on boundaries.
Jan 10, 2025
Oh, HI. it's been a while. (again)
I realize it has been a bit, or rather I didn't realize and possibly neither did you 😂 but I felt it only right to follow the first real urge to write that I've had in at least 6 months.
There's not particular reason why, other than life and space and this new thing I'm trying out called “boundaries” - have you heard of it? Turns out they can be quite helpful, quite restorative, and much to my personal surprise: quite challenging as well.
It's been nearly 15 years in this yoga and wellness and everything space and I'm a bit embarrassed to say that the idea of protecting my own energy had honestly never occurred to me. I had signed up for a public life, a public job, a public relationship, and the loveliness of this community just comes with the agreement that I would be accessible to all, at all times.
*MOTHERHOOD, BREAKUPS, DELAYED PROCESSING OF THE CHAOS OF LIFE ENTERS THE CHAT*
until I just couldn't be anymore.
____
I have to assume that we can all feel the energy around us right now. You don't have to be on the far end of the woo-woo spectrum to bare witness to the intensity of life at the moment. Going about our days, drinking our cute little coffees (and you know how I feel about a cute coffee) all while the world quite literally burns. The LA Parks I used to walk my dog in, gone. Homes of dear friends, museums, and generational stability of families that took literal generations to build despite it all. gone in a day.
To open your social media to see a yoga post from me, and then a tiny bumbling puppy video - sandwiched between the constant footage of bombed and starved people of Gaza. Yoga, cat videos, art, war crimes, AI. rinse repeat.
It's all to much. and also, particularly as a millennial, one who as the youth on TikTok said “actually remembers 9/11" - Our whole lives have been marred with tragedy and upheaval.
When I was 20 my mom lost her house in the 2008 crash like so many others. I didn't have the tools to fully understand what was happening, what she was going through, what I was witnessing. When Covid hit, I had a 6 month old baby and by the time the lockdowns ended my whole life had imploded without even leaving the house. I still didn't have the tools or the support to fully understand what I was going through.
it's just our normal, right? it's all happening and we cannot fully grasp the magnitude of what we're a part of. All the yoga and meditation in the world still cannot whisk us away from the intensity of this life. And if it has taught me anything, (I hope it has) it's that if we are somehow able to ignore or turn a blind eye to it all? then we have veered off the path. If we let self-realization become self-obsession (as it so often does) then in fact, we're not doing the Yoga at all.
Did that feel a little dark? Yeah, I know. sorry about that. Also, how lucky are we to be able to even make the distinction. To turn it off, to go to yoga, to be here to reflect, to do our best to show up for our people and our communities. It is one of the only things that has carried me through the last few challenging unforeseen years of personal and professional life. community. showing up. offering and accepting help.
So, in this moment. this little realization of “wow, it's been a while” and honoring the impulse to check back in with you all; this very special community from across the years and continents that has carried me through, I just wanted to say thank you.
Thanks for showing up to practice with me, for listening to me ramble about joints and poses and things that feel so insignificant most days. It does not go unnoticed, especially as I embark on a new chapter of teaching in a post-Commune era.
I am going to share all the upcoming things. The online trainings and in-person events (because as much as it seems insane, a girl's still gotta work even in the midst of it all) AND I'm going to simultaneously acknowledge that if life is doing for you what it seems it is for so many of us, that there will always be more chances.
Another training, another class, another season of life. So if these ones aren't the right fit this year - I feel you and I promise we'll practice together when the time is right 😊
READY TO LEARN MORE?
Join me in Seattle, Washington August 21-24th for 4 days of practice and learning in the AYA Body Reading & Hands-on Adjustments weekend module!
