I hope your Thanksgiving was restful or exciting, whichever direction you wanted it to go. Mine was a little of both–restful with family, fun, and food, and exciting–How ‘bout those Texas Longhorns?  

Either way, I hope it was happy. I’ve been following the recent press about Oprah’s new book, “Build the Life You Want: The Art and Sciences of Getting Happier.” She co-wrote it with Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks, who teaches a class all about happiness, and has written other books on the topic as well.

Whenever I hear about a new research on happiness my ears and interest definitely perk up. After all, happiness is a basic human desire I think we all have, so the quest for it captures my attention every time. Yoga also has a long history of helping people make their lives happier through the balance and awareness of mind, body, and spirit, so it's kinda my jam.

This quest for happiness has been going on for...

Today I’m celebrating how meaningful and fun the three workshops I taught last week were, and I want you to benefit from what we experienced. So I hope to take you on a (fairly) quick exercise to get a sense of what we discovered.

If you’d rather listen than read, check out this week’s Jess on the Mountain podcast, episode 18. 

The online workshop was called Life on Purpose: Chakra Yoga for Tuning in and Finding Yours, and that’s exactly what we did! 

After checking in and learning why everyone was there, I asked this question:

When was a time in your life when things were going great? When life was clicking along, you felt balanced and connected, relationships, work, or school was on track and everything felt harmonious.

 Can you tune into that feeling? 

This little exercise shows us that the experience of balance is achievable–you’ve felt it before. This is not some outlandish ideal,...

Today I have a story to share with you about hitting the reset button in your life. 

Have you ever had this desire? To just hit a reset button when things are going sideways, or you’re feeling a bit lost or chaotic?

Recently I was doing some parallel play with a dear friend out at her lakehouse. This means we both had work to do, but we’d rather do it together in a beautiful location than apart in our own individual spaces. And there’s a reward for the hard work: floating on a raft with time to chit chat and soak in the summer sun. 

So we’re working side by side, I’m on my computer, she’s working on her reflection from a recent retreat she was on, and suddenly she announces, “I just reset my whole calendar for the next year, and I feel fantastic!”

Later, when it was time to float, I learned what had happened.  She realized that her life had become chaotic.  The boundaries to her time had...

Yes–this blog is late. I like running things like clockwork, but sometimes you gotta go off of schedule for a bit, no? We just finished up four days and nights of fun and friendship when my bestie and her three kids visited to kick off the summer together. I hope yours was what you wanted as well! 

One thing that didn’t get bumped was this week’s Jess on the Mountain podcast episode 16: How to Live On Purpose.  I really enjoyed reflecting on living on purpose, and what that looks like. I realized that, to me, it doesn’t only mean living your “life purpose,” as in that one special passionate thing for each of us.  It’s lived out in everyday moments, and the more these everyday moments are done with purpose, the more it is that no matter what you are doing with your one precious life, the more it will align with the highest good for you and for those whose lives you touch. 

I narrow this “life on...

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...