Our Response to COVID-19

Our commitment is to keep our community well.

To keep our global community well in body, mind, and spirit.

During these times, we are committed to delivering high-quality yoga and meditation classes and online events that are designed to breathe groundedness and sanity into all facets of your life, considering all factors you may be faced with right now.

Here is what we have been hard at work on to deliver on our promise of personal and global evolution:

• Our YouTube channel has grown considerably.
  • We have classes ranging from restorative yoga for athletes, advanced power yoga, basic vinyasa yoga, restorative yoga, myofascial release yoga, core work classes, pranayama meditation, and so much more. Here is the link to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=red+cheetah+yoga
• Nikki and DJ Lina Vibes are teaming up to help feed Florida families
  • sunSET is a vinyasa yoga zoom class set to DJ Lina’s vinyasa vibes playlist. 100% of the proceeds to go Farm Share, a company dedicated to feeding underprivileged families and families affected financially by the pandemic healthy food
  • This one-time class is May 15^that 7 pm EST and is a worldwide event. Please get your ticket here:
  • Just $1 gets you the zoom link. Suggested donation is $20.  Please pay what you can!
  • Here is the EventBrite link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sunset-tickets-104578330602?aff=ebdssbeac
• Johnna Matthews and Nikki team up for a talk on Instagram Live: Mental Health and the Pandemic
  • Johnna, a past podcast guest on the Red Cheetah Yoga Podcast, and Nikki go live on Tuesday on their Instagram accounts to talk the science and “why” behind our emotional reactions to the pandemic, and what we can do about them.
  • This event is LIVE and FREE and we do encourage you to RSVP here:
  • This event will conclude with about a 10 minute question and answer session
  • Tune in on Instagram here: instagram.comand the accounts are either @nikkithefairy or @soulsearchingandsquats
• Downtown Strength and Conditioning hosts LIVE Instagram classes
  • Every Saturday at 10:30 in the morning, Nikki gets on @dtscmia to teach a yoga for athletes class
  • This is a class for ANYONE to take! We focus on athlete aches and pains, but the premise is still yoga, and this practice has the malleability to deliver to all types of practitioners
  • Create or login to your account at instagram.com and then tune in to @dtscmia every Saturday at 10:30 am!
• We have teamed up with Lunarly to deliver powerful monthly meditations in alignment with the moon cycles.
  • See our past meditations with the subscription box company that delivers mystical experiences in a lovely cardboard box every month.
  • Nikki teaches powerful meditations on their Instagram account, @mylunarly , as new boxes are shipped and the new moon is celebrated.
  • Follow @nikkithefairy and @mylunarly on Instagram to stay up to date with their collaborations!
• Nikki is teaching live, free meditations on her personal Instagram account, @nikkithefairy
  • Nikki leads a journaling and breathing session every Monday and Wednesday at 7 pm
  • Learn powerful stress-relieving journaling prompts and share on the platform to be connected with other RCY members around the world
  • Perfect your breathing meditation techniques to get the best results for clearing your mind.
  • Also on instagram.com or download the app to your device
• NEW!Red Cheetah Yoga will be hosting LIVE power vinyasa classes on Instagram!
  • We are getting present to the need for more free power vinyasa classes online, so, please, join us starting next week!
  • Classes will be held on Thursdays at 7 pm on @redcheetahyoga on Instagram!

If there is any other way we can support you, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

Also, an ENORMOUS THANK YOU to all of you who are tuning in every week, subscribing to our YouTube channel, and participating in all of the online content we are putting out. And massive gratitude to our dear followers and clients who, out of the kindness and generosity of your hearts, have donated to our studio.  Your contribution means the world to us, because all of this content is being created and put out for free.

If you are also interested in donating to Red Cheetah Yoga, please go to the “Studio” tab on redcheetahyoga.com or send a Venmo to RCY owner, Nikki McGowan, at @Nikki-McGowan (please make sure to friend request her first to make sure you’re connecting to the right one) or CashApp at $nikmcgowan.  Please write clearly in your contribution on the money exchange apps that it is for Red Cheetah Yoga.

We are beyond fortunate to have the technology to support you during this unprecedented time!  It’s our goal to be accessible to you in as many ways as possible.  It’s our pleasure to be able to deliver an ancient and powerful practice through modern and sophisticated modalities!

Stay safe, stay positive, Cheetah Fam!

Get on your mat and breathe and flow with us!  Yoga is the best way to stay sane in the midst of crisis and chaos.

The great masters have been teaching us this lesson for generations. J

Choose To Evolve

Choose To Evolve

 

Defining words can be useful.  However, there is a deeper meaning when the origin of a word is considered.

 

Etymology, or the origin of where a word comes from, goes beyond definition. It involves the word’s country of origin, how long the word has been in existence, and the word’s evolution over generations.  When I got into spelling bees in school, I learned etymology was useful in being competitive in bees because if you’re given a word that you don’t know, you can figure out the spelling by asking the judge for the word’s origin.  For example, if you’re given a word you don’t know and you learn that it has a Latin root and it has a hard “k” consonant sound in it, chances are that sound is created with a “ch”.  However, if it’s root is Greek, chances are that the “k” sound the word is created with a “k” instead of a “ch”.

 

For example, if a bee participant is given the word “kleptomaniac” and she has no idea what it means, upon hearing it she may automatically think it would start with a “ch”.  However, having the presence of mind to use her resources, she requests the etymology of the word, which is Greek in origin.  She will know then that the likelihood of that first syllable to start with a “k” is much higher than a “ch” because it’s root is Greek and not Latin.  Kleptes, by the way, means “steal” in Greek.

 

Etymology is useful for more than just winning spelling bees.  It also helps us get deeper into our integrity in our conversations with ourselves and others.  Red Cheetah Yoga’s “Choose To Evolve” becomes more powerful when we look beyond definition and into it’s vernacular evolution.  Etymology describes what the words also meant in their original, native languages.  I know many people, myself included, who LOVE to research the meaning of names and most know the meaning of their own (mine means victory of the people, originally from Greek, with it’s origin from the goddess of victory, Nike).  Knowing the come-from for words can be a powerful tool, just like learning our personal come-froms in our ways of being, acting, and planning.

 

It is because of etymology that the phraseology for RCY is CHOOSE to evolve, and not “decide” to evolve.

 

Just by looking at the definitions of these words can be deceiving, and can seem almost identical in nature if not read carefully:

 

Decide: (v) 1. To solve or conclude (a question or controversy, or struggle) by giving victory to one side.

2. to determine or settle (something in dispute or doubt)

 

Choose: (v) 1. To select from a number of possibilities; pick by preference

2. to prefer or decide (to do something)

 

Even when we zoom in on the actual definition of these two words which seem, on the surface, to be synonyms, they resonate with very different energies.  And “choose” even uses the word “decide” in it.

 

However, at Red Cheetah Yoga, these words are very, very different.

 

And here’s why:

 

Etymology defined is the derivation of a word, the study of historical linguistic change, especially as manifested in individual words.  The etymology of etymology comes from it’s original Latin etymologiaand before that Greek etymology(os) meaning studying the true meanings and values of words. Etymo(s)meaning “true” and logos meaning word or reason.

 

The etymology of decide: 1350-1400 Middle English decidenfrom French decider, and before that, Latin deciderwhich means literally TO CUT OFF.

 

The etymology of choose: before 1000: Middle English chosen, chesen, Old English ceosan; cognate with Gothic kiusan, Old High German kiosan, akin to Greek geuesthaito ENJOY, and from Latin: gustare, to taste.

 

Which lands better? Which feels better?

 

To expand on “decide”: the –cide suffix  literally means “act of killing” and is the same suffix also found in these words: pesiticide, suicide, homicide, genocide, spermicide, and so on.  These are all manifestations of some sort of cut-off-ness, and in these examples it’s a cutting off from life force, vitality, creativity, and possibility itself.  It’s absolutely final, no space for transformation, a shift, or inquiry.

 

To choose…now we are in different and more inspired territory.

 

To choose means to have an awareness of options, a recognition of the smorgasbord of life that is in front of you, always.  To take every step and moment of your life from the awareness of choice…that’s powerful.

 

Every breath is a choice.

Every thought you have is a choice.

Everything you eat is a choice.

Your beverages are all choices.

Your friends, coworkers, employees, bosses, they’re all choices.

 

Breath is either automatic or intentional.

Footsteps are either automatic or intentional.

Which do you choose?

Automatic breaths and footsteps reflect an automatic way of being.

Intentional breath and footsteps equal an intentional way of being.

 

Your way of being is the most important and powerful choice of all.

 

And when it comes to those around you, this post is not suggesting you cut people out of your life in order to “not choose” them because they don’t live up to your expectations or match your “vibe”.  No. What “Choose To Evolve” is requesting of you is to choose people for everything they are, and everything they are not.  Choices are not always easy, nor are they meant to be, and the array of things we get to choose from may not be anything we actually want.  So consider that if you read the above statement concerning others in your life and you made a decisionto cut someone out, you are not in a space of choosing, you are deciding. Where does that get you?

 

To be aware of your ability to choose is also to recognize the glorious responsibility you have to be disciplined to create your life, to as gratefully and joyfully choose the things you “have” to do by turning them into the things you GET to do.  These are the things that make your life work: paying your bills on time, studying, giving time and energy to your new project/business/family.  Whatever it is that’s important to you that makes you feel complete, satisfied, and whole when you’re on the other side of completing that task.

 

Deciding your future will not empower or inspire you.  Choosing it, however, will. Choosing is hear-led, with a simultaneous awareness of now and tomorrow, of yourself and others, and how it and we are all connected.

 

To decide resonates with a feeling of resignation, of “this is all there is and nothing can change it” energy.  It’s contracted and small, exactly what the energy of being cut off feels like. Decisions do not empower.

 

Choices empower.  To choose means to take a little taste from everything, to move forward from a space of inquiry and willingness to be swayed, and to select from all of your choices in front of you.

 

From the space of choice, you have literally NO IDEA how far or where you can go.

 

Are you aware that you are constructing your future RIGHT NOW through the choices you make?

 

I invite you to stop deciding your life.  To give up being resigned and “fine” with what you have right now.  The moment you get present to the truth that everything you have right now is a creation of what you have been deciding, that is a powerful moment for you.

 

Make your shift into choosing.  SEE, truly see, with the eyes of your heart what your options are.

 

How do you choose to create your life today?  Where can you begin?

 

The moment you take action, you inspire others to do the same.  The planet is relying on you.