Finding Zen

The flowing river on the walk up the Iao Valley

A family vacation is a wonderful way to escape the up’s and down’s of life. Let’s face it though; a family vacation can also be very stressful.  So how do you stay calm running from place to place, cooking, cleaning, finding new food that everyone will eat, early mornings and late nights…

Take a moment to enjoy the small things, the big things and everything in between!

Last Spring we spent 13 days and 11 nights in Maui with our 3 beautiful children.

A moment of peace in the plantation garden.

WOW what a place!  With so much to see and do we were up at 6 every morning and 80% of the time out the door by 7. We trecked through rivers and waterfalls, snorkeled in the reef, climbed the volcano of Haleakala.

  Shopped in markets and many towns around the island, took a submarine tour of the reef, played in the ocean and the pool, walked along the beach at sunset, attended a birthday party for a 140 year old banyan tree, played in black sand and toured some caves….

Down time?  Meditation? Relaxation?

Although the vacation was go, go, go; these pictures represent moments of peace.  Secluded minutes where time stood still.  A chance to breathe and connect with nature, the self and family.  It is in these moments; where words do not exist that peace is found.  A deep connection is felt when we can stand together without words and can be completely at ease.

It was here that I found the courage to finally begin my YouTube adventure.  In all this majesty everything IS possible.  I have been bombarded with people telling me to create videos on meditation, mindfulness, yoga and health topics.  Being a shy, introvert this has been a very daunting task.  Witnessing black sand, red sand, blues and greens so vibrant they come from a dream have this ability to make a person want to shine. Thus over the next year I will be introducing 3 series to YouTube: Mindfulness Moments Your Natural Health Concerns Answered Yoga Tutorials with a Therapeutic Focus I am looking for topics to talk about!  Please write me jennifer@kwyogatehrapy.com with your questions, concerns and topics.  Indicate if you would like to be mentioned or to stay anonymous.

The next blog post will include the Introduction to Mindfulness Moments.  For now this series will be uploaded the first of each month.  Look for the other series to be introduced soon!

The view from the top of Haleakala, 10000 feet above the ocean.  The landscape boasts beautiful shades of reds, browns and blacks.  Looking down over clouds was so surreal and peaceful; easy to imagine we were on another planet.  We could have stayed here all day enjoying the views.

Black sand beaches on the Road to Hana.  Here we explored the ledges overlooking the ocean, walked through caves carved by the waves and ancient volcanic eruptions.