Monique
The combination of stillness, movement and philosophy…letting people come to where they need to be instead of forcing is really, really genuine.
The combination of stillness, movement and philosophy…letting people come to where they need to be instead of forcing is really, really genuine.
FOUNDER AND CREATOR
Rare Method was born out of necessity when faced with the most difficult experience of my life - the illness and loss of my beloved dad. The emotional storm around and within me was volatile and often unbearable. I tried, at first, to run and hide but soon realized I didn’t want to miss a moment. I also realized I was needed, needed to actually show up as my fullest, most attuned and authentic self. Because that’s where I was most resourced and grounded - me, as myself.
It occurred to me that I was equipped with a toolbox of mind body practices I’d gathered throughout the years as a teacher, student and practitioner of yoga. I began digging in every morning before my day with my dear dad. Moving, breathing, meditating and writing. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
In this rinse and repeat cycle there were days where the exhaustion was bone deep, so I’d opt for restorative yoga or yoga nidra. Other days it felt like my blood was going to boil out of my skin. On days like this I needed more than yoga. Rather, I needed to scream and cry, jump up and down and pound my fists on the ground. I needed to expel the pent-up energy out of my body. I learned how to read my body as a complete system. How to feel and work with the emotional and energetic highs and lows to attempt to bring myself back to equilibrium. It was imperfect but in doing my best, I was present - really present and capable of experiencing the hardest, yet richest and most purposeful moments of my life.
After my dad passed I stumbled on the work of Dr. Peter Levine in his book, Waking the Tiger. His approach, Somatic Experiencing Therapy, speaks to how our bodies hold onto trauma and how it is an instinctually primal necessity to physically shake off experiences in order to move energy out of our bodies and reset our nervous system.
This was exactly what I was doing! It was innately in me, as it is innately in each of us. This is what I want to offer through Rare Method: a method of reconnecting to ourselves in the current moment, to best understand where we are and what we need, so we can come back to who we are. Grounded, present and self-embodied.
