“It’s not happiness that makes us grateful but gratefulness that makes us happy.” – Br. David Steindl Rast
Catching up With Our Imagination + Workshop This Sunday + Men’s Class Registration Opens Today! + info on New Years Day All Day Sit
A note from Carl: Last week, I was doing an Awareness Through Movement lesson guided by a colleague and teacher of ours, Dennis Leri. At a certain point in the lesson, the movement that was suggested was challenging, and very non-habitual, and I could tell from the recording that the people in the class were…
Rest in the Mess + We Think Alike
A note from Erin: You know what’s funny? When I sat down to write this morning, a few things bubbled to the surface of consciousness. A quote from my teacher Tenzin Wangyal which I have hanging above our bathroom mirror as a reminder. It reads, “Attention to openness is the best medicine. Mind is always…
Becoming Vast + Registration now open for Women Embodied Live 2016
A note from Erin What a time it is! Ever since I read Francis Weller’s statement, “The task of a mature human being is to hold grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and be stretched large by them,” it’s been resonating in me. I’m like a bell, struck. It feels so very…
Women Embodied Live 2016
Women Embodied Live 2016 Below is a special invitation to join me next year (along with a fantastically amazing group of women.) I feel so honored, humbled, and overflowing with enthusiastic joy to host these groups once a year! You’re warmly invited to join me and an incredible group of women for an intimate experiential journey…
Creative Gratefulness – November 29th
EVENT DETAILS My dear friend Nan and I are planning to do another version of something wonderful we began last year to support our community while having fun. Last year it was Creativity for a Cause. This year, we’re calling it Creative Gratefulness. There will be space for 12 people to join us in the Avenues…
Everything is a Gift and Nothing Lasts
A note from Erin: Everything is a gift and nothing lasts. This line keeps surfacing in my consciousness, like a whale coming up for a breath. Pfffff. Everything is a gift and nothing lasts. The light on the golden weeping cut leaf birch leaves, the magical flurry of large snowflakes that graced the air yesterday…
Praise the Real + Meditation is a Pain in the A*@
A note from Erin I love hearing truthtelling. It’s so invigorating. I didn’t used to. I used to enjoy the ideal images of perfection (along with suggested ways to achieve them) even more than the real. It’s part of what I loved in yoga, meditation, spiritual teachings, health regimens, glossy magazines…. Being taught to breathe, meditate,…
Hiking, Sauntering and Holy Ground
A note from Carl On Monday morning, before the cool fall rains fell here in Salt Lake, I went walking in City Creek Canyon. I was so touched by the lighting, the dark-bellied clouds and the golden light shining through grasses, sunflowers and leaves just beginning to change. I was reminded of one of my…
If Not Now, Then When?
A note from Erin: Hello from Santa Fe! I so enjoyed my solo road trip time yesterday and I am so damn happy to be back in New Mexico. I love it here!!!! Tonight begins my Dream Yourself Awake Retreat and I’m so excited! There’s a story one of my wonderful clients reminded me of recently.…
The Embody Gratitude Project 2015
The Embody Gratitude Project 2015 Nurturing Joy through Embodying Thanks a 6-week online course for YOU! Begins on Sept. 21, World Gratitude Day. I’m deeply excited to offer this beloved online course and share these powerful practices with you! I have a little quote on my bulletin board from writer Martha Beck which reads, “Your…
How Do You Wake Up?
A note from Erin How Do You Wake Up? There is something so powerful about waking up in the morning. There are so many ways to do it. Rushing. Savoring. Grumpy. Grateful. How do you do it? I’ve been particularly struck lately by noticing, “What is the question I ask myself when I wake…
Vitamin R + Some Good Questions
A note from Erin Today I’m thinking of the stars, the countless stars shining up above my head right this minute, even though I’m sitting at an urban teashop on a bright August afternoon. Thinking of the stars, I sit a little taller and something stirs in my heart. A few weeks ago I sent…
The Blessing Of Back Pain (and Other Things We Think Shouldn’t Happen)
A note from Carl: As I’m sitting in front of the computer writing this, it is the first time in a week or so that I have not noticed a nagging little discomfort in my left low back and hip area in sitting. In fact, Erin and I have both been dancing with our own…
Breaking Habits + Coming Alive
A note from Erin: Good day! I’m writing from a beautiful old wooden table, sipping some Pu Erh tea, facing a Buddha fountain at my favorite out-of-my office workplace at The Tea Grotto. I want to write to you about two things that are front and center in my mind this morning. One: The practice…
An Embodied Life Retreat in Santa Fe with Erin
May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire that disturbs you when you have settled for something safe. May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease to discover the new directions your longing wants you to take. – John O’Donohue Please join me for this one-of-a-kind retreat…
The Most Beautiful Faces I’ve Seen and Fall Class Filling Quickly!
A note from Carl: Greetings from a chilly, September-feeling morning on Cape Cod! Erin and I traveled here for our annual visit to family and the land of Mary Oliver. (Even though she has moved to Florida, it still feels like she is here in the ponds, the birds, the stones and bones on the…
Blessed with Discomfort + Registration Open Today for Fall Class
A note from Erin: Hi friends, I hope you’re enjoying the season! We had such a splendid weekend camping trip in one of our favorite places: Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. How amazing to be in gorgeous wilderness, hiking, lying down in a cool river under a hot sun, surrounded by amazing red rock walls with…
THIS is summer
A note from Erin: It’s summer, yay!!! Are you feelin’ it? Lemonade, leisurely afternoons, hammock time, camping trips, long warm evenings, outdoor grillin’, going swimming and all the rest? What are your favorite summer activities? Today I’m enjoying one of my summertime pleasures – a juice fast. Feels so good to press the refresh button…
Does That Happen???
A note from Erin: Hello! Carl and I just attended a wonderful Embodied Life retreat in San Rafael, California. We’re driving home today and I’m so looking forward to starting Flourish, my new online course this weekend! I shared a story with my Women Embodied group earlier this year that I’d love to share with…
My Newest Online Course: Flourish. Registration opens today!!
a note from Erin: Hello! Consider yourself officially invited to FLOURISH with me this summer! It’s time for the big announcement that I’ve been promising for a few months. I’m sending a special Monday email to let you know of my newest course offering. I’ve been dreaming this baby up for a few months and…
How Can We Help But Grow Wise With Such Teachings As These?
A note from Carl: Happy Thursday! This past summer, Erin began reading the Outlander book series by Diana Gabaldon. Over the course of her reading nine almost-1000-page books, I began hearing quite a bit about Jamie Fraser and his adventures with the time-traveling Claire. A few weeks ago, as I walked into a studio to…
a note from Erin: Happy Thursday! Sigh…. isn’t that a great reminder? Wellness has long been a passion of mine. I am fascinated by research, by natural remedies, by ancient and modern perspectives, and by that balance of orienting toward wellness without becoming a health-Nazi. My mom always counseled that if something makes you happy,…
Softening our Rigidities We Find the Healing Power of Nature
A note from Carl: Greetings, Last week I attended a powerful retreat with Will Johnson, where we worked with bringing hands-on bodywork sessions into sitting meditation retreats to support ease, comfort and vitality in sitting practice. There was a line he shared during the retreat that has been resonating, percolating and inspiring both Erin and…
A Funeral, A Miscarriage, and Gratitude Abounds
A note from Erin: Here’s what’s in my heart today. I believe it’s imperative that we learn to care for our own suffering. It seems to me that when we don’t care for our own suffering, inevitably we cause suffering for others. I’ve been contemplating something like this for a long time. It’s been highlighted…
A Heart Big Enough for Everything
A note from Carl: Yesterday we celebrated our son Mesa’s 5th birthday. The day before we awoke to hear that Erin’s beloved grandfather, Ken Gardner, “Papa,” had died peacefully yet unexpectedly in his sleep. Along with the earthquake in Nepal, there’s just so much for the heart to hold… As I went through the beautiful…
The Gift of Sight: Exploring the Power of your Eyes to Improve your Movement Saturday April 25th, 10am-5pm (lunch break 12:30-2) at Vitalize 2154 s Highland Drive We are SO very excited for this workshop! We’ll spend the morning and afternoon exploring brilliant Feldenkrais lessons which can powerfully improve posture, reduce pain, and make everyday…
Beer, Basketball and Being Spiritual
A note from Erin: Years ago when Carl and I were involved in what I see in retrospect as a waaaayyyyy too serious and heavy version of Buddhist study and practice, we went for many years without watching a movie. We quit reading fiction. Entirely. We didn’t go camping or travel hardly at all. We…
Bravely Befriending Yourself – A Free 7-Day Challenge
a note from Erin: Hello friends! I’m so very excited to announce an upcoming adventure which you’re warmly invited to join. It’s called: Bravely Befriending Yourself: A Free 7-Day Challenge (As of this moment, registration is now closed.) A moving teaching I first heard from Zen teacher Cheri Huber is this: Self-hatred uses self-improvement as…
A note from Carl: Greetings! A little Rilke to begin: And yet, though we strain against the deadening grip of daily necessity. I sense there is mystery: All life is being lived. -Rilke I appreciate how easily the emergence of spring can interrupt the deadening grip of daily necessity and illuminate the mystery of life…
Blossoming Abounds: A Springtime Ritual
A note from Erin: Spring has sprung in our neighborhood. I am in delighted awe! So much is also blossoming in the inner world… I’m excited to share a bit of it with you. As Mary Oliver wrote, “Glory to the world, that good teacher.” Oh yeah! I recently rediscovered a poem by that wise…