featured teacher of the month, meghan dwyer

This month, as we focus our community initiative on #greenconshy, sustainability, and the Earth, it is only appropriate that our featured teacher of the month be Meghan Dwyer. You may have joined Meghan in one of her Gentle or Yin/Restorative practices, or maybe you’ve been part of one of her Mystic Moon Monthly Women’s Circles she hosts every month around the new moon.

Through your work as a yoga teacher, what impacts would you like to make on the world?

This question made me think of a quote by one of my favorite luminaries, Joseph Campbell:

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”

In order to experience this aliveness, you got to slow way down. My role in the yoga world involves teaching people how to slow down and really FEEL what is alive in themselves from moment to moment. This increases one’s powers of sensitivity – which I believe is true intelligence – and in turn opens the door to experiencing the full range of human emotions. And the realization that each emotion is a teacher and must be felt and expressed.

My role also involves helping people access the archetypal mother energy within themselves, which is that of gentleness, nurturance, lovingkindness and compassion, especially in the face of difficult emotions or feelings. And to remember that their body is a mini-version of earth and that they have to honor all of its cycles, seasons, and weather patterns.

How has your work with your company, Aluna Adventures impacted you both personally and professionally?

Before I dove deeply into yoga, travel was how I learned to connect to myself, others and the world in a more intimate way. I had lived in Spain for 5 months in college and Mexico for a year after college, and spent periods of months and even a year one time traveling through Europe, Central and South America as a backpacker. Personally, meeting people from all over the world and learning about different cultures is what fuels me more than anything else and so Aluna Adventures has helped me to continue that. It’s assisted my soul on its journey, helping me to heal, develop relationship and get clear on the unique medicine of different parts of the Earth, in particular Colombia and Guatemala, the homes of my heart and womb, respectively 🙂 Professionally, Aluna has taught me how to work with groups on a deeper level, and to increase my sensitivity to an individual’s needs. Above all, working with a business partner, Aluna’s co-founder, Meg Townsend has propelled by growth both professionally and personally, bringing me countless lessons and opportunities to exercise vulnerability, and the blessing of a grand friendship.

In what ways do you incorporate Nature into your yoga teaching and your everyday life?

In my teaching, I will often play nature sounds of the ocean, stream, forest, whales, rain, etc. I’ll guide students to use the power of their imaginations to feel as if they were in a particular place in nature in savasana. Or I’ll incorporate shamanic practices and/or meditations inspired by the Q’ero Indians of Peru, a form of Andean Mysticism I’ve been studying and apprenticing in the last 6 years. And to always remember and offer gratitude to the Earth that is holding them. I am so grateful to have found a house in the woods two years ago, which allows for more frequent trips to the Wissahickon. When the weather permits, I like to wake up by getting my bare feet on the earth and greeting and thanking the sky, sun, trees, birds etc. for another day. When I do that, rather than getting sucked into my phone first thing, it changes my whole day. I often make an altar to honor the change of seasons and also frequently make offerings to the land, trees, and especially the creek. Most recently I’ve been developing relationship with the nature spirits, or elementals, which has been a lot of fun.

You host Mystic Moon, a monthly new moon women’s circle every month at yoga home. Why is this important to you and why do you continue to bring this work here?

Due to the patriarchal system we have been under for the past 5,000 years, both men and women have become separated from a whole half of themselves, namely our Feminine nature. The Divine Feminine, as it’s sometimes referred to, is ultimately Mother Earth and her creative vital energy, which is also inside us. We have forgotten that we ARE nature and as a result have forgotten the wild and free, instinctual part of ourselves that desires to live in rhythm with the cycles and seasons of the sun, moon, stars, and Earth. Western culture has been pushing against the natural flow of life for far too long and I think we are all exhausted, anxious and depressed because of it. Think about what happens when you walk upstream against a strong current or try to fight against a riptide! Through our separation from the Earth, we’ve also become separate from each other, and from our bodies and our creative self-expression – song, dance, play, story-telling – all the things kids are really good at. We’ve forgotten that we are ALL artists and need to remember to delve into the magic and mystery of life to dream new worlds and ways of being into existence. Mystic Moon is a response to that separation. It’s believed that shamanism, which is the oldest spiritual practice on the earth, anywhere from 40,000-100,000 years old, and therefore the original mother of all spiritual traditions, the religion of the earth itself, was first practiced by the female group. It was practiced to divine guidance and wisdom for the individual and the community and and to bring transformation and healing to all beings. The indigenous people of the Earth are all calling for women, as they are the portals through which new life passes through, to gather together and listen deeply to the Earth.

What are ways that your connection to the planet and to mother earth have evolved over time and what can we do to start our own practice to become more connected?

 Phew to look at how it has evolved makes me a bit emotional. It’s been a slow process for sure. I grew up spending lots of time in the garden with my mom and playing in the woods everyday, but a life centered around nature was definitely lost in high school and college, and even in my mid to late twenties while living in the city. I really believe all my time living and traveling in Latin America is what started to slowly bring me back into connection with the Earth. It was where I first remember feeling this “back to the earth” vibe I had never experienced before. It was also where I started becoming more interested in the culture of indigenous peoples – those who have not forgotten the old ways of the Earth. And discovering the Kogi Indians in 2007 in Colombia and becoming immediately interested in their mission of maintaining the balance and harmony of the Earth was the planting of a huge seed for me. In 2012 I met my current teacher, Liz Seidel, a shamanic guide who works with the Q’ero Indians of Peru, the Mapuche of Chile, and the medicine of Hawaii, and she has been guiding me ever since. In the beginning she would provide me with certain tools and practices to help me remember the old ways of the Earth. She would teach me that everything is alive and has spirit and that I could communicate with it all through the power of my imagination (which we’ve been conditioned to think is not real, but is very real, and is fact the doorway to connection with Nature and the Spirit World – where shamanism says the physical world comes from).

You can begin my simply asking and/or setting an intention. “Allow me to connect to you, allow me to source from you, Great Mother (Earth)” is what I often say to myself. Spend more and more time in nature and be in it the same way a small child would be. Let your senses lead you – get your bare feet on the earth as much as possible, smell the flowers, touch the bark of a tree, lick a rock – haha I’m not even joking! Opening your senses in nature = a world of information. It can give you guidance when you are feeling lost and confused and comfort and healing when you are feeling anxious or depressed. Pay attention to what plants, trees, animals, rocks, etc. you are most drawn to and notice if you keep seeing one or two in particular. Ask if they have any messages for you. And give offerings to the Earth often!! You can buy or pick flowers (always ask for permission first) and bring them to a body of water, tree, hill or mountain top. Or leave sage, cornmeal, honey or sesame seeds on your altar at home, or in special places outside. Use your intuition. You could even sing a song or write a poem as an offering. Offerings are a way to “feed” the Spirit World and to offer gratitude to the Earth for all she gives us. The indigenous people of the Earth believe one of the reasons our world is so out of balance is because we are taking, taking, taking from the Earth without giving in return. All she needs in return is offerings and our love and gratitude. Offerings help to put us back into right relation with the Earth. And remember to say your sorry, for forgetting about her, for all the damage our culture has done to her. Your tears are one of the greatest offerings.

Of all Yoga Home’s core values {Connection, Acceptance, Love, Community, Growth} which do you connect with most?

Community. Not only do I think people are hurting from being disconnected from our communities of nature beings, but also from the loss of the tribe, the village. In this modern age people have more ways to connect than ever before, yet studies show that people feel increasingly alone. It feels that there is a real longing for the village, of somewhere one can feel like they belong and that they are an integral part of the community. I know and can deeply feel that Yoga Home serves as that village for many.

all photos taken by Heidi Roland Photography.