Yoga Journal article about Celebrancy
My daily yoga and pranayama practice nourishes me like a good hike or a really delicious meal! Through my practice, I came to realize my calling as a weaver of ceremonies. And so I was delighted to find an article about what we do as Celebrants in February’s Yoga Journal. It is a publication that I’ve been reading for quite a few years and really enjoy.
Highlighted in the article, is my colleague Donna Belk. She is a yoga teacher and Life Cycle Celebrant living in Austin, Texas. She inspires me with her approach to living and dying. I love how she explains:
“When I create a ceremony, I am in a state of relaxed focus. It’s the same as when I teach a yoga class: I am creating a container where people feel safe and can open up to their feelings.”
I completely agree with Donna about how we create a sacred container as Celebrants – whether for ceremonies of new life, love or loss. The article also gives a nice concise background about Celebrancy as a movement:
Founded in Australia 30 years ago and now an emerging trend in the United States, celebrancy offers people, particularly those who are not connected with a religious tradition, meaningful options for observing life’s milestones. Guy Walton, owner of Johnson-Walton Funeral Home in Milford, New Jersey, says, “I direct my clients who have no ties to a church or clergy to a funeral celebrant, because I know their loved one will be memorialized in a significant way.”
Enjoy the article and any other inspiring tidbits you find in Yoga Journal while you are there!
Kristine
Good thing I just re-signed up with Yoga Journal. I wonder if your friend knows my yoga teacher in Austin who was instrumental in my own path to yoga teacher, Devon Dederich?
I love what she says about the yoga class as a safe container.
Namaste.
Love this work…..there is a definite need in our society for alternatives to celebrating lifes journey…all of us need to stop and remember, celebrate, praise, honor and commemorate the importance of the lives around us. Those who are most important to us….who have had great influence on who we are….who we have become!!