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Maya Luna

@maya.vel

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moviemiento. by @maya.vel

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6 months ago

a year ago today i moved back to new york city 💫

i’ve created an astoundingly special life for myself. and it was terrifying. i would love to show Maya from 1 year ago what we’ve got going on now (she wouldn’t be all that surprised, we knew this was on the horizon)

i know what i’ve done to make this my reality. and also! wow! so many blessings! so many gifts!

what a gift it is to have this crazy place as a home to return to when things fall apart. to have this family to welcome new versions of me in with open arms.

what a gift it is to find so many people to love and be loved by. to learn from and with such talented, wise, wonderfully infinite humans.

what a gift it is to stumble upon spaces and practices that resonate so deeply. that encountering have felt like their own homecoming.

what a gift it is to have the opportunity to deepen in the things that call to me most. that light me up and remind me why i love being alive.

what a gift it is to be in this body that can feel so much and express so much. that just keeps getting stronger and more equipped to transmute and to hold and to tell stories.

what a gift it is to have lived such a diverse and full life up until this chapter that planted all kinds of seeds for what i’m doing now and how.

what a gift it is to have these practices and people and center to come back to when the world is in such a devastating and enraging state. to root into this work as an avenue for greater change— one that feels much more within my reach than anything else I can see or feel.

and what a gift to keep learning what that (and really all this) means and how to apply it. to have the opportunities and resolve to do so even when things feel hopeless.

🌱🪷🌱

here is a criminally not-all-encompassing glimpse of this time. featuring lots of loved ones, improvisations, nature and nyc(+) magic.

maybe someday i’ll post with a frequency that doesn’t leave me scrambling to try to fit a years worth of life in one little post. maybe not.

big love big hugs 💓💓💓 taken in New York City by @maya.vel

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a year ago

Another flow space next Sunday, may 11, with the wonderful @maya.vel co-hosting!

Maya and Ellie met at a dance facilitator training two years ago. Where Ellie spent her adolescence training and performing classical ballet, Maya came to dance organically and practices dancing as a lifestyle. Both have devoted the better part of recent years to exploring the art of improvisational dance, and both Maya and Ellie believe that dancing in community together is both joyful and necessary for belonging in our bodies and healing our world.

In this session, we explore dance as a living poem, and the power of words combined with movement. Do movements spring from our thoughts, or do movements create thoughts? What happens when we verbalize and act out our daydreams and imaginations? How can poetry, just like music, become a container for dance?

This space is for everyone, as you are—come and explore!

Sunday May 11
12:30-2:00
Open Arts Studio
68 Jay St, studio 605A
$10-20 suggested donation, NOTAFLOF

—poem in the second picture is an excerpt from “Chinese Art and Greek Art” by Rumi by @maya.vel

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a year ago

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2 years ago

🪲🪴🥑🥭☔️🔮💜
ternura, aventura y hermandad

pedacitos de Sana Corazón con Sha al final 🧚🏼 taken in Naranjo, Alajuela, Costa Rica by @maya.vel

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2 years ago

sticking to this three month recap format 🙆‍♀️
lots of green, parents came to visit, expanding my circles.

trusting trusting trusting
falling, crying, fearing
trusting more
feeling really held, feeling really alone
feeling really “oh shit i’m an adult and all this is up to me”
feeling powerful, feeling lame
feeling hopeful, hopeless
nothing and everything

i’m a full spectrum kind of person
it’s exhausting
and it’s also really rewarding

i’ve been doing deep, deep work for a while. sometimes it feels awesome and i feel proud. sometimes it feels futile. that’s where the trust comes in.

i embrace uncertainty as the evidence of abundant possibility
i embrace discomfort as the lessons it can teach me
i embrace the clarity as nudges from my higher self
i embrace connection as a glowing center of this human life

things are happening. moving. changing.
and i know it all will be as it should be.
to whatever extent there are “should’s”
it feels purposeful and i trust wherever it and i go
🍃 taken in Costa Rica by @maya.vel

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3 years ago

oct~nov~dec
i’ve spent the majority of this year living in Costa Rica.
here’s a little taste of this time around ✨🌿💚
featuring shots from a permaculture design course at Valle Escondido in Monteverde and pieces of life at @fincalaflor taken in Costa Rica by @maya.vel

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3 years ago

Catching up over here with a little love letter to my city and my forever home
(español en los comentarios ✨)

I spent some time in New York City after physically and energetically creating all the distance I could from it. The first year I spent away I was incredibly resistant to and almost disparaging of the idea of returning or spending time there. The most recent time I’d spent was not exactly pleasant and that was most of what I was holding onto. I had a few months of adulthood in (pandemic ridden) nyc and said absolutely not. There are a lot of aspects and impacts of living there that I wanted nothing to do with, that I needed distance from. And I still see all those points. The overstimulation, the hyper individualism, the excessive concrete, the capitalist hellscape-ness and rampant consumerism, etc.
But also, this city is a part of me. in all the ways, including plenty that I really love.
This city is chaotic, diverse, multifaceted, intense, fascinating and so so alive.
It has shaped me. how I move through the world, how I hold myself, my style, my attitude, my openness… and my boundaries too.
I love walking up and down Manhattan. I love the anonymity, the freedom. I love the multitude of opportunities and activities. I love the wide array of people from literally everywhere on the planet. I love the abundant latinidad. I love (LOVE) people watching. I love telling folks I was born and raised here and feeling like a proud little (true!) New Yorker.

When I landed at JFK, the immigration officer said “Welcome Home Maya” and I felt all kinds of weird… because what is "home"? Where you live? Where you originated from? Where your loved ones are? Where you feel loved and cared for? Where you feel most yourself?

I'm not totally sure where I land on that definition, but you know what? New York City is absolutely my home.
And I will continue to find and create homes all over the world and know I always have this one to come back to (in short bursts at least, as I’ve come to believe that’s the best way to enjoy this place).

big shouts to my people; my inner circle, my family, my friends (old and new), the nyc contact community, and so on <3 taken in New York City by @maya.vel

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3 years ago

Bolivia Feb- March 2023 🇧🇴🦙

a wild interlude to my slow paced travel life.. I reunited with my parents almost exactly one year after leaving and we proceeded to spend two and a half weeks traveling all around this beautiful and fascinating country.

throughout my life, my parents have nurtured a love, appreciation, and prioritization of travel and learning about, exploring, and engaging with different cultures, as did my grandfather, who was with us in spirit and who would’ve loved this most recent adventure.

as I get older, I see the little (and big) pieces of my family within me and this one is of the most present that I cherish so deeply.

I love carrying on this Velasquez-Vayda legacy ♥️

These pictures show The Uyuni Salt Flat, The Cordillera Real and Huaina Potosi, Lake Titicaca from La Isla del Sol, The Siloli Desert, the spectacular Carnaval de Oruro, a lovely familia campesina near Potosi, and lots and lots of alpacas :) taken in Bolivia by @maya.vel

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3 years ago

🌀EL RIO🌀

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here and when that happens it can be daunting to figure out what to come back to this space with.
It feels the most fitting to share a bit of this magical place I’ve had the privilege of living next to and visiting every day for months.

These waters have held, inspired, guided, accompanied, and grounded me.
I’m regularly inspired by its power, purity, consistency and adaptability.

It makes me feel small in the most empowering of ways, reminding me that I’m but a tiny piece of something much much bigger that will always be there, so alive in it’s divine chaos and grandness.

It has become one of my favorite places on this earth and it’s not hard to see why.

🌀🌀🌀

Llevo un rato sin publicar por aquí y cuando pasa eso, me cuesta decidir con que volver a este espacio.
Se siente más apropiado compartir un poco de este lugar mágico donde he tenido el privilegio de vivir y visitar todos los días en estos meses.

Estas aguas me han sostenido, inspirado, guiado, acompañado y enraizado.
Me inspira regularmente su poder, pureza, consistencia y adaptabilidad.

Me hace sentir pequeña de la manera más poderosa, recordándome que solo soy una parte pequeñita de algo mucho más grande, que siempre va estar allí latiendo en su caos divina

Se ha convertido en uno de mis lugares favoritos en esta tierra y no es difícil ver por qué. taken in Rancho Rana Roja by @maya.vel

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3 years ago

I’ve been to a lot of beautiful places this year and only a couple have spoken to me like this place speaks to me. Something about the energy here, the intensity.
Maybe it’s the way I see myself reflected in the beautiful chaos, that intensity that shoots in all directions. that can create or destroy depending on how you approach it, how you move it.. how you move with it. And anywhere and everywhere can be like that. but something in the air here makes it much more… palpable, and I absolutely love it.

🥥🌊🌸🌴🌿⚡️

Reflecting always always but especially as my surroundings shift and the versions of me that are called to the front of my being do too.
I’ve spent almost a full moon cycle here on the Caribbean coast and as this time comes to a close and as the full moon and total lunar eclipse approach I’m transmuting, I’m releasing, and I’m stepping into this powerful time of culmination, release, and surrender.
I’m in awe of how it all flows. how everything has its place and it’s time and how life carries me exactly where I need to be when I need to be there. AND I find so much humor in the way I still get caught up in resistance. I look at myself and my silly little (beautiful) fears and qualms and projections and I hold her with so much love and grace because what else can I do? because look at me go. because I learn from it all and that’s something to be proud of. because the spiral is always moving upwards and it’s all part of the journey.

🥥🌊🌸🌴🌿⚡️

Gracias Puerto Viejo y todas las personitas que contribuyen a la magia de este lugar tan especial 💚 taken in Puerto Viejo, Caribbean Sea, Costa Rica by @maya.vel

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4 years ago

flowing and growing and feeling and being 🦚 taken in Guasacate Beach by @maya.vel

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4 years ago