Permission to enjoy Nutella (and other indulgences)
This week, a friend and I were talking about several new activities keeping her busy this year. While all of the new developments are incredibly positive — a new kickboxing hobby, more time with friends, a meditation course she’s hosting — she’s overwhelmed with managing her time. She started recounting her typical schedule and after…
A not-so-scary approach to writing your memoir
A friend recently gifted me a copy of Laura Tremaine’s Share Your Stuff. I’ll Go First.: 10 Questions to Take Your Friendships to the Next Level. Each chapter of the book begins with an essay about Laura’s life through the lens of a particular theme: pivotal decisions, belonging, magical moments, breaking points, etc. The close…
Discovering divine love…in the bathroom
Something profoundly changed within me last night. My husband usually gets our oldest daughter, Aurelia, bathed and to sleep while I make dinner. Last night, he was working, so I did more of the bedtime routine and shared such sweet, tender moments with both babies. One of my favorite things to do is draw one…
Remembering your future and other wisdom from Dr. Joe Dispenza
I’ve been in a bit of a spiritual slump lately and decided to read Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza for inspiration. I first heard about the book during an interview with the author on The goop Podcast, which I’m ashamed to say was several years ago. I found an old list of books to…
What’s the origin of your fear?
Yesterday, I had my 15-week prenatal appointment with my midwife. During every appointment, she goes through a checklist of questions related to my physical and emotional wellbeing. This time, when she asked about how I’m doing emotionally, I paused. I told her about the anxiety I’ve felt related to violence in our area, particularly gun…
Parenting as a catalyst for personal growth
Topics related to personal growth and parenting have been on my mind a lot lately: how we’re raised as people pleasers, how to recognize childhood trauma and ways that postpartum healing is as emotional as it is physical. Digging deep to explore your psyche, separate your true self from learned behaviors and heal old wounds…
30-day writing challenge: manifesting your goals
Several years ago, I was in a job that made me very unhappy, and the message I kept getting from the Universe was “have faith and quit.” I knew that was the right approach, but I was stuck on the question of what I would do with my time once I quit. I wanted to…
Celebrating your whole self
Imagine this scenario: a 10-year old girl has curly hair that she loves. She’s the only person in her class with curly hair. It’s the one way she feels unique and special. It’s a major part of her identity. It’s the one thing about herself she wouldn’t change. Then one day, her grandmother comes to…
How we’re raised as people pleasers
I’ve written before that I’m a fan of Gretchen Rubin and her podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin. You might know her from her book The Happiness Project, which is one of those classics that I revisit periodically. Several years ago, Gretchen wrote another book, The Four Tendencies, that examines what motivates people. She outlines four…
Nudges from angel numbers
When I began my spiritual journey, I awakened to the fact that there is a majestic fabric of wisdom and love connecting all of us with one another and with nature. I opened myself up to receiving information from my surroundings and got so much more present in my daily life. One of the most…
5 methods for manifesting positive change in your life
Manifesting is the act of bringing something into your life simply by focusing on it. It’s also referred to as the law of attraction; you attract into your life what you think about and believe to be true. Anyone can do it. In fact, we’re all manifesting our life into reality all the time, whether…
Validating your trauma
The term “trauma” gets thrown around a lot in the context of personal growth. When I first started on my journey, I believed that trauma resulted from a catastrophic event or unhealthy environment…that it was reserved for victims of extreme suffering brought on by poverty, physical abuse or being raised by a parent battling addiction.…
Patterns in relationships & breaking free from “your type”
I spent 15 years dating men that were “my type” with the hope of discovering my soulmate. But I uncovered my childhood trauma instead. Throughout my 20s and early 30s, I shared with my girlfriends how downright uncanny it was that so many of the guys I dated were basically carbon copies of each other.…
A healing visualization: expand your heart & reduce anxiety
In January, a six-month old baby was shot and killed by stray bullets at 3 p.m. on a Monday in Atlanta, about 30 minutes from where we live. Gunfire erupted when two adults got into an altercation outside of a grocery store. The baby was riding in the car with his mom, and their car…
How to get out of your head and into your body
For the most part, we live in a society that rewards thinking, logic and analysis…living exclusively in our heads. The upside is productivity and progress, but at the risk of over analysis, anxiety, burnout, exhaustion, and worst of all, living a life full of things we were “supposed” to do, but that leaves us entirely…
Reinventing my rituals
I read an interesting article recently on the impact of COVID-19 on our rituals, from weddings and birthdays to coffee breaks with co-workers and morning commutes. Humans and societies thrive on rituals to mark the passage of time and celebrate milestones. In losing that aspect of our lives, we’re missing out on monumental occasions but…
Mantras in unlikely places
One of my favorite podcasts over the years has been Happier with Gretchen Rubin. You might know Gretchen from her book The Happiness Project, which is one of those classics that I revisit from time to time. It’s the kind of book that you vow to read every year but never do. Luckily for me,…
The act of releasing: Letting go of the pelvic floor
The pelvic floor is having a moment. People are talking about it more openly and it’s being addressed in fitness magazines, in yoga classes and maybe even prenatal workshops if you’re lucky. But truly, it deserves so much more attention. I feel so strongly about this topic because: I’ve struggled to find useful information. There…
Color Magic for everyday life
Almost a decade ago while I was living in Carmel, Calif., I took knitting lessons from a lovely Welsh lady named Dawn. During one of our many therapy sessions lessons, she told me that she’d noticed a pattern among people coming into her shop. She said that nine times out of 10, the color yarn…
Want better sleep? Try these 6 lux nighttime rituals
It’s my firm belief that a nighttime routine should be indulgent, nurturing, relaxing and easy to maintain. Your routine should feel like a beautiful splurge at the end of your day, but also manageable to stick to… not just another item on your to do list. For people who struggle to fall asleep, a nighttime…