Judy Godec joins Shanti Medina on her Seventh Annual Women's Summer So

Shanti Medina dreamed up the first Women's Summer Solstice journey while having tea with another female yoga therapist. "We were talking about how the yoga business in general doesn't really support a lot of collaboration," she remembers. "It was very, 'I have my class, you have your class.' So we decided to shift it. We thought, let's do something together and bring our communities and our clients together -- because her gifts as a yoga therapist are very different from my gifts as a yoga therapist, and we really complemented each other." After deciding to hold the event as a summer solstice celebration, they lined up yoga, dancing and live music, and a good time was had by all.

Fittingly for a solstice celebration, however, things shifted in a major way last year -- the celebration's sixth year.

Instead of holding a three-hour event, last year Medina expanded it to a full twelve-hour extravaganza incorporating dancing, meditation, community exercises and rituals to celebrate and empower the women co-creating the experience. "I hadn't thought about making it a twelve-hour journey," she says, "but women over the years kept asking if I could make it longer. They were really loving going to this place together."

And the feedback was so good that she's continuing the twelve-hour format this year. "I heard such great feedback: that it really let women put life on pause," she says. "You can marinate in twelve hours."

This year's theme, Stirring the Shakti, aligns with the guests Medina has brought in to collaborate with her. "The shakti is the energy that flows through the universe and vibrates within us," she explains. "It seemed to me that what would be really inspiring is all of us coming together and stirring the pot and having time to ourselves, but also time in community."

Presenters include Medina herself; Lisa Wimberger, founder of the Neurosculpting Institute; Alicia Fall, TED Talk presenter and founder of Her Many Voices, an organization dedicated to helping women in Haiti and all over the globe; Melissa Ivey, gypsy-rocker extraordinaire; Rasamayi, an acclaimed vibrational healer; Judy Godec, owner of Venus and Vetiver beauty products; and perhaps a special guest or two yet to be named.

"We're going to create this really deep weaving of not just one person being on, but all of us collaborating and connecting and co-creating with the presenters," she explains. And this year, there will be nonprofit beneficiaries: the Give Back Yoga Foundation and Her Many Voices.

Women still in their teens up into their eighties and nineties come to the Women's Summer Solstice, Medina notes. "Expect to enjoy a really rich and deep journey into the sacred, into what it is being a woman, into sharing our life's work together and all of us sharing that in a really beautiful space."

This event -- which sells out every year -- is open to fifty women and will be held at the Starhouse in Boulder on Saturday, June 22. Participation is $108 if you register by June 14 and $135 regular price. E-mail shanti@energizeshanti.com or visit energizeshanti.com/community/events for more information.

Judy Godec joins Shanti Medina on her Seventh Annual Women's Summer Solstice

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