Darkness and Light-Solstice Rituals
Darkness and light are very much on my mind this week. I long for the light and count the days towards the winter solstice two weeks from today with a sense of hope trusting the light will return. I love the symbolism of moving toward and into the light. Of actively welcoming the light. And we need more light right now. Oh God how we need it, need to create more of it, need to embody and share it in as many ways as we are able. The world has been so very dark. I wanted a ritual for the next 14 days to conjure and celebrate light. I created a small altar to the light for this. It’s a bunch of votives and candles with some…
A favorite practice for challenging times (and holidays)
A Favorite Practice for Challenging Times I have a new favorite game, a spiritual challenge that calls to me to be mastered. If I were to name it I would say it’s called “Falling in love with what is”. This game challenges me in so many ways, and yet there is an insistence that I play and learn to play well. I’m at a strange juncture where ‘new beginnings’ (also known as endings) mix and mingle with the season of rest, of pulling in, of stillness and quiet, and sometimes aloneness. I know that softening and soothing expectations is an essential part of finding any kind of serenity. To have compassion for the longings while allowing what is here now. Being in present-…
If you dare~3 powerful resolutions
I both love and hate New Year’s resolutions. Love making resolutions because they are about hope and taking action and having a vision of creating more goodness in our lives. I hate them because they’ve become trite and mostly about broken promises. Who actually sticks to what they so passionately declare come January 1st? Not many people I’ve met. *Read all the way to the bottom, I have something for you. xo But what if you did things a bit differently- got to nurture the flame of inspiration while taking action in ways that work? And what if you set very different goals, instead of the overwhelming, vague sort that we typically toss after a week or two. The same ones year in and …
Introducing Beauty School-Online Membership
~Introducing Beauty School For beauty that goes deeper. A gorgeous membership community to clear and purify what no longer serves you, while refilling every area of your life with…beauty…of course! See details on membership further down. Annual memberships begin April 1~ beautiful advantages and pricing to match. …And 9 Ways That Beauty Becomes You Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself- Coco Chanel Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting – Ralph Waldo Emerson We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting – Kahlil Gibran When you saturate yourself in beauty lots of things shift. Some are subtle, some not at all. For the record, this is not therapy. …
Fierce Beauty+Beauty School
This was going to be a very different article. But to be honest, something happened this morning and I felt like I had been energetically assaulted. It was a psychic hit.. and I felt it. In those moments, If you’re lucky a moment of clarity emerges.You remember who you are, without the fears and without the patterns you’ve been dragging around. And something fierce grabs hold and calls up the most powerful and pure part of you. And you choose. Fierceness insists you remember truth. It’s the feeling that simply doesn’t allow you to stay in the unworthiness or fear or uncertainty. It’s spiritual adrenaline that says “Thou shall not enter” (I think that’s from Lord of the Rings, …
Don’t abandon your self
I am writing in the moment, and that’s not always a good idea, and yet I find the only writing that interests me in both the writing and the reading has some immediacy to it. So…here you go…may it serve. In this moment I am very aware of my body. The slight ache in my solar plexus, the tender buzz in my heart, the barely perceptible but slightly sick feeling around the chest area. You just can’t fool the body…the body knows. One of my best friends was here visiting. A beloved friend. The kind you trust, that you’re grateful to with your whole heart for their loving presence. The kind that brings your favorite kind of Prosecco. And real candy. …
Death and Resurrection for mortals
It’s Easter and I’m sitting at my desk after a pretty intense writing purge. Spring has always gifted me with new birth. I was born in the spring (april 25th) and the 3 major love relationships in my life all began at the end of March or early April. New projects regularly come in on a whoosh of inspiration in spring. Like all of nature that’s been dormant, I start to green up again too. Easter was not my holiday growing up…there were a few Easter eggs here and there…but not in any religious sense. But today the word “resurrection” has been in my mouth as I’ve processed some of the more intense aspects of the past year. Cycles of death …
What and who do you carry in your womb?
As women, we carry SO so much in our wombs. And this isn’t typically something we think about, nor something we typically devote healing attention or practices to. I’m hoping that this speaks to you and allows you to begin to consider the ways that our wombs carry our many experiences and choices This is the first time I’ve written specifically about healing our wombs, second chakras, our feminine “bowl” where our female organs live. Over the 30 years I’ve been in practice, I’ve had many women clients who were challenged with fertility issues, or who feared they might never bring a baby to term because of past traumas, physical or otherwise. I’ve also been honored to walk along the paths …
For me, creating beauty is personal
Why creating beauty is so very personal for me. I realized after my last email to you about resurrection, that an important cycle was coming to a close for me, something painful and personal. My husband and I decided to separate and essentially end our marriage last April. And I allowed myself a full year to grieve this ending, to pause and do the deep work of releasing and feeling it all, to clean out the wound. Although Andy and I see each other regularly and are dear friends and family, it still really really hurt to end this marriage. More than I will say. And I realized today as I stood by the ocean releasing the actual ashes of the writing I’d burned as part …
The myth about overeating that hurts you
The Myth About Overeating That Hurts You When you’re stuck in the patterns of overeating and the emotional pain that goes with it, it may be hard to believe that there’s a solution. In my opinion, you do not have a weight problem. You don’t have an eating problem. Calling things by their wrong names means the solutions and strategies aren’t gonna help. They’re trying to fix the wrong thing. No wonder everyone is struggling and the diet industry keeps getting richer. I haven’t been writing much about eating issues or offering related programs lately. But because many of you are struggling and wanting more support, I want to help. I know just how painful the body wars are and have …