This is one of my absolute favorite ways to wake up my diaphragm and get into a liberated, expansive, easeful breathing pattern. We breathe around 20,000 times each day, so we may as well maximize that automatic effort and make it as natural and full as possible, right? We get better at what we practice, and giving yourself this 5 minute reset could just work wonders for you. Too much time sitting at your desk? Driving in traffic? Emotional stress? Pregnant and baby's getting all up in your lung's business? Try the video below and practice with me! Post a comment or email me to share how it feels for you after making this part of your daily routine. You deserve it, and your lungs and posture will thank you. ;) Love, Cheri PS: My online program for pelvic health (and by now you've … [Read more...]
3D Breathing Inquiry with Self-Feedback
I shared this to my newsletter subscribers recently, and didn't want you to miss it! Take an elastic band or a yoga strap and bring it around the back of your ribs, and follow along with me to bring focus and breath movement into new parts of your torso. If you've been taught belly breathing is where it's at, you may be missing essential real estate in your lungs, diaphragm and breathing capacity. After you practice with me, make this part of your daily routine. You can even place your hands on your side or back ribs for feedback if you don't have a strap or band. I prefer the band because it's a variable resistance tool - it moves with me as I breathe - versus a yoga strap which feels more static, but can get the job done. Enjoy, and tell me what you think or how your breathing … [Read more...]
Embodiment: A Practice of Tangible Spirituality
Hey all! I just wrapped an interview with my lovely friend Jo, whom I met in Bali, for her online summit called Sharing Soulful Stories. It'll be out next month (I will gladly post links!) and I share basically my life story, so buckle up. Some of it I've never shared publicly before, and I trust the great Goddess of vulnerability will wrap me in her arms in gratitude for allowing myself to share it. Prepping for this interview had me journaling and reflecting on my early church going years, the greater mystery that unfolded after my divorce and miscarriage, and the pure magic of being present now in this life, rather than waiting for Sunday morning or a crisis or when I'm knocking on death's door. Spirituality to me means being embodied, reverent care for our own needs as a devotional … [Read more...]
Navigating the New and Different
Hello, sweet friends! I hope you're feeling grounded and getting your 2018 off to a strong, clear start. We just celebrated the New Moon, too, and I spent a few hours with a group of women, in circle, with candles around our altar as we shared what we need to shed and digest in order to move forward. It felt yummy and supportive, but also edgy as we each bravely spoke about our challenges and fears. I released (again and again a thousand times) the grief and anger I've felt through the initiation into motherhood. Hello, intensity. I shed any shame around the difficulty of the transition and early challenges in bonding with Fern. I let go of blaming my body for what didn't happen. I surrendered my expectations about control and being in command in exchange for getting … [Read more...]
EQ: The Many Faces of Fern
I've been studying her emotions as they rise and fall and shift instantaneously - doing her best to express her needs. She definitely has her own opinions already and her language is nonverbal, embodied. She's doing her best. Perhaps the emotional body is our first way of being embodied. Not yet in control of her limbs and locomoting, but fully in the present moment with her whims. Using sound, her eyes, her face. My emotional body, too, has risen to the surface through these past 2 months, and I ride the waves as they come. Sometimes gracefully, and other times being thrown overboard and pummeled into the ocean floor (metaphorically, although if you've felt that sensation of sand-in-your-everywheres and tumbling disorientation you know what I mean!) . . I keep studying myself, … [Read more...]
The Freedom Mantra
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu Written above, you see a Sanskrit mantra which means: “May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.” So, I call this one the Freedom Mantra. Happy Independence Day! And as I reflect on the role of relationships, and how they give us such opportunity and clear confirmation of our own state, our own growth, (or our own momentary, ahem, regressions and transgressions) I would like us to consider Independence Day as Interdependence Day. I won't get too political here, but let's face it. We are on this planet together, and the more we can support each other's freedoms the more we, too, can feel freedom, embodied. Feel … [Read more...]
Why We Practice: Grief, Crisis and Getting Your Ticket Back From Crazy Town
The New Year is up on us, and so many people begin the year thinking about their body. Their health. Setting fitness goals. The classic 'resolutions' to do things differently and be 'better'. In my yoga classes yesterday here in Irvine, CA I had a full house both slots - bigger classes than I've experienced in months and I spoke candidly about how I hoped I'd continue to see them all month - and al year. That these practices steep into our cells and minds over time, creating a new way of being in the world when we commit to the process and practice diligently. We all have different reasons why we start paying attention to our body and our health, and generally these are the kinds of things clients first express when I do their first session: "I want to feel better" "I know I … [Read more...]
It Ain’t All Roses: Practice Insights
It ain't all roses all the time, is it? In writing copy for my new website in the fall of 2015, I decided to share a brief glimpse of my 'dark ages'. My long term clients knew me then, some of them aware of the circumstances and others oblivious - only realizing when my name changed a year later when the divorce was final. Many of them didn't know I was pregnant, and somehow I worked through the fabulous first trimester all-day-sickness and found hope. It was a hell of a year losing a pregnancy I wanted, regretted, prayed over, learned to love again and then lost. All while separated from the relationship that made it came to be. Wanting to understand. Wanting him. Not wanting him. Hating him, and yes, forgiving him. Teaching my clients gave me a reason to get out of bed. To … [Read more...]