Find Calm Amid Chaos

Meditation is LIFE.

Cheesy I know, and I'm actually being serious despite my enjoyable meme below, so hear me out. Meditation is not a life hack or a way to optimize your mental capacity. Can it do that, sure. Is that the best way to use meditation, no. The best way to use meditation is by allowing it to bleed into your life and become a way in which you interact with the world. 

This doesn't mean you have to become a Buddhist or adopt Buddhist views about your challenges. Instead, it's about using the space in your mind, body, and soul—created through your meditation practice—to help you navigate strife and problems. The way you approach meditation is how you show up in life. This is about letting your life feel as peaceful, free, expansive, and centered as you do after practicing. That feeling isn't just possible in fleeting moments; it can become your way of life. I know because I've experienced it—and I've also lost it when anxiety, fear, and stress took over. 

Fourteen months ago, I became a new mom and couldn't imagine fitting in daily meditations, let alone a weekly breathwork practice. I kept laying down for breathwork because I knew it would help, but I felt scattered, overwhelmed by ongoing ego death, and lost in new anxieties. Each session felt like a car tune-up, but I was always running on empty, so it only sustained me for brief moments. Eventually, I carved out a solo coffee shop day for study, journaling, card pulling, and lots of meditation and deep breathing. After that day's session, I finally felt it: a truly regenerated spirit. 

I hadn’t felt that regenerated spirit in ages. It felt like a reunion with a long lost friend. Neither of us really remembered why we lost touch, and both felt like nothing bad had happened between us, but we just stopped talking somehow during life. Now that she was back in my life, suddenly I didn’t want to let her go.

Breathwork meditation is more than deep breathing. It's the foundation for making life feel easy, flowing, and full of peace and love. It gives you a break from the constant mental chatter that runs through our heads at lightening speed depleting us of our life force. It releases tensions you might not realize you are holding. When you clear the clutter, you connect more deeply with your inner wisdom, and when you connect with that inner wisdom, your spirit feels rejuvenated.

I know we’re all just human beings doing our best in the world, and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to be an enlightened being even if I knew how to become that. I do know I desire the freedom that inner peace brings my days. And if there’s anything I can do to support a continual, steady inner peace, I’m in.

We deserve lasting inner peace and no one is going to give this to us. It’s up to us to make our own peace. So today, remember you're worthy of making time for what regenerates you.

If you don't have time for a longer practice today but want some breathing support, try this simple breathing exercise:

Close your eyes and relax your shoulders.

Inhale deeply into your belly, then your chest.

Exhale slowly and fully through your mouth.

Repeat for 3 minutes, focusing only on your breath.

Notice how you feel afterward—lighter, clearer, and more peaceful.

Take a breath and reclaim your peace. You’re worthy of it.

Slow Down & Face The Shifts

Here is what I know with absolute certainty about shifts, loss, transformation and the exhaustion of it all… 

Life is a series of shifts. We are always evolving, growing, and peeling back new layers of who we are; and therefore shifting one degree or another. Sometimes, these shifts feel like gentle waves, and other times, like a storm that shakes us to our core. Through it all, we're invited to discover who we really are beneath the stories, the roles, and the expectations, beneath the shifts. Each season of life brings its own invitations. Maybe you're stepping into a new role, letting go of an old dream, or simply waking up to parts of yourself that have been waiting to be seen. These shifts can feel disorienting, but they are also sacred opportunities to return to yourself.  

In the midst of change, it's easy to rush, to try to “fix” ourselves, or to numb the discomfort. But what if, instead, we slow down time? What if we could create spaciousness to feel, to witness, and to honor every part of our journey? This is where the breath becomes our most powerful ally. 

I had a special kind of day from he** this week. The kind of day where I had to deal with frustrating and outdated systems and structures that do not work, and all while my baby was crying from waiting in offices for too long. I was walking around the parking lot of a medical facility on a fractured bone with a crying baby, while on hold with insurance to confirm coverage, on the verge of a fantastic mental breakdown when I realized I had a choice in that moment. I could let it all out, scream at the customer service rep, scare my baby in the process and fall to my knees in the dirty parking lot, or I could take a deep breath, expand into the moment, and create a safe container for myself to feel it all later. I chose the ladder thankfully and in making this choice with the deepest of breathes moving through my body I slowed down time. 

Breathwork is more than a technique—it's an invitation to come home to yourself. It's an action your body has access to in any given moment, all it takes is consciousness. With each conscious breath, you create a heightened sense of inward awareness. You open up in unexpected ways, you expand into the moment, into presence. With each breath we are calming our nervous system allowing it to feel nourished and reset.  When you breathe, you step out of the rush of daily life and into the present moment, where healing, self-compassion, PEACE, flourishes.

This practice isn't just for moments of personal chaos—it's a lifeline for every challenge life throws our way. Whether it's systemic frustrations, global uncertainty, or the quiet battles we fight within ourselves, breathwork teaches us to meet it all with presence. When we slow down and breathe, we reclaim our power to respond instead of react. We remember that even in the messiest, most disorienting moments, we have a choice: to collapse into the storm or to anchor ourselves in the calm eye of it. And what path really benefits you the most?

No matter where you are on your path—riding high or moving through a challenge—your breath is always available. It's a reminder that you are not alone, and that you have everything you need within you. As you honor your shifts and breathe through each moment, may you trust in your bodies natural ability to slow down time, and step through it all.  Every shift, every breath, and every version of ourselves, let's walk this path together.

With love and deep breaths,

xx Jenna

how to cultivate hope when hopeless

Here is one thing I have recently been digging into…

I refuse to live in a world without hope. Of course I don't have control over how anyone else experiences or doesn't experience hope, but me, myself, and I, will choose hope every time. Sometimes it's me choosing hope out of desperation, out of a desire not to fall down despair or into depression. Sometimes it's me choosing hope by clawing, and fighting my way through, but it's a hope resilience nonetheless. 

A friend told me once that she didn't believe in hope because it was pointless. She said it's actionless, there's nothing you can do with hope so holding it doesn't matter. I couldn't disagree more. Hope might be our greatest revolutionary act of all. All our action comes from hope. If you've ever had a dream, you taking action towards manifesting your dream is rooted from a place of hope, of believing. If you've ever worked for something, it's rooted in hope. If you've ever had to believe in the impossible and then experienced the impossible happening, it's rooted in hope.

No, we don't always get everything we want, and bad, terrible things happen to great people, to those we love, to ourselves. And that's often when our hope falters, when we decide hope is pointless because it hurts too bad to believe in another possibility.

But choosing to hope is action - the act of choice. It's the choice to pick yourself back up again. The choice to stand on your two feet no matter how you've been knocked down. It's the choice to move through grief, and possibly the bravest choice, the choice to feel grief when it needs to be felt. 

Hope is our greatest ally. It's where all our action stems from, from the choice to believe in something greater than ourselves. The choice to believe in something we can do about it.

A child is a symbol of real hope, of the chance to create something better for them. A sunset is a symbol of real hope, of the day you made it through, and the day that will come for you to begin again. A friendship is a symbol of real hope, of the way chosen love can hold you.

To cultivate hope when you feel hopeless is a choice. Make the choice to believe in hope and that is how you cultivate more of it. Let hope root into you and there it will grow. Cultivating hope is a practice of being with what is possible. When I need to cultivate my hope today I touch my baby boys arm, wrap him in a hug, take myself to nature. When I need to cultivate my hope I read and write poetry. I let words inspire me, hold me through my own lived experience. When I need to cultivate hope I let myself feel the despair of it, and before it sinks me under, I make the choice to get fresh air, and lean on my tools. When I need to cultivate hope I breathe in, connecting to my pain, to my wisdom and open the doors for love and hope to wash through me.

Choosing to believe in hope in the midst of fear, in the midst of great pain, of the unknown is the only way forward. 

Breathing into hope, choosing hope over and over again, that is the way I fight. 

Holding hope in the midst of fear, of the unknown is the greatest contribution to our world, to your people and to yourself.

Support during difficult times

Living in Los Angeles during these last few weeks has been the greatest test.

Spiritual teachers often talk about riding the waves of change with equanimity. It's a concept that is rooted in not trying to avoid hardship, but rather about facing all that comes your way with peace. With an ability to ride the wave no matter how uprooted or ungrounded we may feel. The saying isn't asking you to ride the wave well, it's not asking you to know how to even be in the wave. It's simply saying ride it. The hope is that we can ride it with a sense of composure, with an even temper, but if that's not possible then at the very least, be in the wave with an understanding that this wave will pass and we can find peace in that knowing.

These last few weeks living in Los Angeles have been the greatest test of this. Maybe you've felt that wherever you are too. In LA there have been many moments I have failed at riding with equanimity. Moments where I've let anxiety, fear, sadness, the collective devastation take me out. There have been moments of deep survivor's guilt for still having my home. Moments of guilt for wanting to talk about my business and exciting things I've got planned. Then I remembered each time I got sucked into one of these moments, that my only job right now is to show-up. Meet the moment. However I meet it, is perfectly imperfect. 

I'm reminded right now more than ever that spiritual practices are about having faith when things are hard. When we are not shown any reason to believe. When we have been knocked down and don't see a path forward for standing up. So here we are having faith. Believing that our city will be rebuilt. Believing that we will show-up for one another. Believing that we can create the country we want to live in.

If you're going through a hard time right now, no matter what it may be, whether it's personal, or you're triggered by what's going on in our government, dig deep and find your belief. Find that inner knowing that WE will get through this. Connect to that deep sense of self that reminds you to trust in your community, to trust in one another.

For my Los Angeles community, I grieve with you. I love with you. I stand with you. You are not alone in processing the whirlwind of emotions that these last weeks of devastation are bringing us. We will keep rebuilding together. A friend told me recently - people need you to show up right now as you are. So here I am showing up as my messy, beautifully imperfect human self. I care deeply about you.

Making Room for Joy

I cannot stop thinking of this line - “Maybe as we get older, there's less room for joy in our lives.” 

A line from Inside Out 2 the movie. I finally got to see the movie that introduced the character Anxiety to us and this line was said by Joy herself about the feelings of Anxiety. It broke my heart, and made me cry which of course means there's truth to it. Anxiety robs us of joy. Anxiety tells us there's something wrong when more often than not it's in our heads. Anxiety does everything it can to prevent disaster which by nature causes disasters that don't necessarily even exist in reality therefore stealing the joy from the experience itself. I believe that's why this line hits so hard. It's showcasing the rather complex emotions that come through us as we age, and as we learn about life's ailments and shortcomings, giving voice to how much harder it can be to access our joy. 

I had breakfast with a friend recently and she said she feels like her life lacks color. She described it as seeing a whole lot of gray and feeling like she's responsible for bringing the color into her family's life. Such a heavy burden to put on herself and yet I know this is the responsibility so many feel.  

I definitely relate to feeling like there's an ebb and flow of joy in many ways. As we age and take on more responsibilities in life, there's fewer moments to ourselves. Less opportunity to practice self-care, to do the things we love. More stress to pay the bills. More overwhelm about state of the world and ongoing unprecedented times.  Personally as a new mama, there's definitely more anxiety than I've experienced in the last decade just by being an alive being on this planet. On the other hand there is so much more joy in life too. My joy looks different than I've ever known it to be, but there's joy in the micro-moments of life. In a way there's less joy and equal amounts more joy in new ways in everyday life.

The responsibility doesn't lie on us to make sure others experience joy, though it is our responsibility to make room for the joy in our own lives. Then as it goes with all healing work, when we feel the joy within ourselves, it often ripples out from us onto those around us. If it's feeling like there's less room for joy, it's each of our responsibility to take joy by the hands and create space for it back in our lives.  It's up to you to make the space for joy. Life is so full of difficult responsibilities. Hard truths. Painful moments. Stressful conversations and confrontations. Hurt people hurting people. All of which are going to steal your joy away. But if you're constantly making room for joy, you will experience it amongst the hardship. 

Maybe it is true that as we get older, joy feels harder to access consistently. But I don't think it's true that there's less room for joy. It doesn't have to be true that there is less room for it. It's just a question of what emotion are you allowing room for? Is there more anxiety than joy? Are you making room for more sadness, anger, embarrassment than joy? And if so, what do you need in order to create space for Joy to take the wheel sometimes?

Our joy is ours to create. This doesn't mean we deny the other emotions that need space to be felt. Allow your emotions to move through you and when you're ready, you access claim to your joy. When you're in doubt if there's room for joy, you make space for it. When you're in doubt if it's possible for joy to exist again, you prioritize it. Befriend joy as you would any other side to yourself. There's always room for more joy and happiness. You don't have to experience less of it as you get older, we only must learn how to make room for joy.

What is breathwork & why is it important?

Breathwork meditation has become quite popular in the Western world. Known for it’s transformative results mirroring what some would call a psychedelic experience, Breathwork has become a fast healing hack tool that many now lean on. And rightly so. It’s profound, it’s immediate, and it’s exceptionally powerful for those who want to experience the benefits of traditional meditation, but find themselves stuck in their mind a lot. What is important to know about Breathwork Meditation however, is that it’s not just a healing hack. It’s a deeply transcendent, oftentimes emotionally moving, full body transformative practice that harnesses the power of conscious breathing to improve mental, emotional, and physical health. Unlike traditional meditation, breathwork involves intentionally changing your breathing patterns to directly influence your body's inner workings and promote overall well-being.

What is Breathwork Meditation?

At its core, breathwork meditation is about mindfully controlling your breath to create positive changes in your body and mind. It's a holistic approach that has roots in ancient practices like yoga, with some techniques dating back over 2,000 years. The fundamental premise is simple yet profound: by consciously shifting your breathing, you can reset your nervous system, emotionally release trauma and experiences your body has been holding onto, and reduce stress.

When you're stressed, your breathing becomes shallow and rapid, triggering a stress response. Breathwork reverses this cycle by increasing oxygen flow to the body, activating the parasympathetic nervous system and creating a sense of calmness and relaxation for your whole body. 

Beyond mental health, breathwork offers remarkable physical benefits like improved sleep quality, strong respiratory function, and balanced blood pressure to name a few.

From a spiritual standpoint, Breathwork connects you to the frequency and vibration of your highest self. The you that feels your best, that knows what’s best for you. The you that has no ego, has no attachment to what needs to get done, to accomplishments. Breathwork helps connect you to higher forms of thinking, feeling by placing you on the same energetic frequency that vibrates through the world as love. It’s wildly open-hearted, and in a world full of thinkers, this practice has helped people overcome wild behavioral patterns by tapping into the highest form of energy.

Breathwork offers an impressive array of mental health benefits:

• Stress Reduction: Slowing and deepening your breath signals to your brain that you're safe, deactivating the fight-or-flight response.

• Anxiety Management: Regular practice can significantly decrease symptoms of anxiety and depression, even though those who are anxious coming into Breathwork often report having a love hate relationship with the practice to start.

• Emotional Healing: Helps process trauma, grief, and emotional pain.

• Improved Focus: Enhances mental clarity, concentration, and neuroplasticity.

Getting Started

The beauty of breathwork* is its accessibility. You can practice it anywhere, anytime, with no special equipment required. Start with simple techniques, and consider guided sessions or apps to help you learn.Breathwork meditation isn't just a trend—it's a powerful, scientifically-backed approach to holistic well-being. By dedicating just a few minutes daily to conscious breathing, you can transform your entire life.

Here are a number of different tools I’ve created with the style of Breathwork I teach to help you dive in and transform you life:

30 Day Breathwork Journey

10 minute Breathwork for Compassion

Breathwork for all that you are

Creating Abundance Breathwork Healing Kit

& always, free resources can be found here

*Breathwork is generally safe, though it's always recommended to consult with a healthcare professional, especially if you have pre-existing health conditions.

Yoga and Breathwork Meditation

Before :: “Oh yes, I know all about Breathwork, I’ve done it many many times.” - a student before coming to my Breathwork workshops.

After :: “what just happened!? I’ve never done anything like that before in my life” - the same student after coming to my Breathwork Workshops.

This isn’t me patting myself on the back for having fabulous workshops, (though of course I am biased and do believe they are fabulous), no this is simply a common perspective.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “yes, I do breathwork in my yoga class.” Or “that’s what my yoga teacher teaches us, breathwork while doing the poses”. Though I of course have no idea what it is your yoga teacher teaches, I can say, the lineage of Breathwork I teach is not the same type of breath that is taught while in your yoga class.

It’s confusing, I know, all the different types of Breathwork classes that exist, and I certainly don’t expect anyone except an expert in the field to really know the difference. I do find it humorous however how often we lump breathwork and meditation in with the category of yoga. It’s like lumping a spinning class in with soccer and saying, “yeah, I’ve done soccer before because I sweat in my spin class and that happens in soccer too.”

First and foremost, let me be very clear, I am not a yoga teacher. I cannot speak about the yoga poses, or even the history of yoga in any educated form except from the perspective of a yoga student who's been practicing yoga for the last 20 years. Yes, that means I have some experience, that means as a student I can speak to how my body practices yoga, how the yogic poses feel for me over the years, but I have not studied it. That feels like an important distinction because in today’s world of courses so easily accessible, of coaches acting as therapists, of hairstylists giving Full Moon haircuts, something has been lost. The art of mastery.

Don’t get me wrong I am in no way discrediting individuals who are professionals and have the expertise to create something that will help another. I believe deeply in coaches, just as much as I do in therapists, and I believe in psychics as much as I do mindset, or mental health support. I also believe in hairstylists creating a Full Moon haircut offering as a way to help you release, shed and call in the new. (How creative is that by the way?)

We need you all. There are a lot of people in this world who need help and we could all use support. There is a lot of healing work to do, and we need all of you who are willing to be on each other's support team to become an emotionally healthier society.

Can you imagine it!? If everyone of us could have a team of people on your side at every turn helping you learn about nutrition, about health, about wellness. We could all use people helping us emotionally and psychologically process hardships, pains, past traumas rather than medically spending so much of our time, energy and money on the science of it all, or in solving the problem, we need to keep connecting to the root. 

What I don’t agree with is when the hairstylist who has not studied astrology, who has not practiced the work, but who has read other people’s posts about astrology, then calls themself an astrologer, or a Moon Expert. Or when a soccer player takes a spin class, and decides they’re a spin instructor. Or when a yoga teacher has not studied Breathwork decides to teach a workshop on Breathwork. Or even when a Breathwork Meditation teacher claims to be a yoga teacher.

Go out and follow your passions. Be a yoga teacher AND a breathwork teacher. Be a spin instructor AND a soccer player, but study it first. Believe you are enough as you are, with the titles you have. You are enough as a mother, a daughter, a sister, a brother, a nibling. You are enough as a yoga teacher, as a hairstylist, as a soccer player. You are enough without a single one of your accomplishments.

There is space for everyone to be a teacher in the field they want to be in, but give yourself permission to be a student before claiming to be a master.

We are all students of life, that is what makes us teachers. What separates the great teachers from the okay ones however, are the ones that are forever willing to be a student. To recognize that by being a student you become a teacher and by never putting down the will to learn, your wisdom grows. This is true mastery. This is what I miss about the meaning teachers used to hold. Mastery takes time. It takes expertise. It takes study, and it’s okay that you’re not a master. I’m not sure I’ll ever be a master in anything, but you better damn well believe I’m never going to stop trying. You want to be a master yoga teacher, go for it! Study. Teach. Practice. But most of all, LEARN. Be willing to be a student of life and I promise you, your mastery evolves as it’s meant to. When you learn to be a student of life, and you feel the wisdom of the student become your superpowers as a teacher, that my dear friends is the closest experience I’ve ever had to realizing I’m both a Master of my practice; and therefore, means I’m right back at the beginning of my journey of being a student.

What emerged when I asked myself...

What emerged when I asked myself, what new action can I partake in that brings me closer to expanding into, welcoming in, my dreams?

First what came was a brainstorming session filled with new ideas that could support me.

• Be more compassionate with myself and the slowness, take slowness back where I need it, when I need it, allowing it to become my friend

• Talk to someone about the pain my heart is holding, the difficulty, the frustration, the questions, let this person hold me the way I am craving to be held

• A week long writers retreat where I sit by myself, with good food, go on walks in nature and write, write write all day long

• Hire someone new to my team of support and help bring in a new direction into my world view, help expand my heart

Then, I found as I wrote that taking action on these ideas is not even the point of creating and answering this question. The point of creating and answering this was to soften into what it is that I’m already doing to support myself. What I’m already doing to push myself towards my dreams, and what I’m already doing is A LOT. I am already holding a lot, and I don’t need to “do” anything else in order to step closer to my dreams. I only really must lean back into trust. Trusting that it’s happening. Trusting that it can happen differently than I had believed it needed. Trusting that I am worthy of it all happening. Me and my pal trust, we take this path once more. 

Sometimes the expansion comes simply from being willing to explore a new way of doing things, a new way of being, not from the doing itself.

Now is the time...

Life is hard right now. Though of course, you already know that and you don’t need another newsletter talking about the hardness of it all. What I do find to be valuable and necessary right now is the reminder that because of this hardness, everything in life has been made a little bit harder. That includes the joys of life, the celebrations, the excitement, they too have been muted by this hardness. We have less access to joy and hope the way we used to. Sure we can create more of it. Unique forms of it. Different ways for us to call the joy, the light into or forward in our lives. Yet still, with this change comes a natural mourning that little by little, moment by moment, we are pushed to work through. I haven’t hugged my 99 year old grandmother in almost a year. I couldn’t celebrate my dear friend's engagement. I miss holding my best friends babies, a true torture for this touch love language gal. You’ve been experiencing these hard things too I know, and though each hard moment as an isolated incident might not break you, it’s the collective holding of these small → big moment to moment hard things that just might.

Now is the time to anchor yourself into your body. Connect down to your power. Your body is important and needs to be taken care of. Your mental state is important and needs to be taken care of. YOU, need to be taken care of and I wonder if you too might have forgotten that anchoring yourself into your body, your power, is exactly what holds you through each hard moment...

“Are you placing all of your energy on getting through the hard moments?
Have you forgotten to anchor yourself?
What are you doing to support yourself through the hard?
What are you doing at this time to feel calm, safe, anchored in your body?”

These might seem like small questions, though the truth is we must continue asking this of ourselves, for ourselves. Otherwise it begs for a breakdown.

A pipe in my kitchen exploded the other day spilling water all over in my 15 minutes between private clients. I stood in the puddles and cried. It wasn’t this one hard thing that broke me. It was all the little hard moments that had happened before this one. In between tears I looked at the clock and gave myself 3 minutes to release these tears before taking a breath, pulling it together emotionally, throwing towels on the water and stepping back into a client session. Five minutes into the session, I was laughing. My client was telling me a great story, I was connected to Spirit, dropped back into that Universal flow state, and I thought how funny life can be. To be crying one minute and laughing the next. I’m not so sure that crying and laughing are that different. They are simply two avenues of emoting. Different energy releases for your body.

I was able to show up for this session because of those 3 minutes I gave myself. Though if I had had more time I certainly would have taken it, 3 minutes was all it took for my body to open the valve and release the hard it was feeling. It opened me up to then release through laughter next, which in turn immediately opened space in my body to receive downloads, connect within. Moving from crying to laughing was a natural state my body followed having taken its cues from the container I’ve created for it’s emoting over the years.

When your body starts showing you signs of physical ailment, pain, tension, when your energy levels feel seemingly low, or you find yourself taking a deep breath at the end of the day, it’s your body’s way of telling you it needs a release. Have you forgotten to breathe all day long? What is your body in need of? Listen in. Nothing is wrong with you, you’re just finding your way through the hard and you dear friends, are doing a darn good job at it. Sometimes 3 minutes is all you have, and other times, 3 minutes is all you need.

Building Trust Resilience.

Healing happens in little moments.

For the last 2 years on New Years Eve I’ve chosen a word or a phrase to represent the year ahead. It would be a word that embodied what I was working on that year, and what I was desiring to break through. It would represent what I knew I was capable of and what I would lean on throughout the year for support. The last two years my word has been in the family of TRUST.

As we know, for so many people, this year has been anything but what they desired it would be. And yet for others, it’s been a lot of expansion & soul awakening moments. I’d say for me it’s been a mix of both. Nonetheless, I continuously let my word of the year guide me. TRUST.

Trusting in love and how it would show up for me, for us. Trusting in the steps I was taking towards my dreams in my personal life, and at work. Trusting in the letting go of opportunities that were no longer for me, trusting in the disappointment, in the pain, the hardship. Trusting in divine timing. When I chose this word at the end of 2018, I remember ending the year thinking, “mmm I didn’t quite finish with trust this year.” So I chose it again as we rounded the corner to 2020. And now, as I sit in the colder weather, feeling December 2020 wrap me in a cozy blanket, I feel the depth of trust I built this year. This year trust became a mantra. It became a guiding light. It became an inner knowing. Sometimes sitting in trust, believing, praying, feeling it. Sometimes taking action towards my trust. Sometimes so stuck in my head I had to remember to even  pull out my word.

Overtime, I began to feel my relationship with trust grow, and today, I can feel trust in my body in the deepest way I’ve ever known. I felt my own trust resilience flourish beyond a layer of healing I could never have described before this moment.

What I want to say about this is keep going. Keep trusting in your path. Keep playing with trust as your mantra. You can choose trust as your word of the year again for 2021. Choose whatever feels good to you.  In some ways I think I’ve had trust as my mantra for the last ½ a decade. It’s not about how long it takes our bodies to learn our lessons, it’s about how we choose to show up when we are presented with our lessons. It’s about the little moments. The moment when something happens differently than you expected. The moment you’re disappointed. The moment you’re sad, angry, heartbroken. In these moments it’s about choosing that all of your emotions are allowed to be there, and you can still choose to hold trust. Your relationship with trust will waiver. That’s okay. It’s like any other relationship, you don’t have to be absolute all the time. Building trust resilience is like building muscle. It’s like changing a habit. It doesn’t happen overnight. And this is how all of healing works. It’s something you choose to do in each little moment, and over time you begin to see you’re healing.

Keep healing beautiful friends. You’re doing it. You’re changing. You’re building your trust resilience. And I love you. 

some words on growth

The whirlwind of the energy of these last few weeks has been all consuming. 

I am feeling really proud of how I managed it, never getting fully sucked into any one emotion, simply feeling and being with them all. Though I had to work with all my might at times to hold the container for my groups, for my private clients in one hand, and for the energy I was feeling from the collective, plus my own emotions in another. It was a full time job to allow it all. So much has happened this year. We’ve been unveiled into growth. We’ve been held down by oppressors. We’ve been distraught with division. We’ve been pushed by the unknown. But you’ve gotten enough messages about what a tough year this has been. You know that. You’re living it. What I believe we could use to talk about more is stepping outside your comfort zone when it comes to managing your mental health.

Your old tricks and tools might not be working anymore. Or maybe they’re working but they’re not enough to support you right now. The patterns and habits, and maybe even the people you’ve been leaning on are in a different place than you are today. We are experiencing, and a part of massive growth. And with growth, comes the shedding of the old.

I want to tell you that it’s okay to grow.

To grow is the most natural beautiful experience we could embrace for ourselves because not only is it the only thing we know for sure in this world, that all things change and evolve, but it’s also beautiful to accept, to embrace what change has to offer you. It can be really scary to try new things. New healing modalities, new experiences, to new friends, to put yourself out there, it’s not always easy to do. And it’s okay to be afraid of it. To be afraid of being honest with yourself, afraid that being honest with others will hurt them. To be afraid of finding your voice, your truth, your path. It’s okay to be afraid of your growth.

Do it anyway.

To discover what works for you when managing your mental health, is the path to a happy life.

And I know your growth, the changes you want to make, I know it can cause some unrest with those around you. It’s hard for people to see you stepping into your power. It triggers them not only because you’re changing the name of the game, but also because there’s something inside them that’s being hit by the changes you’re making. It’s okay. Let them be triggered and make the changes you need anyway. Let them kick and scream their way through the changes, and hold steady to your heart. Taking care of your mental health means being willing to embrace change. It means being willing to embrace the new you that’s wanting to emerge. 

The message that gets me through right now...

The weather has started to get cold at night in LA,  our winds have been flowing strong and the city is on high-alert, firefighters are hard at work, tons of people are healing from the fires or still in the midst of it, and energy feels heightened all around. It felt like too much to hold the other day so I closed myself off in my office, turned all the devices on do not disturb, (my favorite iphone trick by the way) and I laid down for breathwork. 

It was all too much for me frankly. I did not know how to hold space for it all, while also trying to dive into healing work for my clients. And so I didn’t. Breathwork did not make me “feel better”, it did not heal the fires, or stop the tears from flowing, but I did receive a message during my practice. “I am light.” I heard loud and clear. Light is all around me, light is in me. And same goes for the man who lost his life the other day, he is light, he is made of light, those affected by the fires are light, they are made of light. I am light, and so are you. 

The message brought me back to the simplicity of being with what is. It reminded me that no matter what we are going through, we are united in our stories and it is through this union that we get through the weightiness of it all. It is through the owning, the complete knowing that we are all light, that we can make it through the times that feel too much to bear, or the times we feel unsafe to be who we are. This message will carry me through as I continue sending prayers, and resources to those affected by the fires, and to those going through turmoil right now.

And, if today you don’t feel like you are light, if today you don’t feel like you have space in your day to process, to deal with the emotions, the weight that grips you, okay. Be with what is. It’s okay to not feel good, it’s okay to not know. Be with what does not feel good. Be with what is challenging. Be with anger, frustration. Today just be with what is. There will come a day when you will feel yourself becoming, embodying, being light again. And there is someone out there in your community that can hold the belief that you are light, they will hold that for you until you can believe it again. We are not meant to hold all the pieces alone. We are not meant to be looking out for only our loved ones, we are meant to be holding hands, standing up in the intensity, to the intensity together. Lean on another to support you. Let them believe in your light until you can hold the  belief again for yourself. I’m sure they will need you to hold their light belief someday too. 

Stay safe out there, and may you always know, you are made of light. 

Don't let your wounds hold you back from change

Our wounds get triggered time and time again until we heal. That’s not to say that your wounds then go away, or that there is even a state of “heal-ED” to be in. (spoiler alert:: There’s not.) But the work that you do in healing allows you to time and time again, revisit the parts of yourself you have been rejecting. The parts of yourself that are screaming for your attention. The parts of yourself that have deeper healing work to go. 

I laid down for breathwork this week and screamed out all the judgements I was holding about myself. Judgements that I thought I had healed. The realization wasn’t that in fact I had not healed, or taken steps on my journey. It was quite the opposite in fact. It was that I had shed a layer of judgements, worked through them and the Universe was showing me the ones that I was ready to move through next. A disappointment I had recently experienced, an opportunity for my practice was suddenly gone and though on one hand I could truly hold the knowledge that this was meant to be. I could hold the feeling that this was the right move for both parties. The other hand held a lot of fears, a lot of judgements. This was the hand that began spiraling feelings through my body, not my mind, suggesting, questioning that the limiting beliefs I held about myself must be true. With the wounds activated in my body, the questions began: uh-oh, does this mean that you are not in fact worthy of all that you desire? Does this mean that you are not worthy, period.

Of course the answers are false. But sometimes in the moment of any big emotion or big disappointment, there’s a space where those questions might arise. 

One of the most magnificent parts of this experience for me was how in the exact moment I was holding disappointment, I was also holding deep trust in this being the right thing. Trust that this was happening for me. Trust that the Universe was helping me make space for something more. It was a surreal experience for the self I have come to know, a woman that moves through her emotions first, and lands on the side of understanding after. This time, they both felt equally true at the exact same moment. 

“Create space to feel what both hands are holding”, I heard from my inner-self.

And so I did. And less than 24 hours later, I’m okay. I’m holding myself through my wounds, loving the part of me that was afraid this was proof of her unworthiness. Pausing for reflection. Breathing into my heart. Meditating. Letting this be a deep self-love moment, not a time to jump back into life, but rather a time for my own healing. 

Healing is a reckoning with yourself. It is a life you choose time and time again. Even and especially when it gets hard. And let’s be real, without knowing your personal story of course, this whole year has been hard. There’s been a lot of good coming out of the hard already, but it’s still been hard nonetheless. Every moment can feel like a massive healing moment. Every experience an upheaval towards something we don’t yet know.

It’s okay to be tired. It’s okay to be exhausted, to be scared. It’s okay to feel hopelessness. What we don’t have time for, is for you to sit in the hopelessness for too long. We are creating the change right now. We get to be a part of creating the vision that we want our future world to see, to be like.

Let’s not let our wounds, our disappointments, our pain hold us back from this change. Let’s hold space for the deep, big feelings in one hand. Let that be the hand that holds confusion, frustration, pain, fear, the unknown. The big feelings you’ll keep moving through time and time again. And in the other hand, hold trust. Hold a true belief, a deep inner knowing that this is going to get better, we are creating the better, and you get to be a part of it. 

Please rest as you need. Please look for moments of beauty, of joy. This is a rest so you can get back up and rejoin the fight. We need you. 

You know you best.

I’ve heard a lot of conversations around this moment in time being a sacred pause. Though I certainly think the encouragement to not be productive, the reminders that this is a hard year, that more rest is needed, more breaks, and tons of space to be yourself, to do what your body, what your heart needs, I do think these messages feel incredibly important. It also feels important to recognize that we are not in a pause. Time is still ticking by. Babies are getting older. Teenagers are graduating, changing schools. Families are growing, friends are moving. Time is ticking by. What we choose to do with our time, what feels right for you and your heart so you can be a part of this moment in history and take care of yourself, those are the questions to be asking. 

But calling this moment in time a pause insinuates a checking out. We are in this pandemic, we have awakened to, or stepped up our fight for racial justice. These are very real moments that are happening before our eyes each and everyday. Whether we are choosing to participate in them or checking out, is the conversation. 

There is a difference between pausing for the sake of space. Pausing for rest. For clarity. For an opportunity to learn, unlearn, re-center. There is a difference between this, and pausing for the sake of checking out. Checking out with privilege. Checking out with hopelessness.

If you’re in need of permission from yourself to not be productive, then YES, by all means, do that. This is not about productivity, it’s about choosing with intentionality how you are spending this time. There are moments for rest. There are moments for re-centering. Moments of complete lostness. Moments of hopelessness. And sometimes these moments are long moments, maybe longer than you’d like it to be. And there are also moments when it’s time to get up and join the change. To do more. To be a part of this moment in history.

I spent a breathwork session the other day crying, sobbing without a knowing of what the tears were about. It was a collective sadness. A feeling of despair, of hopelessness, of confusion, questioning how, why, does it feel so backwards sometimes. There were not words to describe the energy my body was processing, I simply felt it. And when it was time, I opened my eyes, I came to my computer, I wrote, I processed, and I moved on with the day. Then I spent the last 3 days cleansing my body in the ocean. As I floated on top of the water, my mind wanted me to feel guilty for not being “productive”. But what if this was productive? What if this was exactly what my body needed to reset, and rejoin the year, meet my clients with clarity with spaciousness?

Only you can decide where you are at, what your body is in need of and how best to get through this year. Only you know your needs, know when you’ve gotten so lost you need help, know when you’ve taken so much action, it’s time to rest. Know when it’s time to lay all day in a collective reset, and know when it’s time to rejoin the fight. You know you best. Tap in. Ask yourself what you need and then let’s get up and be in this together.

The Value of a Thought

In meditation every thought is of equal value. 

When we sit in meditation we discover that the thoughts that pass us by are just that, they are thoughts. There is no thought to beat yourself up over, and no thought to get pulled into. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve come up with the answer to your latest problem, or you simply got distracted by something insignificant, in meditation, all thoughts are of equal value. 

What an empowering concept!? Can you imagine, if you paused for long enough in your active daily life, and witnessed every single thought that came through you, and let them each pass by as though they all held the same level of importance. I find this wildly freeing. The ability to step aside from the weight that you give to any passing thought, and choose how much importance you can give it. That is up to you. That is up to me. We do in fact have that power. That power comes from meditation. 

If everyday we allowed ourselves to take control over the thoughts that come and go by deciding how much weight or value we will give to them, it seems to me life would be wildly different. It would mean each of us taking our own innate power back within ourselves. 

To choose to analyze your thoughts, is a beautiful gift. You can pick up a thought, ask yourself if it’s really true, take a look at how you feel when you believe this thought, and then consider what your life might be like without that thought? {see Byron Katie’s The Work for more detailed breakdown of examining your thoughts in this way}

Once you’ve taken a look at the thought, the belief you’ve been giving power, then it’s decision day. Here you choose how much power you want to give this thought. When I’m working with private clients, something that often comes up is the concept of binary decisions. Our brains often make us believe that the decision is black or it’s white. But it is often, if not likely, that the decision lies in the grey. It can be hard to see that grey area on our own sometimes because our brains have categorized the decision as only being possible in one lane or another. But it’s when we look at the grey that we discover an abundance of opportunities exist there

I  have found no better way of doing this than meditation. Breathwork is amazing, you all know I love working in that space, but practicing alongside a meditation practice, I find the synchronicity between my head and heart really helps me understand what thoughts I am giving value to, and what thoughts deserve that time and attention. It’s because of meditation that I can see more of the possibility that lives in the grey. My meditation practice takes about 20 minutes in the morning. Twenty minutes is all it takes for me to have this ability to feel within my body the power I’m giving to thoughts over the course of the day. I find this incredibly empowering. 

You have the ability to choose how much weight you give to any given thought on any given day. Change your thoughts, change your life.

You can always begin again.

art by @biancacash

In meditation we’re taught that the thoughts that run through your head, are just that, they are thoughts. They come and go as quickly as time passes on a fun day, no one thought holding more or less importance than another. 

In meditation, with each and every thought you have, you identify that you have been thinking, you let the thoughts go, and you begin again by bringing your attention back to your breath.

What’s important about this is that it’s a continual process. You do this time and time again. You have another thought that pulls at you, or have become consumed by thoughts, you let go, and begin again. Another one comes in moments later, you notice, great, you’ve noticed which means you’ve woken up, and you begin again. There is no matter how many times you begin again, you just do, time and time again, you begin again. Every thought is of equal value, always ending with the same goal of letting go, and beginning again.

What if we adopted this same perspective in everyday, awake life? When the going gets tough, we begin again. When we don’t get what we want, we begin again. When we get knocked down, kicked down, we begin again. When our hearts are shattered, we begin again. Time and time again, we begin again. If that became embedded in our bones, if that became more than just a way of thinking but rather a way of living, I can’t help but wonder how much kinder, softer our world would be. I can picture all the art that would be created. The books that would be written. The dreams that would be chased, accomplished. The love that would flourish. Because the pain, the heartbreak, the let down would still be very real, and still, the body would naturally choose to just begin again. 

We let so much minutiae get in the way. Our limiting beliefs about ourselves, about the world we live in. Our circumstances too, they get in the way. The things that we cannot yet see how they would happen, what the path towards it would be, they take this back seat simply because we don’t see or understand the actual steps to getting there. And yet, if we kept going, kept trying, kept beginning again, we would have this ability to well, do anything.

What might be possible if I just begin again?

What if I allowed the thoughts to pass me by, and start again, time after time after time?

What does beginning again allow me to cultivate?

To begin again, to start over is a mentality I will be adopting for the month of August. I invite you to join me, and see what might be possible. 

The good news is, when you notice that you are not allowing space for beginning again, all you have to do is notice, maybe say, “oh, here I am again, thinking”, gently let go, and you guessed it….begin again. 

The belief that you won't be a humble person if you grow too much self-love, that is simply not true.

“Can there be a positive side to having low-self esteem?” My heart leapt out of it’s chest, what an important question my client was asking!

We live in a world that has trained us to believe we constantly need things to be fulfilled. Through marketing, media, and being sold “The American Dream” at a young age, even if you’re not American, you have likely been on a search for fulfillment at some point in your life.

If we have learned anything from 2020 so far we have learned that the systems we have in place as a society are no longer working as they are. We may not all agree on what the new solutions should be, or even know at this point, but the general consensus is that things are not working right now. This is in large part because of what we have been told to believe, what has seeped into our subconscious by nurture and nature. Whether this was taught to you by your parents, or not, there is an underlying teaching that if you grow too much self-love, you won’t be humble. If you love yourself too much, you won’t be liked. If you don’t have some self-criticism, you will be too egotistical. These are simply not true. 

First, by the simple act of asking this question, I can answer without a doubt in my mind that there is no amount of self-criticism that would be healthy for my client. I can almost as confidently say the same thing about you. Reason being is because you are here to begin with. Simply by being here I know that you have an innate desire to heal, to grow, to evolve. And it is likely that you want to feel better within yourself, and your life because you too know that you create a ripple effect in your world, and by healing yourself, you are naturally helping others heal. 

Your desire for healing, to feel better in your body, to feel more yourself, to love yourself, is not too much. 

“There’s a part of me that thinks that low-esteem and low self-worth is helpful.” Another common misconception that is also simply not true. You think that this critique of yourself is what motivates you, what keeps you in check, or you think that your will power is what stops you from eating chocolate. It’s not. It’s actually this exact thinking that is keeping you stuck. When you keep your attention on the negative things you don’t like about yourself, or on low self-worth, your mind begins searching for proof of this belief system and wont’ stop until it finds it. And what does that do? Well it only leaves you feeling worse about yourself than before. And what happens when you don’t eat the chocolate? You might feel proud for a moment, but that pride is fleeting because suddenly you will change the goal post of success in your mind without even telling yourself that you’ve changed it. And then you’re right back at feeling bad about yourself. 

Creating a new habit is not about will-power, it’s about creating new patterns in your brain. It’s about healing yourself from the old way of thinking, and creating space for you to replace it with something new. It takes time, it takes patience. It requires commitment and a willingness to change, to grow.

This is not to say that you can force loving yourself on yourself. If you don’t believe it, that won’t work, and in fact could make your self-criticism worse. “Where your awareness goes, energy flows.” This means that if your awareness is focused on self-worth, is focused on making the changes you want to make, on celebrating the small moments that you have shifted, on the things you do love about your body, the things you do love about yourself, you will begin to create flow through the energy of love. But if you’re focused on the critique, on the low self-worth, you’ll continue to perpetuate this energy. 

Having low self-worth, being critical of yourself, self-berating, are all forms of self-rejection, which is not loving yourself. It’s a system we were born into and is deeply rooted in our culture. We cannot help that. What we can help is ourselves. We can change the way we respond to the messages we are told. We can change the way we respond to the criticism in our heads. We can love ourselves, instead of rejecting, through the things we don’t love, until we grow more self-love. 

Learning to love yourself is a daily journey. 

A journey that involves deep cultivation from within yourself. A journey that is then supported through Mother Earth and strengthened by your own healing of it day in and day out. By the words you use towards yourself, but the actions you take towards yourself. And when you are overflowing with self-love, you spread that same light and love to others around you. That is why you can never have too much, because if you do become full on it, and by it I meant the true deep self-love from within, you spread it to others. 

And I can promise you, no amount of true, deeply cultivated self-love is too much. Typically, the people you think might love themselves too much, are very likely the same people that are hurting deep inside. 

Self-love is  something that you work on constantly because as soon as you learn it, as soon as you heal one aspect of self-love, you get to another lesson or learning wrapped in a different cloak.

We learn from our relationships with others

Doing healing work together opens up a unique form of healing. We cannot, do not, heal in a vacuum. We learn from our relationships with others. They hold up a mirror for you to see something you did not know you needed to see. When you feel triggered by another person, by their actions, by their words, by their presence, that is showing you a judgement you hold about yourself, something that is in need of greater awareness. It could be a blindspot you have about yourself, it could be something you know is there and is in need of healing. When you’re jealous of someone else, feel stuck in comparison mode, or irritated by the work of another, there is something inside yourself that is wanting voice, attention. And when something that excites you about another, attracts you is something that you’re being asked to cultivate within yourself. It’s something you likely want more of, or enjoy being around and therefore have within you if you were to give it some time and attention.

We hold a piece of each other's hearts in each of us. For as different as we can feel at times, and today is definitely a time that is causing divisiveness and separation, there is as much similarity amongst us as there is uniqueness. 

Where you feel heightened, or frustrated, about the state of our world, where you feel triggered about how someone else is handling COVID, where you’re feeling deeply saddened about the racial injustice that persists today, or downright pissed off, where you feel stuck in comparison mode or unmotivated, all are experiences that are giving you information on how to help heal yourself.

Let’s learn from our relationship with others. Learn by exploring our inner-workings. Learn by listening to each other. Learn by growing our minds, our hearts to what we don’t yet understand, or don’t yet know. 

Some questions I’ve been asking myself lately...

:: Can I let my triggers be my greatest teachers today?

:: Who in my life is showing up as a mirror today and what might I be able to learn from it?

:: When was the last time I felt jealous, stuck or activated, and what might that experience be asking me to pay attention to?

:: Who have I not been listening to, ignored, or had out of my mind that I could really learn from?

We are one another’s mirrors. We are one another's teachers. Here’s to the information gathering you are being asked to do today for the betterment of your own evolution and the evolution of our world.

Morgan Harper Nichols :: https://morganharpernichols.com/

changing ourselves, so we can create change in our world.

To be on a healing journey means to be willing to change. In Buddhism they talk about change being the only constant, the only thing we can truly ever depend on. Change is the only absolute.

We have all experienced adverse reactions to change. We have all experienced stepping into change kicking and screaming, stepping into change despite our will. I understand. 

I also understand what it’s like to crave change so deeply, we can almost feel desperate, paralyzed by the enormity of the desire for it.

One thing is absolutely clear from everything our world has been experiencing, we are changing. White friends: you can either be a part of the change, or let it drag you along kicking and screaming. Personally, I choose the way my teachers and teachings have taught me, a way that has never led me astray, and even amongst the enormity of emotions, and the enormity of the problems, I believe in this way :: the way of love. I choose the path of love and that today means to choose to let my own world views evolve, change, and grow as our world does. To look at where I have been the problem, and to explore where I can be more of a partner, an ally. Not where I can be part of the solution because though solutions are where we are heading, this is not about fixing anything. This is about dismantling. This is about evolution. This is about rebuilding a structure that was not working. And just like every single healing journey ::  This is about changing ourselves, so we can create change in our outer world. 

It’s okay if the way you are stepping into this evolution is not the same as the next person. It’s okay if it’s different from your partner, or your best friends, or your social circles, or your social media following. It is okay if the way you are stepping into this is your way. You are entitled to do this your way. You know you best, and may you support yourself in the way you choose. But if the way you choose is with hate, is with reluctance to change, fear of evolution, I understand. I understand though there is no longer room for those emotions to drive. Step back into love. Ask yourself what you might be afraid of, hold yourself through the evolution, and let your change, and the change of the world support in the uprising no matter what. 

Rise up together friends, for we most certainly have an opportunity to be a part of the uprising together. 

And a little note to each and everyone of you, because if you chose to be on this mailing list you have chosen to heal. You have chosen to let healing be a lifestyle, a way you evolve into all that you desire, all that you want this world to be, a way to make a difference, to make a better world, I love you, thank you, and I will continue to be here to support you in your healing, and unpacking of all things comfortable and uncomfortable. 

Radical Love FOR Justice

I had an entirely different newsletter planned, and scheduled to go out today, and then this weekend happened and suddenly everything I said was no longer the right message. So I sat down yesterday and here’s what came out….

I have always believed that love is a guiding light that will take us through the darkness. I believe this because I’ve watched it happen time and time again. I’m lucky enough to work with people, seeing upwards of 100 people a week oftentimes, watching every individual come together to better themselves, to heal, to open their hearts to more love. Day after day I watch love grow. It builds my faith in humanity, in the knowing that people are doing what they can to unravel their own pain, their traumas from the past, the hurt that they’ve caused others. Love will always win, but sometimes we have to go through an uprising to let love and justice reign.

I don’t want to get political here, though I know when we talk about race, the conversation can quickly become political. Instead I want to talk about Radical LOVE for the sake of Justice. 

A woman of color, an activist I love and whose work I follow @mspackyetti said beautifully “Not hate of people, but love for justice.” That is what we are experiencing currently, a fight for justice. Not love of justice. Love FOR justice. 

Now I KNOW because of the inherent nature of this topic that I will get unsubscribes, unfollowed, and comments back. That is a risk I must take. I cannot be silent any longer for fear of losing reach. I am in the work of love. The work of uncovering love to set yourself free. And today the work of love, the loving path requires fighting FOR.

These protests, not the riots, not the looting, not the criminal activity, not what we are seeing on the news, but the message behind the peaceful protests is the human spirit saying ENOUGH. If we want to keep the human spirit alive, we must all do our part. Black lives are instrumental to the human spirit. We don’t exist as a collective without them.

“Crying won’t save or feed a hungry child.” {Dave Matthews song lyric.} This line keeps running through my head over and over. My sadness cannot do shit to help save black lives. I need to do more. 

Listen more. 

Educate myself more. 

Have the hard conversations more. 

Speak out more. 

Unlearn more. 

Participate more. 

Love will hold us in our pain, love us in our darkest moments and show us how to walk together forward. I stand by this. Love is what brought this outcry of human emotion forward, and I know love will take us to more love. But there is no more love without justice.

If you’re feeling angry, sad, frustrated, confused, pissed off, and everything in between, I hear you. I see you. If you are not, I hear you and I see you where you are. Let us meet each other where we are, do better, and do more.

All living beings, all living things have rights. Being not racist is no longer enough. We need to fight for our brothers and sisters, a piece of our human spirit. We must fight for anti-racism so that there is possibility to live in a world of peace and love. A world where justice FOR all means something, bleeds through our beingness.

As a white woman of privilege, I don’t have answers, and it’s not my place to say either. I can only say what I have been doing for my part, which I can do more of of course, and  will be different from your part because we are all at different places in this conversation, in this fight. I will say :: consider the natural bias that you hold. The news you are consuming. The voices that trigger you. The emotions you feel. The emotions BIPOC might be feeling. Consider what you have learned. What you don’t yet know. What you might be in need of learning. Consider each other and let’s build a way forward for LOVE AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.

And if you’d like to hear from some of the prominent voices of this movement, some of the people I have been following and learning from, see below. These people and organizations have incredible resources, including language, education, causes to donate, and ways to get involved. Listen. Learn from them. & when you find yourself getting triggered, may you remember that is something in you to heal. Let love hold you in your trigger, hold you in your pain, and bring you through darkness. 

I love you all, and are here to support you however I can. May you show some love to someone you don’t know this week. 

Follow all of them for different reasons. 

@blklivesmatter

@blmlosangeles

@mspackyetti

@osopepatrisse

@laylafsaad

@wp4bl

@cleowade

@bldpwr

@nyjusticeleague