This month I want to do some debunking of a common myth in the wellness, exercise, and fitness world. The idea that “consistency is key” and other similar phrases you might have heard before. As usual, this idea came to me from my own personal thoughts and feelings from the past few weeks so let’s hop into storytime.

Happy first week of February my friend. This will be a bit of a different style of newsletter today. I am really excited to share with you a fun self-love activity. This idea came to me during one of the recent restorative yoga classes I was teaching. I always get my best ideas in restorative practices, it puts me in a similar headspace to having “ah ha” shower thoughts or the churn of ideas that come to you right before falling asleep. There is definitely something about setting your brain on standby and not having any distractions around that helps things flow.

The flexibility that comes from having goals centered in compassion around your needs feels so different from those that feel externally motivated by shame and judgment. If you are setting some new routines or goals for yourself I really encourage taking the time to reflect on the why’s and how’s of the goal.

Here are some questions to ask yourself 👇

What I want to talk to you about today is keeping a movement practice in your life throughout the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. This can be a time when our routines and rhythms go through a change of pace. There might be less time to go to a studio to take a class or you may be traveling a lot which can interfere with your movement practices. Here is the key point -That’s okay! There are going to be different seasons in your life where a more structured class is what you need and have the space for AND there are also going to be times where you don’t and stressing or shaming yourself about those times doesn’t really benefit anyone.

We are only a few days away from the month of October starting, meaning we are heading into the last three months of the year. If after reading that you feel panicked about how quickly time has flown, and how little time we have left in 2023, I hear ya! A Youtube creator I follow, Hannah Witton, has a great way of stepping into the final parts of the year by creating what she calls “Homestretch Goals”.

I think for me one of the more powerful parts of autumn is the call back inward. The call to move towards slowing down, taking stock, and preparing for winter. Spring and summer offer surges of energy and I appreciate when there is space to slow back down both mentally and physically. I want to talk about something that can get in the way of slowing down - the seduction of more… more… more.. Sometimes I think of this as a seductive siren of the deep where what she is really saying is “Nothing you do is ever enough. You must always be striving for more. Being content means being stagnant.” The dangers of always wanting more and pushing for more are many, including the loss of enjoyment, fulfillment, and safety, just to name a few. I know looking back on times when I have been chasing for more and more and more the finish line always moves on you. Always wanting more = never feeling enough. When I am acting from a place of not feeling enough or unworthy I am acting from shame, I am striving for others and leaving myself, my wants, and my needs behind.

A main goal for the retreat was to let go and create the change you need in your life. I found myself called to let go of similar beliefs I have been holding onto and working to unload for a very long time.. (like close to ten years now). It can be frustrating to know that the things popping up and holding you back are thoughts and emotions you have been working on releasing for what feels like forever. However, I can see how each year that goes by, each therapy session I attend, each yoga practice I embrace - things are shifting, bit by bit. I can’t control how these shifts happen and I can only trust that they will keep moving in the direction of healing.

Another Year of Yoga!

Hello!

It’s so good to be popping into your email inbox today in celebration of the 2 year anniversary of opening The Gratitude Practice.

I had the pleasure of spending some time last weekend with the Body Kind group in Idaho Falls. We had a great time smashing scales at a smash room downtown followed by a little picnic by the river. This was a wonderful experience and so fun to create some new connections with like-minded people in the community. It was powerful to take a bat to the scales and destroy them one by one while cheering each other on. Each of us wrote powerful messages on our scales before smashing them and the catharsis was real! If you have a scale taking up mental and physical space in your life, I highly recommend doing something like this. It was an empowering reminder that diet/wellness culture has no place in my life. You do not owe the world thinness. Thinness should not be the golden ticket to finally being “allowed” kindness, respect, and care.

I have been experiencing a lot of feelings, thoughts, and noticing around themes of perfection and performance. I wanted to chat about it with you as I find these things generally tend to pop up in our lives collectively. Maybe you have also been noticing the pull towards perfectionism and putting your own needs on the back burner to perform and earn your place in the world.

A little context to start. I was scrolling through Instagram back at the beginning of February and came across a post from a yoga teacher who uses her platform to give other yoga teachers guidance on how to use social media to boost their student enrollment and engagement. Her post called out “overly sensitive” teachers who think it is wrong to take photos of students while they are in savasana or final resting pose. She specifically stated, “You are running a business, and filming students is absolutely necessary for being successful”.

I recently got another email in my inbox with the subject line “How to make your yoga practice more consistent” and I know this might sound weird coming from a yoga teacher….but what would it look like to take yoga off your to-do list? 🤔

How many ways can you do Downward Dog?

Depending on where you have taken yoga classes from, who was teaching you, or your general exposure to the yoga community you might have differing thoughts and opinions on this question. There are those who feel like there is one to two “correct” ways to do Downward Dog pose and there are those like me who would argue there are as many ways to do it as there are bodies in the world :)

When I look back on my first few yoga classes and even into my first year of learning about yoga there are so many things I wish I could go back and tell myself. I remember feeling strange in my body when I started my yoga practice and a little anxious when in class. The main struggles I remember having were about my appearance and my performance….

How is 2023 treating you so far? I hope you are settling into the new year and taking time to sloooow down after the holidays. I am right there with you carving out time for myself to check in about my expectations for the upcoming year and really notice what goals and projects I am feeling called towards. I have struggled in the past to set realistic goals and rushed into a lot of new ideas and endeavors without finding clarity around the project first. This year I am hoping a slower entry and mindfulness practices around the new year will help me to stay grounded. I am playing around with the idea of having a word for 2023 to center my goals around. I haven’t ever had a word for the year and am excited to see how it changes the way I look at my resolutions. My word for 2023 is

When you rely on only a few self-care options to use when you are feeling unregulated there is a higher chance something might interfere and cut you off from these resources leaving you high and dry and seemingly out of options. This could be an injury, a change in your relationships, access to certain things like gyms, and parks, or moving away from family members or friends. Any change in our lives day to day in our energy levels or mood has the potential to ripple out and impact the resources and tools we have available to take care of ourselves so it’s good to have a wide variety of options we can access to find help.

Thanks for letting me pop into your inbox. I am always grateful to have you in community and yoga spaces. I wanted to talk to you about some new movement experiences I have dove into recently and take some time to reflect on what plans I have for the studio coming up. This past week I celebrated my 26th birthday, which was exciting. Birthdays always make me feel reflective and I am looking forward to a new year of growth and engaging with life. For me, sometimes looking forward and knowing all the years I have ahead of me can feel exhausting and daunting so, I like to take time to pause and ground myself in what is currently happening in life right now. The paradox of having past experiences with wanting to no longer engage with life because of mental illness makes each birthday a special celebration of still being here and showing up, no matter how imperfectly that might be.

What would it be like to give yourself permission to serve yourself first?

What we seek to give is what we wish and need to give ourselves.

Pssst.... Here's my secret 🤫. I started this email almost a month ago! January 29th to be exact. I found myself struggling to finish it at the time because I think I was honestly in the middle of being overwhelmed. The irony is truly everywhere as I was talking about burnout...

Now I am coming back to write, I hesitate to delete what I started because there is still value in the words below. They are useful, honest and can represent how things take time to work through and process which is what I want to talk to you about today. So feel free to take a peek at what I started and then pick back up with me to hear my current thoughts and what I have learned along the way this last month. 😊

Anyone who has had any free time or children in their home may have hear the hit song from Disney's new animated movie Encanto called "We don't talk about Bruno" (so sorry for those who now have this stuck in your head lol)

You know what else we don't talk about? Burnout, and it is as scary as the picture above. A quick google search can take you to an National Institute of Health article which sites up to 80% of people suffer from burnout at one point in time throughout their lives. This is an extremely high percentage especially when we think about how the knowledge and resources we have available to combat burnout is relatively low.