 Dear Friends,
Around this time a year ago I was leading a yoga and fitness retreat in Costa Rica with an amazing group of folks. In addition to our yoga, fitness and eating copious amounts of delicious food, we went on various adventures throughout our week. One of our days of adventuring was a 15 mile horseback ride through the beautiful hills of Costa Rica, crossing various terrain, both easy and pretty difficult, and getting some spectacular Pacific Ocean views during our adventure. As we trotted through the Costa Rican countryside, I stayed toward the back of our pack…I like being able to keep track of my people, and I always feel I can better do so at the back of the pack. Many of us were pretty sore the following day after our ride, with those 15 miles of pretty strenuous terrain showing up in various and sometimes surprising ways throughout our bodies. There were a few in our group, however, who didn’t have that same soreness as everyone else. I was reflecting a few days later, reflecting on my time at the back of the pack watching my people and thinking about the posture of those who were sore and those who were not so sore. The one thing I had noticed while riding was there were some who had a fluidity, an ease…some who were able to simply move with the horse instead of holding themselves more rigidly like many of the rest of us…and with that ability to move with the horse was a bit more ease, less strain as they moved through their adventure and beyond. My dear friends, I hope as we move through our week we can find a bit more ease, a bit more fluidity…who knows what a difference that ease, that fluidity might make in our life experience. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista
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 Dear Friends,
Growing up in California, and spending quite a bit of my childhood among wilderness and trees, I have a great affinity in my heart for the California Redwoods…some of my best childhood memories were spent under redwoods throughout California, and I think those memories deeply influence me to this day. I remember one particular trip when I was a teenager. My family and I, minus my brother who was in college, were walking through the Calaveras North Grove, admiring the strength and stability of those massive trees, admiring the steadiness that comes with that strength and stability. I remember sitting on a bench with my sisters, a bench that leaned back so those sitting could look up at the sky and at the trees above them, and feeling that absolute awe at those massive works of art. I was thinking about that memory earlier this week, and how that relates to our bodies. You know, feeling strong in our bodies won’t translate to an easier life-experience. It certainly won’t change the hardships you might go through or the times when life might feel out of control. Even so, I think building that strength in our bodies helps us navigate those inevitable hardships, those times when we feel out of control just a little better. I think feeling strong in our bodies helps us walk through the hard times in life with a little more groundedness, a little more stability. I think feeling strong in our body helps us remember in a tangible way that we are not only strong in our bodies, but also in our minds and our souls, even when life feels less than great. My dear friends, I hope, this week, you can find a little more time to build strength in your body, mind and soul. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
So many tasks just feel easier when we have a friend to help motivate us, don’t they? I’ve been thinking a lot about last week’s blog post and the power and importance of human connection, and how that need shows up in our lives. Sometimes those important tasks in life just feel easier when we know there’s someone else waiting for us to show up. Sometimes movement is easier when we know we’ll have someone to walk or run with, to move with, someone who will be there to help us along. I think it’s easy sometimes to judge ourselves, and to think that we should be able to motivate ourselves without the use of others…but there are just times when we need outside accountability, outside motivation…there are times when our own intrinsic motivation simply isn’t going to be enough. My dear friends, I hope this week you will recognize your own motivational needs without judgment…it’s ok to need that community, that connection. I hope you can give yourself permission to take what you need. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
This past weekend I led a weekend retreat in the Harper's Ferry area. I know I’ve said this previously, but retreats are one of my absolute favorite things, combining all my loves in one tidy little package…connection, movement, food, adventure…bliss. One of my highlights during every retreat I’ve led is the first night, after our first practice and as folks are sitting down to eat dinner. Seeing people who have never met each other connect, get to know each other, find areas of life in common is a pretty magical thing to watch. That process of human connection, it’s just amazing. These past three years have been weird in terms of human connection, right? They have been hard to navigate, broken up, full of anxiety around connection…they’ve been complicated to say the least. I hope, despite the anxiety of these past few years, as this new year begins, we can find more spaces and times to connect with those in our lives in a nourishing way, in a way that allows us as individuals to thrive. Have an amazingly connected week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Last week I went on a hike in Great Falls with my kids. It was an unseasonably warm day, but the remnants of the cold snap were all around us, with thick layers of ice covering the canal, the trail, and cascading down various rocks. We had a plan, a route and a destination, but no real timeline, no real hurry. So we took our time, we got waylaid and distracted by any and every distraction. We eventually got through our loop, but not without stopping throughout our walk at various spots and spaces with more than a little ice and shenanigans involved. I was thinking about that walk with regards to last week’s blog post, and the sometimes uncomfortable realization that we need to change in certain areas in our lives. I was wondering, as I walked, how it might feel to really give ourselves time and space when change is needed…to know that we have a specific goal and a destination, but we have time and spaciousness along the way while making those changes in our lives. I wonder how it might feel to really give ourselves permission to take our time. How might it feel to slow down, to purposely slow down. I wonder if the slower change mindset might make our real need for change a little more sustainable, a little more of a journey without judgment. My dear friends, if you have a need of change in your life, I hope you can give yourself some time and spaciousness along that journey. Have an amazing day, my friends, and a very happy New Year. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I was out on a walk with my niece and nephew last week during the cold spell in our area. As we were walking, we came to a patch of ice spanning the trail…while they walked right over said patch of ice with zero hesitation, I carefully walked around it, recognizing my need to change my path so that I would not slip and fall. Ever get a swift kick to the pants…you know the kind, the kind that forces you to look at things you might have been avoiding looking at and (hopefully) help to bring needed change to that behavior and your life? Yeah, I don’t particularly like it when that happens, I’m going to assume you don’t either. There are times, though. There are times when we need that swift kick to the pants, where we need that wake-up call. We’d all love to simply change our behavior when we need to change, or better yet, never have need of change, but, let’s be honest, most of us don’t work like that. Most of us need a reason to change. Most of us need outside motivation. Most of us need a kick in the pants or that ice spanning our path forcing us to change directions. I got that uncomfortable kick in the pants a few weeks back…not information I wanted to hear, but information I definitely needed to hear…and while I’ve been sitting in what change should look and feel like, I do know that change is required in this particular area of my life. I see that I need to make change, I see it. Simultaneously, I’m trying really hard not to judge myself for that need for change. I’m trying really hard to decouple the need for change and the judgment on myself that so often accompanies the need for change. My dear friends, if you’ve gotten a swift kick in the pants recently, if you’ve been forced to consider a different path, I hope you will work on decoupling that needed information from judgment, and simultaneously you will come a little closer to finding that required path change. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I sit here and write this on the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice…the day that ushers in the change of the seasons with the official start of winter, and the beginning of the return of the light. Our days are beginning to lengthen…by the time you get this email, the day will be just a little bit lighter, a little bit longer. I have been thinking a lot lately about what life looks and feels like in this particular season of holidays, my first Christmas without my boys being with me, as they are with their dad. I’ve been both noticing and feeling my sadness at that thought, and also trying to sit in the lessons that are cropping up…holding loosely to tradition and sameness, and recognizing that while this, and future holidays, might look and feel different, they can simultaneously be joy filled and full of love and lightness even in the midst of sadness and changed experience…we hold multiple emotions. Simultaneously, I’ve been thinking a lot about our studio, and the enormous opportunity I have had to build something new and beautiful in the midst of deep and profound change in my own life, an opportunity I do not take lightly. Pre-studio, I used to say on the regular that, while I absolutely love the work I do, I wouldn’t keep doing it if I didn’t have a supportive partner who brought home insurance…so the thought of being able to continue this beautiful work that I love and being able to continue to build something sustainable even in the midst of a changed life experience, well, that is just simply amazing. It fills me with joy. I could not keep doing this work without you, my friends. I see that, I know that, and I am so deeply and profoundly grateful for the ability to continue this work and our studio. So as I sit here, on this shortest day of the year, ushering in the return of the light, please know that I am so incredibly grateful for each and every one of you. From my little family to yours, I hope you have had, and continue to have an amazing holiday season, no matter what that might look or feel like. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
A willingness to change plans even though you thought events were going to look a certain way. I’ve been thinking a lot about last week’s blog post and its application to this particular time of year. It’s a fun, lovely, hard, busy, and emotionally full time of year, right? I think, in all that, there's a tendency at times to feel like things should look and feel a certain way…sometimes it feels like there’s a “correct” way to do things in this particular season. But how might it feel if we found a little more willingness to change our plans when needed with regard to this season…even if that might not be the way we had built this season up to look like. How might it feel to be a little less rigid with what things should look and feel like, and a little more willing to find a bit of softness around what our season might look like. I hope you have an amazing holiday season my friends, no matter what that might look like. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
A couple of months ago on a particularly glorious fall weekend, my kids and I headed out to the woods to go backpacking. It was a pretty near perfect weekend for backpacking…while on the colder side, the colors were absolutely spectacular and breathtaking. I planned our route, packed our food, we got our stuff ready to go and off we went. The plan was to head out for two nights, and three days, getting home on a Monday since my kids had the day off of school. It was a wonderful time, walking in the woods with my boys…and yet, as we were walking that first day, they both expressed to me how it would be nice to have a day at home on that Monday they had off. So we changed our plans. We looked at our route and planned a new one so we could walk out on Sunday and get home by Sunday evening instead of staying out until Monday. It was a lovely, glorious walk in the woods. The trees were spectacular, we took all the detours to see multitudes of beautiful waterfalls, we just enjoyed our time together, and then we packed it in and walked out early…and, you know what, that final, unexpectedly lazy, and sluggish day at home was also just an absolute delight. If I hadn’t listened to my kids and their desires, we would have missed out on something pretty special…sometimes changing plans is exactly what we need. I hope you have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Sometimes that creek is low and slower-moving, and other times it rushes through, moving everything in its path. A couple of weeks ago I was talking about the ebbs and flows of energy, and giving ourselves grace and non-judgement when our energy levels feel low and tamped down. The same week I wrote that post, I was simultaneously recognizing that I had to walk away from a few things, as life had gotten a little too full and out of hand for me. The ebbs and flows…sometimes the creek is low and slower moving, and other times it rushes through, moving everything in its path. I don’t know about you, but I find it both frustrating and amusing, the ebbs and flows…this pendulum swing of over-filling and stepping back, over-filling and stepping back. Frustrating because there are times when I feel like I should simply learn my lesson instead of living in that pendulum swing…amusing because, well, thus far I haven’t. Perhaps some day I will learn my lesson, but until that day, the practice of recognizing when to step back and being willing to take the initiative to do so will have to suffice…and I think that the practice is, in fact, sufficient. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” -Melody Beattie
Dear Friends, The brightness of fall has dimmed around here, many of the leaves are now blanketing the ground, creating a crunchy at times…spongy other times…bit of a walking hazard. The world has turned colder and a little darker. Even so, there is beauty, my friends, we can still find and notice the beauty. I’ve been thinking about finding that beauty, finding gratitude exactly where we are, and the power that gratitude holds, a bit this week as I walk through my neighborhood and the park and notice the changes in the world. The above quote by Melody Beattie is one of my absolute favorites, and if you’ve ever been in a practice with me, you might have noticed my repetitive nature at the end of our practice…calling all to find something that they are grateful for and to allow that gratitude to walk with them through their week. I deeply believe that finding gratitude in our lives is powerful and has the ability to change our lives for the better. My dear friends, we celebrate this day of Thanksgiving tomorrow. Whatever this day of Thanksgiving might look like for you…joy-filled and easy or hard and emotionally fraught…or perhaps somewhere in-between, I hope you can sit in a little more gratitude and find and notice the beauty in your life a little more fully. I am so deeply and fully grateful for each and every one of you, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Walk along a creek enough times and you’ll see the ebbs and flows of said creek. There are times when it is full and flowing, and there are times when the water is low and slower moving. I was walking along the creek a while ago. The water was lower than normal and moving a bit slower than normal. The water was still moving and flowing, but it was simply slower than I had seen it in a while. We are entering a season of a bit more cold, a bit more darkness, where our energy might be a little slower, a little less flowing. We are entering a season where we might feel a bit more tired, we might have more of a desire to turn inward and hibernate a bit. I think there are times when we get frustrated with our energy levels in this season…but I wonder how it might feel if we embrace the season we are in, if we lean into slowing down and turning inward, if we give ourselves permission to feel the space and cycle that our bodies are naturally in. I hope, this week, if you are feeling frustrated by your natural energy levels, you can give yourself a little more permission to slow down, to turn inward, and to lean into the season we are in right now without judgment. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Sometimes we just need to find the time and space to soothe our nervous systems. A few weeks ago, as I walked through the woods, I was struggling with a bit of anxiety. My nervous system was amped up and I was having a hard time calming it down. Instead of continuing my walk, I found a rock next to the water. I sat down, and took the sound of the water moving by me into my ears…the sound of water moving always soothes me. I concentrated on deepening my breath and just being exactly where I was in that moment. As I sat there, I could feel my nervous system begin to tamp down. A few days after that, while stuck in the middle of traffic on 495, I was in that similar space of anxiety. I didn’t have a soothing stream next to me, but I fell into a routine of breathing a little deeper, of finding myself exactly where I was in that moment. While the environment wasn’t nearly as conducive to soothing as my little spot by the stream, I could still feel my nervous system begin to tamp down. We’re not always going to have a lovely little stream to sit next to when we need some soothing in our lives, my friends. But I think, when we allow ourselves the space to breathe a little deeper, and find ourselves exactly where we are no matter where we actually are, we can find a little more soothing in our own lives, even when our environment is a little less than conducive to soothing. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
It’s been a spectacular fall around here, I feel like the colors have been absolutely stunning and the weather has been just wonderful. It seems like everywhere you look the world is trying to show how beautiful and bright it can be. Every time I get in the car it feels like I want to stop a few times, pull over, and take a picture of some beautiful tree. It’s easy right now, it’s easy to see and notice the beauty in the world around us. At this moment in time that beauty is clear, it's easy to see, it’s right in front of our faces. I was walking in the woods last week, smiling at trees, taking in the colors and just downright enjoying myself. As I walked I was wondering how it might feel to really notice the way this tangible and obvious beauty makes us feel, and to gather that feeling in our hearts. I was wondering how it might be to try to remember that feeling, and perhaps see and notice and recreate that feeling when that beauty is still there, but might not be quite so obvious, when the world around us is not quite so stunning in a few weeks here. It might take a little more effort, but it’s still there, my friends. Once this time has passed, and it always does, the beauty is still there…we might just have to look for it a little harder. My dear friends, I hope you can see and feel the beauty in your own life, even when it is a little less than obvious. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Last week I wrote about knowing when to stop, and about a particular walk in the park where I had an easy, tangible reminder of when to stop and turn around. What I didn’t tell you is I took that picture almost exactly two years ago, when I was smack dab in the middle of the hardest season of life I had ever experienced…I took that picture, I wrote that prompt, I filed it away in my heart, my brain and my google drive, and I did nothing with it for the next two years….because, while I knew there was wisdom in knowing when to stop, while I knew it was important, I simultaneously had no idea how to do it in my own life. But, my friends, as I think about not knowing what to do in my own life, I recognize that we’re not always going to have a clear picture of when we should push through situations and when we should stop and turn around. Sometimes we’re going to have to sit in the discomfort of not knowing what the right answer is. Perhaps that discomfort will be a brief moment in time, and perhaps, perhaps that discomfort will last years and years. Life is not always clear, and our paths do not always have an easy answer. I hope this week, if you find yourself in a space without a clear answer, that you are able to breathe a little deeper into the space and time you find yourself in. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista Dear Friends,
Sometimes we just have to push through, right? Hand in hand with pushing through, I think knowing when to stop is of equal importance. A while ago…more than a little while ago, I was on a walk with no real destination, no real timeline of when to stop. I wasn’t doing a loop, it was out and back where eventually I was going to need to turn around to get back to my car, I didn’t have a timeline of when to get back, I didn’t have any appointments after my walk. The question of when to turn around came up in my brain a few times. While I didn’t have any appointments, I was a little tired and would eventually need to turn around…and then there it was, a tree had fallen all the way across Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park, spanning from one side of the road to the other. Now, I could have hopped over that tree, it wouldn’t have been a problem for me. And yet, it just felt like a good place to turn around and start walking back. We don’t always get a well-placed tree spanning our path, telling us when to stop, when to turn around, do we? However, even without those trees, I think we can start to find more awareness of when we need to push through, when we just need to keep going, and when it’s time for us to stop. It might not always be so clear as a tree spanning our path, but I think the more we focus on our own feelings and needs, the more we can see those trees blocking our paths. I hope we can find a little more awareness of our own needs this week, my friends. Have an amazing week! Love Krista  Dear Friends,
There are times we have to push forward, even when it’s hard. There are times we just have to keep going, even when we want to take a break. There are times when we have to keep walking the trail ahead of us even when all we want to do is stop and rest. I was thinking a lot about last week's blog post, about feeling uninspired, about taking breaks when we’re struggling with a distinct lack of inspiration. Taking breaks, taking time away when we’re feeling that lack of inspiration, it’s important. And yet, there are times when we have to push forward and keep walking, even when all we want to do is take a break. There are times we simply have to continue moving through the space and time we are in, even if it feels hard and uncomfortable, even when we feel uninspired. My dear friends, if you find yourself in a place where you have to keep moving forward even if you don’t want to, I hope you can find a little more comfort, a little more peace, some deeper breath even in that place. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
It’s that time of year…when the leaves are a rich dark green and we are on the cusp of change but we’re not quite there yet. Last weekend I went on a ride through the park and was just hit by the heaviness of the world around me, the dark, rich green of the trees surrounding me as I rode past them. I saw very little color in the leaves as I rode through the park, although by the time this post comes out, there might be a bit more to be seen, but the trees were heavy with the final weeks of leaves, with the last gasp of the season. The seasons have officially changed from summer to fall, the air has gotten a bit crispier in the mornings, and we are on the cusp of that change in the world around us, but we’re not quite there yet. It’s almost like we’re in a bit of a pause before the next phase. For some that pause, that anticipation, might feel like a welcome relief…and for others there might be a space of sadness in anticipation of the next phase. Whatever you’re feeling in that space of anticipation, I hope you can give yourself permission to feel your own feelings, to breathe into the space where you happen to be just a bit more, to notice your own needs. My dear friends, may we breathe a little deeper during the changes in our lives this week. I hope you have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Back in June I wrote a post about “the shoulds”, and about a little patch of land in my backyard that in former years held a garden, and now was growing a jungle…how I thought about weeding that little patch of land, but my son wanted to keep our little jungle going, so we kept it. And, oh boy, did our jungle grow. It grew and grew and grew….those weeds got taller and taller. On the regular we would go out there and laugh and cackle about how tall they’d gotten. We’d show anyone who came over. They grew to deck height, they grew taller than the fence, they passed the top of the garage, they grew taller than the deck fence. I think the tallest one was about 12 feet tall when they finally stopped growing. Let’s be honest, at some point they stopped being attractive and just started taking over. The last big rainstorm that came through, they were done. They had grown so tall that many bent over toward the ground and took up the rest of the backyard…and it was time to let our little jungle go. So last weekend we spent a day tearing out our little jungle. It was time for them to go, so they went…but oh, how much joy that simple little patch of land brought us this past summer. All the laughing, all the cackling, all the wondering when they were ever going to stop growing. No, it did not utilize the space in a great way, and yes, it totally took over our backyard, and at some point turned into a bit of an eyesore. And yet, with all that, our little jungle sure did bring us joy. My dear friends, I hope you will find a little more joy in the most simple of things this week. I hope you will find a little more in your life to laugh and cackle about. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I’ve been thinking about and sitting in last week’s blog post a lot this past week, and in the thought of allowing ourselves to honor that space between where we were and where we want to be, to at times sit in the discomfort that comes in that space between. I think that space between is an essential part of our journey, and, I think, is just as important as any other part of our journey. And, even with the importance of the space between, eventually we have to cross that bridge, eventually we have to get to the other side. Allowing ourselves the time and space to cross our bridges is essential, allowing ourselves to be in that space of between without judgment is essential. And yet, just as essential as giving ourselves time without judgment, is the recognition that we can’t live in that space of between forever. My dear friends, if there are spaces in your life where you are between where you were and where you want to be, I hope you can come a little closer to where you want to be…without judgment, without rush, without a firm timeline…but with a willingness to continue walking over that bridge for as long as it takes. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista |
Hi, I'm Krista!Krista Mason is a yoga and fitness instructor based in Washington DC. She owns an online studio and loves it! Archives
February 2023
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