Dear Friends,
The daffodils are out with a vengeance right now, with whole hillsides covered with these happy yellow flowers, it’s pretty magical. I was walking past a patch of daffodils the other day, thinking about how they reproduce…thinking about how they both reproduce with seed, and also with dividing their bulbs and cloning themselves over the years. You can do absolutely nothing with that daffodil bulb, and year after year, not only will that flower come back, but it will make more of itself. I was thinking of that, and thinking about our movement practices. I don’t know about you, but I think many of us struggle with starting too fast, with putting too much on ourselves when it comes to our movement practices, and then burning out and giving up when we inevitably can’t fulfill our goals. I was wondering how it might feel if, just like the daffodils, we started out with small, manageable and achievable goals…and then built from there. Maybe we started with the goal of moving our bodies 10 minutes a couple of days a week, and then when we established that, maybe we gave ourselves a bigger goal to reach. I wonder how it might feel if, as the daffodils, we gave ourselves permission to build our movement practice over time instead of all at once. My dear friends, I hope this week you can give yourself permission to start out with small and achievable goals, knowing that, with that, you can build something over time. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista
0 Comments
Dear Friends,
Last weekend my son and I went in search of snow for one of his school assignments. As both of us love a good road trip, we excitedly hopped in the car bright and early Sunday morning to head toward West Virginia where we knew snow had fallen…it was a lovely drive for about 2 hours, and then a wrench was thrown in our plans. After about 2 hours, my car started having issues. Now, let’s be honest, I can’t say I was super surprised, this particular issue has been headed down the pipeline for a little while now, so I knew it was coming. Even so, it reared its ugly head so much so that we weren’t quite sure we were going to make it home…we gave ourselves a 23% chance as we turned around and headed toward home, and I think, in hindsight and with very little mechanical skill, that was a pretty accurate assessment. Growing up, I only ever had ridiculously old cars and a perpetual premium membership with AAA, so car trouble isn’t particularly unfamiliar territory to me, but it doesn’t matter how much experience one has, car trouble is stressful….and made for a pretty stress-filled trip home. Despite said stress, as I drove, I worked to breathe deeply, to regulate my nervous system, to find calm in the midst of anxiety…and, you know, to stay in the right lane. My friends, breathing deeply and regulating my nervous system didn’t fix my car, it didn’t solve my issues, and it didn’t get me home without breaking down. And yet, while breathing deeply didn’t do any of those things, it did, in fact, make that stressful trip home a little easier. Our movement practices won’t make the hard things in life go away, they won’t solve our problems…but our movement practices will give us a few more tools in our toolbelt when life is inevitably harder and more anxiety-filled than we expected it to be. I hope you have a stress-less week, my friends…and if you don’t, I hope you can breathe a little deeper into whatever stress you might encounter. Love Krista Dear Friends,
I’ve been thinking a lot about last week’s blog post, and about giving ourselves permission to walk our own walk at our own pace without comparing ourselves to those around us…easier said than done, right? This week it’s been hard not to notice the beginning of spring when walking and driving in my area. The daffodils, the tulip trees, the little yellow flowers that carpet Rock Creek's ground at the beginning of spring…they’re all getting towards full bloom. It’s seemed like they all bloomed and opened in the span of a few days this past week. Flowers and blooming have been on my mind as I’ve walked around. One of my favorite things about spring is the way flowers open and bloom at different times…you have your daffodil and tulip tree time, you have your tulips and cherry blossom time, and on down the line. Spring flowers aren’t in bloom all at once, different flowers bloom and open at different times throughout spring. I wonder how it might feel in our own lives if we saw that difference, if we really saw the way flowers bloom in their own time and at their own rate, and we lived into that difference a little more in our own lives…with our kids and family, with our friends…but mostly, with our own selves. We bloom, we open, we walk, we live at our own pace. Let’s see how it feels to be a little more fully us this week. I hope you have an amazing, flower-filled week, my friends. Love Krista Dear Friends,
Walking our own walk…sometimes it’s hard to do without comparison, without looking at those around us walking at a different pace and judging our own journey. Last week my kids and I hiked to the top of El Yunque Rain Forest in Puerto Rico. It was a beautiful day, high 70’s, rainy, misty, sunny…we had it all during our trek up and down the mountain. We hiked together to the top of the mountain, with my kids at times waiting for their slower mother to catch up to them and me, at times, waiting for them as shenanigans ensued. As we turned around to go back down, we wandered away from each other. One kid, enjoying a fast, solo trip down a mountain, walked on ahead. The other, somewhere in the middle, at times waited for me to catch up. And I, the slower one of the bunch, the more cautious around rocks and roots during the descent, the forever picture taker, I brought up the rear. Let’s be honest, they had to wait a good long while at the bottom for me…and that’s okay, my friends, that is perfectly okay. We get to walk our own walk at whatever pace that may be. It shouldn’t matter how fast or slow those around us are going, we get to walk our own walk at our own pace. If there are spaces in your life where you feel discouraged…maybe you feel like your pace isn’t fast enough or doesn’t match those around you…if you have those spaces of discouragement, I hope you can feel the validity of your own walk, your own pace a little more this week. I hope you can walk your own walk without judgment. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista Dear Friends,
It’s amazing how warmer weather can help motivate, build energy, entice us to move, change and shift. I don’t know how you’ve been feeling, but It’s been really hard lately to motivate myself to get out of the house, in-spite of a warmer than normal winter. But last week, with the uptick of warmth, I was in the park over a couple of days, enjoying the warm pre-spring weather with so many other people. The ebbs and flows of motivation are real, aren’t they? I found myself, while in the park enjoying the warmer weather, almost having a “new years resolution” time in my head, where I was motivated to shift a few areas in my life that are in need of looking at and perhaps shifting. While it remains to be seen if I succeed at shifting those particular spaces, it was nice to notice and feel the change in motivation in my own body and mind after a few months of stagnation in some areas of life. Whether in the midst of motivation and growth, or still stuck in a little bit of stagnation, I hope we can recognize the validity of where we are in the moment, in the here and now. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista Dear Friends,
OK, so funny story. Last week I was writing that blog post about trying to find a little more ease and flow in our lives. I was in-between classes while I was writing it, just about to start my next class and eating some soup while I was writing the post. As I was writing about finding ease and flow, and minutes before my next class started, I managed to pour soup all down the front of my shirt and pants. Not super ease-filled if we’re being honest here. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud, it just felt so ironic…the soup all down my front-side just as I was talking about finding that ease and flow in life. Hopefully it’s not soup down your front-side, but I dare say I’m probably not alone in, at times, emphasizing one thing while living the complete opposite of said emphasis. But, you know what, just because we might not be able to embody the changes we’d like to see in our lives every day, doesn’t mean those changes are invalid. Finding a little more ease and flow is just as important even when it doesn’t happen all the time. I hope you have an amazing week, my friends...and here’s hoping you don’t pour soup all over yourself! Love Krista Dear Friends,
I’ve been thinking a lot about last week’s blog post, and about the thought of “moving with the horse”....and finding more ease, more fluidity throughout our life. I think all of us go through these phases in life…phases of more or less ease, fluidity. There are times when our schedule, our family life, our outside obligations feel a little more easy, a little more fluid, and there are times when they just don’t. My dear friend calls this space of ease “finding his flow”, which I think is an apt description. There are times when it might be easier to find our flow, and other times when that flow feels near impossible to find. While I don’t think we can completely change those times when life feels a little less than fluid, I wonder what difference it might make if we really pay attention to the times and the spaces in our lives that do feel easy and fluid. Perhaps when paying attention, we can notice the spaces in life where we might be able to shift to create a little more ease and fluidity in more of our life. Let’s be realistic here, probably we’ll never completely “find our flow” in this complicated life of ours, but perhaps we can get a little closer to more ease and fluidity as we walk through our lives. I hope you have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista 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 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 |
Hi, I'm Krista!Krista Mason is a movement instructor based in Washington DC. She founded an online strength, yoga and movement studio, teaches group classes, hosts both local and overseas retreats, hangs out with private clients, and absolutely loves the work she gets to do. Archives
May 2024
|