Glimmers
Hi!
Yesterday I taught a class called “Glimmers Everywhere.” You wouldn’t believe how many song titles have the word “GLIMMER” in them—I used at least six.
Something very strange happened to me while I was teaching. I’m sure it was only a matter of time, but it was new for me. I started class and realized: I felt numb. I began as I have for the last several classes—on the floor in a long meditation, taking time to ground, bring awareness into the body, and drop the mind. But this time, I couldn’t drop the mind. My thoughts were so loud and distracting.
All last week I had revisited distant emotions I hadn’t felt in a long time: depression, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, racing thoughts, irritability, boredom, hopelessness. My husband finally confronted me, and it woke me up. I’d been watching the news a lot. On top of that, I’d been moving through a lot of personal shifts and changes that felt all‑consuming. My system got overwhelmed. I was holding everything in, and I started to slip into freeze mode.
Once I got called out—really, called in—I began to return to presence. Presence is the point of power. When I come into the present moment, I become aware that I have a choice. In that awareness I saw two paths:
Stay closed off and isolated, or
Connect, be vulnerable, and tell the truth about my inner world.
I chose the harder path, number 2, and I instantly felt relief.
The next day, the sun came out and I knew I needed to be in it. Any work I had to do, I did outside. I sat in the sun as much as possible. It was there, with the sun on my skin and my dog’s chin resting on my shoulder, that I caught a “glimmer.” Glimmers are bits of light that pierce the darkness. I felt myself begin to thaw and thought, “This will be the inspiration for Sunday’s service.”
I hoped that frozen state would stay thawed and not return. But when I showed up to teach on Sunday and sat down to meditate, I felt different than I usually do. In the past, it was easy for me to drop in. This was the first time I truly felt disconnected from myself while teaching. I couldn’t get out of my head. Still, I stayed with the practice. I was both practitioner and teacher at the same time—a real “rubber meets the road” moment. I remember thinking, “I hope this method really works.”
Those 20 minutes on the floor, guiding everyone into their bodies, were brutal for me. Then I stood up to lead the movement practice. During the first song, I felt something start to soften. My mind got a little quieter. By the third song—five minutes of shaking—I finally broke through. I felt liberated, free from the grip of my mind and all the mental chatter. My breath opened, my heart rate rose, and the activation in my system started clearing out the density. “Holy shit, thank God,” I thought.
The method works. Glimmers are real. It felt miraculous, and I was so grateful. By the end of class, I had arrived in joy, peace, and alignment with something higher, so I could truly serve others.
I learned so much from that class. Afterward, we shared as a group, and I chose once again to be vulnerable and honest about my experience. No one had noticed what I was going through—they were having their own breakthroughs. I got to hear about them. One woman shared that she came in with a hardened heart, closed off to meeting someone new. After class, she felt something clear in her heart and said she was now open in a way she hadn’t been before. Wow. The medicine always finds its way.
This experience reminded me of the power of simply showing up—exactly as you are—and trusting the process. As a facilitator, my job is to stay in the fullness of my own experience and in my integrity. When I do that, everything settles where it’s meant to.
Our small community is precious to me. For the people who show up regularly, I’m seeing gentle, subtle shifts taking place. They’re staying the course because they’ve now felt something move in their bodies. It’s incredible to witness and to experience. There is so much wisdom in the body, and creating space, time, and community to be with it feels monumental in these times.
Please come join us and see for yourself.
rooting for you,
L E S L I E