Hello dear community, I hope to find you hanging in, staying safe and doing as well as possible during these wild and crazy times…
Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and it’s clear that now more than ever our sweet home is begging for our attention and love, and respect.
In honor of the day, I want to offer a few anxiety-reducing, earth-based practices that I shared in my most recent virtual course – Get Your Calm On.
Below those practices, you’ll find some of my favorite Environmental Non-Profits to consider donating to if it’s within your means, and below that is a little info on an upcoming virtual Self-Care Retreat I’m leading this coming Sat – the Replenish Retreat. Soooo excited for this well-deserved day of body and soul nourishment, and so hope you can join me!
Also, I’m stoked to share that I’ll be offering a donation based virtual happy hour version of the Strong Body Love Movement Experience (fusion of gentle yoga, free-dance, meditation and breathwork) starting next Tuesday. Classes will be ongoing, Tu/Th at 5pm on Zoom. Be on the lookout for more info and mark your calendar if you’d like to join.
Enjoy these resources, take good care and sending SO much love your way. <3
My Top 3 Anxiety Reducing Earth-Based Practices For You:
- Take a Super Slow Walking Meditation in Nature.
This is THE practice that’s been most helpful for me during the SIP order, and it’s been a bonus for me to do when wearing little Quintin close to my chest during his afternoon nap. :)
How to practice: Find somewhere outdoors (or even indoors facing a window). Take 10 to 20 slow mindful paces forward, then find stillness. Take in all the beauty of the natural environment…breathe, pause, notice your surroundings for a few moments. When you’re ready, turn to face a different direction and repeat. Practice anywhere from 5-90 minutes or so.
Quintin and I recently got lost in time in the woods on our property doing this practice – nearly 2 hours had gone by! When I went to the woods I felt super anxious, and when I completed the practice, I felt like a completely new person – calm, rooted, grounded and centered.
- Earthing or Grounding. This is an easy go-to practice for me during the warmer months, and does a body and nervous system some serious good.
How to practice: Super simple…take off your shoes, go outside, plant your feet directly on the Earth and breathe deep. You can pair this practice with your nature-based walking meditation for an added calm-enhancing bonus.
Earthing boosts immune function, reduces inflammation, normalizes cortisol levels (the stress hormone), and calms our nervous system. So good!
- Self Massage with Herbal Infused Oils. This is one of my favorites to do right after getting out of a nourishing salt bath.
How to practice: Lay out a towel, strip down to your skivvies, and gently massage your skin with oil, with long, firm, slow strokes. Bonus if you can use oils that have been infused with healing herbs from Mama Earth herself, and as you massage yourself, send yourself and the Earth words and prayers of gratitude. I’ll be going into depth on this practice during the upcoming Replenish Retreat.
6 Environmentally Focused Nonprofits to consider Donating to on Earth Day (or any day for that matter!):
- 350.org
- Conservation International
- National Audubon Society
- Oceana
- Sierra Club
- The Wilderness Society
Lastly, I invite you to join me this Sat. 4/25 for the virtual Replenish Retreat. Who else NEEDS a serious break right now? I know I do! For 4 luxurious hours, we’ll retreat from our families, our businesses, our work and ALL the things, to come back to our centers. To shower ourselves with some serious self-love and to recalibrate our sweet souls.
For the first half of the day, as a strong sisterhood, we’ll drop into a guided meditation, followed by nourishing slow flow yoga practice, dance jam and sound healing bath. We’ll break for a silent meditation lunch, and wrap the day with an experiential self-care workshop and Abhyanga self-massage practice.
You’ll leave the day feeling centered, rooted, whole – like yourself again so that you can live and give bigger during these unprecedented times. I’m offering a sliding scale fee for the day and no one will be turned away for lack of funds. JOIN US HERE.
Alright dear ones, happy Earth Day to you! May you stay healthy, safe and well, and as always, sending much love,
p.s. I wanna take a moment to introduce you to my dear soul sister and past client, Pegah Kadkhodaian Radical Resilience. P and I have been on a very parallel journey with all things dance and coaching for the past 20 years. She’s a fellow Business Coach, Educator, International Speaker and just all around EPIC human. To top it all off, she just launched her very first Podcast, called Radical Resilience – and I’m stoked and honored to be one of her first speakers. We aired last week, click here to check it out: https://radical-resilience-the.captivate.fm/listen
