Hey you?

Yeah you, the magical, free, wild, light and full of love self...

Are you there now?

If you are, ahhhmazing and if you're naaaaaht.... then welcome back home to your body!

If you are feeling any kind of anxiety, shame, trauma, weirdness, blockages, or straight up disassociated and disconnected from your body--then this one is for yooooouuu!
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Keep reading to catch some tales of overcoming, pushing past fear and living a life where you get to be all of you no matter what and no matter how much or little time there is.

As a survivor of multiple trauma experiences, it has taken me many moons to learn how to live past the PTSD of living and hardships. Dance has always been a healing tool for me, and over the past several years I have been on a bit of a personal rite of passage or vision quest--where I have looked at my shadows, shame, stories, sadness, fears and unrooted so many blockages using dance, nature, connection and expression.

(((A lot of those tools can be found here: 111 Personal Rituals for The Embodied Revolution)))

Most recently, I spent time at the Hustle & Flow retreat at Joyful Journey Hot Springs Resort in Southwest Colorado--I went to facilitate a SOL VIDA Divine Booty Shaking Experience, and in addition to helping others remember and free their bodies--I also ended up having my very own healing journey's--plural; around money consciousness, ego, selflessness, bridgebuilding and a very clear calling to be way more in service of freeing the bodies of all the people.

As a collective, it's so easy to get away from our pure, true, wild, primal and authentic self. With traumatic and toxic systems at play,or limiting circumstances--I know it can feel really hard and near impossible  to carve out time and space to dedicate to personal wellness.

I want you to know that you are in control of many things. When you use the power of moving your body -you can achieve clarity, grounding and release--this in turn allows you to set more powerful intentions and get closer and closer to crafting the life of your dreams. 

If you are feeling far away from yourself,  your vision, or feeling lack... I invite you to invite the power of rituals, routines, intention and manifestation into your world.

Return to the Earth and Stay in the Light.

✨👁📺👁✨ Werk it--> 

• Remember: You are Not Alone
• Ask for help and surrender. (I know it's hard AF and it's even more rewarding when you do it)
• Create time and space for you. (I know it's hard for some of you with the family/covid situation--create boundaries and ask for what you need).
• Prioritize how you want to feel (this is a lovely manifestation tool).
• DANCE!!! Give yourself new experiences and MOVE YOUR BODY!!!

When you commit to living a life of truth and releasing shame, habits and stories--life will give you all kinds of possibilities to DO.THE.WORK and have a life that's even more than you may have ever dreamed! 

Want some help with this?
Book an Embodied Guidance Session with Axé here.

I frequently encourage people to count their blessings, it is a sure fire way for me to get a grip on what's actually happening or happened.

I am in utter awe of the impact we have managed to make in the first year of being committed to Sol Vida Worldwide, a nomadic company dedicated to shifting normalcy through  transformative dance and wellness experiences online and across the globe. There have been so many things to define, cultivate and create. 

At the beginning of the year, I knew this was going to be a year of discovery. I had to try out a whole bunch of things to figure out what I loved as the leader of this entity and what has the power to impact as many people globally as possible.

Starting the year in Colombia, spending four months in New York, going to California and spending the rest of the year in Colorado has taught me so much and I feel so blessed for all the experiences that I've got to share with so many people from around the world.

I am because of you.

SOL VIDA: 18 INFINITE BLESSINGS: 

1. Sol Vida Tour in New York, California and Colorado
2. The Untz Festival, Mariposa, California
3. Hustle + Flow Retreat, Crestone, Colorado
4. Sol Vida Slumber Party in Manitou Springs, Colorado USA
5. Colorado Dance Educators Organization speech on "Collaboration not Competition", 
6. Choreographing Once on This Island at East High School in Denver, Colorado
7. Becoming a Binderful Contributor
8. Pulsation I + II with King Lexie
9. Tabor Opera House- Weekend of Latin Fusion, Leadville, Colorado 
10. SOL VIDA POP UPS in Cheeseman Park Denver, Colorado 
11.  #Embodied Truth Challenge - Road to #40
12. All the videos in Insta/Facebook stories
13. Afro-Hip Hop with The Village Exchange Center
14. Place Matters with Creative Strategies for Change
15. Making #SVXONLINE video with my protégé, Kofi
16. Filming #SVXLive in our Facebook Group: A Self-Love Supreme with my former students: Natalie, Diana and Grace
17. DANCE LAB!!!! Afro-Ecstasy #AfroX
18. Partnerships + Unwind + Grind 3-week Series at Art Gym Denver
19. Launching #GETFREE our first ever online motivational coaching program!

I have heard some of the best things I've ever heard in my total career as a holistic dance educator and choreographer. People are begging me not to leave Colorado, to puh-lease come back to New York. It makes me feel like I chose the right thing--leaving my role as director of Dance at a high school and traveling with the wind to discover what really wants to live. 

I have used the power of presence and intention to build this work from a place of channeled visions. With a dream to help as many people as possible release their minds, have fun, say something and get free in the body, we are doing the work and it is only going to get better and better.

Thank you for traveling with me on the way, encouraging me, saying yes, showing up, and singing  Axé  Axé  Axé!!!!

This year of discovery and infinite blessings 

Save the Dates:
SOL VIDA 7 DAYS OF KWANZAA, December 26-January 1
GET FREE January 5-February 19, 6-week online motivational coaching with Axé,
EMBODIED PATHWAYS, 6-8 pm, January 9, 2019, one woman show, Art Gym Denver
ONE SOL DANCE FESTIVAL, August 7-11, multiple venues, Denver, Colorado, USA


* * * 

If you want to learn about or practice the 7 days of Kwanzaa no matter your culture or beliefs, please join us in our private Facebook Group: A Self-Love Supreme,  we will be focusing on an embodied study of the principles which are great to live by in general. We will talk about creating the life of your dreams, the collective work of radical self-love, free #SVXLive class, SOL VIDA playlist of the year and more!!!

Here's the Link to Get in the Group. Just ask to become a member and you'll get to celebrate Kwanzaa with so many people from around the world, it's gonna be real good. We are going out with a bang, and getting even more vibrant than before 2019. See you there!

* * * 

I hope you had many blessings, and if not, that you take a moment to breathe, pause and give thanks for anything you can. The more we acknowledge the good that is happening, the more likely we are to receive more. Count all the blessings. 

Happy Holidays! SOL VIDA 7 DAYS OF KWANZAA runs December 26-January 1!


Love you long time,
Axé (Ah-Shay/ I Feel the Spirit / It is So)
Founder/Leader

#DanceFreedomLove

Do you ever feel like you're a big weirdo?

Being too much?

Your feelings are too much?

I do... kind of all of the time.

In particularly, this happened to me recently when I was leading a Sol Vida Sunset Pop Up Class at Cheesman Park.

I was in a weird mood. A conflicted mood. Frankly, I didn't even feel like dancing that day. It was like bricks in my body and I really didn't know how I was going to get out of that mood and become the guide and leader that I love to be.

Then it hit me. I had just gotten back from my 40th year birthday celebration at a cabin in the woods with my BFF's. One of my lifelong friends had made me a special playlist for my birthday and we listened to it a lot--she gets me. 

There was one song that I found particularly haunting. Like it was getting under my skin. 

I thought it was so weird.

But somehow it was so absolutely soothing.

That song was doing something for me.

So, fast forward to sunset at Cheesman Park, I'm having dance teacher block when I remember the song!

That weirdo, kind of creepy, crawling under my skin song.

The kind of song that compels me to choreograph something to it.

I immediately looked it up and was relieved at last when it propelled me to get out of my mind and into my body.

It made me want to dance.

And it made me want to dance "weird."

It made me dance differently than any other choreography I've done in maybe ever. In fact this dance started to feel like a compilation of all the dances I've ever studied, all the dances that the young people have taught me...

It felt futuristic. It felt ethereal. I managed to mix up Modern, animation, with a twist of what I'd call deconstructed Hip Hop.

(Here's a link to the dance...) 

But guess what?

I was afraid.

I was afraid that one was going to be able to relate to this dance.

I was afraid my clients were gonna hear this song and see this dance and be like, "What do you want me to do?" 

I was sure it was too far out. Way too weird.

And then something happened...

I introduced the song and choreography and had a completely opposite reaction of what I thought was going to happen.

The people who got to learn this dance...

LOVED IT.

They loved how it felt, how it helped them release their feelings.

In fact, one of my clients was feeling the same type of way as me--confused, at a crossroads, and searching for the answers… That's really what this choreography became to be.

I tell you this story, because it's about the power of overcoming our fear.

It's about doing the thing that we think is weird or too much.

Because you probably need to express it and the world may love what you have to express even more than you can possibly think.

So in an effort to help you express yourself with bold audacity, here are a few ways to help you tap into your inner weird:

1. Do the thing that you are afraid to do. Whatever that gut feeling is that you're having inside and won't go away, do that thing. If it makes you scared, but you know it's calling you, do it. Note: We are talking about personal self-expression in the body, so be safe.


2. Your Feelings are Your Feelings... Express Them. You are a beautiful individual whose emotions are valid. They are your truth. So whether they are amazing feelings or down right crappy feelings, it is imperative that they do not stay stuck in your body. You have to let them out. If you are confused, sad, or just downright ecstatic, express that! It is crucial to give yourself a healthy outlet to live with your emotions--the body is such an important part of this release. So Dance your feelings, choreograph your feelings, or just improvise and dance your feelings however feels right for you. 


3. Do Not Worry About What You Look Like. Okay, okay, we get it--judgement. Self-judgement, self-hatred, self-awareness, self-consciousness. We all have a bit or a lot of it. Please do not let these feelings hold you back from doing what is calling you. I have so many students of the young variety and the old who consistently tell me that they are afraid to show up to a dance experience because of how they will look and more importantly what I hear when people tell me this, is I'm afraid of myself.  Honey's please stop those voices now. The only thing you need to worry about is the type of environment you are putting yourself in when you choose to express yourself. Be in a safe space with leaders who will guide you to your highest self and light. Guides who will celebrate you being all of you.


All right dear ones, please embrace your weird.

You can check me out talking about and demonstrating all this weird over here.

You can also check out other people doing my "weird" choreography and making it theirs over here. 

Facts are, you are actually not that weird.

Being a human is weird.

So, let's all accept the fact that we are weird and start expressing those truths.

If you want some assistance doing this work, you can start with 
FREE Download: 10 Ways to Get Free in Your Body

I love you long time,

Axé (ah-shay / i feel the spirit /it is so)
Founder/Director
Sol Vida Worldwide

#DanceFreedomLove
#DanceSavesLives
#GetFreeinYourBody