A great, relatable question came in over email recently and I thought you might like to hear the response! Dear Emily, I recently received professional photos from a happy family event that took place a few weeks ago. The photos are beautiful but I have to admit that I was very unhappy with my own appearance in the photos. I am trying not to be that person who 'hates all photos of themselves' and I'm also trying not to be that person who says to any photographer 'you've got p

If there’s one thing you remember the next time you get on your mat to practice yoga (or lace up your running shoes or get on a machine at the gym), let it be this: If it hurts, change it. You are welcome to challenge yourself to your comfort level in class, but please don’t connect suffering through painful movement with yoga. You can find suffering in plenty of other areas of life! During our first yoga lesson together recently, a client told me, “squats always hurt my knee

I often hear from folks who want to try yoga but are convinced that they don't have the right gear or the right body or the right lifestyle for it. It's no wonder! When we think of yoga in the West, we often think of thin, bendy, white ladies wearing Lululemon, and practicing arm balances on $80 yoga mats in a yoga studio. It makes yoga seem very exclusive. There are lots of guides out there for the "essential" things you need to practice yoga, which are usually laundry li

I don't know about you, but it's 3 weeks into January and I'm still seeing ads from weight loss companies promising that their program will take me from caterpillar to butterfly in the new year. Those before and after photos, meal replacement bars, and celebrity-sponsored "lifestyle change" programs try to lure us in with the promise that if you buy what they're selling you'll get the VIP pass to loving your body and living a fantasy life. Of course, while they're selli

Something I hear a lot is "I know _____ (exercise, taking my medication, eating breakfast, going to bed on time, etc.) is such a small and easy thing. Everyone else is able to do it, but for some reason I just can't get my act together." I just wanted to send you a reminder today that 1) sometimes the "easy" stuff is actually really hard and takes a lot of energy and 2) you aren't alone if you feel that way. We don't like to look at the shadow side of the self care movement a

It’s ok to waver in your self care. Even if you know what a difference it makes and you're struggling without it. Even if you’ve learned your lesson about going to bed on time many times over and you’ve slipped back into old patterns of putting it off. Even if you’ve worked to have a friendlier relationship with your body and today you’re really vulnerable and only feel negative thoughts. Even if you spent months getting into the habit of getting yourself to a wee

I teach a pose in my yoga classes that I've been calling the “funky flamingo.” Obviously the funky flamingo isn’t a sacred, ancient yoga pose! It’s just a fun shape with a silly name that can become part of your yoga practice when you bring your attention, breath, and compassion to it. If you’re curious, here’s a version of it: There's a lot going on! Chair pose, a heel squeezing up to challenge the hamstrings, a twist, plus balance. If you're having a tough balance day

A lot of my coaching clients come to our first session with a long list of abandoned self care goals and an inner critic who is pretty revved up about it. Many of these strong, wise, highly-motivated people used a popular strategy for changing habits: setting highly specific, measurable goals. Super detailed goals can be helpful for some behaviors for some people. Many times, though, rigid goals set us up to fail. In the real world, people have a hard time meeting

There was a time when I thought the number one most important thing that anyone needed to know about self care was how to get a good night's sleep. Later, I thought it might be exercise or stress management or deep breathing. I still think those things are important, but they are just things that you do to take care of yourself. Compassion is the actual foundation of self care. Once you can be compassionate with yourself through the full spectrum of your emotions, action

Don't forget to save your spot at the Self Care Day Retreat on May 7! Ever since I was little, my gap-free thighs have built friction when I walk that could set a fire. That friction has destroyed many beloved pairs of jeans. Today, I said goodbye to two trusty pairs of pants that have worn threadbare in the inner thighs: black exercise pants and a pair of skinny jeans. In the past, this would have sent me on a shame spiral that, yet again, my thighs betrayed me. My leg