How Good Can It Get? A Question + Workshop for Hard Times

I was back on Chincoteague Island – my joyful, flowy place – last week. I return the first week of every month to teach yoga in the flesh at the island YMCA. It's a pleasure to be back with my yoga community, to connect and flow together. And, in late afternoon, joyful to walk the wintery beach – to pose, shoes dug into the sand, before the sea. To watch the sun set behind the dune – the end of an early 2026 day.

And then...the news. A deadly shooting in Minneapolis. I watched the footage. Gasped as our government preyed on its own people. Say her name: Renee Good – mother, daughter, wife. Jaw drops. Heart breaks. Tears.

The year has begun like this. No way to deny it – to stick your head in the sand on this one.

My embodied visioning workshop was scheduled for Friday – three days after the horrific scene – the aftermath of fear swirling inside me. And likely in you, dear friends.

How do we hold both? That is the practice of yoga – to honor the both/and – the push/pull – the effort/ease. To honor the grief – but not let it paralyze us. To look directly at what's happening and still choose possibility.

How good can it get? It's a question for these times – to prevent despair or malaise from taking over – to open ourselves to justice and possibility.

This workshop – our lives – must go on. We need creative community now more than ever. So I mustered my yogi energy; and we gathered, as planned, on Friday afternoon. I changed my script to acknowledge the harsh reality of the week, opening, in a tall seat, with an honoring of Renee Good and all the brave activists among us. A moment of silence and one round of Ohm –the sound that represents the entirety of existence, life beyond us, the infinite.

Then we began to move – because movement is the antidote – reaching arms overhead, breathing deeply, propelling our collective energy.

How good can it get? It is up to us to decide – to choose – whether to be brought down or to rise UP. And we did!

The workshop participants were engaged and flowing. Through freewrite exercises, we envisioned what was possible for 2026. But it was the conclusion at the end of the day that moved me most. PLAY. We all wanted and needed MORE PLAY in our lives in this new year – despite, and perhaps because of, the harsh realities of our time.

Want to PLAY in community? Want to discover how good it CAN get? Ready to take your POWER in 2026?

Then join us Saturday, January 31st for: Mindful Movement & Visioning to Welcome the New Year.

What: Workshop of movement, creativity and play

When: 2-4:30 pm (happy hour follows!)

Where: Casa Parque Home Studio, Mt Pleasant, DC

Investment: $45 -- 75 sliding scale – pay what feels right

Space: Limited to 6 participants

For info and to register ---> https://www.seechangeconsulting.com/jan2026-workshop

And if you can’t make it, here’s another opportunity. Join yoga with Marina over Zoom – weekly Mondays and Wednedays. Donation based – all levels. Email me at marinaflows1@gmail.com for the invitation.

Let's flow together in 2026, friends.