Blog
Weekly Letter: Fear or Unfamiliar?
Gary Vaynerchuk often says to win you need to fall in love with failing. Failing to him is a way forward into success, that you can’t succeed by being afraid of failing. Every day there are so many things that can go wrong and to be held hostage by the fear of...
Weekly Letter: It’s all the practice
“It’s the New Year, it’s time to restart my practice.” No. You are merely continuing a practice that began a time ago. Once you started, it never stopped, you took pauses, but these pauses are the truth inside the practice. They show you how you practice and on...
Weekly Letter: Leaning into Discomfort
My husband does this thing when he’s overwhelmed, he starts to romanticize a place where he was more comfortable. For example, sometimes when he’s overwhelmed with the house, he will talk about missing our tiny apartment that was easy to maintain (and easy to mess). I...
Weekly Letter: Creative work
I recently shifted my personal schedule to support a habit I’ve neglected and wanted to nurture in a different way. I’ve been writing professionally and otherwise for most of my life. I have won awards, been on the cover of magazines (my stories, not me), was...
Weekly Letter: Checking things off
I’m getting ready to leave on a trip and it never fails to amazing me how many things I can cram into a week to get ready to leave. What if I worked like this all the time? Why is it only the deadline of vacation that causes me to be this efficient? Then I remind...
Weekly Letter: The value of learning a name
When I was twenty, I lived in Champaign (not for school). My mentor at the time would take me to all sorts of professional settings, Chamber events, fundraisers, meetings, places that all required an introduction. I remember getting my first set of business cards for...
Weekly Letter: Learning to communicate with ourselves
Some of you already know that recently we fostered a puppy for a few weeks and she was recently adopted. This is our third time fostering and we enjoy the process of being a safe place for the dog to go while their new family finds them. I personally enjoy the...
Weekly Letter: Block or not to Block
When I first started teaching yoga, other teachers warned me there are students who don’t like to use yoga props. To those students, props show a weakness or an inability. I was baffled, as I was being trained the props give the person MORE access not less. And yet,...
Weekly Letter-The Forgiveness Series: Part 4
My friend had a very elderly dog who was demonstrating they were in some pain and losing their quality of life. My friend was faced with the impossible decision of whether it was time to put her beloved pup down. She and her husband went to their vet to discuss all...
List of Questions exploring Forgiveness
This is a working document of questions myself and a friend put together to evaluate our own feelings regarding situations of conflict. We created this in a conversation as we discussed boundaries and healthy relationships. As people who live out in the world, in a...
Weekly Letter-The Forgiveness Series: Part 3
My best friend comes from an abusive upbringing. Later she was in an abusive marriage. Now in her 50’s her parents who treated her so poorly lean on her to help them. Her and her siblings all have had different systems of processing their childhoods and some have made...
Weekly Letter-The Forgiveness Series: Part 2
I tried looking at groupings of friends we have in our life. Articles had some very interesting suggestions for categorization and didn’t include family, which can be the hardest category to forgive, so we definitely need to include them. One simple diagram used a...
The Forgiveness Series: Part 1
I struggle with the word ‘forgiveness’. The implication negates the difficult process by whittling it down to a single word. By doing so, it seems to undermine the power of the process. Some people are easier to forgive than others. Sometimes forgiveness takes a...
Weekly Writing: Light & Dark Part 4
So what does the light and dark show us? Much like strengthening a muscle, exercising the light and the dark invites us to become more sensitive and aware. To observe the delicate balance of both when we are in the moment so the moment doesn’t take us over. Exploring...
Weekly Writing: Light & Dark Part 3
There is something very loving about this idea of how yoga can approach you in ways that defy words. How it can be more a feeling than anything and when you hit the stride of it all you just move as though in a dream. Colors are different, and what you see and feel...
Weekly Writing: Light & Dark Part 2
Early in my teaching career, I was talking about the concept of light & dark in a general sense to a group of students. One of my students was very upset by this concept and expressed their belief yoga was only good and happy and peaceful. The thought of yoga...
Weekly Writing: Light & Dark Part 1 of 4
When I think back to my early days as a new practioner, attending the Washington Street studio for classes, I largely remember the light in the room. The way it moved through you as though a blanket of warm, safe energy reaching to hold you. My early days of practice...
Weekly Letter: Seeking Authenticity
In reflection after a weekend away with my husband, we were talking about what we love to do when we travel or go places and I surmised that we go for an authentic experience. I struggle with places that are too stark and crave places that have color or character. As...