On days of mental fury, when everything feels mind-bottled, I seek spaces that remind me that I am a full-bodied percipient perceptible, not merely locked in my noggin. Turning to the central channel of the body fleshes my awareness out into the proprioceptors in my skin.

1. meditation – I am often deeply called to sit on the cycles of the moon – namely the new and the full – as if my tush-cush won’t let me pass by without anchoring in. I bought my Zafu as a prezzy to myself on my 28th birthday having never established a sitting practice before and skeptical that I could sit that long. However, once I started, I took to it with ease. I don’t follow any scripts other than the expansion and contraction of my breath in my core, and I like to follow the passage of that wave along the texture of my insides and see what’s there. At this point in my practice, time flies whilst I’m on the zafu and 45 mins feels too short.

2. yoga – My body craves the flows and twists and bounding postures of yoga more than I give it (but I’m about to remedy that with my spring equinox practica commitments). During the opening poses of an evening class at the Yoga Workshop a few years ago with Billy Goldsmith, he said to us in the midst of Ojai breath: “crawl into the heartspace, dust it off, and see what’s there.” Like every yoga class I’ve dropped into, it was the most perfect thing for me at the moment, and my heart likes when I hang out, which is why I love to yoga. It pulls be there and works out the stuggles and the stiffness that resists being in that heartspace by default.

3. walk – Since high school (1996!) my morning ritual begins by striding out into the freshness of the day. Tony Robbins calls it his “Power Hour” – and I have to agree. At this point in my waking days, even after late late nights at the studio, keeping holy the daily hike is what my body asks for upon waking. I am grateful to live 6 blocks from my most favorite hike in Boulder, which gets to see my latest style of bed-head almost every morning. There’s magic in rolling out of bed and into enough warm layers over my PJ’s and easing into the possibilities of the day, fresh from dreamtime. Evening walks are just as enchanting and are great ways to get some moonlight and starbathe a little – to see what that light has to say.

4. The Franklin Method – Before I do another round of yoga teacher training, I will become certified in the 3 levels of the Franklin Method, first. Promise. This practice re-imagines what ever image you feel is the operating stressor in your body-space to shift your perception (and pains, stress, overall feelings of bliss, etc.) and regain your full range of motion with an image that functions better and allows for a more expansive experience of – dare I say – happiness and buoyancy of spirit. Eric Franklin is a GENIUS, par excellance, and his methods that tap into the beauty of neuroplasticity have changed my life practice – radically. So, when I need a little shift, I’ll use my franklin balls and work on some pelvic floor exercises, or I’ll move my spine and major organs to increase the flow that was previously stuck and sticky.

So often I need to get out of my own way – which often means returning to center and finding the solace of silence and knowing that’s innately there.