by Brianna | Jun 4, 2024 | food is medicine, Postpartum
Your Postpartum Body written by Courtney Naliboff and Ruth Macy is an empowering book about the remarkable transformation your body makes after carrying a baby. Like Courtney and Ruth, I experienced a traumatic birth and was then left wondering what to do. I sought out many experts and with their guidance and through my yoga practice I allowed my new postpartum body to heal. What I would have given for a book like this with information pertaining to all the things I needed to know. Over these postpartum years, my yoga and meditative practices have helped me during this transition to: take it slow, give myself grace, heal my Diastasis Recti (Known as DR – this is where the central connective line of fascia between your right and left ab stretches creating a physical gap where one did not exist before.), manage my breath, rebuild a more physical practice and recognize the need for rest. This time of healing has given me pause in relation to working as a Yoga Instructor to postpartum bodies. Before becoming one myself, I did have a basic awareness of postpartum bodies but not as much as I should have. For example: I was aware of DR but not that 2/3 of postpartum bodies experience it – nor that many of those bodies aren’t aware. If someone is unaware of an injury there is no way that a teacher can help with modifications. The breath creates a lot of pressure in the container of the torso and if a DR exists much of that pressure will drop down into the bowl of the pelvis....
by Brianna | May 28, 2024 | daily practice, Healing Yoga Practice, personal growth, Postpartum, practice
Retreat offers us a time to ourselves for ourselves. If created with intention a retreat opens a beautiful feeling of spaciousness and bolsters our ability to practice presence in our daily life. Traveling for retreat costs a bomb. Worth it. Absofuckinglutely. Accessible. No. Because of that I began to craft myself personal mini-retreats. Here is how: Wake Early.Speak little.Practice a lot.Eat simply. If you have the available finances add in a special treat like a massage or a sauna. That’s it. That is the recipe of pretty much any retreat I have attended. Now, I try for a mini retreat once a week. I take three hours sans Addy and I practice. Sometimes its restorative and I just roll between the poses. Other times I take an online movement workshop – post covid there are so many good platforms to choose from. Lately I have been ending my practice with a sauna because there is a beautiful one down the street from me. I am approaching thirty years of daily practice, more than half my life committed to this path. Adding these beautiful extended intentional practices enables me to parent in a way that I would not be capable of otherwise. Motherhood without the balm of yoga and meditation is not something I am willing to...
by Brianna | Feb 28, 2024 | Postpartum
Simple soup is the best. This mushroom soup comes together quickly and packs a flavor filled punch. The secret? Dried mushrooms.2 shallots, peeled and halved6 cloves garlic, peeled2 portobello mushrooms – stems removed, rough chop1 cup dried shitake mushrooms (rehydrate in two cups water for 15 minutes)4 cups veggie broth1 TBL of red miso (or another miso) – blended with 1/2 cup waterExcept for the miso add everything to the pot and simmer. When shallots are cooked through turn off heat. When it is cool enough puree soup with an immersion blender (or blend in a blender). Return the soup to warm and stir in the miso-water (once the miso is added be sure that the soup does not boil). Serve and...
by Brianna | Feb 5, 2024 | Perimenopause
In my early twenties I dealt with a lot of inflammation. It was the beginning of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which announced itself by me suddenly being reactive to almost anything I ate. And I mean reactive – Epi pen in my purse reactive. A good friend recommended a remarkable nutritionist Mark Mincolla and with his help and the help of many others over the course of years I rebuilt myself. At the time, in the late 90s, people thought I was nuts. Gluten free? Limited sugar? Probiotics? Who was this quack I believed in? But I knew Mark was right because I could feel the impact in my body and so I continued on. And continue on to this day with the many things he and others taught me. Recently my inflammation is up. Way up. I live in the body of the tin man. It is strange in that I still practice yoga every day but now my fluidity is gone. It is especially bad during parts of my cycle where my estrogen drops lower than low.This inflammation is not because of something I am doing wrong. There is no will to work. I already do the things to limit inflammation and have for decades it is simply my body trying to function with limited estrogen and it is not a fan.It helps me to know that joint pain, aches, even pain that mirrors arthritis is a part of the shift to menopause. I don’t suddenly have rheumatoid arthritis. I don’t have fibromyalgia. I simply have low estrogen which is a normal part of aging – and all...
by Brianna | Nov 21, 2023 | Healing, practice, Transformation
For years I have taught the need to shake and rock. The power of tremor to move the body back from a place of contraction to a place of ease. But the movement has always been consciously created not activated. Recently I discovered TRE and the power of the unconscious tremble.Dr. David Berceli has figured out a simple system of movements to trigger the bodies natural (NATURAL) autonomic ability to tremor and release stress. It is simple. It is powerful. It is effective. Do it. Organization:TRE and Dr. BerceliFurther Reading:Shake it Out by David Berceli and Dr. Robert ScaerVideos:TRE, Trauma Releasing ExercisesKalinda and Bonnie do a wonderful job breaking down and demoing the power of...
