You might need to pause and let your feelings flow CW: Mention of disordered eating. If this is triggering to you, feel free to skip this essay. I feel a gnawing inside so I go to the cabinet. I find popcorn or chips and start eating, mindlessly putting my hand into the bag and shoving
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As a Type A recovering perfectionist, “rest” wasn’t always in my vocabulary. If I wasn’t moving or doing something “productive,” I was asleep. In my 20s I used to have every moment of my day scheduled and I was always on the go. I was living in New York City at the time and bought
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And not everyone is capable of seeing you for who you are Feeling seen and heard by your loved ones creates deep validation on a core level, but the vulnerability that this requires can be terrifying. I spent decades of my life feeling unseen and unheard by parents and friends, but a percentage of that
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What does it mean to meet yourself where you are? In a word: Acceptance. On the mat On the yoga mat, meeting yourself where you are means dealing with the body and mind that you have right now. Maybe you slept great, maybe you didn’t. Maybe you are over-caffeinated, maybe you are dragging. You might
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It will feel better than any diet ever did In the yoga world, many people start practicing yoga for the “yoga body” and if you are on any visually oriented social media platform, that’s a lot of what you see: young, predominantly white women who are thin, flexible, and standing on their hands or heads.
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My personal experience of grief, numbing, and letting go As I have written before (here, here, and here), I am an expert when it comes to not feeling my feelings. I have numbed with food, sex, alcohol, games on my phone, and television. During my 20s and 30s, I also numbed with “busy.” In 2017 or 2018
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The phrase “be present” is tossed around a lot these days, especially in yoga and meditation spaces, but what does it really mean? If you’re not in the present all the time, where are you? We spend many years in school when we are young learning how to think, how to analyze, and how to
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And into your life Most people in the US, including myself, start practicing yoga with poses on the mat (Asana). Downward Dog, Warrior 2, and Tree pose are some of the myriad poses that you might practice to stretch, strengthen, and work on your balance. But yoga is so much more than poses. Last spring I
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Journaling allows you to get to the bottom of things Lying to yourself starts very young. The stories you tell yourself is how you survived your childhood. These are not malicious lies, they are lies that kept you safe. Lies like: And so on. You don’t tell yourself these lies to intentionally mislead yourself, but
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Staying busy keeps you from feeling difficult emotions, but also keeps you disconnected from yourself When you think about addictive behavior, you might think about drinking, drugs, gambling, or perhaps food. Have you ever thought about “busy?” I often talk about busyness as a common way for us Type As to numb ourselves. If you
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