Starting Now | Blog

STARTING NOW

self care, self compassion, yoga, body positive, coach, wellness, health, body image, stress, self criticism

If it hurts, it's not yoga

If it hurts, it's not yoga

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

Yoga NON-essentials, part 1

Yoga NON-essentials, part 1

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

"Compassion is a verb."

"Compassion is a verb."

I've been trying to write this for days. Although I want to write about why it's ok to risk imperfection in our actions against injustice rather than doing nothing, in all honesty I've been scrutinizing every single word to the point I've considered just sending you a list of links. I've softened the language. I've made it more direct. I've scrapped everything and started from scratch, then edited again. Bear with me as I now try to walk my talk. I may still put my foot in my

Flamingos and yoga

Flamingos and yoga

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

Want some relaxing yoga homework?

Want some relaxing yoga homework?

Something I often hear from clients after private yoga lessons is, “I wish I could do this right before bed. I would sleep so well!” That’s where one of the best parts of private yoga comes in: the personalized “homework” between sessions. Yoga homework can be poses, breathing practices, meditations, and/or relaxation exercises that feel manageable for your schedule and intentional for your needs. Sometimes that’s a few poses you can do in the office or a brief meditati

How to stop dreading exercise

How to stop dreading exercise

Exercise used to be my unhealthy obsession. It usually felt joyless, but I gave it hours every day. I’d jog alone at night and lift weights so aggressively that I was nearly always sore. If someone delayed my "workout" (a term I rarely use now!), I would get so anxious that I wanted to cry. My friends called me a health nut, but when I was honest with myself, I wasn’t exercising for my health. I was willingly sacrificing my safety and mental health to shrink my body into OK-n

Gentle yoga this June

Gentle yoga this June

After what feels like weeks upon weeks of rain, the sun has finally emerged here in Chapel Hill. The past few days have been beautiful, balmy, and nearly 90 degrees, and after being in a bit of a funk, the lure of light is irresistible. My yoga mat has a few bits of fresh bark ground into it from practicing on the porch, and I’ve got a funny tan on my lower legs from wearing my capris for meditation in the sun. In honor of one of my favorite outdoor yoga seasons, I’m off

It doesn't matter how your pose looks

It doesn't matter how your pose looks

I'm not too worried about how yoga poses look. I'm interested in how they feel. During a yoga class some years ago, I was practicing a warrior pose and experimenting with how different it felt to shift my weight from the inside of my foot to the outside. Suddenly I noticed the teacher by my side. She looked me up and down for a moment and then asked me to, “Suck in your stomach.” Um. Even though she couldn’t see it, my core was active. But in an attempt to be a “good” y

Are you showing up for yourself?

Are you showing up for yourself?

The first time I watched a video of myself teaching yoga, I had to take a time out. Even though I knew the lighting wasn’t quite right and I was wearing a boxy shirt that didn’t move properly and had sweat marks from the humidity and sunshine, the way I saw my body shook me. I’d taught yoga hundreds of times in this body, but I hardly recognized it on screen. After uttering a loong “oooooooof,” I excused myself from the video my friend and I were reviewing together, and sa

Second nature self care

Second nature self care

Last month I wrote about lowering your standards so self care is an invitation, not an obligation. For example, rather than resisting an hour of yoga, offer yourself one pose. If more happens after that one pose, awesome! If it doesn’t, you’ve still practiced. The purpose in lowering standards is to offer yourself an invitation to self care that’s easy to say “yes” to. The more often you accept that invitation, the sooner you’ll find yourself with a steady habit that can g

How to set an intention

How to set an intention

The summer before I started yoga teacher training, I aggravated an old running injury and found myself with continuous knee pain. Most movement and even some sitting and lying positions hurt. So nearly every evening that summer, I showed up to my yoga mat with the same intention: to be gentle. I chanted it to myself before every sun salutation, every forward bend, every hip opener, every last movement: “Be gentle.” If any hint of pain or tweaking arose, I would again finel

Taking the path of least resistance

Taking the path of least resistance

Americans are big fans of ambition and productivity. We work long hours, wear “busyness as a badge of honor,” and set New Year’s resolutions designed to take us from non-runners to marathoners in a flash. This can lead to advances in science, humanitarian contributions that help the world become a better place, and professional success. When it comes to lifestyle change, however, we can feel as though we’ve failed if we fall short of our high expectations. Here’s an

Desk yoga: chest and back stretch

Desk yoga: chest and back stretch

You don't need to toil through the work week, just hoping to make it through till it's finally time for your weekly yoga class or private yoga session. Sneak in mindful movement and deep breath anytime you can throughout the day! This cat/cow flow can be done at your desk and will help you slow down and relax, especially on a stressful day. Give yourself at least 5 full breaths in and out and be sure to notice what happens. Check in with both the obvious and more subtle chang

The one pose I give all my yoga clients

The one pose I give all my yoga clients

When I work with private yoga clients, we co-create homework assignments. These may include poses, breath work, and meditation. But there’s one pose that I recommend to everyone, since it always fits into at least one of the purposes that brought us to work together. This pose is one I often teach in group classes, especially during the fall and winter months, when I know more people are experiencing seasonal affective disorder and missing the light. It’s also one that

How a retreat saved me from complete exhaustion

How a retreat saved me from complete exhaustion

Last February, I felt lost. There was a great deal of messiness and pain in my personal life and I wasn’t entirely sure what to do or how to cope. I felt as though, in the midst of stress and busy-ness, I was in the process of losing touch with myself. What I craved was a chance to slow down long enough to figure out what I truly needed to be grounded and purposeful again. I needed a deep breath. An interruption. Not just a few minutes of meditation or an hour of yoga here an

Before you get discouraged by impressive yoga photos

Before you get discouraged by impressive yoga photos

A yoga teacher friend and I were chatting recently about our mixed feelings about yoga on Instagram (a photo-sharing social media site/app). I'm excited about the diversity on Instagram! So many different bodies are now represented online, which is really great for expanding the view of who is practicing yoga. It's not just young, thin, white women; everyone is practicing yoga! But for as many people who are inspired by seeing photos of yoga poses, there are many who feel int

Let's practice yoga together this summer

Let's practice yoga together this summer

As much as I enjoy teaching them, I know that group yoga classes aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. Sometimes you just want to spend time on your yoga mat on your own terms, away from a crowd. For those times, here’s a beginner-friendly yoga practice you can do in your living room. All you need is a mat and either a blanket or towel. If yoga away from a studio or gym feels like loving self care, here are 3 more ways we can practice together and even get to know each other a little

It's time to move back into your body

It's time to move back into your body

During every yoga class I leave space for students to guide themselves through any movement their body is requesting, even if it doesn't resemble a familiar yoga pose. We come back to this intuitive movement several times in class, and it's the last thing we do before relaxing in savasana, corpse pose. Every once in a while, an interesting thing happens when a new student comes to my class. When offered the opportunity to explore their body's needs with total freedom, they se

What to do when you don't have energy for self care

What to do when you don't have energy for self care

When you’re sick, overwhelmed, sleep deprived, or depressed, self care can feel really hard. When I’m feeling low, the draw to hole up in my house and watch a marathon of Parks and Recreation in the fetal position can feel all consuming. That can be helpful for a short-term escape from reality, but I know well that long stretches of TV and solitude aren’t restorative for me. In low energy times, activities that normally feel nourishing, like going for a long walk or getting t

When I stopped making yoga a workout, I made peace with my body

When I stopped making yoga a workout, I made peace with my body

Last month I shared with MindBodyGreen the story of how practicing hatha yoga in the comfort of my own home helped me learn to treat my body with kindness. But it didn't happen over night, not by a long shot. My first group yoga class as a student was a bit of a disfunctional mess and it took quite some time to undo that first impression! To be clear, the purpose of Yoga is not to heal our bodies or even our relationships with our bodies. But they sure are powerful side effec

1

2 3 4

Free Guide

self care, wellness coach, yoga, busy

Say Hello

Featured

Search By Tags

No tags yet.