When I reflect on the past four years, our kids have dominated my attention. Of course this is normal for most parents of young children. It’s easy to lose ourselves in the parenting role as we readjust to the new demands on our time and attention. I haven’t resented this change for the most part, in fact, I’ve made it a priority to dedicate more time to the kids during this critical formative period. I’ve simplified our schedule, tightened my social circle, and turned down some business opportunities in an effort to be as physically present as possible with our kids.
Forrest has started daycare twice a week now and Willow is going five days a week. Now seems to be the natural time to recalibrate our direction and rediscover some of the things we’ve let languish. Lisa has developed and is leading a Bhakti immersion without me, finding her own identity as a teacher. Together we’re flying away to a 3 day festival this December without the kids. That’s going to be fun but also tough to be separated.
We’re also starting two creative projects that we’ve been putting off for years. The first is a podcast we’re calling Suan Sati Unfiltered. I know we’re ten years late to the podcast game, but now I finally have the mental space for it. I was hesitant to devote my precious time to figuring out the technical side of it on top of dedicating time to record. Lisa’s primary motivations were for us to bond and to have a creative outlet. Initially my primary motivation was to increase SEO to drive bookings. After recording a few episodes, I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve appreciated sharing. Yes, I know that’s a crowded, noisy space and that podcasting can be polarizing. And yet, it’s cathartic. In the process of creating each episode, we have to introspect and examine our beliefs about a topic. I appreciate this revisiting of old ideas and turning over some new perspectives on them.
The second project is an online platform, Suan Sati Online. We tried to do this during COVID, but we were hampered by technical issues in both filming and editing. We thought we’d get back to it sooner than this, but then Willow came along and priorities shifted. I have been highly motivated to get this off the ground now for several reasons, including a desire to reignite my own yoga practice. I’ve mainly been in maintenance mode in my practice for a long time, and this project has pushed me to innovate and push myself. I’ve enjoyed planning new sequences and trying out new things to bring some freshness to my own practice and to this platform.
Although both of these projects seem outwardly focused, they have been instrumental in rediscovering and reclaiming myself on a physical and mental level. It’s been a privilege to be able to devote so much time to the kids these past few years. It’s also a privilege to be able to pick up these two creative passion projects. I’m curious where they will lead, if anywhere. At the least, they provide an outlet to process and showcase the journey we’ve been on these past ten years with Suan Sati. If you’re curious, make sure to stay in the loop as to when they’re released. Shouldn’t be long now.
