What's better than a great yoga sesh with an epic teacher? How about adding chocolate, live guitar, essential oils, incense and a restorative sound bath. Talia Sutra, in town from Tel Aviv, led a workshop at our Beverly Hills store last week with some special friends and took us on a transformative journey that went way beyond the mat. She calls it the Love and All is Coming Angel Gathering—a mind, body and soul workout that combines movement, awareness, healing and community. And chocolate. (Did we say that already?). By the end, we felt like we had just woken up from a deep sleep—at 8:30 p.m. It was exactly what we needed.
Talia opened with a warm welcome and a few words about the workshop. "You are your best healer deep down," she said, touching on the importance of connecting with yourself through mindfulness and introducing her special guests for the evening—a Reiki healer and a family that owns a biodynamic cacao business.
To kick things off, Talia led us through a 30-minute energizing yoga flow (set to live acoustic guitar), which took us through restorative vinyasas and ended with a mini relaxing savasana. After we built a little heat, she gave the floor to her friends Zen and Bunni, who work with biodynamic cacao farmers for their organic chocolate brand, ZenBunni.
Biodynanic farming, Zen explained, is the first sustainable method of farming in the U.S., and is so much better for the Earth than the way food is usually grown (pesticides are nasty!). It's a holistic approach that promotes biodiversity, restores soil and treats everything from the animals to the plants as one interconnected system. Biodynamic farmers also have a special relationship with astrology and look to the moon to determine their growing and harvest schedule. So. Cool.
Next, Zen led a cacao ceremony, where everyone took turns stirring a bowl of raw, liquified cacao to give it a ton of good energy and then sipped on shots of the strong "heart tonic" as their daughter Alchemy waved Indonesian incense around the room and gave us all chocolate bindis (yes, they're officially the cutest family). Aside from being super delicious, cacao aids in inner peace and happiness and acts as a powerful tool for transformation.
Reiki master and sound healer Ambi Sitham closed out our little love journey with a meditative sound bath using crystal bowls. We got back into savasana, closed our eyes and let all the sounds completely wash over us. It was the perfect end to the perfect feel-good gathering.
