christinaeve

Most of us are subtly bracing all day long. Our breaths are short and high in the chest. When you exhale longer than you inhale, you activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which helps you to feel safe and calm. Your body interprets that longer exhale as a cue that the threat has passed. A few rounds of breathing like this and your shoulders drop, your jaw softens, and your internal loop is interrupted

I'm not musical. I can’t sing. I’m slow to learn, and it's too frustrating, so I shouldn't even try. These are things I've told myself. I have a memory of being 8 or 9 and my sister is yelling at me through the connecting wall of our bedrooms “shut-uppp my ears are bleeding”, as I belted out the lyrics to Jewel with all my heart. I recorded myself on a cassette tape and realized it sounded pretty bad. It became clear to me that you should only sing if you sound good. Years later I sat in...

We hear it all the time “release what's no longer serving you” But what does it mean? Turns out, its not as simple as pushing a button and deleting a file. Then we think we’re doing it wrong because we’ve tried to let go of the same damn thing fifty times. Or we feel ashamed that an old wound resurfaces even after years of therapy, yoga, rituals, journaling, whatever. We assume letting go should be clean, instant, and linear… and when it’s not, we label ourselves as failures.