How do you know when you’re feeling a particular emotion? Core emotions live in the body so body-based clues and practices offer us tools to better answer this question. We can cultivate our ability to perceive sensations due to emotions inside our body. We can grow our interoception.

My story of being humbled and taught by yoga. How yogic practices help to cultivate the art of compassionate, nonjudgmental observation. This coupled with emotional literacy is a powerhouse of skills for us feelers. The convergence of wisdom traditions and science is alive and here to support us with the many normal feelings that come with being attuned and of service to the changes going on in our world.

How AEDP and the work of emotions educator Hilary Jacobs Hendel think about trauma: how defenses are born and its relationship with trauma, as well as how undoing aloneness is a crucial entry point for healing, and is something that emotions education offers.

The act of turning inward and exploring emotions is no small feat. Society has taught us to block and misunderstand our emotions. I know it firsthand. Luckily research on emotions abounds! I share my story and why I got trained in the emotions 101 curriculum I did. Sense of responsibility and ethics.

Is the answer so much a “yes or no?” Or more of a “how and when?” Join my new Emotions 101 with Yoga course to unpack and explore this even more.

November’s Theme

So often when I’m in the midst of transition I want to be on the other side already. Can I slow myself down enough to notice the micro moments within it all? And if so, what teachings lie there that are key to where I’m meant to land next? Exploration at the personal & collective.

The bad ass field of Polyvagal Theory is giving us more and more tools to better define healing and make a case for why cultivating a relationship with our internal worlds is necessary. Especially the more subtle dimensions. Neuroception - where wisdom traditions meet neuroscience.

I had been mad at the world for awhile… Personal reflection on the interconnectedness between my personal wounds related to abuse and injustice and the collective wounds of oppression I’ve fought so hard to defend. New era of learning.

Can our emotions be entry points for deeper insight and understanding of the changes going on in the world? Can our emotional experiences be portals for the past, present, and future in a way that shifts things at a more subtle dimension? Prayer, poetry, reflections.

News stories and information overload that leads to being desensitized. Not allowing the information to land in the body. Reflections on learning to sit in the fire of discomfort and not knowing. To build our capacity for that. Heads up: content may be triggering.

Poetry and prose. Trusting the presence of pain even when I don’t trust my own mind.

How do people heal after a collective trauma as severe as genocide? My time with fellow feeler and healer, Innocent Nkurunziza, Inema Art Center in Kigali, Rwanda. The use of community to heal wounds, the guiding wisdom of one's unique path, and the resilience of the human spirit.