“Soft breeze blows, 

You don’t need a hurricane to change...

Don’t wait for the walls to cave in, 

No, you don’t need a hurricane to change…”

This song gave fitting completion to the equinox breathwork experience at Dancing Rabbit this week, and imparts the flavor and the focus of the Women’s Retreat taking place here in two weeks. What are the changes you know need to take place in your life, in order for you to be the happiest version of yourself? Why wait for the hurricane of change, if you can already feel the hint and glimmer of a new path begging to be taken? 

For those of us who like to consider ourselves part of nature instead of separate from it, this week offered a beautiful configuration of solar and lunar events. The autumnal equinox Wednesday followed closely on the heels of Monday’s full moon, and we marked the changing of the seasons with a ‘right-on-time’ drop into cooler temperatures and cinematic moon rises that illuminated towering sunflower stalks and other garden giants at the height of their...well, height. 

Danielle here, remarking on things just passed and some things yet to come. 

I like to mark the change of the seasons by offering an opportunity for breathwork to those interested. Shamanic breathwork, as it’s called (a relative of holotropic breathwork), is one of my favorite tools for stepping back and getting in touch with the big picture of life, and can help you (yes, even you! Especially you!) find the direction and meaning you’ve been seeking. It’s the best substance-free modality I’ve found for reconnecting with purpose, connection, insight, and imagination. At its core lies the perspective that there is a wise inner healer within you that knows exactly what you need for the next step along your journey, and all you need is the courage to follow the clues. 

This equinox, five women gathered in La Casa de Cultura at Dancing Rabbit for breathwork. For three of them, it was their first time participating in such a thing. I have to say, I don’t think it will be their last. After the breathwork each woman shared about their experience, and I felt as though I was hearing the wise sage within each one light up and radiate individual and collective nuggets of wisdom that make a person feel humbled to be in such company. We truly each have a special journey, and unique gifts and experiences that can benefit each other and the great grand world en masse, if we share them.   

The thing is, there’s no special disposition or experience required to get something out of breathwork. You can do it even if you’ve never tried such a thing before, and even if you’re skeptical. I love creating these types of spaces for insight and empowerment because just about anyone can get something of value out of them, and it’s my great honor, play, and joy to offer another space like this via the Women’s Retreat in two weeks. As I gazed across the room on the day of celestial balance with music twirling in the background, the theme and form for the upcoming October Women’s Retreat revealed itself to me. The theme was a mix of sentimental and cheesy, but I heard it as clearly as if the person next to me had said it out loud to me: “ Coming Home to Yourself: A different sort of homecoming.”  

What would it mean to come home to yourself? Could there be more of what you want available if you go within, rather than chasing the next outside fix? What if you decide to slow down for a few days, and hear the whisper within that’s hard to hear above the hum of work, family, dishes, grocery shopping, “I’m-supposed-to-clean-the-house-somehow-too?!,” and all the other things? 

There is a way to recharge your batteries and find a vision; it just takes a commitment, a brave heart, and a willingness to set aside some time for it. Yet, even though refreshing our big picture, sense of purpose, and direction is of the utmost importance and would make all the other things in life feel easier, many of us never get around to it because the little things are just so pesky and plentiful and hey, let’s be honest, they really COULD take up all our time if we let them!

But you don’t HAVE to have regrets, or feel stuck in whatever box it is that you’ve outgrown. Life is meant to be an artist’s canvas, and you can reclaim your role as an artist by aligning your everyday actions with your big beautiful vision for life. I wonder -- for those of you beginning to feel curiosity and interest, with maybe a dash of skepticism -- what would you paint, if you could? If you want it, sense the need for a “system reboot,” and are ready to say yes to it, the Dancing Rabbit’s Women’s Retreat will provide the space and the skills for you to get exactly what you’ve been longing for: awakening, transformation, a sense of purpose, a revival of happiness, and a homecoming to the real you that longs to unfurl her wings and take flight.

This is it, friends. Your one and only guaranteed life. What are you going to do with it, and can you stay connected to the vision while melting and moving through the obstacles that are sure to arise? We at Dancing Rabbit want the answer to be yes, and we want to help make it so. I’ll tell you what -- I want each woman that attends to come away feeling so inspired and refreshed that I’ll offer a money back guarantee: we’ll refund the program fee to any woman who feels like she got less than a new lease on life, like Dancing Rabbit visitor Liz Atkins shares about: 

“Caught up in a fast pace, I’d lost track of what mattered. Dancing Rabbit gave me not just an escape from my worries, but a new state of mind. I regained a sense of purpose to create, thrive and remain open.”

If that’s not enough -- did I mention you get to come visit our ecovillage for a weekend!? With its baby piglets and goats and flowering goldenrod in all its rolling prairie magnificence? And stay in a strawbale building, if you wish? And see the Milky Way at night? 

There’s a lot of reasons why this women’s retreat is going to be special. We want YOU to be one of them. There’s only two weeks left before the ship sails -- come join us and awaken your inner goddess this October at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. 

Yours in adventure, 

Danielle Williams
CSCC Executive Director 

PS -- Don’t wait. Life doesn’t, and the YOU that you’re meant to be is worth taking the time to come and discover.