Greetings, Reader! Over the past two weeks, we've explored how the flight response keeps us running on the treadmill of chronic hustle, and how an internalized fight response fuels self-criticism, perfectionism, and control. Today, I want to talk about the 3rd 'F' word: Freeze. You know what freeze feels like if you've ever: Sat down to work and then found yourself staring at your screen or scrolling on your phone for hours without getting anything done; Been in a stressful situation and been...
14 days ago • 6 min read
Greetings, Reader! Last week we explored how the flight response keeps us running from ourselves, overworking and overproducing to outrun our internal discomfort. Today, let's talk about what happens when our instinctual survival response isn't to run, but to fight. Anger gets a bad wrap in our society, especially for women, and especially for women of color. We are taught to tame it, stuff it down, and smile through it. [Have you seen this montage of women who were interviewed by the...
21 days ago • 5 min read
Greetings, Reader! What if your relentless hustle isn't actually a personality trait, but a survival mechanism? When we are in danger, we only have a few options: We can fight for our lives, run like hell, or hide. When you think of the flight response, what image comes to your mind? I always think of it as running from something big and scary, like a lion, tiger, or bear, but in modern life, we're more likely to be running from ourselves. When the anxiety starts to rise, the pain flares, or...
28 days ago • 3 min read
Greetings, Reader! Have you ever tried to make a change in your life or business, only to find yourself sucked right back into your old patterns? Maybe you committed to a new boundary, swore you'd stop checking emails after 7 pm, or went all in on a new self-care routine, but within a week or two, the old habits crept back in, and you found yourself overextending, over-functioning, or self-sabotaging all over again. Why does this happen? Sure, part of it could be inertia, lack of motivation,...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Greetings, Reader! In Traditional Chinese Medicine, every organ houses a unique aspect of consciousness. The Shen is the spirit of the heart, and it represents your guiding truth, innate intelligence, and authenticity. The Shen is the spark of divine consciousness within you. It is your soul's purpose, and your reason for being here on this planet. The Shen is often visualized as a red bird nesting in the sanctuary of your heart. As a bird, the Shen can easily scatter and fly away when you...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Greetings, Reader! Last week I was a Connection Host at the VT Womenpreneur's Summit, and I got to lead conversations with groups of women about the seasons of business. One of the main themes was burnout, and one of the brilliant women in one of my circles said, "Burnout happens when we become the fuel." Every woman in that conversation knew exactly what she meant. Most of the people I know who started their own businesses set out with the intention of having better work-life balance. The...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Greetings, Reader! Last week, during the first satsang of my Summer Qigong Series, we did a partner practice with a simple, yet unexpectedly heavy prompt: "What brings you great joy." For some of the members, joy was easy to access, but for many of us, this question revealed just how elusive joy can be. Moving through the embodied practice, I realized that for me, great joy is anything that opens me to presence and flow. It is a sensory, whole-being experience of being fully alive and...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Greetings, Reader! Almost every day in my clinic, I hear some variation of this phrase: "I have to hold it all together." It's whispered during CranioSacral sessions when the grief that has been held back for so long starts to express itself. It's the unspoken backdrop for the person who takes care of everyone else at the expense of themself. And, it's the subtext in the exhausting thought spirals of the person who chronically overthinks everything to avoid feeling what they have to feel. In...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Greetings, Reader! Since the CranioSacral training I took a few weeks ago, the universe keeps sending me the same message over and over again: Nothing can be changed until it can be faced. Right now, I'm guiding someone who we'll call Sarah through a 90-Day Nervous System Reset. This week, she had a massive breakthrough around a pattern so many of my clients carry: chronic people-pleasing. Sarah has always operated with a deep fear of making other people angry. Her entire nervous system...
2 months ago • 3 min read