Mt. Tamalpais

I spent this past weekend up on Mt. Tam, in Marin County, with my fiance's family. Finally, cool air! I thought I would adjust easily to Sacramento's heat, considering growing up in Virginia and all, but in fact I have not adjusted, and I crave the cooler weather. Marin was beautiful this past weekend--cool and foggy in the mornings, crisp and sunny in the afternoon.

We stayed at the adorable Mountain Home Inn on Saturday night, enjoyed their great cooking, and the gorgeous scenery nearby. I went for a hill run on a dirt road Sunday morning (great way to mix up your runs when you've got the opportunity! Charge up the hill, run easy back down to recover), and then we drove to Sausalito for the afternoon.



Now I'm back in the 103 degree heat, and looking very forward to fall!

Body Image and Student Specials!!

Let's start this post off right, with a reminder of the specials I'm currently offering for students:


For 1x/week training: Take $5 off every individual session you buy!
For 2x/week training: Take $15 off for the week!

Email me today to set up your consultation!

Now onto meatier subjects: the body. We all have one. So let's take a minute to clothes our eyes and 'get into' the body. What does this mean? A million thoughts jump into my head:

- Sensing my skin, like, as in, truly feeling the sensation of skin covering organs and water and blood etc.
- Grounding my feet on the floor, letting my spine be long so that my head reaches upward
- Recognizing and 'seeing' my body for what it really is: the size and shape it really is, the way it really feels (maybe energized, maybe tired, maybe antsy, maybe soft, young, old, whatever)
- Breathing! Letting the breath wash through the body so that we remember we're a functioning animal and not just a worker-bee getting through the day

We ignore our bodies all the time, right? Whether we're at a desk-job, cleaning the house, meeting friends for coffee, we're often living in our minds and ignoring the actual meat on our bones, the flesh that makes us human. It's easy to become distracted by everything around us and forget that the body has a place here, too. I invite you to try something new and let yourself become distracted by the body, experimenting with what it might feel like to forget the mind. Wow! What a notion!

Ask yourself these questions:

1) Do you percieve your body differently when you 'forget the mind' and actually let yourself exist in your body?
2) Would you take better care of your body if you paid this sort of attention to it more often?
3) Do any new emotions or feelings come up when you try this exercise?

Now grab a big fat magic marker, or a stack of pens, or whatever is near by, and take ten minutes to jot-down any of the thoughts or feelings that are going through you. Try to maintain this attention to the body while you write--that can be tricky! See what happens.

Email me what you write! I'd love to read your reactions/explorations/responses to this kind of work.

Happy hot summer day, my friends! It's scorching here in Sacramento.

Gratitude List

Sometimes, when I'm feeling grumpy or angry or lonely or just plain blue, I sit down a write a Gratitude List: a list of things I feel genuinely grateful about in my life. Not things I feel like I should feel grateful for, but things that I can really truly say I feel, in my heart, so thankful to have as a part of my life.

Today I am not blue at all; in fact, this has been a truly wonderful weekend. I spent yesterday afternoon at a baby shower for a dear friend (who also happens to be an old client) in the bay area, and today I've been watching my fiance and future father-in-law build a shed for our backyard. While they were shopping at Home Depot, I got to take my future mother-in-law to get a pedicure, and my dear friend (and a bridesmaid in my upcoming wedding!) joined us. Later we took a long walk around the neighborhood.

I can say right now that I am truly, from deep in my heart, earnestly and oh-so sincerely grateful for:

- My handsome, loving, strong-as-an-ox-and-kind-hearted-as-a-man-could-be fiance Jeffrey
- His warm and welcoming family
- My own dear family who are spread out all over the world and who I miss dearly
- The strength, energy, softness and solidity in my sturdy, mobile, long legs: that they might jaunt me all over town and up many mountains, kick me through rivers and lakes, and curl me up into a cozy ball for sleep
- The beautiful California weather we've had this week--a respite from the intense valley heat!!
- The friends in my life who have stood by me for years, through the best and the worst
- The power that I have to direct my own life: I make my own choices; I create my own reality
- The internet: right now I'm ordering pizza online!

Training Specials!!

Start the school year off right! Now offering discounts for students.

For 1x/week training: Take $5 off every individual session you buy!
For 2x/week training: Take $15 off for the week!

Email me now to schedule your initial consultation!

August 2007

August is one of my favorite months: traditionally hot, humid, and muggy--the month when so many people escape home for a vacation at the beach or in the mountains. I'm reminded of sweaty evenings as a child, running around outside to catch lightning bugs in the backyard. We would capture them in mason jars, cover the lid with wax paper and poke a few holes on top (so they could breathe, we thought). By morning they'd be dead, or flailing pathetically in the bottom of the jar. Or else Mom would take them from our bedsides after we'd fallen asleep and release them back into the night.

There are no lightning bugs in Sacramento. It's not exactly humid or muggy here, either (though it's opressively hot most days), and I'm not vacationing this month. Still, August is ripe with summer lust: steamy sidewalks, an unbeatable sun. I take my escape in ice cream cones and evening swims. Long strides through a neighbor's sprinkler. Open windows at night.

Happy summer, readers; fall is almost here.