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...
8 days 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...
15 days 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...
22 days ago • 3 min read
Greetings, Reader! Lately, I’ve been hearing a recurring theme in the treatment room, and even among my circle of friends: “I feel like I’m losing my edge. I’m less patient. I used to be able to handle so much more, and I'm worried that my capacity is shrinking.” If you’ve been feeling this way, too, I want to offer you a radically different perspective. ✔️ What if you aren't losing your patience, but rather becoming less willing to tolerate things you should never have had to put up with in...
29 days ago • 3 min read
Greetings, Reader! After four intensive days talking directly to my pain, I feel more like myself than I have in a long time. I spent last weekend at an immersive SomatoEmotional Release through CranioSacral Therapy training where I was lovingly held, supported, and challenged to have direct conversations with my Pain* (*Capital P pain, for me, encompasses all forms of suffering, not just physical pain). Instead of wrestling with the pain, I got really curious about it. During one session, I...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Greetings, Reader! I'm one week into my new sleep ritual, and let me tell you, getting more sleep is pretty magical. I'm still figuring out my rhythm, but I've gone to bed between 9 and 11 pm every night this week, and I've gained a lot of insight into my obstacles and how to navigate them. I’m using a method I learned in an amazing public health course I took many years ago when I was a doctoral student that focused on behavior change. I wrote my undergraduate neuropsychology thesis on...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Greetings, Reader! How has your sleep been lately? Are you one of those people who goes to bed early every night and wakes up feeling refreshed in the morning? If so, teach me your secrets! I've never been the best sleeper. I love staying up late, and when I was younger, 10 pm - 2 am were my most productive and creative hours. I have very vivid dreams, and I've been known to sleepwalk and to act out my dreams when I'm particularly stressed out. Once, I leapt out of a tall, four poster bed in...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Greetings, Reader! Last week, I shared Jill’s story about being stuck in survival mode. Since then, so many of you have reached out saying, "That’s exactly where I am. I’m doing the work, but my body won't let go." If you feel like you’re doing all the "right" things, meditating, breathing, trying to find the magic combination of supplements, but your system is still stuck in protection mode, your nervous system might need a jumpstart. All of those things can be beneficial, but your nervous...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Greetings, Reader! I met a new client this week (who we'll call Jill) who has been living under the shadow of chronic pain and fatigue for years. She said that she feels like she is living in a permanent fog that is so dense that she feels lost in space. Jill got teary when she shared that she used to be a funny, engaging person, and now she doesn't even recognize herself. She feels like her true self has been replaced by a stranger who is too tired to engage, too overwhelmed to be present,...
2 months ago • 2 min read