Hello and happy February! 

With a new month comes a new affirmation, and this month ours is #iamlove. I am very excited for this month, as I so value that Oula is a space for so many of us to connect through kindness, empathy, and love. I want to be totally honest with you all though, I have felt slightly apprehensive to write this. I find myself at somewhat of a cross-section, where my spiritual beliefs of love and light being the highest frequency energy exchange feel like they are sometimes at odds with my ever-growing knowledge of how much work needs to be done for a fairer and more just world where love and light are not enough of an offering. So I've been grappling with #iamlove, which is really the point of these affirmations-- to get us to think, reflect, dive in and dig for the treasures that exist in both the unknown and the familiar spaces within us.  

As I was dancing to Shadow by Macklemore last week, one of his lyrics put it all together for me and gave me the clarity I was looking for:   

Shadow, the light

They can both blind, got different names

If it's too dark, if it's too bright

It can still burn you with different flames

When we choose not to engage in the shadow so that we can stay in the "love and light" we may be missing opportunities to show up as love. And when we get stuck in the muck of our own and of the collective darkness, we also may be missing opportunities to show up as love. The meeting place between the light and the dark, the spirit world, and the physical world, is the heart. Did you know that the root of the word courage is cor – the Latin word for the heart? It takes great courage to live from the heart. But with this courage from a heart-centered life, we can explore the darkness without burning out our own light. And we can offer light and love to what needs healing not by turning away from it, but by turning towards it courageously, and with love and light.  

I'm very excited to spend this next month with you as we intentionally practice meeting ourselves and each other from the heart. I think this is more of a lifetime journey, but February is a good start. 

We also have a really beautiful community activity called ‘A Month of Love Letters’ we would love to invite you to participate in. We invite you to write love notes to yourself, to your body, to each other, to someone who's passed, to a stranger, or to anyone you feel called to write to. This can be a post on social media, on your own pages, or in the Community Group on Facebook, email, in person, or however you want to participate. If you do it on social media, please use the hashtags #iamlove and #iamoula so we can find them! Or if you just want to take a photo and email it to us at info@oulafitness.com, that works too! 

Then we will be taking a word, a line, or a phrase from your love note, writing it on a colored heart, and taping it to the wall of our online studio. So, by the end of the month, our hope is that the wall will be covered in hearts, covered in your love. We are planning on taking a photo each time we add hearts and will and do a time-lapse and share it with you all at the end of the month. <3 

Thanks for being here.

I love you,

Kali