Coming Out of the Closet

I sent this (love) letter to my mailing list the other day and I’m sharing it with my blog readers now – I haven’t been doing much blogging lately and this will reveal a little of the “why”. The tide is turning and there are lots of blog posts coming up, but if you want to get the best of my insights and tips, make sure sure to subscribe to the newsletter – use the form above or to your left!

Coming out of the closet is much harder than I imagined…

Performing with Evan Hugh Worldwind & Kevin Nathaniel (AKA The Peace Department) at The Healing Arts Garden Event in Philly, 8/23/14

When I was a little girl living in Israel, I used to wake up early in the morning and hide in the closet and play make-believe for hours on end. In the dark closet, while my brother and parents were sleeping, I could be anyone and do anything I dreamed. I was powerful and beautiful, gracious and brilliant – all at once!

I’ve held on to so many of my dreams – my business and art are my testament. But I’ve often lived my life as if my powers and passions were safer in the closet. Fear of being seen has frequently terrorized me, which is strange considering the extraordinary lengths I’ve gone to embody my potential and uncover the brilliance within.

Strange but not unusual.

What is unusual is how much freedom and privilege I’ve had to follow my dreams and give voice to my truth. Especially unusual considering that I’m a woman. A Jewish woman. Israeli born. Of North African descent.

And a dancer, a woman dancer who’s chosen to live fully in her body in a world that still behaves as if intelligence belongs solely in the cognitive functions of the brain and treats the body as territory to be conquered. And an improviser at that, who’s chosen participation in the mysteries of the moment over the stature of recognized knowledge and forms.

A healer, too.

Believe it or not, naming that is the scariest part of coming out of the closet!

See, I grew up with a scientist for a father and scientific materialism as the reigning ideology of my times. My mother was a self-identified modern woman, who’d worked hard to distance herself from the “primitive” past of her Moroccan family, once well known and respected in Fez precisely because my great-grandmother was a powerful healer in service of the king. The gifts and talents that make me a healer weren’t always ones I knew how to appreciate.

It’s true that people – maybe even you – have increasingly referred to me as a healer for years now, but I’ve rarely called myself one for fear of…

It doesn’t matter. What I mean is, Enough With The Fear!!!

This summer took me to the Sierra Contact Festival, where I taught a workshop and spent a week in the beautiful nature of the high Sierra’s with amazing colleagues.

It’s killing us and blinding us from the immense healing powers of empathy and love. One look at the part of the world I hail from will suffice to prove my point. Which isn’t to say our fears – personal, cultural and global – are unfounded, or that our experience of them isn’t intensely real, but true courage and novel solutions are born of empathy and love.

Empathy for myself hasn’t always been easy to come by, and lack of it has kept me in the closet far longer than I intended. The love in my life – from my friends, family, clients and especially from my main man Marcel – has increasingly given me the courage to make my way out into the world.

It’s time for me to start giving and participating more fully.

And that’s what this new newsletter is all about. It’s my way of sharing my expertise, insights and offerings with you, friends.

Which is why I’d love to hear from you about what topics in the world of holistic health and embodied wellness are important to you to learn more about? Consider me a resource, at your service and gratefully so!

And make sure to check out the opportunity to get one of the last spots for the Fall RELAXED Strength & POWERFUL Alignment 90-Day Semi-Private Session – we start the week of September 15 and if you’re looking to integrate a sustainable and consistent approach to health for your body, mind and spirit, you don’t want to miss out on this.

Love,
Ophra