I am so excited to announce that I will be hosting a 30 day yoga challenge for One OM at a Time!  Here is the basic information about the challenge and how it will take place:

When:  Begins Jan 1, 2018 - End Jan 30th 2018

What:  A Challenge to yourself to show up on your mat every single day!  The amount of time for which you show up, the practice that you choose are all up to you!  But the challenge is always the same, unroll your mat and SHOW UP!  5 minutes or 50 minutes of YOU choosing YOU has an enormous impact on how you show up for your life.  You can take one of my Yoga classes on One OM at a Time, any other online class, a class in any local studio, or do your own self practice!  The point is not to practice in any specific way but just to practice.  Through this process you will learn to listen to and therefore know what you need each day.  Also you will have:
* A Daily post put to you by me.
* The ability to comment and mark each day that you made it onto your mat.  This is more for you than it is for me!
* Weekly live support with me!  I will host a regular office hour on Facebook LIVE where you can chat and ask questions and we can offer support to one another as we move through the day to day of this challenge. 
* Access to all One OM at a Time yoga classes and meditations.  

Why:  This is the time of year when we look to resolve and change old habits.  Most of us burn out so quickly because we dive in head first to these big, unrealistic goals.  Rather than putting the pressure on yourself to get through an entire vigorous workout every single day, lets just first practice the art of showing up.  This is how we create and instill a habit, by first showing our minds and our hearts that it matters enough to get there.  

Who: YOU and a Tribe of other beautiful human beings!!  

How:  Head over to my online classes page to sign up!  You can click subscribe and pay for the month that way, or decide to join for the entire year if you wish!

I am so excited to be doing this with you, because yes I will doing it right alongside you!  Let's begin this new year by very simple showing up and devoting some of our time and efforts to ourself first. 

And if you need any more incentive as to why you should make yoga a part of this next year, check out this awesome article by Jenn Miller: http://www.jenreviews.com/yoga/

The past few days I have been feeling a bit blue, and each morning instead of waking up happy and excited to greet the day, I've woken up tired and with a lingering feeling of sadness.  I had the realization yesterday that this is the first Christmas in three years that we haven't either been on tour or known what the upcoming year is bringing in terms of my husband's employment.  Such is the normal existence of an actor and his wife, but we have been supremely lucky that in the past few years this hasn't been the case.  

We are both working incredibly hard to build our life both together as well as in our own personal pursuits.  He is doing an amazing job at working to get the work and the right job is coming, I have total faith.  I am working daily to build my yoga, essential oils and wellness business and I am truly grateful that I have had some incredible growth in the past months.  Our life, in this particular moment, is wonderful and beautiful and we have so much to be thankful for.  And yet sometimes, no matter who we are and what it is that we do, we must experience these times of sadness and uncertainty.  

After a few days of feeling this way I decided this morning to really consciously direct my oil usage to supporting this.  This morning after waking, I grabbed my Frankincense and my Balance Blend and rubbed them both on my feet.  There is something about this combination that feels incredibly grounding and comforting.  The earthiness of the FRANK and the spruce in the BALANCE makes me feel as if my feet are growing roots and my body is steadying itself to focus and become present.  Then I added them both to the diffuser along with a few drops of Wild Orange to help uplift my mood.  I can already feel a shift and even if it takes some time for this feeing to completely move through me, and it should, I know I have the tools available to help it along.  

Scientifically these oils really do work wonders. As they pass through the olfactory nerve they trigger a chemical reaction in the part of the brain that holds memories and emotions. More and more is being researched on this every day and these little bottles of plant medicine have a powerful potency that only nature can offer.  Emotionally and spiritually they act as a way to help us put our emotions out in front of us so that we may be present with them rather than feeling the need to deny them or numb them.  This is why I believe in these oils so much and feel they are such a useful tool for all of us to have.  Our emotional health directly affects both our physical health and how we see the world.  There is a power in the ritual of selecting your oils for the specific purpose of what it is that you need and then actively pursuing it, 

I have faith that our next year will be filled with wonder and excitement and most importantly a lot of love, because that is what we are in the pursuit of.  And for now, in my  brief  moment of melancholy I acknowledge the complexity and beauty that is this human experience.  I am grateful to be able to take a deep breath, to look upon my daughter's face and to hold my husband's hand as we walk forward into what's next, whatever it may be.  

Yoga is a remembering.  Remembering who we are at our core, remembering that we are always enough even in our most challenging moments, and remembering what it is that stirs us up from the inside to create and share our most vulnerable selves with the world so that we may have an impact.  This also means that sometimes we forget.  

As a yoga teacher, I would love to say to you that I am on my yoga mat daily, I eat only the healthiest of foods and I meditate every day twice a day.  I would be lying.  The reality is that life as a yoga teacher is only one piece of my puzzle.  I am a mama, a wife, and a new business owner.  These are not excuses, these are just my reality and often it is our own reality that tends to get in our way of our yoga practice, mostly because we allow it.  In the past couple of weeks I have made a more concerted effort to not let this be the case.  My solution has been that before the sun even rises, I step onto my yoga mat.  It is hard, and often I lack the motivation.  There have been several mornings that I have not stuck with it.  Yet, the mornings that I have, what inevitably happens is that there is always that moment where I remember.  As I lie there in savasana, or sit quietly after my mediation having let go of all the titles and who I am to other people, I sit, just with myself and remember me.  

You would think that after a while it would just become easier to show up and remind myself of this.  Sometimes it does and there will be a solid streak of morning yoga sessions just me and the sun coming up.  But the funny thing about yoga and about life is that it doesn't ever actually get easier, rather it ebbs and flows.  What I realized is that those times when it isn't happening or there is a real struggle, instead of pushing and forcing my way there, its better to soften.  To maybe take less time, or be ok with less effort. Or to be ok with not doing it at all because all that means is that there will be a moment soon that I will get the chance to remember again.  

I realized a while ago that my all or nothing attitude doesn't actually serve me well.  I would throw myself into something, get really excited about it, do it for a little while and then when the excitement would fizzle so would the action itself.  Then would come the feelings of failure and doubt and guilt.  I've made the decision that I'm going to simply do away with that now.  I know how well this practice of yoga serves me and I will do my very best to be on my mat every morning.  And I will forget again, and again, and again.  But I have all the trust that I will keep finding my way back because in my deepest self, I know and I will remember.  

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