Have you ever wondered why you hold your breath when doing something new?

We often take our breath for granted, usually breathing in and out 12-16 times every minute without being aware of it. Most of us only notice our breath when something happens to prevent us from breathing normally. Others intentionally bring their attention to the breath as part of mindfulness practice.

If you've attended my Awareness Through Movement classes, you've likely heard me say that straining and discomfort often signal not to stop what you're doing but to do it differently. Sometimes, stopping something altogether is important, especially in the short term, as it can provide an opportunity to reset.

However, signals of strain and discomfort often invite us to explore alternatives, thereby expanding what's possible in our lives. This principle also applies to food and nourishment. Instead of eliminating foods entirely, we can find different ways to prepare them, enhancing our dietary experiences and leading to a more delicious life.

Between the heartbreak and the heat, every cell in my body craved something cool, juicy, savory, sweet, and absolutely delicious. This salad hit all the marks.

The juicy watermelon perfectly complemented the peppery bite of the arugula, creating a harmony of flavors that delighted even the most broken of hearts. The crunch of the pistachios, the softness of the cheese, and the cool, crisp, sweet watermelon satisfied my tasty texture desires.

This audio is part of my 108 Conversations With Women In The Pause Years exploration. Each conversation offers new insights and expands my capacity to think about, move with, and embody what it means to live with a regenerative purpose.

I take time after each conversation to reflect and share my thoughts and discoveries. Today, I want to muse on a profound inquiry that surfaced during a conversation with one of the incredible women I speak with about the concept of the pause years and regenerative purpose. This reflection delves deep into the experience of flow within our bodies and how it guides us through life's highs and lows.

A friend recently requested a Quinoa recipe and I instantly thought of this super-duper yummy Quinoa Breakfast. In fact, this is my favorite summer breakfast meal. It is simple, and I always feel ready to take on the world after eating it. I hope that you do too!

A Few Quinoa Facts

Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) is actually a species of Chenopodium grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds. Yum! It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal as it is not a grass and its leaves are also eaten as a leaf vegetable.

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has officially declared that the year 2013 be recognized as "The International Year of the Quinoa." Yay!

You probably already know that walking is a great way to reduce pain, lose weight, and improve or maintain your overall health. But those are just a few of the many benefits that walking offers. I'm not going to go into all of the benefits here. But I'd like to encourage you to read through the two key points below and see if you can notice how the lessons and daily walks affect your personal experience.

This dreamy recipe will tantalize your tastebuds and nourish your dream-state.

Tart cherry juice is one of the powerhouse ingredients that live up to the ‘food as medicine’ hype. Research has shown that it can help to improve sleep, reduce muscle soreness & inflammation, and may even reduce belly fat. That’s a lot of goodness packed into these little antioxidant nuggets of juicy joy.

This post on my favorite neuroscience-focused TED talks is consistently one of my most popular posts. It’s an oldie but a goodie. I still love the diversity of these talks and the insights they can offer for living an embodied and well life.

This audio is part of the Conscious Movements Co-evolution private podcast within The Embodied Well membership. I'm sharing it here because I've seen too many people bypass moments that could nurture deep healing and profound growth. 

I can't speak for all Feldenkrais practitioners, but I'm not attached to someone reaching some arbitrary endpoint in a lesson. I'm far more interested in people befriending all of who they are so that they can understand the language of their bodies and expand their capacity to hold space, lead, and thrive.

Tea is often the drink associated with bedtime, adding in a bit of tart cherry juice might elevate your bedtime ritual to a whole new restful level. This delightful elixir combines one of my favorite sleepy-time teas with the tangy taste of tart cherries.

Tart cherries are high in melatonin, the hormone that controls the sleep-wake cycle, and a few small studies have shown that they have promising effects on sleep.

I created this short post as part of my Awaken Your Pelvic Floor Program and Pelvis & Sacred Sacrum Program. Although it’s a quick look at some of the anatomical relationships between the pelvic floor and foot, I encourage you to use it as inspiration to explore those connections. Remembering the anatomy isn’t essential. But sensing the relationships and expanding your capacity to embody your anatomy will change everything!

One of my favorite things is taking an early morning walk. I love the quiet stillness, and the way nature sings as the sun rises. I love how the clean, fresh morning air breathes a sense of life into my every movement. And I am inspired to play with my own movement experience.

In that falling and failing, I was reminded of some of the wonderful ways that we explore in the Feldenkrais Method.

The power in learning to fall well. To fall well means learning to fall without harming ourselves, so, developing the skills for falling well so that we no longer fear falling.

And failing. Oh, the magic in failing and making mistakes. From a biological standpoint, mistakes are golden — especially when it comes to movement.

The book, "The Elusive Obvious," was once only available in Hardback format — which brings me a special kind of sensorial gratification.

As I flip through the dense and fibrous pages, I digest each word of somatic wonder. My mind starts to bend towards a deeper realization that this work, The Feldenkrais Method®, is so much more than movement. What we discover about ourselves can change everything!

I was recently talking with a student who struggles with hip pain. Like no joke, they can't walk when the pain hits type of pain.

So we're chatting it up after an Awareness Through Movement class, and they shared their insight into how shifting their attention from their hip to their head helped them to understand their pain better.

"Do tell," I asked, "what did you discover about your hip pain?"

A healthy lifestyle can help curb chronic inflammation and be a crucial part of managing chronic pain. But I don’t want you to treat “inflammation” as a four-letter word —it exists to help us. It’s a crucial part of the body’s natural healing system. Unfortunately…

For me. taking intentional time to slow down and enjoy my meals is one of the ways that I savor my day. But sometimes, we also have to eat fast without hurrying.

Oddly enough, that is often the case on Zen retreats. I remember my first Zen retreat. I assumed that we'd be eating slow and mindfully. So I did. By the time I expanded my awareness enough to notice everyone else in the room, I was stunned (and a little embarrassed) that I was the last one done eating.

My own experience with becoming more mindful was genuinely uncomfortable. Every single thought seemed to echo in my physical being. I was amazed to discover how unconscious conditioning ruled both my perceptions and sensations. I decided very early on that working directly with my mind through mindfulness and meditation, was just as important as working with the history trapped in my physiology.

When we think about being mindful of eating until well before we are stuffed, we often think about noticing when we begin to feel full. But actually, this practice starts well before you even sit down at the dinner table.

Tuning in to your body's cues and not feeling deprived go hand-in-hand.

I love soups. In fact, every Sunday (Soup Sunday), I make soup for the week — especially during the cooler months. Having soup on hand makes for easier meal prep throughout the week. Plus, most soups freeze well. So I can stock the freezer for days when I don’t have the time or bandwidth for preparing a meal from scratch.

In my household, we have different nourishing needs. My partner often prefers more meat. I prefer more vegetarian meals. For this recipe, I cook it up until the point where the lentils are fully cooked. After that, I divide the soup before I serve. I add the kale and corn to my soup and the Polish Sausage and spinach to his.

I hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.