided through the vinyasa yoga. The steady, blue, glow around everyone’s ears pierced through the dark, with Katy O'Connor and DJ Panic at the front. “Inhale, reach up & exhale bend down...” For the last time on that roof, in that space, this summer, we were syncing our breaths with our bodies, and implicitly, with each other. I laid down on a mat in the very back and stared up into father sky, trying to digest the magnitude of everything that happened that month, before the final meditation. Blue flashing lights from an airplane gently skated through the stars, while everyone dipped and rose with the breath of another stretch.
My inertia.
The peace.
Our space had become a cradle.
The surrounding lights of Gotham reminded me of where we escaped from and had to inevitably go back to. But for one last hour, we could reflect.. and ascend.
I tried to relive it all.
PK’s ‘Way of Inspiration’: “The first thing that happened when you were born, you took a breath. Doesn’t matter how you came out, C-section, natural birth, cord wrapped around, doesn’t matter. The first thing you did when all was said and done, is you took the breath of life, and then you let the world know, AAAHHH!! I’m here!” Ego is necessary but who you are is everlasting inside and transcends your identity. “The body has an inner wisdom that transcends the mind” … “When you connect to that oneness, you feel your true nature, which is love… there is no greater power” … “Feeling is truth, feeling is understanding, feeling is living, breathing is healing.” The breath is a gateway to feeling. “Let the body represent what the soul has already had to endure” Inhale up, exhale fall down, inhale up, exhale fall down. Again. And again. “When you get knocked down you can get back up.”
“You will get knocked down. But you can get back up … We are imbued with the capacity to take a hit and get back up, but it’s our decision if we want to.”
“Know what you want… Live on your terms, not others… knowing what you want draws in the life force that you were born to give.” … “Have a goal and work toward it … If you have the desire, you also have within you the capacity to achieve it, otherwise you wouldn’t have that desire.” Ultimately, “It does not matter if you achieve the goal or not, it’s about the process.”
Chris’s caress during Alyson's shamanic journey, and impromptu hand massage. A spritz of her grounding essential oils and her class: “If you don't know what's going on with you. How can you make decisions? If you don’t know, you end up making decisions based on somebody else’s idea of what's right” … “Hand on heart, hand on belly, and ask yourself, how do you want to move out in the world? How do you want to express who you are?” Breathe in, step, clap step, breathe out snap step, finding our intuition by dancing through James Brown and Beyoncé. “Feel that pounding? That’s your heart. You're in charge. That's your power”
Bearing witness to a friend's rebirth.
Kate Fanchon Wolff's hilariously healing synchronized tarot card workshop where I could not have pulled a more accurate manifestation of myself with the hermit card.
Alyson Charles's breathtaking live clairvoyant readings.
A room full of strangers telling themselves they love themselves in a mirror.
Alyson's and Queen Kathleen's chakra recalibrations: the beat of the drum, the shake of the rattle, the beat of our breaths, the fluttering flutes, taking in the cosmic sparkling, vibrant, light, lovely, crisp, swirling, glowing, divine, purifying, energy, through the base of our feet and backs. Letting our cells regenerate, blood circulation rework, and lungs soak up the feathered Palo Santo.
“…opening ourselves up to give love and receive love… receiving is always harder”. Everyone had laid down, DJ Panic faded in the binaural beats, and Katy began the yoga nidra meditation. It was an intensity I’d never experienced before, and yet on a primal level, knew I’d always had inside—a bold—steady—singular note—drizzled with low-frequency bells and anchored by steadfast rhythms in the background. Ribbons and rivers of slowly burgeoning soundscapes interwove with one another, and delicately transcended us. It was a loving sedation like the beginning of your favorite timeless movie, with the weighty resonance of mother earth’s hum. Just enough of a low-frequency bellow to unhook from our bodies and levitate, up—but not off to sleep:
Welcome to “the cosmic washing machine.”
“Welcome to confusion.”
“If you wanted comfort, earth is not the place to incarnate.”
–Kate Wolff
But we chose this spaceship, Gaia, our “Earth School”, in order to “be in our full power, be of greatest service, and embody our gifts to the max” —Alyson Charles
“The same air all the masters breathed is what we’re breathing. We’re all connected” —PK
“Non duality is what the world already is. And that means it's not two. So everything is interconnected and itself.. Everything.”
“Everything is related to everything.”
“Each of us is a separate human being and we all suffer because of the places where we're not connected... Because we're limited human beings, we have to make our lives small and less alive than they are in order to fit in and we're not fully ourselves. But there's much more here..”
—Eileen Marder Miram
Buddha said, “When we forget who we are, we suffer.” —PK
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Kate Wolff:
We all have light and dark within us. We all have an inner murderer, an inner sociopath..
“We're animals but we're also these enlightened gods and goddesses. These spiritual beings.”
“Spirituality isn't just about floating and fairies. It's really about being all of who you are. It's not always the pretty parts. It's the quote unquote ugly parts. But what does ugly really mean? Ya know? Is it really ugly?” “Fighting anything is almost always not the way out.” “No one can really feel at home or authentic if they’re denying and fighting a part of themselves.” “We’re all completely unique; we all have a unique vibration.” So “when you’re shutting down the ugly, you’re shutting down you…You’re pushing back your “soul song” and pushing the notes into shadow.”
“Your problem is you think there's a problem.”
“You're already whole. You're already free. It's your relationship to what's actually happening that's making you feel more trapped than you actually are.”
“This process, this journey is about becoming who you truly are and including the grief.”
“Including it doesn't mean you have to throw a party for it or love it.”
It’s about leading with our hearts and using all our feelings as a compass.
“Ego is not something to get rid of.”
“Finding yourself is not *ughck*. It's fuck yes.”
“You cannot take on this journey alone.”
Everything is connected.
“Heal yourself, heal the world.”
“Make space for yourself—the self you want to be... Redefine what it means to be a fighter. What it means to get thrills. What it means to be free.”
“I’ll keep walking through fire for the rest of my life and all the lives that come after, because if it means getting to be alive and fully get to be myself, I’ll do it over and over again. I’m willing to die billions of times if it means I get to live.”
________________
“The goal is to become more compassionate human beings... When you’re more compassionate toward yourself, then you can relate with others in a very different way”
“Go into the oneness”
“Let the universe's plan unfold”
—Eileen Marder Miram
________________
Alyson Charles:
“Rockstar Shaman... embodying the balance: the rock, being here on earth, letting in the support & security, rooted-ness of the planet balanced with the star, the cosmic, the astral, the divine”
“You didn't just show up for you. You showed up for your soul. ”
“Connect into your center line. Click in to that center line of your being.”
“Say to yourself either silently or out loud, “I give myself full permission to return to my full truth and power.” Sit in that. Really let yourself feel that. ”
________________
Lianna Sugarman:
“As organisms all we’re about is balance and flow. The Western paradigm is the only paradigm that doesn’t see things this way.”
“Everyone will go through pain, how you adapt and respond is what’s important.”
“Food is the most important tool.”
“When things get hard I eat a lot of blended greens.”
________________
Negin Niknejad:
“It’s ok to be happy for no reason, and it’s ok to be sad for no reason.”
“Skin is an external representation of everything going on inside.”
“I don’t have all the answers, but I'm growing and sharing.”
________________
Rebecca Casciano:
“We are spiritual beings having a physical experience.”
“Take the time to honor yourself.”
“Shift the paradigm around beauty ... appreciate the flaws.”
“Creating space is the first step ... making an area beautiful and sacred.”
“There is nothing superficial in taking care of one’s body and one’s self.”
“Whatever you’ve been holding yourself back from doing or feeling, use your outer self as a medium.”
________________
“Mandala in Sanskrit means circle or wholeness. We’re all made of circles. Our cells are circular, the atoms that combine us and every living being on this planet are made of circles.”
—Juliet Silva Yee
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The beats lowered, and Katy's voice guided us back in to our bodies. I rolled over on my side and held my fetal position, determined to keep my eyes closed until I was ready. I never was. I never will be. And I think that's the point.
The 4 Directions
Spirit of the East: land of the rising sun, of air, the winds that blow across the lands. Of new beginnings each day, and of open horizons. We bless you and ask for your wisdom and blessing here with us today.
Spirit of the South: place of passion, fire, creation, inspiration, whose warm breath of summer days ignite our hearts with love. We bless you and ask for your wisdom and blessing here with us today.
Spirit of the West: land of the setting sun, of water and autumn’s whisper. Bless us with the knowledge of peace which follows the harvest of a fruitful life. We bless you and ask for your wisdom and blessing here with us today.
Spirit of the North: place of quiet, stillness, of cave and deep earth, place of thankfulness for the knowledge and blessings that have come to us with time. We bless you and ask for your wisdom and blessing here with us today.
Spirit of Mother Earth: you support us each and every day welcoming our roots deep into your heart. You nurture, and guide us finding sustenance and support. Help us to give thanks always for your bounty. We bless you and ask for your wisdom and blessing here with us today.
Spirit of Father Sky: the angelic realms, the countless stars in the night remind us that you are vast, beautiful, and majestic beyond all of our knowing and understanding. Your light shines upon the earth both day and night, guiding our steps. We bless you and ask for your wisdom and blessing here with us today.
Spirit of our Souls within: Place of union, love, reverence. We are grateful for this the gift of life of human earthly existence and life and for the love that guides our way. We open our hearts and join with all in love. It is begun.
Amen Aho and So It Is
—Alyson Charles
