Johanna Beekman

Collecting Silver Linings

Along with everyone else, I’m missing so many things this spring. Your faces and hugs and voices at festivals. Your sacred yoga and church spaces. Your gracious hospitality. “Sky TV,” one of my favorite meditations as I’ve driven across this gorgeous country the last five years. And so much more.

These days as I create new music and lead Zoom classes from my home studio here in Oregon, I imagine connecting with each of you with a silver thread made of all the silver linings I just keep discovering in the midst of this time of Unknowns created by the pandemic. The gratitude I have for each of you glimmers brightly in my mind.

While touring, I’ve been saying Yes as a matter of habit to requests to teach and lead mantra and restorative classes all around the country. It’s been such a privilege that I hadn’t thought about updating my Yoga Alliance certification to match my experience until I got grounded in one place. A silver lining happened last week, when I discovered I had earned my E-RYT® 500 some time ago. This officially enables me to train other yoga teachers in the work I love. I’m filled with gratitude for all of the ways you’ve said Yes to me as I’ve traveled the country.

Nowadays, I’m focusing more intentionally on the work I’ve already been doing in rebalancing the nervous system using sound, subtle body, and breathwork to support people to calm the trauma response. I’m creating new programs by using these vibrational and gentle processes to restructure my own nervous system after all the years on the road! You can join me by signing up for Patreon (live sessions Friday or Sunday afternoons), or an Illuminate Events membership for Self-Soothing classes on Fridays at noon through Naam Yoga LA. I’d love to see any of you, my people, in these offerings and in my future teacher trainings.

Every time I go into my new home recording studio, I feel such gratitude. Maybe I should paint it silver for all the creative options it opens up! This includes being able to mix sounds for two new songs, “Mantra for Removing Disease” (an unknown Sanskrit mantra I recently discovered). This track has gained support from 16+ Bhakti Luminaries, as the world needs this medicine now. In addition, a collaboration with Mikey Pauker, “Help Us Love/ V’ahavta,” which combines Hebrew and English in a plea to love your neighbor as yourself. I’ve been delighted to include many international musician friends on these new tracks, with the help of master producers Hans Christian and Ben Leinbach.

One of the biggest silver linings of all has been my new CD, Mantra Soul, so well-received. It’s been a big disappointment to not be able to share it with you in person, and I fully expect to do that as soon as it’s possible, but in the meantime, follow me on Spotify, and may our hearts beat as one.