The Experience, Reimagined

Hello there!

When I last wrote to you all, I shared that I have been in a state of growth that has taken me away from writing on a regular basis.

You all know that part of the growth state has been building out a big, new practice space at our Westlake location (which will hopefully be opening in the next couple of weeks), but we have also been reimagining The Inner Bliss Experience and growing this offering in many ways that I am excited to share with you here!

The Experience will celebrate a 15 year birthday this coming February! Offering The Experience over these past 15 years almost 50 times has been a source of fuel for my soul. I believe in these 7 practices and the way they work together, with every fiber of my being. 

Over the years, the student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive! I have heard so many stories of students making life changing realizations as they engaged these 7 practices. As with most things in life, the stories are the compelling force of The Experience! When we witness others growing and changing, it inspires us to do the same. 

While I’m grateful for all of the goodness The Experience has been, I felt called to make some shifts in the spirit of The Experience. To hold onto the essence of self-inquiry, but to grow the focus of yoga and body listening alongside encouraging more flexibility and freedom with the unprocessed food practice. I felt called to move away from rules and move towards curiosity, away from restrictions and towards inquisitiveness, away from the idea of doing it all and towards the spirit of simply giving new habits a try!

I had a female student tell me once that for years, she had been drinking a couple glasses of wine each night as a way to relax. She had a feeling that the wine was causing her problems with sleep issues, depression, weight gain and sluggishness. But it wasn’t until she did The Experience and got on her mat every day for 10 days and replaced the wine with herbal tea each night, that she began to feel her body changing, literally overnight. Within 10 days, she began sleeping well, her energy was the highest it had been in a decade and she felt lighter and brighter. The framework of The Experience gave her the  direction and incentive to make a change she knew intuitively would help her feel better. The regular yoga practice helped her feel her body breathing and moving each day, feeling better and better. She told me after The Experience ended she would join us for all of them moving forward and she has joined for many of them! She is so in tune with her body and listening to it, her body has become her true north.

Other stories I have heard over the years include a student who shared with me that the practice of Giving each day gave her so much joy! She looked forward each day as she determined how she would make someone’s day with a little give:) I have also had many students share that they had no idea how good they could feel just getting on their mat daily - even if it was just for a few minutes. I have heard stories from students that once they began using mantras in their day to day life, they were seeing changes happen so effortlessly in the way they saw the world around them. 

These stories and many others, have inspired me look at what works within the 7 practices and what could work better. I have realized that for many, some of the 7 practices seem daunting and maybe even impossible - creating a roadblock to even trying it. 

We wanted to create an open invitation to simply get on your mat each day, listen to your body and try some new and fun ways to elevate your mind and spirit! Envision taking a look at the 7 practices and  determining what changes you want to make? For example, maybe you really want to see how you feel practicing yoga daily but you are not as interested in practicing mantras. Maybe you need some encouragement to drink more water or you simply want help starting a meditation practice. Whatever you are feeling called to work on, join us and go at your own pace!  

The Experience for All will still include the 7 practices offered in the spirit of investigation and fun, including: Yoga, Body Listening, Meditation, Giving, Eat, Drink, Mantra! 

Formerly, we all had the exact same goals for the 10 days. Now, you can choose your own, especially for the EAT practice. If you want to stick to unprocessed foods, you'll feel great. If that sounds too daunting, choose a more realistic goal. It's important to meet yourself where you are! 

I would love to hear your thoughts on the reimagined Experience! And I hope you can join us in January!! 

Big love,
Tammy

Growth State

Well hello there! It’s been way too long since I have written! I have missed you all! And I hope you haven’t given up on me because I will be back to writing regularly soon! 

These last 10 months I have been engaged in finding my way back to being in a growth state! After a few years of feeling like I was in a perpetual state of survival (not personally, but with IBY), that trickster of stuckness had me by the feet and while I was swinging my arms and reaching out in all directions, it felt a bit like chasing my own tail.

But I kept journalling in the dark quiet of the mornings, writing about what I wanted to see more of and how I wanted to feel and where I wanted to head.

Little by little, the flickering of the lights started to shine and I began to see may way back to creating and building - growing in new ways. When we are stuck or in a state of just getting by, we forget how rich and exceptional being in a state of growth feels. 

Research suggests that we are our happiest when we are growing. That sounds like a convenient and fairly non-confrontational adage, right? We might imagine growth in the image of a beautiful sunflower reaching towards the sun or a child learning to ride a bike or even our beloved four legged friends learning a new trick.

While those are all examples of growth, we know in our hearts that most growth doesn’t look so pretty.

It’s the late hours of the night when we are wrestling with a situation that calls on us to be softer than we usually are or stronger, more fierce than we are comfortable being.

It is the sweat running down our faces as we stick with the pose, the mile, the climb.

It is the writing of a sentence over and over and over, until it captures exactly what we are trying to say.

It is saying “no” when it would be easier to say “yes” or saying “yes” when it feels more comfortable to say “no.” The growth is reading the same sentence 10 times and until we can finally grasp the meaning of a new concept.

Growth isn’t linear and it often is far from pretty. It calls us forth from our Lazy-Boy chair mentality and provokes us to learn.

Growth stands tall, and faces us down and reminds us of what we are capable of in the most inconvenient moments. It isn’t glamorous or even appealing from certain angles.

But growth is food for our spirit and fuel for our soul. And once the sweat dries and the tears evaporate. It feels really good.

So while I have missed you all, I have been up to growing. And some of that growth you will see soon because it is the shape of a bigger practice space at our Westlake studio! 

I miss you all and hope to see you soon - in your own state of growth! On the mat, breathing and moving! 

Big love,
Tammy

Put your phone down and come to yoga

Leave your phone somewhere safe and come into the sacred space of breath and movement

Step away from your device

Make room to turn inward

Prioritize the inner landscape over the external never-ending distractions of the outside world

Come to your mat and listen to your body instead of the social media banter

Lay down on your sticky, warm rectangle of paradise and leave the other rectangle of cold, isolation elsewhere

We will hold space for you to be with yourself, held by one another

Just us spiritual beings, having a physical experience together

Breathe and move. Put down your phone and come to yoga ❤️

your spine.

Supple spine, calm mind, cloud nine!

Last week Sally and I offered an event at Gordon Green that included a fluid practice focused on the back body and moving the spine, as well as a heavenly sound bath.

The practice was inspired by my borderline obsession with the spine and all of the nerves, energy and life it holds.

I notice this time of year the bodies I observe are little more rounded in the shoulders and seemingly in a state of slight flexion (rounded forward). As the winter ends and the cold begins to recede, our spine can benefit from releasing stagnant energy that builds up from the contraction of winter - like an unfolding we see in the limbs of a tree.

We can give some extra love to our spine this time of year in preparation for Mother Nature’s great begin again that we call spring. You may already be feeling called to awaken, or a nudge to expand, a gentle urge to come forth and grow as we all begin again.

As we breathe and move we naturally give our sacred spines attention, but if we can pay just a little extra special attention to moving the spine, there is so much energy to be gained!

Congestion in the spine can lead to fatigue and low energy. Move into this new season with the intention to free stagnant energy in the spine.

It is important to acknowledge that there are energy centers living at certain points of our spines made up of bundles of nerves. Activating these energy centers can have so many positive benefits to our health and well-being.

The spine is designed to move in 6 directions, in day to day life we often only move it one direction - a slight hunch forward. And yet, movement in the spine is life-affirming - you could say, “motion is lotion” (Vernon Griffith) and we need to apply it every day.

Poses to consider as you give some love to your spine:

• Low bridge or low cobra (gentle extension)

• 3 Sun salutations

• Low lunge twist

• Thread the needle, repeat and then stay

• Wide leg forward fold with spinal rotation

• Supine twist (knees to chest and look over opposite shoulder)

• Savasana (always ❤️)

• I hope more attention to your spine leads to feeling on cloud nine!

Big love,
Tammy

Consumption.

What goes into our bodies through our mouths has a direct impact on every area of our life.

We are conscious of the ways food and drink impact what size our body is and how much it weighs.

However, we often forget that also impacted by our food and drink consumption is everything from how our belly feels to how our brain works.

We forget that our energy and even how we perceive the world around us corresponds to what we have consumed. Even the current mood we are in is directly related to what we have fed ourselves.

Also forgotten or dismissed, is how our consumption of non-food related material through our eyes and ears impacts all of the above. Yikes! I know it is a frightening consideration. Yes, the news we consume, the social media we expose ourselves to, the text messages we read, the emails we open, the videos we watch - all of this material we feed on impacts every fiber of our being.

In any given moment our phone is available, we could read a news alert that makes our heart race, we could see a social media post that makes our stomach hurt, we could review an email that immediately takes our cheerful mood to one of distress because of the message contained within it.

The other piece of this realization is that every human you interact with on a day to day basis has most likely just consumed something. They may have just read a social media post that was a gut punch or they may have just seen some news that took their breath away. And you, the human they are interacting with now in this moment, has no idea what they have just consumed.

I wrote this today to remind myself of all of the above. Let’s give effusive grace to each other and to ourselves. Remember you and I are delicate beings. You never know what someone has just read, seen, heard or taken it. Breathe deeply and have grace. We all need it.

Dear bestie.

Dear bestie,

The soft, consistent beating in my chest reminds me you are there, you are listening.

The feeling of the tender rise and fall of your ancient rhythm affirms all we have been through together. The times you didn't fail me, the finish lines we have crossed together, the deep, rhythmic breath work, the sleepless nights we have endured with one another, the twisting, the turning upside down, the contraction and extension, the miles we have run together, the moments I refused to listen to you. Yet, you never gave up on me.

The years I ignored you, and the years I believed you were the enemy. The profound hatred I have subjected you to and hurled in your direction.

I’m sorry. For the those younger years of fast food and diet pop, the binging and purging, the continuous stream of insults and injury, the never good-enough-ness, the hate, the hate, the never-ending hate. I’m sorry for all that and everything else I am not ready to write here.

But I know you are still here for me. Anyway.

The way you always heal even when I choose to ignore you is your act of love towards me. The times you try to gently warn me, get my attention, ask to be heard. The way you expand and contract when I breathe deeply tells me that no matter what, you are my most devoted friend. You are with me and for me. We are stuck together, me and you.

Your dedication to returning to wholeness over and over inspires me. Your continual commitment to “begin again” lifts me up. Literally in every moment your cells are starting over - you are like the super hero of begin again! When I see how strong you are, I am motivated to keep going. Thank you friend.

I am determined to show up for you the way you show up for me. Caring for you in the most delicate way with so much attention and grace, getting you what you need to be at your best. Listening to you with the intent to understand versus interrupting you with my complaints.

Feeding you good, nourishing food, thoughts and kindness. I am committed to helping us heal in all of the ways.

I know you love me and I love you back. Thank you body, for not giving up on me and for being my bestie 💛

curiosity + serotonin.

This post has been recycled from an older post. I added some fresh thoughts, but the ideas are valuable enough to revisit :)

Curiosity.

To me, curiosity is being open to new ideas, listening to the ideas of others, reading books, articles, blogs, having engaging conversations with people I respect and admire, and mostly doing the work of inner study.

And, remembering what I already knew, but got too busy, distracted or stuck to remember.

Not long ago, I learned something new from a good friend that is worth sharing with you: Over 90% of serotonin is produced in our gut! Whoa.

Most of you know that serotonin is the key hormone that stabilizes our mood, feelings of well-being, and happiness as well as impacting our entire being related to sleeping, digestion and overall feelings of vitality.

What you may not have known, like me, is that while there are many factors that help in serotonin production, good gut health is a big one.

We know that yoga (breathing, moving, arms over the head, elevating heart rate, bending, stretching, etc.), helps with serotonin production.

With this new information, we can be aware that what we consume (eat, drink) is an important factor in raising serotonin production by fostering better gut health. As we can guess, the best foods for our belly are whole, all-natural, unprocessed foods - specifically foods like: nuts, seeds, eggs, pineapple, salmon and turkey to list a few.

The Experience begins this coming Monday (it’s not too late to register) and is a great time to improve your gut health and increase levels of serotonin in your body - helping to elevate your state and increase your vitality!

If you are curious about the gut/serotonin relationship, here is a great article.

Maybe you are not quite ready to try The Experience but you are curious about this idea? Just try your own experiment of eating unprocessed foods for a day or 2 and notice if you feel better 😊.

Big love,
Tammy

Return to your Body.

The ending of one year and the beginning of another is an auspicious time to reflect and consider how you want to feel as the new year takes shape.

It may seem the answer is easy - “I want to feel good!”, but deepen the question and ask what feels “good” and get detailed in your response.

We can do this exercise on any given day and it is just as important, but this time of year is accompanied by the natural rhythm of the earth and well, the calendar.

Getting clear on how you want to feel in your body is an invitation to return home to the source of so much information and guidance held in your organs, tissues, tendons, muscles and bodily energy.

Often disassociated and resentful, our relationship with our bodies could at times rival a marriage of vilian and victim. The thoughts we think about our own bodies, we may not even think about our worst enemies. Frequently, what we feed our bodies is nothing short of toxic, pointless, manufactured, fake food and drink.

A poor relationship with our bodies not only leads to overeating, low energy and agitation, but it can lead to eating disorders, obesity, addiction, illness and disease. The disconnection from our physicality is at the root of so much of our human suffering. For me, the suffering came in the form of a 15-year eating disorder with months and months and months of my life spent with my head in the toilet, caught up in the cycle of shame and self-repulsion, binging and purging, rage and restitution. It felt as if my body hated me and I hated it right back. It was ugly.

If you are struggling to overcome a less than loving and maybe even ugly relationship with food and your body, you may find (like I did), the road towards feeling better confusing. We are often offered, diets, drugs, rigid rules, and restrictions which then continue the disconnectedness and bodily dread.

The thing is, most of us were never taught to turn towards our bodies for the answers. The reconciliation with our bodily intelligence and the relationship that is possible once we begin listening to our bodies, can be life altering. Imagine feeling like your body is your true best friend, ally, and most devoted companion instead of the beast that you cannot seem to slay.

As I found a way out of my eating disorder through yoga and therapy, not only did I heal, but I forged a beautiful relationship with my body. Breathing and moving with my body on the mat, I began to trust it. Over the years I have tried to offer my insights to others to help heal and build friendships with their bodies through yoga and later, The Experience.

What I have found over these 22+ years of my yoga journey, is that so many of us do not understand it is possible to live in unity with the bodies we have been gifted. It is possible to be in a loving relationship with the body that “…gives our soul a chance to be here” (Meggan Watterson) and listen to bodily feedback as a way to find lightness, healing, and most importantly, vibrant, good health.

I believe it is possible to forge a deep friendship with this one body we get. I believe that by turning towards our bodies through yoga, unprocessed nutrition, hydrating well, taking time to go inward and listen, practicing generosity, changing the mind messages that are on repeat and investigating the remarkable intelligence of the body - transformation is possible.

As you consider how you want to feel in 2023, consider cultivating a friendship with your body or enhancing the one you already have - your body is waiting for you to love it as much as it loves you ❤️

Big love,
Tammy

The Best.

Our minds sometimes want to glorify and romanticize the past.

“Remember that time when everything was good?”

Our thoughts easily drift to a memory of everything being so great.

“Remember when it was simple?”

It’s an easy exit out of the moment. An escape route when the outside pressures mount and the inner terrain feels rocky.

“I wish I could go back…”

These are things that happen for me at least. I always convince myself that if it’s happening for me, it is probably happening for others - because I know from intuition and experience, that we are not as different on the inside as we sometimes convince ourselves.

In the loneliest moments, this is a good thing to remember.

We get to the end of the thought of the past and feel empty and sad. Faced with the current struggle, which is usually what sends us into the romanticized version of the past, we can feel paralyzed.

These are the exact moments that we need our mat, we need to breathe ourselves out of trying to go backwards.

We need to move ourselves - our muscles, our bones, our lungs, etc - out of the stuck-ness and into the expansive nature of possibility. Yoga does an endless amount of good for us, but one thing is for certain, it moves us into expansiveness. Breathing and moving provokes the tactile feeling of expansion.

In those moments of stretching past the paralyzing feeling of being stuck and into reaching into possibility, these words land in my head and heart, “the best is yet to come”.

My mind says, what if this is true? And as I take the next breath in, I embrace the feeling of it in my bones, in my belly, in my blood.

Yes, the best is yet to come. It becomes my mantra as I breathe and move.

Try it. There is some powerful energy behind those words. They have fire to them - the fire of transformation. The words, “the best is yet to come” hold the fire for change in this moment.

Let’s go light a fire and trust that the best is yet to come!

Big love,
Tammy

Feeling Thanks.

The feeling of stretching back to a downdog, sinking into a luxurious child’s pose, taking that last conscious exhale in savasana.

The feeling of the warm sun on our face, the embrace of someone we love, the smell of good food about to be shared.

The feeling of being heard, the feeling listening to someone who needs to be heard. The feeling of an unexpected compliment or honest words of encouragement.

The feeling of expansiveness that arrives as we breathe, move, perspire, contract, expand, reach, fold, twist, turn and then finally lay it all down. The feeling of floating with life.

Feel Thanksgiving in your body, heart and spirit today.

I feel gratitude in my body for all of you. It feels like a warm hug of recognition.

Thank you 💛

Happy Thanksgiving.

Big love,
Tammy

Palo Santo.

Good morning!

Tonight we are offering an immersive slow flow yoga experience with an added ritual of Palo Santo smudging.

While the evening will include a thoughtfully planned array of practices to help students move out of thinking and into feeling, the ancient & sacred ritual of smudging with Palo Santo will be something that everyone can take home and practice as a way to continue to cultivate presence, release negative energy and begin again.

Dating back to the Incan period, Palo Santo comes from the tree native to Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Peru and Venezuela, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Honduras, Ecuador and on the Galapagos islands. The sacred wood from this tree is known to cleanse, clear and release negative energy as well inspire creativity, bring a deeper connection to the divine, and help in physical healing.

Meaning "Holy Stick" in Spanish, the Palo Santo that we will use tonight has been ethically sourced and has been harvested through sustainable and ethical means. In honor of the tradition and the cultural history of Palo Santo, we engaged an IBY student from Peru who has grown up using Palo Santo to clear negative energy, soothe stress and intentionally invite in the good. She shared many stories of smudging as a way her family would move through difficult moments and clear the energy to invite the good in.

As we will practice tonight, an important feature of smudging is presence and intention. Practiced with an open heart and a willingness to be fully in the moment, smudging can move us towards an uplifted state as well as encourage a feeling of being grounded and expansive concurrently.

Smudging can be done for ourselves, another person, a space or even an object. Simply lighting the Palo Santo with intention, allowing a flame to occur and then blowing it out, a smoke remains. With the smoking stick and intuition, you can move the smoke over and around the body, a space or home or anything you wish to clear.

We hope you can join us tonight for this special experience and even if you can’t make it, consider your own research on smudging with Palo Santo as a ritual to help you gain presence and approach this upcoming season with an open heart.

We need practices that bring us back to ourselves over and over again - in all times and in all places. We always have our practice of breath and movement to help us turn inward, and smudging may be another way to return within and anchor in the moment.

Maybe I will see you tonight!

Big love, Tammy

Eating Mindfully.

Food Coma.

Those two words (food + coma) should never relate to each other or be used together.

Food that nourishes us, gives us energy and, at a basic level, life. And Coma which is defined as “a state of deep unconsciousness that lasts for a prolonged or indefinite period, caused especially by severe injury or illness.”

Yet we know that this time of year, we often start hearing those two words together to describe a state of being after a wonderful time with family and friends, celebrating and enjoying this festive time of year!

If we practice listening to our bodies now, we can avoid the dreaded “food coma” later.

If we can immerse into our bodily sensations with so much love and attention, we may never be called to eat in a way that induces the feeling of a “coma.”

If we can settle into an intimate conversation with our belly now, we can choose to fill it with goodness and stop when we are comfortably full later.

If we can practice honoring our bodies in the same way we honor a sanctuary, listening to our bodies as we would listen to a best friend telling us an honest story and trusting our bodies as our true north - how we choose to feed them, could change dramatically. And food coma would no longer be a “thing.”

Every time you get on your mat, you are cultivating and building the intimate conversation!

Every intentional breath in is an act of love moving you in a direction where “food coma” is foreign. Every downdog brings you closer to a state of energized aliveness, expansive presence and a conscious awareness of this body we get to live in!

Get to your mat, breathe and move, and avoid “food coma” as the holidays approach!

Eating mindfully is a practice you can move towards as you flow through your vinyasa practice on the mat.

Your body loves you! It does not love food coma.

Big love,

Tammy

Hello Bliss!

Good morning!

Welcome to my first entry of our new Hello Bliss blog!

After being quiet these last few months and then getting clear about beginning again, it felt like the right time to shift out of “daily bliss” and into a regular communication with you all, beginning with Hello!

With the build out of our new space in Westlake, I needed to focus all of my energy on completing that project as quickly as possible. Organization and operations are not my A-game, so those kinds of tasks take all of my energy. I needed to step away from my writing as the days were full of considerations about paint, working with contractors and building something new.

As I reflect on the project of getting 30311 Clemens open, I am full of gratitude! The owner of the building, Don Nigro, is an absolute gem of a human being! Every single person who worked on the new space was wonderful and a joy to work with! So many amazing humans stepped up and in to help us get the project completed! My husband, Marc, spent hours painting, fixing, hanging and perfecting! If you love the sound system, that was all him!

Sarah Scott, IBY teacher and space designer extraordinaire, is completely to thank for the beauty of the space! She designed every detail as we imagined a space that would be friendly, warm, intimate, cozy and inviting!

I think the space feels full of love and generosity. I enjoy being there so much, I am often in the lounge working and writing!

Thank you for being patient with me! I am really looking forward to getting back to my regular writing and sharing with you all, our new Hello Bliss blog!

I hope to see you on the mat soon! If you haven’t visited our new space in Westlake yet, please come by for a class! I think you will love it!

Big love,
Tammy

the exhale.

Feet on the ground

Head up, heart open

Inhale, my arms rise

Exhale my body folds forward and down

My heads hangs easy

I’m still to feel

In a moment everything heavy falls away

It looks like a physical action

The folding forward, the bow

But inside, it is more

Words collapse

As the exhale ends, there is the silence

In the quiet before the next inhale comes

The divine language with no vowels

The verbs that cannot be conjugated

The eternal syntax of the heart

The bottom of the exhale

Come along with me, press your breath all the way out

In preparation for the rise of the next, new inhale

Find your breath today 💛

inside job.

Good morning friends!

I have missed you! These last few months I have been quiet. I try to honor those calls from within to guide me in my day to day rhythms and responsibilities. Sometimes the work is to share with the world and sometimes the work is an inside job.

One thing I love about the practice of yoga is that we can attend to the inside job and yet be surrounded by others. We can get on our mats and listen within and yet feel held by those around us who’s names we may not even know. We can feel held within the sacred nature of the practice shared, held by the human beings surrounding us and held in the unnameable love that organically arises when we breathe and move together.

So while my written words have been quiet, I have felt held by you all and our shared belief in the practice of breath and movement - at the studio, at home, in our bodies. Together. Working on our inside jobs side by side.

Biggest love,
Tammy

retreat inward.

Good morning!

Today is a great day to allow your yoga practice feel like a vacation!

When you climb onto your sticky mat, imagine you are stepping into a retreat for your whole being. As you close your eyes and turn inward, allow yourself to unwind and let go.

One hour of conscious breath and movement can feel like an expansive get away.

We cannot wait to see you on the mat!

Warmly,
Tammy

healing potential.

Good morning!

I was reviewing my notes from last weekend at Inner Bliss with guest teacher, Max Strom and wanted to share this powerful thought.

So much of our discontent or even sadness, may come from not feeling seen and heard. It is helpful to remember every now and then that we are human beings and research suggests that once our basic needs of food, water and shelter are met, our next greatest need is to be seen and heard.

One way to invite this experience into your life is to practice being a good listener. To be the one who sees and hears. And, we can begin practicing being the listener and the witness to our own inner needs, on the mat through breath and movement.

As we listen to our own inner voice, we grow our capacity to feel into the moment with presence and listen as the compassionate witness. And in doing so, can be that for those in our lives we love so much.

You never know the impact you can have on a life just by showing up present and listening well.

Big love,
Tammy

the benefits.

Studying yoga over these last 2 decades, I often feel that the benefits of yoga are seemingly endless. It is as if I never stop discovering the ways that our practice of breath and movement enhances our lives. It is one thing that motivates me on the difficult days of being a business owner, to keep going. If the benefits keep showing up, so can I!

If today, you need a reason to get to your mat, here a few to remember:

Yoga moves us into the present moment

Yoga relaxes our nervous system

Yoga releases tight muscles and massages connective tissue

Yoga builds strength in our musculature

Yoga creates suppleness

Yoga can help our digestive system

Yoga brings us together

And the list goes on…

Sometimes it is fun to remember, what specific benefits does yoga bring about for you?

Hope to see you on the mat!

Warmly,
Tammy

the flair.

Good morning 💛

As many of you know I have a committed practice of “morning pages” or writing each morning. It is my ritual. It is my way of processing, preparing and centering for the day ahead. It is not glamorous or organized. I just sit down and open my journal and write.

If you were to read my pages (hopefully no one ever will lol) some days I sound bananas, some days organized, some days sad and some days elated. Some days I have incredible ideas and beautiful words flow from my purple Flair pen. Some days my words are clunky and plain and say nothing other than what is written on my heart in that moment.

A daily writing practice is like most rituals, therapeutic in an unexpected way - the words provide a doorway into the inner landscape and the sentences illuminate the caverns of your own being.

I encourage you to consider your own writing practice. That encouragement comes from the same place that when you find a restaurant you love or a book that lights you up, you want to share it.

Sit down with a (Flair) pen and one of those journals you have received as a gift, open the page and simply put the pen to paper and see what happens. You can even draw pictures. Here are some prompts to get you started:

How do you want to feel today?

If you could imagine your greatest day, what would it look like and feel like?

List 25 things you are grateful for! Big or small!

Have fun writing!

Big love,
Tammy

cheering you.

“If you have people cheering you on, holding you accountable and walking the walk with you, you are much more likely to make positive changes.” Dr. Mark Hyman

Good morning! I love this quote because it is another way to think about the importance of surrounding yourself with those who lift you up, cheer you on and urge you towards your best self.

While you may not always know everyone in your yoga class at any given moment, we come together with the intention to hold space for one another to heal our hearts and grow in strength and suppleness. The spirit of our community encourages us all to walk the walk together and cheer each other on in unison as we all do the inner work to be our self selves.

Your IBY community loves you ❤️

Big love, Tammy