her Self: IFS & Spiritual Entrepreneurship

Your body’s a temple -- but someone made a mess in it. And you try to meditate your way to inner peace -- but your monkey mind is flinging banana peels everywhere. You’re not doing anything wrong! These obstacles to inner peace are so common, the Buddha named them: the 5 Hindrances. Enjoy this inspiring SHE dharma talk to make coming home to yourself much, much sweeter. Want more? Join my 9-month...

You’re on the verge of a new chapter in your life -- but you feel resistant and awkward. You’re about to kickstart deeper self-care (and prioritize standing in your own truth), but you’re all elbows and self-doubting. The beginnings of things are hard. Especially when they really, really matter to us. This is the archetype of the Maiden in the Heroine’s Journey. When we understand and honor her (a...

The beginnings of things -- even wonderful, self-caring things -- can be challenging. You sit down to meditate and your mind won’t shut up. You hop on your yoga mat and feel stiff and awkward the first 15 minutes. Hear what I told women the opening night of my last SHE Retreat about honoring transitions and beginnings. We talk mindfulness, the two kinds of self-care practices (yes, retail therapy...

Over these past few weeks we’ve turned women’s yoga, meditation, and feminine spirituality inside out and upside down. Today it’s time to look at it from one final angle. Let’s explore the business of teaching yoga to women-- and the host of strings (ahem: challenges!) that come along with this gift. A fitting finale to our Poolside Sutras summertime podcast series! It’s not only for yoga teachers...

In today’s episode, the second-to-last in our special Poolside Sutras summertime series, I’m sharing how I (literally!) stumbled across an embodiment practice that drastically changed my life. Welcome to a Woman’s Guide to Yin Yoga. These practices soothe and rejuvenate me. They prepare me for whatever life is asking me to meet, and they return me to myself. I wish for every woman to have this, to...

We can have the perfect meditation accoutrements adorning our perfect, meditative environment. But when we sit down, expecting our minds to still, distractions to vanish, and inner turmoil to cease--simply because we’re meditating--we’re setting ourselves up for failure (and usually more tension than we started with!). Meditation isn’t about seeking some tranquil space. Nor is it about overriding...

Have you ever woken up too tired, too busy, too distracted to practice yoga or meditate? If so, you’re in the right place. And you’re not alone. In today’s episode, I’ll talk about how I developed a consistent, daily yoga & meditation practice nearly two decades ago, and how I have since helped countless other women do the same; ways to create the space and time for practice (even when you don’t t...

Welcome to our new, seasonal podcast series, Poolside Sutras: my summertime gift to you. Pull up a chaise lounge, soak up the twinkling blue view, and let’s chat about what matters most. I’ll share stories from my own life and practice. Hard-won insights and life-changing lessons from my own mentors, answering the most common struggles you asked about when I inquired: “what’s holding you back in y...

Today’s talk is a fitting closing for our “Bubble Bath Wisdom” series, because it’s all about integration. It’s about taking our insights from the yoga mat or the meditation cushion and bringing them into our intimate relationships, our parenting, our leadership, and something as foundational as the inner attitude we move through each day with. In it, I’m sharing a few clips from some of last year...

Over the past two months, we’ve explored our inner voices, hormonal cycles, the Heroine’s Journey, daily rituals, yin yoga, and meditation. You may be surprised to hear that, when practiced alone, all of these can cause us to harden and insulate. They threaten to deaden us in the never-ending cycle of Drill Sargent self-improvement. But, since this is the second-to-last episode in this podcast ser...

Instead of featuring one of my own talks on today’s podcast episode, I’m sharing an excerpt from a talk that one of my own beloved teachers-- Sarah Powers-- gave to our SHE School community a few years back. We in the SHE School sisterhood love Sarah Powers. She’s an incredibly grounded, wise, globe-trotting yogini, who also happens to be a devoted wife, mother, and author. When I first met Sarah...

In today’s “Bubble Bath Wisdom” podcast episode, I unpack why we women need to include Mindfulness Meditation in our daily lives, as well as offer a practice to help you get started. We women need to cultivate our Inner Warriors. We need to know we’re strong enough to handle the storms of life. We need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. All too often we collapse into the Victim, or the D...

In this clip from the first retreat in Reversing Our “Curse,” I give an overview of how to appreciate and partner with our monthly hormonal cycles (at any age) as constant reminders calling us home. When we align with our cycles, we emerge every month renewed and empowered. At the end, I’ll share a simple, 4-step morning ritual. I never start a day without it! This will help you safeguard your san...

The first talk of the New Year, given on the final morning of last year’s SHE Retreat in Mexico, illuminates what I recommend every woman include in her daily practice. Because a day without practice is a disempowered day. It’s a day when we’re thrown from the helm of our ship and thrashed about by the waves of life and others’ agendas. Our habitual tendencies take over and sabotage us. And we end...

When we’re up against something big in life (which only seems to happen more frequently, with more intensity, as we get older), we need a different approach to scale the seemingly unsurmountable walls that Life places on our paths. We don’t need to become better problem-solvers. Nor do we need to become better people, necessarily. No: we need to move in the opposite direction. We need to stop tryi...

Today invites the second week of Advent and the first day of Hanukkah. Yes, we’re in the thick of holy. This weekend I’ve had the chance to drop into this sacred time more deeply. On Friday, Keith and I packed up my white Prius (Amia included, much to her delight) and headed up snowy roads to celebrate our five-year anniversary in a rustic, mountain cabin. Relationships challenge and grows us more...

She didn’t see how badly she was hurting herself. “I feel like I should be able to handle this,” she admitted. “I mean, she does so much for me. Who am I to complain?” We were halfway through our mentoring session. I paused, remaining silent on the other end of the phone line. The space between us told me to wait: I knew she wasn’t finished yet. “A part of me feels like I should just suck it up,”...

These women were exhausted. As azure ocean waves lapped in the background, the small group of courageous sisters settled into their cushions in the Meditation Cabin. It was the first morning of our week-long SHE retreat in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. And I could see the fatigue peeking through the excitement on their faces. It wasn’t just the fatigue of the previous day’s travel. It was the longing f...

Since today is my birthday, I wanted to share you with you a very special conversation-- an interview with my mom about her own Heroine's Journey. And, wow, does she have an incredible story! Over the years, I've watched my mom face her biggest fears: supporting herself financially, mothering four girls into womanhood amidst a vicious divorce, overcoming an addiction and embracing a life of sobrie...

While she admits she's always been a "woman's woman," Nisha Moodley admits that her own Heroine's Journey really began when she fully took a stand for sisterhood. When faced with a divorce, followed by the dissolution of a very deep and meaningful relationship, she recognized just how much she had been deriving her sense of wholeness from men. Nisha's devastation not only led her to surrender in t...

The second child in a very patriarchal, Italian household, Jennifer Racioppi grew up estranged from her feminine essence. Then, in her late teens, Jenn had to have an emergency hysterectomy as the result of very aggressive endometrial cancer. By the time she was 20, Jenn had already gone through surgical menopause. Having lost the capacity to reproduce, she rejected every notion of her femininity...

Today I invited my own business mentor, Andrea J. Lee (she's the one who encouraged me to create this podcast!) to share her Heroine's Journey with us. Living in Vancouver and of Taiwanese descent, Andrea's incredibly joyful and bubbly. I have yet to have a conversation with her when she hasn't giggled! Yet, Andrea didn't always used to be this way. Up until several years ago, she was an incredibl...

Last November, Lissa Boles lost her beloved husband. In today's interview, she lets us into her space of mourning-- a little cottage on the shores of Lake Huron. She shares how she's using this incredibly difficult time to listen deeply and follow her inner direction. We speak about how death and grieving are in shadow in our culture, and ways that she's learning to respect this important time non...

In 2009, Alexis Neely (whose artist name is Ali Shanti) knew something was wrong. Very wrong. She built multiple million dollar businesses, drove a fancy car, and lived in a posh neighborhood. Yet, it had been a long, long time since she had cried. This realization led her on a path of massive transformation. She listened to these inner cures and let her team go, dismantled her business, and moved...

Nicole and I met a few years ago when I first offered my online immersion, Reversing Our "Curse." We are both devoted to helping women heal and live in harmony with their menstrual cycles, seeing our periods as important barometers for the state of our souls. In today's SHE Story, Nicole opens up about how disoriented and tender she feels, now at the tail-end of a 5-year relationship. She shares h...