Oh, sweet friend, I wish I could grant you a life without grief. A life where the pain never steals your breath and threatens to take you down forever. I wish I could give you that, but also I am glad I can’t. Grief is sanctifying. It opens your eyes and your heart and your soul up to the temporary nature of this life, of joy, of creation. Grief helps you to be present if you let it.

Anxiety attacks can be terrifying, shallow breath and sweat with a fast heartbeat and highjacked nervous system. Anxiety and panic attacks can affect anyone at any time, so if you find that you are experiencing anxiety try these 3 ways to reset your nervous system.

One in four women will experience an abortion before they are 45 years old. That includes women in your church, women picking up their kids in carpool with you, women at the gym, women that you work with, of all the women you encounter, 1 out of every 4.

There are lots of people who are LOUD about their feelings on the legality of abortion, people who are LOUD about stopping abortion or supporting it. Lots of people are quiet about helping the women (and men) on the other side of abortion. After the decision has been made, after it happened, now what?

Secondary Trauma, also known as secondary traumatic stress, is “the emotional duress that results when an individual hears about the firsthand trauma experiences of another. Its symptoms mimic those of post-traumatic stress disorder.” So if you are a social worker, counselor, therapist, police officer, foster parent, adoptive parent, nurse, doctor, EMT, etc… chances are you have experienced some secondary trauma.

Interoception is the sense of understanding and feeling what is going on inside of your body, it refers collectively to the processing of internal bodily stimuli by the nervous system. Your sense of interoception is what lets you feel if you are hungry or thirsty, hot or cold. It is also what allows you to have a sense of self, of knowing who you are. According to the article “Interoception and Mental Health: A Roadmap” on sciencedirect.com.

“Interoceptive signaling has been considered a component process of reflexes, urges, feelings, drives, adaptive responses, and cognitive and emotional experiences, highlighting its contributions to the maintenance of homeostatic functioning, body regulation, and survival. Dysfunction of interoception is increasingly recognized as an important component of different mental health conditions, including anxiety disorders, mood disorders, eating disorders, addictive disorders, and somatic symptom disorders.”

Anne Lamott has an amazing Ted Talk sharing little bits of wisdom from her life, but one of my favorite things she says is…

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”

There you have it. We all need to unplug, if you are wondering if that includes you here are a few little yes/no questions to ask yourself…

Anger can be a tricky emotion. We have been told over and over in society that feeling angry is wrong, so for most of us we try to shove our feelings of anger down hoping that they will just go away. Turns out that emotions buried don’t go away, they just fester and end up coming out sideways. If you struggle with exploding on your kids or partner you know what I mean, if you have ever been exceptionally rude to someone in public you know as well.

I am a trauma informed Holy Yoga Therapist, which means that I use yoga to help people release trauma from their bodies. Trauma is any event that causes you to have overwhelming emotions that you are unable to process, when that happens your body stores the unprocessed emotions as a kind of warning system incase a similar experience happens again. Unfortunately this means that your body can become “on alert” never really relaxing and triggered into trauma mode when even a simple scent is similar to your traumatic experience.

The labyrinth is a spiritual tool meant to awaken us to the deep rhythm that unites us to ourselves and to the Light that calls from within. In surrendering to the winding path, the soul finds healing and wholeness.”

Have you heard of Cacao?? Cacao originates from Central and South America, it has been used for centuries in sacred ceremonies of ancient peoples, and now many people are now beginning to tap into the powerful properties of a drink that allows one to release negative energy and connect to their pure heart energy.

This detox yoga flow is perfect spring cleaning for your body

Do you ever feel wildly out of control? Anxious or depressed, just out of sorts and disconnected? I definitely do! Living a modern life full of busy, hardly getting outside, feeling the need to be constantly productive, sitting at desks and in cars for most of the day can be so hard on our bodies. We were made to be outside, to get our hands dirty in the land, to be with animals and in community, so when we are outside of that our hearts and bodies can get all turned around.

Healing from trauma is a long beautiful and hard journey, but as you go through your healing you are doing so much more, you are actually building up your resilience to trauma. You are learning to sit in your emotions and not be triggered by them, you are becoming familiar with and safe in your body, and you know how to replace the lies of trauma with truth. Here are a few of the practices that getting good at will not only help you to heal from previous trauma, but also help you build resiliency to whatever life happens in the future.

There is no shame in saying, I need help. I need to take care of myself or we are ALL going down!! I also know that it is hard when there is a never ending to-do list to make taking care of yourself a priority so start small. Just pick one thing you can do for yourself everyday, attach it to something you MUST do every day {like get your kids from school or brush your teeth or feed everyone} then you will be sure to remember it and it is more likely to become a habit for you!!

Trauma is quite the buzz word these days, but what is it and what does it mean?? As a trauma informed yoga therapist I have come to recognize that there are 2 kinds of trauma… the T trauma like abuse, abandonment, loss, etc… and the t trauma which can be things like school bullying and absent parents. Both kinds of trauma can impact your body and both kinds of trauma lead to shame.

With this practice you can begin to transform not only your body but your spirit and your soul as well. As you let light and truth into the places that have been shrouded in shadow and lies you will begin to see that not only can you love your body, you will see that your body is worth loving and that changes everything. This piece of healing elevates your experience of life. You will no longer tolerate being treated as less than, your confidence will attract people to you who love you for who you are, your relationship to your creator will deepen along with your faith and the strength of your spirit.

Writing a poem to your body will transform you, and it will be beautiful.

There are many things in the world today that can take you out of connection with your body. Read on to learn what can take you from connection, what disconnection from your body feels like and 5 tips to get you back into embodiment and living a whole hearted life.