July full moon yoga class: small steps grow big dreams
Wednesday, 7/9 | 7:30pm ET
Happy July! We’re officially in the back-half of the year (crazy!), fully immersed in the stickiness of summer. Independence Day is my favorite holiday, mostly because I have great childhood memories of 4th of July pool parties. Plus, how can you not like the taste of freedom? This year, it tasted like whipped feta spread over watermelon slices sprinkled with pistachios and honey; chimichurri pasta salad with grilled zucchini and sun-dried tomatoes; hamburgers and sweet potato fries; Ghirardelli double chocolate boxed brownies (this is one of those rare instances when the store-bought stuff is superb, mostly because of the nostalgia); and homemade Dubai chocolate ice cream, recipe compliments of Jeni.1
July’s Buck Moon in Capricorn offers an opportunity to move forward toward your destiny, which sounds heady and grandiose but is best experienced in small steps. Just as my 4th of July menu featured a mix of old and new, this moon’s ask of you is to release some (more) of the old to make room for the new. Let go of that thing holding you back and take one small action, however scary and uncomfortable it may be, toward the big dream that sounds ridiculous in your head but sings to your heart.
Having taught Full Moon yoga classes for over a year now, I can safely say that the Buck Moon is one of my favorite full moons. Named for the antlers male deer grow during this time of year, it feels right to be embodying the regalness of the buck, while inviting surrender and simultaneoulsy dreaming into a future you are creating. That paradox of growth and surrender nicely balances masculine and feminine energies present in all of us. Other indigenous names for this month’s moon include: Raspberry Moon from the Ojibwe and Algonquin, Month of the Ripe Corn Moon from the Cherokee, Thunder Moon from the Western Abenaki, and Halfway Summer Moon from the Anishinaabe.
For this year’s 4th festivities, we had no scheduled events—it’s hard to plan around a 4-month old and two young children who still do not like parades and fireworks (loud noises). I remembered that Mt. Vernon offers family-friendly fireworks on the Potomac around lunchtime every Independence Day, so I did a quick Google search to see whether or not it might be worth our time and money to spend the morning with George Washington’s clan. Thanks to my superpower of reading paragraphs of text (it amazes me how many people don’t read what is on the page in front of them) I stumbled across a rather curious and very exciting detail in the lineup of Independence Day events at Mt. Vernon this year. Arnold Schwarzenneger was giving a keynote address at a naturalization ceremony on the bowling green in front of the mansion at 10am. What better way to celebrate 4th of July than listening to Arnold speak at a ceremony welcoming immigrants to our country on George Washington’s front lawn?! I bought tickets immediately.
It was great. The big takeaway from the speech, from which my husband now frequently quotes in full Austrian accent to our disgruntled children:
“Stop whining and get to work.”
The perfect quote for July’s Full Moon.
Are you living intentionally to build a better future or getting stuck in your past?
Now is the time to take small action in service of your big dreams!
What we’ll do in this yoga class
Gentle, cooling movements to inspire release and expansion
Restorative posture to create space for receiving new blessings
Mudra practice to invite surrender
Cooling breathwork
Check-in with your 2025 intentions
July Full Moon Yoga Class: The Buck Moon
This month’s class will be on Wednesday, July 9 rather than Thursday, July 10, the date of the actual Full Moon. In my decade+ of teaching yoga I’ve found Thursday evenings to be the most inconvenient evening for yoga. Wednesday works better 🙂.
Wednesday, July 9 | 7:30pm-8:30pm Eastern | online class
FREE for paid subscribers to Yoga for Women’s Wellbeing | $15 drop-in (Recording sent out after class if you can’t make it live.)
Register to get the Zoom link below 👇🏻
Hope to see you on the mat!
With gratitude,
Ashley
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Show up for yourself and enjoy soulful connection each month. Paid Substack subscribers attend the monthly Full Moon yoga classes for free and receive journal prompts for monthly reflection, monthly New Moon Nidra practices, and discounts on seasonal workshops.
It is not lost on me the pain and suffering that much of the world is experiencing right now and the fact that so many humans are not free. 🍉. May we all collectively continue to show up in the best ways we individually can to fight for the freedom of all those who don’t currently have it.