She told us to be with the ocean.

“Your breath is the ocean,” she said, as we lay heavy on our backs in that first yoga class.

“Listen to your the breath. Hear the breath around you. Notice the waves pressing back and pulling in, like the tide does.”

She told us we’d never get lost as long as we could get back to our ocean breath.

She was from the coast of Kauai, and the golden tips of her hair fell way low, down past the wings of her shoulders. I met her for the first time that day in yoga when I was just 18. She was visiting our beach town in the summer to see friends from college and teach yoga classes.

Late in the afternoon I’d sit on my parent’s patio and watch pinks and blues dance around the sun as it set.  You could find her there when the sun was setting like this, sneaking down to the water’s edge to pop off her moccasins and practice yoga barefoot on the rocks. She’d close her eyes and match her breath to the rhythm of the water. I’d watch her mystified, and something about her came alive like the ocean did, in a way I’d never seen before.

It’s been years and I haven’t seen that Hawaiian goddess for summer upon summer.  But something magical about her words has stayed and still whispers to me like a bohemian song I’ve known forever.

“Be with the ocean,” she told us.

In times when I’ve felt super stuck—and when there’s only been a tiny glow at the end of the road, I go back that mantra. When I need to ground myself, touch base, be ‘in it’, I listen for it.  Whenever I need to really feel alive, I put on my Coast of Kai Mala, and feel the tide.

So go boho beauties and be with the ocean, it lives in you.

Peace, Love and Magic from Bohemia xx