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clararobertsoss

Teacher of Yoga, Mantra & Meditation
Seeker of the Sacred.
Facilitator of conscious movement.
👇🏼#PracticeWithClara👇🏼

About last night… I spent it with these two incr

About last night…
I spent it with these two incredible women. It was also my first night away from Karmen 😳 and the first time in what feels like eternity that I was just Clara - not momma, not wife, not teacher.
Whew. I needed that.
A big thank you to @alejandroarceg for rolling with Karmen.💕
A big thank you to @carolynannebudgie and @alittlecbaum for rolling with me. 💕
♾
I hope you’ve been holding your loved ones tight and creating time and space to take off a few of the many hats you wear.
🧢👒🎩

This week I've been chewing on the idea: If I didn

This week I've been chewing on the idea: If I didn't need to do anything, how would l like to spend my time? Alejandro and I took a week long stay-cation after we wrapped up the Art of Sequencing yoga teacher training last Monday. And we did exactly that - nothing related to work and everything to do with play. We beached it every morning and either went to a pool or park in the afternoon. It's the most time I've spent outside since we had Karmen, our daughter, last year. This family LOVES to be outside, feeling the warm sun on our skin, toes in the sand or dirt and eating outside.⁠
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A few questions to chew on:⁠
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What's lighting you up these days?⁠
Are you creating time/space for these activities?⁠
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Your homework, if you choose to accept it - ⁠
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Carve out an hour/day/week to do what feeds you that doesn't involve ticking things off your TO DO list.⁠
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We've decided to take this month's offerings/classes down a few notches to counter the peak summer weather we're experiencing here in Vancouver. I find I'm WAY more extroverted during the warmer months - along with the integration back into semi-normal life since last year's shutdown/global pandemic - it's been feeling more full on in my world. ⁠
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There are a few times a year I find it so helpful to slow down and asses where I am. August is one of those times. The other times are December, end of the year and March, end of winter. ⁠
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The class of the day this month on Practice With Clara apps will provide options to move slow, with meditation and restorative practices.⁠
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Today's class is titled Illumination, a grounding yoga Nidra practice to bring awareness to your inner light. This class works with meditation, body scan, visualization, and affirmation practices to encourage a deeper state of rest and release. ⁠
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To check this class out - head to my bio and click on the Practice With Clara App link. ⁠
We offer a 7 day free trial - yip yip!

Looking out 👀 • I’m emerging from the Art o

Looking out 👀
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I’m emerging from the Art of Sequencing virtual training and our week long staycation.
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The training gave me connection - connection I didn’t realized I missed. To sit with a committed group of yogis from all over the globe for 4 days filled my cup - reminded me of why I love teaching and why I love people. What started off as a training about sequencing turned into a conversation of what and how we have been trying to connect with our students and teachers in the virtual space. The vulnerability and clarity which was shared blew my heart wide open.
I floated into my staycation with a remembered sense of why I teach/facilitate/create.
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I am emerging inspired to facilitate more virtually and hopefully physically.
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👀 Look out for upcoming dates for trainings, day long retreats and more…
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Until then, you can find me at the beach pointing to airplanes and helicopters with Karmen and Guapo.

This week's offering on Practice With Clara is a m

This week's offering on Practice With Clara is a meditation on Acceptance. We've been working through some heavy emotions the past three weeks in the Lila Flow series. There's a time and place for fixing, shifting, transforming AND there's a time and place to quite simply be. So you're homework - if you choose to accept it today - is to JUST BE. This is one of my greatest lessons - so I'm really speaking to myself.⁠
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My own affirmation today is "May I breath into where I am without fixing, changing or creating a story around it".⁠
What's your affirmation today? ⁠
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Here's the quote that inspired today's meditation:⁠
"—life is, by its very nature, uncontrollable. That we should stop trying to finalize our comfort and security, and instead find a radical acceptance of the endless, unpredictable change that is the very essence of this life. Our suffering, he says, comes from the fight we put up against this fundamental truth.”⁠
- Katherine May, Wintering: How I learned to flourish when life became frozen. ⁠
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Question for you to consider: ⁠
Is there anywhere in my body, mind or life that I could practice more acceptance? ⁠
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The practice here is observing sensations as they arise and awareness around letting go of whatever arises without judging, rationalizing, or assuming can be a challenge - Be patient and loving towards yourself. ⁠
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We cannot control many of the events in our lives. So the practice of acceptance is essential to letting go of emotions that do not serve to preserve our mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing.⁠
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Let us find acceptance of the radical and unpredictable change that is the very essence of this life.

I'm still sitting with the heavier emotions as of

I'm still sitting with the heavier emotions as of late. This week I'd love to talk about shame. Shame is a universal emotion we've all experienced at some point or another.⁠
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How would you define shame?⁠
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I would define it as an emotion I experience when I either do or say something that leaves me feeling, to be honest, shitty. I know it's shame, not guilt, I'm feeling when instead of trying to fix the situation, I want to hide or avoid. A recent example was when I left my 4 month baby sitting on the couch while I went to get her vitamins. She rolled off the couch and hit her head on the floor. EEK. She cried her heart out and was left with a bump on her head. I felt like the worst mother in the whole world for a good long while after that. I was so ashamed. ⁠
The thoughts running through my head were:⁠
How could I do that? I know better.⁠
Where was my head?⁠
What was I thinking?⁠
What kind of mother would do that? ⁠
I've learned that when I hear those shameful thoughts running their course, I need to talk it out. So I did. I spoke about it with friends and family. The more people I told, the less power my shame had over me. ⁠
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As I was researching shame,I found an insightful interview with Brene Brown conducted by Jill Suttie for the Greater Good Magazine.⁠
In it Ms. Brown states: ⁠
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"Shame needs three things to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence, and judgment. Those are not authentic responses. So, dealing with shame while maintaining authenticity and cultivating more courage, connection, and compassion in your relationships is what’s needed. It’s a tall order. But one of the byproducts of being able to move through shame constructively is that people who come out the other side by default feel braver, more connected and compassionate."⁠
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When I experiencer shame, my throat closes up, my stomach turns to knots and my shoulders climb up to my ears. Yoga Nidra and Restorative yoga really help me. What helps you?⁠
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I leave you with a few questions to ponder: ⁠
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᠅ What is your natural response to shame? ⁠
᠅ What are some of your habitual thought patterns when you're experiencing shame?⁠
᠅ How does shame feel in your body?⁠
᠅ How do you work with it?

This was my bio photo back in 2003 when I first st

This was my bio photo back in 2003 when I first started teaching.
Next month marks 18 years of teaching yoga.
Man oh man!
Where has the time gone AND it’s been a long journey filled with highs and lows.
If I could have given myself advice knowing what I do now - it would be this
- trust in the process, you can’t know everything right now - mistakes are important, we’re going to learn so much from them.
💫
What would you tell 23 year old self if you could?
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For yoga teachers looking for advice, inspiration and some keep it real stories, join me this weekend (Friday-Monday) for 💫Art of Sequencing💫
All the info is in my bio.

I've been diving into some heavier emotions as of

I've been diving into some heavier emotions as of late and thought I might share my experience as you might relate. This week, I've been chewing on guilt.⁠
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Before I dive into my own thoughts about this emotion, I ask you:⁠
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How would you define guilt?⁠
What is your relationship to guilt?⁠
Where does guilt live in your body?⁠
Me...⁠
I would define guilt as an emotion that arises upon reflection of one's actions/thoughts.⁠
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My relationship to guilt is an interesting one. I often over analyze my actions and thoughts after the fact. However, I'm generally very forgiving with myself unless I picked up on negative feedback from another. I'm really conscious, sometimes to a fault on how I affect those around me. If I feel like I hurt someone's feelings or harmed them, the guilt can eat at me for a couple of hours. If I can, I reach out and try to fix it as soon as I can - call/text and apologize for my behavior. I have to admit, it's a selfish act because I don't want to feel the guilt. In the last little while, I've tried not to fix it right away and instead sit in the feeling and reflect on what I can do better next time. This has been helpful because I've found if I can't fix it right away, then I'm less likely to do the same action again. It's also been helpful because I act first, think later. I'm working on thinking more before I act - I think both methods are great - I just want to be able to do both. ⁠
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Guilt lives in my tummy. It's heavy, dark and creates a nauseous feeling. When I feel it in my body, I feel like I can't move. My breath gets super short. I loose my appetite. What helps is deep belly breaths, softening my jaw and going for a walk - to widen my perspective.⁠
What helps you work with the physical feeling?⁠
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Here's a great quote about guilt from goodtherapy.org:⁠
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"Guilt is an emotion, so rather than thinking of it as something good or something bad, it may be more helpful to consider its effects. Because guilt relates to a person’s moral code, guilt can act as a sort of check that helps someone recognize the effects of choices they’ve made. If the choice had a negative impact, they might feel regret and decide to do better in the future."

Hello friends! This is your weekend update. I’m

Hello friends!
This is your weekend update.
I’m your host Clara and sitting next to me is the star of the show, Karmen, who is showing you her rocks.
The world is slowly opening back up again.
Sleep is becoming, somewhat, more consistent.
We are getting to know ourselves and each other a bit better.
Self care has become more of a priority.
The fam jam has been hitting the beach every morning.
And as we start to widen our horizons past the crib, monitor and meals - it seems the province is also opening back up again.
It feels like I can breathe a little deeper.
I’m looking forward to Karmen seeing more faces, sans masks.
Hope to see you soon!
Karmen can’t wait to show you her rocks, belly button and snacks.
And now, back to your regular scheduled programming.

Hi friends, We’re going to take a 2 month break

Hi friends, We’re going to take a 2 month break from the live classes as I am shooting lots of content on location here in BC. The new weekly pre-recorded class will be available at 11 AM PST every Saturday on the Practice with Clara Apps! Here's the information for this yoga class: Join me for Fear, a Lila Flow class that features back, core, and leg strengthening with balancing poses to develop agility and focus while contemplating your relationship with the concept of fear. A big THANK YOU to everyone who provided feedback on the August Morning Intensive! I'll share more details in the coming weeks for you to plan your schedule accordingly if you want to join me for a LIVE early morning yoga session this summer. Here are a few of the events coming up this month, with opportunities for you to practice with me! ☀️ July 5th, we're launching a 7-Day Yoga Challenge!
We wanted to motivate people to stick with their practice over the summer and sustain daily rituals and thought a shorter challenge would accommodate summer holidays. Tell your friends! We have some special gifts for a few practitioners who complete the challenge and participate in the raffle! The 7-day yoga challenges are open to everyone as new members of Practice with Clara get the first week free! Save the dates:
▴ CORE 7-Day Virtual Yoga Challenge, July 5th - July 12th.
▴ INVERSIONS 7-Day Virtual Yoga Challenge, July 19th - July 25th To offset the 7-day yoga challenges, we've prepared another full month of yoga for you with a new playlist. ☀️ Peak Yoga Pose Playlist This playlist helps aspiring yogis and yoga teachers advance their practice and learn the foundational postures to build toward a peak pose!
Plus, we created a calendar with classes to prompt your practice all month—I won't' be teaching a weekly LIVE class until September; instead, we're sharing a new Lila Flow Yoga class at the same time on Saturday. I hope you have a great weekend 😊

The poem from Saturday’s Live class: It is a ho

The poem from Saturday’s Live class: It is a holy man, a good poem, and a holy woman;
and a temple and a mosque and a shrine.
Have you not been looking for a companion like that?
For a place of such great refuge,
where time asks nothing of you,
where you can come and go as you please,
where you can control all the rules, because your heart knows best.
And you don’t have to give up
any pleasures that might still be working,
adding color to your cheeks.
There is nothing you touch that you hope won’t fit into a puzzle you are
seriously working on.
I know how the eye works,
what its primary impetus and desire is:
to lay its gaze upon the beautiful,
and for beauty to wink back.
The eye, like every part of you,
is governed by your great
and continual need to feel whole and able.�Able to work and learn and give and play
and love and love and love.
Who would deny that?
📝 Hafiz Thank you to everyone who joined us! That was our last live class for the summer. Momma is taking her yoga outside to shoot in beautiful locations for you - like the one above 😎 New classes will be posted weekly from different spots in the PNW (Pacific Northwest). I’m also taking requests for classes. Write em below 👇🏼

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