I hope you're feeling well today. I just returned from a delightful weekend in Mexico City with Nick and the kids. We had mostly beautiful weather, and we immensely enjoyed the food, the architecture, and the people we met and saw.

Not all vacations are delightful, as I'm sure you know. Beyond the things out of our control, I think a lot depends on our attitude. To each his/her own, but I like trips with lots of space for nothing. For example, we had lots of plans to see different sites and get to all the museums you're "supposed" to see there. But when Sunday morning presented us with a beautiful day where everyone took to the streets and the parks (MANY on roller blades--what a sight!), we decided to slow ourselves down a bit as well and just enjoy the city like those who live there. We watched groups rehearsing for a TikTok (we think), young couples practicing for their first dance, toddlers chasing soccer balls, and percussionists providing a background beat to the whole...

Surrender.

We talk about this a lot in transformational spaces and conversations. It’s even the third part of Yoga in Action. And until I had a great conversation with Shannon Jamail, founder and creator of the Mind & Body Complete, who literally wrote the book Surrender, I didn’t question this concept very much. I’m all for it, as I know there’s only so much I have power over in my life. But then in Jess On The Mountain Episode 28 , she lay this little gem on me:

“I don’t surrender my power…I surrender control.” 

Surrender your power.

Surrender your control.

Both sound pretty powerless at first. But when we surrender control, but not our power, it means using our power to open our clenched fist and let go. (Which, Shannon points out, is then open and able to receive.) 

Your power is yours, and it’s for you to maintain and use for good. Control, and the desire to control, often stem...

So, I did a thing. Not a thing I usually do, but I did it. I wrote a poem.

I feel like I should put quotes around the word poem because it doesn't rhyme, it doesn't have a structure, and it doesn't really have much of a rhythm. But it's not prose, and it came in creatively, so I'm calling it a poem.

It also expressed for me something that needed expressing. You see, while I was on my recent retreat to Chacala, Mexico with Dr. Deb Kern, I had a chance to focus on expelling some mental goblins. It's  the negative self-talk voice in my head. (Perhaps you're familiar?) This is the voice that can keep me on the sidelines, knock me down a peg or two, and convince me that me being fully me would have some dire consequences. Like, I won't be liked.

Womp, womp.

This voice doesn't have much to say when I'm home and with people I'm comfortable with.  But travel and strangers bring in the voice like my own personal doomsayer. So even getting to the retreat was a chance to start the...

I once heard, from someone who made a study of trees, that the Live Oak trees here in Austin don’t just drop their leaves.  The old leaves are pushed out by the new ones. 

These days when you look around our current landscape here in the capitol city you will see masses of brown leaves on the ground, on rooftops, in truck beds, and in your hammock.  It’s kind of a strange sight, considering we are busting out in springtime colors everywhere else.  It’s like a mixing of death and life, old ways and new plans, last year and this.  But it’s that pushing that has me thinking.  

When you’re in the transformation game, as we are as soon as we step on the yoga mat, these anomalies that Nature displays provide an opportunity for self-study and personal reflection.  So in case you haven’t guessed where I’m going with this, I’ll ask you a few questions as if you are an Austin oak tree:

What are...

I'm so excited to get back in the yoga studio for the first time since my brief series last summer.  I'm going to teach LIVE bodies in REAL time, IN PERSON!  And I'm super psyched it will be an opportunity for some yummy fun partner yoga. 

Here's what's great about having a teammate on the mat:

1.  CONNECTION. Yoga is usually a solitary endeavor, even if you are surrounded by people. This is an opportunity for touch that so many of us are starving for these days.  Human touch is integral to health and happiness.  I consider touch the antidote to loneliness and the avenue to joy.  And we know it works in measurable ways! "Touch strengthens your immune system, improves sleep, reduces stress, and ramps up the body’s production of its natural painkillers." -- Shape.com 

2.  RELEASE.  We carry around so much.  We have burdens on our shoulders, tension in our jaw, our...