What it’s all about.
Mindfulness.
Mindfulness is paying attention to your body, emotions, mind, and experiences in the present moment without judgement or resistance, or at least with that intention. It is a simple practice that is cultivated, but is not easy. It requires life-long repetition. The ups and downs of the practice better prepare you for the ups and downs of your life. Mindfulness allows you to become aware of your historical habits so that we can begin to unravel them. It is paying attention to your life as though it really mattered.
There is an ever-increasing amount of research validating the benefits of mindfulness. Mindfulness increases your recovery from stressful events which has a positive effect on your immune system. It improves your cognitive development, attention skills, and emotional regulation. Mindfulness has been proven to thicken our cerebral cortex and change the neural pathways in our brain structure. Mindfulness can improve our relationships with others by increasing our empathetic and compassionate responses.
However, I want to be very clear and real with you, mindfulness won’t always feel like a benefit.
Mindfulness will change you. It will show you your suffering and teach you to be with your uncomfortable moments. Mindfulness will grow you and it will scare you. Our brains were designed to protect us from stressful events by motivating us to run, hide, or fight. While these protections are useful in very few situations we face in our current world, mindfulness teaches us to pause and embrace both the joy and the pain.
Your Mindful Mentor
She/Her
A Soul Advocate
I am an advocate for your soul. I practice soul advocacy as a high school teacher, a mother, a daughter, and a friend.
My ancestral roots stem from the Quaker religion, however my mother was raised Catholic. She encouraged me to explore my own spirituality. She’s always said “you make your own heaven or hell here on Earth.” A concept that also happens to be at the core of Buddhism and Mindfulness.
As a child I questioned the structure of religion and gained enjoyment in embracing all the possibilities. I questioned Christianity while playing with ghosts in the rafters of the Quaker meeting house. I made friends with trees and played with fairies.
I attended Catholic high school (I think my theology teacher secretly loved my consistent interrogation and natural curiosity of the religion and its origins) during the week, and attended Quaker gatherings hugging trees and loving the humans on weekends.
.
Who I thought I had to be.
And then for some reason, probably a broken heart, I decided it was time to grow up. And with it went my belief in the magic and the mystical. It was time for me to conform - or so I thought that’s what the world and society was telling me.
I went to college. I met a partner. I became a teacher. I bought a house. I became a mother. I lost myself.
I didn’t know that loosing myself would have such a high consequence on my relationships. Or I didn’t know that finding myself would make such an impact on my relationships.
I searched for my place in this world. My purpose. My impact. I forgot all that I was.
I taught high school. I taught elementary school. The universe threw me back into high school. This would happen two more times before I got the message.
I got a master’s degree in Educational Leadership. A good base for the future of leading.
I taught social skills. I liked that.
I developed my own social skills curriculum called Core Values inspired by “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. I really liked that.
But I continued to question this path I was on. I was more angry than I thought I should be, than I wanted to be. I wanted to be a better mom, a better partner, a better person, while still maintaining the integrity of my authentic self. But first I had to find her again. I began my own meditation practice.
I searched for more education, more degrees, more letters behind my name to validate my worth. It was here that I discovered the mindfulness degree program from Lesley University. While far from the beginning, this simple internet search had a major shift on the trajectory of my life.
I signed up for the master’s degree program, earned endless knowledge, deep personal awareness, life-long friendships, and figured out that my worth was not dependent on how much education I gained and ended the program with a graduate level certification and just as much knowledge to teach the world all the joy and transformation that comes with mindfulness. I went on to attend multiple silent vipassana style meditation retreats, attended the Mindfulness in Education Summit in Washington DC and the Mindfulness & Compassion Global Summit online.
Here I am.
And then I promised myself I was going to take a break and let Mindfulness integrate itself into my life.
So I got a yoga certification from Create Karma.
It was here I learned how to unravel all of my past conditioning, releasing it from the storage banks of my emotional body, and discovering all my body was capable of.
I began my journey in rediscovering my authentic self. I learned how to love and nurture her.
Then, I finally took a real break. I focused fully on reparenting myself, creating healthy habits, being the best parent I could be, being the most real me I could be.
I quit habits that no longer served me: smoking, drinking, yelling.
I slowly added in new habits to nurture me including eating a whole food diet and detoxing from sugar.
I changed my internal narrative.
I found my way back to the magic.
And there is no way I could have done it without the deep awareness of each present moment established through the practice of mindfulness. And now there’s nothing more I want to do than bring this practice to those who are ready for it.
“If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.”
— Dalai Lama XIVWhat You are getting from Me.
My Why.
Because once I tasted the sweetness of enlightenment present moment experience provides… I wanted to share it with everyone. I wanted it to be heard through individualization. It’s not for everyone, but I wanted to be here holding the door open for those who want to enter. A beam of light and yeah… love
My How.
Raw honesty. Fun. Taking yourself less seriously. Embracing the dark to find the light. Loving and accepting the magic of impermanence. Dropping expectations. Utilizing intuition. Leading through mystery. Laughter. Tears. I curse a lot. Purging and letting go. Transformation and transition.