Authentic. Showing Up. Living Life. Striving.

I got reminded of an important mantra/saying this morning. And it's related to fear.  For the past year of so, I had decided to "embrace my fear" and "do it with fear!" and have certainly been preaching it to many others.  However, I realized today that I wasn't always embracing my fear at every opportunity that I could.  Today I was reminded that I still play it safe with my yoga practice.... I totally admit it, I'm very easily intimated by other teachers and taking their classes, especially if they are more "advanced" in their practice than I am.  Today, I was fortunate enough to be able to take a yoga class after the class I taught this morning, and it's one that has been deemed a challenging one {at least in my mind anyways}.   So today in class, the amazing Jackie at Roswell Yoga Life   encouraged us to "flip our dogs" aka " wild thing " while in downward facing dog.   I froze. This transition/asana has ...

Fat shaming. Skinny shaming. We all say it's what on the inside that counts, but as I look on social media and sit with females daily who all have different body types, skin colors and ages, I see that we are NOT practicing what we "preach."  I did a little unofficial Facebook experiment the other day... Over the course of a couple days, I posted two articles on body shaming that actually promote body acceptance and a couple personal posts about an experience at the gym and signing up for a 10k. Guess which posts got more "likes?" Yep, the fitness and exercise posts. Did I get that attention because I'm being active?  As a society, we talk about how we should all love our bodies but we don't make actions that align with that belief. We falsely believe that if we eat "clean," have a thigh gap, and a bikini bridge, that that somehow makes us immune to struggles and that we are somehow worth more.  PLEASE NOTE- I am NOT advocating that we sit on o...

Funny how certain themes tend to weave their ways into various settings. I'll have the majority of my clients talk about the same theme during a week. Sometimes, it stirs up something in me too...that gives me additional insight into one of my own struggles. This particular theme has been one I myself have personally struggled with during different seasons of my life (just manifesting itself differently now) and one of my clients has continued to struggle with at various times in her life.  Things clicked tonight in our session... At least for me... Think she's still processing it. ☺️ One of my favorite sites is a site called "Elephant Journal," filled with various stories and blogs. Yesterday I came across this one.... http://www.elephantjournal.com/2015/10/i-am-not-who-i-once-was-who-we-become-after-trauma/  (sorry I'm not tech savvy enough to do a hyperlink on my phone! 😬). If you don't feel like reading the entire post, it's basically about how someon...

I have always said "life is short." Lately, I've been doing things with fear, taking risks, going on adventures and trying to be more authentic and genuine. I definitely know that many of us take things for granted (myself included) and have also lived by the motto "life is short." Until I heard something the other day that made me really stop and think. I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, "Anna Farris is Unqualified." Total guilty pleasure and she's hilarious. I want to be friends with her... I digress.  Anyways, on her podcast, she has fellow celebrities on and they talk and then they call listeners and give them their "unqualified" advice. Chris Evans (Captain America 🇺🇸) was on last week and they somehow stumbled onto a discussion regarding how "short" life is.  I was surprised when he said he didn't think life was short. His thoughts behind this was that we spend soooo much of our time regretting and think...

Something really hit me today. I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I stopped... Sleep away camp for adults??? Not going to lie... My first thought was "sign me up!" How fun does this sound?! And it does sound fun... Everything we did at summer camps when we were kids, plus some added things since its for adults only!  But after a few moments, I really started thinking about this. I laugh all the time and "jokingly" tell my friends that I "can't adult today." I chuckle inside sometimes when my teenage clients talk about how desperate they are to be adults! Oh if only they really knew, is what I want to say!  Think about it though on a bigger level. What is going on with our society and culture where adults don't want to be adults anymore. Where we feel there are too many expectations and too much pressure to be a typical, functioning adult.  Yes, coloring has the same effects on our brain as meditation does, but people are much more likely...

Ego. There's a word that has been ruminating in my head recently and frequently brought up in yoga classes and in therapy sessions! Recently, the word "ego" coincides with thoughts of inflated self-esteem, such as referring to a person's ego. "She has such a big ego!" When used in that context, I certainly would not want to be accused of having a "big ego!!!"  Some history for you. As I'm a genuine and authentic person, I'll be honest. I googled the definition of ego  as it related to Freud (the father of psychoanalysis) as I was too lazy to dig out my old textbooks. I'm the first to admit that many of Freud's theories are "a little out there now," but his definition of the ego is interesting.  Here's how Wikipedia defined it...." Originally, Freud used the word ego to mean a sense of self, but later revised it to mean a set of psychic functions such as judgment, tolerance, reality testing, control, planning, defe...

"Move on" or "I need to move on from this." Or even worse...the dreaded "you should just move on!" Phrases we commonly hear these days when we've encountered something difficult or traumatic in our lives.  But how do we do this? A few months ago, I decided I was quite annoyed by this phrase. I don't like the idea of "moving on" as it feels as if I'm leaving something (or someone behind). I also don't believe in regrets. Every choice I've made, every difficult situation I've encountered has been a part of who I am today and what has helped me to be where I am today.  With loss, there's the notion that we are expected to "move on." How can we do that when the loss is so significant that we can't possibly imagine how to do that! To me, it seems and feels, that I'm leaving the person behind, that I'm also somehow betraying that person and their memory. (More on that topic later though) So the way I se...