Breathe Through It

The way you speak to yourself matters…

This year has catalyzed a lot of growth in a very short amount of time. It's often felt uncomfortable and scary and hard because it's somewhere we've never visited before - you have never before been this version of you. Personally, I know that my self-talk has been pretty up and down - sometimes positive, sometimes negative, and sometimes downright mean - discomfort hasn't always brought out the best in me.

One of the most impactful things the yoga practice continues to teach me, and why I come back to the mat time and again. is that we can learn to find a little bit of grace in any position life puts us in...and cultivate kindness as we breathe through it.

So I hope today you find the gentle courage to speak to yourself a bit more sweetly - with love, softness, and patience - because you are growing into yourself in the best way that you can, with the tools that you have, in the time you've been given. I love you so much.

Sweet And Simple

"How you make other people feel about themselves says a lot about you." - Unknown

It's easy to forget how truly powerful we are - how a single kind word or small generous action can uplift the life of another.

It doesn't take a monumental gesture to make someone else feel special.

Something as simple as listening attentively, writing a heartfelt thank you note, or telling someone a quality you see and admire in them can make a world of difference.

No matter what you do day-to-day. you are impacting other people...how you choose to impact them is up to you.

Living Kindness

"Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it." - Epictetus

Living yoga.

Breathing kindness.

Grace in action.

Compassion in word.

Integrity.

Courage.

Humility.

Growth.

I truly believe that each of us has the capacity to have a profoundly beautiful impact in this world. And, I also believe that so much of this can be born from honestly and wholeheartedly living yoga off of the mat. I know it can sound cliche...but that doesn't mean it isn't true.

It is one thing to believe in kindness. It is wonderful to speak kind words. It is inspiring to act with kindness. But. when we can find those pure moments where we are genuinely LIVING in kindness. that's where the magic happens.

Thank you for showing me kindness embodied. I am in constant awe of this community and so unbelievably grateful to know and love you.

Spontaneity and Service

“Without self-expression, life lacks spontaneity and joy. Without service to others, it lacks meaning and purpose." - Laurence Boldt

One of the best ways to access true. unbridled. bubbling. overflowing, unencumbered joy is through spontaneity - through being willing and excited to try something new. to act from your immediate present awareness rather than your past conditioning or old stories. In the rare and beautiful moments when we are able to connect to our inner child and be thrilled to try something - just for the pure adventure of trying it. not to achieve or prove anything to ourselves or to anyone else - that is where intuitive self-expression and limitless delight lives.

And ... a life filled only with spontaneity seems destined to be manic. ungrounded, and devoid of true purpose. When we are able to commit and follow through with loyalty and love. to find the areas in our lives where we are most genuinely of service to others and contributing within community. that is where meaning and limitless heart lives.

I honestly believe that yoga teaches us not only to dance in the space in between spontaneity and stability but also to find the golden value in both intuitive self-expression and compassionate service as equally vibrant and valuable pieces of our lives. Thank you for finding the dance with me - it is the sweetest adventure sharing this life with you all!

The Busy Band-Aid

“What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance? What if instead we celebrated how much time we had spent listening, pondering, meditating, and enjoying time with the most important people in our lives?” - Greg McKeown

Busy is not a badge of honor. Rushing from one thing to the next does not equal success. Feeling stressed out or tired or impatient or drained does not make you better at your job or more admirable to your loved ones.

I wonder sometimes, why are we so afraid to slow down?

I suppose it can be a million different things. A perceived need to prove ourselves, an unwillingness to say no, or perhaps even a fear that if we finally slow down, we may actually feel something.

Busy is numbing.

Stress is avoidance.

Tired is poor self-care.

So what if we stopped using being busy as a band-aid? What if we stopped glorifying stress and started celebrating the sweet softness in between breaths, rejoicing when we reclaim precious moments of each day to practice care for ourselves, and measuring our success in the times we are able to be fully engaged and present with those we love?

Befriend Your Body

and i said to my body. softly. ‘i want to be your friend.’ it took a long breath. and replied ‘i have been waiting my whole life for this.’" - Nayyirah Waheed

How are you treating yourself lately? Are you being gracious with your body, gentle with your self-talk. forgiving towards your heart?

...I'm trying.

Trying to not waste precious minutes, days, weeks, and years caught up in the never-quite-right-ness. Trying to lovingly embrace this body in this moment in this very breath.

It is so easy to get swept up in straining to look, speak, and behave in ways that we believe will make us appear more beautiful, intelligent, pulled together, or perfect. And so it becomes a habit to look at ourselves and pick apart the pieces that don't align with that distorted vision - to tear apart or stifle the light in the pieces of us that don't fit into the mold of this perceived ideal.

I can't help but to think that someday, we may look back and wish we had spent more time loving ourselves rather than picking ourselves apart. That in the end, perhaps, we will realize that our ideal self was there all along, just longing for us to finally acknowledge how beautiful, whole, and worthy we already are…and have always been.

Let's move with love. Let's enjoy and celebrate being in our bodies. Let's cherish each moment of sensation and breath and flow as the treasured gift that it most assuredly is.

Today I asked my body what she needed, which is a big deal considering my journey of not really asking that much.
I thought she might need more water.
Or protein.
Or greens.
Or yoga.
Or supplements.
Or movement.
But as I stood in the shower reflecting on her stretch marks, her roundness where I would like flatness, her softness where I would like firmness, all those conditioned wishes that form a bundle of never-quite-right-ness, she whispered very gently:
Could you just love me like this?"
- Hollie Holden

No F.O.M.O.

. . . you have not missed out on what was meant for you . . .

We are all on our own timelines.

There are so many parts of my life that have turned out so vastly differently than I had planned. In the moment it felt devastating and confusing and hard - realizing the life I had planned, the things I believed I wanted, the landmarks I equated with success were all slipping through my fingers.

But now? I simply can't imagine my life today without the lessons learned, in my time, at my pace, when and how I needed to learn them.

There is no designated timeline for anything in your life. The sooner we can truly embrace that, the lighter our worlds can feel. You don't need to have your first kiss at a certain age, or graduate at a certain time (or at all), or be married before thirty, or do anything at any time simply because it seems like everyone else is. Your life is unfolding for you in the time that your heart needs.

Trust that.

Have patience.

Stop comparing.

Be present in the beautiful gift of your own life in this moment right now.

Goodness knows the world works in mysterious ways so I hope today you choose to trust and feel and know that you have not missed out on what was truly meant for you.

Support Allows Depth

“...The sky would be awfully dark with just one star.” - Stacie Martin

Support allows depth.

I think this is quite true both on and off of the mat...

In your asana practice, finding foundational stability in a shape provides such a beautiful platform for you to explore the range of your expression.

In life, the more safely held and supported you feel, the more willing you are to try new things, to take the next step, to explore your world a bit more fully.

It is breathtaking...the moment you realize that championing the dreams and successes of others does not make you shine with any less vibrancy - that your whistles and applause for those whom you admire and look up to, for those who spark light and glow with genuine hearts - that there is room and space for every individual to be genuinely dazzling and that in us all cheering for each other's most luminous soar we in turn find more twinkle within ourselves.

What a beautiful world we live in where you have the opportunity to surround yourself with those who will lift you up, those who will be your backbone when you need the strength, who see your shine even on days when you can't, and who celebrate with you on the days when you can.

So today perhaps we take a moment to gratefully acknowledge the people who provide support in our lives...and maybe we take it a step further and choose to BE the support for others within our orbit.

Support your loved ones.

Listen to their ideas.

Celebrate their victories.

Nurture their self-worth when they fail.

Share their posts.

Show up to their events.

Find out their love language and speak it to them often.

Anchor them when they are drifting and be the steady wind when they are ready to sail.

Choose to cheer louder, to smile brighter, to bolster, to give a leg up, to be undeniably unafraid of singing the praises of those around you!

BE the support you know you can be.

Because there is so much beauty in a sky full of stars and there is ample room for each of us to shine. Let's light up the sky together.

"It's good to be blessed. It's better to be a blessing." - Jerry Smith

Playfulness = Openness

"The very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen - the feeling that whatever happens, it's okay...nothing will stop you from being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake...create an oasis where your mind can come out to play." - John Cleese

It's hard to pinpoint the moment it happens - the day in our lives that we are expected to "outgrow" play. As we age, there seems to come some undefinable moment where productivity becomes the goal - if an activity isn't earning us money or getting us further in our careers or lives in some way then it isn't worth doing - and we start to feel guilty for play.

I think we just forget. We lose track of the fact that to play is to discover. To play is to create. To play is to be open to new possibilities. To play is to be open to growth.

So let's create an oasis together - a sweet space to fill with playful adventure and wide open willingness to explore our lives anew.

Be Teachable

"Listen and be teachable. Laugh at good stories and learn to tell them...for as long as you are green, you can grow." - Mother Teresa

I genuinely believe that there is something to be learned from everyone and that true humility directly corresponds to staying open and eager to be taught.

It's a thrilling thing, really, to notice how much there is left to discover about the world around us and perhaps even more to uncover about the world within us. This earth is so big, so beautiful, so boundlessly abundant and varied and wild. I can only imagine how vibrant and interesting our lives could be if we simply loosened up on our ego’s need to know everything or always be right because what a phenomenal and brilliant gift to finally understand that the world is full of fresh things for us to experience and inhabited by millions upon millions of beings from which to learn something new!

What would your life look like if you started approaching each moment with mind and heart open, eyes wide with wonder, willing and excited to explore?

Could you find the courage to swallow your pride and soften the edges of your opinions?

Could you choose to celebrate that you do not know everything?

Could you actively opt to open up with curiosity and respectful attention to the things you do not yet know?

None of us know everything and thank goodness you don’t because life would be pretty darned boring if you had nothing new to learn and nowhere to grow. Let’s embrace the wonder and potential that comes with humbly and enthusiastically embracing that we have so much left to learn!

"...'my dear friend,' the old green grasshopper said gently, 'there are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven't started wondering about yet.'" - Roald Dahl

Grains Of Sand

“The whole world is a series of miracles, but we are so used to seeing them that we call them ordinary things.” – Hans Christian Andersen

Have you ever seen sand under a microscope?

Grains as small and seemingly insignificant as a tenth of a millimeter in size which to the naked eye seem uniform, normal, ordinary...when you look closer reveal an extraordinary world made up of billions of individual miracles. Every beach, dune, and shoreline is unique just as every single grain is unique - made of spirals of shell, fragments of coral, and bits of volcanic rock - telling the story of the very earth itself - each grain a mesmerizing snapshot in time and a fingerprint of the past.

On those days when it feel like the magic has gone from the world, when the days blend together and when the skies feel dark...maybe we just need to look around...and then look a bit closer...we may just find a universe of small miracles that's been waiting to be discovered right at the tips of our fingers.

Forgiving You

"Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn't know until you lived through it. Learn. Grow. Evolve. Become." - Creig Crippen

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to speak with a friend of mine about yoga, the experiences that help us to grow, self-worth, love, kindness, and more...

I was nervous talking about my past - some of the times in my life when I felt lost and unworthy. I was fearful to open up about some of the hard lessons I've learned in the times in my life where I didn't show up as the person I know I can be.

But, as we spoke, I was reminded of the profound power of forgiveness, especially when that forgiveness is to oneself.

I have had plenty of times in my life when I didn't behave or speak or live in the way that I was proud of - times when I didn't live up to my full potential or shine my brightest. But, I also believe, that more often than not, I was simply doing the very best that I could with the tools that I had in that moment.

So I practice forgiveness - whole-heartedly embracing these past chapters of me with the warmest hug - a shower of love for the past me who tripped, who tumbled, who floundered and who fell, but who always stood up again and kept going.

Because we don’t have all of the answers.

Because we don't know how strong we are until we are challenged.

Because we don't know what we don't know until we live through it.

Just. Be. You.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Just. Be. You.

...simple words for something that can be tremendously challenging.

It is a big ask to be wholly yourself in every aspect of your life. To sparkle with the deepest values of your heart when you are with your loved ones and then to carry that same unshakable truth inside of you into your interactions with those who challenge you. To not cut yourself into pieces and compartmentalize each limb of yourself into boxes (i.e. this is who I am at work, this is who I am at school, this is who I am with my family, this is who I am with my friends, etc.) but to hold together the integrity of your entire being in all that you do.

I think , perhaps, we have all had times where it was safer to compartmentalize or detach - training our true selves to be torn into disjointed pieces because it was necessary for survival.

But I wonder what is the cost of splitting your soul and sealing it in separate containers in the long run?

Is it possible to reunite the whole of you - to find the golden thread of integrity and honesty and kindness and truth that you can gently use to stitch yourself back into one?

And then, to stay true to that whole you even when you feel tempted to cut the threads and return the pieces to their crates?

I hope it is possible. I think it is possible. I believe we can. Just. Be. You.

Lessons From Pretzels

“You are not a pretzel. Don’t twist yourself to fit into who you think people want you to be – just to make them happy – which then makes your soul feel all twisty-like. Be who you are. Accept and love all your quirky aspects. Make your soul happy. Don’t be a pretzel. Be your whole enchilada.” – Karen Salmansohn

Lessons I’ve learned from pretzels:

1) There is such a wonderful delight to be found in yoga asana that in tying the body into knots we are somehow more able to untie some of the knots in the mind.

2) Have just the right amount of seasoning...don't be too salty...or too dry.

3) Avoid twisting yourself to fit into who you think people want you to be.

4) A straight path may be the easiest, but it's the curves and turns of life that bring wisdom...and adventure.

...perhaps silly, yet delightfully relevant, musings from a favorite food.

Grounding

"...and forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the wind longs to play with your hair." - Kahlil Gibran

When I feel too much. When I'm afraid or anxious or emotional or overwhelmed...I float away...detaching from my body. Watching myself from miles away, I used to think it was safer there...and maybe it was at some points...but it is also lonely, distant, and cold...my soul tethered by a thread, rocked tenuously with each passing breeze - a balloon drifting through the clouds and out of sight.

So I practice. Gently coaxing myself back to the earth. A sweet beckoning call from self to self, reeling the pieces back together one turn at a time, one breath at a time. Choosing to feel and to feel deeply. Choosing to be here in this body in this moment. Choosing to come home.

Nestle into the earth. Soak in the sun's warm caress. Feel the wind's fingers through your hair. Ground.

A Life In All Caps

"Stop shrinking yourself to fit places you've outgrown" - Anonymous

Recently I have found myself reflecting on the well worn paperback of my life so far.

Some chapters I look at with the sweet ache of nostalgia - lines upon lines filled with love, laughter, adventure, friendship, and silliness.

Some pages my own heart has redacted - erasing times of pain, shame, loneliness.

I read back upon moments where my fears paralyzed action - where I was given the choice to blossom in boldness or shrink in self doubt.

I use a highlighter to allow myself to honestly see and absorb the simple and neon evident truth that there have been far more moments in my life where I made myself small, where I have held back, stayed quiet, chosen to shrink than moments where I allowed myself to expand and take flight.

It's a heartbreaking thing to realize that you've been clipping your own wings.

So a reminder to myself (and to whoever else needs to hear it today), now is not the time to play small, to sit back and let other people define your life. You've written that chapter already and its grown tired and outdated. Take the pen and write boldness with each stroke. A life in ALL CAPS. You owe it to yourself to see what happens when you allow yourself to soar.